E38 service and repair guide?

[richyb]

Hello all, I've recently acquired a bargain barge 740i and I am planning to do a fair bit of maintainence on it myself but I am a bit stuck for finding detailed manuals. Now Haynes was my first stop but they do do one for the E38 (or any 7 series from what I saw) so I have been looking elsewhere. Found this (bottom of page) http://www.johnsmodelcars.co.uk/acatalog/Manuals.h... but at £75 its a bit pricey. Anyone know of any good alternatives? Have seen cd based manuals on ebay which I assume are BMW mechanic issue ones that have been copied but I find these a bit hard to follow. Anyone help appreciated.

EDIT- There are used copies of his on amazon for £50 odd but thats still a fair bit.

Edited by richyb on Sunday 12th October 14:28

[richyb]

sparks87 said:

Sorry I can't help you, but how are you getting on with the 740? I remember the thread about it, lovely car.

Really well actually. Clocked up about 250 miles in it so far. Had a nice long motorway run down to Kent and back which, despite a few playful moments, returned 32mpg. Very surprising. Like most guys I'll be pretty excitably for a few months with my new toy so I am planning a few bits - renewing the pads and fluid, oil change, filters and plugs etc. Hence looking about for manuals. Only problem I have encountered was when I refilled my washer fluid when I got to nearly full I had some leak out from under the car, not from me spilling it so I may have a crack somewhere. Going to investigate soon. Thanks for asking, highly recommend it one if you ever are in the market for a barge.

[richyb]

Egbert Nobacon said:

Its also worth changing the auto box fluid/filter and getting the gearbox software updated.

Had it done on my 740 after purchase and it made a big difference.

Very underestimated cars IMHO and the fuel economy is surprisingly good.

I got the TIS and EPC discs from ebay and find they are quite good.

Will the software definately be outdated? Mines a V plate. What sort of price would a auto boxfluid and filter change and software update be?

The discs are in really good nick so I am going to leave them but will replace the pads with some new ones. I have used mintex several times before and have been happy with them. Anyone heard differently? Going to do the fluid at the same time and also fuel/air/oil/micro filters. got a recommendation form the opie thread on oil so going to get some fresh stuff in there.

[richyb]

A S P said:

Isn't there an E38 specific forum?

Search there for 'E38 manual' and you'll bound to find someone's posting a PDF of the actual BMW workshop guide.

I did use the search facility but as anyone who uses it will vouch it is a bit hit and miss.

[richyb]

MrVelox said:

The Bentley manual is much more in-depth than the TIS CDs on eBay.

At the age of your car I would consider replacing the cooling system, especially the rad and expansion tank if they are original. Ticking time bombs they are.

Yeah I know the cooling systems are a bit iffy on the E38. The radiator, expansion tank and some of the couplings are supposed to susceptable to cracking so I am going to bear it in mind. I've checked it over myself and no sign on any leaking or white water marks at present. A radiator and expansion tank will be about £150 then fitting and coolant. I am going to replace the viscous fan at some point too as thats known as a failure point. A fairly simple job to do from what I've seen and should only be about £50 odd for the whole coupling. A fairly long list of what I want to do over the next six months!

[richyb]

MrVelox said:

20 pounds worth of special tools, a screwdriver and some 10mm spanners and you can swap the expansion tank and rad yourself. Since your car has a Vanos engine, you should do the e-stat and hoses as well. TBH, you should do the water pump, and while you're at it yank the intake manifold, change the valley pan and put a new oil separator on the back of the intake and change the intake manifold seals. All common failures, might as well do it all while you're at it.

Thats a fairly hefty 'while you're at it' list!!! I will look into the radiator and expansion tank renewal. How long a job would it be? For as pro mechanic say, 1 hour and a half? Not that I'm a pro obviously but I can base it around that.

[richyb]

MrVelox said:

20 pounds worth of special tools, a screwdriver and some 10mm spanners and you can swap the expansion tank and rad yourself. Since your car has a Vanos engine, you should do the e-stat and hoses as well. TBH, you should do the water pump, and while you're at it yank the intake manifold, change the valley pan and put a new oil separator on the back of the intake and change the intake manifold seals. All common failures, might as well do it all while you're at it.

Oh, and "prone to cracking" means the upper rad hose snaps off the rad and the car pisses out the contents of the cooling system in a matter of seconds.

E38s are lovely, they are monsters to maintain. I've driven one for.. hell, 13+ years and the same one for closing in on 12 years... you ought to see how quickly the heat in FL can eat a Behr rad.. 14 months is my record!

Just a bit of an update. I was going through some SH and founda print out of a diagnostic report in the service history and found a few interesting bits I'd missed before. Lots o oil/insp1 &2s listed on it and dates/odos but the interesting bits are new radiator and water pump @ 85k (now at 120k), new thermostat @ 96k, renew fuel tank @ 99k (not exactly sure what this means but it sounds like the whole fuel tank was replaced?), steering rods X2 @ 97k and Drag link X2 FRONT @ 108k (no idea what this is0. Hopefully this covers a few from your list!

[richyb]

sniff diesel said:

richyb said:

renew fuel tank @ 99k (not exactly sure what this means but it sounds like the whole fuel tank was replaced?)

My 325i E36 had a new tank, on the E36 the rear brake pipes run over the tank necessitating the tank to be removed. If they found a damaged or rusted tank it would have made sense to replace it then to save on labour in the future, or it could have been drilled by a fuel thief.

I see. No history relating to it apart from this diagnostic report. Does the OBC contain all this data? I'll go get a recent one if it does.

[richyb]

Egbert Nobacon said:

richyb said:

MrVelox said:

20 pounds worth of special tools, a screwdriver and some 10mm spanners and you can swap the expansion tank and rad yourself. Since your car has a Vanos engine, you should do the e-stat and hoses as well. TBH, you should do the water pump, and while you're at it yank the intake manifold, change the valley pan and put a new oil separator on the back of the intake and change the intake manifold seals. All common failures, might as well do it all while you're at it.

Oh, and "prone to cracking" means the upper rad hose snaps off the rad and the car pisses out the contents of the cooling system in a matter of seconds.

E38s are lovely, they are monsters to maintain. I've driven one for.. hell, 13+ years and the same one for closing in on 12 years... you ought to see how quickly the heat in FL can eat a Behr rad.. 14 months is my record!

Just a bit of an update. I was going through some SH and founda print out of a diagnostic report in the service history and found a few interesting bits I'd missed before. Lots o oil/insp1 &2s listed on it and dates/odos but the interesting bits are new radiator and water pump @ 85k (now at 120k), new thermostat @ 96k, renew fuel tank @ 99k (not exactly sure what this means but it sounds like the whole fuel tank was replaced?), steering rods X2 @ 97k and Drag link X2 FRONT @ 108k (no idea what this is0. Hopefully this covers a few from your list!

There is an issue on some E38's with splitting fuel tanks and the only real solution is replacement.

As to all the other bits, it sounds like most of the possible expensive work i.e. cooling system, rad, suspension has been done already.

You must be chuffed

Yeah, to be totally honest I was a bit anxious when I read your post earlier (not you, thanks for making it) but I feel much better seeing a lot of its been done not many miles ago. Some of the stuff was done a few years ago but not a lot of mileage has passed since. My car was owned by one guy who had it for 5 years and clocked up 110k then its had another owner who did harldy any mileage over the next few years. Going to do all the service bits in the next month along with the viscous fan coupling and drive belt and hopefully I should be up for a lot of trouble free motoring.

[richyb]

sleep envy said:

Rich - tried to email you but your account doesn't accept emails

any chance you can drop me a PM please, need to pick your brains about chainsaws, ta

Are PMs down this morning or am I just plain daft? I can't seem to work it out. I'll PM you as soon as I do.

EDIT-It was just me .

Edited by richyb on Sunday 26th October 08:14

[richyb]

B'stard Child said:

MrVelox said:

20 pounds worth of special tools, a screwdriver and some 10mm spanners and you can swap the expansion tank and rad yourself. Since your car has a Vanos engine, you should do the e-stat and hoses as well. TBH, you should do the water pump, and while you're at it yank the intake manifold, change the valley pan and put a new oil separator on the back of the intake and change the intake manifold seals. All common failures, might as well do it all while you're at it.

Oh, and "prone to cracking" means the upper rad hose snaps off the rad and the car pisses out the contents of the cooling system in a matter of seconds.

E38s are lovely, they are monsters to maintain. I've driven one for.. hell, 13+ years and the same one for closing in on 12 years... you ought to see how quickly the heat in FL can eat a Behr rad.. 14 months is my record!

Good advice but one thing I disagree with - Valley pan gaskets don't fail in the UK - not heard of one go here on any forum - seems to be a US thing - maybe your climate has a lot to do with it

Anyway

Awesome barges - my long term maintanence thread is on the 7 series register probably page 13 ish now as I've not had to do a thing to it for months except feed it petrol (averaging 25-27 mpg but will hit 30 plus on a run) and oil and filter changes every 3000 miles

Covers - plugs, Auto box fluid and filter change, air con re-gas, heater control solenoids plus a load of other stuff I've had to do - what I would suggest is not the header tank - they are deifiantely improved on the later cars 1998 on but the coolant hoses at the back of the engine bay - common problem on 5 series cars with the V8 seems to affect 7 series cars too.

That web site

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e38/

Has been done by Tim Meek who is a walking talking encylopedia of E32 and E38 information and it very active on the 7 series register

I have been using this website for info. Really useful and well laid out. I doth my cap to this Tim Meek.

[richyb]

monthefish said:

richyb said:

B'stard Child said:

That web site

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e38/

Has been done by Tim Meek who is a walking talking encylopedia of E32 and E38 information and it very active on the 7 series register

I have been using this website for info. Really useful and well laid out. I doth my cap to this Tim Meek.

I owe him serious beers if ever I meet him.

Me too. Its a great site. I have used several of the other well used ones like e38 etc but the layout of his site makes it so easy to use.