On bmwcca for the first time in months

[equ]

Noted two things in the classifieds:

* This car is sold by a neighbor of mine. Even though he lives in Ridgewood and he gave that as his location. Car is stored 20 yards away from me in Weehawken at his rental property. Reached only $12750 on BaT last year. It has me a bit intrigued as it might be a nice vintage machine to have around.

https://www.bmwcca.org/ads/265656

* The second is my old 5. Bummed to see the buyer let it go and double bummed to see that it needed a replacement n55. There was no such indication when I sold it at 5xxxx miles.

https://www.bmwcca.org/ads/265971

[Nick M3]

N55s blow up a lot, from what I hear. Did you have it tuned?

[Josh (PA)]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

N55s blow up a lot, from what I hear. Did you have it tuned?

Where do you hear that and why do they blow up?

[wdc330i]

There's a lot of good stuff on there. Nick, another manual X5...local to you.

And quite a few wagons...

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

There's a lot of good stuff on there. Nick, another manual X5...local to you.

And quite a few wagons...

That price is hilarious. And I thought I overpaid....

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

Where do you hear that and why do they blow up?

There's all kinds of random internal failures.

But my favorite is that when the serpentine belt fails, due to a design flaw in the crank pulley, it gets sucked into through the crank seal and trashes the engine.

It turns what is pretty typically a low stakes failure into a dead engine. (Or even if the engine "survives," it's not going to be worth the effort required to disassemble and clean out the trash.)

[equ]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

Where do you hear that and why do they blow up?

This is what my buyer wrote back, he is not very technical:

They said that the drive shaft malfunction-was shredding metal into the oil flow
and that the engine needed replacing

I did not expect that for n55's. He got some help from bmw and his son is a mechanic so I guess he came out ok. I felt bad that the engine did not make 90k.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

This is what my buyer wrote back, he is not very technical:

They said that the drive shaft malfunction-was shredding metal into the oil flow
and that the engine needed replacing

I did not expect that for n55's. He got some help from bmw and his son is a mechanic so I guess he came out ok. I felt bad that the engine did not make 90k.

I interpret that as rod bearings. I see a lot of rod bearing failures reported for N55s. I bet he meant crankshaft.

[equ]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

I interpret that as rod bearings. I see a lot of rod bearing failures reported for N55s. I bet he meant crankshaft.

I bet that's what he meant.

I'm stunned. First owner was a bmwcca owner, also with a e39 m5 from new and had an m2 on order. He overmaintained. I purchased at 42k, changed oil at 45, 50 and 55k and sold at 56 or 57k thereabouts. I don't know how the buyer maintained but I assume reasonable with an interest in cars and a son as a bmw tech.

Now I'm paranoid about my b58. The last oil change I had done, a few hundred miles ago, I was between a rock and a hard place. I have a camera in the car and I know that if I leave it at the dealer for something as simple as an oil change it gets driven back & forth 8 times by 4 different valets. With CPO coverage over for the 340i, I went to my indy, I don't think they have done many b58's. I think they went with their usual 5w40. I realize the bmw spec for the oil is 0w20. Is the 40-weight a risk for the bearings?

[SCA]

I have been warned to get rid of my N55 X5 prior to it hitting 75,000 miles via a former BMW master technician. I immediately informed him, “No worries… it will be long gone before then.”

Originally Posted by Nick M3

That price is hilarious. And I thought I overpaid....

The CCA marketplace has always had crackpipe prices. Clearly nothing has changed.