I bought a cheap BMW 5 Series E61 and it ran great for a couple of years until now. The cost of the repair is more than the car is now worth. But I have a cunning idea on how to fix it....
Turbo Techniques in Northampton will rebuild your OEM turbo for a lot less than BMW Main Steelers supplied Turbo (which is also a rebuild, as they keep your old unit) T.T. are even better value than ECP / GSF and they offer FREE collections too. Also, since you took way too much stuff off (as you mentioned in the Vid) this maybe a good time to blank off the swirl flaps (if yours has them) and clean out the EGR valve, while you're there. Have you checked your glow plugs and the control unit ??? They are common to fail on these cars. Further more, don't forget to keep your injectors in the correct order by numbering them (as they are individually coded to each cylinder) plus threat them to new copper washer / seals as they are "one use only". We don't want any blow by after re assembly ;-)
I feel your pain, did the turbo on my 520d, completely the opposite way everything of underneath, turbo included, no dry garage for me though, cold rainy driveway 😩
I’m surprised that the turbo has only lasted 144k (i think that is what you said). My BMW is a 2009 530D with currently 226k on the clock & still the original turbo. The bottom of my engine is a bit dirty but nowhere near as bad as yours. I put the longevity of the turbo down to regular oil changes & longer runs. Keep up the good work & i’d love to see more videos on your bmw. Cheers
Sorry to say, my BMW 5 series is a 2012 with 104K miles and I was just told I need a new turbo and it will cost $5,000 to fix it. I am not a happy camper.
You are doing a great job. Take on board the recommendation of getting the Dpf cleaned while you have access. It would be very silly not to do this when you have the engine stripped down.
Yea you can take the turbo out from underneath.... as the turbo is right near the bottom, might be more mangling but better than taking all the top off. good to know about the rebuild kit, i have an e61 with 190k miles. very slight weep of oil from the turbo
Took the turbo out of my 325d (same engine, smaller bay) by removing the engine mount leg and removing the Dpf first, then the turbo, both out the bottom. Was advised to replace the turbo outlet pipe also. This was a bitch to fit for me as it's almost blind. 208k Miles the original turbo lasted. 217k on her now. Will be driving it into the ground I think
I refreshed mine out of preventative maintenance once i started to hear a howl. Is it worth getting your dpf cleaned whilst you have access? Also good to fit new seals/washers to your injectors otherwise they might leak after refitting. Also worth fitting a cast iron exhaust manifold as the originals are prone to cracking. should be able to get one for less than £100.
Don't understand what's going on here, this appeared in my subscriptions, but it was at the bottom, even though this was uploaded yesterday and has only appeared for the first time today. Not sure if there's anything you can do, I'd imagine it's a RU-vid problem, but I'd imagine more people are having this problem considering the views and lack of comments. Sorry to hear about the failure of the turbo. You certainly saved a lot by doing this yourself. Is there any reason as to why the turbo has failed? Not enough oil changes in the cars life? Blocked DPF? Excess boost? I'm no expert, speaking from my arm chair, of course ;)
according to his mot the past 3 years hes only put less then 15k, probably all short journeys with some long ones once in a while, dpf was clocked caused excessive back pressure and prematurely damaged turbo.
I had a 07 525d 7 years ago, actually thinking about getting another. Seen a few with around 100k miles, prices are about 8k now. I will look out for a 530d, best car I had, did everything really well
Feeling with you, a really ugly and messy job, at least the disassembling. Fingers crossed the bmw works perfect again after that surgery. My last turbo exchange was on a old case tractor... way more easy access... but still a bit of work... Keep up your great work and as always greetings from Bavaria
MY F25 X3 2.0 TURBO JUST BLOWN DUE TO OIL STARVATION DUE TO A TOTALY BLOCKED DPF FILTER Its a bit easier to do having a bit more room so undo the 3 bolts that connect the turbo to the manifold and there's a bracket holding the underneath etc I had it fully reconditioned for £444 at midland turb Nottingham and to be fair it looks like new You have to find out what coursed it to break in the first place and i would definitely get the dpf cleaned or replaced and swirl flaps removed and the glow plugs and module replaced while you have access. I have done loads of work on the n47 engines and on the saloons my e90 turbo is still good after 234000 miles but timing chain has just given up so only a couple of bent valves to do But getting the dreaded glow plugs out i have 1 or 2 snap off in the past its best to spray wd40 and leave them over night on the e90 and f30 its a case of about the 170,000 mark they need a new clutch and flywheel and rear brakes start to bind i hope this helps some one.
I personally think just putting a new cartridge in isn’t the best way to do it. The OE garret cartridges are built to far tighter tolerances and will last significantly longer. The best way I found to do it is just send your turbo off and have the it totally stripped and rebuilt with new parts. As long as the wheels and shafts aren’t totally destroyed then it’s usually not a massive difference in price to putting a new cartridge in. Speaking from experience that’s all. Hope it works for you
I was thinking that the price quoted might have implied a chinese core - will be interesting to see how it performs/lasts. I have owned 5x bmw turbo diesels, never had a turbo problem with one lasting beyond 270k miles just bad luck yours failed so early.
Wow, this looks like a mission and explains the garage costs! Quick question, does anyone know if an engine remap places extra load on the turbo which could cause an early fail? I've mapped my 320d with Superchips and the extra torque is really nice but wondering if this might lead to a big bill in the future.
Some Re-Maps can put extra strain on the engine/transmission and also ask for too much boost that will shorten the life of the turbo. But if set up well then you will be fine. The biggest killer on turbos is the lack of oil
This is extremely worrying, I bought mine inspired by your series. I have had the gearbox serviced already so I guess if this fails then I shall have to ask the garage to do this work. I’ve done bits to the car in my garage but this seems way too involved for my skill level. Hope you manage to fix it and enjoy it once more.
I wouldn't worry about things that could go wrong. If you have already done the tx oil service that is fine. Don't worry about the turbo. Just change the oil every 10k miles and enjoy the car.
Just keep up with your services pertaining to the engine. Fluids and such. Failed turbocharged are usually stemmed from old/dirty fluid clogging the filters which prevent adequate fluid to get to it. This may sound excessive but I would recommend a 4k interval
The videos for the BMW E61 are great. I love this intro song. can you send me the song? That would be really great. I really like hearing it 😊 Thank you.
It’s a easy change I saw a video on it. I’m going to have to change mine…….. literally lost power on the way home so have to see what it actually is but the turbo makes a shhhhhhh sound like it’s letting out all the boost.
You don’t need to take the head off. But now that you have shown this rebuild kit, I will be doing it for sure. Grateful to have stumbled across your channel. Very good human for giving us your valuable time. Kind regards Azrael (520 Msport 2008)
If you label them 1-6 and install them back to the original place you don't need to code them. Only the copper seal at the bottom needs to be changed every time injector is removed. If you mess them up just check the code on the top of the injector and code them with ista+. Easy 10min job.
Took my car for MOT last week. It failed because of stop bulbs not glowing red. I asked why they didn't rectify it. They said it's £84 for builds replacement in focus 59 plate. Local garage doesn't want to make money. I'm glad to see that more and more people deciding to work on their cars themselves 💪🏻👍🏻
You are too harsh to the bimmer. I have 170kw version, 2006, in you measurements 190000 miles. Just a good wash, replace the turbo suction seal and monitor. It's not bad as it seems. Probably you are idling a lot in traffic. Also, you might replace vacum pump seal, it's very greasy, I see, cheap fix.
Turbo on this cars not give up like yours my one on 130000mls and no sign of worn components. Maybe u did something silly before i guess. Also not sure what to do dirty exhaust gas with turbo lifetime? But good to know why remove injectors??
On this engine the air filter housing is part of the cam cover and totally obstructs your view. I did the same when changing the cracked stainless exhaust manifold and fitted new cast one. The cam cover won’t come off without removing injectors
@@RoadandRacetv I don’t think anyone buying this car now would go to BMW for the repair. It still won’t be cheap at an Indy but if you’re buying a car for the tenth of the price new, then you need to expect parts to fail and/or replacing. It’s a click bait title imo but that’s the name of the game lol.
@@RoadandRacetv BMW don't want to waste time doing repairs like this. That's why they charge so much... to deter people from coming. They just want to do the easy stuff like oil changes and brake pads/discs etc. Easy money.
Turbo rebuild to factory specs costs 500-800€ here in Finland. If needed, labor to remove 3h and install 5h so another 500-800€. Turbo job is def not a money pit as is but these are 15-20 year old cars. That said I've dumped over 10k to parts on my 2007 530xd. It's almost fully repaired and reliable now but that's after a complete engine rebuild haha.
that s why their cheap ! lol, u use them until they break and then u buy another one, it s that simple.. if u want a car that stand the miles, buy an Audi or a Merc...
