£450 740i what could go wrong?

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SturdyHSV said:

helix402 said:

The eBay 728 has a magic mileage history:

I wonder if some of the readout is faulty, and it's in fact 181,000, and reads like 131,000. Would add up with the 16-20k average it's been doing recently?

Advert states something like "I think mileage is around 130k, can't check because battery is flat"

Got car back from garage on the new struts, sadly no alternator till Friday kind of annoyed, but whatever gives me time to continue sorting out the rest of it I suppose.

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Well I now have an alternator, so it looks like new year for the mot, unless I can muster the energy to fit it and fix the door properly, half tempted to just buy a new door complete and get it painted as it's just no longer happy after my pry barring, which is weird

E38 being broken not too far from me, and to be fair doors don't really sell so hoping it will be cheap.

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No progress as been short of time, but hoping alternator is going in this week, got new Top hose so hopefully be running, just need a door then

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So here is an actual update.
I've got the alternator back on as got tired of waiting for garage to do it, not their fault they're busy and this is a job on the side.
I've got new aircon belt on
I've got new alternator belt on
I've got my new radiator top hose out the pack and pulled the old half off the expansion tank
I've got my sharp snips to remove the hose clamp off the radiator side, only problem is I know have a bit of pipe with the end of my radiator fking stuck in it

Seriously, when will this car stop fighting me? I'm saving you car, I am actually rescuing you from your rotting in a field life and this is how you repay me, I now need a new radiator to replace the nearly brand new fking radiator that was in you, you utter swine, how much of a can one car be?


So I am going to go relax myself by putting the seat back in....what could honestly go fking wrong now?

bd.

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Barchettaman said:

There's got to be some way to bodge, sorry, improvise a field repair, on the existing rad.

C'mon. You can do it.

Sadly there is not, I rang a rad specialist, I don't think he knew what I was on about really but its the return feed pipe here, the small one that angles off the top of the rad, it's snapped off completely, now I am convinced that it can be repaired as that thing looks like it comes out....hmmm lets go to my old radiator storage

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So I have had a look, and yes you can buy the bit I have broken off, however in replacing it you will break more of the radiator as it is old and brittle, also the rad is full of radweld so I think I am just going to buy the new radiator, I will take it up with me anyway to the radiator place and see if it is worth saving, but for £68 is it worth the hassle?

This is the part here
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E38-E39-525i-528i-740i...

However, the way it locks in is with two little plastic tabs, and they're just going to snap off if I do them.

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C70R said:

pits said:

the rad is full of radweld

Bin it, or it will only cause you problems further down the road.

Yeah, I've spent the rest of the day putting seat back in, then I flushed out the coolant reservoir with hot water till both sides were emptying clean.

Then back fed the engine engine and flushed out the orange coolant that should be blue, as annoying as it is I'll just put the new rad in, just not worth fking about with really.

So maybe tomorrow I can actually drive it properly around site

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frankenstein12 said:

Where are you getting your rad from?

Place cashed fast rads, that usually run a record service and always been very good on price, though their website is quite funny
Stock status



May even go get the door tomorrow as well

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It finally fking lives, new radiator in, door is also here to go on.

Taken it for a spin around the site and
Abs light on
DSC light on
Airbag light on
No speedo
Other than that seems to be alright

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Well I'm going to try new speed sensor on rear, I've already got some one looking for an abs pump, just a bugger to do as need recoding but hopefully can do that myself.

Will try get it plugged in this week and see what it throws up, got a load of pictures to post as well.

Seems to run sweet though, gearbox seems quite lazy though.

Not sure how much more important going to out into it but will see how it shapes up for mot.
As it stands just need to do
Door
Tyre valve
Abs fault
Wipers
Bulbs

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bungz said:

I love a MOT list that starts off with

A door.



Best of luck with the disco lights on the dash.

Well it does need to open and close from inside and out, I've got it to now do both, however not being able to use handle on outside and only Bowden cable on inside I've now stretched the cable so it won't open on handle from inside.

C70R said:

BMWs of this age can occasionally throw up multiple fault lights for a single ABS sensor failure (my e46 showed ABS, DSC and brake warning lights when one of my fronts failed).
Given that a bluetooth OBD tool costs less than a tenner, it's a no-brainer to start here.

I think for the few quid it will cost I'm going to do wheel sensors first and hope, as I so only have orange lights and they do come on after driving, not when hot unlike abs pump, but who knows.



Got door on today, I'm now part of the two tone 740 on 8 series wheels club (running joke between friends, we know someone with a two tone 740, on 8 series wheels)

However as you have read, I've buggered the Bowden cable, so door card isn't going back on till thats done.

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C70R said:

pits said:

I think for the few quid it will cost I'm going to do wheel sensors first and hope, as I so only have orange lights and they do come on after driving, not when hot unlike abs pump, but who knows.

Are you kidding? Have you actually read the codes yet?

Yes briefly before it set on fire,showed speed sensors dead, but with the abs/DSC fault it could either be one of 4 speed sensors gone, for £6 each or so it's cheaper than abs unit,so happy to throw £30 at cheap sensors if they work briefly and fix it.

Rather do that than go down abs unit route, at least it eliminates something, albeit briefly because cheap parts

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Morningside said:

Brilliant and well done. These old seven series need saving. What I did find is that although the car cost £2000(ish) the spares are from an original £85,000 car and that's always something to remember.

I am still very temped to buy another seven in the future as a weekend car.

Good breaker should sell parts quite cheap, and a lot of consumables are cheap these days.

Well this one will be up for sale soon, my 530 needs help or selling and I am half tempted to sell all and buy just one decent 39 Sport Tourer

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Not yet, I've put it up for sale as is at the moment as I wouldn't mind the cash back, but going to get it insured and take it to garage end of the week, possibly.

Quick read of yours, not sure I'd touch either but blue one I'd do a sniff test, pressure test and compression test

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Think it is time I update this, I have been flat out for the past few months and this the only time I have had to work on the car and sort some stuff out with it.

Fired it up for the first time in months the other day, semi reluctant to start apparently they need something called petrol(?) we then plugged it in and cleared all the fault codes and this removed the ABS lights, briefly then comes back on and now speedo doesn't work, so it looks like it is a speed sensor as opposed to ABS pump, but never know with these things.

I have taken the steering wheel off and recentred it.

Washer now working, albeit not very well but they work

Which leaves two things to sort out, couple of bulbs and find what ever tool it is that I have quite clearly left in the drivers door, sounds like an extension bar.

Looking to see if I can get it MOT'd next week sometime

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DatV8 said:

RE: ABS fault and lights, does this happen from a cold engine? Mine would only appear when the engine got hot and a broken circuit/solder surfaced from within the ABS module. Was on my E39 M5 anyway so not sure whether it's a similar set up on the 740. I had to have my ABS unit repaired by an ECU specialist and resolved the problem. Wasn't the speed sensors in my case.

From cold, so will be something else as opposed to the abs pump which hopefully will be the speed sensor

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Got wheel sensor to briefly work on it, and it now has 12months MOT, but sensor died again 😂
But as it stands it works and it's MOT is done, sadly it's now time to get rid of it, so if anyone is looking for a cheap fixer upper you'll have to message me

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Just found it, it goes to my old address I use for forums.

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Got it back today, definitely needs an alignment and tyres pumping up, but seems to drive well considering it's time parked up, be going to clean it up next week and get it for sale, give it a week or so and if it doesn't make what I need it will be sadly broken for parts