E61 535d M sport

[bobski1]

Have mostly been a VAG man but the need to upgrade the mini for a bigger car has led me to the E61 535d.

A guy at work is moving away so has offered it to me for a fair price. Comparing to autotrader/eBay/gumtree it does seem fair at the milage 114k & history.

I've only taken it for a quick test drive & since I've been reading all the guides & videos on what to look for however the one thing which I don't have the equipment for is the engine & gearbox temp to verify if the thermostats are good.

I will ask & check the history but it's something I'd still like to check, a video I saw used the Carley app & dongle

Is there another way to check? I'm not too against buying an OBDII reader as I can use it on my other car too. Or is there a BMW equivalent to the VAGCOM stuff?

[d_a_n1979]

bobski1 said:

Have mostly been a VAG man but the need to upgrade the mini for a bigger car has led me to the E61 535d.

A guy at work is moving away so has offered it to me for a fair price. Comparing to autotrader/eBay/gumtree it does seem fair at the milage 114k & history.

I've only taken it for a quick test drive & since I've been reading all the guides & videos on what to look for however the one thing which I don't have the equipment for is the engine & gearbox temp to verify if the thermostats are good.

I will ask & check the history but it's something I'd still like to check, a video I saw used the Carley app & dongle

Is there another way to check? I'm not too against buying an OBDII reader as I can use it on my other car too. Or is there a BMW equivalent to the VAGCOM stuff?

IIRC use the hidden menu in the dash to get the stat temps up etc; but the likes of Torque Pro on an Android device with the OBD II dongle will provide this also

Re the gearbox temp; not sure on this

Some good reading here over on the 5 forums:

https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/109348-530d-running...

[bobski1]

How do you access the hidden menu please?

Written my list of things to check & go through the car tomorrow before making a firm offer.

Quite excited by it, although I know there's things to fix there seems to be so many guides & YT vids.

The plus side is that I can park it & fix all these things before selling the mini & hopefully have some trouble free motoring for a bit

[d_a_n1979]

bobski1 said:

How do you access the hidden menu please?

Written my list of things to check & go through the car tomorrow before making a firm offer.

Quite excited by it, although I know there's things to fix there seems to be so many guides & YT vids.

The plus side is that I can park it & fix all these things before selling the mini & hopefully have some trouble free motoring for a bit

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsrf=ALeKk02JJL85M-flD9Y8beMMEXcN_eJbng%3A1601811949216&source=hp&ei=7bV5X-jgCtuIjLsPmfmfmAo&q=bmw+e60+hidden+menu&oq=bmw+e60+hi&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAxgAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoECCMQJzoECC4QJzoFCAAQkQI6CAgAELEDEIMBOg4ILhCxAxCDARDHARCjAjoLCC4QsQMQxwEQowI6BQgAELEDOggILhCxAxCDAToKCAAQsQMQFBCHAjoHCAAQFBCHAlDBBFjSEmDkG2gAcAB4AIABaIgB9QWSAQM5LjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=psy-ab

[bobski1]

What is a good obdII reader to buy for one of these?

[d_a_n1979]

bobski1 said:

What is a good obdII reader to buy for one of these?

Which mobile do you have?

Generally any OBD II reader dongle will be fine, it's the app you use that does the work

[helix402]

Obd stuff only does DDE/DME. Try a Creator C310.

[bobski1]

helix402 said:

Obd stuff only does DDE/DME. Try a Creator C310.

What's DDE/DME please?

Ideally I want something that can read & clear codes but all not just high level basic stuff. I'd like to be able to delve as deep as budget would allow.

Think max I want to spend is around 200 for it all. Will use it on other cars too so will be worth it spending the money

[stevemcs]

You wouldn’t want the car, send me the link I’ll have it

Instead of spending £200 on diagnostics why not just replace the thermostats they are not that expensive and chances are they are knackered anyway. Also budget for a glow plug control unit.

[helix402]

bobski1 said:

What's DDE/DME please?

Ideally I want something that can read & clear codes but all not just high level basic stuff. I'd like to be able to delve as deep as budget would allow.

Think max I want to spend is around 200 for it all. Will use it on other cars too so will be worth it spending the money

DME/DDE is what BMW call the engine ecu.

[911gone]

Just access the hidden menu to check the oil temperature. As has already been said, it is likely that the thermostats will need to be replaced. I don't recall any issues with gearbox oil temperature when I had my E60, but so you know, you can buy a gearbox service kit. Despite BMW stating the gearbox is sealed for life, I had mine done and found it to be much better afterwards.

You should also ask the seller if he knows whether the swirl flaps have been removed. This is an important job because they can fail and fall into the engine. Cheap job though to remove them and replace with some blanking plates.

If you buy it, get it re-mapped!

[bobski1]

911gone said:

Just access the hidden menu to check the oil temperature. As has already been said, it is likely that the thermostats will need to be replaced. I don't recall any issues with gearbox oil temperature when I had my E60, but so you know, you can buy a gearbox service kit. Despite BMW stating the gearbox is sealed for life, I had mine done and found it to be much better afterwards.

You should also ask the seller if he knows whether the swirl flaps have been removed. This is an important job because they can fail and fall into the engine. Cheap job though to remove them and replace with some blanking plates.

If you buy it, get it re-mapped!

So the gearbox has been serviced recently. Nothing engine wise has been touched so that means thermostats & swirl flaps to do.

Although I have read that some people say it affects the car & DPF by removing them & that the later engines had beefed up versions of the flaps that didn't break?

[helix402]

The swirl flaps don’t break on your car. They just leak with age. No affect on the DPF by removing them.

[911gone]

It is true that the later cars had better (more robust) swirl flaps. I still had mine removed and blanked because the £200 cost is much less than an engine repair!

Unlikely they will fail, but for me I was happier with the job done.

[bobski1]

helix402 said:

The swirl flaps don’t break on your car. They just leak with age. No affect on the DPF by removing them.

Why don't they break on the later cars? How do I find out which engine (code) I have in my car?

911gone said:

It is true that the later cars had better (more robust) swirl flaps. I still had mine removed and blanked because the £200 cost is much less than an engine repair!

Unlikely they will fail, but for me I was happier with the job done.

Did you have it remapped as part of the removal? Online it varies from just the flaps, to full removal of flaps/EGR/DPF & remap & not sure where to gauge.

The car is on 114k so I'm hoping if they were going to break they would have by now

[911gone]

The later ones were larger and the pin through the middle, where they rotate to open/close was stronger.

I had my car remapped at a later date, but ran it with blanking plates without any problems.

[bobski1]

911gone said:

The later ones were larger and the pin through the middle, where they rotate to open/close was stronger.

I had my car remapped at a later date, but ran it with blanking plates without any problems.

Did it give you any issues with excessive dpf regens?

I'm thinking of opening to check them as it'll be worthwhile to know if they're loose/damaged & then I can replace.

I've also read some people buy a new manifold from BMW, assuming that if it was to fail it'd be a BMW problem rather than them saying sorry sir it's X years old so out of our hands

[911gone]

bobski1 said:

Did it give you any issues with excessive dpf regens?

I'm thinking of opening to check them as it'll be worthwhile to know if they're loose/damaged & then I can replace.

I've also read some people buy a new manifold from BMW, assuming that if it was to fail it'd be a BMW problem rather than them saying sorry sir it's X years old so out of our hands

No adverse effects at all. The 525d had no swirl flaps in it from the factory. Don't know the reason for that but it's the same engine as the 530 & 535, so presumably it can't be too much of an issue either way?!