E31 840, time to revive her
Discussion
The 840 has been laid up now for 4 years or so now due to time and money constraints and one big factor.
The car is a standard 840 but had the 4.4 V8 fitted by BMW under warranty years ago from the 4.0 litre, a lot was spent on the car.
Full engine rebuild due to a weepy headgasket
Pulled the box and diff and had them full gone through and serviced
With a plan of having a really nice tidy E31 to enjoy, a sport bumper kit was bought, a set of staggered Style 32's ready to go on, but the body did need a small blow in the front end, but it still looked very good
Then this happened
Car was T-boned by an old guy, not at a drastic speed but enough to cause some damage, this then started an insurance battle that was so ridiculous.
Car was assessed and deemed fixable, B pillar had surprisingly taken little damage, insurance assessor reviewed the cars history files, seen how much was spent on keeping it running and agreed it would be fixed.
Insurance company then declined to fix it as the bill was £3,000 on a car worth £4,000 (in their eyes) we refused every settlement they tried to give us, we gave them loads of examples of newer, older, higher, lower mileage cars and it put ours in the £7-8k price range, they would come back with "buy this car for £3,500" sorry but you have to be deluded to buy an 8 that cheap and replace the car we had, and it was only a 4.0 not the 4.4, which ok no power difference but they couldn't grasp the idea that I wouldn't replace a 2 litre Focus with a 1.6 litre Focus.
All while this was happening we had £16k worth of courtesy car, which we kept asking them to take back and just pay us the extra money for the car.
Eventually got settled with the insurance ombudsman and we got what was needed for the car, however a hard choice was made and really the 8 had to stay off the road and be done properly, and no longer be used as a daily driver, so the choice was made and a 06 330ci 46 was bought to replace it.
Well, the car has now sat for 4 years in the garage, it is covered in dust and cobwebs, there are boxes all over it, the new door still isn't attached properly to it and it has gone pink, it's very unloved, surrounded by bikes, boot is full of stuff.
So with the arrival of the old mans birthday in March and the cash I have saved up, the car has been booked into the bodyshop, the plan is to get the car out the garage under stealth and over to the body shop where we will hit it hard and get it painted, get the sport kit painted and fitted, wheels done, then get it out for an MOT and back in the garage for his birthday, or parked on the drive for his birthday, haven't decided yet on reveal.
I will however keep the progress updated on its revival
The car is a standard 840 but had the 4.4 V8 fitted by BMW under warranty years ago from the 4.0 litre, a lot was spent on the car.
Full engine rebuild due to a weepy headgasket
Pulled the box and diff and had them full gone through and serviced
With a plan of having a really nice tidy E31 to enjoy, a sport bumper kit was bought, a set of staggered Style 32's ready to go on, but the body did need a small blow in the front end, but it still looked very good
Then this happened
Car was T-boned by an old guy, not at a drastic speed but enough to cause some damage, this then started an insurance battle that was so ridiculous.
Car was assessed and deemed fixable, B pillar had surprisingly taken little damage, insurance assessor reviewed the cars history files, seen how much was spent on keeping it running and agreed it would be fixed.
Insurance company then declined to fix it as the bill was £3,000 on a car worth £4,000 (in their eyes) we refused every settlement they tried to give us, we gave them loads of examples of newer, older, higher, lower mileage cars and it put ours in the £7-8k price range, they would come back with "buy this car for £3,500" sorry but you have to be deluded to buy an 8 that cheap and replace the car we had, and it was only a 4.0 not the 4.4, which ok no power difference but they couldn't grasp the idea that I wouldn't replace a 2 litre Focus with a 1.6 litre Focus.
All while this was happening we had £16k worth of courtesy car, which we kept asking them to take back and just pay us the extra money for the car.
Eventually got settled with the insurance ombudsman and we got what was needed for the car, however a hard choice was made and really the 8 had to stay off the road and be done properly, and no longer be used as a daily driver, so the choice was made and a 06 330ci 46 was bought to replace it.
Well, the car has now sat for 4 years in the garage, it is covered in dust and cobwebs, there are boxes all over it, the new door still isn't attached properly to it and it has gone pink, it's very unloved, surrounded by bikes, boot is full of stuff.
So with the arrival of the old mans birthday in March and the cash I have saved up, the car has been booked into the bodyshop, the plan is to get the car out the garage under stealth and over to the body shop where we will hit it hard and get it painted, get the sport kit painted and fitted, wheels done, then get it out for an MOT and back in the garage for his birthday, or parked on the drive for his birthday, haven't decided yet on reveal.
I will however keep the progress updated on its revival
mattyc69 said:
Loved these as a kid and still do!
How come BMW changed the engine under warranty from a 4.0 to a 4.4?
Looking forward to seeing this restored!
The old 4.0 had Nikasil bore liners, they had a tendency to fail so there were a lot of cars with the engines replaced under warranty due to failure of them, but the failures were few and far between they either worked and are still running about today with no issues, or they are now 4.4's.How come BMW changed the engine under warranty from a 4.0 to a 4.4?
Looking forward to seeing this restored!
I am tempted to do some sort of video for it, being winched out the garage and what not, not sure I want to start it on 4 year old fuel.
It just needs to be done and it has got to a point where it is a now or never, the money is there for it to be done as well.
Just need to pick what colour silver for the wheels
CRA1G said:
It's hard to Believe the E31 is 27 years old...! Very underestimated IMO and defiantly a future classic...! But I might be a little bias... 
Will the car be showing as a Cat D...?
I don't think it was ever categorised by the insurance company to be honest, we got a settlement but they never once told us if the car was D or C, and I've never really checked, but it bears little relevance to the car itself as there are no intentions of it being sold, if it were to be sold I would tell the buyer about the crash and why it has been painted all over, provide all the receipts etc.Will the car be showing as a Cat D...?
I had to go the house yesterday so here are some pictures of it currently, I may have removed some items from the roof so you could see it
To give you an idea the Ducati hasn't moved for a year and a bit, just so you can gauge how long the 8 has been sat there from dirt build up.
It should be fun, I've got the info I hopefully need from 8Tech about alignment of the door/window to get it all back as it should, just need to find the keys for it, pump up the tyres and get it ready to go.
Well one thing lead to another, it lives.
Seal on the garage failed which meant we ended up with a load of water in the garage so had to sweep it all out, meant moving everything, couldn't really budge the 8 as someone left the hand brake on, good one, no problem there is a tow rope in the boot, so I grabbed the tow rope out the opened boot...then shut the boot, anyone like to take a guess at what happens when you shut the boot on an 8er with no batteries connected? Well you can't get back in, it needs power.
So, that lead to this
And that lead to this
Which then lead to dropping putting some fuel in, turns out the tank was basically empty anyway so 15 litres of fuel went in, oil was topped up, and after a few times just turning it over to get oil up the the top of the engine
There are a few videos I took, but 5 years off the road and it pretty much fired straight up.
Sitrep
Airbag light on for some reason, I'll assume occupancy sensor as per a 39 and any other BMW of similar vintage
Check control ok apart from, boot open and rear back rest down, other than that sweat as a nut not a single problem at all, until it started blowing vast quantities of white out the exhaust, however I do think it is more a combination of, a bit of stale fuel, it did only just sit and idle on the drive to be fair, hasn't run for 5 years.
Shouldn't be engine related as that was rebuilt prior to it coming off the road, if it is then it will have to go back to the garage to be done, as it's only done about 2k miles on the engine.
I'll upload the videos later
Seal on the garage failed which meant we ended up with a load of water in the garage so had to sweep it all out, meant moving everything, couldn't really budge the 8 as someone left the hand brake on, good one, no problem there is a tow rope in the boot, so I grabbed the tow rope out the opened boot...then shut the boot, anyone like to take a guess at what happens when you shut the boot on an 8er with no batteries connected? Well you can't get back in, it needs power.
So, that lead to this
And that lead to this
Which then lead to dropping putting some fuel in, turns out the tank was basically empty anyway so 15 litres of fuel went in, oil was topped up, and after a few times just turning it over to get oil up the the top of the engine
There are a few videos I took, but 5 years off the road and it pretty much fired straight up.
Sitrep
Airbag light on for some reason, I'll assume occupancy sensor as per a 39 and any other BMW of similar vintage
Check control ok apart from, boot open and rear back rest down, other than that sweat as a nut not a single problem at all, until it started blowing vast quantities of white out the exhaust, however I do think it is more a combination of, a bit of stale fuel, it did only just sit and idle on the drive to be fair, hasn't run for 5 years.
Shouldn't be engine related as that was rebuilt prior to it coming off the road, if it is then it will have to go back to the garage to be done, as it's only done about 2k miles on the engine.
I'll upload the videos later
Normally these things sit due to a major repair being needed and not immediately affordable, but it seems that other than a bit of body damage, there's not much wrong with this. So why has it been off the road all this time? There's a guy local to me who uses his silver 840ci as a daily driver. I first saw one when I was around 15 years old and I still get that schoolboy pang of delight once a fortnight or so when I see him in it!
I know it might sound like sacrilege on PH, but I think a tasteful LED light conversion and some bigger wheels would make the 8 look externally thoroughly modern, although if I had one I'd keep it as original as possible.
I know it might sound like sacrilege on PH, but I think a tasteful LED light conversion and some bigger wheels would make the 8 look externally thoroughly modern, although if I had one I'd keep it as original as possible.
Here's my baby.... Totally original 840 Sport "Dakar individual" one of 32,64K FSH owned enjoyed and pampered for many years...
OP if the battery's are totally flat you can get into the boot with the key,there's a hidden lock under/next to the number plate light on the right hand side.
OP if the battery's are totally flat you can get into the boot with the key,there's a hidden lock under/next to the number plate light on the right hand side.
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