4 days happy owner of E53 3.0d.... has turned into a 5th day nightmare

[Lydiam]

Hi

My name is Lee, from Nottinghamshire (Mansfield area).

I recently bought a 2006 E35 3.0d with 130K with service history, 3 kets etc. See pictures (these are from the person advert):

It has full electric memory heated seats, heated steering wheel, fully working pan roof, factory 20 inch wheels, working parking sensors, functional Tv & sat nav.... so a pretty good spec. The condition of the car is excellent, both inside & out.

I did not really want my first post to be a negative one and was hoping to get the car polished/detailed etc for better pics but today has not been a good day!

So as mentioned owned it for 4 days, very happy indeed. Until today the nightmare begins, I decided to take it to a friends garage for a once over and the following issued were found:

Cracked manifold,
Split exhaust flex,
Oil leak from rear main seal,
Oil filter housing leaking,
Gearbox connector leaking,
2 x rear lever arms.

I will state for the record I am not a mechanic and no doubt bought with my heart rather than my head.

Is anybody in the Nottinghamshire area who would like the above work. The garages quote is around £1100-1200, I have no idea if this is good or bad and not exactly in a position right now to spend that sort of money (if I can really help it).

Are these common problems or a sign that I may have bought a "wrong one".

I fully appropriate it is an 14 yr old car and is not run/maintained on ford focus money. It is just hard to swallow when you buy a car, put 4 brand new tyres on and then this hits you.

Any advice or offers to fix the car (obviously at an agreed price) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Lee

[sleepyfolk]

Howdy, nice looking motor - I’d guess these are just a few wear and tear issues that have accumulated and you’ve just found out about them all at once and had a meltdown.

Cracked manifold, - I think this is a fairly common thing with diesels - I’m sure I’ve seen it mentioned a few times on here but I’m a V8er so can’t help.

Split exhaust flex - not sure what that is but it doesn’t sound too dramatic

Oil leak from rear main seal - mine leaks oil - just keep putting some in

Oil filter housing leaking - gotta be a simple fix - someone has probably just neglected to put a new seal in or pinched the new one -easy fix

Gearbox connector leaking, - not sure what they mean by this either - I’ve just had my gearbox removed rebuilt and refitted and there was no mention of a connector - do they mean the gearbox oil cooler connector? If so another easy fix - it’s only about £100 for a new cooler

2 x rear lever arms. - do they mean the rear arms at the front or the rear arms on the rear - there’s lots of arms and links, I’ve done all mine - there not massively expensive parts - if it’s not clunking and misbehaving maybe make it a longer term thing to look at doing some suspension bits in the future - your front front suspension is at an age where it’ll need doing If it’s not been touched recently.

You’ve basically still got a car you’re happy with you just know a bit more about it, it’ll always need something doing so just prioritise and make a list and do a bit at a time, and next time you’re underneath have a look at those 14 year old steel brake pipes, the ones you can hardly see above the rear subframe and under the plastic tray that runs front to back - you could have a look and change the fuel filter at the same time - you might want to add those to the list

[Leslie]

The gearbox connector might be the mechatronic seal if its the same as the e70 ,its cheap (£20) but you have to drop the sump I think to change it which would mean changing the oil and sump which would add up quickly , you don't have to fix everything as said its an old car now and some wear and tear is to be expected.

[Lydiam]

After a few days of breaking things down and realising a bought an X5 for a reason... I bloody like the car!

As pointed out my many, the issues are mainly wear and tear and nothing too alarming.

The rear subframe bushes look good, turbo pulls well and overall the car is in excellent condition.

I have been lucky enough to make a contact, through a friend, who is an ex senior BMW technician who has huge experience in BMWs from 1999-2010 and knows the X5 inside out. He is set up at home and obviously charges a lot less than the garages.

It will be interesting to see what he finds with the car compared to the issues found by a "general" garage.

I will post my finding and let you know how it goes

[sleepyfolk]

That sounds promising, just do a few bits at a time - try to plan so you’re not taking something apart twice Or dropping the same plastic covers underneath etc, all saves a bit of time
The oil burner boys will know but I expect there’s other cheap little bits can be done whilst he’s delving in to fix the manifold etc

[Lydiam]

Totally agree

He knows his stuff and I have said replace/fix anything that is a priority and other things, if it makes sense to replace whilst he is in there, do them too!

I must say I am quite impressed with performance for such a big car. Maybe because it is new to me but I may even consider a remap once I have had the car sorted.