BMW M5 Forum and M6 Forums banner

Should I Get An M5?

18K views 181 replies 33 participants last post by  V10icious 
#1 ·
So I am considering getting a 2008 E60 M5 with 9,757 miles on it. The dealer has it posted for $44,900. Is it worth spending that much money on a car that I want to tune and make better, and keep until it breaks down? Here is a link to the car:
2008 Used BMW 5 Series M5 at Central Motor Sales Serving Wrentham, MA, IID 15084011
What should I expect for maintenance cost? Can I tune it to 700+hp with stock parts or slight modifications? How should I properly break in the engine? Can I turbocharge it easily? There's lots of questions I have about this and I'll ask them later when I remember them. Remember, this is the car I'm going to kepp, so I want to know what to expect.
 
#2 ·
No. Not unless you have decent cash to set aside for a maintenance program in the not-too-distant-future. The low mileage does not mean that some yahoo hasn't wailed on the engine when it's not ready, nor abused the shifts with launches.

1. Rod bearings - $3K - $4K
2. SMG pump - $Ouch!
3. Throttle valve Actuators - $700 each plus lots of labour.
4. SMG clutch and flywheel - $pound of flesh.

Etc...
 
#4 · (Edited)
Perhaps you should look for the answers to those questions before buying an M5. They are expensive parts that seem to fail well before they should - and the reason is usually some corner cutting on a small item in the part that leads to a bigger fail.

Manual won't have the SMP pump issues - but the flywheel and clutch are still very expensive.
Rod bearings are metal liners that fit around the inside of the donut hole on the bottom of the connecting rods that have the piston heads on top and the crankshaft through the donut hole.
 
#6 ·
I personally do not own an m5 yet, but am on the market and have done countless amounts of research on them over the past few months. It appears to me, if you can afford to have unexpected multi-thousand dollar repairs and a lot of gas, you can afford an m5. Being a manual transmission it will definitely have less problems then an SMG, but there are still a few things to worry about mentioned above. Mainly the rod bearings. only having 10k miles on the car you shouldn't have to worry about them for a while, but some have failed pretty early. Would recommend changing them before 50k miles probably. A Troy built motor is $10k so changing the bearings for around $3k is definitely a good price for peace of mind. There are other smaller issues as well but a quick search will tell you all about other little issues such as ionic modules, misfires, differential problems, etc. Even with all of the issues, I still convince myself I need one lol. Good luck with your research and purchase!
 
#9 · (Edited)
Can I tune it to 700+hp with stock parts or slight modifications?
No. An exhaust manifold and tune will get you to perhaps 570hp.

After that, your options are supercharging (power depends on money spent) or a stroker engine for big money (but at least you retain the normally aspirated nature). See ESS / G-Power for supercharger options, or Dinan for a stroker.

Can I turbocharge it easily?
No. I'd guess that there's just no room for the required plumbing.
 
#11 ·
You can drive it just like it was stock even if it is stroked or SC.
 
#13 ·
Wow such a low mileage 6 speed. Are you in the Mass area? That car is not far from where I am. I'd be all over that if it was a 2009/2010 as an upgrade to my 2008, though its missing many options I have now. It is a one owner car thats been for sale for 18 months and changed hands a few times, wonder why?
 
#14 ·
Dexter Morgan: OK.
Dacan23: I'm actually in the Chicago area, over 800 miles away. The car is a one owner. Do you mean dealership "hands"? What options do you have? And yeah, I agree. Really low miles for s six speed manual.
ACG: Thanks, wanted to know that.
 
#15 ·
Yeah Premier got in Jan 2015 sat on it for 15 months, could not sell it and sent to auction? That seems weird, then place in Wrentham got it. Mileage adds up just weird.

I also have Comfort Access, Alcantra Headliner, Extended Leather, Cool Seats, 20 Way Comfort Sport Seats, and Cold Weather Package.

Dacan23: I'm actually in the Chicago area, over 800 miles away. The car is a one owner. Do you mean dealership "hands"? What options do you have? And yeah, I agree. Really low miles for s six speed manual.
 
#16 ·
If you're gonna buy the car with that low mileage I'd hope the main service issues are not gonna hit you for sometime. The other thing to consider is if this is gonna be your daily commute or a weekend car, more mileage = problems turn up quicker and the fuel bill will be very high. You need a lot of money to mod and maintain these cars, parts are expensive. I've spent around £1k on service issues in less than a year, and 7 times that on mods!

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk
 
#23 ·
If you're gonna buy the car with that low mileage I'd hope the main service issues are not gonna hit you for sometime. The other thing to consider is if this is gonna be your daily commute or a weekend car, more mileage = problems turn up quicker and the fuel bill will be very high. You need a lot of money to mod and maintain these cars, parts are expensive. I've spent around £1k on service issues in less than a year, and 7 times that on mods!
Yeah, the thing I've heard most is the cost of owning a BMW in general, because they aren't the most reliable cars. I do hope the service doesn't hit me right away. Well, then the problems will turn up quicker because this is going to be at the track and a daily commute. Two hits. Wow, $2,000 in a year? $14,000 on mods!? Well, I'm planning to spend $21,000 supercharging it to 700hp at G-power.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Let's assume that the mileage is documented and correct. Whether you buy a car with 10K, 30K, 60K, 80K miles on it - you are going to face the same maintenance, just at different times. Some prefer cars up around 100K miles + if the maintenance has been done (peace of mind etc).

Why I mentioned some yahoo abusing the car is that, if it isn't allowed to warm up properly before spirited driving, if too many 'launch controls' are done, this hastens the arrival of the boogey-man of repairs: the rod bearings - or worse, a spun bearing which chews up the journals on the crankshaft and leads to an engine rebuild. There are lots of cars that never have this issue - but it is well publicized. Some theorize that it isn't the abusive driving before the car is ready (formula 1's have the oil heated before being put in the car), but a design flaw that the new BE Bearings and ARP bolts can address. Others think that it might be related to those who had the car tuned - ie changes in the rev limiter etc - that led to the unintended abusive driving. I think for the same money, perhaps you might want to pay less for a slightly higher mileage E60 from 2008+ with ALL the options, including night vision and adjusting cruise control - then spend the extra on an engine bearing overhaul by JColley or Troy Jeup (sp?). (Or go F10....) Just thoughts.
 
#20 ·
I think for the same money, perhaps you might want to pay less for a slightly higher mileage E60 from 2008+ with ALL the options, including night vision and adjusting cruise control - then spend the extra on an engine bearing overhaul by JColley or Troy Jeup (sp?). (Or go F10....) Just thoughts.
Yeah, good idea. I mean, I'm not going to be able to get the car for a while, I'm just looking so I'm probably going to go with a 2010 or an F10.
 
#19 ·
I personally would be very suspicious of any car from 2008 with that's less than a 1000 a year. There's nothing special about a E60 m5 to lock it away with no use for that many years.

Them cars yoy can knock the miles off in about 10min get us some pictures of interior and llc lose ups of the steering wheel. Just for a laugh
 
#26 ·
G power has its own tune that comes with the kit.
 
#28 ·
If you're looking at spending that much money and want power, have you considered just spending a little more and buying a used F10 M5? There's plenty in the 60k range, and since they're twin turbos from the factory you can easily push them way past the stock 560hp with just a tune. Seems a little pointless to buy an E60 M5 for that much money and then spend a fortune supercharging it, which will inevitably introduce more problems to the already troublesome engine.

Or if you want to save some money, buy a nice clean E39 M5 for $20k and throw on an ESS supercharger for $5k. The E39 M5 takes to supercharging quite well, and there's plenty of room under the hood for a nice setup. The S62 engines are quite robust and can handle hundreds of thousands of miles pretty easily. Plus they're all 6-speeds, so no SMG or DCT issues.

Those are just my two cents.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Iv had both and I tell you for free the E60 has nothing on the F10 we all know the v10 is the ultimate driving machine but if your wanting pure put right power with amazing daily driving capabilities there no comparison. That's just my view on that ����
Yeah this is how I look at E60 vs F10. Or what if I Did an engine swap. Then put on the two F10 turbos?
 
#41 ·
V10 has it's limitations, go look at the F10 discussion group and you will see that some guys are already pushing 800+ to the rear wheels. A car which is already built with forced induction in mind is much easier to modify for more power than a car that came naturally aspirated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M5Ian
#37 ·
The E60 m5 is a very complicated car with a very complicated motor. Throwing a super charger on it and making 700 hp is not nearly as easy as it sounds and will cost a fortune. If you have very large amounts of money this might not be a problem, but if you are looking for a reliable 700hp car, this probably isn't the one if you don't know how to work on it yourself. Knowing if the car was beaten on previously is almost impossible to know. Seeing that car only has 10k miles on it, it probably was beaten on too much, but you never know, there are too many variables.

The E60 m5 is a 5.0 liter v10, naturally aspirated, meaning it has 10 cylinders and breathes naturally. The F10 M5 is a twin-turbo V8, meaning it has 8 cylinders but has forced induction. With a tune, the turbos can push more air into the motor, allowing more fuel to be used, creating more power. It is much easier to make power with a twin-turbo V8 because you can simply turn up the boost.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Stephen,
 
#38 ·
Yeah It does. I already know what turbocharging and naturally aspirated are, and I understand that you can tune it MUCH easier because of the turbos, but I didn't know that the E60 was that much a complicated car. And from what I've looked up, it costs around $24,000 to supercharge from G-Power, giving it 700 HP. I also didn't know that I can't tell whether the car has been previously beaten on, so I would have to buy it in order to find that out. Yeah, it doesn't sound easy to supercharge a V10 but it sounds like a fun project. How come it won't be that reliable if I don't know who to work on it? Because I'll have to do maintenance more often because of increased engine strain? Makes sense. And I do want to knwo the car better and work on it, where can I find that information? I don't want to have to pay extra because I don't know how to do it.
 
#39 ·
These s85 v10 in the e60 m5 is just a complicated motor, with a lot of parts the fail prematurely. The rod bearings wear as a very fast rate compared to most cars, the VANOS pump is know to fail, the VANOS high pressure line is known to fail, throttle actuators, ionic modules, injectors, etc... These are all very expensive parts to replace, and many of them require removing the oil pan which is a very extensive job, and a lot of tools and time are needed to replace these. Adding a supercharger to any engine will make things wear a little faster due to the extra strain it puts on the motor, but can be reliable if tuned properly. If you have the money and have your heart set on an e60 m5, and the drive to learn about the car, I say go for it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top