2001 325CI poorly maintained.. need advice

So i just picked up this 325CI off ebay.. thought it was a steal for the price.. clean carfax.. 3 month warrenty.. sport package..not a ding or a scratch on the thing.. perfect. So i get it a few days ago, and just got it inspected by my mechanic who i trust with my life and he said it probably had 2-3 oil changes in the 55 thousand miles it has on it. There was burnt oil all over the oil cap and a little inside. That plus the anti-freeze was empty.. and the engine light wasnt on which was an added bonus. The 3 days b4 this ive been driving it and wow.. it drives nice. The first thing i did was get an oil change. But now i must decide.. what to do. Sell it? or keep it and if it goes get a new engine. Plus i tend to push my cars sometimes to the limit and with this i obviously cant due to past maintenance issues. How well are the BMW engines made? Can they withstand this kind of poor treatment?

- very few oil changes in 55 thousand miles
- received car and anti-freeze was practically empty
- burnt oil on oil cap and inside engine
- oil light goes on for a good 15-20 seconds when the car starts then goes off once it heats up.

i feel like crying.. for all the trouble i went through to get this car.

so my question is.. what would you do in this situation?

The oil light is what is really looking bad. The lack of oil changes wore the engine down a lot, and probably wore down the head gasket to where it eats the antifreeze.

If you don't want to sell the car, you could always just swap the engine for a new (better maintained one), because in 55K miles nothing else should be in too bad of shape.

Or you can sell the car, but you'd be screwing someone else over unless you tell them the problems with the car.

Drive it. BMWs are marvels of technology and superb metallurgy. You might also be suprised to hear that a common "problem" is for BMWs to appear to have junk under the oil cap but its not a sign of anything in particular. It might die in which case you can get a similar mileage engine replacement from a junkyard with great chances of having an engine that will last you another 300k.

Do a few short interval oil changes over the next 10k and just drive it. As long as it doesn't burn oil, have a knock or piston slap, you probably have another 200k to enjoy you Bimmer.

Also, keep in mind that if the oil was changed 5 times in 55k, that's not too much more than the factory recommended interval. 7500-10,000 miles is common on later Bimmers.

In the future, keep this in mind: BMWs have the first several years of regular maintenance free, so 95% of owners take their cars back to the dealer for the free oil changes. Since BMW keeps records of that maintenance, you can call BMW to check up on how many times the car was brought in for its scheduled work. You might be able to find that info on your car as well. Its not ironclad since the previous owner may have had some of the work done elsewhere, but it would be an indicator.

You might also be suprised to hear that a common "problem" is for BMWs to appear to have junk under the oil cap but its not a sign of anything in particular.


Absolutly, infact every 4 and 6cyl BMW Iv worked on has had it. Even the best maintianed ones.

BMW is one of the worlds top engine builders for a reason, they really do know what thier doing, and build some very tough engines.

I believe the oil light coming on at start up is a common problem two.
I know on some later models of BMW it's lite so you don't drive away the moment you turn the car on, instead you give it 10-15 seconds to build some good oil pressure.
But it may also be related to the non-return valve in the oil filter, or filter mount.
Sometimes the fail, and the oil drains out of the filter, and has to be replaced causing the temporary drop in oil pressure at start up.

could also be caused by sludge that i see when they actually wait the 10k incriments bmw reccomend, i would do every 5k from now on, but i would really like to see what the oil pickup screen looks like, it may be ok but if it were me i would get rid of it.