525i touring wagon - United Bimmer Community

**Jay1981** · 04-24-2007, 03:56 PM

Hello all,

I am looking at buying a 1992 525i touring wagon. It has 130k miles and is very clean. The owner is asking $5000. There a few electrical issues (upper tail light doesn’t work, gate glass door release doesn’t work, rear windshield wiper doesn’t work), but over all the car is in great shape. I currently drive a Honda Accord with 280k miles and virtually no repairs. I’m wondering if anyone can speak for the reliability (or lack there of) found in the 525 of this year? Are there some typical things that you can expect to fail, or that you should look for?

Your thoughts are appreciated,

Jay

**theSMELSINATOR** · 04-24-2007, 04:21 PM

welcome.

as far as reliability, my understanding is that those are fairly reliable cars. however, it does have the "baby 6" engine and being a wagon would be heavier. so that little engine would be working harder and could wear out faster, right? can anyone back me up or prove me wrong on this? without having owned one its hard to say.

as far as that price goes - seems a little high to me. maybe if those electrical things were solved it would seem more reasonable, but that seems like a little much to me.

**c1apton** · 04-24-2007, 05:01 PM

the 525t (touring) are good cars - weak points -> brake light switches, the monster 2 pc sunroof & for your year the timing belt need replacing every 60k, other than that they're every bit BMW. The price is high for year & mileage.

**Jay1981** · 04-24-2007, 05:46 PM

thanks for the input . . . so what should be price be.

What goes wrong with the monster sunroof?

**c1apton** · 04-24-2007, 06:56 PM

The 525t's are a rare breed (similar to the L7s) - I've seen them from 2-4k as an average. (they make great "haulers") re: sunroof - they had a notorious problem w/syncronization of the panels, and it's expensive/labor intensive to reset/adjust.

**Jay1981** · 04-26-2007, 01:02 AM

Well, thanks both for the info. Does anyone else have some wisdom, I'll be talking to the current owner tomorrow, so i have to make a decision in the morning.

Thanks,

Jay

**Eagle** · 07-02-2007, 03:00 AM

Did you get it? all those issues are with the tailgate harness, a common failure on tourings. YOou coudl buty a new harness for several hundred dollars, or spend 30 minutes with a soldering iron and heat shrink and fix it yourself.

Price was very good for a touring. They're rarer than say... a z8 or e36 M3, and more practical than an SUV> In the last year or so the prices have started moving upwards compared to sedans to reflect this.

Oh and it's an M50... no timing BELTS... it has timing chains. (EDIT: I MISTYPED IT MYSELF!!!

)
mine has 180+k on it... there is no problem with the m50 in a touring.

**c1apton** · 07-02-2007, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle

Oh and it's an M50... no timing chains...
mine has 180+k on it... there is no problem with the m50 in a touring.

Just one correction to your statement - there's no TIMING BELT -there are TIMING CHAINS

**Eagle** · 07-02-2007, 04:23 AM

right on, IN attempting to correct the previous 60k timing belt post I accidentally perpetrated the myth!

Fixed!

**c1apton** · 07-02-2007, 06:38 AM

BTW -I dig your touring

denyo77 · 07-02-2007, 02:12 PM

I do, too... the black makes it look even more modern

**Eagle** · 07-02-2007, 05:13 PM

thanks guys... I've put a lot of sweat equity into it.