8 series, what are they like?

8 series, what are they like?

Author
Discussion

derin100

5,214 posts

242 months

Friday 1st January 2010
quotequote all
E31Shrew said:
derin100 said:
A rare day!

It was dry and sunny here today...so I took mine out for a drive! smile
You should've called! I took mine out for the first time in a month...and the car!
Yes, I should have! Damn!....But then you'd have probably thought you were hallucinating actually seeing mine on the road... laugh

johnnywas

114 posts

180 months

Friday 1st January 2010
quotequote all
koenig d said:

but nice airvent's in the bonnet.


Edited by koenig d on Friday 1st January 16:55
do you think thay were moving house with all the luggage on the front seat ?or maybe proving the 8er can carry a lot of shopping .

900ss

104 posts

223 months

Saturday 2nd January 2010
quotequote all
Speed addicted said:
Bugger, now I want one!
It's a car I've always looked at as having.
On the 22nd of jan I get a house with a double garage ...
You'll need a double garage if you buy an 8 series

They aren't the smallest of cars lol





Salom

230 posts

175 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
If you are able to work on the car yourself then buy one, I bought 145K mile 840 in March of this year and have done most of the work required to bring it back to scratch myself.
You don't need specialist tools, for example; I used 2 hole saws and a length of studding to remove and replace the ball joints.
I bought a hydraulic press for £60.00 from ebay and used it to change the rear wheel bearings and suspension arm bushes.
I'm a buyer by trade and have sourced a lot of the parts myself, so I've saved a fortune on labour and parts.
Nikasil is not an issue, if it's still running now, then it's nothing to worry about!

Here's a list of the work and parts I've replaced:

Rear end:
All ball joints and bushes.
New wheel bearings.
New Diff.
New drive shaft.
Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks.

Front end:
New thrust arms.
Eibach springs and Bilstein shocks.
Phoenix M'Sport Camber plates. (They improve the handling massively, eradicate under-steer, and improve tyre wear.
New air-con pump.
New air-con drier.
New water pump.
New auxiliary heater pump and valve (bought from the US for half the cost)
New discs and Yellow stuff pads.
Removed viscous fan and replaced with electric fan.
Replaced the ABS pump with a used unit from a low mileage 7 Series, £60! Silly money from BMW!

I had the suspension geometry re-aligned by Wheels in Motion in Chesham.

Contrary to popular myth the 8 Series does not suffer from pixel death on the OBDC display, it's normally the bulbs that have gone and they cost about £1.00 each.

Just a small amount of rust on the rear wheel arches to sort out but otherwise a lovely car which now drives like new...



Edited by Salom on Friday 17th December 10:20


Edited by Salom on Friday 17th December 10:23

Salom

230 posts

175 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
johnnywas said:
koenig d said:

but nice airvent's in the bonnet.


Edited by koenig d on Friday 1st January 16:55
do you think thay were moving house with all the luggage on the front seat ?or maybe proving the 8er can carry a lot of shopping .
That pic is of the original M8 prototype, loaded with test equipment....

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

170 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
Hiya

Just something to salivate over!

Upon a recent trip to the USA, I met up with a real petrolhead in the New York area. Fantastic guy and I wanted to catch him up as he'd recently purchased another enthusiasts car and done a 6 speed manual gearbox conversion to it! (That was a Supercharged Stage 5 Dinan E39 540i Touring)

What I wasn't prepared for however was walking into his 7 car garage, and finding multiple examples of other supercharged BMW's! 5 of them ! he also has a few non supercharged BMW's too!

For this topic...








The E39 S/C'd Dinan Touring


Very sought after in the USA, a 2003 540i Sport manual, of course, this had been supercharged as well!



What's not so apprarent in the pictures is theres two E31 840i's there. The owner decided to find as mint an example as he could find and did the conversion (I can't remember if he'd done the manual gearbox swaps or not !) once completed, another one much more locally came up, so he took a look at it and realised it's VIN number was consecutive to his one! .. so ... he bought it on the basis of that (and that it was also a minter!) of course, that then also had to be supercharged!

A total car enthusiast, very very discreet and I have promised I won't mention publically on forums as to who he is and a real credit to doing things properly when wanting to do modifications such as this.

Where are the 7 car garages in the UK?! wink

Cheers, Dennis!

Salom

230 posts

175 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
DennisCooper said:
Hiya

Just something to salivate over!

Upon a recent trip to the USA, I met up with a real petrolhead in the New York area. Fantastic guy and I wanted to catch him up as he'd recently purchased another enthusiasts car and done a 6 speed manual gearbox conversion to it! (That was a Supercharged Stage 5 Dinan E39 540i Touring)

What I wasn't prepared for however was walking into his 7 car garage, and finding multiple examples of other supercharged BMW's! 5 of them ! he also has a few non supercharged BMW's too!

For this topic...


What's not so apparent in the pictures is there're two E31 840i's there. The owner decided to find as mint an example as he could find and did the conversion (I can't remember if he'd done the manual gearbox swaps or not !) once completed, another one much more locally came up, so he took a look at it and realised it's VIN number was consecutive to his one! .. so ... he bought it on the basis of that (and that it was also a minter!) of course, that then also had to be supercharged!

A total car enthusiast, very very discreet and I have promised I won't mention publicly on forums as to who he is and a real credit to doing things properly when wanting to do modifications such as this.

Where are the 7 car garages in the UK?! wink

Cheers, Dennis!
My 7 car garage will have to wait until my lottery numbers come up!

Wouldn't we all be doing that given the opportunity.... ?

jw golf mk4

4,826 posts

162 months

Friday 17th December 2010
quotequote all
do love the 8-Series as i think its a beauty of a cruiser and they can be picked up cheaply now but:

1) mpg is a killer
2) if you can't work on it yourself its gonna cost £££ to fix
3) Complex engine management system
4) Insurance - it's group 20 i think - and that is just the 840i

Edited by jw golf mk4 on Friday 17th December 22:40

Spudler

3,985 posts

195 months

Saturday 18th December 2010
quotequote all
jw golf mk4 said:
4) Insurance - it's group 20 i think - and that is just the 840i
Very reasonable actually, can even get it on a classic policy.

8Tech

2,136 posts

197 months

Sunday 19th December 2010
quotequote all
johnnywas said:

who wishes thay had this under the bonnet.
Here's mine, just not quite finished yet.....



|http://thumbsnap.com/eAXCPuyV[/url]

Edited by 8Tech on Sunday 19th December 10:57


Edited by 8Tech on Sunday 19th December 10:58

Spudler

3,985 posts

195 months

Sunday 19th December 2010
quotequote all
8Tech said:
johnnywas said:

who wishes thay had this under the bonnet.
Here's mine, just not quite finished yet.....



|http://thumbsnap.com/eAXCPuyV[/url]

Edited by 8Tech on Sunday 19th December 10:57


Edited by 8Tech on Sunday 19th December 10:58
Show off!!biggrin

Half tempted to put mine back on the road now idea

Salom

230 posts

175 months

Monday 20th December 2010
quotequote all
jw golf mk4 said:
do love the 8-Series as i think its a beauty of a cruiser and they can be picked up cheaply now but:

1) mpg is a killer
2) if you can't work on it yourself its gonna cost £££ to fix
3) Complex engine management system
4) Insurance - it's group 20 i think - and that is just the 840i

Edited by jw golf mk4 on Friday 17th December 22:40
1)I'm averaging 20 MPG, but I only do about 2K miles a year, it can get up to 25mpg on a motorway run...
2)If you can't work on it yourself find a good independent BMW specialist, or me!
3)That's where number 2 comes in...
4)£180 fully comp on a Classic Car / limited mileage Insurance through Flux.
biggrin

Edited by Salom on Monday 20th December 09:54

koenig d

127 posts

179 months

Monday 20th December 2010
quotequote all
on a real good day Iv'e had mine down th 8 mpg.

Salom

230 posts

175 months

Monday 20th December 2010
quotequote all
koenig d said:
on a real good day Iv'e had mine down th 8 mpg.
biglaughbiggrinbiggrin