E60/61 535D Preventative Maintenance?
Discussion
I intended to move on from my 535D Touring sometime ago but I quite like it. It was built in 2008, it's the LCI model and it's coming up to 100k miles.
I'm thinking about getting a caravan next year and this would obviously make an awesome tow car (please correct me if I'm wrong about this!). The self levelling suspension is useful here but I have heard it can break.
Part of me thinks to keep it but then there is potential for it to generate some pretty big bills so this gets me thinking what can I do to negate this?
First thing is the "sealed for life" ZF six speed box, obvious thing to do here is get the oil changed on it which I gather isn't particularly difficult for someone in the know and includes replacing the sump as it has the filter built into it. I'd probably seek out a ZF specialist to do this rather than my local mechanic.
The next weak spot seems to be with leaking seals on the thermostats preventing the engine getting up to full temp. This stops the DPF regen from running properly. I should probably check from the hidden menu as to how hot it is getting on a run but presuming it's not then what would be a ball park figure to get these changed?
The there's the DPF itself, I'm kind of resigned to the fact that at some point it will clog up and if a forced regen doesn't sort it then it might need replacing. Is there any diagnostics I can easily access to let me know the current state of the DPF? I've heard four figure sums to do this as the pipe it's in isn't easy to access? What should I be putting aside in case?
Finally there's the electrics, a few gremlins have started to creep in. The heated rear screen has stopped working. The sat nav DVD sometimes stops reading though if I eject the disc and put it back in again it's okay, then again this is no big deal to me as the on-board navigation is pretty sh*te so I use CoPilot on my phone instead. Occasionally I get this gear selector fault message in the iDrive screen but the selector works fine, no idea about that one. And just the once the iDrive failed to start up completely, it was just frozen at the BMW screen. Thing is there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong on the electrics.
Anything else I should consider? The car is well maintained generally. Keep or get rid as it has some residual value now rather than just being a money pit in future?
I'm thinking about getting a caravan next year and this would obviously make an awesome tow car (please correct me if I'm wrong about this!). The self levelling suspension is useful here but I have heard it can break.
Part of me thinks to keep it but then there is potential for it to generate some pretty big bills so this gets me thinking what can I do to negate this?
First thing is the "sealed for life" ZF six speed box, obvious thing to do here is get the oil changed on it which I gather isn't particularly difficult for someone in the know and includes replacing the sump as it has the filter built into it. I'd probably seek out a ZF specialist to do this rather than my local mechanic.
The next weak spot seems to be with leaking seals on the thermostats preventing the engine getting up to full temp. This stops the DPF regen from running properly. I should probably check from the hidden menu as to how hot it is getting on a run but presuming it's not then what would be a ball park figure to get these changed?
The there's the DPF itself, I'm kind of resigned to the fact that at some point it will clog up and if a forced regen doesn't sort it then it might need replacing. Is there any diagnostics I can easily access to let me know the current state of the DPF? I've heard four figure sums to do this as the pipe it's in isn't easy to access? What should I be putting aside in case?
Finally there's the electrics, a few gremlins have started to creep in. The heated rear screen has stopped working. The sat nav DVD sometimes stops reading though if I eject the disc and put it back in again it's okay, then again this is no big deal to me as the on-board navigation is pretty sh*te so I use CoPilot on my phone instead. Occasionally I get this gear selector fault message in the iDrive screen but the selector works fine, no idea about that one. And just the once the iDrive failed to start up completely, it was just frozen at the BMW screen. Thing is there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong on the electrics.
Anything else I should consider? The car is well maintained generally. Keep or get rid as it has some residual value now rather than just being a money pit in future?
C0ffin D0dger said:
I intended to move on from my 535D Touring sometime ago but I quite like it. It was built in 2008, it's the LCI model and it's coming up to 100k miles.
I'm thinking about getting a caravan next year and this would obviously make an awesome tow car (please correct me if I'm wrong about this!). The self levelling suspension is useful here but I have heard it can break.
Part of me thinks to keep it but then there is potential for it to generate some pretty big bills so this gets me thinking what can I do to negate this?
First thing is the "sealed for life" ZF six speed box, obvious thing to do here is get the oil changed on it which I gather isn't particularly difficult for someone in the know and includes replacing the sump as it has the filter built into it. I'd probably seek out a ZF specialist to do this rather than my local mechanic.
The next weak spot seems to be with leaking seals on the thermostats preventing the engine getting up to full temp. This stops the DPF regen from running properly. I should probably check from the hidden menu as to how hot it is getting on a run but presuming it's not then what would be a ball park figure to get these changed?
The there's the DPF itself, I'm kind of resigned to the fact that at some point it will clog up and if a forced regen doesn't sort it then it might need replacing. Is there any diagnostics I can easily access to let me know the current state of the DPF? I've heard four figure sums to do this as the pipe it's in isn't easy to access? What should I be putting aside in case?
Finally there's the electrics, a few gremlins have started to creep in. The heated rear screen has stopped working. The sat nav DVD sometimes stops reading though if I eject the disc and put it back in again it's okay, then again this is no big deal to me as the on-board navigation is pretty sh*te so I use CoPilot on my phone instead. Occasionally I get this gear selector fault message in the iDrive screen but the selector works fine, no idea about that one. And just the once the iDrive failed to start up completely, it was just frozen at the BMW screen. Thing is there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong on the electrics.
Anything else I should consider? The car is well maintained generally. Keep or get rid as it has some residual value now rather than just being a money pit in future?
I have one of a similar age, which has recently gone north of 100k. I had the oil changed in the box about 25k miles ago, all is still fine - I used my local BMW specialist. I've changed the thermostats, easy to do, two spanners and a small socket set, about 2 hours - there's plenty of guides online - ensure you use BMW ones, or £250 around fitted.I'm thinking about getting a caravan next year and this would obviously make an awesome tow car (please correct me if I'm wrong about this!). The self levelling suspension is useful here but I have heard it can break.
Part of me thinks to keep it but then there is potential for it to generate some pretty big bills so this gets me thinking what can I do to negate this?
First thing is the "sealed for life" ZF six speed box, obvious thing to do here is get the oil changed on it which I gather isn't particularly difficult for someone in the know and includes replacing the sump as it has the filter built into it. I'd probably seek out a ZF specialist to do this rather than my local mechanic.
The next weak spot seems to be with leaking seals on the thermostats preventing the engine getting up to full temp. This stops the DPF regen from running properly. I should probably check from the hidden menu as to how hot it is getting on a run but presuming it's not then what would be a ball park figure to get these changed?
The there's the DPF itself, I'm kind of resigned to the fact that at some point it will clog up and if a forced regen doesn't sort it then it might need replacing. Is there any diagnostics I can easily access to let me know the current state of the DPF? I've heard four figure sums to do this as the pipe it's in isn't easy to access? What should I be putting aside in case?
Finally there's the electrics, a few gremlins have started to creep in. The heated rear screen has stopped working. The sat nav DVD sometimes stops reading though if I eject the disc and put it back in again it's okay, then again this is no big deal to me as the on-board navigation is pretty sh*te so I use CoPilot on my phone instead. Occasionally I get this gear selector fault message in the iDrive screen but the selector works fine, no idea about that one. And just the once the iDrive failed to start up completely, it was just frozen at the BMW screen. Thing is there's a lot of stuff that could go wrong on the electrics.
Anything else I should consider? The car is well maintained generally. Keep or get rid as it has some residual value now rather than just being a money pit in future?
DPF is unlikely to cause an issue as the LCI model changed the location to mitigate any issues, unless your primarily just doing short/town journeys it should be a non-issue.
Rear screen is due to the wires breaking from opening the boot, again, easy to fix, plenty of guides online. The rear glass switch can be problematic, although that's doable in under 10 minutes.
Rear air bags/compressor can go, again, easyish fix, parts can be sourced via ebay. Whilst I don't tow a caravan, I can confirm it has no issues pulling a car trailer.
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