E61 V8 Bearding

[chrisgeary]

It's amusing that his price changes have been following mine. I put mine down, he follows. I put mine back up again, his goes up too.

[d_a_n1979]

chrisgeary said:

It's amusing that his price changes have been following mine. I put mine down, he follows. I put mine back up again, his goes up too.

For me, he came across as someone who doesn't know what he's talking about and has a car that he cannot afford to run/maintain

Just cracks me up how the price was dropping & dropping, and now it's back up to £7.5k

I personally believe it's a £5k car, if he's lucky, all day long. More so at that mileage and with little to show what maintenance it's had done

[ATM]

chrisgeary said:

It's amusing that his price changes have been following mine. I put mine down, he follows. I put mine back up again, his goes up too.

How's your sale going?

[chrisgeary]

Slow. I had a bite very early on but nothing recently. I've just relisted on PH classified and will give ebay a break for a while.

[nerf]

dom9 said:

Jobbo said:

Sorry for being cryptic last night! Doesn't really matter if I post it here. My second 545i ended up having a new gearbox and the first perceptible symptom of anything going wrong was exactly what you described; generally it wasn't obvious that anything was wrong. But if the car was going along a nice flat road so you know it should be perfectly smooth, you could feel a slight hiccup every 10-20s (sorry, can't remember exactly); it felt like a fraction of a second's interruption in drive. This was after I'd had the fluid changed. I just monitored it for quite a while and eventually I got a gearbox error on the display and it stuck in 3rd; turning off and on again reset it. The BMW dealer couldn't find a fault code, amazingly, but I managed to get it to do it as I was pulling away so turned round and went back, leaving the engine running so the fault code was on display.

Now I don't know what the actual fault inside the box was, but BMW simply replace the whole gearbox. Which they did, under drivetrain warranty, quite happily - though the cost of the repair would have been a little over £5k and since that's the warranty claim limit they very kindly found a way to keep it down to that sum. If you were in the same situation in the SE, check how much the cost would be; I suspect the labour rate might push it a bit higher.

Anyway, keep monitoring it. I am fairly certain that if you don't have a warranty, a gearbox rebuild by a specialist wouldn't be £5k. And if you get the opportunity when sitting on a flat straight road at ~40, stick cruise on and see. These boxes are pretty refined but they're not perfect, so you can get lumpiness even when they're working fine.

Interesting... Mine decided to stick in gear after a really long run the other night but that cleared after stopping and it hasn't done it again. I felt that was my fault though as I did 'confuse' it with some heavy inputs in the overtaking lane and then coming off the throttle. Hadn't noticed a problem before that, I don't think.

It certainly doesn't do it at higher rpm (i.e. on the motorway) or when accelerating or decelerating.

I haven't had an error message but coincidentally, this has happened not long after the transmission fluid change. Might drop those guys a message next week and see what they think/ know. A gearbox rebuild by them was 'only' something starting with a '1', so it's not too scary but I'll get all that confirmed and they are ZF specialists.

I read the above this afternoon and my heart sank a little bit. Driving along at about 40mph on flat, smooth roads - every so often the car would "hiccup every 10-20s". exactly as per Jobbos description above.

@dom9 Did you end up having to replace/repair your gearbox? I've been slowly trawling through this thread but havent come across the final outcome.

My mechanic has not had any fault codes pop up so we decided to give the gearbox a service and re-set the adaptations. should get the car back tomorrow. Car is actually a 645 but assuming it has the same engine/gearbox ?

[dom9]

Honestly? I've just lived with it... Still does the hesitation thing ~40mph but hasn't stuck in gear for a long, long time now.

In many ways, it's no worse than it was 20k ago although I suspect it is, it's just getting 'worse' much slower than I notice so I don't notice... if that makes any sense?!

I reckon I've got maybe £1k to spend on the MOT (2 weeks to go, slight oil leak that could be rocker covers and rear pads and whatever else) to get it through and then it'll still have the 'box issue (albeit it doesn't bother me these days really) and almost £1k on insurance for reasons not worth going into here.

Cleans up pretty well but not sure it is worth more than £2k at the moment so tempted to get rid, as great as it has been and as (pretty) solid as it is. Also moving house next week so space is at a bit of a premium...

[Hashtaggggg]

dom9 said:

Honestly? I've just lived with it... Still does the hesitation thing ~40mph but hasn't stuck in gear for a long, long time now.

In many ways, it's no worse than it was 20k ago although I suspect it is, it's just getting 'worse' much slower than I notice so I don't notice... if that makes any sense?!

I reckon I've got maybe £1k to spend on the MOT (2 weeks to go, slight oil leak that could be rocker covers and rear pads and whatever else) to get it through and then it'll still have the 'box issue (albeit it doesn't bother me these days really) and almost £1k on insurance for reasons not worth going into here.

Cleans up pretty well but not sure it is worth more than £2k at the moment so tempted to get rid, as great as it has been and as (pretty) solid as it is. Also moving house next week so space is at a bit of a premium...

I have the same gearbox hiccup, my gearbox man has said it is due to gaskets failing so the pressure needed to work properly is not maintained. He can bodge for about £800.00 or recondition for £1600.00

Mine is on the drive without a MOT, plucking up the courage to take it in. It is leaking oil.....

[dom9]

Gearbox oil leak or engine? 'box is probably just the plastic sump, which you'd change when you change the oil. Pretty common as they crack with heat/ age. I had mine done at the 'box service and software upgrade, which is when mine started doing the hiccup thing... If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Although mine was leaking so needed doing and has soldiered on 20k without missing other beats (except a coil pack).

[smashie]

My 550 passed its mot again with only a few advisories.
Almost didn’t make it there. Took the car for a 40 min warm up and then came home again.. couldn’t start the car when I got home. Had to charge the battery for 10mins.
Once started had 14+v on the tester, so hopefully it’s just because it hardly gets driven. On,y did 3000 miles since last mot.
Will put battery on charge all day Wednesday and see if that makes things better. If not, time to troubleshoot.

[nerf]

thanks Dom9. Have you 'lived with it' for long then?

I bought the car very cheaply just a month ago so i knew it might need some work doing, Although the last owner said he was selling cheap because of some paint/body issues. Im guessing he probably knew the gearbox had a niggle.

I decided to buy because it had already had valve stem seals sorted at great expence and a full service history. It was a toss up between this e63 or an e60/61 actually.

[dom9]

I'm trying to work out how long I've owned it but it must be over 3yrs now and I got the gearbox oil changed within a week or two of getting it (as I saw the leak when I went to inspect/ buy it). So, maybe something like 40+ months now...

When I say it like that; it's got to be degrading at a really low rate as it's not something that really worries me these days at all... clearly it wasn't something about to imminently self-destruct!

Anyone want a cheap one with a few niggles? My bodywork isn't great after 3yrs of public car parks and single Lane, hedged lined roads!

[nerf]

thats good to hear, it was the "imminently self-destruct" thing that worried me!

[ATM]

smashie said:

My 550 passed its mot again with only a few advisories.
Almost didn’t make it there. Took the car for a 40 min warm up and then came home again.. couldn’t start the car when I got home. Had to charge the battery for 10mins.
Once started had 14+v on the tester, so hopefully it’s just because it hardly gets driven. On,y did 3000 miles since last mot.
Will put battery on charge all day Wednesday and see if that makes things better. If not, time to troubleshoot.

Mine has started saying something about abnormal discharge or excess discharge and the clock resets to blank. I suspect battery too as mine is only driven occasionally now. I've had mine just over 3 years now I and never changed the battery.

Good news - if I may - the central locking just started working again all by itself. I am now not opening the boot if I can avoid it. Using the car as my mobile tool box and leaving the boot open for hours clearly got excess moisture into the gubbins under the spoiler.

Clunk from front suspension is still worrying but I can't be bothered clambering around underneath. Got some 225 50 17 winter tyres ready to go on. Maybe the clunk needs fixing first or the alignment could be all over the place.

Hesitation or irregular idle continues here.

Gearbox rock solid for me.

[chrisgeary]

Try one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AC1LLQY/ref=pe_3187...

I have it plugged into the OBD port and every 3-4 weeks or so, I go start my car and it starts perfectly. Works even on cloudy days. Just enough juice to keep the battery level maintained.

[smashie]

chrisgeary said:

Try one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AC1LLQY/ref=pe_3187...

I have it plugged into the OBD port and every 3-4 weeks or so, I go start my car and it starts perfectly. Works even on cloudy days. Just enough juice to keep the battery level maintained.

Will give it a shot. Need to put the battery on for a good 12hrs first of all and then repeat a longish drive and see if I still have an issue. It may be something more serious, but hopefully not. Both tailgate wiring looms replaced last year, so there should be no issues there.

[ATM]

smashie said:

chrisgeary said:

Try one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00AC1LLQY/ref=pe_3187...

I have it plugged into the OBD port and every 3-4 weeks or so, I go start my car and it starts perfectly. Works even on cloudy days. Just enough juice to keep the battery level maintained.

Will give it a shot. Need to put the battery on for a good 12hrs first of all and then repeat a longish drive and see if I still have an issue. It may be something more serious, but hopefully not. Both tailgate wiring looms replaced last year, so there should be no issues there.

I was toying with the idea of a home brew battery refurb with fresh acid. Couple of quid in cost only.

[chrisgeary]

This is more like it. Sold for £6k:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-BMW-550i-Msport-To...

[chrisgeary]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163385985412

6 hours to go. No bids. No messages. No calls. I have a feeling it isn't going to sell.

What am I doing wrong? Are buyers put off by the list of repairs? Is the SE/Grey/Grey combo?

[ATM]

chrisgeary said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163385985412

6 hours to go. No bids. No messages. No calls. I have a feeling it isn't going to sell.

What am I doing wrong? Are buyers put off by the list of repairs? Is the SE/Grey/Grey combo?

I'd say it's the worst time of year to sell a car. You're better off waiting till February I'd say. If you can't be bothered waiting then I'd suggest an auction as at least then you can see what people are willing to bid. That doesn't guarantee they'll actually follow through though.

[chrisgeary]

Yeah I was thinking Feb also. Thanks