FWIW, ANY car with almost 200k on it will have these issues, regardless of brand. What owners CAN do to prolong the life of these items is ONLY use BMW approved fluids or ones that meet the OEM approved specs!!! BMW provides their fluid manufacturers with a list of ALL materals used in a system that the fluid will come in contact with, along with other info such as operating temp range, the fluid manufacturer then uses their base and additives database, which has cost TENS of MILLIONS of $s in research and development to establish, to define what base and additives packages the fluid requires to properly protect the system and it's numerous materals. This is why knowledgeable people LAUGH at the claims made by fluid manufacturers such as Prestone (protects all makes, all models, all materals??? My a$$, why not say it makes a great mouthwash too!). Royal Purple Oil (nothing protects better??? Why has no independent test lab been able to reach that conclusion?????). There are many other fluid producers out there making BS claims too.