530 I

[sunnyd02]

Hello All,

I'm new to the website so I may ask some questions that are redundant or fairly basic. I have an '02 530 I that I bought with about 55K miles and it's around 65 K miles now. I really enjoy the car and the drive. I'm considering selling the car because I know all too well that repairs in the future may be expensive and I don't particularly want to deal with that. What are peoples experiences in terms of maintenace with this model, how does it hold up? How much can I probably expect, ball-park figure, for routine maintenance costs if I were to keep it until about 100 K miles or so? Finally, at 65 K miles, what is the regular maintenance that the car needs now? Any insight would be greatly appreciated...hope everyone's having a great holiday...

Cheers...

Sunny

 

[bahnstormer]

hi sunny welcome to the board

the e39 is a strong car and if u keep up its maint u wont have too many problems

there may be a few niggles here and there but it'll still be cheaper than leasing/finan
a new car

i have a 91 535i with 168,000 on it and after i bought it with 135,000 (i fixed all the crap that was wrong with it) haven't had any probs



if u can try to do teh work yourself, buy a bentlet manual that shows u how and maybe u'll
find a new hobby, tinkering with ur car =]

some common things that u need to look for

coolant hoses might need replacing
water pumps tend to fail at 90,000
spark plugs
Sway bar links and bushings. Rear differential mount and rear subframe bushings.
Brake rotors, pads, sensors, timing belt and tensioner (M20), brake or clutch switch.
Exhaust components, usually muffler. O2 sensor.
Radiator and hoses. Thermostat.Water pump

 

[tempestv8]

I would imagine that the M54 engine in the 530i is a fairly reliable motor. In terms of maintenance it all depends on how hard you drive it I guess. If you drive it like Mantoya everyday, you can expect the maintenance bills to be high.

But if you drive it like you would a Toyota Camry, it'll probably require about the same maintenance as a, well, Toyoto Camry.

Just enjoy driving it but don't push it too hard and it'll be just fine.

 

[epj3]

I push my car very hard all the time. It likes it too.

 

[nadroj]

i whip mine every day and it loves it