1988-1995 E34 5 Series Pattern Failures

I had a 1995 BMW 530i which thankfully never left me stranded from 2011 to earlier this year when I retired it and sold it. These are some common issues I found on the car, and I also learned from a local group of enthusiasts in the Hampton Roads area about these cars. Don’t get me wrong, they’re awesome cars, and I only ever got stranded once, but these cars are very maintenance intensive, if generally reliable.

General failures affecting most models:

Delicate door brakes – The doors are prone to breaking the door brakes if they are slammed often. This happened to me when I went to college for a year, and let my younger brother drive my 530i, he succeeded in ripping the door brake out and causing me to have to get a new driver side door as the loose brake punched through the sheet metal on the outside of the door, bent the window linkage, and caused a lot of damage. If you search on forums for these Bimmers, there’s tons of issues related to this.

Cooling system faults ( general ) – The cooling system on the E34 BMW is relatively robust when serviced correctly, but it suffers from cruddy OEM parts a lot of times. Among these are the coolant level sending units failing, causing false coolant level warnings, water pump impeller disintegration leading to system failure, fan clutches locking up and seizing a fan, leaking radiator after 100k miles. The general consensus is, if you have problems, replace EVERYTHING and don’t worry for another 100k, this is clamps, hoses, radiator, fan clutch, water pump ( aftermarket with metal impellers are available, OEM is plastic and crap ), sending units, thermostat, and overflow tank (likes to crack). I had all of these things happen, and more, in my BMW.

Seat recliners not working – Caused by the motor cables backing out of their plugs, PITA as it requires seat removal and a lot of patience to get the linkages back in and lined up.

Cracked intake manifolds – these use a plastic manifold and they’re known to break after 100k – 150k, mine was replaced at 120k

1995 AC systems – First year they used R134a, the compressor clutches have a tendency to fail, and leaks around the compressors high and low hoses are common too.

Hood strut failures: These have an easy fix – the E34 ones are terrible, get OEM E32 ones, they will fit if you wedge them, their gas charge is much stronger and they last much longer.

530/540i failures:

Nikasil motors – The cylinder sleeves in these models are either made of Nikasil or Alusil alloy, the former is known to break down when bad petrol is used in them. If this happens, you need either a resleeve or a new motor. Most motors were replaced under warranty.

Rough idle, CEL, cold weather starts and loss of power – Besides Nikasil motors, the problem areas are: cracked intake boots, fouled/worn out plugs, valvecover gaskets leaking, valley pan gaskets, O2 sensors, ignition coils, MAF sensor. No particular order, but I had to do all of these things before mine would idle fine in the winter, and this was confirmed by a few chaps online.

Valvetrain noise – if your car has over 100k and you’re using the recommended oil, you can often get valvetrain noise from the lifters. The easiest way to quiet this is use thicker oil and Lucas oil stabilizer. These cars have a tendency to lose oil pressure as they age very quickly

Oil leaks: Most common places for these to leak are VANOS gaskets, crank and cam seals, timing chain gasket, valve cover gaskets, valley pan gaskets

Cooling system: For these cars they have a tendency to slash the upper radiator hose from the radiator fan – do be careful and make sure the hose is away from that when replacing!

Don’t let this discourage you from being an E34 owner. Mine survived a rear brake caliper disintegration, a very leaky transmission seal, three overheating events that were caught early, a bunch of repairs to the engine over the course of its life. I had it from 130k to 183k, and the person I sold it to says its still running at 186k just fine. They’re great cars, if you take care of them. Questions about them, ask away.