BMW F11 520D Moon Mileage Family Wagon

BMW F11 520D Moon Mileage Family Wagon

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Discussion

Andrew-b90y3

Original Poster:

189 posts

70 months

Thursday 23rd May
quotequote all
Evening all,

I just thought I'd put a little thread together regarding my latest purchase. The 118i that we have is great it's auto, comfy, reliable and does everything we need it to. It is however an extremely small car. Myself and my wife have 2 children and we regularly holiday on Anglesey for usually around a week at a time. This results in baby gates being stored in weird and wonderful places and my wife and the kids sitting on an air fryer etc to get to our destination. Other than the above the 1er wouldn't be going anywhere.

I happened upon this and it was to good to tuen down really. A few rubbishy pictures from after I'd collected it.








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So a brief intro into what we have here, it's an F11 520d wagon. It really is a lovely car, its done 188000 miles and wears them extremely well. It's an auto with split tailgate, xenon, leather, heated seats, rear air suspension. Its an lci with an N47T so it's amazing on fuel and just generally a lovely place to be. It was in dire need of a valet so I hit it with some of the dance iron remover wheel cleaner that we have at work.



I managed after some serious elbow grease to look like this!







Things that I really like about it are the standard of finish on a 5er is so much better than on the 1er we had. Its little details like the way the doors shut and feel. The way the interior is laid out with all the driver ergonomics in mind. The quality of the material used. It's just a lovely place to be really.

Things I would like to change are it has brake judder at 70 and on inspection of the front discs they're pretty pitted so they need changing. It needs 4 tyres as they're on about 3mm all round and lastly I'm going to cha ge the steering wheel as it feels like a skinny bus wheel at the moment. Other than that the plan is to service every 10k and not stick to the intervals to try and look after the N47 the best way possible. It's also missing the offside mirror cap cover but I cannot for the life of me find a gloss black lci mirror cap anywhere!!

Lastly a few images after a valet.






slicknic

59 posts

132 months

Thursday 23rd May
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Nice car. You buffed it up well. Not seen those alloys on a 5er before.

d_a_n1979

8,799 posts

74 months

Friday 24th May
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That looks really good; great work getting it to the stage it's at in those pics!

Re brake judder; don't discount the main thrust arms (tension struts either); well known cause of braking wobbles on the Fx platform (and BMWs in general TBH). Sometimes it's the main bush; other times it's the ball joint and that's hard to see until removed and then it's flapping all over the show...

MrSmee

1 posts

83 months

Friday 24th May
quotequote all
Great purchase, it cleans up very well.

I've been running '62 plate version as a daily for the last 12 months and 12k miles, its now showing 194k on the clock. It's been well maintained throughout its life and seems like it could do the same mileage again. I agreed with your comments on the refinement, it a lovely place to be on any journey.

I fitted a set of Pirelli Cinturato P7 on mine, which are run flats but surprisingly comfortable, so I would recommend as an option for yours.

The only issue I've had is a side light error which is due to condensation in the headlight. There are fixes on YouTube with new parts that can be purchased rather than changing the whole headlight.

Andrew-b90y3

Original Poster:

189 posts

70 months

Friday 24th May
quotequote all
Thank you for the advice everybody.

I don't think the wheels are off a 5er because I've never seen them on one before. Either that or it's some sort of limited spec type scenario!

malks222

1,884 posts

141 months

Friday 24th May
quotequote all
looks like they are genuine bmw style alloys for the F10/11 series- ‘style 332’

I have a 2014 F11 (520d) and just hit 155k. still feels/ looks good, seems to be wearing its miles well. servicing/ running costs have been fine, I keep thinking of changing mine for a G31, but I can’t stomach the cost to change to the newer one when I don’t think i’m going to gain much….. prob just keep driving my current car until it dies! Bought mine for £11k (@ 95k miles 4yrs ago) and already feels like it doesn’t owe me anything!

beambeam1

1,099 posts

45 months

Friday 24th May
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Big fan of these 520d cars but feel we have started to outgrow ours so it will be moving on soon, just flew threw another MOT and has only covered 80,000 miles so far. I borrowed a mate's 535d a couple years ago and loved it, just the right amount of power but still retaining the leisure and comfort. Yours has come up a treat and like others, I haven't seen those wheels before. How is the piano black trim looking after so many miles?

d_a_n1979

8,799 posts

74 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
malks222 said:
looks like they are genuine bmw style alloys for the F10/11 series- ‘style 332’

I have a 2014 F11 (520d) and just hit 155k. still feels/ looks good, seems to be wearing its miles well. servicing/ running costs have been fine, I keep thinking of changing mine for a G31, but I can’t stomach the cost to change to the newer one when I don’t think i’m going to gain much….. prob just keep driving my current car until it dies! Bought mine for £11k (@ 95k miles 4yrs ago) and already feels like it doesn’t owe me anything!
They're not 332s: https://www.auto-treff.com/wcf/index.php?article/3...

Cannot find them on that catalogue at all either; so interested to see what they are

OP - are they 17s (tyres look chunky)!

Alfahorn

7,778 posts

210 months

Saturday 25th May
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Great car, I love a high miler.

My 10 plate Brera is on 144k
My 18 plate Giulia is on 121k

Andrew-b90y3

Original Poster:

189 posts

70 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
They're 17's but they're 225/55/17 so a pretty strange size although a pal of mine said its a pretty common vw size so I'm not so sure!!

malks222

1,884 posts

141 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
d_a_n1979 said:
They're not 332s: https://www.auto-treff.com/wcf/index.php?article/3...

Cannot find them on that catalogue at all either; so interested to see what they are

OP - are they 17s (tyres look chunky)!
you’re right, not that style!

I would say that 225/55/17 is the size of winter tyres that I run on my f11, think that’s the recommended winter size?

Alfa GTV

240 posts

165 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
Nice car, I owned an F11 for some time 530D M Sport, nice car, could never get comfy in the sport seats though.

The wheels in question are BMW Style 85 from an E46 I believe.


d_a_n1979

8,799 posts

74 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
Alfa GTV said:
Nice car, I owned an F11 for some time 530D M Sport, nice car, could never get comfy in the sport seats though.

The wheels in question are BMW Style 85 from an E46 I believe.

Nope; I thought that too...

If you look at the holes on the face of the wheel; on the OPs alloys the holes through a raised part of the design, the 85s hole is in a sunken part of the design. and 85s have wording on the face of the wheel also...

I'm stumped with these laugh

d_a_n1979

8,799 posts

74 months

Alfa GTV

240 posts

165 months

Saturday 25th May
quotequote all
d_a_n1979 said:
Nope; I thought that too...

If you look at the holes on the face of the wheel; on the OPs alloys the holes through a raised part of the design, the 85s hole is in a sunken part of the design. and 85s have wording on the face of the wheel also...

I'm stumped with these laugh
What is this voodoo!?!? I reckon they are reps rotatewobble

Who'd have thought there would be so much chat about the OP's actual wheels rather than the car itself.

Andrew-b90y3

Original Poster:

189 posts

70 months

Monday 27th May
quotequote all
beambeam1 said:


Big fan of these 520d cars but feel we have started to outgrow ours so it will be moving on soon, just flew threw another MOT and has only covered 80,000 miles so far. I borrowed a mate's 535d a couple years ago and loved it, just the right amount of power but still retaining the leisure and comfort. Yours has come up a treat and like others, I haven't seen those wheels before. How is the piano black trim looking after so many miles?
The piano black trim looks great still, I wouldn't say it looks 100% new but it still looks great!!