BMW F12/13 640i - major bork points?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi all,

I've been keeping my ear to the ground for a decent e63 630i coupe for a while now and not coming up with much - either tired examples with loads of owners or very low miles but a price tag that is hard to justify on a near 20 year old car that is going to be used daily. Not looking for super rare spec - sports heated seats which seems fairly standard, and a pano roof. Logic 7 would be icing on the cake. 100-130k miles max. Slightly sensitive to colour, but flexible.

Anyway, I have eschewed looking at the next gen cars (F13) because of the watered down looks and what I perceived to be an increase in complexity and decrease in reliability of later BMWs. N52s seem to be pretty much unburstable and I have a 10 year history with M52/M54 engines which I like a lot.

However, I've just been looking at an ad for an F13 640i and it seems like a lot of car for the money. I assume it has the N55 I6 turbo - how reliable are these? I've heard horror stories about the N53 and N54 so does it just get worse? What else goes wrong with the cars? Is there major bork potential on a car 10+ years/100k+ miles old? (more so than an equivalent e63)

Not sure if I should hold my nose on the looks and get into one of these or go older with something with less potential bork factor...

[oldaudi]

I moved from a 630i to a 640i. I completed 20K miles in about 18 months and nothing went wrong in my 2012 model. It had a good BMW history and appeared to be serviced on time, every time.

Under my ownership I continued with the on time servicing and it never went wrong engine wise. I had one issue when a brake dust shield fell off, made a horrible noise against the wheel. Zipped tied it back until the garage could fix it but the cost was very low.

It failed one MOT with a snapped spring and cracked wheel.

I moved to a M4 and moved the 640i on at 78K miles and as I've mentioned before, the F 6 series was better built, not much slower and a better place to be.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Interesting, thanks. How did the F13 compare to the E63 in general? Also, given the N55 is a turbo engine are they often remapped for power? I'm not hugely fussed and would prefer reliability to outright power, but it's interesing to know. 315bhp seems adequate for a daily!

[danb79]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Hi all,

I've been keeping my ear to the ground for a decent e63 630i coupe for a while now and not coming up with much - either tired examples with loads of owners or very low miles but a price tag that is hard to justify on a near 20 year old car that is going to be used daily. Not looking for super rare spec - sports heated seats which seems fairly standard, and a pano roof. Logic 7 would be icing on the cake. 100-130k miles max. Slightly sensitive to colour, but flexible.

Anyway, I have eschewed looking at the next gen cars (F13) because of the watered down looks and what I perceived to be an increase in complexity and decrease in reliability of later BMWs. N52s seem to be pretty much unburstable and I have a 10 year history with M52/M54 engines which I like a lot.

However, I've just been looking at an ad for an F13 640i and it seems like a lot of car for the money. I assume it has the N55 I6 turbo - how reliable are these? I've heard horror stories about the N53 and N54 so does it just get worse? What else goes wrong with the cars? Is there major bork potential on a car 10+ years/100k+ miles old? (more so than an equivalent e63)

Not sure if I should hold my nose on the looks and get into one of these or go older with something with less potential bork factor...

The N55 is a solid engine; not as tunable as the N54, but a lot more reliable and deffo one I'd be happy with - personally I wouldn't touch the N54

As you said; the M52, M54 and N52 engines are nigh on bullet proof and easy to fix/maintain etc (superb engines, all of them)

I'd love a 640i too and it's a car I've considered for a while; just not the right time for me

[jv021]

I had a 640i (late 2017 model yr) for almost 6yrs and aside from servicing (annual oil changes vs when the car said), I had no issues with the car

My indy said they are pretty good with frequent oil changes / maintenance, he did mention early N55s did have some fuel pump and injector issues, but later engines were generally ok

I am now looking for a F10/F11 535i or possibly a late E91 with the N55 - key things I look for when the odd one comes up is proper service history and general condition, if its been well looked after and not modded, you should be fine

[parabolica]

I went from a 2003 645ci to a 2012 640i in 2015; had it for 3 years and the only negative thing that happened during that time was the panoramic roof deciding to no longer wanting to be a roof, and covered me in glass whilst driving down the M3. Mechanically it was the most reliable car I've ever had; no issues, no snags, no unwarranted services or consumables.

All that said I never gelled with it the way I did with my 645.