RE: BMW 6 Series (E63): PH Buying Guide

[Speed addicted]

greghm said:

One issue has to be mentionned again: the cracked wheels. I discovered that these combination of RFT and driving in England has unearthed a massive problem of cracked wheels as the RFT are so strong. I bought mine this year and when I changed the rear tires, there were 5 instance of welding of the wheels du to cracks and in fact the guy said that I was better off buying a new wheel now.

It seems to be the case also for the same generation of 5 series (As it is the same backbone).

Have you got the 19 or 20" wheels fitted? Mines on 19s and had no signs of welding at the tyre change, I'd be very uncomfortable with welding onto cast aluminium wheels personally as welding onto cast metals is quite a specialist job.

I had a puncture in the middle of the tread on the rear, when the tyre was removed we found one had been patched 3 times, the other 4 times! I had just finished asking if they could be patched to get me another couple of months when we discovered the array of repairs.
New tyres were fitted straight away.

Edited by Speed addicted on Thursday 6th October 15:51

Edited by Speed addicted on Thursday 6th October 16:54

[PorkRind]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Haha, I knew instantly what you meant by cripple hook , but have never heard it called that before. I like !!

[Speed addicted]

Herbs said:

This is where spec comes into it - with the Sport mode switched on along with active steering and dynamic drive, it makes a great B road blaster. Proper sharp turn in and great throttle response.

My commute is 16 miles of country B road, and it was the same pace comfortably as the 911/M cars etc. It's never going to be an Elise etc but bearing in mind it is a GT car, it really does offer the best of both worlds hence why it is the longest I've ever owned a car - 3x the others.

I agree, mine has a similar spec and hitting sport really changes the feel of the car.
It's about as fast as I would want to go, the sport setting makes it far sharper with a much more instant throttle response.

I gave my dad a shot when I first bought the car. He's not someone that swears much so I was surprised when he shouted 'fking hell' as he accelerated hard out of a 30 zone! He does have a diesel jag s type that he described as sporty though...

[greghm]

Speed addicted said:

Have you got the 19 or 20" wheels fitted? Mines on 19s and had no signs of welding at the tyre change, I'd be very uncomfortable with welding onto cast aluminium wheels personally as welding onto cast metals is quite a specialist job.

I had a puncture in the middle of the tread on the rear, when the tyre was removed we found one had been patched 3 times, the other 4 times! I had just finished asking if they could be patched to get me another couple of months when we discovered the array of repairs.
New tyres were fitted straight away.

Edited by Speed addicted on Thursday 6th October 15:51

Edited by Speed addicted on Thursday 6th October 16:54

the 19' ... it was discovered as I thought I had a puncture but in fact it was a cracked wheel that was letting air. The dude at the tyre shop told me that there was even a BBC broadcast about those weak wheels and RFT combinations.

[Richard-2ov3b]

I've owned a 645 for three years now having done around 30,000 miles. I love its looks since I've done my subtle mods. I've lowered it by 25mm and fitted wheel spacers which gives it a more muscular stance. It also has a cat back system fitted and now sounds awesome just like it was meant to. It's been totally reliable with just the odd niggle. I do get the odd EML light but have a lead and the program to read this. More often than not they just need resetting and never come back. Mine has the benefit of being converted to LPG and was the main reason I bought it. I had an old X5 from way back which pretty much had the same engine and that was converted and sold me on the idea. I get a minimum of 200 miles from £20 of gas so it's as cheap as a diesel to run. Equates to over 40mpg. I paid £7000 three years ago and reckon wouldn't lose much if I sold it. I change the oil every 12 months regardless of mileage. I've also taken to putting a valve stem seal lubricant in when I change the oil. This costs around £15 a tube and has cut down a lot on the odd leak I had. I think on my personal plate the car looks worth a lot more than I paid for it. It's reliable economical and goes like stink. Oh and sounds awesome. What's not to like. I'm due to get a 991 next year when I retire but will probably regret it as I will expect a lot more for the money paid and not necessarily get it.

[greghm]

Richard-2ov3b said:

I've owned a 645 for three years now having done around 30,000 miles. I love its looks since I've done my subtle mods. I've lowered it by 25mm and fitted wheel spacers which gives it a more muscular stance. It also has a cat back system fitted and now sounds awesome just like it was meant to. It's been totally reliable with just the odd niggle. I do get the odd EML light but have a lead and the program to read this. More often than not they just need resetting and never come back. Mine has the benefit of being converted to LPG and was the main reason I bought it. I had an old X5 from way back which pretty much had the same engine and that was converted and sold me on the idea. I get a minimum of 200 miles from £20 of gas so it's as cheap as a diesel to run. Equates to over 40mpg. I paid £7000 three years ago and reckon wouldn't lose much if I sold it. I change the oil every 12 months regardless of mileage. I've also taken to putting a valve stem seal lubricant in when I change the oil. This costs around £15 a tube and has cut down a lot on the odd leak I had. I think on my personal plate the car looks worth a lot more than I paid for it. It's reliable economical and goes like stink. Oh and sounds awesome. What's not to like. I'm due to get a 991 next year when I retire but will probably regret it as I will expect a lot more for the money paid and not necessarily get it.

I would love to see a photo. Out of interest, how much space does it take in the boot for the LPG ?

[Richard-2ov3b]

I easy have over half the boot left

[Richard-2ov3b]

[Bogracer]

Brought a lovely 52,000 mile, black 630i Sport for my wife, what a cracking car for £10,000. A software update transformed the drive. Personally think the design has aged well. Still looks contemporary. My wife loves it.

[greghm]

After 1 year of having a 645 from 2004, I just did an analysis of my spending on it .... 90% has been about the wheel/tyre couple. The process is:

Run Flat Tyre |--cracks--> Wheel |--loss of pressure--> RFT ruined
New Tyre needed
Wheel to be welded

I don't know what to do apart from selling these wheels and replacing them with better quality ones.

Open to advice.

[Herbs]

Lose the RFT's, that's what I did and problem went away. There's a good deal of Pilot Super Sports currently, just HD to replace the rears on mine to make it ready to be sold.

[mumblemiler]

Richard-2ov3b said:

I've owned a 645 for three years now having done around 30,000 miles. I love its looks since I've done my subtle mods. I've lowered it by 25mm and fitted wheel spacers which gives it a more muscular stance. It also has a cat back system fitted and now sounds awesome just like it was meant to. It's been totally reliable with just the odd niggle. I do get the odd EML light but have a lead and the program to read this. More often than not they just need resetting and never come back. Mine has the benefit of being converted to LPG and was the main reason I bought it. I had an old X5 from way back which pretty much had the same engine and that was converted and sold me on the idea. I get a minimum of 200 miles from £20 of gas so it's as cheap as a diesel to run. Equates to over 40mpg. I paid £7000 three years ago and reckon wouldn't lose much if I sold it. I change the oil every 12 months regardless of mileage. I've also taken to putting a valve stem seal lubricant in when I change the oil. This costs around £15 a tube and has cut down a lot on the odd leak I had. I think on my personal plate the car looks worth a lot more than I paid for it. It's reliable economical and goes like stink. Oh and sounds awesome. What's not to like. I'm due to get a 991 next year when I retire but will probably regret it as I will expect a lot more for the money paid and not necessarily get it.

What valve stem seal lubricant do you use, and is this just an additive to the oil (e.g. it goes in via oil filler), or do you need to put this direct to the valve stems?

[greghm]

Mine is in servicing at the moment. I had two items:
- 2 gaskets issues. They cost 81 GBP each but apparently it is time and energy intensive to change so 480.
- Leaking gearbox which seems to be a common occurrence from these cars from 2004. Also another 500 with the work.

Do these prices sound fair? I am a bit of a newbie.

[Ekona]

Do you know which gaskets?

[Speed addicted]

greghm said:

Mine is in servicing at the moment. I had two items:
- 2 gaskets issues. They cost 81 GBP each but apparently it is time and energy intensive to change so 480.
- Leaking gearbox which seems to be a common occurrence from these cars from 2004. Also another 500 with the work.

Do these prices sound fair? I am a bit of a newbie.

The gearbox leak is probably due to the plastic sump warping over time. £500 would be about right for a genuine part (think they're about £350 alone if I remember right) and fitting.
The gaskets may be rocker covers? If they are you have to drop the engine for access, I'd get them to replace any seals that require the engine to be dropped at the same time as they're not expensive but dropping the engine is.

Yes, mine had both of these issues.

[greghm]

Thanks guys. That seems to confirm what the guy said. They have to drop the engine for the Gasket.
Gearbox is probably what you said plus a few liters of oil.

That clears it up.

[T16OLE]

Speed addicted said:

The gearbox leak is probably due to the plastic sump warping over time. £500 would be about right for a genuine part (think they're about £350 alone if I remember right) and fitting.
The gaskets may be rocker covers? If they are you have to drop the engine for access, I'd get them to replace any seals that require the engine to be dropped at the same time as they're not expensive but dropping the engine is.

Yes, mine had both of these issues.

Depends on your long term plan with it.

Mine had the two same issues, I spent £1k getting it done, still wasn't right, there are numerous gaskets, they start with the rocker covers and will work onwards with the price escalating.

Unless it's piddling out I'd just keep it topped up, same with the gearbox, keep it for a while and just punt it on. I felt like there was always something with mine, they were near £60k cars and most of this requires genuine parts with the price to match.

My 2p's worth from my own experience in ploughing money into them

[Speed addicted]

T16OLE said:

Depends on your long term plan with it.

Mine had the two same issues, I spent £1k getting it done, still wasn't right, there are numerous gaskets, they start with the rocker covers and will work onwards with the price escalating.

Unless it's piddling out I'd just keep it topped up, same with the gearbox, keep it for a while and just punt it on. I felt like there was always something with mine, they were near £60k cars and most of this requires genuine parts with the price to match.

My 2p's worth from my own experience in ploughing money into them

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOR-BMW-AUTOMATIC-TRANSMISSION-GEARBOX-SUMP-PAN-FILTER-SEAL-SLEEVE-7L-OIL-KIT-/262125828682?hash=item3d07eaba4a:g:sEUAAOSwXeJYG2BK

There are other options for the gearbox sump. This (or similar) is what's on mine, and it's been fine. My car was the 7th one of these the mechanic had fitted with no issues.

The seals around the rocker cover area weren't expensive so it made sense to do them all while he was in there.

Yes it's a complicated car but I'm happy that mine is now sorted and should hopefully be for some time.

I intend to keep mine for a while as I don't really see anything that I'd part with it for.

Edited by Speed addicted on Wednesday 7th December 15:15

[Bertrum]

Alex88 said:

Interesting re the RFT. I know it's one that's been done to death but I still have some concerns about switching to conventional tyres.. Can someone in the know answer?

1. Isn't the car's whole road setup designed with RFT's in mind? I.e the suspension, steering, turn in, etc designed around the heavier tyre?
2. How does it affect the tyre pressure warning thing?
3. Is the tyre pressure different?
4. Will you now carry a spare wheel kit in case you get a puncture?

Edited by Alex88 on Wednesday 5th October 20:07

To answer 2 and 3

The system doesn't (contrary to popular belief) actually monitor the tyre pressure, what it does is works out the circumference of the tyre by an by measuring the speed of wheel rotations and compares that to the baseline/other wheels and speed. It calculates if the tyre is flat (as the circumference would be smaller).

That's why if you change tyres/tyre pressures you need to reset it, and also why you need to drive it to activate the system.

It usually triggers at around 20psi if set at 30, which is plenty of notice.

[Patrick Bateman]

Having to drop the engine to replace rocker cover gaskets? Is that a mistake?