BMW 630i E63 adventures

[fastbikes76]

swagmeister said:

Im stuck in the middle on one hand id be happy all original unchanged parts, whilst on the other nervous at all the 14 yr old parts.
I love when I buy a new 2nd hand car and see invoices for X Y and Z having been replaced - less for for me to replace going forward.,

I get what you are saying, all the maintenance stuff has been done on correct age/mileage, its stuff like all the slam panel, radiator and stuff which all still carries the correct date meaning its definitely not had any front end works

LFB531 said:

A brilliant massively under rated choice there OP.

I dabbled with a 650 for six months;

Loved it for 'special trips', did Le Mans with it and a couple of longer continental runs but for normal use, I just found it too big. Parking was a nightmare as I didn't want any car park dings and where I work, the roads are just too damn narrow

One of the nicest places to be sat and didn't miss a beat in my ownership. Still look longingly at them........

Very nice looking car yours They are big, longer than my Touareg but surprisingly they are shorter than the E60 5 series that they are based on ! This car doenst have a single ding or paint defect on it, something tells me that's going to be hard to keep up

Demelitia said:

I know washing the engine bay seems to have gone fine, but if you get chance, check the seal on the DME box, as well as inside the box itself with a torch to check for signs of water ingress.

Lovely car though, I’m surprised to see how close in weight it is to my 1 series with the same engine in.

Yup, they suffer blocked drains too, I've just cleared them all though and no sign of water in DME
For their size, weight is stupidly low. mid 1400's kerb in a coupe of this size (4.8 meters long !) with a big six cylinder engine and automatic 'box is just crazy. Handling is superb with the low weight and 50/50 weight distribution

marine boy said:

Great looking car, I've really warmed to the styling, in my eyes it's aged very well

I think a 630i is a bargain at the moment, would love to buy one later this year

Please keep updating and letting us know about your ownership experiences

What a contrast the before and after pictures are

The styling has grown on me massively too. Somethings just get better with age, I feel the outlandish lines and shape of the 6 series is one of them. My car at £7750 was really top whack for one of these. There are members on the FB page selling V8's for £4000 and some 630i's for that or less...bonkers really. That's not even fiesta money !

Will be keeping this updated, both good or bad as we go. I like to tinker so do little odds and ends to make it my own.

PurpleTurtle said:

Nice car for that outlay OP, I didn’t really like the looks at launch but it’s really grown on me.

Likewise..love the shape now.

Regards
Fb

[g3org3y]

Congrats OP, great purchase. Interior/Exterior colour combo is lovely

As has been mentioned, chuck a private plate on these and I think most people would never guess it's over a decade old.

Been tempted by the E63/64 of late. V8s are tempting but it seems the valve stem seals (+coolant pipe) are a case of when than if = £££. The 3.0 N52 appears to be a sweet spot, good engine and quite a bit lighter upfront.

[gf15]

Why it weighs so little?

Bonnet, roof, doors and rear wings are aluminium.
Front wings, front and boot lid are all composite (plastic).
I also have a cut away picture of the car which shows the front chassis to be a honeycomb aluminium.
Aluminium suspension
No spare wheel.

And the final mega weight saver on mine was.......

No cup holder.

[fastbikes76]

Remember I said I would update for both good and bad.... well things went a little south today.

Picture the scene, sunny afternoon and car minging so thought perfect time for a little scrub and attention. Halfway through washing it and then next thing Taylor Swifty comes blasting on full volume. Quick glance around thinking who the feck is that, sudden realisation it was my car. Open the door in a panic to turn the radio off , hells bells... volume eleventy three hundred blasting ol Tay Tay out. Bearing mind this car has the Proffesional system with Logic 7 surround sound with 2 sub and 14 speakers... I assure you it was somewhat loud and embarrassing!!

Frantically stab at the volume on/off button... nadda, try turn ignition on and off again.. nadda. Whip the boot open pronto and luckily the battery was right there with a full tool kit in site. Disconnected battery and waited for ears to stop ringing.. thank fk for that !!!

What was the issue... well in my attempt to clear all the usual blocked drain issues I cleared the ones above the rear tail light. Took boot all apart and discovered the clips had split when pushing them back in, so any water ran down into split clips right into all the strategically positioned hifi and amps pulled everything out and have it drying out in my very toasty airing cupboard. What was nice to see is how clean and unabused everything in the boot is. All the tools are there, new BMW battery , no rust or dents, happy days.

Hifi stuff in pax rear corner with nice puddle under it.


Hifi stuff out and boot dried


Can’t complain for 14 years old !!


This also gave me the perfect opportunity to address something that drove me mad . Rear lights had green in the bottom lip where you couldn’t usually clean... unless you have most the boot out and then it’s only 3 nuts to remove lamps too

Before


Not 100% but more acceptable


After all that pissing about the car had dried half washed in the sun.. brilliant Quick wipe over with Quick detailer and it’s ok, streaks and spots everywhere but reasonably well hidden. Threw some tyre snot on and though better grab some pics while it’s clean’ish for 5 minutes.












I really really can’t ever get bored of this interior, it is such a comfortable place to sit

[LordGrover]

Bang tidy. Liking this.

[carinaman]

I think it was a black one with brown leather that changed my mind on the E63. I still don't like the convertibles though.

[Court_S]

Love the colour of the interior OP.

I hated these when they were first released, but time has been very kind to them and I really like them now.

[Jakg]

That interior is lovely.

Always had a soft-spot for the 6 - much maligned when new but like all the bangle designs it's aged very well.

Neighbours bought a 645ci and the noise on startup is lovely!

[fastbikes76]

Thanks again for the kind words, that Chateau leather with Sapphire Metallic Black combo with shadowline trim is just my perfect setup.

Well the little water leak stereo drama is cured. £2.46 for new clips from BMW and I have refitted the little trim sans puddle in the amps Everything was dried out and refitted and now works as it should thankfully.

These cars have one mega downfall in my eyes.... cup holders, there aren’t any, unless you specced the factory Halfords type looking one. So a 4 seater GT cruiser type car has no where for a cuppa, but wait, it does come with a phone holder for a Nokia 3310

I’m a diy think out the box guy so thought there must be a better option than spending £150ish for a secondhand centre consol with the cup holder mounting, and a further £150-200 on a used actual clip in cup holder . I took the centre armrest out and had a gander in the kitchen while plotting what could I get to work in there ?

Turns out if you unclip the phone holder, tuck the wiring underneath the armrest and trim about 2mm of plastic off.... it holds not one, but two Costa coffees * other coffee brands are available

Remove this part from the armrest


Trim these little side bits off


Reassemble and chuck some anti slip matting in


And tada... holds two coffees nice and snug (did the upside down test before reassembling )



Looks nearly OEM if you poke yourself in the eye, and with armrest closed you wouldn’t know anything has been changed. For the purists it’s about £30 for a second hand 1980’s phone cradle but I think useful cup holders will do for now.

[Waynester]

Excellent write up. I have owned my 630i Sport 2 years now and still love it. You don’t see many on the roads these days.

Edited by Waynester on Friday 20th March 12:44

[Maxus]

Nice car OP, looks in great condition. That would be my leather colour choice as well. The 630i does make sense in these cars.

Re the wheels, I think they would look good in silver. 6's were available on a 5 spoke which isn't too dissimilar to your wheels. Do they have the correct profile tyres on them? They look to exaggerate the ride height.

Enjoy the car and keep up with the updates.

[fastbikes76]

Waynester said:

Excellent write up. I have owned my 630i Sport 2 years now and still love it. You don’t see many on the roads these days.

Thanks , yours looks lovely and is on the same wheels mine originally came with. I’ve not even used a full tank of juice in mine yet. Done around 200 miles so far of which 80ish we’re driving it home.

Maxus said:

Nice car OP, looks in great condition. That would be my leather colour choice as well. The 630i does make sense in these cars.

Re the wheels, I think they would look good in silver. 6's were available on a 5 spoke which isn't too dissimilar to your wheels. Do they have the correct profile tyres on them? They look to exaggerate the ride height.

Enjoy the car and keep up with the updates.

I love black leather and didn’t even realise they had this colour until I viewed this car, it absolutely sold me and in fact is the recommended colour combo in the BMW options book

The wheels definitely look worse in the pics as does the arch gap. Any friends who have seen pics have commented it wants lowering, then when they see the car they comment it’s no where near as jacked up as pics imply. It’s nice and firm yet comfortable enough as is, I wouldn’t want to ruin the factory ride with some springs . Tyres are correct size although I may go up a profile from the 275/35/19’s when they need replacing. They are brand new though so that could be a while

The other car I was hoping to buy was Stratus Grey with the 5 spoke wheels, brilliant combo but second hand they are north of £1000 . I will hang onto these for the interim .
This is the car I viewed that was keyed all down one side

[fastbikes76]

Being on lockdown has its perks I guess. None of my cars have ever been so clean

Yesterday the 630 got..

Wheels off and arches scrubbed
Snow foamed
2 bucket washed
Polished with autoglym Super resin
Waxed with autoglym Ultra HD wax
Glass polished and Rain-X’d
Tyre shine
Wheels polished and sealed
Interior hoovered and all switches cleaned with mini brush.

It’s the small details like all the little dirt around switches that make the difference for me





Next up was most interior rubbers were really fluffy with lint from cleaning clothes. I gentle brush with scrubbing brush and then hoover saw them looking better




Paint is looking decent now , could have done with a machine polish to remove swirls but I will get that done in a couple of months. For now it’s shiny enough








Then the bug got me and decided to clean the wife’s daily dog.. thing is minging and only gets truck washed by the Polish once every 6 months.





Pretty much the same treatment as the 630 apart from wheels off or sealant. Ol gal comes up alright



Used this on the Touareg and it’s bloody marvellous!!



Quick side by side


Just in time for 3 birds to st all over the 630 within a couple of hours

[cerb4.5lee]

They've both come up lovely.

You are making me want to make a start on mine now!

[fastbikes76]

cerb4.5lee said:

They've both come up lovely.

You are making me want to make a start on mine now!

They do come up ok with some elbow grease.. feel like a feckin orangutan now

When I bought this car I did have a brief scout underneath for oil leaks. My thinking was sellers often jetwash engines but never really do under the car . Engine was spotless and I could see it was naturally clean rather than a fresh wash off to hide anything. There was however a little damp patch on the under trays roughly where the gearbox sits. The ZF gearbox plastic sump across many many cars is known to warp and seep fluid. I expressed my concern at a potential gearbox sump leak and they were more than happy to replace the sump. I decided I would rather do the job myself as I now I would have used genuine ZF fluid and sump pan, rather than a £30 euro car parts sump and dingdong oils . They knocked a few quid off and both were happy.

Today I finished very early and though I would pull all the under trays and investigate.

Now I wasn’t on my knees in the pissing rain trying to view a car, I realised the leak is much further forward than I remembered, roughly where the sump plug is...


Was greeted with some generally oily misting over most things down below.



And this ! The sump was wet all down one side and wind had blown the vapour everywhere !


Quick clean up with brake cleaner and tightened sump bolts another 1/8th of a turn. It was only the drivers side that was wet.


Went for a 5 mile blast, came back and jacked up .. dammit. Wet again, but it wasn’t coming from the sump or gasket. It appeared to be coming from the actual bolts themselves .

Plan B, did this as a test. Fitted some fibre washers I used for water stuff at 5bar mains pressure. Fitted a fiber washer to each leaking bolt , torqued to 1 elbow click and back out for a drive..... viola, nice and bone dry.





Now I knew it wasn’t a porous or hairline cracked sump, or leaking gasket. I think it’s had a new sump gasket at some point which is another relatively common leak on these ... but I don’t think the morons used new sump bolts. They are single use as they come with some snot on the threads to stop oil seeping by and passing the bolt heads. The heads do not seal on the sump surface which is why once they have been removed, you have to replace.



So a full set of new genuine BMW bolts are on the way to me and I shall sort the leak properly now my test proved my theory. Gave me a good chance to scrub the underside though

[cerb4.5lee]

I love your attention to detail. Quality!

[fastbikes76]

cerb4.5lee said:

I love your attention to detail. Quality!

I blame the virus ! Given me time I usually don’t have I suffer with OCD (genuine OCD not the ‘I like things a little tidy’ type) and all my cars are kept in very good order. I only buy ‘premium luxury’ cars that are around 10 year old and have 90-100k on them. Had a few newer cars but find the 10 year old 100k ones have always been the most reliable and maintenance free I’ve owned.

The 630 is an 06 plate but only has 58k on the clock it doesn’t want or need anything really , it’s just me doing my thing

Cost so far..
£6.45 6x front shock mount nuts
£28 OEM sump bolt kit
£6 rear cup holder
£5 bmw touch up stick

I can’t help but feel I want to do an oil and filter change as that’s what I usually do as soon as I buy a car, but it’s had 3 bmw services in the last 7k :shock:

[njw1]

fastbikes76 said:

I can’t help but feel I want to do an oil and filter change as that’s what I usually do as soon as I buy a car, but it’s had 3 bmw services in the last 7k :shock:

How long ago was the last service? My car does very little mileage (less than 3k a year) but it still has fairly regular oil and filter changes (the oil that comes out is always clean!). I'd probably do it anyway, an oil service is cheap and easy enough.

[fastbikes76]

njw1 said:

How long ago was the last service? My car does very little mileage (less than 3k a year) but it still has fairly regular oil and filter changes (the oil that comes out is always clean!). I'd probably do it anyway, an oil service is cheap and easy enough.

Just checked service book

48401 miles 13-3-13
49963 miles 18-3-17
50637 miles 06-09-18

All done on BMW’s CBS system so 16k max service intervals and car was off the road between 2013 and 2017. I must be honest and thought I was serviced more recently. I thought it was sept 19 not 18. Still only done 7k but I will probably give it an oil and filter change. It’s had brake fluid service, spark plugs , air and pollen filters at last service.

[fastbikes76]

Another sunny day off work.. what else to do I wonder

I had all the under trays off while sorting sump bolt leaks so though why not buy some new under trays





And the front one that’s some sort of furry texture





Just kidding Those are the oil soaked ones that came off. They were dripping in oil form oil changes and sump leak. Degreased, jetwashed, covered in fairy wash up liquid and scrubbed with scrubbing brush and rinsed again. Once dry they were treated to some Autoglym rubber and vinyl protector. I know you can’t see them, but I did, and I never put something back on a car dirty just because it normally can’t be seen.

That led me to looking in some damn filthy arches... The Aluminium shock’s and disc backing plates were covered in brake dust and grot and the plastics were horrible.







So they were degreased, rinsed, ironX’d and rinsed. Everything taped up and backing plates and shock bodies got a lick of aluminium silver paint. Not done a bodyshop worthy job on them but hidden behind some wheels it’s good enough











I had also suffered from rusty nut syndrome.. thankfully it’s curable





Which now leaves me with half decent looking wheels and arches. The gash centre caps are being launched and some new genuine BMW ones on order.

Just the sump bolts to do then I’m really going to start scratching for things to do on it !!