5 Ways to Keep Your BMW Reliable

Posted on by

BMW is one of the most sought-after premium brands in the world. Blending power and performance with sporty appeal, BMW are sophisticated, classy, and pretty much everything you would want in a car. BMW, as well as their fellow German brands, put all their focus on performance. This can come at a cost to reliability.

If you are a BMW owner, tell us how you keep your BMW reliable down below in the comments.

  1. Do your research (Either before you buy or even after you have bought the car already)
    • Research common failures and be ready to deal with those and do the repair before it’s too late once you have the car.
    • Don’t buy or let your car become neglected    
    • Make an informed decision – get pre-purchase inspection, best way to have a reliable car when buying used is to buy a well taken care of car.
    • Realize that BMWs cost more to maintain, so if you are looking for one, include that in your budget. If you couldn’t afford maintenance on a new BMW and can’t work on your own cars, BMW may not be the best choice.
  2. Keep it stock
    • If you want your BMW to stay reliable skip the performance mods and concentrate on suspension, brakes and visual modifications. Squeezing more power out of an engine will decrease it’s like in most cases.
    • I’d also suggest disabling auto start/stop, especially on the early versions of the feature.
  3. Follow maintenance schedules for items as suggested in your service manual.
    • Excluding oil changes, change every 5k miles.
    • Hardtop roof must be maintained if you have one
    • Buy quality parts, not super cheap knock offs (point to sensor video).
  4. Preventative maintenance is key. When certain parts have ran past their expected life, change them proactively.
    • New OEM spark plugs, coils, air filters – let your engine breathe
    • Thermostat, oil filter housing, valve cover, charge pipe
    • Change gaskets as soon as you start seeing any kind of leak
    • Especially check for leaks around Oil Filter Gasket and Valve Cover Gasket.
    • Once you start seeing a leak or two in your cooling system, replace plastic parts of the cooling system.
    • Timing chain on certain engine if you’re well over 100k miles
    • Wash your car at a touchless carwash if you live in an area where they salt roads
    • Apply leather conditioner every 3 months
    • Lubricate the rubber parts so that they don’t crack and let water in over time.
  5. Learn how to work on your own car if you have the space.
    • Don’t go for crazy power unless you know what you are doing and can fix issues it may cause
    • Mechanic’s tools don’t have to be expensive, check out this video on the tools I use
    • Get a good BMW scanner
  • Drive it… often. Never let any car sit and become a garage queen
    • Don’t store it over winter unless it’s on a trickle charger
    • If the car sits, put it on a trickle charger, most modern BMWs use some power while sitting and will drain your battery putting unnecessary stress on your battery and alternator.
    • Most fluids also have a life time even if you aren’t using it. So, it is wise to drive car every so often and not let it sit.
    • Enjoy your car, don’t let it sit and ‘keep the value’ by not putting any miles on it. It’s not worth it.

Mechanical parts on BMWs are usually very high quality and will last a long time (other than certain engine specific issues like N20 timing chains that affect some engines); however, electronics and the use of plastic parts can cause issues down the road. These small things cause big problems for owners that don’t want to spend a lot of time at the dealer. So, that is something consider and another reason why most people stay away from high end BMWs on the used market.

BMW F10 5 Series Problems to Expect

Posted on by

In the video above we will be discussing some of the more common problems you can expect with your BMW F10 5 series car. The BMW F10 was sold from 2011 all the way up to 2017. So, as you can imagine the issues have changed over the years. New ones came up and older ones have been resolved by the BMW. 

To start with, I have had my BMW 550i xDrive for 2.5 years and I’ve done all of the maintenance and took care of the car myself. My BMW F10 was CPO car from a BMW dealer and I’ve had zero issues for the year I had the CPO. After the warranty expired, I have replaced the ignition coils and spark plugs, engine oil, engine filters and that’s it.

I will be concentrating on the US spec cars as these are the ones I know about.

Right of the bet, we can split the cars into pre-LCI (model years before 2014) and LCI cars (model years from 2014 on). I would absolutely recommend getting the LCI cars as you get more features and most of the models have also fixed a lot of the issues in the previous version of the car.

The car has a great built quality, there are no rattles and the car really held up well even after 5 years.

All cars have run flat tires, so rim damage or deformation is not uncommon. Cars across the board have also had some issues with water getting into the trunk, back up camera and sensors not working well in the cold and other common BMW problems you can expect.

528i (N52B30 2010-2011)

  • Very reliable cars, but getting old now.
  • Oil and coolant leaks are the most common culprit when it comes to these engines and can cause engines to overheat.

528i (N20B20 2012–2016)

535i (N55B30 2011–2017 in US)

  • Early cars aren’t recommended (2011) due to having too many of the issues
  • BMW 535s with N55 engine is probably the most reliable car out of the 3 models we are discussing today. BMW are know for making decent straight 6 engines and this one is a good engine.
  • Known issues on early cars:
    • Increased battery drain issue
    • Fuel Pump
    • Leaking oil filter gasket
    • Belt Tensioner going bad
    • Turbos have issues, people have had them replaced under warranty
    • Oil Filter Housing and valve cover gaskets
    • Coil packs
    • Fuel Injectors

550i (N63B44 2009–2013)

  • Excessive oil consumption, although more so in the pre-LCI
  • Ignition coils and spark plugs around 60K miles
  • Valve Stem Seal Job – my friend has had this done on this 40k mile N63TU engine right before his warrant ran out and it was an engine out job. If done outside of warrant this could cost around $5000.
  • Timing Chains are also a common on all years to a lesser extent and is obviously more prone on  higher mileage cars
  • Known issues on pre-LCI cars:
    • High Pressure Fuel Injectors
    • Hot-Film Air Mass Sensors
    • Engine Vacuum Pump
    • Fuel System Low Pressure Sensor
    • Fresh Air Intake Turbo Seals
    • Crankcase Ventilation Lines
    • Timing chain
    • Fuel Pump
  • N63 Customer Care Package
    • The highlights are:
      • Check the timing chain for stretch; replace if necessary
      • Check the following items and replace if necessary: 
        • fuel injectors
        • mass air flow sensors
        • crankcase vent lines
        • battery
        • engine vacuum pump
        • low pressure fuel sensor
      • Change the oil service interval to 12 months/10,000 miles
    • This has helped many vehicles and many owners reported way fewer issues after this CCP. 
    • Most dealers and private shops recommend even smaller (5-7k) mile oil change interval.
  • If you go for a 550, it pretty much has to be a 2014 model or newer. The original N63 engine had a lot of problem. In 14, BMW switched to the N63TU for the 550.

LCI 550i (N63B44O1 (N63TU) 2014–2017)

  • BMW has improved the engine a lot with this update as well as increased the power to close to 450 HP from 400. Very solid performance. 
  • Parking Camera and Sensors issues are somewhat common.
  • Oil Pump Gasket leaks happen on higher mileage vehicles.

In conclusion, I would recommend getting the BMW 535i or BMW 550i that is 2014 or newer as you will have plenty of power and decent reliability for this type of car. 

Is BMW Z4 the best daily driver?

Posted on by

If you are anything like me and like cars, you can’t make yourself drive a boring, slow car to work every single day without loosing your mind. This puts a lot of pressure on what to get as a daily driver and I think I have found the perfect one! Without spending a fortune, you can have a very cool and practical looking 2 door car as your daily driver!

Your daily driver doesn’t have to be a dreadful driving experience and you should enjoy some power and excitement every time you drive. Let me show you WHY the BMW Z4 works so well as a daily driver!

Since most commuters drive all on their own, you don’t need more than two seats. One for you and one for your laptop or a briefcase, it’s perfect.

BMW Z4 is low, feels fast even in traffic but you must be able to get in and out as it’s not as easy as it looks since the seating position is quite low.

Another great reason to get a BMW Z4 as a daily driver is that you get to practice your manual driving every time you are in traffic and the use those skills to go on the track and do some spirited driving there.

It can fit a suitcase and plenty of groceries as well as you and your passenger very comfortably, It’s an enthusiast car, so it’s only practical for a sports car. You can’t expect to go on a Costco trip and bring back a month worth of groceries, but it works well for most everything else.

Another reason BMW Z4 is a great daily driver is because it’s economical. Even though this is a sports car, you can get around 22mpg in the city and 34mpg on the highway but you still get around 240 HP to play with each time you drive.

It’s also very versatile, when it is nice and warm outside, you get to use the car as an awesome convertible cruiser and just enjoy the sun and great weather. Once it gets cold outside, you you gotta do is swap to some winter or all season tires and you have a very competent sports coupe to drive around.

If you worry about the ride quality for you daily driver, BMW Z4 offers a decent enough ride on OEM tires and even more so on non run flat tires. So if you want the best comfort, going with a good regular tire on the 17 inch wheels will do wonders. Now, if you are like me and enjoy the look of the car just as much as the ride quality, you can go with 19 inch low profile sticky tires for the summer and enjoy every minute of driving. With the regular tire and traction control off, you can also have lots of fun in the winter by sliding (controllably and safely) around corners.

What I also love about having a BMW Z4 as a daily driver is that you start taking less direct way home to enjoy your drive even more! You want to go on the smaller roads, not take the highway and just enjoy your time with the car every time possible.

As a perk of having only two seats and not a lot of cabin space, the interior the cabin warms very quickly as there isn’t much space to heat up

Last and probably most important for a lot of people, the BMW Z4 is as reliable as any BMW 128, BMW 228, BMW 328, BMW 428 or BMW 528 as they have the same engine and if you pay any attention on the roads you can see how many people actually drive those cars on the daily bases.

Mini Cooper R56 Problems to Expect

Posted on by

This Mini Cooper S is so much fun to drive, amazing style, has great features but unfortunately the build quality was lacking when these were built and thus there are some problems to expect. Of course there are a few variants of the R56 Mini Cooper. There are Non Turbo Cars with N12 Engine, Mini Cooper S cars with n14 engines and 2010+ non-s n16 engines and turbo S models with N18 engines.

Just because people have reported problems, doesn’t mean you will have issues with your car, but its good to know what you can expect. Normally, people don’t post about how reliable their car is.

Some general Mini Cooper problems that people report are:

  1. All minis have a little bit of a throttle lag which can only be solved by tuning, but not noticeable in normal driving.
  2. Some buttons within the cabin are poor build quality compared to the rest of the car. No much can be done here.
  3. Hood scoop warping on the S models – there is a heat shield that dramatically helps with this
  4. Ignition coils and plugs are common replacement and maintenance parts that go wrong
  5. You can’t listen to 10-15k mile changes by dealers
  6. Stay away from Automatic transmissions especially if there is a harsh shift

N12 Engine: mostly reliable engine with typical issues like timing chain tensioner and timing chains and water pump

N14 Engine: This variation of the car has the most amount of issues and you will often find pretty good deals on these cars, like I did on mine. If you are willing to do some labor, they can be a great deal.

  • Timing chain tensioner should be replaced as a preventative task before timing chain stretches and needs replacing. This will save you a lot of money in the future being that timing chain a much more expensive job.
  • Carbon build up is another big issue on this engine, you either will have to have it walnut shell blasted or install an oil catch can
  • Water/Coolant pump/Thermostat – probably the worse part of the engine as it is a terrible design and there isn’t an aftermarket solution as such
  • HPFP – as with most BMWs of this age, the high pressure fuel pump goes bad
  • Turbocharger – Oil line fails and leaks, turbo usually wears out 75-100K
    • This is because people don’t properly allow the car to idle down and cool off before shutting down
    • usually because people do not maintain it properly, you have to check oil all the time as it’s crucial to keeping the turbo cooled of
  • Oil consumption – N14 engines burn about 1 quart of oil every 2-3k miles once it has higher mileage.
  • Vacuum Pump – can fail and cause catastrophic failure as it can result in bent valves. Frequent oil changes will help as it will allow the oil better and not clog the tiny oil channel that lubricates the pump.

Stuff done to this car so far:

  • No issues until 50k miles
  • At 50k drive belts were replaced
  • At 80k miles water pump was replaced
  • At 90k miles water pump and water pump pulley replaced
  • At 102k ignition coils and plugs, car started misfiring
  • At 102k antenna corroded and navigation stopped tracking properly
  • At 103k miles water pump replaced by me

N16 Engine: Basically trouble-free other than water pump.

N18 Engine:

  • HPFP is an issue on only the early variants of the car, latest revision of the pump fixed the issue
  • Water pump and thermostat are still an issue on these engines just like on the n14

Top Useful BMW Hidden Features

Posted on by

No matter what kind of car you drive there is always something new and useful to learn about your favorite ride. I’m a big fan of BMWs and try to learn anything and everything about my car from the first day. Luckily manufacturers ‘hide’ some cool stuff for us to hide or even leave in the wide open and we just have to learn them In order to learn the top useful BMW hidden features, you can read the entire manual and find a lot of them. That of course takes quite a while and who has time for that!? Well, luckily for you, I read the manual and have owned my BMW 550i xDrive for over 2 years and learned about some cool features.