My first BMW

Hey everyone , so currently I am looking to buy 5 series 2.0 diesel and I would appreciate any advice before I will buy it! anything you can think off. Thank you

 

Hi and welcome to the board

what age car are you looking at ?

 

Hi I am looking to get 62 plate but I am not sure if they still have a timing chain issue?

 

The N47 engine that is fitted to the 12/62 plate cars was better but still not 100% trouble free

I had a 2009 E60 520D and i ran it for three and a half year from 19K to 54K so still well below the mileage that the chains were failing, the 2009 cars were the worst and it was said by 2011 they had cured the chain issues, but after this date they still had some issues but not as many

this is one of the most popular engines and was fitted across the whole BMW range so they have made hundreds of thousands of them so you will get a small percentage of them giving issues

if i was in the market for another 5 series saloon another then i would consider the 520D with the N47 engine but i would be wary of very high mileage cars

 

Any N47 engine can have the timing chain issue although they are less prone to failure from 2010 onwards. If going for this engine it is preferable to have one with intermittent oil changes to the recommended service intervals so is oil is changed at least once year at 8-10000 mile intervals rather than 15-20000 mile intervals.

Are you looking at a saloon (F10) or touring (F11)?

 

What do think about 15 plate I might be wrong but there was a different engine in it? and what you consider as high mileage? sorry for silly questions.

 

Saloon or touring I don`t mind

 

The B47 engine which replaced the N47 in cars build from Sept 2014 iirc - they have a slightly higher power output so can be recognised this way.

The F11 is a great car, the major issues tend to be airbag rear suspension which are rubber and prone to wear - had ours done at about 50000 miles at a cost of about £300 including labour (not BMW prices!!) Otherwise other than an electronic light unit failure ours has been trouble free for 62000 miles and almost 8 years.

I am not a fan of run-flat tyres so our SE on 18" wheels has conventional tyres for a slightly better ride, less noise and tramlining. In winter I run 17" wheels with RFT's as not had to change these yet.

 

A 15 plate should have the B47 engine that was launched in 2014 and replaced the N47 that was fitted previously, what sort of miles are on the 62 plate and what does the history look like?

when i had the 2009 520D i used to change the oil at 10k miles so it was always running fresh oil to give the chain the best chance but as i said my car was still faily low miles when sold

 

12,000 miles a year is considered average miles, with the 520,s you can find some with 80K miles in three years as they have spent their life on the motorway

 

Well on the 62 plate I was looking from 60000 to 100000 miles but after talking to you guys I feel like I should spend more money and maybe go for 50000 max? or less, and I always looking for cars with full service history.

 

The cars are capable of big mileages - I would look for service history or "over servicing" rather than mileage up to a point

 

Welcome to the Land , I m not really genned up on diesels but there are plenty on here who are and will keep you right.

 

Ok thank you for all advices I got from you guys I hope I will choose wisely. Thank you again

 

60K on a six year old car is about right and wouldn't worry me as @E39mad look at the service history and see what oil changes it has had, as i do believe that 18k miles before oil change is to long a gap and i normally change oil yearly or at around 10K miles

 

where are you looking to buy as i am a great believer in paying a bit more money and going for approved used for the warranty they provide, we have one member that bought a car from outside the dealer network and then had a real fight trying to get a faulty steering rack replaced, had it been approved used the repair would have been a lot less painful for him

 

But on the warranty BMW service probably changed oil every 2 years or 18000miles if I am not wrong?

 

BMW use what they call condition based servicing and the service interval will vary depending on type of use the car gets, but you are correct in what you say that it is normally 18K miles or two years, if the cars you are looking at have or had BMW service pack included then they will only change oil at 18K or 24 months but i normally pay for an extra oil and filter change at 12 months

 

Good advice I will look now for approved cars thanks

 

one of our members @Spuffington often seems to get a second years warranty included in the deal but my haggling skills are not as good as his

an approved used car will have a 12 month warranty including emergency service and when the warranty expires you are given the option to renew on a yearly/monthly basis and running a car that is expensive to repair the extended warranty is a must for me