E38 Facelift (awaiting slippery replacement)

[B'stard Child]

I've never done a thread on any of my cars on PH but they've been featured in a few threads if you understand what I mean..... I might link to a few posts but then again I might not

I saw this in 2006 but first I need to set the scene

Background I'd spent 3 years restoring a Senator 24V that was perfect when I purchased it bar the snapped cam chain only to find the rear end was full of wag and I was gutted so I decided to leave the vauxhall/opel world I'd known for decades and defect to the dark side

OK so first as I got it (or rather what prompted me to view it)

Back



Side



Front



Inside (My favorite bit - got a bit of a thing for black leather)



So I bought it for £6000 with 94,797 miles in Nov 2006 - dealership demonstrator for 3 mths then company owned for 5 years then part exchanged for a Merc (spoke to the first owner who wished he'd kept it but the accountant has advised him to change) then 6 months with a new keeper who got himself into a little bother money wise and needed to raise some cash in a hurry so it was a bit of a bargain.

Then on the way home I called into a mates house (he wanted me to buy his V12 E38) and relieved him of some parts




And




Well it stayed std for 15 miles

The tyres were toast so alternative wheels and tyres were needed to keep it legal

I also transfered my senator plate to the car

Car Park Shots







I love basket weaves but they are such a bugger to keep clean

So I stripped the 18's (for some reason they look really good in the pictures proving that bloody cameras do lie - they were awful condition)



Became



I needed to make sure I didn't lose the bolts



And the centres got blasted and coated



The alloy once the laquer was removed seemed to be black to the core and wouldn't polish so I threw it all in the garage loft and forgot about them..... Till PH'r Gewy (Paul Christian) wanted to try one of the rears on the front of his project car so I had to put one together roughly (with four bolts - I hadn't lost them)

Anyway the wheel at 9 1/2 J x 18 was too small for what he needed FFS and as the alloy had gone back to grey I thought I'd better finish them......

And finally 7 years later I have......

After



Detail



I haz dish



The following points are already taken as a given.....

1) Yes it needs beating with a large and heavy stick
2) Yes it's seen a mouse and is very frightened

Just as a heads up I haven't put a car into a garage for any work other than an MOT test or tyres since the late 80's - I do everything myself (well sometimes with a little help as a group of us pool resources and tools and it works very well) So this thread will probably have more DIY and less detailing

Edited by B'stard Child on Monday 4th November 23:45

[slippery]

Your thread title might need some explanation!
Great looking car the E38 (I'd still be tempted by a Sport) and a much more sporty drive than anything else in its class. What year is it and how many miles has it done now?

[B'stard Child]

slippery said:

Your thread title might need some explanation!

Good point

slippery said:

Great looking car the E38 (I'd still be tempted by a Sport) and a much more sporty drive than anything else in its class. What year is it and how many miles has it done now?

1998 Facelift err mileage I'd have to look - close to 116,200

Edited by B'stard Child on Thursday 7th November 21:25

[C.A.R.]

It looks dead nice but black centres with silver lips always makes the wheels look smaller than they actually are IMO. It looked better before, or if you had gone for gunmetal / anthracite centres. Just don't like the black...nothing personal!

I was sat behind a 750i on Sunday as it happens, still look like very impressive cars on the road.

[Baryonyx]

Looked great before the wheels were refinished! BTW, nice Senator! Anymore pics of it?

[slippery]

Baryonyx said:

Looked great before the wheels were refinished! BTW, nice Senator! Anymore pics of it?

Where are the Senator Pics? Or have you seen them on another thread?

[Dr G]

C.A.R. said:

It looks dead nice but black centres with silver lips always makes the wheels look smaller than they actually are IMO. It looked better before, or if you had gone for gunmetal / anthracite centres. Just don't like the black...nothing personal!

Agree, I think they look decidedly aftermarket with the black centres too. Lovely car otherwise.

[Shadow R1]

slippery said:

Where are the Senator Pics? Or have you seen them on another thread?

He might mean the Carlton, in the pics.

[bennyboydurham]

Yeh black wheels on an old BM doesn't do it for me but the E38 is such a lovely looking car and this looks like a good 'un.

[Baryonyx]

slippery said:

Where are the Senator Pics? Or have you seen them on another thread?

Indeed, I saw the Carlton (before I edited my post I had commented on this), then re-read the OP and noticed mention of the Senator, so I was thinking he may have been the PH'er with the Lotus Senator. Perhaps I am mistaken (and should pay more attention).

As in...

[slippery]

That's BC's Lotus Carlton, quite a well known example back in the day. Hasn't been too far lately and will no doubt be the subject of a picture heavy thread when it reaches the top of his 'to do' list!

[B'stard Child]

C.A.R. said:

It looks dead nice but black centres with silver lips always makes the wheels look smaller than they actually are IMO. It looked better before, or if you had gone for gunmetal / anthracite centres. Just don't like the black...

hindsight is great isn't it. I had the centres done in 2007 when I had planned to put the wheels back on.... Bit late to change colour 6 years later

[slippery]

B'stard Child said:

C.A.R. said:

It looks dead nice but black centres with silver lips always makes the wheels look smaller than they actually are IMO. It looked better before, or if you had gone for gunmetal / anthracite centres. Just don't like the black...

hindsight is great isn't it. I had the centres done in 2007 when I had planned to put the wheels back on.... Bit late to change colour 6 years later

Too right, you've got other priorities, such as the LC!

[B'stard Child]

slippery said:

B'stard Child said:

C.A.R. said:

It looks dead nice but black centres with silver lips always makes the wheels look smaller than they actually are IMO. It looked better before, or if you had gone for gunmetal / anthracite centres. Just don't like the black...

hindsight is great isn't it. I had the centres done in 2007 when I had planned to put the wheels back on.... Bit late to change colour 6 years later

Too right, you've got other priorities, such as the LC!

No thread on that on PH and no it's still not finished

Anyway back to the 740 and back to 2007.......

So when I got the 740 I was happy with the autobox change quality of my 740 when I bought it

Happier still when I drove my mate Wills 540i - it was nasty very jerky and slurred changes

However I gave him a hand to change the gearbox oil and filter and the difference was amazing - chalk and cheese

Bad news was it now had a much better shift than mine in terms of change quality and I could see that my gearbox wasn't functioning as it should

- the tacho was slow to drop when changing into top
- slow speed changes could come in with a bang
- general slurred changes rather than crisp

But what I wasn't happy about £9 per litre plus vat for the oil!!!

The filter and gasket however was less than £28 inc vat from BMW!!!

So we searched and found a cheaper source for the oil - obviously he wanted to do a couple more changes and I wanted to do at least 2 so we split the cost of it 50/50

Anyway today the 740 had it's first autobox fluid and filter change in nearly 100,000 miles

Over t' pit (As the yorkshire people might say)



Where I'm going to be concentrating on



I reckon my camera lens was a bit grimey!!!! I cleaned it and rest of pics are OK

First and very important make sure you can undo the filler plug



Don't remove it as you will get very mucky - just crack it

The level in the sump when the engine is not running is way above the level plug!!!

Next drain the oil



Remove sump plug

Drain oil (it comes out real fast)

Then start undoing the sump bolts (leave four in the corners)

Then loosen the two furthest away from the drain plug and undo the two closest to the drain plug completely



This will help to ensure the sump pan has a lot less oil in it when you drop it completely.

When the oil has stopped dripping put the bung back in, undo the last two bolts and drop the pan.

Here's the pan



And the magnets









Next clean the magnets and pan



Time to remove the filter (keep a bucket handy)



And removed



New filter (Part number info) O ring is not supplied with the filter)



And unwrapped



Fit O ring

And replace



Sump bolts all done up



Now we need some oil (£85 for 20 L - ouch but still a nice saving)



Transformer



Pump



Fire in the hole



Slow going but going down



Going down



Going down



Going down



At this point it started dribbling out so

Engine on and AC on full to give a increased idle speed

My mate Will worked it thro the gears to fill the galleries and we kept feeding it the oil



With the engine running finally it started to overflow again

Gearbox temperature at this point was 54 deg just inside limits

Pull the tube out shut of the pump and bang in the filer plug before too much oil is lost



So to give an indication of how much to put back I measured what came out

5L exactly

It took 4.75L at the first fill but I reckoned that was not allowing for filling up the galleries properly so I took it for a drive to propperly fill up all the galleries etc

Now you need to let it cool right down so time to change the plugs :lol: (I'll skip this bit cos it's not relevant)

So plugs changed and trannys cooled (ish - damn these engines hold their heat!!!)

Roll it over the pit

get the pump running back into the container less delay in filling the pan

get my mate Will to fire her up and with the AC on settle on a fast idle

Filler plug out

pipe in and top her up

Took about 750 ml before it started running down the pipe

Filler plug back in and shut it down.

Gearbox temperature by that point was 46 deg.

So whats the difference

Gearbox change quality - sensational

it no longer slowly drops the revs when going into top and whilst you can't feel the gear changes the tacho tells a big story with nice positive drops and none of the slow decay that was there before.

Job done I reckon.

[Toaster Pilot]

tbc said:

That looks cracking black with black wheels

anyone looking for a solid, reliable motor would be hard pressed to find a better motor than a friend of a friend is selling

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-728i-E38-7-Series-4-...

Far too much bullst in that advert for my liking....

"Flagship model"
"most sought after and desireable model"
"fully loaded"
"only just run in"

[tbc]

Toaster Pilot said:

tbc said:

That looks cracking black with black wheels

anyone looking for a solid, reliable motor would be hard pressed to find a better motor than a friend of a friend is selling

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-728i-E38-7-Series-4-...

Far too much bullst in that advert for my liking....

"Flagship model"
"most sought after and desireable model"
"fully loaded"
"only just run in"

all true

[Stinkfoot]

Toaster Pilot said:

Far too much bullst in that advert for my liking....

"Flagship model"
"most sought after and desireable model"
"fully loaded"
"only just run in"

Totally agree. Completely underpowered with the 2.8 motor and its no better on fuel than V8 (ok a thimble full at the most). Its the bottom of the range model and a 740 is the better car in every single way.

[ManOpener]

tbc said:

Toaster Pilot said:

tbc said:

That looks cracking black with black wheels

anyone looking for a solid, reliable motor would be hard pressed to find a better motor than a friend of a friend is selling

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-728i-E38-7-Series-4-...

Far too much bullst in that advert for my liking....

"Flagship model"
"most sought after and desireable model"
"fully loaded"
"only just run in"

all true

Which, coming from your mouth and given your reputation on this forum, means anything but.

[E65Ross]

ManOpener said:

tbc said:

Toaster Pilot said:

tbc said:

That looks cracking black with black wheels

anyone looking for a solid, reliable motor would be hard pressed to find a better motor than a friend of a friend is selling

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-728i-E38-7-Series-4-...

Far too much bullst in that advert for my liking....

"Flagship model"
"most sought after and desireable model"
"fully loaded"
"only just run in"

all true

Which, coming from your mouth and given your reputation on this forum, means anything but.

Except it's not true though. The flagship was the 750il, also the most desirable. The 728i may be the most sought after though. But the 728i Sport is more sought after than an SE with no options. Far from fully loaded. Doesn't even have nav for starters.

No, it's not just run in. That was after around a couple of thousand miles.