E61 V8 Bearding

[philmots]

texasjohn said:

Good bearding.

I thought the 550i shared its engine with the X5 4.8iS, the hp and torque figures are very similar.

I'm 99% sure that it does, just slightly different state of tune as you mention.

When the X5 got its facelift in 2004 the V8 went from M62 to N62, and 4.6is was replaced with 4.8is.

[Jobbo]

Did the X5 4.8iS have the valvetronic head? I always assumed it was lifted straight from the E39 B10 V8S which, as far as I know, was an M62 variant but it makes sense that the facelift X5 would get an N62 as the smaller engined V8 did.

[hornetrider]

Phil - that iDrive update you did to your car. Does it now look like the modern menu on the latest BMWs? Did some googling last night, is it called a CIC upgrade?

[quavey]

texasjohn said:

Good bearding.

I thought the 550i shared its engine with the X5 4.8iS, the hp and torque figures are very similar.

The 4.8is yes, is the same engine as the 550i, 650i and 750i but with a slight remap to produce a little more torque I believe. The 4.6is (earlier X5's) were an M62 and were a 4.6i

[ATM]

hornetrider said:

Phil - that iDrive update you did to your car. Does it now look like the modern menu on the latest BMWs? Did some googling last night, is it called a CIC upgrade?

No I think that uses a completely newer unit from the F models.

[Jobbo]

From the Barge £5-20k thread (I actually thought I was posting here, so thanks dom9 for pointing out that I wasn't!)

dom9 said:

Jobbo said:

I've had two 545i Tourings and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has multiple E61 V8s; we should start a register

So as not to clog up the thread: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Perhaps mine (RY54 ZZR) was one of yours?

Neither of mine was yours; here are the details:
AE54VBM - 545i SE Touring, Oxford Green 2 with beige Nasca leather and 18" style 124 alloys.
RL04ESN - 545i SE Touring, Titanium Grey with black Exclusive leather and 18" style 123 alloys.

[philmots]

hornetrider said:

Phil - that iDrive update you did to your car. Does it now look like the modern menu on the latest BMWs? Did some googling last night, is it called a CIC upgrade?

No, it changed it so it looks the same as the CCC system from the LCI cars up to 2009, with a silver menu system rather than the green that was in from around 2004. It looks lots better, the menus are slightly different but the way it works and responds to inputs etc you'd think it was a whole new system.

In 2009 right across the range they got the CIC hard drive based system which has they new style menus and the idrive knob with shortcut buttons around it.

Then in the newer models it was the NBT system which looks similar to the CIC but lots more functionality.

You can upgrade to either but it makes more sense to change to NBT as it only costs around £200 more to do than CIC.

It's still a £1200 job though, can't really justify that unless my normal CCC went tits.

[dom9]

AE54VBM - 545i SE Touring, Oxford Green 2 with beige Nasca leather and 18" style 124 alloys.
RL04ESN - 545i SE Touring, Titanium Grey with black Exclusive leather and 18" style 123 alloys.
RY54ZZR - 545i SE Touring, Mystic Blue with black Dakota leather and 18" style 116 alloys.

Does anyone have that link where you put in your plate/ VIN and it gives you all the options info etc?

Edited by dom9 on Thursday 6th August 15:29

[Jobbo]

Not sure how you find out the VIN from the registration, but here's the most reliable spec decoder I use: http://www.etk.cc/

ETA: I do remember - if the car doesn't have a current BMW warranty on it, you can type the reg in here: https://www.bmw-warranty.co.uk/ and get the VIN.

Further edit: the VIN numbers of my two cars both began BL190** - and they were about 70 cars apart. From a quick sample it seems every VIN from BL19000 to BL19114 is a RHD 545i Touring, with the last one being built in July 2005. Totting up the Touring variants on Howmanyleft gives what appears to have been 106 545i Tourings taxed at any time (SE and Sport, auto and manual) - and even fewer 550i Tourings, 20 SEs and ~56 Sports.

Edited by Jobbo on Thursday 6th August 14:16

[dom9]

Here we go...




Considering how many less 550i there are compared to 545i, it's odd that you tend to find more 550i for sale!

Edited by dom9 on Thursday 6th August 15:32

[ATM]

Update:

I dropped my Bus at the garage for an AC re-gas. I hope it is just as simple as a re-gas. Obviously when you buy a second hand car which says it needs a re-gas you automatically assume it will need completely rebuilding from the ground up.

I've decided to use some BBS wheels I've had in storage for about 2 years on the Bus. These are 18 inch diameter and have 8.5 inch wide fronts and 10 inch rears. They were a bit tired looking so I took them to a refurb place. Now I'm dilemma'ing over what go flat tyres to buy and what size. 245 40 front and 275 35 rear is the obvious choice. Obviously being a Man I know that more is better so I might try and squeeze a slightly wider tyre on the front - 255 40.

[dom9]

ATM said:

Update:

I dropped my Bus at the garage for an AC re-gas. I hope it is just as simple as a re-gas. Obviously when you buy a second hand car which says it needs a re-gas you automatically assume it will need completely rebuilding from the ground up.

I've decided to use some BBS wheels I've had in storage for about 2 years on the Bus. These are 18 inch diameter and have 8.5 inch wide fronts and 10 inch rears. They were a bit tired looking so I took them to a refurb place. Now I'm dilemma'ing over what go flat tyres to buy and what size. 245 40 front and 275 35 rear is the obvious choice. Obviously being a Man I know that more is better so I might try and squeeze a slightly wider tyre on the front - 255 40.

Can't help with the tyre size but would love to see a pic of these new rims. Is the offset ok at the rear?

Mine is currently telling me that I need an oil service in the next 350 miles, so I need to get that booked.

The MOT isn't too far off so may get that done at the same time and have them check there are no coolant leaks etc.

Otherwise, my old bus has been spot on - no problems at all.

Might give the bodywork a bit of a tidy up in the new year as it does have the odd scratch and scuff.

I am 'used to' the power now though... A little bit more wouldn't go amiss. I wonder if there is much more poke to be had from a remap?! I suspect the Simpson/ESS kit (they still haven't go back to me) would double my investment and probably halve the resale value... But I could then keep the car 'forever'...

[ATM]

Here are some old pics from when I tried fitting the BBS wheels to my E46.

[dom9]

ATM said:

Here are some old pics from when I tried fitting the BBS wheels to my E46.

Looking forward to seeing those on the car. I quite fancied a set like that on mine but I don't think the 'race' look of those BBS (or something like the E46 CSL wheel) would suit my SE spec car, sadly. Think yours could look great though. Maybe I need to get the silver window surrounds swapped/ wrapped/ painted?!

[ATM]

dom9 said:

ATM said:

Here are some old pics from when I tried fitting the BBS wheels to my E46.

Looking forward to seeing those on the car. I quite fancied a set like that on mine but I don't think the 'race' look of those BBS (or something like the E46 CSL wheel) would suit my SE spec car, sadly. Think yours could look great though. Maybe I need to get the silver window surrounds swapped/ wrapped/ painted?!

I wouldn't have necessarily chosen these wheels for my Bus. But as I had already them it seemed like the sensible thing to do. It's costing me £200 for the refurb and I've decided to go with a standard'ish grey colour as my Bus is Silver.

I'll need to play around with some spacers too as they have quite a high offset. This is lifted from the BBS website:

Front
CH 015 18 x 8.5 ET 35

Rear
CH 018 18 x 10 ET 40

[ATM]

Edited by ATM on Saturday 18th August 17:47

[dom9]

Looking forward to seeing these - They looks smashing in grey, all shiny!

[ATM]

ATM said:

Update:

I dropped my Bus at the garage for an AC re-gas. I hope it is just as simple as a re-gas. Obviously when you buy a second hand car which says it needs a re-gas you automatically assume it will need completely rebuilding from the ground up.

48 quid and the blower is cold.

[dom9]

ATM said:

48 quid and the blower is cold.

Still cold now?

Chop, chop - I want to see these wheels on your motor!

Looks like the price has been dropped on the eBay car. £8k (or less) would buy it, I guess.

My car continues to perform well though I have noticed at a constant low rpm (1,500-ish) and 40mph(ish) that it seems to almost hesitate or surge every few seconds, like it thinks about changing gear and doesn't. The accelerator is barely being pushed at this point.

Any thoughts? Anything to worry about?

I was wondering whether it was the 'box waiting for me to floor it, so it's anticipating a kick-down. The problem is that it only gets driven in stop-start driving or fast motorway runs, really i.e. all or nothing. Must confuse it a bit!

[Jobbo]

dom9 said:

My car continues to perform well though I have noticed at a constant low rpm (1,500-ish) and 40mph(ish) that it seems to almost hesitate or surge every few seconds, like it thinks about changing gear and doesn't. The accelerator is barely being pushed at this point.

Any thoughts? Anything to worry about?

I was wondering whether it was the 'box waiting for me to floor it, so it's anticipating a kick-down. The problem is that it only gets driven in stop-start driving or fast motorway runs, really i.e. all or nothing. Must confuse it a bit!

Try sitting at 40mph on cruise control on a nice flat road and see if it still does it. If it does, put a drivetrain warranty on the car now.