X5 30d - E53 or E70?

[MrSweetE90]

Hi All!

So, I've been an owner of a 2006 E90 330D M Sport for a few years but with a new baby on the way ill be needing those extra seats!

I absolutely love my E90 with the M57n2 engine, it's pretty bloody bomb proof so I was wondering if anyone could give me some advise on which would be the better option, I don't want the N57 engine and that's about my only requirement.

I don't mind getting getting my hands dirty and have done loads to my E90 like swapping the rear subframe, changing the valve cover gasket, stats, brake vacuum pump, alternator, springs, shocks, arms etc etc.. Just pretty much anything I can do so it would be nice to keep the M57

Any advice would be appreciated.. Maybe I can also contribute to the forum as well like if anyone needs a link for ISTA+, Carly (for android unlocked) etc

Thanks all!

[marti]

The e53 is a great car if you can get hold of a good lower mileage sport one, built a lot better than the e70 in my opinion, my old e53 is still going well at 235k which my friend now has, the turbo did go at 178k but I did it myself and cost me around £800, other parts changed were just normal service parts and she is still running like a dream, my e71 has been a pain...injectors, glow controller, glow plugs sensors going here and there, its cost me more in 2yrs than than I spent in 8yrs on the e53.

If I could find a mint e53 with lowish miles I'd buy it without hesitation. yes your going back in time a bit compared to the e70....no idrive etc,all I keep reading about the e70 is transfer box problems.....

[Leslie]

E70s are getting cheap now e53 are old and very cheap so the chances of getting a decent one are very slim indeed as they are being run into the ground as not worth fixing anymore and getting a car older that your current one that could be near 20 years old you can't expect to get many years out of it.
The e70 earlier cars still had the m57 but tuned and there is the sd /35d with twin turbos that make for a rapid old bus and are in the lower 330 quid tax band. Early e70s and some e53 in the 560 band ouch!
Transfer boxes talked about a lot but not that common and less than a grand to fix so don't let it put you off.

[MrSweetE90]

If I could find a mint e53 with lowish miles I'd buy it without hesitation. yes your going back in time a bit compared to the e70....no idrive etc,all I keep reading about the e70 is transfer box problems.....

That's some really good information, thanks. It's interesting that I seem to get the impression that the E53 is the more reliable car, I'm sure on another forum I read a chap who also had the E53 and E70 (or went to an E70) and he too mentioned that he had a few problems and it didn't feel quite as good and referred the the increased size that the E70 had (or felt).. Like he was putting it across that the E53 felt more planted and nippy whereas the E70 felt a bit floaty.

I'm really happy to know that both he E53 and E70 share the M57 engine, I believe the E70 has the second generation (M57TU2) which would be the same as mine.

And yes the bloody glow plugs and controller haha, you know they typically fail because the swirl flaps start to degrade and oil can saturate the controller, or. Its the aluminium wires they stupidly used within the controller that has a huge amount of power going through them and they break. I opened mine and sure enough a few strands of aluminium wire had broke, some chaos on eBay actually offer a service to upgrade the glow plug controller because buying a new one means you'd still have the flawed design whereas replacing the aluminium wires with copper would make for a pretty good and reliable controller.

[X5Sport]

The early E70 has the M series engines. From 2010 they are all N-series. Stupidly the timing chain is now at the gearbox end of the engine not the front. Major surgery required!

Cheaper to run, cheaper to tax, more economical and the sublime 8 speed transmission all came with the N-series. Tyre choice is still a potential pitfall as it is with all but the very latest xDrive models.

My E53 was a nightmare in terms of reliability - mostly silly electrical issues and a blown gearbox just out of warranty - whereas to date all my other BMWs have been much much better. Glow plugs have been the only real issue on my now 10-yr old E71. Even our (now stored) E46 has proven more reliable than the E53 and it’s more than 15-yrs old. I may have just been unlucky though.

Problems with transfer boxes and diffs on E53s are not unknown, with it’s gearbox being it’s real Achilles Heel. The 2nd gen ZF 6-speed in the E70 seems to have fixed that little ‘opportunity’. Transmission issues (other than the gearbox) are most often caused by not following the guidance around tyres. If you’re going down the V8 route then timing chain guides (plastic) can fail and cause major damage and expense.

I did like the E53 but the E71 is (IMHO) far better to drive and the Comfort seats are well worth searching out. No air suspension to worry about unless specifically optioned - and most weren’t. Mine is definitely not ‘floaty’ and goes like a scared Hare!

One ‘nasty’ with the E70/71 is the power parking brake. If the servo unit fails (and many have) it’s serious money - around £800 - to replace. No wonder it’s gone from later models. Repair is possible but not easy.

[MrSweetE90]

E70s are getting cheap now e53 are old and very cheap so the chances of getting a decent one are very slim indeed as they are being run into the ground as not worth fixing anymore and getting a car older that your current one that could be near 20 years old you can't expect to get many years out of it.
The e70 earlier cars still had the m57 but tuned and there is the sd /35d with twin turbos that make for a rapid old bus and are in the lower 330 quid tax band. Early e70s and some e53 in the 560 band ouch!
Transfer boxes talked about a lot but not that common and less than a grand to fix so don't let it put you off.

Hi Leslie,

Thanks for the response! And yes you are right, with the age of the E53 I would need to find a well looked after one.. For me that would be good service intervals 6/8k, transmission service, possibly had turbo replaced and maybe some gaskets like valve cover otherwise at something like 130k I could potentially expect many of those things to fail in a short period of time, which to be fair is exactly what happened to my E90 330d.

So I take it the 2007 onwards becomes the E70 with the M57n2? And oh yes, an E70 35d with those sweet sweet turbos <3 I absolutely love the sound, you can hear the spool of those beastly things on startup as well haha.

And yes the tax band is an important factor, I remember purchasing an Audi Q7 with a load of faults.. £30 fuel got me absolute max 65/70 miles town driving and the tax was just shy of £50 a month, lovely to look at but I don't fancy a money pit again!

I'd be intrigued to know the fuel consumption of the E53 and E70 30d. On my E90 330d in quite literally London style trips I get according to the OBC just above 18MPG which gets me 70 miles for £20

[MrSweetE90]

The early E70 has the M series engines. From 2010 they are all N-series. Stupidly the timing chain is now at the gearbox end of the engine not the front. Major surgery required!

Cheaper to run, cheaper to tax, more economical and the sublime 8 speed transmission all came with the N-series. Tyre choice is still a potential pitfall as it is with all but the very latest xDrive models.

My E53 was a nightmare in terms of reliability - mostly silly electrical issues and a blown gearbox just out of warranty - whereas to date all my other BMWs have been much much better. Glow plugs have been the only real issue on my now 10-yr old E71. Even our (now stored) E46 has proven more reliable than the E53 and it’s more than 15-yrs old. I may have just been unlucky though.

Problems with transfer boxes and diffs on E53s are not unknown, with it’s gearbox being it’s real Achilles Heel. The 2nd gen ZF 6-speed in the E70 seems to have fixed that little ‘opportunity’. Transmission issues (other than the gearbox) are most often caused by not following the guidance around tyres. If you’re going down the V8 route then timing chain guides (plastic) can fail and cause major damage and expense.

I did like the E53 but the E71 is (IMHO) far better to drive and the Comfort seats are well worth searching out. No air suspension to worry about unless specifically optioned - and most weren’t. Mine is definitely not ‘floaty’ and goes like a scared Hare!

One ‘nasty’ with the E70/71 is the power parking brake. If the servo unit fails (and many have) it’s serious money - around £800 - to replace. No wonder it’s gone from later models. Repair is possible but not easy.

Hi mate,

Thanks very much for the reply, it's a shame you had all the issues with the E53 I'll have to keep my eye out to see if I come across many others stating they've had electrical issues to see if its just bad luck or a potential issue that can arise with the E53's in general.

And yes! How on earth BMW stuck the N57 engine in that shares the same design flaw with the timing chain guides as the N47 and stuck it once again at the back of the engine requiring a complete engine removal is why I really hate the thought of owning one... Like there's pretty much only two things that can happen, it will start slapping about and thankfully you'll get to replace it, or, it snaps and pistons and valves smash off each other and cause a very probably write off. And I love working on my car and keeping it as good as I can, owning an engine like that I would be spending more time listening out for that timing chain than anything else haha.

As much as I would love an X6 it just doesn't have enough seats for me hence why I'm getting rid of my E90 330d.

Also, what's with the tyres and transmission issues you speak of, I wasn't aware of anything like that? And I'll have a look into that power brake issue.

And on a final note, do you guys not have the AA Parts and Garage cover? Omd it's an absolute gem! I pay about £27 per month for AA cover including the parts and garage cover and for just a £30 excess each claim I've had a £350+ alternator replaced, £530 towards a new turbo, and I had something else done which I can't remember but if anything breaks that's under £530 you just pay £30 excess, if its more than £530 (like my turbo was) you just add the difference so I think I paid £200 totalling £730 with the AA's money for a new turbo and full service, was great

[Jayx5]

hi, i had a 4.4 e53 and now have a 3.0d e70 (m57) and I do about 5000 miles a year, both cars have been money pits the e53 was more electrical problems and the e70 more mechanical problems.
I've had the e70 for 2 years now and have spent about £4000 on it excluding tyres and servicing
I've kept my eye on e70 prices and decent spec ones seem to be holding there money so its actually been a cheap car to run due to little depreciation.

[sapphireblack]

I kept my E53 a long time so i must have liked it. That said there were some 'interesting' bills to keep it how it should be.

Rear suspension bushes over £1k to renew the lot. Oil leaks on V8 cam cover gaskets, timing cover gaskets all very expensive and done more than once. Power folding mirrors failed, replaced both for around £1k, which seemed to become the regular bill amount as the car aged. I loved the car but it wasn't without numerous and very costly issues.

I too went from an E53 (via E63) to an E71. Chalk and cheese imo the E71 being technically vastly better. I think the E53 can look very old fashioned and tired now, and small in comparison to later SAVs. A late model 4.8 with low mikes could still tempt me but they are far from commonplace.

[X5Sport]

Also, what's with the tyres and transmission issues you speak of, I wasn't aware of anything like that? And I'll have a look into that power brake issue.

XDrive cars are very sensitive to tyre choice if the car is fitted with different wheel sizes (as almost all E53/70/71) are so gibing a non-square setup. The issue being that the different sizes aren’t quite matched in terms of radius or circumference. This can lead to transmission wind-up because the transmission can’t cope with more than about 1.5mm difference in tread depth. BMW, Mercedes, Audi and others all have tyres specifically matched to get rid of this - although this assumes even wear between axles - by adjusting the rolling radius and actual tread compound mixes at build.

There’s no guarantee of an issue not happening if you stick with approved tyres (all expensive premium brands as you would expect), but the likelihood of trouble increases on non-approved tyres. One member on here found a set of tyres which were non-approved but of the correct sizes actually had a 32mm difference in circumference and that’s per revolution. The transmission will start to rumble and whine, and if ignored will break something (suitably expensive) eventually. It should not happen and it’s poor design in my book. Others would argue that if you want performance and handling then there is a price to pay. I’m not convinced.

Cheaper brands may also change diameter with speed as there is less ‘control’ of that with their choice of construction. That increase has the same effect over time.

Square setups rarely suffer from this and tyre choice is much easier. Pretty much anything is fine.

My E53 used to return about 26mpg around town and my X6 40d is about the same. I’ve not taken it into London but I can imagine the mpg dropping a tad. You’ll also need to be mindful of the DPF fitted to later cars needing the occasional ‘throat clearing run’

[Leslie]

The dpf mentioned does need a good run each week or so , my own routine involved once a week a 5 mile warmup then 5-7 miles at 2000 plus revs in sport mode to keep the revs up so they don't drop back , you don't need to rev the head of it but this run needs done every week to keep the dpf healthy (imo) ignore it at your peril !
Thermostats need checked and more than likely changed as at this time of year the car simply wont warm up to operating temps (80 +c) which is so critical to regens . Mine is now on 147k and dpf still ok (touches wood lol)
The sd and 35d don't cost anymore to run than a 3.0d or anymore to buy or tax and I hear but cannot confirm the 3.0d with it's single bigger turbo is a tad laggy lowdown so its really 50hp for free if you an call 26-28 mpg free ! mixed driving central London is going to be sub 20 at best id think .....
In 2 years I've had to fit an air compressor (£330) , an led boot light (£75) 2 bottom arms ( £160) discs front and rear (£250 each end) and bought a few tyres ,front last no time unless you keep the pressure high ( non runflats) as they scrub the edges off in as little as 5-8k Rears still on abut 15k and 6mm plus tread .