E83 BMW X3 - which engine

[Car Obsessed]

Evening all.

Decided on one of these for the wife’s next car.

It will definitely be automatic, but just after some thoughts on which engine is the one to go for?

We’re on a budget, so will be looking at cars with around 100k miles. No real concern over MPG or ULEZ as will do relatively low miles and won’t visit ULEZ areas so just looking for the most reliable option.

Are all of this era of diesels pre-DPF? If so, not really concerned over petrol or diesel either.

I think the options are 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0 petrol and 2.0 or 3.0 diesel.

So please let me know any thoughts/experiences to hopefully help narrow down the search.

Cheers

[Car Obsessed]

Thanks very much, so that’s narrowed it down to a 2.5 or 3.0 petrol, and probably not a later 2.5si in order to avoid the higher tax bracket.

My search has creeped on to X5s - we can get a 4.4 V8 in budget - any reliability horror stories with these?

[Watchthis]

Valve steam oil seals

[Chris Hinds]

In all honesty, if you're avoiding the 2.5Si because of the higher tax band, then avoid the X5 v8 too... that will be higher tax band and more costly to run!

Having driven both an early 2.5 and a later 2.5Si, I'd personally seek one of those as "adequate" for the type of car.

[Car Obsessed]

Yes, good point about the 4.4 running costs.

And the high tax, avoiding it is more because I already pay it on my other car so don’t really want another one in that bracket!

So apart from the tax, is there any major difference between the 2.5i and the 2.5si? Or should I just buy based on condition regardless of which version?

[trevalvole]

Car Obsessed said:

Yes, good point about the 4.4 running costs.

And the high tax, avoiding it is more because I already pay it on my other car so don’t really want another one in that bracket!

So apart from the tax, is there any major difference between the 2.5i and the 2.5si? Or should I just buy based on condition regardless of which version?

I suspect it is not the engine (M54/N52) that determines the tax, as the one with the N52 actually emits less CO2 (something 228g/km) than the M54 (something like 289g/km) in auto and therefore also uses less fuel on the official tests, but just whether it was registered before 23 March 2006 (see the * note below the table in https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables/rates-f... So an M54 registered before 23 March 2006 will currently pay £395 VED, one registered after will pay £695 VED and a N52 will pay £675.

As a non-BMW person, my impression is that the N52 is more advanced than the M54 and more powerful, but does have things like electric water pumps and lifter noise that can be an issue.

[Mr Tidy]

trevalvole said:

I suspect it is not the engine (M54/N52) that determines the tax, as the one with the N52 actually emits less CO2 (something 228g/km) than the M54 (something like 289g/km) in auto and therefore also uses less fuel on the official tests, but just whether it was registered before 23 March 2006 (see the * note below the table in https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables/rates-f... So an M54 registered before 23 March 2006 will currently pay £395 VED, one registered after will pay £695 VED and a N52 will pay £675.

As a non-BMW person, my impression is that the N52 is more advanced than the M54 and more powerful, but does have things like electric water pumps and lifter noise that can be an issue.

You're right, M54s and N52s tend to fall into the same Tax Band, it's the 23 March 2006 cut-off that's the problem.

The N52s are more powerful and rev higher, although in an X3 the latter is probably not a priority! I really like them so I've got my 4th now in a 330i as they seem to be less troublesome than the later N53 that can suffer from injector and High Pressure Fuel Pump problems.

True the N52 had an electric water pump that will die at some point (so does the N53) and will cause overheating within a mile which can be inconvenient. And OE Pierburg pumps cost nearly £300 so long as you don't buy from BMW (£500+ for the same part). But you'll probably only ever need one so some owners replace them for peace of mind.

The valve lifter "ticking" tends to happen on cars that don't get used daily and even on those it will stop after a decent drive - luckily it doesn't actually seem to cause any problem, apart from being irritating.

Oil leaks from cam-cover and oil filter housing gaskets aren't unusual given their age now, but M54s suffer those problems too.