lefort

To my disappointment, my dad, who's a mechanic, bought a 2010 528i x-drive with 130K miles for very cheap at an auction after the car was hit on the passenger side door. The intent was to give me the car. Obviously, I have a lot of apprehension given what I've read on these forums and a certain PDF with a lot of good information. From my understanding, this generation of naturally aspirated N52 inline-6 is known for water pump failure, oil gasket failures, oil filter housing housing gasket failures, and suspension components known to fail. My anxiety is made worse given that auction cars do not come with a service history which, if this were my decision, I would have stayed far away from buying this car. So there's my predicament, a high-mileage 528i w/ x-drive with no service history is going to be given to me. The car was apparently looked over by my dad's coworker, who is a BMW mechanic, prior to purchase and was evaluated as being in good condition but honestly I have my doubts considering that the best indicator for decent reliability would be a full service history.

What preemptive maintenance should I be looking into if I were to set this car up for the most reliability before I start driving it? Changing timing belt? Flushing fluids? Replacing hosing? Replacing water pump?

Or should I trust the mechanic and enjoy the car?

JayArras

Owning a BMW can be either a joy or a curse. Fanboys seem to put up with the cost of ownership, but I get the sense that you're a more practical sort of fellow. You seem to have resources that can deal with issues as they arise, so I guess it comes down to whether or not you really want to own a BMW. The N52 is actually one of the better engines that BMW has made and 130k mileage is really nothing for a car that will go to 300k if properly maintained. If the car looks like it was properly taken care of before it's unfortunate accident, and the frame is not bent, I would just get it road worthy, enjoy it and then deal with issues as they arrive. If it ends up being one problem after another, then you can make the decision to dump it.

fast

Accident especially on the door really won't do much damage unless until the frame was bent. Anytime you buy a used car especially a high mileage, you would need some extra money to catch up on the maintenance when you don't have records.

At 130,000 miles, you would definitely need all fluids changed (brake/power steering/transmission/coolant/engine), plugs/coils, water pump and could need and benefit from suspension overhaul like, brakes/shocks and bushings.

If not maintained, owning any car let alone a BMW would be nightmare. Please make sure the car is fixed right or else you would always have issues. BMW's are very finicky cars and if maintained right, there's nothing like driving "an Ultimate driving Machine" of which I got 2, an '07 530i with 45,000 miles and a 2012 X5M with 41,000 miles.