BMW 525D Reliability and Maintemance

madmac187

Hi all, about to buy a new car, I have an old diesel Opel Vectra DI from 2000. One of the best cars i have ever had. I'm looking at buying a 2006 BMW 525D, automatic. It is a private sale with low mileage and full BMW service on it.

As its my first beamer, house always has Opel sand Pajeros, can anyone tell me what to look out for when buying one of these, what maintenance should be done and what recalls. Also anyone that has one I would like to hear from you to get your opinion

Thanks for the help guys.

bazz26

BMW since the early 2000s have been using Condition Based Servicing (CBS) which means the car's computer will tell you when something needs attention such as oil change, brake fluid change, etc. When I had one though I generally aired on the side of caution and had it serviced the old fashion way of every 15k km rather than waiting for the CBS system to tell me.

The BMW M57 6 pot diesel engine is generally a very reliable engine. The most common things to do with those engines like other BMW diesel engines of the time, is to make sure the turbo breather filter has been replaced with the newer vortex type filter. This helps stop the problem where the old filter gets blocked and starves the turbo of oil and bye bye turbo. Just remember that a lot of people still replace the newer type filter every 3rd oil change.

The other major thing on these cars are the swirl flaps in the manifold which have a tendency to break off and get ingested into the engine and kill it. If not already done then they should be replaced with blanks as a priority and it's not an expensive job.

I'd be asking the current owner if the above things have been done and also you might want to sign up to the Irish BMW owner's forum, www.bmw-driver.net, some of guys are also on here but you will find lots of good specific information over there. I'd also recommend that you get the car inspected before buying, preferably someone who knows their way around BMWs.

Best of luck.

madmac187

Thanks mate I will look out for that alright. If you don't mind me asking, what do you have?

bazz26

I had a 2008 3 Series for 3 years.

Gumbo

madmac187 wrote: »

Hi all, about to buy a new car, I have an old diesel Opel Vectra DI from 2000. One of the best cars i have ever had. I'm looking at buying a 2006 BMW 525D, automatic. It is a private sale with low mileage and full BMW service on it.

As its my first beamer, house always has Opel sand Pajeros, can anyone tell me what to look out for when buying one of these, what maintenance should be done and what recalls. Also anyone that has one I would like to hear from you to get your opinion

Thanks for the help guys.

I've owned a 525d MSport during my time. Check the service history matches the car, and double check with the garages to verify.

When you buy it, I would make sure it gets the breather filter changed, swirl flaps removed and obviously do anything else that's required.

BMW say the auto boxes are sealed for life but my one had a gearbox service at 100k NAND you could feel the benefit of it tbh.

I had mine remapped to about 210bhp (177 standard) and it was a decent enough car to move but for some reason the 525d In e60 format used more diesel than my 530d and 535d.

Have you got a link to the actual car you are looking at?

madmac187

kceire wrote: »

I've owned a 525d MSport during my time. Check the service history matches the car, and double check with the garages to verify.

When you buy it, I would make sure it gets the breather filter changed, swirl flaps removed and obviously do anything else that's required.

BMW say the auto boxes are sealed for life but my one had a gearbox service at 100k NAND you could feel the benefit of it tbh.

I had mine remapped to about 210bhp (177 standard) and it was a decent enough car to move but for some reason the 525d In e60 format used more diesel than my 530d and 535d.

Have you got a link to the actual car you are looking at?

sorry i don't have a link, the breather filter has been done alright. When you say gearvox service, do you mean oil change is all?

bazz26

Yes, auto transition fluid or gearbox oil.

madmac187

I always did it on other autos so i figure a given anyway.

Gumbo

madmac187 wrote: »

sorry i don't have a link, the breather filter has been done alright. When you say gearvox service, do you mean oil change is all?

Yeah, the oil and there's a filter/gaskit set that BMW sell. It's quite expensive at about €400 for the parts alone, but I think it's worth it.