[iliketurtles]

Originally Posted by .cArMaNiA

Would you mind re-sharing(unable to find in this thread) name of tuner from where you got your car remapped.

My knowledge of the car scene up north is limited, but you could check out Autopsyche, I believe they offer tunes by Quantum. Tons of BMWs are running Quantum maps with no issues.

More than the tuner, it's important thing is to find a good shop, so ask around in your circle a bit. I'm sure most will say they went with shops providing tunes from Quantum or e-Tuners. Of the two, I'd pick the former. Not just because I know of many BMWs that ran it with zero issues, but because I know of 530d's that ran it (ECU and TCU tunes, stage 2 or so) without a problem.

[Varun_HexaGuy]

2.5-months into the ownership so far, my 5 has clocked ~ 7000 kms. Should touch the 100,000 km mark by the end of this week hopefully.

A lot has happened in the past 7000 kms and after what all work has been done, it's safe to assume that the car is all set for another 100,000 kms.

Starting off with my impressions over the past 7000 kms. After all the work has been done to the car, car honestly doesn't feel like a decade plus old car with close to a lac kms on the odometer. Sure, a lot of money was spent by the previous owner and me combined now to keep it in the shape that it is in, if I were to equate it, it worked out a whole lot cheaper than buying a new car altogether (G30 530d is almost a crore rupee car in TS). Car still has it. It feels really nice and tight to drive. Barely any squeaks and rattles in the cabin. Sure, the usual BMW bits need attention (roofliner has started to sag now; will be replaced in the coming month or two) but for the most part, the interiors have stood the test of the time. The AC vents and the door handles are the only bad bits on the F10 5-series. Previous owner replaced all the door handles so that saved me money there. But the AC vents need replacing. I've ordered a replacement set which will go in soon.

With the not-so-important bits addressed, I'd like to move onto the elephant in the room; the maintenance. I was lucky enough to find a really well maintained example and I didn't have to spend a whole lot of money to finish up the small bits but in isolation, it's quite some moolah. Hearing stories of timing chain snaps on the N57 around the 60k mile/1-lac kms mark in a couple of known 530d's in the circle, I didn't want to try my luck. Rather chose to replace the timing chain and its related ancillaries beforehand for the peace of mind.

Timing chain replacement is a pain in the wrong place with the N57 engine in the 5-series. The engine+transmission have to be taken out of the car and the transmission will have to be separated from the engine. Plus the timing chain replacement is a very critical job in general. But it's on a different page altogether on these N57 engines. From start to end, it was a 4-day job.

While taking the engine out, we also found out that the oil cooler in my car had started to leak. So a new oil cooler was needed. All the seals w.r.t the engine were replaced since it was anyways taken apart.

While all of this was being done, I also decided to go ahead and replace the ATF for the ZF8HP transmission as a part of the preventive maintenance. Alongside all of this, periodic service was due for the car too. That was carried out as well. Front and rear brake pads along with the wear sensors were replaced. So that's that.

Just when I thought I was done with all of this, i-Drive threw up "Headlight vertical aim failure". Alongside that was another error for "Turn indicator left failure". So currently the left indicator in the headlight and one of the two angel eyes on the left headlight are dead. Diagnosis has been done and it's down to the TMS control module for the left headlight (not that expensive). Have to place a part order for the same. Since the main beam is working, I haven't bothered much. Plus my hectic work schedule has kept me on toes.

Apart from all of these, I've really loved the car for what it is. Sure, it has turned out to be a major compromise in a lot of areas but that hasn't stopped me from not using the car at all. But going forward, the GC is something I'm really sceptical about in my usage. Wish I could do something to the GC considering the LCI has significantly better clearance. Only real expenditure on the car that I see in the near future would be a set of tyres (damn, this eats rubber for breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Signing off with a not-so-recent yet one of my favourite shots of the car and a pic of the odometer from a couple of days ago:

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

2.5-months into the ownership so far, my 5 has clocked ~ 7000 kms. Should touch the 100,000 km mark by the end of this week hopefully.

Your car looks hot, congrats again! That's my favourite colour-combo for the 5-Series. Would love to paint mine in silver, but I don't want to strip down the car for a colour change and lose that "factory fit & finish" of parts. Wraps look good only when the car is clean, so still sitting on the fence on that one.

1. Great call in replacing the timing chain . You're clearly thinking long-term.

2. Equally good call in changing the transmission fluid of your ZF. BMW says its sealed for life, but that's rubbish. ZF itself recommends a complete change at the 7 year mark. I have also gotten it done some time back.

Update on my car. As it ages, some small niggles have started to crop up:

1. The fuel tank lid wouldn't lock, even after locking the car. Got the entire unit replaced from Akshay.

2. The washer reservoir (wiper) has a leak. I topped it up entirely, and a day later, again got the message that its empty. Hope it's not the damn rats attacking my car. Will get it checked.

[el lobo 6061]

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Equally good call in changing the transmission fluid of your ZF. BMW says its sealed for life, but that's rubbish. ZF itself recommends a complete change at the 7 year mark. I have also gotten it done some time back.

Any idea about what is transmission oil change interval for Aisin 8 Speed Gearbox for X1 F48?

Aisin Wikipedia

[GTO]

Originally Posted by el lobo 6061

Any idea about what is transmission oil change interval for Aisin 8 Speed Gearbox for X1 F48?

No clue, man. Look up some model & gen-specific forums on that. They usually have such information.

I wouldn't push any transmission oil beyond 7 years though, no matter how loud the "sealed-for-life" claims.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Equally good call in changing the transmission fluid of your ZF. BMW says its sealed for life, but that's rubbish. ZF itself recommends a complete change at the 7 year mark. I have also gotten it done some time back.

Thanks, this is useful. I had not thought of this till I read this and the quoted post, as I usually just go with what BMW prescribes for required maintenance.

I’ll also look into this aspect given that my car is going to be 7 years old in a couple of months. Given that I’d ideally like to hold on to it for another couple of years, I should be investing in such preventive maintenance myself.

[viva]

Originally Posted by Varun_HexaGuy

The AC vents and the door handles are the only bad bits on the F10 5-series. Previous owner replaced all the door handles so that saved me money there. But the AC vents need replacing. I've ordered a replacement set which will go in soon. ]

Nice post. Useful for owners of old F10s like me. Where did you order AC Vents please?

Mod Note: Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers.

Thanks!

[viva]

Dear all bhpians,
Greetings!
I have been reading on various forums that decarbonisation of inlet manifold, egr, vents, etc of 530d 57n engine is necessary after 50k km use.

Mine is F10, 2013, 110k km on speedo. The car has always been serviced at BMW Dealers who never mentioned that such decarbonisation is necessary. Car is running well.

I don't want to have factory fitted engine opened for such service unless necessary.

Dear bhpians,
I will highly appreciate your recommendation. Thanking you in advance for your responses.

[Ishallownabmw]

Originally Posted by Adarsh.E

I have been looking for the past 6 months for the same but could hardly find 2-3 examples all over Telangana, all of which were badly abused.
Could you please help me with any contacts or leads in finding a similar kind of car?

Could you please share me your contact number in PM to discuss, as I’m unable to send the same, as I’m a Newbie.

@Varun - What a steal? Congratulations! Could you also share you contact number with me please. I have the exact same issue as Adarsh. (Newbie)

@Adarsh - How is your search going on? Would you be interested in having a partner in crime?

[GTO]

Just realised that I haven't started the 530d in 12 days, and I don't have use for it for another 7 days minimum. God bless the trickle charger .

Reasons:

- Short trip to another city. Flew down

- Work from home

- Uber'ed it on a recent social outing due to our strict no-drink-and-drive policy

- Hosted 1 party at my own place

- Had a fast Audi media car last week. Review will be up in due time.

- One of Maruti's latest launches is coming in this week. Need to put some km on it to understand it fully. I enjoy test-driving Rs 5 - 30 lakh cars more than the super premium cars as the mainstream cars are most relevant to our market. Plus, with 1+ crore cars, everything is usually good. But in the mass market cars, it's extremely interesting to see where the OEM has invested, and where it has compromised.

- Forgot which, but there is another media car coming next week.

Originally Posted by viva

I have been reading on various forums that decarbonisation of inlet manifold, egr, vents, etc of 530d 57n engine is necessary after 50k km use.

Would suggest checking with your authorised BMW workshop only. They know best. I have so far not been suggested the same by Maverick5490 or Akshay1234.

[ImmortalZ]

Originally Posted by viva

Dear all bhpians,
Greetings!
I have been reading on various forums that decarbonisation of inlet manifold, egr, vents, etc of 530d 57n engine is necessary after 50k km use.

Mine is F10, 2013, 110k km on speedo. The car has always been serviced at BMW Dealers who never mentioned that such decarbonisation is necessary. Car is running well.

I don't want to have factory fitted engine opened for such service unless necessary.

Dear bhpians,
I will highly appreciate your recommendation. Thanking you in advance for your responses.

See attached picture.

All the black goop you see on the floor was cleaned out only from the intake manifold of my then-10 year old F10 530d. The amount of more crud we fished out from the head, especially around the intake valves is sickening.

EGR will kill your motors long before any wear and tear will. Get it done and done by a proper shop if you plan to keep the car long.

Ran out of the edit window. The car was at 10 years and 1L KM at that point.

Found a picture of the head. All of that black crap is soot. This devil juice was an unholy mixture of soot and oil fumes and god knows what else It was several days work to clean all of that out and replace the gaskets. After all of that work, the car felt twice as fast.

Obviously I deleted the EGR and DPF at that point.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by GTO

Just realised that I haven't started the 530d in 12 days, and I don't have use for it for another 7 days minimum. God bless the trickle charger .

Just had to make amends, so last night in Bombay was like...

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

All the black goop you see on the floor was cleaned out only from the intake manifold of my then-10 year old F10 530d. The amount of more crud we fished out from the head, especially around the intake valves is sickening.

Holy cow! Added it to my to-do list for the next service visit.

[Axe77]

^ @GTO

Nice! Literally the most recognisable spot for me at least. Started innumerable 5 am Sunday runs from this very spot opposite NCPA at Marine Drive. Got so many pics of my bikes as well as car here over the years.

I had a similar feeling with my BMW when I recently realised it had done less than 400 kms in 2.5 months since the Jeep had arrived (the Jeep had done in excess of 3000 km in the same period). New car priority, plus preference to give the Jeep to the driver and finally monsoons means the Jeep has been the obvious choice disproportionately often. Prompted me also to take the GT out for some drives just for the sake of it.

[viva]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

See attached picture.

All the black goop you see on the floor was cleaned out only from the intake manifold of my then-10 year old F10 530d. The amount of more crud we fished out from the head, especially around the intake valves is sickening.

Many thanks. I will get carbon cleaned.����

Originally Posted by GTO

Would suggest checking with your authorised BMW workshop only. They know best. I have so far not been suggested the same by Maverick5490 or Akshay1234.

Thank you.

BMW Dealer is serving F10 from Day 1. They haven't adviced such carbon cleaning. I will specifically ask them by month end.

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[cooldip]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

See attached picture.

All the black goop you see on the floor was cleaned out only from the intake manifold of my then-10 year old F10 530d. The amount of more crud we fished out from the head, especially around the intake valves is sickening.

I have first hand experience of this on my 1KD Fortuner. Any EGR will get clogged over a period of time and fill up the intake manifolds. This significantly impacts the amount of air going into the engine. All turbo charged intercooled diesels have this problem no matter what the manufacturer says.

I typically clean it every 20K kms (50% bumper to bumper drive) and my 12 year ~160K kms 1KDFTV still happily revs to 4K rpm without damaging my ear drums.