Maintenance on a 6 pot

tom_tarbucket

Would maintenance/servicing on a 6 cylinder car be A LOT more expensive than on your standard car ( focus, corolla etc )

Any extra maintenance needed on these particular cars

Alanstrainor

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Would maintenance/servicing on a 6 cylinder car be A LOT more expensive than on your standard car ( focus, corolla etc )

Any extra maintenance needed on these particular cars

What 6 cylinder? Mines been grand enough, BMW straight 6 325. Generally speaking I would say no. Servicing on my yoke is easy and cheap, you need to buy two extra spark plugs compared to a 4 pot...

Supergurrier

Generally more oil and 2 more spark plugs every 2nd-3rd service

keithsfleet

Depends on the car.

All manufactures are different but could be just a case of two extra spark plugs and an extra bit of oil as it's a bigger engine.


edit, beaten to it by two people.
Access can be a bugger on some 6 cylinders, straight 6's might have the furthest cylinder directly under the bulkhead. Or you could have the intake main fold sitting over one of the rows on a v6.

tom_tarbucket

Alanstrainor wrote: »

What 6 cylinder? Mines been grand enough, BMW straight 6 325. Generally speaking I would say no. Servicing on my yoke is easy and cheap, you need to buy two extra spark plugs compared to a 4 pot...

Thanks.

A BMW 523i

tom_tarbucket

keithsfleet wrote: »

Depends on the car.

All manufactures are different but could be just a case of two extra spark plugs and an extra bit of oil as it's a bigger engine.


edit, beaten to it by two people.
Access can be a bugger on some 6 cylinders, straight 6's might have the furthest cylinder directly under the bulkhead. Or you could have the intake main fold sitting over one of the rows on a v6.

Do you know what access is like on a 2006 BMW 523i ?

Alanstrainor

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Do you know what access is like on a 2006 BMW 523i ?

They're grand enough. My dad has one. Things like the electric water pump go on them, and the cooling system in general.

tom_tarbucket

Alanstrainor wrote: »

They're grand enough. My dad has one. Things like the electric water pump go on them, and the cooling system in general.

Does the water pump have any recommended time to change ?
Is it expensive to change ?

Do you mean the air conditioning system ?

dgt

Not a lot more. Room might be tight if its an fwd V6 though (unless you have a T6 Volvo)

sogood

As stated, it depends on the car. Irrelevant to you, but my 6 pot XJ6 has a ton of room under the bonnet. Easy access to anything important, except the starter, which is awkward but do-able. Used to have an old e32 7 series, also a straight six and easy maintenance too.

keithsfleet

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Do you know what access is like on a 2006 BMW 523i ?

Not to familiar with under the bonnet on an e60 but BMW straight 6s are a doddle to work on. Ample room to do most jobs.
You will find the back 2 cylinders a bit awkward to get to but it's certainly doable for even amateurs.

tom_tarbucket

Thanks for all the replies. The general concensus seems to be that servicing and maintenance costs on a 6 cylinder 523i will not cost an awful lot more compared to your standard car.

dgt

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. The general concensus seems to be that servicing and maintenance costs on a 6 cylinder 523i will not cost an awful lot more compared to your standard car.

Servicing my 520 (m52 engine) it was very handy to change the oil + filter and air filter. Service reset is shorting 2 pins on the diagnostics port (pin 7 and 19 for 3 seconds iirc, letting the cat out of the bag here ) you'll need a 36mm socket to open the filter housing but its at the top of the engine bay, easy to see

Vital you change the fuel filter, mine wasn't changed since 2001 :eek:

Oil capacity was something over 6 litres, you'll need 5w30

Can't remember the plugs off hand but they weren't dear

MetzgerMeister

I have a 335 with the N54 engine and the only awkward thing is that I have to remove the cabin filter housing to get at 2 of the plugs.

If you're changing the oil and filter, get the special filter removal tool from BMW and you will also need a special 3/8 drive spark plug removal tool from BMW along with a ratchet and extension bar to match.

tom_tarbucket

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I have a 335 with the N54 engine and the only awkward thing is that I have to remove the cabin filter housing to get at 2 of the plugs.

If you're changing the oil and filter, get the special filter removal tool from BMW and you will also need a special 3/8 drive spark plug removal tool from BMW along with a ratchet and extension bar to match.

Good to know. Thanks.

How much would a service in an independent garage cost - change the oil, oil filter, air filter.

Cleveland Hot Pocket

e60 engine bays are pretty tight for side access for stuff like belts/alternator etc
I only had a diesel 6pot so I don't know how the spark plug access is. Assume good.

corkgsxr

Cost slightly more but will be easier to do as more space

Heroditas

tom_tarbucket wrote: »

Good to know. Thanks.

How much would a service in an independent garage cost - change the oil, oil filter, air filter.

BMW dealers do a very good deal for that. It's about €170 and, in my experience anyway, matches the prices of any decent indie out there.
I have an E60 523i and gave had no issues bar regular servicing.
That said, it's an 05 with 165000km on it and is quite heavy on oil now ( Bardahl definitely helps) and I think the a/c compressor might be giving up the ghost in the next while.

dgt

Cleveland Hot Pocket wrote: »

e60 engine bays are pretty tight for side access for stuff like belts/alternator etc
I only had a diesel 6pot so I don't know how the spark plug access is. Assume good.

No sparkies in a dayyysel lad

MetzgerMeister

dgt wrote: »

No sparkies in a dayyysel lad

That's why he said he didn't know about the spark plugs ya gnome!!

Cleveland Hot Pocket

dgt wrote: »

No sparkies in a dayyysel lad

Ahem

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

That's why he said he didn't know about the spark plugs ya gnome!!

dgt

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

That's why he said he didn't know about the spark plugs ya gnome!!

Ah heyor, can you not tell yet when I can't read posts very well after a hape of pints young fella :pac:

MetzgerMeister

dgt wrote: »

Ah heyor, can you not tell yet that I can't read

FYP

dgt

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

FYP

Of course I can't ya ham was that not obvious :pac: