But a failure of nearly all of them and the bottom end as well? If it was purely the case hardening then nearly everyone with an S54 would have to replace them at some point and that doesn't appear to be the case so...logically something else must be going on?BMWZ4MC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2017 7:52 pmThe followers wear due to inadequate case hardening as opposed to being a direct consequence of a lack of lubrication. If ignored, this leads to a consequential wear of the cam lobes. Shrick sell BMW followers with additional case hardening which (they claim) prevents the problem.
There has been much speculation that the problem affects only cars that have been thrashed from cold or tracked, or that it is a result of incompetently adjusted followers, but there's no evidence that any of this is true and the problem is surprisingly common amongst Z4Ms and E46 M3s.
You say common but...I've spoken to a few independent specialists in the S54 world and from what I've been told I wouldn't say it's common, depending on you're definition of the term.
As the old saying goes, you only hear about the one's that have problems, not the many that don't.