SergeyM

I?d like to think of myself as someone who takes good care of his cars. I always follow break-in instructions and doing in-between oil changes. On the other hand I never hesitate before red-lining the car after it has 5-6K miles on the odometer. It do not do it every time I accelerate from the stop light but once or twice a month I get into a race like situation and naturally would keep the pedal to the metal until that punk in his G35 or S550 is left behind or my speed reaches dangerous levels (140+ mph). I always feel somewhat guilty afterwards for doing this to my car but I just cannot resist the temptation. I do believe that my car was build for higher speeds and exceeding 120 or even 140 mph should not do any damage to the engine, but what about red-lining it? The other day I?ve got into a mid-high speed (60-110mph) race with a Vette and for about 5 miles we were going all out (full speed ahead followed by maximum braking). There was a very strong burning smell coming from the car afterwards but I blamed it on brakes. So my question is ? does an occasional (once/twice a month) engine redlining damage these cars or they are build to take such abuse. A friend of mine owns 2005 530 and according to her she never revved her engine past 4,000 RPM. Her car is still in great shape whereas my 2005 545 died at a young age of 14 month and 15,500 miles.

aybeesea

You would think that the red line (and engine cut out) was designed to exist at revs below which engine damage would occur from occasional use.

ABC

my530i

Maybe, you've answered your own question
How did your car died? What part failed? If transmission or engine related component failed, that'd answer the question. But if CCC/MAS-K failed, it'd be irrelevant.

Red line is not good....for BMW while your car is still under warranty, but it's good for you because you feel good
Red line is prohibited to you while your car is out of warranty

SergeyM

There was not a part failure that I could name. The was an "engine malfunction" error in the iDrive with service engine soon warning coming up afterwards. My dealer was not able to timely fix the car (2 attempts/40+ days) and replaced it by 2007 550.

But, honestly, I am not into changing my driving habits. My 1991 Taurus, 1998 Maxima, 2002 Acura TL and 2002 540, all were able to withstand such abuse. BTW on this board people sometime post their 1/4 mile times and you can see numerous (20+) attempts to get better times. How do their engine survive all those runs?

hollywoodtrash

This is a good discussion. If redlining your car shortens the life of it, then I am in really bad shape I always thought these cars were built to be driven hard so I drive it hard probably every day.

dlevi67

The issue (and the damage cause) is not redlining. It's lack of proper maintenance and - above all - doing silly things to an engine that has not reached proper operating temperature in all its parts. BMW electronics and scheduled maintenance take care of the first. Only you can take care of the second.

my530i

Let's all do redlining once aday and see whose failed first
I'll be the first one. Anyone sign up? BMW NA Relations? J/K

I have no idea now in your case Sergey. BMW engine is supposed to outlast all others easily. It sounds like i-Drive issue since hardware can be easily fixed.

vegastrashed

I think that redlining does not hurt the engine. I do plenty of redline shifting more so than the OP. Once you get the needle past 6500 rpms the fuel is cut off.

Haha... I read your post hollywood. Between you and I, we've redlined our cars a lot.

hollywoodtrash

LOL no kidding.. As a matter a fact I was just telling VT how i blew out this STi the other night.. I redlined through first and second before letting off the gas.

I finally beat one of those damn things

uglybear

I have read somewhere that at redline life of the engine is about 20 hours. So 1 minute won't do much damage, but hours will. There is no reason for BMW to design engine that can run at the redline for days since sobody really does it. Life of engines in fighter jets and race cars is also very short.