E30 Zone

Good afternoon,

I'm going to look at a 2001 525 sport this evening with 90k miles on the clock.

Anything in particular I need to look out for?

Thanks

warped discs , make sure the abs light comes on and the traction control works

If it's an auto leave it in 'D' and make sure it goes through ALL the gears, and also in Steptronic, and ensure it doesn't jerk into gear. Also try moving off on a slight hill to test if it jerks into gear when moving off.

Check to ensure the ABS/Traction lights don't stay on as it can get pretty expensive trying to diagnose where the fault lies...if both stay on then the gearbox will go into a safety mode and will only go upto 2/3rd gear.

Ensure ALL electrics (outside temp, parking sensors, electric mirrors etc) work.

Check the stereo as the built in amplifiers tend to become faulty and end up playing sound out of odd speakers only.

Check for rust around the boot lock and the little bit of metal between the boot and the rear bumper.
Also check for rust around all arches, in particular behind the inner arches (if the plastic arches aren't installed correctly they tend to store dirt and lead to the front sills/lower arches rusting).

Apart from that it's the obvious stuff you'd check on all cars.

If that car's been looked after it shouldn't have any of the above faults...if it has them then it can become quite expensive diagnosing and rectifying the problems.

E39's are covered in sensors and when they go wrong it drive you mad as they all seem to be linked into each other.

Thanks Aceraf

Also check the rad - if it looks like it's as old as the car, it'll need replacing soon. Change the water pump at the same time. Also the autobox oil cooler. Crankcase breather will need replacing along with all the pipes - not expensive but a real bastard of a job requiring inlet manifold removal.

Sounds a bit grim, but it's a 10 year old car which has done almost 4 laps of the globe!

Also check for steering wobble between 50 and 60 mph and again between 75 an 80 mph. This can be caused by a variety of different factors including lower and upper front arm bushes, ball joints, poorly balanced wheels, cheap discs, flat spots in the tyres where it's been stood for over a day (although this will go away once the tyres are warm).

Listen to the engine for rattles both by the cam cover (which will be caused by the vanos) and near the intake manifold, which will be caused by the DISA valve.

Look for evidence of the cooling system having had a full or at least part replacement. Expansion tanks, radiators and thermostat housings can leak/crack and water pumps (with the earlier plastic impellers) can and do fail.

These often start to use a fair bit of oil at this mileage, more of a pain in the arse than anything terminal. Generally they use around 1l per 1000 miles. Some more, some less, some none at all.