Preventive Maintenance? - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

CWY_M5 · 12th August 2006, 16:11

Just wondering, how many people swap things out before they fail - just so you won't be "FORD" - found on road dead.

my '00 beast has 85k miles now. Other than the suspension, front end, bushings, etc which I will definitely address this winter as my winter garage project, any comments with things like water pump, thermostat, fuel pump, alternator, etc etc?

Just for kicks, when do you have parts fail that leaves you dead on the road? What else should I be looking out for?

Chino

ard · 12th August 2006, 17:56

Spare tire in the trunk. This has to be the vastly more likely failure that will leave you wating for a truck.
Battery?
Hoses?

At some point the odds of failure of one specific part get so small, and are distributed to 10, 20 items that the cost to replace all is silly. Choosing 2 or 3 to replace is a crapshoot and doesn't change, really, your odds of getting stranded.

KirklandM5 · 12th August 2006, 18:02

1. Battery
2. Belts
3. Rebuild Entire cooling system Radiator, pump, thermostat, ALL HOSES. maybe at around 80K miles
4. Alternator good til around 120K miles

DrewKeen · 12th August 2006, 18:17

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

My fuel pump died at right around 100k and left me stranded. I got it towed and replaced it myself.

Mike Krieger · 12th August 2006, 18:21

Since you are driving a 2000, I think the most important preventative maintenance you could do to save money, but not affect your ability to drive would be to take off the pipe between the two heads for the secondary air injection and drill a hole in at as shown many places elsewhere on this site, and periodically spray carb cleaner in it just before starting up when your engine is cold. The air pump runs for about two minutes and will blow the carb cleaner through the ports in your heads and prevent the carbon build-up that will cost you over $8,000 to fix. Next I would buy BeastPower rear sway bar brackets because if your stock brackets aren't broken now, they will be soon.

mottati · 12th August 2006, 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Krieger

Since you are driving a 2000, I think the most important preventative maintenance you could do to save money, but not affect your ability to drive would be to take off the pipe between the two heads for the secondary air injection and drill a hole in at as shown many places elsewhere on this site, and periodically spray carb cleaner in it just before starting up when your engine is cold. The air pump runs for about two minutes and will blow the carb cleaner through the ports in your heads and prevent the carbon build-up that will cost you over $8,000 to fix. Next I would buy BeastPower rear sway bar brackets because if your stock brackets aren't broken now, they will be soon.

there is nothing special about a 2000 that leads it to develop carbon buildup. The other years will have it happen with the same frequency (which is not that great) as they age. I have yet to see anyone proove spraying carb cleaner into the smog ports will help prevent this. (or perhaps not cause some other damage down the line somewhere). My car had it's heads off at 73k miles, and the smog ports were not blocked at all, there was a little carbon in them, but they were 90% open.

Sway bar brackets will break, but i can't see how they would leave you stranded. I replaced my thermostat and water pump at the 73k mark just because the engine was apart, and figured it made sense at the time.

We have not seen huge issues with failing radiators with the m5, like 540s, perhaps just not as many numbers, but i can't recall any posts on the board. The M5 rad is a different part than the 540, so perhaps that is why. I've been told by both my dealer and my independent shop that hoses are easily 100k items, so i'll wait on those. Do check your fan clutch, i had mine become loose around 50k, got it replaced under warranty, but they do occasionally fail, and can make a mess.

I once replaced a fuel pump on my e34 525iT prophylactically at 100k, only to have a defective replacement that failed 5k miles later leaving me on the side of the road, so i'm waiting until my oe unit fails! How old is your battery?

I too carry a spare on trips, around town, i take my chances with M mobility. Then again, i could walk home if needed and get my spare....
Mike

Mike Krieger · 12th August 2006, 19:48

Congratulations on your clean heads. For those of us who have higher mileage (and 2000s are more likely than others to have high mileage), the carbon thing is a big deal. Since the hole in the pipe is a cheap project and could delay the need for head removal until you want to take them off for something fun like porting, I think it is a good idea. I suppose the proof you seek would require someone with partially blocked ports to measure the air flow through the ports, then install the hole and perform the carb cleaner routine for a while and then measure the flow through the ports to see if it has prevented more build-up. I find that to be an unlikely scenario since most people would just clean the ports if they had the heads off. I suppose someone really devoted might spend the money for the sake of research or to help other board members, but it is an expensive experiment. If you had clean ports to start with and after running the experiment you still had clean ports, it wouldn't prove anything so you fortunate souls without the carbon problem can keep doing whatever you are doing. For those of us with the SES light and not enough money (my dealer wants $12,500) for the cleaning, it seems like good preventative maintenance, although as you pointed out, and as I mentioned at the beginning of my post, these will "not affect your ability to drive."

wilsodh · 14th August 2006, 01:06

Hi Mike,

The original 'pioneer' on this was Luke 'LLCoolM5'. He did the drilling/solvent procedure, but it did not meet with much success. After cleaning out his secondary air tubes and running solvent through the system (including the head ports), I believe his SES light came back on in a few months, prompting him to contemplate more extreme plumbing measures. Granted, his secondary air system was clogged before the solvent procedure, but in a separate experiment he exposed carbon scrapings from his secondary tubes to various strong organic solvents. The scrapings did not show encouraging solubility tendencies. The evidence might suggest that occasional exposure to carb cleaner will probably have minimal impact on the chronic deposition of this hard carbon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Krieger

For those of us with the SES light and not enough money (my dealer wants $12,500) for the cleaning"

Have you taken this up with BMWNA directly? PM me and let's discuss. Alternatively, if you want to get your light off, we are hoping to get in our first trials of our secondary air system by-pass circuit in September. If you would like to participate, let me know.

Dave

FredW · 7th November 2006, 03:26

I just read the latest recommendations from the Tech editor in Roundel Magazine. The three things recommended that I've not done in the past on my other BMWs are changing the water pump and thermostat at 60,000 miles and the radiator at 90,000 miles.

His recommendations were aimed at the generic 3s and 5s. I'm wondering if the M5 has heavier duty cooling or it might be a good idea.

I'm at 67,000 miles now.

SCC · 7th November 2006, 07:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilsodh

Alternatively, if you want to get your light off, we are hoping to get in our first trials of our secondary air system by-pass circuit in September. If you would like to participate, let me know.

Dave

Dave this is the first I have heard of these trials. Is there a thread that discusses what this is all about? If not is this going to be an open discussion? Thx

Chris