Discussion
My plan of finishing with my Volvo V50 lease and getting a barge came to fruition last night. I've bought a 2001 E38 728. FSH with 159k on the clock and verified.
Drove it from the sellers house back home (4 miles) and there was steam coming out of the rad area. Looked this morning and there is little to no coolant in there. I've heard it could be a cracked expansion tank (which is a nice easy fix) or it could have just been low since it was a year ago that it was serviced.
As I am effectively going to run this into the ground, do I need to start using BM approved oils and antifreeze? Can I get away with just using normal Halfords type stuff?
It has the shimmy, but I was made aware of that. One final prob is the rear tyres are different. 235's on one side and 255's on the other. I was too preoccupied with looking for make of tyre and condition to notice this! Doh.
Oh well, gorgeous car anyway. Any advise or suggestions on my new acquisition? I have a month till the Volvo goes back to Lex autolease to get the E38 fit.
Drove it from the sellers house back home (4 miles) and there was steam coming out of the rad area. Looked this morning and there is little to no coolant in there. I've heard it could be a cracked expansion tank (which is a nice easy fix) or it could have just been low since it was a year ago that it was serviced.
As I am effectively going to run this into the ground, do I need to start using BM approved oils and antifreeze? Can I get away with just using normal Halfords type stuff?
It has the shimmy, but I was made aware of that. One final prob is the rear tyres are different. 235's on one side and 255's on the other. I was too preoccupied with looking for make of tyre and condition to notice this! Doh.
Oh well, gorgeous car anyway. Any advise or suggestions on my new acquisition? I have a month till the Volvo goes back to Lex autolease to get the E38 fit.
ukzz4iroc said:
My plan of finishing with my Volvo V50 lease and getting a barge came to fruition last night. I've bought a 2001 E38 728. FSH with 159k on the clock and verified.
Drove it from the sellers house back home (4 miles) and there was steam coming out of the rad area. Looked this morning and there is little to no coolant in there. I've heard it could be a cracked expansion tank (which is a nice easy fix) or it could have just been low since it was a year ago that it was serviced.
As I am effectively going to run this into the ground, do I need to start using BM approved oils and antifreeze? Can I get away with just using normal Halfords type stuff?
It has the shimmy, but I was made aware of that. One final prob is the rear tyres are different. 235's on one side and 255's on the other. I was too preoccupied with looking for make of tyre and condition to notice this! Doh.
Oh well, gorgeous car anyway. Any advise or suggestions on my new acquisition? I have a month till the Volvo goes back to Lex autolease to get the E38 fit.
IMHO dont scrimp on the fluids. Drove it from the sellers house back home (4 miles) and there was steam coming out of the rad area. Looked this morning and there is little to no coolant in there. I've heard it could be a cracked expansion tank (which is a nice easy fix) or it could have just been low since it was a year ago that it was serviced.
As I am effectively going to run this into the ground, do I need to start using BM approved oils and antifreeze? Can I get away with just using normal Halfords type stuff?
It has the shimmy, but I was made aware of that. One final prob is the rear tyres are different. 235's on one side and 255's on the other. I was too preoccupied with looking for make of tyre and condition to notice this! Doh.
Oh well, gorgeous car anyway. Any advise or suggestions on my new acquisition? I have a month till the Volvo goes back to Lex autolease to get the E38 fit.
I guess the first thing to do it top it right up and see where it pisses out!
If they use water (well apparently lose it) it's well worth checking the heater hose at the back of the engine bay as (on both 540's and 740's) they are required to have a lot of movement and with age they break down and cause small but constant and almost undetectable water loss - untill the leak is big enough to result in a major coolant loss in a very short space of time - Don't ask me how I know this.......
I thought they'd fixed the header tank issue by 2001.....
I thought they'd fixed the header tank issue by 2001.....
This might help
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
And I can't help thinking this thread would be better in the BMW General section if you want a lot of detailed info
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
And I can't help thinking this thread would be better in the BMW General section if you want a lot of detailed info
I only recently got rid of the spare bottles of BMW coolant that I used to have in the piece of junk 750il that I had.
Exactly the same - loss of coolant the night I bought it (from a so called 'specialist') and cue a few grand on repairs.
Crossing fingers for you that just the expansion tank.
Exactly the same - loss of coolant the night I bought it (from a so called 'specialist') and cue a few grand on repairs.
Crossing fingers for you that just the expansion tank.
You need to get on bimmerforums.com. Best support forum out there.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/forumdisplay....
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/forumdisplay....
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