Re: 91 BMW 535i - Any known defects/Common points of failure????????

Ben Martin wrote:
I am looking at possibly buying a 91 BMW 535i with 131,000 miles.

Have there been any special concerns with this make and model?

Thanks in advance.

- Ben

It auto-tranny - when was it last replaced. They're good for about 130k miles if not abused.

Check the condition of the camshaft lobes (open the oil fill cap and LOOK) - there are bolts holding an oil-spray rail down that liked to back out and cause a loss of oil-spray. BMW replaced these on late model M30 engines with loctite'd ones.. which have a circular groove cut into the head (also visible through the oil cap..)

Other than that - suspension - check it for wobbles at 60-80MPH. If it does - it needs work (bushings primarily). If on original struts and shocks they are very tired by now. Check drivers door for cracking where the door-check (thing that keeps door from opening too wide) goes into the door - they all do it - there are repair kits for it, hopefully the repair has been done. Make sure HVAC all works - this car used R12 so if it doesn't - it's expensive to fix (requires an R134 conversion, new compressor, all that good stuff..)

That's about it. Nice comfortable powerful car. Especially nice if a 5-speed (which were rare..)

Generally - look for things that would be wrong on any 16 year old car.. not that there are that many US ones that old still running around.
.

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