jdl_anni

Hi all,

As the title says I am about to pick up a 535d M sport touring on Saturday.

It's done 64,000 (Full BMW SH) and has the following spec:
Black
Black Dakota leather
Electric memory seats
Pano roof
Media pack
6 disc cd changer
Heated front seats
Logic 7
Bi-zenons
Head up display
TV function
High beam assist
Lumbar support
Rear side air bags

Now unfortunately I've only discovered this forum after I put my deposit down - the problems that are listed here lead ne to believe I might be buying a poorly designed car.

Things like, air suspension failures, swirl flaps, DPF failures, sunroof leaks and gearbox failures mean that it's likely I'll need to spend a large amount of money keeping the car on tue road for the next 2 years.

Now do I either try and negotiate the return of my deposit or alternatively transfer my deposit to an E320 CDi estate the dealer has in stock?

Would appreciate your thoughts as owners.

jdl

Vista

Are you buying from BMW? If so your warranty will cover any of the above issues. You could always purchase a decent independent warranty. Warranty Wise are allegedly quite good in the UK

That's a very high spec car and I doubt you'll be disappointed in the driving experience and equipment.

Swirl flaps were allegedly sorted out before most E61's were built, mine is a 2005 535d and has the later type manifold.

I don't know of any issues with the 535d autobox. Had no trouble with mine

Suspension compressors are an E61 problem as is the tailgate wiring loom. DPF is all down to how it's been driven. It's life is shortened by lots of short trips where the car hasn't had a chance to heat up properly. Have a look at the I-drive service menu and see how many miles of life it's predicting the DPF has. They're a service item that BMW recommends change of at about 120k miles.

You can go into your local BMW dealer and request the warranty history on your car. Some of the issues you're concerned about might have already been dealt with. take them the chassis and reg no and ask for a print out

P.S. The E320 is not nearly such a capable car as the 535d...................but the big diesels are not best suited to town driving if that's your intention.

phelix

Agree with all of the above and suggest that if you found an MB forum with as many participants as this one you would probably get similar comments.

Theo

Hardly. These cars do indeed have certain shortcomings, in my experience though these will surface more or less with any car when you really look closely into all its characteristics and peculiarities.
You already took the most important step which is getting to know the most common potential pitfalls, their symptoms and possible remedies.
It makes you capable of casually monitoring your cars behavior, in some cases giving it the occasional preventative maintenance just to be sure and intervening in an early stage when something goes awry after all. Early intervention equals small investment...

Use the knowledge you've gathered thusfar to judge the condition of this E61 to minimize your risk and if that pans out, just go for it.

Bottom line: in the end you'll buy an excellent overall package that is generally well-designed and extremely rewarding.

So you'll shoot yourself in the foot by backing out of it for an unsubstantiated fear of technical problems.

jdl_anni

Thanks both - unfortunately good as the internet is in the main it only throws up horror stories.

Car is from an independent BM specialist but it is a one owner (plus dealer) car so hopefully will be ok. It comes with a 12 month AA warranty so fingers crossed should be ok. I did originally want to buy direct from BM but they have had nothing under £20,000 for the last 3-4 weeks, plus the spec of this car sold it for me.

Driving wise it will do 85 miles a day of which 80 of those are on the motor way so MPG should be north of 32. Good shout on the DPF via I-drive I will check this on Saturday

jdl

Vista

One more thing. Before you complete the deal, you want to be sure it's coming up to operating temperature properly. The thermostats on all the BMW diesel engine range seem to go off the boil after a few years.

There's no temp gauge on an E60 / E61 dash so you need to access a hidden On Board Computer (OBC) menu.

Download the hidden OBC instructions from here but remember that at step four you only add the last 5 digits of your VIN number to get the code you enter.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e63...-obc-menu.html

Once up to temperature on the road, the coolant temp should be somewhere between 88 & 93C. Many with older thermostats will be down in thew 70's some even as low as the upper 50's / lower 60's.

There are two thermostats on the engine, Main and EGR. Both can cause low operating temperatures and should be replaced if you're experiencing this symptom.

This is important as it affects both the MPG and the DPF regeneration cycle (if too low the latter won't engage).

Mine returns about 36 / 37 on a good long distance run (if I keep to a sensible speed and haven't too much luggage)

Good luck and enjoy a fine car!

jdl_anni

Just asked the dealer to check and the DPF is showing 50,000 miles before change required :-)

Rasmus

A 535D is great car. What year is it?

Yes it has some issues like the ones you metioned. But most of them can be dealt with such as:

- Either remove swirl flaps or replace intake manifold (I replaced manifold)
- Check compressor and suplpy hose. Does the compressor only run for a few seconds after engine stop and does the hoses have a knitted structure, then its the new type and ok.
- I have done close to 200K km, and my DPF was changed 6 month ago. So no issues from my point of view other than normal wear. Bu maybe you should be more carefull here since 64.000 is not a lot and might leed to a car that has done short trips where the DPF auto cleaning procedure is not likely to start. There might also be other issues, so it might be worth checking EGR valve when addressing the intake manifold.
- The panorama sunroof might be the biggest issues of them all. Not well engineered and cloded drain valves might lead to flodding of the trunk. You will find different solutions to that on this forum.
- Regarding gearbox, it might just be my driving style, but my gearbox is smooth like silk with no issues at all. (knock on wood)

This is a great car - no doubt about that.

mmitev

+1 on both

and jdl_anni, I'll tell you one thing: this car is awesome
if you get a chance to drive both the BMW and the MB, you will appreciate the difference immediately

and the problems - you can prevent and/or sort out all of them with info from the forum.
I have had some of those annoying problems and I love my car even more now