[335e92tx]

Originally Posted by iqraceworks

What point are you trying to prove? You keep contradicting yourself......

You say you can't find oem non molested ones....then you say you had/have one.

You say they burn oil.....then you say yours didn't.

You say they are maintenance hogs....then you say yours wasn't.

You aren't doing a very good job of getting your point across......whatever that might be.

You didnt see me type anything about maintenance ace.

Dont put words in my reply
I said you found one. They arent that common ace.. 12yrs of experience with two (not ONE) tells me so. I still know who owns my first one and i KNOW it uses oil.. thats the reality.


The second one I Got was with 12.7K miles - that needed an airbag so it got delayed on repair for that reason SALE - and its an IS They dont get beat on anywhere like a 2007 -2009 n54

. Thats how you find pristine ones.
Good luck with that.

If you dont think thats a lot of happenstance combined with mega legwork.. then go do it yourself..

[iqraceworks]

No need to get triggered.....relax 😁

[ky0u]

Originally Posted by Saif2018

Cheap to buy, probably,

But not cheap to run and maintain.

Ah the classic case of, your car value depreciates, maintenance costs do not

[Torgus]

I think it's the best performance for the $$$ out there.

Performance wise it's relatively cheap up to 500whp if you DIY. After that things start to get more expensive. The next 250whp cost is significantly more.

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by Torgus

I think it's the best performance for the $$$ out there.

Performance wise it's relatively cheap up to 500whp if you DIY. After that things start to get more expensive. The next 250whp cost is significantly more.

Isn't that pretty much the case for all cars? I really can't think of anything you can get cheaper than a 335i that will get you over 500hp without having to dump some big money into it. Even older LS powered cars that were 325-ish hp from the factory are going to cost you decent money to get them over 500hp.....

Plus......the 335i's look at hell of a lot better than those 4th gen camaros

[erttuli]

Mine doesn't burn oil at all, with 0w40. Clearly this doesn't happen to every n54. Then again, I have no oil leaks. 230k km's.

[ky0u]

Originally Posted by erttuli

Mine doesn't burn oil at all, with 0w40. Clearly this doesn't happen to every n54. Then again, I have no oil leaks. 230k km's.

iirc, BMW considers a certain amount of oil burning to be normal with the n54s Something like 1qt in 750 miles is still considered within spec. There's an official TSB for it


Edit: found it: TSB SI B11 03 13

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...49281-9999.pdf

[Jklad]

These cars, like most modern luxury cars, are money pits if you daily drive them. Tuned or not, if you're putting 15-25k miles a year on a used n54, you might be better off financially leasing a new bmw and eliminating the headaches. I purchased my 2007 in 2010 with 38k miles, and I'm now at 155k miles and it's 13 years old. The amount of bs I have replaced on this car for maintenance is ridiculous, and I'm meticulous about my maintenance. Almost Every part peripheral to the engine has been replaced at least once, there is crap plastic or rubber everywhere and literally disintegrates with age. Yes it's quick with a basic tune and bolt ons (by 2007 standards). But you'll be paying the difference in maintenance real quick if it's your only car. If you just use it as a fun weekend car, it can be fun to tool around in as long as it's not having issues! I would never recommend this car as a daily driver to anyone, unless perhaps they do work themselves but even then replacement parts get pricey.

[alexwilcox29]

Originally Posted by Jklad

These cars, like most modern luxury cars, are money pits if you daily drive them. Tuned or not, if you're putting 15-25k miles a year on a used n54, you might be better off financially leasing a new bmw and eliminating the headaches. I purchased my 2007 in 2010 with 38k miles, and I'm now at 155k miles and it's 13 years old. The amount of bs I have replaced on this car for maintenance is ridiculous, and I'm meticulous about my maintenance. Almost Every part peripheral to the engine has been replaced at least once, there is crap plastic or rubber everywhere and literally disintegrates with age. Yes it's quick with a basic tune and bolt ons (by 2007 standards). But you'll be paying the difference in maintenance real quick if it's your only car. If you just use it as a fun weekend car, it can be fun to tool around in as long as it's not having issues! I would never recommend this car as a daily driver to anyone, unless perhaps they do work themselves but even then replacement parts get pricey.

Exactly my thoughts about these cars! I got my car 2 years ago and it's been a complete money pit!

Like I said earlier these rubber and plastic pieces only last so long especially out here in arizona, I've made a habit ordering any pieces that look breakable while doing maintenance!

This car isn't my daily driver and I can barely keep up with its issues but then again I'm at 21 psi and plan on going further!

It gets harder and harder to recommend a 335 to my friends to ask

[iqraceworks]

I agree....I would never want a 13yr old n54 as my daily driver and only option for transportation.

That being said....I would never want a turbo LS Camaro, a supercharged fox body mustang, or any other type of "play" car as my daily driver either.

These are play cars....not cars to just get you from point a to point b. For a "play" car...I'm still saying these n54 335i's are one of the best deals out there for the money.

Old Camaros and mustangs are going for $7,000+ and will need another $8,000+ put into them to get them looking as nice, handling as good, braking as good, and making as much power as the 335i does....with just some bolt ons and a tune.

[Jeef]

a lot of people daily their N54's.

the car is aging and majority of the new owners are 2nd, 3rd and 4th owners. once you replace the items that fail you usually are good to go for as long as the previous part lasted.

now a days we have FCPeuro lifetime warranty parts for those who want to take the time to save some money and don't care about down time/wait time for shipment.

[riczon.335i]

I have daily driven mine since 19k now at 131k and I've been tuned since then. I destroy her everyday so it's just a luck of the draw to get a shitty 335i (I blame the driver /s).. I'll be getting another one since I love this platform, I have used FCPEuro for all my parts so for me it's worth keeping my car forever until she burns down to the ground, not worth getting a new loan on a car and car payments tired of that crap. I enjoy driving my 13 year old car it's been super reliable.

[Torgus]

I would argue the e90 pre lci is probably one of the best 'sleeper' cars out there for the money. My 07 awd I-drive 6mt was the shit. auto or 6mt no one expects a 4 door grocery getter to be fast. It could be making 700whp and look exactly the same stock exhaust etc.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by iqraceworks

Yeah....they take some maintenance...but it's not like you are putting all that much into them once you do the plugs, coils, and oil change. Any 10+ year old used performance type car is going to take some maintenance to get it back where it should be. Most people don't maintain them...and then sell them for cheap when they have issues. Not many people want an old, out of warranty BMW..no matter what it is.

That's where guys like us come in

Yes I agree, most of the problems is because many owners cheaped out on maintenance and passed the buck onto the next owner.

When I bought mine about 2 years ago, I found out the oil filter housing gasket was not done, leaking, valve cover gasket wasn't done, leaks from main Sump gasket, crank seals, wastegates shot, water pump was leaking, coils weren't done, and plugs probably had 50k plus on them, plus track Rods siezed, coolant system leaks, boost leaks, old vacuum lines, cracked vacumn canister etc

Bought it cheap, and Probably spent 5k+ fixing all the issues. Since then, it's been running fine with no issues.

[Vulcan50]

To me the maintenance isn't terrible if you can do it yourself. I bought mine 3 years ago for $8k or so. I have put around $4500 into it. Included in that is going FBO, new belt/pulleys, any orings/gaskets, new Bilstein b14 coilovers, brakes up front, and M3 suspension arms up front. So if I didn't do any unnecessary stuff, $1000-1500.

The N54 was way ahead of its time. To the point that a lot of non-high end vehicles are using similar things. So there are inherently some issues that will pop up, but at this point they are so well documented and the aftermarket is so strong, that repairs often last and don't carry a terrible price tag.

To me anything in the $5k-8k range would need most of the same actual maintenance items. And like still wouldn't handle as well or look as good.

If I went to a dealership with $13k I'd get a preowned Cruze or something. No thanks

Side note:
Your point regarding young people buying, ruining and selling, personally I see a lot more of them getting a second life. Not to say you were wrong, because unfortunately what you said is side effect of an affordable price tag. But I see more that people who do their own wrenching are putting new life in them.

[Vulcan50]

Saif2018

I agree. I tend to look at ownership of these cars as having 3 stages

New/CPO/warranted:
Well maintained and fixed because it's covered by the purchase

Mid life:
Buyers over extend to get the status of a BMW, but can't afford pop up issues and don't maintain them properly.

End of life:
Purchased for great performance value, repaired and modded.

(This is a generalization and not always the case, but I believe that it's pretty accurate among a lot of premium vehicles.)

[kwatkins12]

Agree that it is one of the best performance bargains you can get right now. And if comparing financial aspects of maintenance of these compared to an American V8 we can also consider the insurance differences. I know for me (part of the younger demographic on here who most seem to dislike) when I was looking at options a mustang or camaro was much more expensive to insure compared to the 335 which somehow is not much more than my Jetta before. And on the German front you can get maybe a decent B8 A4 for around 10k but mods for them are much more expensive and you won't come close to n54 power wise.

[JM98]

Not too many 11 second cars out there you can buy at this price point with 2k in mods.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by 335e92tx

Bro,, I sold my first 2007 with 134K miles (in may 2017 - for 3500$) after it just had the second WP fail.. and it went 260+

and it used oil ( a quart every 1500miles - and still does with the current owner at STOCK BOOST) even though I never beat on it..

So yeah.. you got lucky..

Iv owned n54s since april2008. I think I got a pretty good idea how they age..
But you just rock it..

I've done about 2k miles, just lost about 250ml. They do use oil,

1 litre every 8,000 miles is normal.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Vulcan50

To me the maintenance isn't terrible if you can do it yourself. I bought mine 3 years ago for $8k or so. I have put around $4500 into it. Included in that is going FBO, new belt/pulleys, any orings/gaskets, new Bilstein b14 coilovers, brakes up front, and M3 suspension arms up front. So if I didn't do any unnecessary stuff, $1000-1500.

The N54 was way ahead of its time. To the point that a lot of non-high end vehicles are using similar things. So there are inherently some issues that will pop up, but at this point they are so well documented and the aftermarket is so strong, that repairs often last and don't carry a terrible price tag.

To me anything in the $5k-8k range would need most of the same actual maintenance items. And like still wouldn't handle as well or look as good.

If I went to a dealership with $13k I'd get a preowned Cruze or something. No thanks

Side note:
Your point regarding young people buying, ruining and selling, personally I see a lot more of them getting a second life. Not to say you were wrong, because unfortunately what you said is side effect of an affordable price tag. But I see more that people who do their own wrenching are putting new life in them.

Pre owned cruz,

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Vulcan50

Saif2018

I agree. I tend to look at ownership of these cars as having 3 stages

New/CPO/warranted:
Well maintained and fixed because it's covered by the purchase

Mid life:
Buyers over extend to get the status of a BMW, but can't afford pop up issues and don't maintain them properly.

End of life:
Purchased for great performance value, repaired and modded.

(This is a generalization and not always the case, but I believe that it's pretty accurate among a lot of premium vehicles.)

Agreed, if you find a N54 that has been properly maintained, then the problems are minimal and its generally reliable,

Whilst all you see on the Internet is N54 = Unreliable

And a jap lemon that you can run to the ground = Reliable lol

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Jklad

These cars, like most modern luxury cars, are money pits if you daily drive them. Tuned or not, if you're putting 15-25k miles a year on a used n54, you might be better off financially leasing a new bmw and eliminating the headaches. I purchased my 2007 in 2010 with 38k miles, and I'm now at 155k miles and it's 13 years old. The amount of bs I have replaced on this car for maintenance is ridiculous, and I'm meticulous about my maintenance. Almost Every part peripheral to the engine has been replaced at least once, there is crap plastic or rubber everywhere and literally disintegrates with age. Yes it's quick with a basic tune and bolt ons (by 2007 standards). But you'll be paying the difference in maintenance real quick if it's your only car. If you just use it as a fun weekend car, it can be fun to tool around in as long as it's not having issues! I would never recommend this car as a daily driver to anyone, unless perhaps they do work themselves but even then replacement parts get pricey.

Been daily driving mine for almost 2 years,

Since I got the problems fixed, which was expensive I admit , I haven't ripped any car as hard as my 335i and it's been reliable,

It can get expensive true. Certain parts are expensive, like turbo's, HPFP etc

Not everything is expensive though. Its thirsty on fuel but which performance car isn't,