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englishtom1596 11-12-2018 07:39 PM

Looking to buy an X5... what to look for?
 
Hello XoutPost! I'm looking to get into an e70 X5 in either the 35i or the 50i trim levels and wanted some advice of what to look for. I'd love the 50i because of the V8 twin turbo but I know the N63 engines have a lot of issues. How bad are those engines really? I know BMW came out with recalls for the timing chain guides and injectors but what else is there to worry about? As for the 35i, I know the N55 motor is pretty stout other than the walnut blasting deal but anything else to worry about?

Overall my gut says to go with the 35i but my heart says 50i...

Also anything else generally to look out for when going to check one out? I've tried researching this all but most are just youtube videos rambling on and with no specifics.

Thanks again in advance!

ard 11-12-2018 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by englishtom1596 (Post 1146218)

Overall my gut says to go with the 35i but my heart says 50i...


Would it be a hardship for you to replace a motor 30 days after purchase?

If no, go for the 50.



:cool:

Thecastle 11-13-2018 09:17 AM

Youtube is a great place to go and find car repair videos. Let's be frank here, it's full of people who have no credentials to actually give a real car review just view bait. So they can make some money by getting you to watch. There are tons of threads on this very issue should I buy an i6 or v8.

Anyway the 5.0i problems are well documented if you use do any searching for them on google.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/h...ail-96527.html
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...ns-bmw-n63-v8/

Most BMW enthusiasts would say stay away from a used BMW v8 unless you love the engine and don't mind spending a lot to keep it going. If you love it go for it, as buying a v8 isn't a rational choice (finically) its the performance choice. But then again buying an SUV isn't a sound finical choice either, so go with your heart! If americans bought what they actually needed the F150 would not be the number #1 selling car.

IF power/saving cost is what you need then get the 35i and tune it. It will be less expensive to maintain and will give you nearly the performance of the untuned v8, without the sound...

The N63 V8's eat fuel injectors, leaks oil, and needs valve stem seals about every 70K miles, and batteries... This is the tip of the maintenance ice berg. These were 70-90K cars when new and come with pricing on repairs to match. This is not an economy car.

Having owned 2x BMW X5 v8's a 2008 4.8i (N62) and a 2011 X5M (s63).. I'd say if you're not prepared to spend on average 6-10K a year in repairs/maintenance skip these engines. Now they will hold up fine to 200K+ beyond but take a lot of money to keep from smoking like a forest fire, and stinking like a burning tire dump. haha

If your a masochist in terms of repairs there is always the diesel :-) Which I also own.

Both my 2011 X5M and 2011 335d make my mini cooper look like a Toyota corolla in terms of low maintenance ;-)

englishtom1596 11-13-2018 03:07 PM

Thanks for the replies guys.

I did search a bit more last night and found more answers on xbimmers.com which seems a little more active. I have since decided to pass on the 50i we were looking at. Although there seems to be a few who have good luck with them, there are a lot more who have horror stories. I’m not shy of getting my hands dirty and am currently rebuilding an S52 for my e36 M3, but it will be my wife’s car and I don’t want to be chasing issues non stop. The N55 seems pretty stout other than the walnut blasting every 50k and seems to have fixed a lot of the issues the n54 had.

Thecastle 11-13-2018 03:30 PM

Thats a good choice. My experience has been that both V8's I've owned have cost a ton of money to keep going. I spent more than 8K in 6months on my 4.8i (N62) and more than 10K in 12 months on my S63 (x5M). But my X5M has an extended warranty! Best finical investment I've ever made, more than 3x'd my money on that one.

I'd also comment the X5's are not BMW's most reliable vehicle. There are a lot of trouble spots on the E70s.

electronic parking brake module breaks often
sunroof vent position breaks
alternators seem to die every 40K
Engine partitions are built lake crap on these, and fall apart
All the plastic PCV systems and hoses fall apart
Front lower control arm bushings die every 50-70k.

You get the picture. Its not unreliable, just high maintenance.

Mdavidthomas 11-13-2018 05:37 PM

Purchased my 2013 CPO BMW X5 x3.5i sports activity with about every option including towing package with 45k miles for $41,000. Just hit 92,000 miles and started smelling burning oil real bad. Turns out I had to replace the valve cover gaskets, Oil filter housing gaskets, and oil cooler gaskets. While at it I replaced intake manifold gaskets, broken coolant pipe and fitting between head and thermostat housing ($50.00) and I accidentally leaned on the coolant overflow bottle($130.00) and broke the upper fitting. I also did a coolant flush since I had to drain the coolant for the oil cooler gasket change. Total cost about $550 + about 15 - 20 hours of my time. I must note it was my first time and I was anal about removing and labeling everything. I could do it again in half the time. The other issue I have had has been tire wear. If you get the staggered 20" wheels be prepared to replace the rear wheels every 20k and the fronts ~40k. I would recommend getting the car aligned to the minimum toe specification (see Ard's posts) to help minimize wear and don't trust the BMW shop to do what you ask!

The only issue I have had other than this has been the electric water pump failure at about 60K. Expensive dealership trip, but I had the CPO warranty so it cost me $50.

I was going to trade my car in the other day for something less expensive on maintenance but they offered me $12,000 for my BMW. So these cars depreciate rapidly.

Maintenance needed for my vehicle:

Transmission fluid/filter change: ~$300 if you do it yourself with ZF parts, $~800 at dealership
Transfer case fluid: $50.00 -$75.00 to do it yourself
Front and Rear Differential fluid: $25.00 each
Brakes, Front and rear with rotors: OE parts $700-$800, aftermarket parts $500, Dealership $1000 - $1200 every 40 to 50k miles
Spark plugs: ~$20 each x 6 for BMW parts
Air filter: Mann ~$25, BMW $45
Cabin air intake filters: Mann $20, BMW $120
Cabin air recirculation filters: $20, BMW $40

Dealer Valueline services available for the E70 model at Hendrick BMW Charlotte, NC:
Brake Fluid flush at dealer: $109.00
Coolant Flush at dealer:$109.00
Oil Filter/Fluid change at dealer: $99.95
Brakes, Front with rotors: $540
Brakes, rear with rotors: $530

Cost breakdown for my vehicle:

Depreciation = $41,000 - $12,000 = $29,000
Oil Change @ 58,370 = $87.68
Tires = $1182.00, Continential Extremesport DWS06 @ ~66K
Water pump @ 71,200 under CPO warranty = $50.00
Oil Change and tire alignment = $288.35
Used Rear tires @ 90,500 = $296.64
Alignment and mounting/balancing rear tires @90,500 = $144.10
Oil change, oil filter tool @ 91,500 = $90.20
CCV tube (cracked) @91,500 = $60.05
Oil filter gaskets, intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets, coolant hose, coolant resevoir, coolant,schwaben coolant fill tool = $498.00
wipers, air filter, cabin fresh air filters, and cabin recirc filter, oil filter @92,000 = $109.15

Sub-Total = $31,584.17 over 3 years and 47,000 miles not including NC property tax ($1100 in 3 years), NC insurance ($2700), gas @2.799 avg 19 mpg/gal 89 octane ($6980 over 3 years)

Total = 42,586.17

Costs per mile = $0.9061 per mile

My biggest complaint is the value drops like a rock and the SAV rides like a covered wagon with the low profile tires on anything but fresh paved surfaces. Maybe it is a false perception but everyone seems to think your rich because you drive a BMW and very few people let you over in traffic:dunno:! Towing a 3500lb pontoon looks stupid and gets awful gas mileage ~ 9.5 mpg per the display.

Positives: Looks great! Turbo is fun!, 315/35 20 tires and 20" x 11" wheels out back makes it look faster. Love the look of the 214 staggered wheels.

Good luck!

mdavidthomas

englishtom1596 11-14-2018 09:26 AM

That was probably the best answer I could have asked for! Thanks for that and great job keeping track of all of your maintenance. Sounds like they have the same issues as most BMW’s. Using plastic where they shouldn’t causing failure due to heat, aggressive tire alignment shredding tires and bushings prematurely failing. Parking brake module is an issue I haven’t heard of yet but I’ll look into that.

The car we were looking at isn’t going to work out but we’ve found another we’re going to keep an eye on.

Thecastle 11-14-2018 10:12 AM

Here's my log info on my 2008 X5 4.8i

When I sold it, it still had bad valve stem seals, a leaking front differential, a broken sunroof that would not close from the vent position, leaking adaptive drive hoses, valve cover leak, noisy power steering pump, and noisy rear climate control fan.

This is the shortest length of time I had ever owned a car. Paid cash for it, and saw that I was paying nearly $1000 a month in repairs and maintenance and dumped for a newer car that I wouldn't have to work on every weekend. It was purchased to be my companies work "truck." I had it inspected at my dealership with a clean bill of health. Nothing was wrong with it when I purchased it.... We also bought a travel trailer after we purchased the SUV and wanted something less troublesome for trips. Hence the 2011 X5M with an extended warranty. Though the M has broken down 2x on trips. After the M left us broken down again in Colorado, I almost drove it to a GMC dealer for a 2500HD denali duramax... I was that mad. We had to drive home in limp mode at 50mph with a trailer because the Colorado dealer couldn't fix it after 1 week.

This was a fully loaded 2008 X5 4.8i. It had heated and cooled multi-contour seats, adaptive drive, comfort access, top sound system, 4-zone climate control, etc.

Date
10/07/2016 89912 Purchase $15,800.00 (CPO, with 1 month of warranty remaining, had it inspected by the dealer too.)
10/10/2016 90100 Rear Tire replaced by discount tire, tire destroyed while removing to repair slow leak $0.00
10/10/2017 90110 Rear Hatch struts replaced by purchasing Dealer $0.00
10/15/2016 90300 Spark Plugs $55.92
Window Wipers Front and Rear $55.34
10/14/2016 90350 BAV auto, Redline Diff fluid, BMW Trasnfer Case Fluid,
ZF Transmission Fluid and Filter, Engie Air Filters
$617.20
10/25/2016 90550 Driver side window switch trim panel $36.05
11/4/2016 90550 3rd Coast Bimmers $1,636.73
Hitch install, and fluid replacement for 2xDiff, Xfer, and
transmission fluid and filter

11/7/2016 91000 BMW Cabin Air Filter $29.92
11/10/2016 90300 ECS Tuning, Engine Partition and power steering fluid
$172.84
11/16/2016 90300 3rd coast Bimmers $1,910.65
Alternator, CCV replacement, Oil Change Liquid Moly,
Coolant Flush, temperature sensor replaced on
radiator,new serpentine belt and tensioner with
alternator replacement
11/29/2016 91000 BMW X5 E70 4837cc V8 Mass Air Flow Meter Sensor
MAF Bosch OEM 0 280 218 271 $104.95
12/2/2016 91050 Front Lower, Rear Lower and front stabilizer endlinks
from AutoHauz AZ, front lower and endlinks installed
$434.56
1/2/2017 91200 NEW 64 11 6 910 544 Fits For BMW X5 X6 E53 E70 E71
Heater Control Valve $84.22
2/6/2017 BMW Emblem for trunk $37.74
2/27/2017 95759 Replace Parking Brake Control Module $250.00
3/3/2017 95800 Replace Engine Oil BMW Dealer AT-205 1.5 cases/Liqui
Moly MOS2 1.5 cases $247.72
Replace Brake Fluid BMW Dealer
3/5/2017 95822 90C thermostat installed and 1 gallon of coolant
$134.00
3/5/2017 95822 Replace radiator cap $12.50
3/5/2017 95822 coolant reservoir $109.00
3/13/2017 96250 Car Sold
Total $5,929.34
Maintenance/Repairs minus hitch $4,829.34
cost per month $965.87

BGM 11-14-2018 05:44 PM

I'll chime in. I've had my 4.8i for 8 years and have about 96K miles on it so a long history. I still haven't done the Valve Stems (though the new kit for it keeps the labor price down) as it's not showing signs of needing it. I had the monthly oil burn where it needed to be topped off every month but my Indy diagnosed the Crank Case Valve for that (which has stopped the oil burn). Only real big ticket item was the DME unit (covered under CPO) but that has a extremely low failure rate. Other than that, standard water pump, control arm bushings, tune-up, transmission leak (trans-cooler) and other things on par with a 100K mile, 10 year old car. I am keeping my car for a long time since I've invested so much into and know it so well. I still would probably get a V8--the exhaust note sound and power is addictive. And I'm downtown Chicago--walk to work and take public trans most of the time in the city so I now only put on maybe 50-100 miles a month on it.

Bimmer360 11-15-2018 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BGM (Post 1146356)
I'll chime in. I've had my 4.8i for 8 years and have about 96K miles on it so a long history. I still haven't done the Valve Stems (though the new kit for it keeps the labor price down) as it's not showing signs of needing it. I had the monthly oil burn where it needed to be topped off every month but my Indy diagnosed the Crank Case Valve for that (which has stopped the oil burn). Only real big ticket item was the DME unit (covered under CPO) but that has a extremely low failure rate. Other than that, standard water pump, control arm bushings, tune-up, transmission leak (trans-cooler) and other things on par with a 100K mile, 10 year old car. I am keeping my car for a long time since I've invested so much into and know it so well. I still would probably get a V8--the exhaust note sound and power is addictive. And I'm downtown Chicago--walk to work and take public trans most of the time in the city so I now only put on maybe 50-100 miles a month on it.

My kind of guy! Exactly - - > I am keeping my car for a long time since I've invested so much into and know it so well. :thumbup:


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