Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion?

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Thu 6 Jul 2006 10:20
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - Freewheel
Been offered a M reg 525 TD BMW Touring with history, Boston Green, 130,000 miles, good all round with full MOT, around £1800.00.
Anything to look out for with this model - do you have any owner advice, or opinions? Reliable? Thirsty? Good car? What falls off? Running costs?
I'll use it for longer trips, work use to visit clients, and to ferry family of 4 to London three times a year. Concerned whether 130,000 is trouble time...or nothing for that TD engine?
Any thoughts welcome.
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Thu 6 Jul 2006 10:55
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - Hamsafar
Oil changes are evry important, the interval was 5000miles on semi and 7500 on fully synthetic when these engines were fitted to cars without service indicator, so if you have the history, make sure they were'nt much more than these.

The waterpumps can fail due to plastic impeller, this causes overheating and this in turn could cause head gasket problems or worse, so check in the coolant bottle for signs of contamination of a past disaster.

When problems do ocurr, it can be difficult to trace the cause, I think there are many of the M51 diesel engine about which are low on power and the owner either thinks it's normal, or it can't be cured by the garages who have tried.

They can suffer worn crankshaft thrust bearings on manual cars if the clutch is ridden or has been driven while clutch is stiff.
Listen for knocking nd look for polished/swirly face on crankshaft pulley with a torch where it has glanced on the waterpump pulley which is infront of it towards driver's side.

The TD is slower than the TDS due to ECU mapping and no intercooler.

I ran one (TDS) from 120,000 to 190,000 on cooking oil mixed with diesel, it was a lovely engine most of the time but a PITA when it had troubles.

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Thu 6 Jul 2006 11:16
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - SpamCan61 {P}
Assuming this is the same engine as the equivalent Omega( but with different ECU mapping) then the economy, particularly at motorway cruising speeds, has never seemed particualrly good for a diesel.
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Thu 6 Jul 2006 12:01
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - Hamsafar
Mine was economical enough for a 1.8 tonne car...
I would get about 44mpg on the motorway in my Omega Auto. 33mpg around town, 28mpg in heavy rush hour city.
I think these claims of uneconomical or slow performance are because things are wrong. Mine was like this on occasions...
The causes were sometimes bizarre, eg...

Injector start/stop sensor (very slow performance)
Brake on/off sensor (sometimes slow setting off)
EGR valve clogged (slightly slow)
Dirty MAF (slightly slow/bad mpg)
Radiator clogged at bottom meaning temp sender was in cooler/dead water (slightly slow/bad mpg)
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Thu 6 Jul 2006 17:02
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - MichaelR
Mine was economical enough for a 1.8 tonne car...


It would have been, had it been a 1.8 tonne car. It isnt, its noticeably lighter. Even the next generation E39 with 4.4 V8 wasn't 1800kg.
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Thu 6 Jul 2006 17:05
Buying Mreg 525 TD BMW - your opinion? - Hamsafar
It was an Omega, my model was 1770Kg.
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