Alec's BMW E64 650i Project

[Croutons]

alec.e said:

What a pair!

[Philv8s]

Here’s my Alpina with ivory leather and black carpets (wood looks good in the flesh honest).
Nice 650 you have there.

[alec.e]

Thanks chaps

Prinny & PhilsV8s, many thanks for your interior photos- very jealous of the extended leather!

Harrykul, the engine bay cleaned up suprisingly easily. 1st, I liberally sprayed deagreaser over everything, agitated with brush and hosed down. Autoglym vinyl & rubber care applied and alloyed to soak in, then wiped down with a microfibre.

[alec.e]

I joined the ESPCC Yorkshire drive yesterday, a route planned by my friend Brian, who owns a F-Type. A 150+ mile round trip, starting at Newby Bridge taking the scenic roads to the Wendsleydale Creamery.
Starting point at Motor Museum:








Creamery Car Park:



Photo stop on return:






Very pleased with the 650, it is much more enjoyable to drive on twisty roads than the Jag and has decent enough power to keep up with the F-Type S & Carrera S infront. It being convertible on a lovely day added to the driving experience. A few annoyances, the gearbox was fustrating in Auto mode without sport, making the throttle a bit ON OFF, drove it in manual mode via paddles on the way back, huge improvement! Very quick response when selecting gears, considering it is a torque convertor gearbox.
I was impressed initially with the stock exhaust, but more V8 rumble needed! Very apparent after hearing the Maserati.

Brake hubs and calipers on front have had some attention.
Calipers wire brushed and sanded as much as possible:


Primed:


Painted & 2k clear coat:


Brake hubs are alloy, don't rust So just needed rubbing down, a light coat of silver was brushed around the edge of hub.



New shiny bolts installed



Need to do the rears next. Very happy with the colour, OEM and has nice metalic flakes which change colour in sun.

[alec.e]

Lots more progress, all calipers done A slightly controversial change, gloss black kindney grilles, for a updated look.
I gave the car a full detail, stone chips touched in and machine polished with two layers of wax.


















Generally, very pleased with paintwork condition for a 10year old car with nearly 120k miles, unfortunately, there were some scratchlike marks on boot lid, but I think they might be paint micro cracks

Had the lower back seat out, to clean all the crevices. Everything cleaned again:





The BMW won the best non Jaguar trophy at the Solway Jaguar AGM, by a large margin apparently, but not exactly much competition. A nice trophy and won the book in the raffle



LED angel eye bulbs fitted, not a huge success, outer ring is very dim...
Before:

After:




The car turned 10 last week, jobs still to do...
-Exhaust needs opening up, more V8 sound needed!
-Interior changes, more black.
-Eibach Pro lowering springs

Edited by alec.e on Sunday 15th July 19:25

[alec.e]

Angel eye LEDs have been removed to be returned for refund, not happy about the dim outer rings. Will try 5000k white bulbs instead... Number plate LEDs are slowly failing, again refund hopefully

Some photos out and about, enjoying the bank holiday sun:

[Percy.]

I love the rear end with the roof down, looks great Alec

[Prinny]

Looking good Alec!

Black grilles don’t work for me personally, but s’not my car, so who am I to judge.

If it wasn’t for you mentioning the odo reading, I think most would be hard pressed to believe it, given the general appearance (& work on your part) as it stands now.

[parabolica]

alec.e said:

Angel eye LEDs have been removed to be returned for refund, not happy about the dim outer rings. Will try 5000k white bulbs instead... Number plate LEDs are slowly failing, again refund hopefully

Did your standard units have equal brightness across the 4 rings? I had a 645ci and they were (I actually preferred the OEM look and the fact the rings were distinctly different to the xenons but it's all personal preference) however I often noticed that older models seem to have inner rings that were brighter than the outer outer ones; I figured it was an inherent design feature?

[alec.e]

Cheers guys
Percy, I know what you mean, I think the LCI revision really helps to set the balance just right.

Prinny, I know the grilles are not for everyone, but the old chrome ones were very chipped / tarnished. I asked a few friends if they noticed any change, they did not- so for me, it looks OEM and am happy It is wearing the miles well, just the road rash and drivers seat wear give it away.

Parabolica, the inner rings are brighter with standard bulbs, with outers I would say about 60% brightness, just the way the optics are designed, the bulbs sit right behind the inner rings. Fingers crossed for the bulbs!

[Paracetamol]

another vote for chrome kidneys on such a nice original car..

[alec.e]

Bulbs arrived and fitted, very little improvement over stock

Did some 'testing' today, trying to get some rough performance figures, 0-60 in around 5.2 seconds and 50-70 in 2.3. Much better than I expected as I have even found it feeling sluggish at low revs.

I had been looking at M6s in the classifieds, but the bottom end bearing scare stories have put me off the idea for now, plus I don't think there would be a huge benefit (could be wrong) at legal speeds. For now, I will continue to enjoy the car for the summer!

[McSam]

This is absolutely lovely, and it's great to see such attention to detail. I really must spend more time on mine, after an initial spate of improvements and fixes it got to a point where I was happy to just drive it - two years and 20,000 miles since then, it's still carrying some of the same old faults

Thanks for the mention, gf15 - I have the car thanks in no small part to you!



I've toyed with the idea of exhaust tweaks for a long time, but I don't want to knacker the car's outstanding ability as a cruiser. This has led me to think bypass valves would be the best way to go, but watching with interest to see if you go for something different.

Surprised you've had trouble with LED angel eyes, I picked some fairly cheap eBay ones and they've been fine since early 2016. Alternator voltage regulator issues are common on N62, could be a factor?

[Prinny]

alec.e said:

Bulbs arrived and fitted, very little improvement over stock

Did some 'testing' today, trying to get some rough performance figures, 0-60 in around 5.2 seconds and 50-70 in 2.3. Much better than I expected as I have even found it feeling sluggish at low revs.

I had been looking at M6s in the classifieds, but the bottom end bearing scare stories have put me off the idea for now, plus I don't think there would be a huge benefit (could be wrong) at legal speeds. For now, I will continue to enjoy the car for the summer!

You’re not that far from me Alec, if you want to have a play in mine? PM me.

I suspect you’re right about the ‘legal’ part - if anything I tend not to launch hard as I don’t know how best to feed in the clutch (I know it’s automated, I mean for best life & minimal wear). The best way it’s performance has been described to me by a passenger is ‘relentless’. Everyone expects to be pushed back in the seat in first gear, but not very many cars do it in 5th. I highly recommend the 5th gear pull from 1200>8200 revs, not only do you get time to appreciate the sound, you also get to realise just how special that engine is above 6k rpm.

[rayyan171]

Amazing car, very well kept.

The coolant leak is common on the 4.8 V8, theres someone in America who has a good fix for it, somewhere on youtube.

[alec.e]

McSam- thank you. The dark blue looks lovely on yours, must really pop in the sun. You are right about the exhaust, needs to be something not OTT. The method I will likely use, is to replace the central section with straight pipe and X Crossover, this should add a little power and hopefully won't drone on motorway. I see yours is a pre-lci, the headlights are different, so maybe LEDs work better I don't know sadly .

Prinny, thanks for the kind offer, I will PM you. Though I expect, once the power of the M6 has been demonstrated, my 650 will feel inadequate. The crazy thing I have noticed from Autobahn videos, is it really gets going past 60mph and pulls very hard to the limiter, 0-155 in 23 seconds!

Edited by alec.e on Sunday 15th July 19:24

[alec.e]

Finally, I have found a Logic 7 amp for a good price on eBay for £200 from Germany.

A few weeks ago I swapped my cracked indicator for a brand new one from LT, got £99 for the old one happy

Fuel consumption is tremendous on this car, I have averaged 17mpg the last 400 miles (local A and B road driving) I swear my faster, more powerful XJ uses considerably less fuel, now the Lambda sensor has been replaced. I expected them to be about the same. You move the car a few feet and the range drops a few miles before your eyes...

[McSam]

Thank you! I did compromise quite heavily on condition and some spec items (I wanted the sports seats and most of all, the hydraulic anti-roll bars, both of which my car lacks) to get something that wasn't grey, silver or black - ruling out about 90% of all cars produced! Yours is a nice exception to the rule though, looking fantastic in black.

How much coolant are you using? My car was getting through about a litre every 300 miles when the valley pipe joint failed, with little to none visible externally. If you're doing it, you should do the rocker cover gaskets at the same time, because they'll leak sooner or later and they drop a lot of oil when they do!

Unless you are incredibly lead-footed, or in London, there's no way the car should be doing 17mpg. My average over 30,000 miles is 26mpg (true calculation), and lets just say I use the performance. At a 90mph cruise it does 27mpg, at 75mph more like 32. The worst tank I've ever seen was 22mpg and I earnt it! Something's not right there.

[gf15]

Were you going from Orton scar to Orton this evening in convoy with a Chimaera and a 6 series, if it was you the Jag looked superb.
I was going up to the scar in a blue 650. Great road, just mind the sheep!

[alec.e]

dg15, small world, yes that was me! I did glimpse a dark blue 6 series. Thanks for the kind words. I was worried for the 645ci in our group when he crossed the ford, due to the low mounted intake... Unfortunately, the Jag grounded the underside of the front bumper exiting the ford bank
A nice meal at Shap Chippy. Are you local to Shap area, if you don't mind me asking?

Edited by alec.e on Sunday 15th July 19:23