[hzhn]

Hi everyone,

I bought a 2011 BMW 335i sedan auto w/sport package, N55, and iDrive, with 65000mi. This is my first BMW, and I plan to keep it for at least 4 years, so I'm looking for some suggestions to maintain this car. I drive around 8000mi per year with 80% highway.

1) From carfax, last oil change was performed on Oct, 2015, which means I need to change oil asap. BMW LL01-FE approved oil are Castrol Syntec European Formula SAE 0W-30, Mobil 1 SAE 0W-40, Pennzoil Platinum European Formula Ultra SAE 5W-30, and Valvoline SynPower SAE 5W-30. What's difference between 0W and 5W? (I live in southern California), Which one has the best cost–performance ratio?

2) Oil filter also needs a change. Does any filter would work? Which one would you guys recommend? (please specify model)

3) Spark plugs haven't been changed since car was build. Should I change them? Does Bosch ZR5TPP33 work with N55 or other plugs recommended? What tools do I need?

4) What other things do I need to change or fix at this point? Gaskets? Water pump? belts? Can I DIY or do I need to take it to a shop?

Some problems I'm noticing:
5) I can hear little bit of engine tick sound while driving. Is this signal of coming water pump failure? (Oil temperature are normal, always little below and never passed 250F) or what other potential problems?

6) After driving for a while, when I backup the car and steers all the way to an end, the engine rpm jumps between 600 and 1100 rpm. What could be the issue? Should I change steer fluid?

Also, should I get an aftermarket warranty? do you guys recommend any one?

Thanks!

[Wilt]

2011 335i plugs should have been changed at 45k miles, per the 2011 Service and Maintenance book which was supply with the new car.

You might think about walnut blast to clean the intake valves and chamber, but this is apparently needed more often with N54 than with N55.

Check for leaking Oil Filter Housing Gasket and for leaking Valve Cover Gasket.

Only about 11% of owners polled have water pump or thermostat issues with <60k, another 18% in the 60k-100k interval...
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...807187&page=10

...makes you wonder.

A bit early for the serpentine belt or hoses (cooling, A/C, steering).

You should be due about now for a new battery...6 years!

[blackhawkk22]

In the order you noted:

1. I'd go for Motul 5w-40 X-cess. Its LL-01 and is great for warmer climates

4. When I got mine, I changed all the gaskets; had someone do it for me. Had it for 30k miles and no issues so far.

6. I don't have that issue with the BMW (or haven't noticed it yet) but I've seen and heard it many times in the past in other cars as well. Probably a power steering pulley/belt issue but thats jut a guess. Have the intakes cleaned and call it a day.

I have route 66 after market warranty. Highly recommend it.

[MadToy]

Get a code reader and check for codes that don't show up as a CEL. I bought an '11 with 65k on it also, and didn't realize it needed a water pump till I read the codes and saw a few water pump codes there.

Yes on changing the plugs - and also the coils while you're at it. If you're comfortable working on your own car, most maintenance is very easy to do yourself.

Mine does the same thing when backing up at full lock also, as did my previous '11 335. So I write it off as normal...

[Arby1028]

I also have a recently purchased 2011 335i and am working on the maintenance now. When you change your plugs be sure to have a thin walled socket - $7.50 at AutoZone. A regular spark plug socket will not work.

Change your air filter and cabin filter. I had an alignment done and am getting ready to have the tranny fluid and differential fluid changed. Brake fluid flushed and power steering fluid changed.

[Efthreeoh]

Here's my advice. Just to qualify myself, I've owned BMWs for over 28 years with combined total mileage on 4 cars of over 780,000 miles. I DIY everything except tires and alignments. All of those miles are on cars I bought new, except one, which had 22K on the clock (now has 61,000). My N52 E90 has currently 315,000 miles on it.

The E90 has a built in condition based maintenance system that tells you when you need to perform maintenance. You are going to drive the car 32,000 miles in the next 4 years mostly on the highway in not-harsh environmental conditions (So Cal), so it will not need much maintenance because the major maintenance items are all at the 100,000 mile mark (trans, diff, and coolant changes). There is no need to over-maintain the car since you are only keeping it for 4 years and less than 100,000 total miles. The turbo motors have more mechanical issues than the non-turbo (N52). From what I've read on this Forum, the N55 engine seems less problematic than the older N54 version. Save your money for repairs rather than spending it unnecessarily on over-maintenance. Over-maintenance does not improve the reliability of any car and doesn't help much at resale, since most cars are sold at higher mileages when aged components start to fail because parts just wear out due to use. Keep it out of the sun when parked.

Regarding oil, use any LL-01 spec oil in either 5W-30 or 5W-40 weight, that's what the owner's manual calls for. You sound like a person that will not follow BMW's long oil change interval, so you'll not get any cost/performance ratio because the LL-01 spec is meant for long oil change intervals and most oils are priced with in a few dollars of each other. Use a BMW OE oil filter, or a MANN OEM filter HU-816. Do not use any other aftermarket filter because they do not fit correctly. If the plugs are original, they need to be replaced. The best advice you've got so far is get a BMW scan tool and an OBDII code reader so you scan the car periodically for codes that don't throw a warning symbol in the gauge cluster.

Aftermarket warranties are just an insurance policy. Most of them do not cover the repair of the common problems the E90 has, so read the fine print. The few I've reviewed don't cover leaking gaskets or electrical components, so for an E90 they are pretty much useless, since gaskets and electrical components are pretty much the weak points in any BMW.

Good luck with it.

[robthewrench]

1) Castrol, but others are OK as well.

2) Mann oil filter or BMW branded part. No others.

3) The Bosch plugs you reference or BMW branded part. No others.

4) Keep an eye on the waterpump, it will fail without warning. Based on your mileage I would have guessed it already failed and was replaced. Serp belt, you can DIY. Coolant change. Brake fluid change. Battery if original will fail soon, is probably weak now.

5) Ignore the tick. The engine ticks, not a sign of anything wrong.

6) Many owners have some idle surging issues. At full steering lock, the computer will boost the engine idle as the steering pump is at full power and slowing the engine via the serp belt. This is a normal 'feature' of the car.

[STR8-6IX]

dont forget to do a full transmission flush, it is due at your mileage.

5w-30, 5w-40 oil is highly recommended for your engine

best of luck

[Herakles]

Curious how much did you guys pay for your 2011s

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by Herakles

Curious how much did you guys pay for your 2011s

Curious to know too. I might be trading mine in soon, need to figure out the ball park of what my trade would be.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by 6IX-F10-N52

dont forget to do a full transmission flush, it is due at your mileage.

5w-30, 5w-40 oil is highly recommended for your engine

best of luck

NOT a 'flush' of A/T fluid, merely a fluid 'change' of what is in the pan...and the filter is built into the ZF pan, so you need a new pan+filter. BMW says A/T fluid change at 100k miles for both the 328i (GM tranny) and the 335i (ZF tranny).
ZF recommends fluid change at 60k miles, but also says "Follow the recommendation of your (car) manufacturer".

[STR8-6IX]

Originally Posted by Wilt

NOT a 'flush' of A/T fluid, merely a fluid 'change' of what is in the pan...and the filter is built into the ZF pan, so you need a new pan+filter. BMW says A/T fluid change at 100k miles for both the 328i (GM tranny) and the 335i (ZF tranny).
ZF recommends fluid change at 60k miles, but also says "Follow the recommendation of your (car) manufacturer".

ive flushed the transmission fluid on my zf box. a fluid change with your old filter is useless. do you change the oil in your car without touching the filter? no, you dont. the new fluid will be going through the same old dirty filter. if ZF claims 60k and GM says 100k, thats what you follow because the ZF is sensitive to fluid. after flushing mine, the transmission started to operate better at 67k. the only time you would ever not want to risk your fluid is if you are at 150k+k and neglected to FLUSH your fluid for the transmissions life. new fluid will ruin it.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by 6IX-F10-N52

ive flushed the transmission fluid on my zf box. a fluid change with your old filter is useless. do you change the oil in your car without touching the filter? no, you dont. the new fluid will be going through the same old dirty filter. if ZF claims 60k and GM says 100k, thats what you follow because the ZF is sensitive to fluid. after flushing mine, the transmission started to operate better at 67k. the only time you would ever not want to risk your fluid is if you are at 150k+k and neglected to FLUSH your fluid for the transmissions life. new fluid will ruin it.

ZF recommendation has you put on a NEW PAN at the time of the fluid 'change', and the new pan has a NEW FILTER integrated into it! (I said that in the last post.)
ZF says to change the amount of fluid in the pan, and no need to try to flush out fluid up in the tranny itself, that the new fluid in the pan has sufficient additives to accomplish the benefits of the fluid change. From postings three months ago...

"Q: And The oil from torque converter?"
From ZFServicesNA...
"A: A drain and fill procedure will refresh your transmission well enough without fully draining the converter. If you’d like to discuss the procedure to drain the converter, please call our technical service department (800) 321-0784."

[STR8-6IX]

Originally Posted by Wilt

ZF recommendation has you put on a NEW PAN at the time of the fluid 'change', and the new pan has a NEW FILTER integrated into it! (I said that in the last post.)
ZF says to change the amount of fluid in the pan, and no need to try to flush out fluid up in the tranny itself, that the new fluid in the pan has sufficient additives to accomplish the benefits of the fluid change. From postings three months ago...

"Q: And The oil from torque converter?"
From ZFServicesNA...
"A: A drain and fill procedure will refresh your transmission well enough without fully draining the converter. If you’d like to discuss the procedure to drain the converter, please call our technical service department (800) 321-0784."

yes, this is what i mean by a flush - replace the pan which has an oil filter built into it. I noticed less torque converter lag and better throttle tip in immediately after doing the full flush (they didnt even bother draining the oil, they took out the pan right away and let everything fully drain that way.) so not even touching your torque converter during the process will still help. I was about a litre low on fluid (?) when i did this, so i highly recommend you guys with 60k+ miles on your ZF AT to get this done.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by 6IX-F10-N52

yes, this is what i mean by a flush - replace the pan which has an oil filter built into it. I noticed less torque converter lag and better throttle tip in immediately after doing the full flush (they didnt even bother draining the oil, they took out the pan right away and let everything fully drain that way.) so not even touching your torque converter during the process will still help. I was about a litre low on fluid (?) when i did this, so i highly recommend you guys with 60k+ miles on your ZF AT to get this done.

Stop calling that a 'flush'!!! There is a procedure called 'flush' which can be done on A/T to FORCE FLUIDS thru the system to 'clean it out', and that causes more harm than good to an otherwise functioning A/T. Your persistence in using the term 'flush' is unnecessarily confusing and can lead someone to have something done which is harmful to their tranny.

http://transmissionrepairguy.com/tra...-fluid-change/
http://mdhmotors.com/transmission-fl...-transmission/

[STR8-6IX]

Originally Posted by Wilt

Stop calling that a 'flush'!!! There is a procedure called 'flush' which can be done on A/T to FORCE FLUIDS thru the system to 'clean it out', and that causes more harm than good to an otherwise functioning A/T. Your persistence in using the term 'flush' is unnecessarily confusing and can lead someone to have something done which is harmful to their tranny.

http://transmissionrepairguy.com/tra...-fluid-change/
http://mdhmotors.com/transmission-fl...-transmission/

I explained what i mean as concisely as possible. some people on here are saying that replacing the oil pan filter isnt good for your AT. is this true? i think the filter should always be replaced during AT services.

[6ixSpd]

@Wilt

[Delta0311]

I said this in another thread and I'll say it here. When doing the tranny pan/filter and fluid also replace the mechatronic sleeve. It is a $20 part that does fail, mind as well kill two birds with one stone or do the process all over again when it does fail.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by 6IX-F10-N52

I explained what i mean as concisely as possible. some people on here are saying that replacing the oil pan filter isnt good for your AT. is this true? i think the filter should always be replaced during AT services.

On a ZF transmission you HAVE TO replace the pan in order to replace the filter...that is what 'integrated' means.

"I explained what i mean as concisely as possible."...you are misusing terminology, but you don't seem to understand that point. If I call you an 'Kiwi' although you live in Toronto, I am misusing the term even if I explain it.
If I tell you that you need to ask for an 'espresso maker' although you only want an ordinary cup of brewed coffee, I am misusing the term 'espresso maker' in telling you what to ask for. Trying to get you not NOT suggest that someone 'get a flush'

[Herakles]

I had an offer of 28k this past summer on my 2011, had 18k miles at the time - loaded with m package -

[C_Y88]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

Curious to know too. I might be trading mine in soon, need to figure out the ball park of what my trade would be.

$18.8 bought at dealer, KBB had suggested retail at $21.4

2011 335i Coupe with 42,xxx miles, Auto, Sport package, hi-fi sound system, no i-drive/nav, well maintained and had it looked at by an independent mechanic who gave it two thumbs up

[hzhn]

Thanks everyone...

Water pump was not replaced before I took ownership...should have read the code before I bought it.

However, coolant reservoir was replaced at around 60k mi. Don't know the exact cause of it.

From firestone ppi they told me there was no leak... will replace gaskets once anything leaks

Regarding engine oil... I heard Mobil 1 0W-40 is no longer LL01 approved, and GC is hard to find...... Does Castrol Edge 0W-40, 5W-30, or 5W-40 work with N55?