8 series, what are they like?
Discussion
E31Shrew said:
derin100 said:
A rare day!
It was dry and sunny here today...so I took mine out for a drive!
You should've called! I took mine out for the first time in a month...and the car!It was dry and sunny here today...so I took mine out for a drive!
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...
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
johnnywas said:
koenig d said:
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 .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?!
Cheers, Dennis!
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?!
Cheers, Dennis!
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?!
Cheers, Dennis!
My 7 car garage will have to wait until my lottery numbers come up!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?!
Cheers, Dennis!
Wouldn't we all be doing that given the opportunity.... ?
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
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
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
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...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
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.
Edited by Salom on Monday 20th December 09:54
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