post facelift 2.5si, is it going to require a mortgage?

[softTopFanatic]

Title is basically a summary, I'm looking at a high mileage 2008 2.5si. Planned to be a weekend warrior have a daily which I do roughly 10k miles a year in so as you can imagine I wont be stacking the miles up on the zed.

Honestly I'm a bit terrified after reading all the horror stories online are these cars exceptionally costly as far as maintenance and repairs? Or is it just standard German costs that I'm looking at? My daily is a 7 year old C class so I'm fully aware of how "bulletproof" German cars are at this point.

Any advice or input would be great as I would love to join this club properly!

 

[mr.tourette]

Well id be waiting on a forum car that's had most of the main faults fixed.. i recently sold my 3.0si and the buyer won't be needing to do owt in a long while as Id addressed all the main issues.
You could get lucky but a cheap z4 can be a crap shoot.. a forum car that's been cherished is a better bet

 

[Mr Tidy]

Hi and welcome to the forum OP.

A 2.5Si will have the N52 engine which is generally pretty solid. The main issue is the electric water pump which will die at some point without any warning so it's worth budgeting for one of those. BMW charge over £500 for a new one, but you can get the same Pierburg part elsewhere for more like £300 - and you'll probably only need to replace it once! They can suffer from oil leaks on the cam-cover and oil filter housing but new gaskets will sort those.

I'm on my 4th car with that engine, two E86s and two 3 Series, and the only issues I've had so far have been 2 dead water pumps in a total of 35K miles. And my current 3 Series is on 113K miles - the previous one was on 139K!

I've owned 3 Mercedes in the past and had at least as many issues with those, so I don't think you'd need a mortgage to run a 2.5Si.

Obviously a high miler will need age-related bits and pieces like suspension bushes replaced, but that is the same for any high mileage car.

 

[softTopFanatic]

Mr. Tourette that would be absolutely ideal but I'm across the water in Ireland so importing at the moment isn't really practical otherwise I'd be perusing the forum as it usually is the place to be buying cars like these!
The seller has extensive service history so I'll have to read and see if there's any mention of the potential faults you guys have mentioned!

The fact that Mr. Tidy has gotten 140k miles out of the same engine is definitely easing my mind a bit anyway! So my checklist for the service history is gaskets, water pump and would it be early enough to have an eye open for the timing chain?

Looking at 5k euro so not necessarily the cheapest z4 out there but definitely on the lower end so understandably a bit sceptical, cheers for the info so far though!

 

[Smartbear]

Mr. Tourette that would be absolutely ideal but I'm across the water in Ireland so importing at the moment isn't really practical otherwise I'd be perusing the forum as it usually is the place to be buying cars like these!
The seller has extensive service history so I'll have to read and see if there's any mention of the potential faults you guys have mentioned!

The fact that Mr. Tidy has gotten 140k miles out of the same engine is definitely easing my mind a bit anyway! So my checklist for the service history is gaskets, water pump and would it be early enough to have an eye open for the timing chain?

N52 engines don’t tend to suffer with camchain problems, the dmf can get noisy but remains serviceable despite the knocking sound.
Rob

 

[mr.tourette]

Dont forget relocated roof motor would be a wise move if its been done, rear brake lines get corroded and can need replacing.. check the mot history to see if its been mentioned.. mileage is not such an issue for the engine its just that with the mileage comes the maintenance.. good luck with your search, be patient and buy on condition/history and it shouldn't be too painful

 

[Mr Tidy]

Right, so in view of where you are I realise your options may be limited unless you get into rather involved travel arrangements!

I bought my 2006 E91 325i in early 2018 on 132K and it had a fully stamped service book from BMW dealers. I called both chains to get a bit more detail of what had been done and it turned out it had a Main Agent service a few months prior to my purchase, so I took it there and got the book stamped up - result!

From what I was told it never had replacement gaskets, so if they aren't leaking I'd leave them alone! The water pump on that one died at 135K miles, but I don't know if that was its 1st or 2nd. You could replace it as a preventative measure, but if it's going to be a weekend toy I'd leave it until it let go. At least you've got a temperature gauge in the Z4, unlike the E91 where you just get an amber warning light that turns red in less than a mile. If you carry on driving after that it should go into limp-home mode, but that's probably best avoided. The pump on my 1st E86 died at 60K but my 2nd E86 looked like it still had the original pump at 90K miles, so how long they last seems to be random!

The rear brake pipes are on the underside of the car beneath the passenger seat inside a plastic cover that ends a bit in front of the rear wheel. The problem is the end of the cover tends to fill up with road debris that holds moisture around the pipes which leads to corrosion. My 2nd E86 had advisories for them when I bought it so I had them replaced in copper because it won't corrode the same and OE pipes are pre-formed so you need to drop the fuel tank to fit the one on the driver's side rear.

As Smartbear says I've never read about cam-chain issues on these engines either.

If they haven't been used much they can sound a bit "tappetty" when started but that should go away once they are fully warmed up and given a decent drive (blast). :lol: Fortunately it doesn't seem to cause any problems apart from not sounding too great.

I'm lucky having 2 ex-Sytner BMW Specialists within 10 miles of home. A good Indy will save you loads of grief - and money!

The people who can relocate roof motors are all in England, but if you are feeling brave there is a thread about it in the "How To" section for the E85/86 pages of the forum.

Anyway, good luck with your search.

 

[softTopFanatic]

Mr. Tidy you're a gent, not to make less of the other commenters I'll be printing off this comment section before I go to view the car. Can't beat car communities for advice!

As for the roof motor I'll have to figure out some sort of temporary waterproofing for the moment. Hopefully everything that's going on calms down and I'll be over for a meet one of these days get it looked at while I'm over!

For anyone else with advice or points to watch out for keep em comin! 8)

 

[Mr Tidy]

No problem, I learnt a lot on here before I bought my 1st one - and even more since!

I've never had a Roadster, but from what I have read making sure the roof drains aren't bunged up can help prolong the life of the roof motor.

 

[mr.tourette]

Always handy to take a plug in obd scanner when viewing potential cars, see if they have any historical codes stored