andersonevans

This is my 3rd V8 bmw, and my parents have owned several. Never any real issues! Put it this way my if I took a long trip, I would take my 1986 chevy pick-up. Lol!

BimmerFan52

All of us who read this forum agree - BMW is a performance machine that leaves a smile on your face long after the key is turned off.

But attempting to defend BMW’s reliability is an exercise in futility.

Independent analyst tracking of quality in the automobile industry confirms year after year an irrefutable truth - BMW is, and has been for the last ten years, below the middle of the pack, and in a number of years, and for multiple models, near the bottom of the automobile industry list for reliability and cost of repair.

And if it were primarily failure of the highly sophisticated sensors, computers, suspensions and stability control systems that make a BMW a BMW then one could say, OK that is the price you pay for performance.

But come on ……… water pumps, reservoir tanks and other coolant system components, alternators, gaskets, window switches, brake boosters, entire transmissions and transmission sealing sleeves, seat sensor mats and seat heaters? These are all components even the least expensive cars have but don’t fail at anywhere near the frequency that they have in BMWs recently.

All car brands have component failures, but so many BMWs have failures, and worse, multiple failures for each car compared to other brands that the brand is clearly a statistical outlier at the bottom.

Does this fact cause me to regret my purchase? ----- NO WAY. It only makes me want to learn more about how I can give my baby even more TLC to keep it running in tip-top condition while keeping the cost manageable.

pjinca

And that is the bottom line. With ANY car, but a BMW especially, it is WAY cheaper to maintain it than to repair it. Member Toyota2BMW is a perfect example, he proactively replaces or repairs things before they fail and therefore his cars (E60 and E65) have never left him stranded. Staying ahead of the curve is the key, getting email updates from reputable sites like ECStuning.com and others about deals and specials, checking ebay, then buying parts that are known to fail at roughly your current mileage and be prepared to change them before they become a problem.
Maybe I have been lucky (I also have an I6 not a V-8), but my car has been far more reliable than many other cars I have owned, yes less reliable than others. Still, I wouldn't change the feeling I get when driving my car for anything at all. To prove my point my wife has a relatively new Honda Accord, a very nice, reliable, safe car - however, I HATE driving it. It bores the heck out of me.

advancedlogic

BMW will never be a Honda or Toyota in the reliability department. When you buttress the envelope, the roadmap followed is your own. These cars, at the time of manufacture, tend to be the cutting edge technologically. It's why we buy them as enthusiasts - the visceral feel of driving them cannot be matched. But, the price of so much techno-wizardry is the trade off in reliability.

The 545i N62B44 engine was not some test engine to launch the N62B48 in the 550i. Keep in mind that engine made its debuted in 2002 (and a lil earlier in demos) for the 745i - 4 years before the 4.8 hit the scene. Of course, they learned a bit during the course of 4 years, and incorporated enhancements to the 4.8 to increase reliability and performance.

I've owned my 545i for almost 7 years now. She's got just shy of 190,000 miles on her. She creaks and grown, shifts sluggishly, and farts off false temp warnings (3 years. Trust me, she's not overheating. The dealer couldn't figure it out. She'll crop up a heat warning every now and then while coolant temps are around 110 degrees. Not even hot enough to scald harshly).

I still love her though. <3

Shlooky

Haha mine too

6825786

Hi there
I seem to have the same issue with my 545. She runs between 108-110 C which I thought was fairly high. For the first time she threw a temp warning the other day, but then that was it! I have gone for several spirited rides thereafter with no temp warniings. The. Car still runs great. Are you saying that these operating temps are normal for our cars?

advancedlogic

I should have clarified that statement a bit more. I meant 110 degrees Fahrenheit!! Just after starting in the morning before parts have had a chance to even warm up I sometimes would get a temp warning, which was a false warning of course. 110 celcius = roughly 230 F. That seems a little high. Mine runs around 205-215F. Ive seen 220F once in Vegas, but it was 116F outside and I had ran her for 3 straight hours at speed.

Gatriel

I feel your pain. My car has cost between myself and the previous owner over the past 20k about $10k in maintenance and repairs. Thank god he paid $7600 of that or so.

Once you work through all the major and well documented issues -- the 545 gives you long periods of maintenance free driving. You just have to know when to dump it. My car will get offed at 200k or so. Hopefully that'll do it.

Cre8

I look at owning this car like this... I paid $20,000 for mine, has 63k miles, Documented Maintenance done at BMW dealer the entire life of the car. I found the window sticker in the owners manual and it stated the car new was $64,800. I could careless if I spend 10k over the life of the car, I have still saved 40k while letting someone deal with the first half of the headaches, while I deal with the second half. I wouldn't buy a new BMW, but will continue to purchased used ones.

mofares

I just hit a 100k on my 2005 545i with manual, sport package and had the following done since I bought it with 42k miles.

1. Battery and alternator recently (big pain due to first defective replacement alternator)
2. Rear left wheel bearing ($$$$ as it froze on the hub)
3. Coolant reservoir (expansion tank - waranty)
4. Coolant hose on top of radiator
5. Water pump (under warranty)

That's about it besides set of Hawk HPS pads, air and HVAC filters and wiper blades and I personally changed the spark plugs at 60k. Funny thing is that I don't even have any oil leaks so kind of shocked at the overall reliability. Will be doing my control and thrust arm replacement next month. These cars are a hit or miss and I bought it as a CPO a while back. I am in the market for an E90 M3 sedan and drove a few of them and 545i has much better low end torque and so much smoother. I even drove new 3 series and the old 545i is much better in every way. E39's are great as I had an M5.