N52 E89 buying tips

[jr795]

Hi, sorry if this has been asked a load of times before, but what should I look out for when buying an E89? Specifically an E89 with an N52. 23i or 30i? Any common issues, options that are nice to have fitted, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks

[Silverstar]

The N52 is a pretty robust and reliable engine. Some problems though can be oil leaks from the oil filter housing and rocker cover gasket, also this car has a electric water pump which can fail at any time and I don’t think there is any tell tale signs to look out for, if I am wrong on this someone will correct me, also add some more things to watch out for.

In terms of options for me the following were a must, sports seats, idrive with Satnav, heated seats, PDC (front and rear parking sensors), folding door mirrors, wind deflector (easy to retrofit if the car does not have one but can be expensive), cruise control. Nice to have but not essential comfort access, storage pack, adaptive headlights. But really in terms of options it’s down to you as to what are you must haves and just likes. Just bear in mind a fully loaded car will be easier to shift and command a little more value than one that is sparsely equipped. Also some of the options can be retrofitted but due to the expenses and complexity of doing so, I would much rather just find a car that has everything I absolutely must have.

[Pondrew]

As said above PDC is very useful on an E89 (as visibility is not the best). Heated seats are useful if leather. Idrive is a popular option and was expensive but remember the technology is from 2009 so a little 'old fashioned' now.
Extended lighting pack is nice as you get the lights in the doors handles, puddle lights and more ambient lights inside.

As far as checking a car when viewing; look in the battery compartment (take the sponge out around the roof pump) and check for water, or watermarks from previous water. Common issue and can be a bugger to sort. Check the roof works freely and easily several times, without any creaking or straining. Check headlights and rear light clusters for water, or signs of water, as the seals can leak and are expensive to replace. A bit of condensation in any light cluster is generally not a problem, though. Check for any signs of oil in the engine bay, especially around oil filter and rocker cover. Other than that, normal stuff like checking everything works and check the MOT history, this should highlight any problems with wheels. Wheels can crack (usually the larger the more prone) and because they are very expensive to replace, many have them welded.

Luckily many E89s are used as second/ summer/ weekend cars and garaged, so there should be many good ones out there.

Good luck with your search.

[jr795]

this car has a electric water pump which can fail at any time

Thanks, I'd missed that one in my research online. Do you know if it's pricey to rectify?

Idrive is a popular option and was expensive but remember the technology is from 2009 so a little 'old fashioned' now.

Yeah I had a feeling it would be dated. I suppose an aftermarket upgrade is a possibility (although I've not looked into it).

As far as checking a car when viewing; look in the battery compartment (take the sponge out around the roof pump) and check for water, or watermarks from previous water.

Am I right in saying the battery compartment is in the boot?

Check the roof works freely and easily several times, without any creaking or straining

I assume if there's anything wrong with the roof I should avoid? Seems like it could be expensive to rectify any issues

I think sports seats, PDC, cruise control, and power folding mirrors would be on my list

[Pondrew]

There is a forum member who does aftermarket screens for the E89 (AnibusZed).
Yes the battery is in the centre of the boot under the lift out floor. All is easy to access and see.
There are some very cheap-to-fix common problems with the roof (salmon relays and microswitches) but some complex and expensive problems too. When viewing a car it will be really difficult to ascertain what the problem is, so I would leave a car well alone if there is any issue with the roof TBH. You would hope that anyone selling a car would either ensure the roof works correctly, or make it clear it doesn't. Not always the case unfortunately.

Many cars have PDC, cruise and folding mirrors (although the mirrors don't fold on the key unless it's got comfort access) as they were popular options. M-sport seats in an SE spec would have been quite a costly options I think, so may be harder to come by.

On a brighter note, though; my E89 has cost me just £32 in two roof microswitches in two years of ownership, so they are pretty good cars in general.

[Silverstar]

Idrive is a popular option and was expensive but remember the technology is from 2009 so a little 'old fashioned' now.

I have heard this a number of times but I don't buy it. The iDrive is super useful, since if you have PDC you get the very helpful pictogram depicting where obstacles are, it works so well that in the E89 I really don't miss a reverse camera. It also shows much useful information about the car's status such as oil level, service items, radio etc which are all just better to see on the screen than a tiny display in the instrument cluster. The satnav might be a bit dated by todays standards but as long as you update the maps it still works very well and is still very useful.

I have Apple CarPlay on mine and usually use Apple Maps / Waze etc. but once I was in an area where there was no phone signal and those maps wouldn't work, thank god for the iDrive as the built in SatNav got me where I needed to be. On the point of CarPlay, if you have iDrive this is a fairly easy upgrade to have Carplay or Android Auto added. Lot more work and expense if the car does not have it.

The water pump I think is around £250 to £300 to buy plus the labour. Regarding the folding mirrors, even if the car does not have comfort access (most do not), folding with key fob can be coded in using Carista, Carly etc.

[jr795]

if you have iDrive this is a fairly easy upgrade to have Carplay or Android Auto added. Lot more work and expense if the car does not have it.

That sounds good, is it something that's easy to do yourself?

There is a forum member who does aftermarket screens for the E89 (AnibusZed).

Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look

[Zed Baron]

Pdc handy as it's a long bonnet, great for me as I navigate up the drive into the garage. Idrive is now dated but still useful (latest maps 2023) and it comes with a built in hard drive for.music storage and a dvd player. As others have you can add an mmi box that will make it more up-to-date, and yes speak to anubis Zed he's a wizard! Sports seats are great electric adjustable bolsters and pull out leg extenders. Mine didn't have them but I bought a mint pair for £400 and took about a couple of hours to swap over (then sold my old seats).

[B21]

Plus 1 for idrive, heated seats, PDC, plus if you drive top down the rear diffuser that fits between the seats..extended Bluetooth makes music streaming easy…

As others stated you can do a lot of retrospective mods but they need certain degree of skills both mechanical and electronic…

You need to be able to use a VIN decoder which then will give you a correct inventory of goodies fitted to the car

[jr795]

extended Bluetooth makes music streaming easy

Is there an easy way to tell if this is fitted? e.g. an extra button somewhere

[B21]

extended Bluetooth makes music streaming easy

Is there an easy way to tell if this is fitted? e.g. an extra button somewhere

No hence why a VIN decoder is your best friend when buying

[Pondrew]

No hence why a VIN decoder is your best friend when buying

Which are still available free if you pick the right one. For the life of me I can't remember which one, though.

[B21]

No hence why a VIN decoder is your best friend when buying

Which are still available free if you pick the right one. For the life of me I can't remember which one, though.

https://www.mdecoder.com/

[Pondrew]

No hence why a VIN decoder is your best friend when buying

Which are still available free if you pick the right one. For the life of me I can't remember which one, though.

https://www.mdecoder.com/

Yep, that's the one I used. The only free one I found that didn't say my car was LHD auto (when it is a RHD manual)

[Silverstar]

That sounds good, is it something that's easy to do yourself?

I have the old MMI box which works with the AUX port and it’s pretty simple to hook up, I’ve heard the newer boxes might be a bit more tricky to install but still doable. There are a few threads on here on this subject and as others have said Anusbiszed is the best person for advice related to this.