Hi all,

My name is Kristof, 43 years old, married, no kids and I'm the proud owner of a 2005 E61 525D. I bought this wonderful car as a workhorse for pulling my main hobby, which is my boat.
The Beemer already has 261.000 km on the clock and runs like a charm. The car is original and no mods have been done on her. Also, I'm still running on the original DPF and no problems whatsoever.

Problems I had so far:
- the well known broken cables in the hinges of the trunk (fixed them twice already with a buddy )
- leaking panoramic roof (fixed the tubes myself)
- removed the swirl flaps (thanks to the great DIY on this forum!! )
- installed new vibration damper (wich is not all that difficult and you don't need to do all the steps mentionned in the TIS)

So all in all not that bad for a car with such a mileage... The vibration damper is my first mechanical failure.
I have a little wager running on the Belgian BMW forum... I intend to put 500.000 km on the clock and I'm confident I'm gonna win that wager
Car as well as boat have a name (hey, to each his own hehe), the car is called "Luther", as my license plate starts with an L (wich means 'from the army' and I'm a Belgian soldier, so that fits quite well ) And the boat is called "Yasmine", as boats always have girl names and the registration number starts with a Y.
Here are some pics:






As you can see on these pics, my hobby is hanging behind the car. It's a 1989 Correct Craft Ski Nautique 2001 with a Ford V8 PCM engine, 265HP.
Restored her completely last winter (wetsanded, buffed, new stickers, new interior, new dashboard, selfmade speaker pod in the tower) and she is used for barefooting, slalom skiing and pulling our waterski showteam.

 

Hello Kristof and welcome.

Nice touring there, these diesels are excellent pulling vehicles.

You've seemed to have covered most of the common issues, you may already have done so but if not at this mileage it's wise to inspect the exhaust manifold for cracks with a mirror.
If the turbo holds you'll get it to 500K easily, no doubt in my mind.
If you can get your hands on a DIS laptop and cable you can monitor the DPF regeneration as well and decide to have it preventatively washed.

Have fun with Luther and Yasmine!

 

 

Thanks for the heads up Theo.
I'm gonna giever her an oil change next tuesday, so I'll check the exhaust manifold as well. Will also check the rubbers on the tension struts and wishbones of the front axle. They made the remark at the technical inspection that they are starting to wear, what I also feel when I'm driving...
Since I handle the principle of "if it ain't broke, leave it as is", what would be the symptoms showing me the turbo is nearing the end of it's life?
I'm planning on having the DPF washed in a few months, maybe even try the DIY here
Thing is, I can hear it regenerating from time to time (the so called "growl"), but that is not often. But, I do not use the car for short distances.

 

Hello Kristof,

I only know of 2 clear indications of turbo wear:
- Sound
- Oil leakage

The former is somewhat arbitrary, rule of thumb being that increasing sound over time is a possible indication of wear.
The latter is also incremental, a very small leak is considered acceptable though, when increasing you could consider replacement/overhaul.

If the turbo is OK now and you keep performing warmups/cooldowns the turbo may very well get to the 500.000.

Because of the investment I can understand you're reluctant to perform a preventative replacement on a 2005 car. One thing to keep in mind in case of a failure:
If you suddenly lose power pull over immediately, as in immediately without ever touching the accelerator pedal. In that case parts and oil from the failed turbo might not kill anything else.

You probably already knew that but just in case...