£450 740i what could go wrong?
Discussion
pits said:
Washer bottle is sadly full, I checked, few lights out as well on it, main issues are ABS/DSC warning lights, probably dead abs module.
Do the washers work? If not you can use the motor from a E46 bmw. Think I had to remove the wing to get to the washer bottle as its down out of reach. The pipes leading up inside the bonnet also get very very brittle with age, replaced mine with some injector hosing I think it was.Is your car obd2 or does it have the big round socket sort of like a trailer lighting connection? If the round one its in the engine bay on the righthand side of the engine.
Washer probably work, haven't done a full electrical test on yet I know some bits aren't working
It's 20pin obd, so plugging it into tomorrow to check.
Moment that most have been waiting for, it's first cough into life in 3 years
https://youtu.be/a25UNQWy8CM
It's 20pin obd, so plugging it into tomorrow to check.
Moment that most have been waiting for, it's first cough into life in 3 years
https://youtu.be/a25UNQWy8CM
TonyRPH said:
But the temperature gauge is reading normal rather than cold?
Sounds lovely though.
It's having a few electrical gremlins at the moment, that one seems to have fixed itself for the moment, after turning it off it went back to cold and then warmed up normally, in one of the videos I have a full tank of fuel whilst trying to start it Sounds lovely though.
To give you an idea of how funny the E38/9 electrical systems can be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTJhGvJxJ7Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYqI6sCKVD8
pits said:
Battery is actually fine, charged up fine and holds charge, was working on a car that hadn't run in a month, think everything was just a bit stiff.
You might be surprised. Modern car electrics do all kinds of weird things when the battery starts to die.My wife had a Clio Sport, on start up the speedo and rev counter needles used to rattle on the stops, I assumed it had always done this, my wife said it didn't. I googled it, and that said battery, which I found hard to believe. Then it started to lose the trip computer memory on start up. Google again said battery. All this time the car was starting absolutely fine. Put a new battery on it, both problems went away.
Wife's current Civic, the alarm started to go off at random. Google said it was the siren's internal battery dying, I took the car apart to find the siren, there wasn't one. Further googling revealed to alarms, the optional one with a siren and the basic one which used the horn, hers was the basic one. Probable causes of the basic one going off, yep, the battery. New one solved the problem. Again car started just fine.
Not my field of expertise but I recall BMWs of that era using tiny rechargeable ni-cad cells in the dash controls to keep the memory alive when the car was switched off.
Leaving the car unused allowing these cells to go flat would make them unable to accept a recharge thus causing issues, mix in deteriorated capacitors which are much harder to find and fix you have the potential for electronic mayhem.
Anyhow I know from personal experience that the heater, radio and sat nav modules on these cars were not without problems when much newer and can be very trying to resolve.
Leaving the car unused allowing these cells to go flat would make them unable to accept a recharge thus causing issues, mix in deteriorated capacitors which are much harder to find and fix you have the potential for electronic mayhem.
Anyhow I know from personal experience that the heater, radio and sat nav modules on these cars were not without problems when much newer and can be very trying to resolve.
I'd consider battery but I know it's less than a year old, it's held charge on the other car for 3 months enough to start it.
Well read fault codes, can't tell what abs fault is, cleared codes, started it back up and alternator blew up and almost caught fire.
So now I'm in two minds with the car, it's worth circa £2k I reckon with mot, but the cost is slowly adding up on it in my head, and feel it may actually end up going in the bin.
126k on motor and box
Interior is good
Most panels are good
Can make money back easily I think, but shame to break it
Well read fault codes, can't tell what abs fault is, cleared codes, started it back up and alternator blew up and almost caught fire.
So now I'm in two minds with the car, it's worth circa £2k I reckon with mot, but the cost is slowly adding up on it in my head, and feel it may actually end up going in the bin.
126k on motor and box
Interior is good
Most panels are good
Can make money back easily I think, but shame to break it
pits said:
<snip>
can't tell what abs fault is
<snip>
The ABS fault will almost certainly be the module IMHO. Does it live in the engine bay just above one of the exhaust manifolds?can't tell what abs fault is
<snip>
pits said:
alternator blew up and almost caught fire.
<snip>
Which could likely explain the weird instrument behaviour. If the diode pack was failing, it's possible the alternator was providing a very poor quality DC voltage (e.g. there was some AC voltage coming out of it) - this would cause all sorts of issues.<snip>
Thinking about it - this may even be responsible for your ABS fault, and it's not actually the ABS module.
These cars take a huge battery, if your not 100% about the car to save cost go down to your land rover dealer and ask what happens to their old batterys.
My E38 is running perfectly off my L322 Range Rover battery which wouldnt even turn the car over if sat overnight due to all the electrics which are much funnier than the E38 ones. I once got transfailsafe when I turned on my heated seat...
My E38 is running perfectly off my L322 Range Rover battery which wouldnt even turn the car over if sat overnight due to all the electrics which are much funnier than the E38 ones. I once got transfailsafe when I turned on my heated seat...
TonyRPH said:
pits said:
<snip>
can't tell what abs fault is
<snip>
The ABS fault will almost certainly be the module IMHO. Does it live in the engine bay just above one of the exhaust manifolds?can't tell what abs fault is
<snip>
pits said:
alternator blew up and almost caught fire.
<snip>
Which could likely explain the weird instrument behaviour. If the diode pack was failing, it's possible the alternator was providing a very poor quality DC voltage (e.g. there was some AC voltage coming out of it) - this would cause all sorts of issues.<snip>
Thinking about it - this may even be responsible for your ABS fault, and it's not actually the ABS module.
Abs pump was showing usual signs of failure, rear left sensor and the pump itself.
I'm torn, £65 for struts but £489 for alternator, got to be sensible here on how much I plough into it, can look at getting it repaired but what else does? Yes it's a £60k car with similar running costs so to be expected.
Stands at this
Both front springs
Abs pump
Alternator
Door doesn't open
Nav doesn't work
JakeT said:
I was going to wonder why a new alternator was so much, then I realised that it's the silly water-cooled one that's used on the M62. Can't a breaker do one cheaper to at least keep the thing going for a while longer?
Still seems expensive unless these are wrong?http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-OE-spec-BMW-535i-540...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alternator-for-BMW-E38-4...
Alternator does not seem to be an horrific job (better than an Alfa V6) - you can risk a cheapie pattern part.
I'd judge on the rest of the condition. If the underside is solid, you know the engine is fundamentally OK .... then you need to expect the odd ugly bill. If this + brakes + suspension has it working, then you've still got a bargain.
I'd judge on the rest of the condition. If the underside is solid, you know the engine is fundamentally OK .... then you need to expect the odd ugly bill. If this + brakes + suspension has it working, then you've still got a bargain.
Sadly a pattern part is £200-300 part, I may look at getting it rebuilt but I really need to think about it, annoying considering I have just bought this key for it 
Looking at it though, I am pretty sure mine does not have a watercooled alternator, I am just trying to think I don't recall it looking like a watercooled one, looks more like aircooled, which s odd as it's M62B44
Looking at it though, I am pretty sure mine does not have a watercooled alternator, I am just trying to think I don't recall it looking like a watercooled one, looks more like aircooled, which s odd as it's M62B44
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