BMW Werkz banner

My 2004 BMW 530i.. problems with a new car.

14K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  wolverine 
#1 ·
I have had my 2004 BMW 530i (sport + premium package) for a couple months now. Here's what gone wrong so far...

1) Car was delivered to me with 6 (yes.. SIX) faults in the computer. The day after I bought it I had to return it to reprogram the computer, which took the better part of two days. On my drive home with my "new" car, I started noticing things on the display that should not have been there. Including warnings. Dealer's fault for not checking out the software revision before they delivered it to me.

2) A week later, on a coastal drive the computer informs me I have a flat tire. I pull over to a local gas station to check the air pressure. No problems. I limp it home (just in case my "run flat" tires are some how confusing me.) It turns out when they did #1 above, they did not bother to resetup the computer to my car's settings. Nice work! I resolved this tire pressure problem myself through the computer. Dealer's fault for not doing the setup. Although I was puzzled by the timing of this warning. It took a week for the computer to figure out something was wrong. My long drive would have raised the tire pressure.

3) Flat tire replacement, which due to circumstances outside of my control I had to purchase from my BMW dealer. Too bad they charge $500 for a $250 tire. I am not worried so much about the money, but 200% is silly. Dealer's fault for gouging people.

4) Air bags in doors have begun to rattle. I guess that is a German engineering solution to let you know that someone has not stolen them out of your door.

5) Radio/CD player has begun to intermittently fail, producing a steady stream of white noise mixed in with regular signal. Yes, it fails on CDs too. Fix this by shutting off the car.

6) Remote keys ocassionaly seem to lose settings.

7) Paint chips to bare metal very easily on edge of door. (very surprised about this one.) One very slight tap and *boom* a nice 2mm chip. I guess I need those hideous "grandma door guards". My fault..

8) Steering wheel as it lowers into position makes a lovely grumbling/knocking noise occasionaly. A future repair, I'm sure.

9) Now.. TODAY.. right rear wheel is "clunking". Tire actually looks VERY flat. It's on a flat bed back to BMW to fix. If it is flat, I'd guess that the Dunlop tires are a bad choice for city driving. You might consider that when you make a future purchase. Two flats in 4 months. Interesting. We'll see once it gets to the dealer.

I have owned 4 other cars of various initial value. GASP! And two of them were American cars. I have had less problems on those 4 cars in total than this single BMW in the first 4 months.

I guess I consider myself lucky considering it COULD get worse. Some form of serious mechanical failure could be more bothersome, which is what I fear today.

O'well. I'll keep my fingers cross and hope for the best. I'm just starting to get the feeling that this BMW 530i is cursed.

John
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Dang! sounds like a lemon car!!

I'm sorry to hear about all the crap you're going thru. Anyway, I think this is the problem with buying a new redesign model. They need to take the bugs out... I know the iDrive software is not that great. They're still messing with it. If you keep having problems with it, return it and get an 03 model (E39 body) if you can...

By the way, thanks your post. It'll help future buyers

Good luck

LOS
 
#3 ·
Over here in the UK, the runflat's are a real problem - they mess up the ride and handling and they constantly give false readings to the TPC unit. I had runflats on my 530 and got constant false warnings of flats. The only benefit is you can ignore them and continue to drive. Its almost impossible to tell by looking alone if you have a flat as the sidewalls are so strong they stay intact with almost no pressure in the tyre.

I ditched them about 2000 mils ago for std bridgestone so-3's and since then i've had no warnings and the ride and handling are 100% improved.

The door rattles - ask the dealer to check that they are using the latest fastners for the door panels. I too had rattles in the door and they fitted new fastners which have a small rubber washer which sits between the plastic fastner and the metal ddor frame.
 
#6 ·
One, I am going to replace the run flats. You are 100% correct when you say they give me false warnings. I guess I'll research a good set of tires.. I'll take a look at your Bridgestones.

Also, thanks for the e60.net tip. That was very helpful for E60 users.

I've got a couple more broken bits on the car. We'll see what they decide to do about the problems. I have a service appt in a week or so.
 
#7 ·
Shame about your ride surf - you should be enjoying what was promised to be a fantastic car (like it's predecessor). I know this won't help you out and I'm not trying to be pedantic, but, every new car has it's probs and hopefully BMW will listen and get them all sorted out for future revisions.

Hope you get sorted and choose to stay with beamer.
 
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