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Thread: Interested in high mileage M5, what do I look for?

  1. #1
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    Interested in high mileage M5, what do I look for?

    Hi, I'm really close to buying a 2000 M5 with 120,000 miles on it.

    The price is damn good (below 25k), and otherwise I wouldnt be interested in such a car.

    What are some problems besides the carbon build up that I should be concerned about? What is going to need to be fixed in the next 10-20 thousand miles?

    thanks

  2. #2
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    The clutches are not worth a crap, make your that when you get into it hard in 3rd or higher that it doesn't slip.

    Crawl under the rear of the car and look at the rear swaybar mounts, I think they are just aluminum straps and they break constatly-- not expensive or all that hard to fix tho.

    Other than that, they don't have any unusual problems in comparison to another car with the same mileage.
    BMW LEVEL 1 AUTOMOTIVE TECH AT WEDGE KYES
    2001 525I.

  3. #3
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    just bear in mind that most parts for the m5 are signifigantly more expensive than for other e39's. we had one in a few weeks ago that needed an alternator, cost $700 for the part alone.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Venable View Post
    The clutches are not worth a crap, make your that when you get into it hard in 3rd or higher that it doesn't slip.

    Crawl under the rear of the car and look at the rear swaybar mounts, I think they are just aluminum straps and they break constatly-- not expensive
    He speaks truth on clutches. Many consider them a normal wear item to be replaced with every second set of tires.

    Advise some searching on M5board to get some more info but I'll add to this list:

    1) Get a PPI

    2) MAF and Vanos problems were frequent sources of problems when these cars were young and those things are very $$$

    3) with that mileage I would be thinking entire rear end might need to be rebuilt (bushings etc) along with concern of slop in d/s, rear diff and both drive axles. M5s put these items through some severe punishment.

    Ask me how I know.

  5. #5
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    The only 2 vano's problems I know of were on a few early production cars that would bleed down after sitting a while and would rattle during start up because they lacked an accumulator that the later models had. The fix is included in a bulletin at your local dealer, but it's about a $700 fix. The other problem i've seen is people who don't change there oil enough or drive there M5's like they are on the way to a local seniorcitizen BINGO meet. These cars have problems with the vano's building up oil sludge in the unit's. Somtimes you can get them out with a speacial procedure that the dealer can do (but I ownly personally know of 1 other person in the country that knows about this) to force the sludge out of the vano's. Other times, you just have to replace the vano's unit (unless you have the guts to try and take it apart and clean it.
    BMW LEVEL 1 AUTOMOTIVE TECH AT WEDGE KYES
    2001 525I.

  6. #6
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    I just went through the same thing. If you are already paying $25K, I'd pitch in another $5K and you'll should be able to get the mileage down to 60K or so. Also, then you could also get an extended warranty to cover some of the repairs. There was an 2000 (or mayby 2001) on e-bay with only 44K miles with a bidding around $30K, but it was pretty rough cosmetically, but hey, only 44K miles.... I ended up buying an immaculate 2002 with 67K miles.

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