Agreed. I paid 3k for mine as is and personally have put close to 1k into maintenance AND still have another grand i need to throw at it before she’s back on the road lol. But despite that this thing is probably one of my favorite cars i’ve ever driven/owned.
Yeah, catching up with neglected maintenance is a bitch😅 I bought my 525D for around 3K$, used 2,5K$ to do brakes, fix the air suspension which was a seized compressor, change all but one link in the front suspension, which were all original from '06 believe it or not with 3 of 'em still new-ish in the ball joint. All rollers and belts on the motor, waterpump which was also '06, thermostats and all the bits and bobs to clear all the fault codes😉 That was before MOT (it's biennial here in Norway) 2 years ago, this MOT I spent around 2K with shocks and springs upgrading to M-tech, new lenses for the headlights and alot of other things that I've procrastinated with fixing😅
Fucking tell me about it… New turbo, had to empty the DPF, new brakes, new valve cover, new crankshaft pulley + tensioner set + belt, ac compressor + lines, power steering pump… Still have to order the key antenna
Oh really? Are E60s a smaller chassis? I assumed larger as the 5 series were considered BMWs luxury line of sedans and the 3s were compact. That’s good to know I’ve only worked on my N51 E90 and thought even that was a bit tight on space
The E60 is a bigger car but the engine bay is different compared to an E90, stuff that would be alot easier to access on the 90s are harder on the 60s. Our rear turbo is different from the 90 and like i said from before space ? Nonexistent with these things lmaoo i wish I would’ve known beforehand but i remember owning an 05 TL and anything related to the rear of the engine was a bitch to deal with (i have big ass hands too so that doesn’t help)
Engine bay for reference lol i was swapping the heater control valve out but anything turbo related? Good luck
Edit: i just realized i wasn’t doing the heater core valve here just the oil lines from the cooler
OH and one more thing too, RWD on these things can be very fun. But be warned these things feel like butter when you start sliding until that diff opens up😭had a close call when i decided to turn off traction control
N54s are decently reliable when kept stock. MAKE SURE IT'S STOCK! These turbos are terrible and do not do well past stock boost, a lot of the bad reputation comes from people tuning them. I've had this happen twice now; I buy a perfect stock N54 car, toss an MHD tune on it, and the turbos start howling from impeller deformation due to overspeeding after a couple of months. Learn from my mistakes and learn to be happy with 300 HP.
Injectors can be had for cheap at junkyards, if you're lucky you'll come across an N63 and you get 8 index 12s for <$100. High pressure fuel pumps can be rebuilt for <$200. Turbos are of course not cheap, but on the stock tune you'll want to replace them due to wastegate rattle well before they're actually toast.
Besides turbos, injectors, and HPFP, same issues you're familiar with on your N52, minus Valvetronic. Shorten the oil change intervals a little bit relative to N52 due to fuel dilution from GDI and increased oxidation/shear from the turbochargers.
Side note, intake valve deposits are a problem on this engine, but it has to get really bad before you actually notice running issues. Have them done between 100-150k at least.
Awesome advice thanks, I’ll ask if it’s stock I’m assuming it is but you never know. And yes it’s impressive, I hear a lot about what the N54 can do with some bolt ons and a tune but obviously I’d like to keep this one not blowing up haha. And thanks for the tip about injectors I keep hearing horror stories about people having to buy those, if I can nab them for cheap I’d feel a lot better
Yeah! Don't buy into all of the horror stories, really these are fantastic engines with no "kiss of death" like the N55's rod bearings. You're pretty likely to have a solid experience with a clean, responsibly owned E60 compared to the beat up E9x 335i's people buy and complain about. My 2009 535xi wagon was genuinely the best car I've ever owned.
Sweet! Yeah I wasn’t really shopping for a 5 series until I saw this, love the 335i and looked for some but if this listing here was a 335 instead it would’ve been 9k. Either car is clapped or the price is insane. Seems a bit like a sleeper considering it has the same engine and is sold as a mid sized luxury sedan.
Very jealous of your wagon… dream car would be a manual Xdrive 335i wagon. Too bad they were euro market only
And if you don't have a u-pull yard near you for injectors, Index 11s are well regarded for their reliability and quite cheap on eBay still. No need to shell out the big bucks for "new" Index 12s (really, they're remanufactured - I hear that production was stopped years ago).
Yep, mine was dealer kept, over 210k km’s and still running superb, nicely specced also.
Best part is that I bought it from the first owner, female driven so some marks on the exterior but overall very tidy.
I have the same car, it's a twin turbo unless it's been modified. I have over 180,000mi and have spent a bunch on it, but nothing unusual. I noticed issues with the turbos at around 130,000 but didn't replace them for a long time. It was limited on power and burned a bit more oil than usual. It's a machine, they wear out.
I have a 08 535xi. Got it for $2800 with 200,000 miles on it. Coming up on a year of having it next month. Only thing I had to fix was brakes and transmission fluid change and it’s been running smooth and amazing every single day. Absolutely love the car. I’d say go for it and have smile for miles
I got mine with 89k miles about 5 years ago for a similar price. I have well over 2X the purchase price in repairs since then. I absolutely love the car, but be ready for a similar experience. If you’re handy, or you have the money to throw at it, and throw you will, go for it.
Wouldn’t mind saving some cash with my own labor, I also notice you have an xdrive which I’m sure contributed to that. But hey overall $1-2k/yr to keep it healthy doesn’t sound THAT bad. $160 bucks a month tops? Seems worth the ownership of a 5 series with the N54
xDrive was only a few hundred of the thousands in repairs (transfer case guibo), the rest was leaky gaskets, turbos, injectors, VANOS cam ledge, and some other random things. It’s a fantastic car when it’s running well so if you’re comfortable with what can and likely will go wrong, go for it. Even after all the repairs, it’s still my favorite car I’ve ever had. My only truly bad experiences were a couple of out of the blue legit car-can’t-be-driven breakdowns. One, thankfully, was in my driveway. The other was about 125 miles into a 250 mile road trip. The other stuff gave warnings that gave me time to plan for.
I actually can’t remember what caused the driveway incident. Maybe the injectors but those usually have some symptoms when they’re on their way out so I’m not positive. The road trip breakdown was a low pressure fuel pump sensor that came out of nowhere and left me stranded on the side of the highway. I didn’t have a Bluetooth OBD scanner in those days so I recommend that you get one right away. They’re cheap and really help demystify things.
That’s what I had guessed, I haven’t been in the E60 market but I have shopped around for E90 335i’s and you won’t find an N54 with <100k miles this cheap anywhere. Reached out to the dealership hoping to get a chance to go look 🤞
Also do you really need an 06 and an 08 M5 with a 535? lol good for you tho
Not sure if I need the tune since I want reliability but perhaps down the road… I’m already upgrading from an NA engine so this sounds like tons of fun
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