E60 / E90 BMW diesels - how to they take high mileage?

E60 / E90 BMW diesels - how to they take high mileage?

Author
Discussion

Mario149

Original Poster:

7,750 posts

177 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
quotequote all
Circumstances now dictate that we need to add a practical car to the fleet for a max of £5k and my eye has naturally fallen 3/5 series cars of the E60/E90 gens in the classifieds. How do these cars take high mileage? i.e. 120k+ miles? Are they reasonably cheap to run or should I just stump up more money and buy something younger with less miles?

Other options currently in the running are: Alfa 159 Sportwagon and Volvo V50s. If anyone has any experience of those it'd also be useful. As you might be able to tell I'm well out of my depth here!

RRLover

450 posts

201 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
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Stay away from the 2.0. Google them for issues. M47 & N47 engines. N47 chain failure requires the engine to be removed to repair it.
Bigger engine in anything is always better. I've had a few e61's with the twin turbo 3.0d engine in them & they were pushing 150k when i moved them on.
With everything tho maintenance is critical

cerb4.5lee

30,196 posts

179 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
quotequote all
RRLover said:
Bigger engine in anything is always better. I've had a few e61's with the twin turbo 3.0d engine in them & they were pushing 150k when i moved them on.
With everything tho maintenance is critical
Agree and took a E90 330d from 3k miles to over 150k miles in a six year period and it was solid as a rock when it was chopped in and nothing went wrong with it and it still felt great to drive, just stuck to the service schedule and all was fine.

themanwithnoname

1,634 posts

212 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
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170k miles and counting in my N47 engined 120d, nothing more than routine servicing.

tourerman

105 posts

209 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
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I have a 320d (57 plate, 73k miles ) and my turbo went the other day. Sick! Now in the garage with a £1400 bill...
Besides that it's been fine so far....

tourerman

105 posts

209 months

Tuesday 24th February 2015
quotequote all
I have a 320d (57 plate, 73k miles ) and my turbo went the other day. Sick! Now in the garage with a £1400 bill...
Besides that it's been fine so far....

oop north

1,592 posts

127 months

Wednesday 25th February 2015
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My brother's E60 530d swallowed a swirl flap at around 80k miles I think but a colleague's has got to 170k with no major problems

Mario149

Original Poster:

7,750 posts

177 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Going to see an E90 330D on Sat, fingers crossed it's a good 'un smile

timwatsham

229 posts

249 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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191k on my E90 330d and still brilliant

We had 137k from a 320d e90 and that was perfectly reliable too

cerb4.5lee

30,196 posts

179 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
quotequote all
Mario149 said:
Going to see an E90 330D on Sat, fingers crossed it's a good 'un smile
Good stuff and let us know how you get on.

KingOfTheRodeo

63 posts

109 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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just going to stay in touch with this thread, as I am also in this situation.

thanks OP

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

197 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
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Took a e90 330d from 60-115k tight as a drum just routine servicing no doubt would have carried on going another 100k without issue.

Mario149

Original Poster:

7,750 posts

177 months

Thursday 26th February 2015
quotequote all
cerb4.5lee said:
Mario149 said:
Going to see an E90 330D on Sat, fingers crossed it's a good 'un smile
Good stuff and let us know how you get on.
Will do smile funny as it sounds given that I've been lucky enough to own some great high end cars, I'm getting dead excited about the prospect of this or a similar BMW for the princely sum of £5k or so. I've always been a big fan of straight 6s since I remember my dad getting a last of the line E30 320i in '92 or so....driving that aged 18 a few years later might have truly been the best motoring experience of my life. A 2 litre straight six NA engine...can you imagine that now?! Sounds naff but it feels like it's up there with the old Ferrari 3 litre V12s in terms of lots of cylinders yet tiny capacity somehow smile and yes I know I'm after a diesel now but I don't care smile in my head it would always remind me of that first BMW I drove smile

Incidentally, if you want to make my life very complicated, do drop me an email if you have an E30 320i touring for sale biggrin

Vee

3,094 posts

233 months

Friday 27th February 2015
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Welshbeef said:
Took a e90 330d from 60-115k tight as a drum just routine servicing no doubt would have carried on going another 100k without issue.
A 3.0d engine will be unlikely to go 200k on just routine servicing.
A number of common issues arise and will cost money and/or time to resolve.
They're not major but they do exist.

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

197 months

Friday 27th February 2015
quotequote all
Vee said:
A 3.0d engine will be unlikely to go 200k on just routine servicing.
A number of common issues arise and will cost money and/or time to resolve.
They're not major but they do exist.
Such as?

Vee

3,094 posts

233 months

Friday 27th February 2015
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
Vee said:
A 3.0d engine will be unlikely to go 200k on just routine servicing.
A number of common issues arise and will cost money and/or time to resolve.
They're not major but they do exist.
Such as?
FFS, the amount of time you spend on here you must have read about some.

Perished vacuum hoses, oil leaks (from swirl flaps and also various pipes), rear seal on autos, fuel leak from just in front of the rear wheel, crank pulley.
If you think just changing oil and filters is all that is required you're deluded.

Add DPF to that too.

FurryExocet

3,011 posts

180 months

Friday 27th February 2015
quotequote all
In the same situation here, need a diesel for the amount of miles I'm about to start doing.
Have been browsing Autotrader for a 320D and they all seem to have very high miles, within my price range.

Thought about a 325D or a 330D, but not sure about the MPG, my Skoda gets around 34mpg if I baby it and the figures suggest, the bigger diesels aren't much better.

Welshbeef

49,633 posts

197 months

Friday 27th February 2015
quotequote all
Vee said:
Welshbeef said:
Vee said:
A 3.0d engine will be unlikely to go 200k on just routine servicing.
A number of common issues arise and will cost money and/or time to resolve.
They're not major but they do exist.
Such as?
FFS, the amount of time you spend on here you must have read about some.

Perished vacuum hoses, oil leaks (from swirl flaps and also various pipes), rear seal on autos, fuel leak from just in front of the rear wheel, crank pulley.
If you think just changing oil and filters is all that is required you're deluded.

Add DPF to that too.
DPF is a 150k service item could be less or more dependant on use just like brake discs

God only knows what a fuel pipe from the filler to the fuel tank has to do with the engine.
Swirl flaps are not an issue on 231bhp onward engines.
Not once heard of crank pully faults here so clearly is a rare issue
Vacuum hose replacement I've only heard this on the x35d and its a rubber pipe ie low cost and again being rubber has a serviceable life
Oil leaks - well all I can do is comment on my personal experiance. When I passed it on it was like new with c115k on the clock no oil leaks at all on a 7 year old car which. In my ownership was driven hard every single commute when possible ie to the limiter a number of times every single commute. I only ever did main BMW servicing it was a great car and whoever had it after me had a very good example which wanted for nothing/and didn't ever need anything.


If you've read this thread so far plenty have taken them from new to close to 200k with only standard servicing.


Given the extremely low non OEM warranty costs for this model it indicates failure rates are on the very very low side. As we all know its generally only those who have big problems who post up about it whereas those with perfectly fine examples wouldn't.


Agree to disagree on this one chap.

J.B.R.

108 posts

214 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Welshbeef said:
DPF is a 150k service item could be less or more dependant on use just like brake discs

God only knows what a fuel pipe from the filler to the fuel tank has to do with the engine.
Swirl flaps are not an issue on 231bhp onward engines.
Not once heard of crank pully faults here so clearly is a rare issue
Vacuum hose replacement I've only heard this on the x35d and its a rubber pipe ie low cost and again being rubber has a serviceable life
Oil leaks - well all I can do is comment on my personal experiance. When I passed it on it was like new with c115k on the clock no oil leaks at all on a 7 year old car which. In my ownership was driven hard every single commute when possible ie to the limiter a number of times every single commute. I only ever did main BMW servicing it was a great car and whoever had it after me had a very good example which wanted for nothing/and didn't ever need anything.


If you've read this thread so far plenty have taken them from new to close to 200k with only standard servicing.


Given the extremely low non OEM warranty costs for this model it indicates failure rates are on the very very low side. As we all know its generally only those who have big problems who post up about it whereas those with perfectly fine examples wouldn't.


Agree to disagree on this one chap.
I've taken my e90 330d from 40k to 140k, all motorway miles.
I've had the fuel leak in front of the rear wheel (common issue).
Swirl flaps are an issue on these engines, just got mine blanked this week and just in time as 3 were on their way out and leaking oil down side of block.
Dpf went at 120k, disappointing given motorway miles.
No vacuum leaks or other oil leaks (so far).
Usual wear and tear stuff like shocks, bushes, discs and such as you would have on any car.
Have to say they are cracking cars, pull like a train, very economical given the power, I'm hoping to stick another 100k on the car.

Mario149

Original Poster:

7,750 posts

177 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
Swirl flaps are not an issue on 231bhp onward engines.
Apologies, I suspect this one has probably been done to death on the BMW forum, but just to put this one to bed quickly on this thread: can we clarify what we mean by "not an issue"? Is it:

a) they're not fitted
b) they're an improved design and so fail less
c) something else

If I do pull the trigger on the E90 330d I'm seeing shortly, is it something I should budget a few hundred quid for (blanking plates and fitting) and get done asap (probably along with a DMS remap hehe), or is it rare enough on the 330d cars that there's no need to bother?

Note the car I'm looking at is this one: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...