BMW and M Power Owners

Simon said:
First joy of BMW ownership.

FTM, ABS and Traction control all pinged up warnings so I guess an ABS sensor has gone. I then hit a pothole and managed to bulge the sidewall of the tyre.


Rage

Took my key for service check too £660 for oil filters and plugs. Doesn't need plugs though and I'll take oil. Got to keep that BMWFSH really
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Ouch, hopefully the tyre has absorbed enough of the impact so it's not transferred to the wheel.
Ouch about the service price too, I was pricing some up yesterday as it's due in 2k miles, at under £250 for oil, filter, plugs I'll be doing it myself.
Even if I were to lose on resale without FBMWSH I know it's done correctly and I'll save on parts / labour.
 
Steedie said:
Sigh...

Is there something wrong with my car?

I drove with the windows down today as I left my food bag in the car overnight so it didn't smell too fresh, anyway...when driving, I noticed that under acceleration, when the car changes gear I get a small hissing sound which I'm guessing is normal because of the blow off valve, but when I apply a heavy right foot, I get a constant hissing sound. It sounds like someone is letting air out of a car tyre, that kind of noise, surely it's not normal to always be doing it? You can't hear anything when the windows are up

What is going on? :(
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I get this a lot in the M5, but then I remember it's because my ventilated seats are on, cooling me down. #firstworldproblems
 
Simon said:
First joy of BMW ownership.

FTM, ABS and Traction control all pinged up warnings so I guess an ABS sensor has gone. I then hit a pothole and managed to bulge the sidewall of the tyre.


Rage

Took my key for service check too £660 for oil filters and plugs. Doesn't need plugs though and I'll take oil. Got to keep that BMWFSH really
Click to expand...

I hope it's not your ABS pump, that went pop on mine was the price of a small family car to replace it, praise allah for warranties!
 
[TW]Fox said:
What's new about that? It's been almost 4 years since there was more than one 6 cylinder petrol 5 Series in the range. The LCI F10 was 535i only.
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I know, but at least when the F10 530i was available, it was true to it's heritage. BMW are so confused they can't even find a suitable naming convention anymore :D
 
I know what you mean, but it makes sense. How would you distinguish between 4 2.0 Turbo petrol and diesel engines otherwise?
Gone are the days when you would have a whole range of 6-cylinder engines with different displacements.
Emissions, cost-cutting and fuel economy have put an end to that!
 
Z4 3.0i or si, speak to me!

It's come up as recommended to me with current requirements and desires. I'm aware the si has a higher output and slight cosmetic changes, anything else?

Also reliability wise, anything to pay attention to with these cars? Am I right in saying the engines are generally very reliable and overall it's quite a simple car to work on?
 
Well how old a car do you want? The Si is just the newer version, all facelift cars are 3.0Si and all pre facelift cars are not. Your budget is likely to dictate which you get.
 
Around £7-8k, seems to be a few si ones in this range but I'd obviously buy on condition. Aesthetics I like them both, and while the 30bhp or so extra would be nice it's no deal breaker.

Noticed it seems to be more coupes at this price though, with the si roadster having a premium
 
Invertigo said:
Around £7-8k, seems to be a few si ones in this range but I'd obviously buy on condition. Aesthetics I like them both, and while the 30bhp or so extra would be nice it's no deal breaker.

Noticed it seems to be more coupes at this price though, with the si roadster having a premium
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Pre facelift are more reliable, n52s suffer with some issues but I'd say it's small/rare enough to not care. Overall z4s e85/86 are very reliable.

Facelift has the different engine, more power, different taillights and headlights and some other small changes like interior plastics colours but they're minimal.

I'd say 7-8k you'll be able to pick the roadster and coupes would be higher mileage as they demand premium.

Major/common problems are the roof, abs pumps and water pumps.

Roof costs usually around £200-300 to repair or £80 to relocate to the boot(z4 forum member does it)

Pumps are £500ish each refubished all in. My coupe had abs pump replaced last year.

The 2.5 and 3.0 are the engines I'd go for, auto is apprantely pretty good in 3.0 too.

Also keep in mind things like bushes on the front go wrong and rear springs snap but they're cheap/easy to repair.
 
I think I'd say it depends on whether you'd want to modify the engine at all. The pre-facelift M54 is a very popular unit (it was also fitted to the E46 and E39 in large numbers, plus other period BMWs I'm sure), and so a lot of tuning bits are available. The engine is slightly more simple than the N52, and any issues are very well documented.

If you'll be keeping it stock, the N52 makes more sense as you get the extra power and I believe it's supposed to be slightly more efficient (mine wasn't though, I went from a 2.5L pre-facelift to a 3.0L Coupe and saw a fuel economy drop from ~28 mpg to 23 mpg. Obviously, YMMV).

Whichever one you go for, the 3.0L is the engine to get as it has all the benefits (more power/torque) with no drawbacks (practically as efficient).
 
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