New to me BMW E65 730D - 2006 - Le Mans Blue 'individual'

[d_a_n1979]

Bought this on Tuesday after looking at numerous others as well as various E60/61 5 series cars

Stayed away from the 5s in the end, just cheap/plasticky feel inside put me off and the ones I saw were dogs TBH

Saw a few local 7s as well; again, most of them dogs bar one 750Li, but that was a no-go as didn't want a LWB car; the SWB is long enough as it is

It's a 2006 Le Mans Blue 730D with quite a spec including:

Soft close doors and electronic boot lid
Factory tints
Xenons and main beam assist
Integrated Bluetooth
Fully operation Freeview TV upfront and in the rear
Pearl beige leather
Heated and memory seats + heated steering wheel
20" Style 149 alloys

It needs new rubber and the wheels need refurbing toot-sweet; so this is the first job in the next week or so. Then it's going down to see a diesel guru via the 5 forums and he'll give it a full once over, a quick service, full software update and will sort the swirl flaps (if they've not already been done)

It needs a very in-depth wash and polish (just given it a decent wash, clay and a light polish for now) and fully Autoglym Magma'd the alloys as they were more or less black! The Magma stuff works very well indeed!!!

Wing mirror caps and bonnet in need of a respray really (stone chip galore), but will get these sorted sometime after summer is over and I've been down to Anglesey camping and back from various trips up to Scotland for some stone lifting events etc

On the look out for a cheap set of 18" OEM alloys too so I can stick winter tyres on them

Only pics I have of it for now; will update when I've had the alloys refurbed:

[d_a_n1979]

Cheers @prinny

I'm not desperate to buy them and TBH there are lots of single alloys out there; so may just end up going down that route and will lightly refurb them myself and then get winters fitted to them, before the prices get hiked as they always do!

Had 16" alloys and winter tyres for my previous 530i and they came in very handy last winter; more so as we go up to Dunkeld for a week every Feb and the snow up there was amazing, so the winter tyres were a godsend!

I quite like the way the E65 is on the 20s! I've just come from an E39 530i that was lowered on coilovers and with them set to firm; so the E65s ride in comparison is like a wafty bus ride

[d_a_n1979]

Jon_Bmw said:

I love the colour combination, superb.

I have a 760Li in black with grey(sob) interior. At least once you are reclined in the back you forget about the colour.

What's the 730d like as an everyday proposition? I find that the 760 just about has enough grunt, the lazy autobox always seems to blunt the acceleration feeling, but once moving it picks up pace well. It actually needs revving higher than you might expect, whereas the low down grunt and turbocharged sensation of a 730d perhaps counters this?

I approve!

TBH I think the 730D pulls very well for what it is and the weight of the car etc

However it is my daily driver and my smooth/wafty ride, which is why I went for another big 7, so I don't really push it, not had it long enough to properly stretch its legs yet. The journey up the M6 on Tuesday was start/stop with 50mph zones etc!

[d_a_n1979]

to3m said:

By 7 series standards this is positively garish! Very surprised to see one that isn't black or dark grey. Not sure I've ever seen one that's even silver.

A lot of the pre-facelift 745 ones were silver; the 750s were aspensilber metallic etc (I think)

Most of the facelift ones I saw were black and having just sold a black car and vowing to never go back to a black car; this stood out like a sore thumb

[d_a_n1979]

QuartzDad said:

Can I be the cheeky one and ask how much?

Lovely car.

Just over £5k

[d_a_n1979]

outnumbered said:

Looks great. Mileage ? I've always assumed these have mostly been used as executive taxis and thus been annually clocked,do you know any of the history on yours ?

Full history, all miles backed up by the MOTs, rafts of paperwork that all line up with the MOT etc & with some main issues being addressed (gearbox, sump etc)

Main reasons why I bought it, it’s very well documented etc

[d_a_n1979]

to3m said:

My 330i is Le Mans blue + beige "leather", which stood out a bit less when I was looking - Le Mans blue being more common on the 3 series - but the combination of non-grey/black/silver/white + light interior was unusual enough when I was looking that I pretty much knew I was going to buy it the moment I saw the advert.

I've never had a black car, but I did have a silver one with a dark interior. I drove it for 7 years. It was OK, but I really didn't want to get stuck with another one.

Know that feeling!

When I first saw this, the colour and contrasting interior stood it out above all the others, bar a black 750i that was spec'd with more or less all toys from factory. Alas; the price and known V8 issues put me off in the end

Once I've got the alloys refurbed and black grilles on; IMO, the car will looked finished

Such a shame BMW de-chrome a car with the shadowline spec, but leave chrome grilles on!

[d_a_n1979]

Prinny said:

Nice! You can usually get a set of 18” for around £200 on ebay if you’re patient, and the ride on them is much, much nicer than on the 20”. But they look woefully small. Here’s my 760il on 18” for reference. (Goes well in the snow too, the lwb means every slide happens so slowly, it’s so easy to sort out - I may well have wasted a good half a tank of fuel finding this out... )

Managed to get a set of these alloys via sellers on eBay

Got 2 from one seller and 2 singles from other sellers, £140 all in for all 4 with postage to me as well, so not too bad! Will sand them back and re-spray them myself, they are only for winter tyres, so won't be too precious about them

I've got the car into my local garage tomorrow to get the rear tyres fitted (front tyres fitted last week, they had to come on 2 separate deliveries from Camskill for some reason) Front lower arms will be done tomorrow and then hopefully the car will go into the place I'm getting my alloys refurbed on Wednesday; will be getting them media blasted, have the rim edges repaired and then powder coated in either silver or anthracite (still haven't decided on the colour)!

The swirl flaps, software update and oil/filter and full fluids refresh was done last Thursday

Will update with pics one I've had the alloys sorted

[d_a_n1979]

New tyres all round and new front upper arms fitted; lovely No more clunking. However, the tracking is slightly off still, so will get that sorted later this week

I'm dropping the car off at an alloy wheel refurbishers local to me tomorrow morning Will have a look at their colour selection (powder coaters not wet spray); so will decide tomorrow. But think I'm going to go for an anthracite or gun-metal

[d_a_n1979]

d_a_n1979 said:

New tyres all round and new front upper arms fitted; lovely No more clunking. However, the tracking is slightly off still, so will get that sorted later this week

I'm dropping the car off at an alloy wheel refurbishers local to me tomorrow morning Will have a look at their colour selection (powder coaters not wet spray); so will decide tomorrow. But think I'm going to go for an anthracite or gun-metal

Ended up going with platinum silver I felt that gun-metal or anthracite would distract too much from the contrast of the shiny alloys but also hide the features of the alloy wheel

Will get pics up once I've got the car back on Friday

[d_a_n1979]

Collected the car this morning; alloys fully refurbed and powdercoated. Finish is Platinum Silver



New centre caps; Richbrook stainless steel valves & an 82mm Mtec stud conversion fitted with 5mm hubcentric shims upfront and 12mm hubcentric spacers on the rears. Gives the alloys a much better stance IMO

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Saturday 8th September 11:15

[d_a_n1979]

Car finally fixed

The electrical airbag/SRS system fault turned out to be a module in the boot, connected to the battery that'd been damaged previously (along time ago, not recent) and it'd started to fall apart due to it being so tightly cable tied together etc

It meant that the whole positive battery terminal cabling needed to be replaced (not cheap) after quite a few hours of wiring checks, sensor checks and passenger seat removal/interior trim removal and battery / boot area trim removal (also not cheap)!

All in it had to be an original part from BMW (again, not cheap) and then the auto diagnostics guys at ADS in Preston fitted it all for me

All in, just under £600...

It does mean no more warning lights and bongs, no worrying about driving it around and something going worse and a full, very clean bill of health

Otherwise, they were very impressed with the car, it's cleanliness (I have issues) and how good a condition it's in overall

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Saturday 11th August 15:47

[d_a_n1979]

It’s first full proper wash & wax; used Poorboys Black Hole as that’s what I used on my previous black E39 530i and it’s come up well on the Le Mans Blue paintwork

[d_a_n1979]

Maty said:

I helped my father in law buy a LWB 750 of the same year as yours. It still makes me giggle how well it picks and goes for something so big!

Lovely car to drive.

The cd changer is stuck in though. Anyone any idea how to get it out? Apparently the polish hard dance music that is in it isn’t to my 69 year old FiL’s tastes for some reason.

Aye; this really hunkers down and goes when you want it to; more so in Sport mode. It's a great drive though and TBH I'm glad I went for the Sport version as the suspension is more to my taste (firmer); I did test drive a few other non-Spot 730Ds and a 750i and they were a bit too soft for my liking

Re the CD changer; think I saw over on bimmerforums.com that you can access it by removing the glove box panels and there's a release to it; or that allows you to remove the whole thing etc

TBH I use a Bluetooth to FM adapter and play music via my iPod touch; just makes life easier (shame it didn't have an AUX in really)

[d_a_n1979]

Just to give a brief update

I've still got a slight clunk on the front but only at low speeds; so either drop links or top mounts. Will get it up on my pals ramps as soon as I can and have a look around and see what else needs replacing

Will do a brake overhaul at the same time; I've gone for Mtec C hook discs all round with EBC Yellowstuff pads up front and just standard EBC pads for the rear along with HEL braided brake lines all round too. Some Motul DOT 5.1 fluid will finish it off nicely

After that's all done I'm going to look into getting it a Stage 1 remap; a bit more power and better economy and that'll be it fettled

Winter alloys are in the garage (managed to buy 4 individual Style 93 alloys for less than £200) all in fairly good nick with no kerning; but they'll get flatted off and resprayed in Rover Metallic Silver and will look to get 4 new winter tyres fitted thereafter

Will update with pics ASAP

[d_a_n1979]

It is; a very comfy waft, even on the 20" alloys!

Yes; I was running 15mm rears and 12mm fronts; but heavy undulations in the roads and motorways just made the rear tyres catch a touch, so have just gone with 5mm hubcentric shims all round now. Will probably put the 12mm spacers back on the rears next time I take the wheels off (when I do the brake overhaul at my pals garage)

Bimecc spacers via Mteconline are very good and I'd highly recommend them; but the ones that Precision sell via eBay are very good too

[d_a_n1979]

TheAngryDog said:

Wide spacers I'm not too keen on, I don't really want to go more than 12mm all round. I was looking at actual mtec ones but the price seems too cheap - £25 a pair. I'll look at Bimmec but I know they're quite dear. Precision don't seem to do 12mm ones.

15mm is not that much really; I'd never go 20/25mm upwards though. That's just too much and really because people want to fit alloys that aren't designed for their car!

Precision 15mm ones here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-5-Series-E60-2003-2...

They do a 12mm spacer, but not listed, so might be worth contacting them to see if they have them in stock

I've got their 12mm and 15mm ones in the garage doing nothing if you wanted those; but you'll need longer bolts unless you do a stud conversion. £40 with delivery etc

Re Bimecc; 12mm ones here with bolts via Mteconline: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-12MM-BIMECC-BMW-HUB...

They do them in black as well.

Re your comment on price as well; just because they’re more expensive, doesn’t make them better necessarily. Know lots of folk that have had issues with Eibach spacers at c£100 a pair! Plenty of folk run the Mtec or Precision spacers with zero issues.

What is key is giving the hubs a thorough wire brushing/light sanding and clean off to ensure the surface is flat and the same with the back of the alloy too. Any tiny spec can cause all sorts of issues!

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Saturday 8th September 12:36

[d_a_n1979]

alec.e said:

Sorry, this comes accross as daft, plenty of poorly maintained cars with silver wheels. Mine are anthracite from factory!

Thanks.

There are plenty of darker alloys out there too that haven’t been looked after, black ones especially.

Agree though; if a car had the wrong colour alloys, wouldn’t put me off if the car was the right spec. Can soon get them sorted and maybe a bit of £££ off with sensible haggling

[d_a_n1979]

RS Grant said:

These have aged well in my opinion. I remember them being launched and not being a fan... which was the same reaction I had to other Bangle designs (E65 7er, E63 6er and E60 5er in particular) but they have really grown on me over time. Yours is in a great colour combination and really suits the wheels, the silver looks very fresh/sharp on it too.

Is it on big miles? I assume they'll wear high mileage well and without any noticeable issues if maintained and looked after properly. My old man has run his E63 635d for the past ~75k miles to it's current ~105k mileage and apart from a few stone chips and a slight crack in a front indicator lense it still looks great.

It’s on just over 101k miles so fairly low really. It’s worn them very well indeed; it’s very clean underneath.

Front bumper, bonnet and wing mirrors are a bit pebble dashed, so they’ll get resprayed at some point, but in no rush. Might see the winter through before I do that unless I get chance beforehand

[d_a_n1979]

vsonix said:

That looks nice! And unusual to see E65 in colours other than black, white, silver or gumetal.

Apologies; just seen this

Thanks; yes! I'd had a real good look around, but as you said, all silver/gunmetal/black and didn't really want to go down that route. More so as they were predominately pre-facelift, or in that cross-over where they were facelift, but still had some old tech in them (ie. no integrated Bluetooth etc)

I did see one 750Li that was Aspensilber, I think, but it was LWB and the SWB is long enough!

I really didn't want to go back to a black car either; the 530i I sold was black and the paintwork did my nut in every time I washed/polished it. Just full of swirls that only a respray would have sorted and they'd be back in no time after that too! Just impossible to keep looking gleaming, IMO

There was and still is a very well spec'd 750i for sale in York via eBay; that was a serious consideration, but after reading all the horror stories re the valve stem oil seal rebuilds that it seems these engines WILL need at some point and at a c£3k bill, I decided against it. Plus it was black... So 2 negs against it!

Don't get me wrong; the LMB E65 I have no wasn't without it's issues (needed all 4 alloys refurbing and new rubber all round; needed all new suspension arms, front & rear. Needs brakes (that's up next along with drop links all round).

But it had been looked after and serviced very well and the interior is nigh on spotless, so was happy to buy a project at the right price. Plus it's a gorgeous colour

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Wednesday 3rd October 19:58