6.0

fairly significant
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
179,000 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints

Most common solutions:

  1. not sure (1 reports)
Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2004 BMW 325:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #1

Nov 152017

325 XI 2.8L Inline 6

  • Automatic transmission
  • 179,000 miles

Upon purchasing this car there was certainly a slight burning oil smell, but I really loved the vehicle so I overlooked it and just went ahead and bought it. The burning oil wasn't a huge issue, I simply added a quart or two every 4 weeks and carried on with life. After doing tons of research and troubleshooting on the car, and I mean tons, I discovered that my issue almost guaranteed is the piston rings in my engine being separated much more than they should be simply from age and wear, which is allowing the oil to come into the engine and burn. Screw fixing that, as I have neither the time nor resources. What really f**ked me was when I had my mom watch the car for me while I was in Army Basic Training and she forgot to drive it for a month after running the vehicle for a hot minute or two to be backed into the garage. With the short run time the vehicle experienced cylinder wash down, (another common issue with these engines), and with already having the piston rings separated more than what's safe there wasn't any compression whatsoever to try and get it back up and running. In the end I had to part out the vehicle, and I was deeply saddened by losing such a beautiful yet unreliable companion.

- Jon W., Harrisburg, US