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I have heard that Acid Rain can in fact ruin the paint on cars. While I don't think I've ever been shown an "Acid Rain" car, I would imagine that the horizontal surfaces, the hood, trunk and roof, would be the first to go after prolonged exposure.
Regarding having a bad week of repairs, yeah, I hear you. When it rains (there's that word again), it pours. :-/
So, other than your paint and this last week or so of repairs, how is your car holding up?
Best Regards,
Shipo
Cars are a finite, depreciating asset. They, too, suffer the laws of entropy. Time, wear, weather, neglect, use, etc. all take their toll. This means maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. And it assumes you have taken care of your car. Neglect, abuse and misuse are the worse things that a car can suffer.
How often was the car washed? Was it properly washed (e.g., no scratching, use of aggressive automatic car washes, etc.)? How often waxed? How well waxed? Did you use good wax? Did you park the car in a garage? Keep it out sun? Wash bird droppings off it?
Sounds like you would be better off trading in the 525i and buying a new car with full warranty. What you buy depends on what you can afford. But based on what you might get in trade or sale, you should at least be able to afford a new car like a Hyundai Elantra, Kia Sephia, Honda Civic, Scion Xa or Xb, Ford Focus, etc.
About 900 miles into my 2004 545i experience, and the only thing that's bugging me is the transmission transition (try saying that several times fast), especially from first. Does not matter if the car is cold or warm -- not always, but too often for me, the engine revs to 3500-4000 rpm in first gear before shifting; if I let off the gas, it "brakes" the car as if I had down-shifted into first. This did NOT happen ever with my 2001 E430, which I traded for this "best in class V-8." I'm used to a smooth, powerful gear to gear transition.
Is this something that needs attention, or time, or neither (i.e., I'm stuck with it)?
Thanks.
Muddog
Best Regards,
Shipo
About 900 miles into my 2004 545i experience, and the only thing that's bugging me is the transmission transition (try saying that several times fast), especially from first. Does not matter if the car is cold or warm -- not always, but too often for me, the engine revs to 3500-4000 rpm in first gear before shifting; if I let off the gas, it "brakes" the car as if I had down-shifted into first. This did NOT happen ever with my 2001 E430, which I traded for this "best in class V-8." I'm used to a smooth, powerful gear to gear transition.
Is this something that needs attention, or time, or neither (i.e., I'm stuck with it)?
Thanks.
Muddog
When I get into my garage at home, it was evident it was from my car. I looked under the hood. However, I can’t pin point where it is coming from.
Do you have any idea?
Thanks.
The voice does not pronounce street names but can manage Interstates and numbered Routes although it takes some experience getting use to the machine-like quality of the voice which, at times, sounds British but at other times sounds like a female Darth Vadar.
Do you also have satellite radio? I've heard that the two interfere with each other on the 5-Series and that BMW has stopped shipping the two options together until their engineers can work it out.
I'm contemplating a new 5-Series myself but will most likely wait till the 05's come out and hopefully BMW has solved a lot of these problems.
Good luck
Nope! I've got New England, Riez has the entire area bounded to the north by Bismark, ND, to the south by Oklahoma City, OK, to the west by Cheyenne, WY and to the east by Des Moines, IA. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
Regarding your car, 8K miles and the tires are gone? Wow, I think that I'd have a bit of a problem with that too. Is it just the rear tires or are the fronts shot as well? FWIW, even though BMW does not recommend tire rotation, I did mine anyway at about 14K miles (I don't actually know because I run winter tires for part of the year), and they are definitely running MUCH quieter than they were last fall when I took them off.
Best Regards,
Shipo
-J
Software problem (something tells me that I'll be hearing that a few times during my ownership of this new model). Mysterious that a brand new car can be programmed incorrectly on something as basic as the shift from first to second gear, but that did the trick.
BTW - I drove a 2004 330 auto during the warranty work, and w/o the active steering of the 545 sport, I thought I was driving a boat. I told my wife that it had to be more than the comparison, and that THIS 330 must not be working right. It was a remarkable difference.
Muddog
A6 2.7. I love car except for this. Thanks for your feedback.
Another reason that I suspect a problem with your car is that while I have heard many folks who drive 5ers with SP complain about noisy tires, I don't think that I've ever heard anyone complain as early as 8K miles. That said, I've also heard that not all tires are created equal, and while my Michelin Pilot-Primacy tires are not known for their quietness, the word on the street is that they are quieter than several models of Continental tires. What do you have on your 525i?
Regarding the A6 2.7, they have not been known to be kind to their tires either, and from the many accounts that I've read about their braking problems, it seems that 5K to 8K miles is about average on a set of brake rotors. I read where one individual had something like NINE sets of rotors in something like 30K miles! At least they were paid for by Audi.
So, in the end, it seems like these are some of the foibles that those of us who drive higher performance cars just have to deal with.
Back to the tires, I've also heard that if you replace your sticky summer rubber with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires (or other similar high performance All-Season tires) that they wear much longer and as such are much quieter for a longer period of time.
I hope some of this helps. Sorry about the disjointed structure of this post, it's late, and I'm tired. ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
I'm constantly amazed at the comments on so many premium marque boards about the cost of tires. People spend $40-60,000 for a great car and then complain about spending hundreds of dollars on tires? Go figure.
Wish people would keep in mind that depreciation and insurance are the two most expensive components of owning a car. Both dwarf tires as an expense. Just look at how expensive it is to fill up your tank on premium fuel.
Just wait till you pay for your Schedule II maintenance service at around 60k.
than the Grand I coughed up at 60k on my A4 2.8? Can someone give me
a ballpark?
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
is my first BMW and actually my first
really nice car and I was surprised
to learn the specified oil change occurs after
10K miles. This goes against all that training
from 30 years ago
my Dad instilled in me about changing the oil
frequently in your car to make it last. Yes,
I know this is synthetic oil (the benefits of
which I know little about). Is there a benefit
to my changing it at (say) 5K. I will have to pay for it, but would do so if it makes sense.
Thanks
Dave
Regarding whether the standard interval is acceptable, consider the following re-post of a post I made some time back:
I have posted my views on the oil change schedule on BMW’s latest batch of engines here a few times over the last five years or so, however, I feel it may be worth repeating.
When I started turning wrenches on cars back in the 1970s, 3000 miles was a good time to do an oil change. What with inefficient carburetors, leaded fuel and by today’s standards VERY low-tech dino-juice in the crankcase, a car of that era could easily expect to see the far side of 100K miles. In my case, my 1966 Valiant with the 225 Slant-Six went 211K on the original motor before I rebuilt it (it burned oil) and my 1970 Dodge Challenger with the venerable 340 made it to 187K when it was stolen.
Fast forward 30 years and we now have very clean burning fuel, electronic systems to manage the fuel injection and ignition timing to make the combustion process even cleaner (ie. less particulate matter to suspend in the oil) and even good old dino-juice has been beefed up to last longer and protect better.
Now consider the current crop of BMW engines:
These engines are efficient enough to be certificated as Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV), which reduces the combustion byproducts and as a result reduces the particulate matter that the oil must hold in suspension, yielding a longer oil change interval.
BMW is using synthetic oil right from the factory; said oil has far greater abilities to keep contaminates in suspension with no appreciable loss in lubricity. Couple that with the ability of Synthetic oil to shrug off the effects of water (older Dino Juice used to react with water and form acids) without any loss in lubricity, and you have an oil that can withstand longer oil change intervals without ANY additional engine wear.
BMW has also seen fit to nearly double the amount of oil the engine holds in its sump when compared to other comparably sized engines. Twice the oil means twice the already prodigious capacity of synthetic oil to hold particulate matter in suspension, lower oil temperatures (spends more time in the sump cooling), fewer passes through the oil galleries getting the #$*^%~!@ beat out of it, and a much greater margin of error for low oil. Yet again, longer oil change intervals are the result.
Modern engine oil (once again, specifically Synthetic) is far more stable in extreme environments (high engine temps, high RPMs and extreme cold) than conventional oil, as such, it breaks down at a FAR slower rate when compared to the old stuff. Once again, this will reduce the necessity of frequent oil changes.
If all of this is not enough, when I was working for MBUSA in the mid 1990s, MB was testing a number of cars with Synthetic oil. A few of those cars only had the oil changed when the chemical analysis of the oil indicated that it was starting to degrade below acceptable minimums. Do you know what the average mileage was between changes on those cars turned out to be? Glad you asked, 25,000 miles.
Based upon the above items, I would not be surprised if the oil in our ULEV certified BMW engines could last 30,000 miles under normal driving conditions. Having said that, I will not be the first to raise my hand to try and find out, 15,000 miles is just fine by me.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Is interesting to see what happened to maintenance intervals after BMW started "paying" for "free" maintenance. Now they mysteriously have "lifetime" transmission and differential fluid. And Roundel (BMW CCA) and Bimmer magazines routinely discuss transmission problems occurring in the 80-120K mile range. [Many experts recommend you change these fluids at least every 30K.]
It is amazing how little maintenance is recommended or actually done on today's BMWs during the first 50K or even 100K. Will be interesting to see how many of today's cars will still be on the road in 20-30 years.
You should join BMW CCA, even if just for their magazine (if not also for parts and purchase discounts), as well as read Bimmer magazine. Neither subscribes to the 15K interval regiment.
And whatever else you do, you absolutely must religiously change your brake fluid (2 years) and coolant (3 years).
Does any one out there have any ideas on how to get the radio out?
Rugby65, I'd try a different dealer for the tool, or I would go to your friendly neighborhood tool dealer and see if you can find a driver head that will match up to the screw.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I enjoy reading Mike Miller's responses to the plethora of routine maintenance questions he is asked as Technical Editor of both Roundel (BMW CCA) and Bimmer magazines. Some recent samples:
Roundel, 1/04: "Oil-change intervals need to be appropriate to the product used...the otherwise absurd 15,000-mile BMW factory interval. I'd drain Mobil 1 every 5,000 miles. Always change the filter with the oil." and "I think 5,000 miles is an excessive tire-rotation interval. I do it once a year when I switch from summer tires to snow tires."
Roundel, 4/04: "Unfortunately, since the advent of free scheduled maintenance and extended service intervals, 'dealer maintained' means that very little was done to the car beyond a list of checks and adjustments. If you're lucky, this car [a '97 E39 528i with 66K miles] has had four engine-oil changes, one air filter, one coolant change and three brake-fluid changes--but it's more than likely that it just had the engine-oil changes and the air filter."
Roundel, 6/04: "Change your gearbox and differential oil every 30,000 miles."
Bimmer, 8/04: "my best advice is to maintain the car. Change gearbox and differential oil no matter how loudly the dealer whines about 'lifetime fill' oil. Tell them you will trust lifetime oil when they give you a lifetime warranty."
He is one of the best reasons to read Roundel and Bimmer!
Sorry, I cannot buy into that one. I've seen the research, I've seen the oil analysis numbers, I've seen the torn down motors. Unless the esteemed Mr. Miller knows something the engineers at Mercedes-Benz don't know (and can back it up with hard facts), I'll classify his comments more as "Religion" than "Science".
Best Regards,
Shipo
Would be interesting to see what percentage of E39s and E46s even have 100K let alone 150K?
Is interesting to read all the discussions in Roundel and Bimmer about catastrophic AT failures in the 80-120K range. And how BMW dealers tend just to completely replace transmissions and differentials that have problems. Dealers don't appear to do much work on them any more. Just pull out the bad one and put in a new one.
Thinking the original 3/36 "free" maintenance came out around MY1998. Can anyone explain why BMW extended service intervals when it started paying for the maintenance? Were they getting previous owners into paying for unnecessary maintenance? Are they trying to hold their own costs down?
Since BMW's b-to-b warranty expires at 4yr/50K and even the CPO warranty (which you pay additional for) expires at 6yr/100K, skimping on maintenance won't cost BMW much. Few of today's buyers even keep the car past about 40 months of ownership. And look at the percentage that lease for only 2, 3, or 4 years and never even own their own vehicle. What do they care about the long-term future of their former car?
Maybe the better questions will be, "What shape will E39 and E46 BMWs be after 150K or 10 years?" and "What percentage of E39s and E46s are still on the road in 2015 or 2020?"
Not sure what you mean when you discuss "The 'Change oil every 1000 miles' philosophy is not a majority opinion." Don't think anyone is recommending oil changes every 1K or even 3K. But 5K or 7.5K is reasonable for ensuring healthy long-term life.
Also, with iDrive, is there no way to select a station by number? Instead, always have to scroll the list (unless I can figure out the store bit)?
Thanks.
Muddog
I believe the most significant factor contributing to engine wear is the cold start, the time at which most of the oil is in the sump as opposed to on the engine parts. Accordingly, this is why there has been a move toward lower-viscosity oils—the watery 0-40—to get the oil to the engine parts quicker on startup, to circulate more freely, and to get the oil to operating temperature more quickly.
Compare the following two cars:
Car A — has 150K miles and was driven by someone who cold-started it only thrice a day and was on the highway for most of the time
Car B — has 50K miles, 8 cold starts a day, mostly stop-and-go traffic
In my opinion Car B should clearly have a higher oil-maintenance frequency and that BMW should acknowledge driving conditions and freely adapt to them with their maintenance policies.
All of this is much ado about nothing if you trade your car in every four years as this is a longevity issue. However, driver habit/maintenance comes into play significantly when buying used, even more so than mileage. Since resale values are mostly influenced by mileage, I have to believe the best car bargains can be had with high-mileage cars that fit the profile of car A. For instance, if a pristine 2001 M5 with 150K miles came along came at $27K and you could verify this type of usage, and that the engine was never oil-starved, it would be a bargain in my book. This car could go another happy 150K miles, and at the end of say a 10-year run you could just give it away.
Shipo, with regard to those Mercedes tests. I clearly believe that oil frequency intervals can be extended versus what we have been used to in the past. However, I have to believe those tests are agenda-driven and narrow in scope. They serve to benefit Mercedes. Automotive tribology is not exactly an advanced science, and "overmaintenance" of cars is not exactly a religion, rather it is more a matter of scientific common sense. Not that I am criticizing the maintenance instincts of you and Div2, but I tend to subscribe to Riez' err-on-the-side-of-caution outlook. Engine oil is a critical fluid, the car's the lifeblood, yet fluid maintenance is not even a drop in the bucket compared to the overall cost of ownership.
Furthermore, after knowing my wife and her cars for 25 years, I can tell you unequivocally that she exactly fits the Car B profile. Her cars have needed frequent oils changes and her 03 530 cannot make it to the 15k interval, that is unless I was willing to live with chocolate syrup on the dipstick. I don't care what an oil analysis would reveal, I am not willing to let that happen.
Lastly, as someone who has owned several used cars over the years, I can also tell you that I have always been vigilant when profiling the owners of these cars and their driving habits. It's not hard to spot the abusers. On every occasion I have bought from people who echo what Riez has been trumpeting among other reasons. These cars have served me extremely well and without headache. As far as I am concerned, automotive gerontology is nowhere, and until I know more, there isn't anyone who can convince me that something as elemental as simple frequent oil changes isn't good practice.
Just my proverbial 2 cents.
:-)
1) "In my opinion Car B should clearly have a higher oil-maintenance frequency and that BMW should acknowledge driving conditions and freely adapt to them with their maintenance policies." Actually, they do acknowledge driving conditions to a point. The oil change intervals on our BMWs are not fixed, they are instead calculated by the OBC based upon how much fuel the vehicle consumed since the last service (and probably a few other factors as well) and as such, I have heard owners report oil service intervals as short as 11,000 miles and as great as 18,000 miles. In my own case, my 1999 328i never made it to 14K, and as it was primarily driven in and around the NYC metro area, I guess that's not too surprising. My 530i has spent much if its life shuttling me between southern NH and the NYC area, and as such it almost reached 16K for its first service and it looks like I'm on track to repeat that this time around. It is my understanding that the 15,000 mile interval is the target for the "Average Driver" driving in "Average Conditions" (ie. lots of stop and go with some long road trips thrown in).
2) The properties of synthetic oil itself. I've spent a fair amount of time studying the differences between dino-juice and synthetic oil as they relate to the General Aviation community and have come away with quite a bit of knowledge that is applicable to the automotive industry. The biggest single boon to the automotive industry relative to engine oil is that synthetic oil does not react with engine contaminates (water, unburned fuel, and combustion byproducts) like dino-juice does.
For the sake of my point here, let me present you with four identical cars, two with Synthetic oil in the crank case, and two with dino-juice. Then allow me to alter your scenarios "A" and "B" slightly to the following definitions:
"Scenario A – 3 cold starts a day, mostly highway miles, 2 of the 3 trips are of sufficient length to get the oil up to a proper operating temperature"
"Scenario B – 8 cold starts a day, mostly stop-and-go traffic, only 2 of the 8 trips are of sufficient length to get the oil up to a proper operating temperature"
Then let us assume that we drive one synth and one dino car in each of the two scenarios and that we perform an oil analysis on each car every thousand miles. I submit that the dino juice car in scenario A would be able to drive well over twice the miles of its scenario B sister before the first required oil change. However, in the synth group I submit that the scenario A car would only be able to drive 20% to 30% further simply because of the stability of the synthetic oil and its ability to prevent acid formation that results from reaction with contaminates.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Unfortunately I don't remember whether these issues were with the GM built transmissions or the ZF units. Furthermore, I'm unsure of even the timeline as to when each unit was used and which models were mated to which engines. Hopefully there are folks here that are more fluent in auto-speak than I am, and they can offer you a more definitive answer.
Best Regards,
Shipo
And if you sell to a private party and have all your receipts, bet you can recover some of the extra costs. Who wouldn't want to buy a used car that has been taken care of very, very well and has the documentation to prove it?
Differential and transmission (esp. manual) fluid do need to be changed. There is no such thing as "lifetime" oil!
robopop... You might check with another BMW dealer. Check with an independent garage that services BMWs. At 52,000 miles the car is out of the b-to-b warranty and BMW, unlike Lexus or Infiniti, does not offer an extended powertrain warranty.
Muddog
Aren't there other aftermarket batteries I can use that will do a suitable job? Does anybody here have any experience with replacing batteries in the newer BMWs? (E39, E46, etc)
You should read all the battery-related comments in Roundel (BMW CCA) and Bimmer magazines the past couple years. According to them, BMW's replacment batteries are expensive and short-lived. Believe they recommend Interstate Batteries. Unlike the OEM batteries, which tend to last 4-6 years, the dealer replacement ones have high failure rates in 2-3 years.
Also, what other options do you have with your 545i? My 1986 325eS had a near death experience this week and, although I've got it back on the road with a new water pump, the mechanic found so much else wrong that I can no longer put this off. I am trying to hold out till the 05's come out in hopes they will have solved most of the new model blues by then. What's you experience been?
525-01 . ( Yes, some idiot before me , swap hoses at the pump).
Now the reader on my dash , mark only 5.9MPG and would not change from there. The car if giving me the normal MPG that Im use to.
Any word of advise???
I have also heard good things about Interstate batteries, but I ended up buying a Duralast battery from my local Auto Zone store this morning. (I'll be selling the car in a few months, anyway.) Even though the battery is tucked deep behind the rear wheel well, it was a fairly easy process to replace it. The toughest part was lifting it out. That is one big, heavy battery! In fact, my replacement battery is rated at 1000 Amps!