BMW 645i

[delboy735]

Just a quick question. My annual mielage has plummeted to less than 6000 from topping 40,000....so diesel no longer economical. Is a 645i V8 with 155k on it asking for trouble ? One I'm looking at is £3.7k and looks very tidy.....I've had higher mileage ones before, but not the V8........just how good is it in the long run ?
Any advice welcomed.

[gf15]

I think it all depends on how it drives.
My 2005 650 is on 180k miles, drives lovely, no squeaks or rattles and has no wear on the "exclusive" seats. Gearbox needs to work very smoothly and have had a couple of oil changes by now.
Need to check for worn valve stem seals and go in with your eyes open. I had my valve stem seals done at 150k miles and it has not used a drop of oil since.

Overall mine has been fantastic, but the Oil stem seals were £1,500 at a specialist. A couple of springs (changed both when one went) £300, one rear brake pipe was rusty about 4 years ago which required the rear suspension partially dropping. Did both at the same time £200.
Quite a few suspension bushes will be near end of life. Great if you have the time and knowledge to do it. Also document any faults and price up how much to correct. Some bits can be very expensive, E.g., new headlight: >£1k.
90% of my driving is early morning motorway @ ~85 and average mpg over the last 3k miles has been 28.5
I think the key is, if it has been well maintained, then not an issue. If anyone has skimped along the way, avoid.
Fantastic amount of car for the money, if you can find a good one.

ETA: I see you are N. Yorks, Autohaus BMW York (Craig) are fantastic, which would make the ownership as painless as possible.

Edited by gf15 on Saturday 3rd November 10:35

[delboy735]

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a good look, and see what I can find out about it's history.

[parabolica]

As it's the 4.4 V8 you'll want to make sure if has had work done around the Valve Stem Oil Seals as they tend to go around 100k, which makes for a very smokey exhaust. I loved my 645ci and have been thinking on getting another, but it was the above issue that finally made me part with it a few years ago; you can DIY a fix but it's complicated; an indy will want around £3k to do the work if it's needed.

If it has had the work done and everything else checks out, I'd go for it!

[RDMcG]

Bought a 645CI in 2004 and sold it to a mate in 2006. He still has it so I know the car still. It was a fairly rare six-speed manual car. The only really problem he has had was a failed A/C and a clutch replacement. Car has 180,000km on it and is still going strong.

[Philv8s]

Valve stem seals can be done for about £700 these days as there are a few garages offering this service at a sensible price. Like most things car related, with time common issues find cheaper fixes.

[trickywoo]

Philv8s said:

Like most things car related, with time common issues find cheaper fixes.

Maybe but finding the right people to do the work near you isn’t at all easy.

Don’t think it will be a cheap car to run. Even at only 6k miles a year you would be lucky not to spend £1k plus a year on unexpected repairs. Have a look at what an alternator costs for example.

You will also need to be happy with the odd bodge to not go broke. For example the passenger occupancy sensor is a common failure £££ to fix properly but you can bypass it with a few sensor plug ins.

I had a 545i, basically the same car with a different body, and wouldn’t have another. Mine was a three owner fsh car with 75k miles at the time.

[Philv8s]

These weren’t cheap cars when new so to expect to run them on a shoestring budget now is foolhardy at best. They are complex cars which can throw large bills like any other large engined modern car. Name any manufacturers car in the same class and I am sure they will all have there own unique weak (expensive) points/faults to be aware of when buying.
These aren’t like a Ford Fiesta and don’t come with Ford Fiesta size running costs either.

[rayyan171]

Very good cars, some common issues. Run them as if they are £70k cars, not £3.7k, and this is coming from someone with an X5.

[eliot]

I run a 750, so essentially same engine. As others mentioned check the valve stem seals;
leave it idling for a several minutes and then rev it - huge cloud of smoke means they are knackered. Can be fixed for around a grand.

[Andy665]

I have recently bought a 650 from a BMW specialist.

Mine has a relatively low mileage (75k) and the valve stem seals were done before the car was put on sale - seems to be a normal item at anywhere between 60-100k intervals -apparently its due tot he design of the heads and one set of the valves (cannot remember if its inlet or exhaust) is always sat in oil and therefore deteriorate - no revised design of the seals so once replaced it will be a matter of time / mileage before they need doing again

Seems to be a relatively trouble free car apart from this but as is always the case a decent service history is a must

[WarnieV6GT]

I have a 545i on 89k. I looked at the history for the 1st 5 years and service intervals were every 18k by BMW. No wonder the valve seals were a problem sitting in old oil.

Since then it's had an oil change every year and on average has done just 3-4k in that time. Mine is fine so far but the previous owner made sure it wanted for nothing and I am doing the same.

A comprehensive history is a must on these and it's worth spending over the odds on a good un.

[eliot]

Having done the valve stem seals on this engine, I wouldn’t say they are sat in oil. It’s the exhaust side that suffer the worst and it’s because of the heat imo. The seals i took off were rock hard, almost like bakealite - the inlets had a little more give. The new seals are of a better design - the have an additional seal where it fits over the valve guide - but from what i observed it was the fact the seal had gone rock hard and wasn’t sealing with the valve stem rather than needing the an additional seal over the valve guide.

Either way changing the oil every year /10k is never a bad thing.

[Coley88]

It will be a question of much oil it leaks rather than an if

[gf15]

Strangely, mine has always been oil tight.

[eliot]

my 750 doesn’t leak oil - although i did change the timing cover gaskets when i did the valve stem seals which were weeping down the front of the engine.

[Nath911t]

I had 2 of them last year. The first one was a coupe that had done 70k miles and the oil leaks on it were unreal. I eventually got shot of it for a 75k miles convertible. Great looking car in black with cream interior and fully loaded. It had all the oil leaks solved which was a real bonus but after a day with it, the roof was intermittent, it smoked on the after run (vss's) and the electrics would cut out. That went back to the dealer and they still have it as far as I know.

My 6 months or so with the coupe was pretty good. I boy'ed it up a little bit by doing a secondary decat delete which made it sound like a V8 should sound imo. The spec was good and it was surprisingly good on fuel. It handled really well for a big car. The only thing I could knock it for is the rear leg room is non existent when I had my seat adjusted. They've got a decent sized boot and generally a nice place to be in for long or short journeys. I was pretty gutted when it went as I really like the look of the 6 series.

I ended up with a CLS55 which is an absolutely awesome car.