Thinking about a new car and found a interesting 8 year old Beemer that has only done 25k miles. Its a peach and it all looks genuine. But whilst it has been serviced on the button i was just wondering if things like belts just degrade over time and might leave me with a bill once I start to get it back up to a more normal mileage.

Whats the collective wisdom?

I’d change the cambelt. But I wouldn’t by an 8 yr old car with 25k on the clock either 🙂

why?

Quite a few beemers run a cam chain and NOT a belt …
Worth looking into as they rarely need changing.

Just a belief that its better for a car to be used and serviced regularly that sat around not doing anything.
I’ve only ever owned two cars tho…..so I’m no authority 🙂

That’s just over 3k a year,hmmm,think I’d want full BMW service history & all MOT’s to back up this low mileage myself.Usually the belts ‘n stuff get changed after a period of time regardless of mileage,or at least they should be…

But I wouldn’t by an 8 yr old car with 25k on the clock either

Me neither. I’d rather have a 2 year old car with 50,000 on the clock.
All sorts of things perish or pack up on cars that have hardly been used. It’s also a safe bet it’s only ever done short journeys, and that does ruin things. The engine never gets hot, so oil turns to sludge, the condensation sits in the exhaust and rots it from the inside and it’s spent it’s life running rich so it gets coked up.
A full service history on that car could be just once service…..

yep, check it could well be a chain.

realised the other week that my car is 3 years and 50kish iirc miles overdue a belt change!

Id be more than happy to buy it but would naturally expect a few issues from standing. That said, my toy car has been standing for 4 out of the last 5 years, nothing has perished and it all works fine. its also 21 years old.

Perhaps it’s better to say that rather than not to buy it, go into it as cautious as you would be as if you’re buying a car with galactic mileage.

just don’t overpay because its low miles, and often folk who do low miles still service to miles rather than years

indeed, but to be honest you should enter any car buying with she same level of paranoia, hence to me it makes no odds.

I guess the low mileage wouldn’t bother me.
Mine’s 8 years old and only got ~29k on it, and it had about 22k when I bought it about 4 years ago.
I have wondered about getting the cam belt changed though as I dunno how much they age fatigue.

generally 5-6 years is about the recommended limit ignoring duty.

Depends how its been stored between miles . If its sat for long time stationary without precautions its as bad as doing loads of short cold runs . Im in te peterpoddy camp on this .

An 8 year old BMW, if it has been serviced by the dealer, will be in the dealer computer. You can call them to verify servicing etc.

If it’s genuine I’d go for it.

The oil will not turn to sludge lol.

Looked it up and its a chain and main dealer (Park Lane no less!) so will check there records. It is absolutely mint so think I’ll take a punt.

The oil will not turn to sludge lol.

To be fair this is a known problem with certain engines, certain oils and certain usage cycles, but not something I’d worry about with a BMW that has been dealer serviced.

http://www.schleeter.com/oil-sludge.htm

The oil will not turn to sludge lol.

Laugh all you like sunshine, I’ve seen it and removed it with my own hands. White mayonnaise like substance on the underside of the rocker cover. It was me that unbolted the rocker cover and scraped it off.
Would you like me to explain exactly how it’s caused?

Generally mayo sludge is a failed headgasket, but I suppose the two look reasonably similar.

I’d rather you didn’t enlighten me with your mayo Peter, thanks.

I wouldn’t buy a car that’s been averaging so few miles, it’s likely to be far more worn out than one half the age with three times the mileage. Cars like long journeys, they don’t like short runs and they don’t like sitting around unused.

Agree mayo would make me look at hgf but Its also caused by cars where there has been condensation forming in the engine resulting in mayo under the rocker.

I would probably take a punt on the motor but treat it for its age not its miles when offering. Sadly idiots will pay because its low miles.

“Mechanic hat on”

Mayo in the oil pathways and sludge build up in the rocker cover can be caused by repeated short stop/start journeys, thus the car is not getting up to correct operating temperature and this can lead to further wear and tear on critical engine components as oil at startup is rather viscous and unable to flow freely – short journeys can also cause condensation build up in the engine due to the oil not reaching operating temperature which then cools prematurely and causes condensing water vapour to accumulate inside the engine thus leading to the familiar “Mayo” syndrome

“Mechanic hat off”

For this reason i (pretty much) would never consider a very low milage car for it’s age unless it was a classic or something out of the ordinary, as it has likely been driven on short journeys and by someone who is not mechanically sympathetic or understanding of an engine and how it operates. One of my work places is only 2.5 miles from my house, if/when i decide to drive to work my car will only reach an operating temperature of 51 degrees on such a short journey so i will take the long way to work which takes 8 miles and raises the temperature up to 92 degrees, and similarly i never use my car unless i know it’s going to get up to operating temp.

FWIW it’s a Mk2 Golf with a 1900cc 16v ABT tuned and fully rebuilt engine so obviously i want it to last a long time as i can’t afford anything else but all engines/cars should be treated with similar respect.

i once had ‘mayo’ visible in the sight glass of an air cooled yamaha engine.
there was no radiator, therefore no coolant.
my mate (who is a supremely competent home mechanic) told me not to worry, it woud disappear after a good hot run.
he was right, it did.

indeed, condensation based “mayo oil” is totally different to sludge and HG failure mayo, with a little experience it is easy to spot. I’m glad there are plenty of people who are worried about low mileage cars, plenty for me to choose from. 🙂

Full service History is a must on most old cars, remember it is a monthly/annual thing to.

But dont be silly about it use your common sence. I work with a guy who has bought cars with full service history, with the opinion this is good. but they hadn’t had the major work carried out they just had a stamp.

I bought a car for half the price with half the miles. No book service history but recipts for all major work. and mileage at time.the garage wont accept this as service history. But the key is to actuly look through it and not to take a stamp to mean all good things.

I’m glad there are plenty of people who are worried about low mileage cars, plenty for me to choose from.

Still plenty of other people who’ll pay over the odds for something with low mileage. When for the same money as an 8yo car with very low mileage you can get one several years newer which has done rather more miles. Even if you ignore the actual disadvantages of very low mileage, that results in rather poor value.

Personally I’m glad that so many people are worried about high mileage cars – without the downside of anybody being willing to pay lots of money for one.

When for the same money as an 8yo car with very low mileage you can get one several years newer which has done rather more miles. Even if you ignore the actual disadvantages of very low mileage, that results in rather poor value.

😀 of course, unless you want the older car rather than the newer ones (which are invariably ugly, over-controlling beasts these days!). To be fair my background does mean I’d not really be phased even if something pretty catastrophic happened to it providing I’d got it for a decent sum, which does sway my advice I suppose. My advice is treat each car on its own merits, don’t rule out high or low mileage, new or old, for generalised reasons.

Full service History is a must on most old cars, remember it is a monthly/annual thing to.

But dont be silly about it use your common sence. I work with a guy who has bought cars with full service history, with the opinion this is good. but they hadn’t had the major work carried out they just had a stamp.

To be honest I generally ignore the service history, seen quite a few in my car hunting (for me and others) that have been shockingly badly looked after despite having FDSH. Seen enough stupid mistakes made by dealer mechanics that I don’t trust anyone else with my cars, FSH means little. To anyone who isn’t confident I suppose it’s the only hope they can cling to, but IME it’s not worth much unless it accompanies an immaculate car.

Recently went to see a Toyota with a FDSH that looked like it had been dragged through a hedge backwards and left in a ditch for 12 months, rattled like a bag of spanners and had corrosion all over the subframes etc (2006 car). Compared to a private car 5 miles up the road with no SH which was pretty much flawless with zero corrosion, zero rattles and 3 years older.