[BM335M]

I thought may as well start a maintenance thread on this car instead of a build thread for all those new owners or people looking at buying a second hand E9x N54 model.

I bought the car (08 E90 335) in March 2017 with 125,000km on the clock, one owner with full service history, bone stock and overall in very neat and clean condition.

Since then ive replaced and fixed the following parts as preventative maintenance (PM) and due to failure (F).

Over all be prepared to spend some cash no matter how good the car is, worse stay away from it if you are not mechanically minded or good with following instruction online and have access to decent tools.

- Walnut blast (PM) by vtl
- New Coils (PM)
- New Spark Plugs (PM)
- Expansion tank over radiator hose (F) left me stranded on the road, had to get a tow truck.
- New battery (F)
- MHD Stage 1 flash
- New D1S head lamps (F)
- New Angle Eyes globes (F)
- Expansion tank bleeder screw (F)
- Expansion tank (PM)
- New valve cover due to a leak (F)
- New Oil filter housing gasket (F)
- New Oil cooler gasket (F)
- New PCV hose (PM) while replacing the valve cover
- New Coolant Outlet Hose (PM) while replacing the OFH gasket
- Complete Coolant flush
- New Wagner FMIC

To be continued...

[vtl]

All of that stuff is all expected things for an N54 and not even that bad

I've done:

188k kms

Engine:
Walnut blasts (PM)
Turbosmart Diverters (PM)
Vanos solenoids (F)
Boost solenoids (PM)
Silicone vacuum lines (PM)
Injector 2 (F)
Plugs (F)
Coils (F)
Oil cooler line ruptured (F)
Engine mounts (F)
Oil filter housing gasket, thermostat housing gasket (F)
Turbos (wastegates sieze up during track use) (F)
Index 12 injectors (PM)
Fuel filter/pressure assembly (PM)
Fuel pressure relief valve (F)
Serpentine Belt (PM)

Cooling system:
Cylinder head to thermostat hose (F)
Coolant overflow hose (PM)
Water pump (PM)
Thermostat (PM)
Water pump to thermostat hose (PM)
Top radiator hose (F)

Drivetrain:
Clutch and new Flywheel (F)
Differential bushings (F)
Shifter linkage bushes (F)
Selector rod seal on transmission (F)

Electrical:
Battery (F)
Headlight back covers (F)

Despite the long list, the car has never left me stranded and I have never had to organise alternate transport to work due to unreliability. Close call was the oil line rupturing which I was luckily able to drive home.

If you buy a high mileage N54, service history does not mean anything. You have to be on top of the preventative maintenance.

[BM335M]

Correct preventative maintenance is a key for this platform.
I think i will add the silicon vacum hoses to the list as PM item while its all apart.

Despite being an awesome car to drive when things are ok with it, i still believe BMW has let us down having so many PM items to replace at just 100+ks compare to other models.

On the positive side, they are not bad to work on as a DIY for anyone mechanically minded.

[PG]

Don't forget serpentine belt and pulleys

[SE7EN335]

Originally Posted by vtl

All of that stuff is all expected things for an N54 and not even that bad

I've done:

188k kms

Engine:
Walnut blasts (PM)
Turbosmart Diverters (PM)
Vanos solenoids (F)
Boost solenoids (PM)
Silicone vacuum lines (PM)
Injector 2 (F)
Plugs (F)
Coils (F)
Oil cooler line ruptured (F)
Engine mounts (F)
Oil filter housing gasket, thermostat housing gasket (F)
Turbos (wastegates sieze up during track use) (F)
Index 12 injectors (PM)
Fuel filter/pressure assembly (PM)
Fuel pressure relief valve (F)
Serpentine Belt (PM)

Cooling system:
Cylinder head to thermostat hose (F)
Coolant overflow hose (PM)
Water pump (PM)
Thermostat (PM)
Water pump to thermostat hose (PM)
Top radiator hose (F)

Drivetrain:
Clutch and new Flywheel (F)
Differential bushings (F)
Shifter linkage bushes (F)
Selector rod seal on transmission (F)

Electrical:
Battery (F)
Headlight back covers (F)

Despite the long list, the car has never left me stranded and I have never had to organise alternate transport to work due to unreliability. Close call was the oil line rupturing which I was luckily able to drive home.

If you buy a high mileage N54, service history does not mean anything. You have to be on top of the preventative maintenance.

What is the fuel pressure relief valve? never heard of that failing

[juld0zer]

Where did the oil cooler line burst? Mine has reeked of oil without visible leaks for a while now... i should probably order a new one

[MJ80.]

I must be a lucky guy, both my 335s have been peaches.

Ive done the ofhg and valve cover gasket, one water pump, injectors and plugs and coils which are usual maintenance.

[PG]

so far for me in past 32k km (at 110k km now):
OFGH/VC gaskets - leaks
Serpentine belt and tensioners/pulleys - due to broken AC compressor
Coils- preventative
Walnut Blast- preventative
upper coolant hose- preventative
silicon vacuum lines - preventative
Battery
Third brake light (cracked)

previous owner
- HPFP, waterpump after failure

while under warranty (chased up the VIN)
- rear turbo, injectors

[BM335M]

I checked the serpentine belt on mine looks ok from what i can see. Will have to do it later on i guess. Don't want to spend any more $$$ at the moment as its already costing me fare bit to do the valve cover and ofh gaskets.
I noticed the vacum lines are very brittle and hard, where do people get a replacement silicon ones from?

[BM335M]

Completed the OFHG and OFCG last night, coolant outlet hose broke off and will need to be removed from thermostat tonight and replaced with a new one. Not much room there..

New valve cover & fmic are on their way getting delivered tomorrow so hopefully i can put it all back together on the weekend.

Turned out to be a massive job but ive learned heaps during the process and been taking my time ensuring all parts & bolts are accounted for and installed back to the correct torque specs.

When using a torque wrench with 6in extension do you add more torque setting to compensate for the extension?

[rooks335]

Was in a similiar situation some weeks ago, well mine was a redo job.

I used 2000 grit sandpaper (wet) to get that old gaskets off to ensure the mating surface on the engine side is free of old gasket.

[Ken Oath]

Originally Posted by BM335M

When using a torque wrench with 6in extension do you add more torque setting to compensate for the extension?

If the centerline of the socket and the extension (torsion bar) does not change then the applied torque setting will be applied.

It is considered good practice to keep the socket extension as short as possible.
Also the torque will be affected if using an offset adapter.

[vtl]

Oil line got a split in it, nothing was rubbing or in contact with the lines. Made a huge mess

[Boganian Rubes]

Maintenance thread?

[Pete.J]

Originally Posted by Boganian Rubes

Maintenance thread?

Life with a N54 I guess!

[BM335M]

Seems like the N54 cars are all maintenance after they get to around 100k's, to many items will eventually fail or need to be replaced as preventative maintenance. Just not good enough for a premium brand and top of the range model.

If you are good with tools and can diy you will be fine.

[Pete.J]

Originally Posted by BM335M

Seems like the N54 cars are all maintenance after they get to around 100k's, to many items will eventually fail or need to be replaced as preventative maintenance. Just not good enough for a premium brand and top of the range model.

If you are good with tools and can diy you will be fine.

The N54 is BMW's first turbocharged engine in 33 years (first one was the 2002 Turbo launched in 1973). So yeah, there was a lot of unknowns for the engineers designing it, so we ended up getting a beefed up bottom-end and very strong engine internals, twin turbos capable of flowing +20psi, state of the art piezo-electric injectors, to only produce a measly 225kW @8.8psi lol.

The upside though, our engines have so much headroom for tuning, and are capable of making a lot of power in case you think the stock 225kW isn't enough.

The general consensus, once you've replaced the common-failure items once (there's many of them unfortunately), they won't fail again until another 6-7 years. Modern European cars pack much more complex technology than modern Japanese cars, which significantly increases the chances of things going wrong when European cars get older.

I've dumped close to $8,000 on maintenance alone, since the day I picked her up lol (I do all work by myself), and that's not including power and handling mods. Still love her though , she's fast, yet packs way more comfort and class compared to an EVO or a WRX! Gotta pay to play I guess, c'est la vie

[Hoper]

Had the car about 12 months, its now got 90k km on it

Coils (pm)
Plugs (pm)
OFH Gasket (F)
Boost Solenoids (pm)
Diverter Valves (pm)
Vanos Solenoids (F)
Serpentine Belt, Alternator Pulley (F)
Coolant Hose (block to thermostat) (F)
Rear suspension bushes (pm)
Vacuum hoses (pm)
Oil Change (pm)
Coolant Flush (pm)
Akebono Brake pads (pm)
Injectors to Index 11 (pm)

Prior to my ownership it had
Water Pump (F)
Thermostat (F)

Ahhh n54 life