Am I slowly ruining my 5 series?

[Painey]

E61 530i owner here, 08 plate and having owned the car for the last two years it's been a largely very rewarding experience. I bought the car as a second car for our house and it gets occasional use, which increasingly is becoming limited to short journeys. Basically my wife no longer needs a car for work so her workhorse CRV means having the 5 series on the drive is a bit of a luxury.

The thing is, I paid £7.5k for it 2 years ago and I'm wondering if I'm slowly ruining it with infrequent short journeys, or whether there's anything out there that would be as nice to keep. It's got 105k on the clock now so I've done 5k in the last two years, not really what they're built for and it's starting to have issues.

I've currently got the whistling noise coming from what I'm pretty sure is a CCV failure. You can't take the oil cap off when it's running so I've got a replacement from BMW vanos for that. The heated rear screen and radio have packed up so I need an auto electrician to check the wires in the boot hinges. The battery is starting to discharge even though it's only 2 years old, I know the short journeys are contributing to this.

All in all I'm wondering whether it's not worth me keeping it. Mine's an LCI and I worry about the longevity of the auto box plus the run-flats drive me mad. Pretty rubbish invention those but I can put up with the ride, just about.

Keen to know people's thoughts as the insurance is up for renewal soon and I'm currently weighing up whether to keep it or sell. I just can't see anything obvious out there that would be as nice to replace it with so would appreciate any ideas on that too. Cheers

[Webber3]

I ran a BMW 650i for about 10 years. Lots of short trips with a big v8 didn't do it much good, the valve stem oil seals failed at just over 80,000 miles . The repair was very expensive, so I traded it in.

As for the run flats, I swapped those out years ago. The one time I had to drive with a RFT at zero pressure, the thing almost fell apart after 3 miles at 30mph.

[skypeller]

Short journeys just kill cars, tons of condensation inside the engine and even in some cases - the gearbox all the time.
I’ve always had good luck with exhausts & engines/boxes but I rarely end up in traffic and usually on nice clear runs to & from work or visiting my parents, when I used to do much shorter commutes I had tons of issues with cars playing up (cars weren’t as good then either though)

[bmwmike]

Just give it a blast and a charge every now and then. Presumably yours is an n53. Arguably the ruination direction could come from it to you rather than you to it. There are several significant issues with the early n53 engines which are largely ironed out these days. If you've paid out to sort these, versus the very significant risk that they are already in the post, may sway your decision.

Fwiw I've an n53 530i f10 and use it mostly for very short trips. Most of the time it's sat for a few days at a time doing nothing. I stick a battery tender on it every now and then. I give it a hoon every now and then when fully up to temp. And I change the oil every 8k. No worries IMO.

[d_a_n1979]

As others have said, an Italian tune up once a week will keep the car ticking over fine and it’ll give the battery a good charge too

I did lots of short runs in my previous 530i (M54 engine) with zero issues

[Painey]

It is the N53 engine yes, a late 08 plate. And I'm rather fond of taking it for a quick blast every now and then and have also been putting the battery on a trickle charge.

I'm just a bit worried that I'm due some big bills on it and my last experience with a TVR put me off wanting big bills again. You expect it with one of them so I didn't mind, I was hoping to avoid it with a BMW. Last two cars were an Audi S6 and an S3 and both were very reliable.

[bmwmike]

I'd flog it and get something japanese in that case. I'm not sure what BMW USP is but it's not generally cheap motoring.

[Iandk]

This is an interesting thread.

I try to avoid any journey that isn’t long enough to get the temp needle on my F10 M5 getting off the stop, but even so I don’t tend to drive very far or very often.

My biggest worry at the minute is the huge number of things drawing on the battery during stop start and before and after driving. The fan runs on for ages (fed up of people telling me I’ve left the engine on). If you aren’t getting decent runs in then surely the battery will deplete with all the hassle that brings. The car seems pretty clever, I’m going to assume it will tell me if the battery becomes depleted over time...(?)

At some point something will break and I will cry like a baby when BMW invent a new number to describe how much it costs, but my low mile/short journeys are making the brakes and tyres last a long time, the fuel isn’t disappearing fast, and I’ll always have the warranty. My understanding is that warranted mechanical failure would only ever not be covered if the black box grassed me for abuse, not for short journeys?

[iSore]

d_a_n1979 said:

As others have said, an Italian tune up once a week will keep the car ticking over fine and it’ll give the battery a good charge too

I did lots of short runs in my previous 530i (M54 engine) with zero issues

Won't work on an N53 - direct injection means the ports will just coke up. E60's are generally pretty robust with regular oil changes and a proper battery.

[bmwmike]

iSore said:

d_a_n1979 said:

As others have said, an Italian tune up once a week will keep the car ticking over fine and it’ll give the battery a good charge too

I did lots of short runs in my previous 530i (M54 engine) with zero issues

Won't work on an N53 - direct injection means the ports will just coke up. E60's are generally pretty robust with regular oil changes and a proper battery.

An Italian tune up still works on a n53 or any direct injection petrol. Won't clear any build up in inlet ports obviously (which is nowhere near as bad or likely as PH would suggest - stratified injection ftw) but does get oil pumped around, temperature up, mechanical bits like vanos working etc. Unless you mean running it cold more often is more likely to coke up the inlets, in which case agree and that's why an Italian tune up helps. Faster to full temp less time spent rich, homogenous and more time strat.

Edited by bmwmike on Thursday 10th January 19:25

[bmwmike]

Iandk said:

This is an interesting thread.

I try to avoid any journey that isn’t long enough to get the temp needle on my F10 M5 getting off the stop, but even so I don’t tend to drive very far or very often.

My biggest worry at the minute is the huge number of things drawing on the battery during stop start and before and after driving. The fan runs on for ages (fed up of people telling me I’ve left the engine on). If you aren’t getting decent runs in then surely the battery will deplete with all the hassle that brings. The car seems pretty clever, I’m going to assume it will tell me if the battery becomes depleted over time...(?)

At some point something will break and I will cry like a baby when BMW invent a new number to describe how much it costs, but my low mile/short journeys are making the brakes and tyres last a long time, the fuel isn’t disappearing fast, and I’ll always have the warranty. My understanding is that warranted mechanical failure would only ever not be covered if the black box grassed me for abuse, not for short journeys?

Get a ctek or similar to top the battery up periodically. Don't rely on the alternator completely.

[helix402]

It’ll be fine.

[iSore]

bmwmike said:

An Italian tune up still works on a n53 or any direct injection petrol. Won't clear any build up in inlet ports obviously (which is nowhere near as bad or likely as PH would suggest - stratified injection ftw) but does get oil pumped around, temperature up, mechanical bits like vanos working etc. Unless you mean running it cold more often is more likely to coke up the inlets, in which case agree and that's why an Italian tune up helps. Faster to full temp less time spent rich, homogenous and more time strat.

Edited by bmwmike on Thursday 10th January 19:25

It's not a Cortina you know.

These things have mapped thermostats and electric coolant pumps so they warm up very quickly, the oil to water heat exchangers do the same to the oil. You might as well take it for a normal 5 mile drive.

[bmwmike]

iSore said:

It's not a Cortina you know.

These things have mapped thermostats and electric coolant pumps so they warm up very quickly, the oil to water heat exchangers do the same to the oil. You might as well take it for a normal 5 mile drive.

Haha
All I mean is it doesn't hurt to use the full 7000 rpm every now and then. Certainly not hard on the engine nor the ears..

[Speed addicted]

Painey said:

The thing is, I paid £7.5k for it 2 years ago and I'm wondering if I'm slowly ruining it with infrequent short journeys, or whether there's anything out there that would be as nice to keep. It's got 105k on the clock now so I've done 5k in the last two years, not really what they're built for and it's starting to have issues.

I've currently got the whistling noise coming from what I'm pretty sure is a CCV failure. You can't take the oil cap off when it's running so I've got a replacement from BMW vanos for that. The heated rear screen and radio have packed up so I need an auto electrician to check the wires in the boot hinges. The battery is starting to discharge even though it's only 2 years old, I know the short journeys are contributing to this.

All in all I'm wondering whether it's not worth me keeping it. Mine's an LCI and I worry about the longevity of the auto box plus the run-flats drive me mad. Pretty rubbish invention those but I can put up with the ride, just about.

It's a 10 year old car with a decent mileage on it, you will get repair bills at some point. Being lucky with previous cars doesn't make you immune from needing to maintain the one you have.
The wires in the boot hinges are a common failure point in any car, I've had them fail on Audis too. You don't need an auto electrician if you can work a multi meter, even paying someone else to fix it's not an expensive issue.
CCV is an age related failure, they're not expensive and you can replace it yourself in about 20 mins. Most of that time is taking off the engine covers.

Battery, trickle charge it occasionally. It should last a decent amount of time.
My 645 has been doing 2k miles a year and getting garaged in winter with no ill effects other than corrosion on the brake discs.

Run flats, I replaced mine with normal tyres when they wore out. Cheaper, far more comfortable ride and generate more grip on broken surfaces.

Essentially there's noting wrong with it that's purely a BMW problem, any used car can have issues.
As for short journeys ruining cars, it's not an exotic with tiny tolerances and short service intervals, it's a car designed to be blasted up and down the country by reps that don't care about it. It'll be fine if as long as you give it a decent run from time to time to burn off any condensation.
If you fancy a change just change it!

Edited by Speed addicted on Friday 11th January 08:32