Diary of running a 1998 BMW 728i E38
Discussion
This is my Diary of ownership of a BMW 728i, purchased in July 2007 for £2000.
The headlines on the 12th dec 2008 are:-
Cost to date £2814
Miles covered 25400
MPG average 29.4
**********************************************************************
I have always fancied running a large luxurious car…Inspired by the bargain Barge threads I have recently purchased a BMW 7 series. I thought I would share my experiences since buying the car…
I bought the BMW a couple of months ago… a 1998 728i which I spotted on Ebay. 95K from new, 3 previous owners, with a good service history. The bidding stopped at £1900 and the car didn’t reach its reserve… to be honest the pictures were very poor which didn’t do the car justice… It came back on the following week so I decided to go and have a look as it was local… It seemed to check out OK but it needed a few jobs doing. The seller told me the reserve was £4000 on the first auction but he had reduced it to £3000 for this one… Not wanting to pay that, I waited to see how it did second time around…. It reached just over £2000… I mailed the guy back and asked what he would take for the car and arranged another viewing.
In the mean time I did some research on the Nikasil issue and found there was an easy way to tell if it had a replacement block. (there is a cast lug on the new type block, not present on ones with the Nikasil issue) The following day I looked at the car again and found that it had indeed had a new engine! (since found a FOC receipt from BMW in with the history for the engine at 70k miles I took £2500 with me in cash and after some negotiation drove away with the car for £2000!
Over the next week I serviced the car…
Changed all the fluids:- oil, coolant, brake fluid, including auto transmission which in theory is a “sealed for life unit” (£70 for oil from Audi - but better than the £205 BMW wanted!) also changed all the filters, oil, air, fuel, auto transmission filter, but cleaned the cabin filters as these looked quite new, plus they were expensive at £19 each and there are two of them! Replaced the spark plugs.
I replaced the brake pads all round and stripped and re-built the callipers – the rears were ok (did them anyway to prevent future problems) but one of the fronts had a couple of pistons slightly sticking. This had caused one of the pads to wear ahead of the others… No cost, save for the pads and some rubber grease. I struggled to turn off the brake pad warning message at first until I realised that the pad sensors work opposite to normal! You have to replace the wires as they go open circuit when they touch the pads!
Replaced the rear tyres (£260)
One of the faults with the car was the heater/air con. On the passenger side it blew hot all the time. This turned out to be a heater valve. I manage to take the valve apart and found that one of the two solenoids had zero resistance on the coil. I suspected a break in the wire so I carefully unwound the wire onto a piece of tube in the lathe on a low speed, sure enough, very close to the end I found a break! As it was so close to the end I removed the remainder of the wire and re wound the coil (again in the lathe) and checked the resistance… This time it was the same as the good coil so I re-assembled the valve and it worked! Quite satisfying to do this repair!
I also bought a tool off Ebay (£15) to reset the service lights. Since found out you can do this with a simple piece of wire….
Following these repairs I ran the car for a while, to make sure I liked it and could live with the fuel consumption before throwing any more cash at it!
Like it, I love it! Its soooo smooth and quiet to drive, the cabin is a nice place to be and I love the wafftiness of the drive. Its not the fastest car, but I didn’t buy it for speed, I have a Caterham HPC for that…. I guess I could have gone for a 740i but the fuel consumption is not half as good as the 728i in the real world. I made the decision to keep it and run it for a while.
I decided to finish off a couple more jobs I had spotted while doing the service. I replaced the rear discs as the handbrake drums were badly corroded, along with the handbrake brake shoes (7 series have disc footbrake and drum handbrake on the rear) I cured a small leak on the power steering reservoir by replacing a clip, plus a few other odd jobs… Oh and I bought some new mats and conditioned the leather with some stuff that restores the leather smell…
I replaced the front tyres this time (again £260) as one was close to the limit although the other had 5mm left. This simple change had a dramatic effect on how the car drove! Seems that the gearbox senses the speeds of all wheels and having unbalanced front tyres (in circumference terms) was causing the gearbox to hold onto changes for too long. It’s a well documented problem in BMW circles…. I also did a simple modification on the wiring of the Steptronic gear change which means I now pull back (instead of push forward) on the stick to change up, more natural that way. I notice later models have adopted this.
I am now up to almost 4000 mile in total and we have just returned from a 1100 mile holiday to Scotland, including a tour of Skye. Mrs Buzzer has grown to like the car, she was not that keen at first – said she felt like it looked like a drug dealers car with the blacked out windows!! She also felt that as it was long, it was difficult to reverse… this was overcome by fitting some after market reversing sensors. Again off Ebay and at £29 a bargain, and very easy to fit, even came with a neat 20mm hole saw to cut the holes!
At the moment its running very well… Fuel consumption has averaged out at 28.6 MPG over the 4000 miles but on the Scottish trip it averaged 33.6 MPG! Oil consumption has been 1ltr in 3000 mile. To summarise costs so far…
So was it worth it? Only time will tell as the miles clock up. As we all know, a major breakdown can render the car uneconomical to repair but for now I am certainly enjoying my bargain barge! Maybe I will update this thread as time goes on….
Update 8th October
Thought I would update on the BMW as it approaches 8000 mile in my ownership… I noticed over the past couple of hundred miles that the fuel consumption had dropped to around 26 MPG. I tend to be fairly consistent in my journey type so it was easy to spot. I had also noticed that the temp gauge indicated a little lower and that it didn’t warm up as quick. All pointing to a problem with the thermostat….
I change the thermostat last week. Its easy enough to change, but I did need to knock up a special tool to hold the water pump pulley to remove the viscous fan. Easy to make. Just a couple of holes in a 2 foot length of mild steel strip, the holes were made to fit over 2 of the bolt heads that hold the pulley on. I got the idea from the BMW service CD. (Remember the fan is on a left Hand Thread!!)
While the fan was off I took the opportunity to change the alternator belt, again an easy job. However, when I looked down the front of the radiator is was blocked with leaf debris so as the coolant had already been drained I took the rad out and gave it a good clean with the high pressure hose. Lots of muck came out from between the fins…
Costs were £13 for the thermostat, £9.55 for the alternator belt and £12.40 for the antifreeze. Fuel consumption now back to normal.
16th December
Time for an update, now up to 11,000 miles… No major problems so far, although I did notice the odd bump and rattle on the front suspension, noting major but as its so quiet it spoils the experience! I had a look last weekend and was surprised to see one of the lower track control arm inner bushes had a small amount of play.
I remembered seeing in the service history one had been replaced so I checked back in the receipts and sure enough the LH one had been replaced at 86K. Strangely, this was the one with the play so it looks like it was incorrectly fitted (common problem with rubber in sheer bushes, the mechanic replaces the part but tightens the securing bolt with the suspension in the dropped position, instead of when its at its normal ride height. This puts undue strain on the bush and causes premature failure – I digress!)
I purchased a couple of lower arms in the week and fitted them today. Easy enough job and they were £60 the pair which was very reasonable. Also did another Oil and filter change.
Saturday 22nd December.
Went around to the local motor factors to pick up some screen wash. Guy in the shop sees the 7 series and says he has some suspension bushes in stock for one… Someone ordered them months ago but never came back to collect them… They turn out to be lower traction control arm bushes. He tells me I can have the pair for £15. Now I know these are one of the common items to go… Bargain, so I buy them…
Next day wife is out Christmas shopping, I am bored so I decided to fit them. Jack the car up in the garage and get underneath and start to unbolt the N/S traction arm. It looks to be a simple enough job…. I manage to undo the ball joint OK and move onto the rear mounting. Thing is the back bolt is VERY big and VERY tight…
I got up and got a longer pull bar and got into a better position so I could exert more force. With my chest against the wheel I pull hard and all of a sudden CRACK yikesyikes
Not the car, my ribs! yikes I lay there for a few moments to get my breath and decided I had better re connect the ball joint as I knew I could not carry on. I went to the doctor next day and he confirmed 2 broken ribs. He gave me a load of pain killers, Anti inflammatory tablets and some pain killing gel to rub on
5th jan
I am still not sleeping very well but the pain has subsided to a tolerable level. The first week was very very painful and I had to sleep sitting up in bed… It was a very quiet Christmas for me! When the ribs have healed enough to finish the job, I will let you know how it goes…
26th Jan
Thanks for all the get well wishes, the ribs are well on the mend although I am not quite up to rolling around the floor underneath the car yet!
Took the BMW for MoT this morning, passed no problem! There was VERY slight play in one of the rear suspension bushes on the Off Side so when I feel up to it I will have a closer look. It’s fine for now.
While it was up on the ramp it was a good opportunity to have a good look underneath, the tester knows me well so while he was finishing off the paperwork he handed me the lead light so I had a good 10 mins looking over the car. They are, shall we say “well built”!!!
I have quite a few business trips in the next few weeks so I should be putting a few miles on her…
The wheels are showing signs of the paint lifting, maybe I will have them powder coated…. Been quoted £300 all in to have the tyres removed, wheels refurbished and the tyres replaced. We will see in a while… have to say I am really enjoying the car…
24h Feb
The slight amount of play in the rear ball joint was niggling me! Decided to change it as a new one was only £20. Took me couple of hours to make up a suitable tool to pull the old ball joint out and force the new on in. This job CAN NOT BE DONE WITHOUT THE PULLER! The tool I made was “JUST” strong enough. If I made it again it would be much more substantial, those ball joints are in there tight!
Also fitted a HID headlight kit off Ebay. Great improvement to the lights! Not included this in the costs though.
20th April
First real failure… the drives door refused to open from the inside. I took the door trim off today and found the cable between the inner handle and the door lock had broken. Cheap part but the dealers don’t open on a Sunday and they would probably have to order It anyway… A quick trip to Halfords produced a push bike gear cable for £4. I simply silver soldered the ends off the old cable onto a new bit, works a treat.
Also changed the oil and filter.
Average fuel consumption on the computer was reading 28.2 since I bought it but this has now reset as I had to disconnect the battery when I took the door trim off (air bag)
25th May 2008
The warmer weather has highlighted that the air con is not a cold as it could be and the fan on the front of the radiator is not on when it should be. I called in a mobile air con man in to top up the air con on the BMW and my wife’s car. He confirmed the fan was faulty and said it was a common fault. Its expensive from BMW so I popped to a couple of scrap yards and managed to pick up a fan complete with resistors (which also fail but are available separately) for £30. it was easy to fit. Nice cold air con now. Oil and filter change
Cost £95
28th Sep 2008
The low coolant light came on… it had lost a small quantity of water. I quickly found the leak; it was the thermostat housing. They are a common failure as the plastic cracks. Picked one up from the local BMW specialist (£14) along with a few items to service the car. The specialist mentioned that water pumps are a very common failure so I had one of those as well. Seems the original has a plastic impeller which degrades and fails. Changing the thermostat housing was easy, I also unbolted the water pump but on inspection it was like new and had a metal impeller so I refitted it and took the new pump back. I then serviced the car, no real problems but the rear tyres were looking a bit low….
Average consumption now up to 29.4 MPG as I have been doing a few long trips. I love this car! Wafting along in quiet comfort!
Total cost £58
1st November 2008
The wheels were looking a bit worse for wear and I had seen a set come up on Ebay with two newish tyres on. I bid and won them for £180! I had all 4 powder coated silver at a company called LAP-TAB in Birmingham for £200. They did an excellent job! The car has done 25k on the new tyres I had fitted and the rears were getting close so I kept the front tyres and replaced the rears with the tyres from the Ebay Wheels. Just re sold the wheels with my old tyres for £185! Which means in real terms its cost me £200 to get the wheels refurnished, plus I effectively had 2 new tyres for nothing! Result!
Here are the costs to date
Purchase £2000
Tyres £520
Service items £225
Mats and reverse sensor £52
Update below for 11th August 07
Recovered from the sale of the number plate -£460
Oil Service (oil and filter) £13
Update 16th December 07
Fitter lower track control arms and oil and filter change
£72
Update 22nd December 07
Lower traction control bushes £15 (not fitted yet, see above)
8th Feb 08 £20
20th April 08 £4
25th May 2008 £95
28th Sep 2008 £58
1st Novemebr 2008 £200
Total now
£2814
The headlines on the 12th dec 2008 are:-
Cost to date £2814
Miles covered 25400
MPG average 29.4
**********************************************************************
I have always fancied running a large luxurious car…Inspired by the bargain Barge threads I have recently purchased a BMW 7 series. I thought I would share my experiences since buying the car…
I bought the BMW a couple of months ago… a 1998 728i which I spotted on Ebay. 95K from new, 3 previous owners, with a good service history. The bidding stopped at £1900 and the car didn’t reach its reserve… to be honest the pictures were very poor which didn’t do the car justice… It came back on the following week so I decided to go and have a look as it was local… It seemed to check out OK but it needed a few jobs doing. The seller told me the reserve was £4000 on the first auction but he had reduced it to £3000 for this one… Not wanting to pay that, I waited to see how it did second time around…. It reached just over £2000… I mailed the guy back and asked what he would take for the car and arranged another viewing.
In the mean time I did some research on the Nikasil issue and found there was an easy way to tell if it had a replacement block. (there is a cast lug on the new type block, not present on ones with the Nikasil issue) The following day I looked at the car again and found that it had indeed had a new engine! (since found a FOC receipt from BMW in with the history for the engine at 70k miles I took £2500 with me in cash and after some negotiation drove away with the car for £2000!
Over the next week I serviced the car…
Changed all the fluids:- oil, coolant, brake fluid, including auto transmission which in theory is a “sealed for life unit” (£70 for oil from Audi - but better than the £205 BMW wanted!) also changed all the filters, oil, air, fuel, auto transmission filter, but cleaned the cabin filters as these looked quite new, plus they were expensive at £19 each and there are two of them! Replaced the spark plugs.
I replaced the brake pads all round and stripped and re-built the callipers – the rears were ok (did them anyway to prevent future problems) but one of the fronts had a couple of pistons slightly sticking. This had caused one of the pads to wear ahead of the others… No cost, save for the pads and some rubber grease. I struggled to turn off the brake pad warning message at first until I realised that the pad sensors work opposite to normal! You have to replace the wires as they go open circuit when they touch the pads!
Replaced the rear tyres (£260)
One of the faults with the car was the heater/air con. On the passenger side it blew hot all the time. This turned out to be a heater valve. I manage to take the valve apart and found that one of the two solenoids had zero resistance on the coil. I suspected a break in the wire so I carefully unwound the wire onto a piece of tube in the lathe on a low speed, sure enough, very close to the end I found a break! As it was so close to the end I removed the remainder of the wire and re wound the coil (again in the lathe) and checked the resistance… This time it was the same as the good coil so I re-assembled the valve and it worked! Quite satisfying to do this repair!
I also bought a tool off Ebay (£15) to reset the service lights. Since found out you can do this with a simple piece of wire….
Following these repairs I ran the car for a while, to make sure I liked it and could live with the fuel consumption before throwing any more cash at it!
Like it, I love it! Its soooo smooth and quiet to drive, the cabin is a nice place to be and I love the wafftiness of the drive. Its not the fastest car, but I didn’t buy it for speed, I have a Caterham HPC for that…. I guess I could have gone for a 740i but the fuel consumption is not half as good as the 728i in the real world. I made the decision to keep it and run it for a while.
I decided to finish off a couple more jobs I had spotted while doing the service. I replaced the rear discs as the handbrake drums were badly corroded, along with the handbrake brake shoes (7 series have disc footbrake and drum handbrake on the rear) I cured a small leak on the power steering reservoir by replacing a clip, plus a few other odd jobs… Oh and I bought some new mats and conditioned the leather with some stuff that restores the leather smell…
I replaced the front tyres this time (again £260) as one was close to the limit although the other had 5mm left. This simple change had a dramatic effect on how the car drove! Seems that the gearbox senses the speeds of all wheels and having unbalanced front tyres (in circumference terms) was causing the gearbox to hold onto changes for too long. It’s a well documented problem in BMW circles…. I also did a simple modification on the wiring of the Steptronic gear change which means I now pull back (instead of push forward) on the stick to change up, more natural that way. I notice later models have adopted this.
I am now up to almost 4000 mile in total and we have just returned from a 1100 mile holiday to Scotland, including a tour of Skye. Mrs Buzzer has grown to like the car, she was not that keen at first – said she felt like it looked like a drug dealers car with the blacked out windows!! She also felt that as it was long, it was difficult to reverse… this was overcome by fitting some after market reversing sensors. Again off Ebay and at £29 a bargain, and very easy to fit, even came with a neat 20mm hole saw to cut the holes!
At the moment its running very well… Fuel consumption has averaged out at 28.6 MPG over the 4000 miles but on the Scottish trip it averaged 33.6 MPG! Oil consumption has been 1ltr in 3000 mile. To summarise costs so far…
So was it worth it? Only time will tell as the miles clock up. As we all know, a major breakdown can render the car uneconomical to repair but for now I am certainly enjoying my bargain barge! Maybe I will update this thread as time goes on….
Update 8th October
Thought I would update on the BMW as it approaches 8000 mile in my ownership… I noticed over the past couple of hundred miles that the fuel consumption had dropped to around 26 MPG. I tend to be fairly consistent in my journey type so it was easy to spot. I had also noticed that the temp gauge indicated a little lower and that it didn’t warm up as quick. All pointing to a problem with the thermostat….
I change the thermostat last week. Its easy enough to change, but I did need to knock up a special tool to hold the water pump pulley to remove the viscous fan. Easy to make. Just a couple of holes in a 2 foot length of mild steel strip, the holes were made to fit over 2 of the bolt heads that hold the pulley on. I got the idea from the BMW service CD. (Remember the fan is on a left Hand Thread!!)
While the fan was off I took the opportunity to change the alternator belt, again an easy job. However, when I looked down the front of the radiator is was blocked with leaf debris so as the coolant had already been drained I took the rad out and gave it a good clean with the high pressure hose. Lots of muck came out from between the fins…
Costs were £13 for the thermostat, £9.55 for the alternator belt and £12.40 for the antifreeze. Fuel consumption now back to normal.
16th December
Time for an update, now up to 11,000 miles… No major problems so far, although I did notice the odd bump and rattle on the front suspension, noting major but as its so quiet it spoils the experience! I had a look last weekend and was surprised to see one of the lower track control arm inner bushes had a small amount of play.
I remembered seeing in the service history one had been replaced so I checked back in the receipts and sure enough the LH one had been replaced at 86K. Strangely, this was the one with the play so it looks like it was incorrectly fitted (common problem with rubber in sheer bushes, the mechanic replaces the part but tightens the securing bolt with the suspension in the dropped position, instead of when its at its normal ride height. This puts undue strain on the bush and causes premature failure – I digress!)
I purchased a couple of lower arms in the week and fitted them today. Easy enough job and they were £60 the pair which was very reasonable. Also did another Oil and filter change.
Saturday 22nd December.
Went around to the local motor factors to pick up some screen wash. Guy in the shop sees the 7 series and says he has some suspension bushes in stock for one… Someone ordered them months ago but never came back to collect them… They turn out to be lower traction control arm bushes. He tells me I can have the pair for £15. Now I know these are one of the common items to go… Bargain, so I buy them…
Next day wife is out Christmas shopping, I am bored so I decided to fit them. Jack the car up in the garage and get underneath and start to unbolt the N/S traction arm. It looks to be a simple enough job…. I manage to undo the ball joint OK and move onto the rear mounting. Thing is the back bolt is VERY big and VERY tight…
I got up and got a longer pull bar and got into a better position so I could exert more force. With my chest against the wheel I pull hard and all of a sudden CRACK yikesyikes
Not the car, my ribs! yikes I lay there for a few moments to get my breath and decided I had better re connect the ball joint as I knew I could not carry on. I went to the doctor next day and he confirmed 2 broken ribs. He gave me a load of pain killers, Anti inflammatory tablets and some pain killing gel to rub on
5th jan
I am still not sleeping very well but the pain has subsided to a tolerable level. The first week was very very painful and I had to sleep sitting up in bed… It was a very quiet Christmas for me! When the ribs have healed enough to finish the job, I will let you know how it goes…
26th Jan
Thanks for all the get well wishes, the ribs are well on the mend although I am not quite up to rolling around the floor underneath the car yet!
Took the BMW for MoT this morning, passed no problem! There was VERY slight play in one of the rear suspension bushes on the Off Side so when I feel up to it I will have a closer look. It’s fine for now.
While it was up on the ramp it was a good opportunity to have a good look underneath, the tester knows me well so while he was finishing off the paperwork he handed me the lead light so I had a good 10 mins looking over the car. They are, shall we say “well built”!!!
I have quite a few business trips in the next few weeks so I should be putting a few miles on her…
The wheels are showing signs of the paint lifting, maybe I will have them powder coated…. Been quoted £300 all in to have the tyres removed, wheels refurbished and the tyres replaced. We will see in a while… have to say I am really enjoying the car…
24h Feb
The slight amount of play in the rear ball joint was niggling me! Decided to change it as a new one was only £20. Took me couple of hours to make up a suitable tool to pull the old ball joint out and force the new on in. This job CAN NOT BE DONE WITHOUT THE PULLER! The tool I made was “JUST” strong enough. If I made it again it would be much more substantial, those ball joints are in there tight!
Also fitted a HID headlight kit off Ebay. Great improvement to the lights! Not included this in the costs though.
20th April
First real failure… the drives door refused to open from the inside. I took the door trim off today and found the cable between the inner handle and the door lock had broken. Cheap part but the dealers don’t open on a Sunday and they would probably have to order It anyway… A quick trip to Halfords produced a push bike gear cable for £4. I simply silver soldered the ends off the old cable onto a new bit, works a treat.
Also changed the oil and filter.
Average fuel consumption on the computer was reading 28.2 since I bought it but this has now reset as I had to disconnect the battery when I took the door trim off (air bag)
25th May 2008
The warmer weather has highlighted that the air con is not a cold as it could be and the fan on the front of the radiator is not on when it should be. I called in a mobile air con man in to top up the air con on the BMW and my wife’s car. He confirmed the fan was faulty and said it was a common fault. Its expensive from BMW so I popped to a couple of scrap yards and managed to pick up a fan complete with resistors (which also fail but are available separately) for £30. it was easy to fit. Nice cold air con now. Oil and filter change
Cost £95
28th Sep 2008
The low coolant light came on… it had lost a small quantity of water. I quickly found the leak; it was the thermostat housing. They are a common failure as the plastic cracks. Picked one up from the local BMW specialist (£14) along with a few items to service the car. The specialist mentioned that water pumps are a very common failure so I had one of those as well. Seems the original has a plastic impeller which degrades and fails. Changing the thermostat housing was easy, I also unbolted the water pump but on inspection it was like new and had a metal impeller so I refitted it and took the new pump back. I then serviced the car, no real problems but the rear tyres were looking a bit low….
Average consumption now up to 29.4 MPG as I have been doing a few long trips. I love this car! Wafting along in quiet comfort!
Total cost £58
1st November 2008
The wheels were looking a bit worse for wear and I had seen a set come up on Ebay with two newish tyres on. I bid and won them for £180! I had all 4 powder coated silver at a company called LAP-TAB in Birmingham for £200. They did an excellent job! The car has done 25k on the new tyres I had fitted and the rears were getting close so I kept the front tyres and replaced the rears with the tyres from the Ebay Wheels. Just re sold the wheels with my old tyres for £185! Which means in real terms its cost me £200 to get the wheels refurnished, plus I effectively had 2 new tyres for nothing! Result!
Here are the costs to date
Purchase £2000
Tyres £520
Service items £225
Mats and reverse sensor £52
Update below for 11th August 07
Recovered from the sale of the number plate -£460
Oil Service (oil and filter) £13
Update 16th December 07
Fitter lower track control arms and oil and filter change
£72
Update 22nd December 07
Lower traction control bushes £15 (not fitted yet, see above)
8th Feb 08 £20
20th April 08 £4
25th May 2008 £95
28th Sep 2008 £58
1st Novemebr 2008 £200
Total now
£2814
Edited by buzzer on Friday 12th December 12:25
Spent a bit of a very boring afternoon reading all that. It makes very interesting reading and shows how you can run even the biggest waftiest bargest for little money if you are prepared to keep on top of niggles and do things yourself.
Well done for taking the time to write it all up, and for saving me from lying face down in my diary
Well done for taking the time to write it all up, and for saving me from lying face down in my diary
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