2006 BMW M3

[Jake]

Well, I called Route 66 and got some clarity. They will only cover the bearings if they have actually failed and the engine is knocking. I'm sure I could make it knock by just driving the shit out of it every morning on cold oil for the next 7k miles, but I'm not willing to be "that guy" and ruin my car. The other problem is that the coverage requires documented oil changes every 3 months or 3k miles. I asked the adjuster how that works when BMW and the car's oil life monitor both recommend 7-10k, and even "conservative" changes on these cars is every 5k. He wasn't sure how to answer that.

I'm not willing to 1) get the poor S54 to the point of knocking, 2) dick around with Route 66 and their diagnostic/inspection process, 3) pay the labor of having the oil pan dropped and bearings removed just for diagnostic purposes because they won't pay that part, and 4) maybe have them deny the whole thing because in no world will you find an S54 that had regular oil changes every 3,000 miles.

So the plan now is to do the 3k Blackstone re-analysis and plan to DIY or use a shop for bearing replacement soon regardless. I've used this warranty for several claims and it's saved me money, so I can't be all "fuck Route 66!" but engine internals are a tricky subject with any warranty, I think. My mechanic has a 3.0i Z4 sitting outside his shop that is gathering dust while he fights with the warranty company. It dropped a valve or something, and even though he has diagnosed the problem, they want to see the spaghetti-shaped valve before authorizing anything, and the labor required to extract said valve is most of the way to the customer just paying to toss another engine in the car.