eatgoodfood

So i purchased a u.s. spec 05 545i while i was in afghanistan. I just recently got back to germany and on friday went to pickup the car, a 6 hour drive from where i am. About an hour out i called the seller to let him know that i was on the way, at which point he told me there was an issue. Turns out when he pulled the car out of the garage, where its been sitting for the last 2 months, he noticed a small puddle under the car. He took it to BMW in the morning to have it checked out. They were able to determine it to be a pressure valve on the coolant system that was leaking, they couldn't get the part till monday so i had to leave the car. Yesterday they steam cleaned the engine bay and inspected it today. They determined on top of the coolant leak the transmission was 'sweating' fluid and there was an oil leak. All the work totaling 1900euro to fix. The warranty the vehicle has only covers the coolant valve it doesn't cover the gaskets so leaving a 1200euro out of pocket bill. Well thankfully the seller of the vehicle is covering the costs, he claims he was unaware of the issues with the vehicle and sold the vehicle 'without any issues'. Thank god i have a trust worthy seller, he has been more than helpful with everything and being a private party i'm rather surprised i wasn't just dumped with a you figure it out. I just hope that this isn't a start to a bad relationship with the vehicle. Im not exactly sure what the leaks were, the info i posted is just second hand from the seller, he is emailing me all the paperwork from BMW so when i get that ill post exactly what the leaks were, hopefully my german is good enough to translate it all. lol.

tonyb635

Yes, I would consider yourself quite luckly! It's nice when you have honest people out there. When I was reading this, I could only see the direction it was going, but I was totally wrong. Maybe you need to buy this guy a nice weiss bier and a dinner...

Persian_535i

Very rare and very lucky, good to see not everyone is a jerk off out there.

eatgoodfood

Yeah i couldnt have asked for a better situation... other than the car having no issues to begin with. He even offered to pay for my fuel from the drive out there because i wasn't able to get the car. Obviously i declined, and im also buying a set of wheels with winter tires already mounted, at a discount from what he was originally asking, since its law in germany to have winter tires when it starts snowing. It is great to see people not being scumbags and screwing over the next guy, it would be nice to think that this isnt a rare thing...

caslca

Consider yourself very lucky! I had similar experience in Canada where I gave earnest money to the seller just to get the car inspected. After inspection showed the car to have corroded brake and gas lines, the asshole seller wouldn't give the deposit back. It was only $250 but still...

stoic1

Hopefully that will be the end of your car troubles. Glad see you made it back safely. I'm jealous of you btw, being able to drive your new 545i on the autobahn.

eatgoodfood

Thank you. And yeah, thats what im really looking forward too, especially since its unlimited for a long stretch just outside of the town where im picking up the car, so ill really get a chance to see the power and handling of the car. I had fun just driving a little diesel VW Golf, i cant wait to see how a real car handles.

eatgoodfood

Well I got the invoice and had a German speaking friend of a friend translate it for me. Its the Head Gasket, Transmission Oil Pan Gasket, and the Coolant Pressure Valve?.

sleeper50

...or, at the risk of being a spoil sport, perhaps this is the...




gaskets are not covered by BMW warranties, you could end up spending $2k in labour to replace the vavle cover gaskets for the next puddle

...just sayin...

eatgoodfood

dont jinx it, lol, im hoping this will be the last of the issues for a while