Hey all ~

Just bought at 2005 545i 6 speed manual, 55,000 miles and spotless. Did some reading up on gaskets and everything and my stomach dropped… is this an issue that if I don't fix it can be disastrous? or can I add oil and make sure the oil is at the right level, change it every 6000-7000 to prevent this?

Otherwise the car is amazing! hope I don't regret it down the road!

 

Wow! That sounds fantastic! Old person driver? That milage is stupid low for the year.

I think you can normally get away with leaving the upper timing chain gaskets and valve cover gaskets alone -- but that alternator bracket gasket has got to get replaced when it starts leaking, if you don't -- the car really is no longer a "road trip" car and you'll be adding oil constantly. I would however plan to do a string of preventative maintenance over the next few years. I don't see you having any issues for 25 to 35k or so.

However, after that you're gonna get hit with issues constantly and all over the place. Common things that have to get replaced on your car BEFORE 100k;

- Water Pump
- Thermostat
- Upper Timing Chain Cover gaskets
- Valve Cover Gaskets
- Vacuum Pump
- Valve Stem Seals
- Coolant Vally return pipe
- Alternator
- Vanos Seals

So while its reliable -- start saving now before "modding" it and when these things come up, you already have a nestegg to take care of it. My personal recommendation -- when you have 1 of these items fail -- go ahead and do it all.

Many, many, many indys will give you substantial discounts if you do all this work at one time, especially if you ask them to quote you for stuff independently.

 

Thanks man, I plan on babing the shit out of it since I have to drive it to work and back 5 days a week at 80 miles a day. But yea I bought it from a 65 year old man who was pretty anal about it. It looks like the passenger side valve cover has a slight leak already though but no spots on the drive way yet... How much would I expect to pay for all that work? Sounds expensive lol I do have a connection to a BMW mechanic through family.

 

My guess would be $5k for all the above, and that would be cheap. The good news is a lot of the gaskets and seals have lots of overlapping labor areas, so what I'd do is talk to your family mechanic, and also get some quotes from local indys. From my experience local indys will cut you a deal if you ask for the quote for each job independently, and start the email with "I know I have to get this all done ..." and they'll usually try and work something together for ya.

Sounds like a sweet car though.

 

$5k!? It will be a while till that's saved up! I just looked around with a flash light and it looks like the passenger side (untitled states) valve cover has a slight leak and is dripping on the exhaust... Nothing has turned up on the driveway yet but hopefully I can get a couple months of driving out of it, I plan on checking the oil every week and adding when needed so it doesn't get low at all.