BMW E38 750 iL

[Markgenesis]

I've been running a 98 E38 728i for the last two odd years, has been great, love the car, standard when bought i fitted the 18" M Parallels, apart from servicing (done myself) it's needed rear shocks, rear wheel bearings and some other suspension bits, not too bad really.



Past few months i've had half an eye open for a 740 or 750 iL, would like to say i looked at plenty and chose the best i could find but i frantically last minute impulse bidded on this 750iL on tuesday night,(without viewing), to my surprise won the auction, and collected it yesterday



Luckily the seller was honest and his description pretty accurate, the car is generally sound only body issues are a bad patch on the drivers sill (a dent that has been filled and has since cracked) and slight startings of grot in the rear arch lips, not had a chance to polish the car yet but should clean up nice.



Engine seems very smooth and quiet.



Bags of space in the rear, mats and footrests out for cleaning.



Phone lights up, should just need a sim card (must be Vodaphone or O2 from what i've gathered)



Info screen in the dash is dead though , seller said it was working then suddenly stopped so may not be much.



Differences between this and the 728 are immense, even just pulling away normally, so much power and torque available, fast for such a big heavy barge, also the leather is higher quality (Buffalo hide), dash top and door cappings are leather (plastic in the 728), the extra weight in the car is noticeable though, especially in corners, tyres are crap though (cant remember the make but they are notoriously bad)[EDIT] just remembered Fullruns.

Plans for it are to work through the minor faults, oil change (fully sinthetic with a BMW filter), fit the M Paralells from my 728 which have better tyres, (728 will be for sale), get better tyres for the style 32's eventually, also going to replace the black kidneys with originals.

Computer was showing average fuel consumption at 14.2 when i bought it , managed to get it to 16.9 on the journey home (sat at 70 mostly), delighted with it so far.

[kamilb1998]

I love these, your example looks very nice.

[B'stard Child]

Markgenesis said:

Info screen in the dash is dead though , seller said it was working then suddenly stopped so may not be much.

Is it fitted with traffic master - that cause the failure of my info screen - if you need another video unit (was the initial diagnosis) I have one that works fine as I bought one to replace mine that was no longer required once I removed the traffic master unit

looks lovely BTW

[Markgenesis]

B'stard Child said:

Is it fitted with traffic master - that cause the failure of my info screen - if you need another video unit (was the initial diagnosis) I have one that works fine as I bought one to replace mine that was no longer required once I removed the traffic master unit

looks lovely BTW

That's handy to know, where can i find the Traffic master unit ?

Cheers for the compliment, dead chuffed with it so far

[B'stard Child]

Markgenesis said:

B'stard Child said:

Is it fitted with traffic master - that cause the failure of my info screen - if you need another video unit (was the initial diagnosis) I have one that works fine as I bought one to replace mine that was no longer required once I removed the traffic master unit

looks lovely BTW

That's handy to know, where can i find the Traffic master unit ?

Has it got a traffic master button on the centre console? If it has it's in the boot on the left hand side.

Markgenesis said:

Cheers for the compliment, dead chuffed with it so far

I couldn't make the man maths work for a 750 iL so I've been running a 740 1998 since 2006

[B'stard Child]

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e38/E38_Battery_Drain.htm

That should help you out with traffic master location

I also had a battery drain issue which was also solved by removal of the traffic master system (I thought it was the phone)

[Markgenesis]

B'stard Child said:

Has it got a traffic master button on the centre console? If it has it's in the boot on the left hand side.

Markgenesis said:

Cheers for the compliment, dead chuffed with it so far

I couldn't make the man maths work for a 750 iL so I've been running a 740 1998 since 2006

(That was the wrong emoticon BTW ^ was meant to be a wink)

Is that the round knob/button on the lower right next to the cup holder ?

Seen your 740i on RR, it's lovely

Cheers for the link, given me plenty to go on for now

[B'stard Child]

Markgenesis said:

B'stard Child said:

Has it got a traffic master button on the centre console? If it has it's in the boot on the left hand side.

Markgenesis said:

Cheers for the compliment, dead chuffed with it so far

I couldn't make the man maths work for a 750 iL so I've been running a 740 1998 since 2006

(That was the wrong emoticon BTW ^ was meant to be a wink)

That's OK either worked for me

Markgenesis said:

Is that the round knob/button on the lower right next to the cup holder ?

Sounds right

Markgenesis said:

Seen your 740i on RR, it's lovely

Thank you - thread on here too which I'm slowly updating

Markgenesis said:

Cheers for the link, given me plenty to go on for now

No probs give me shout if you do need a video unit and removing the TM unit doesn't fix it

[strangehighways]

Hi, lovely car there; I have just bought a 740 and there is a thread about it on here...

Regarding the phone, I got mine working.

Get a new o2 sim card free from their website and then install it in one of two places:-

- Either in the slot under where the phone is (mine didn't work in there so I tried the next place
- Open the boot, look to your left and open the flap where the cd changer should be located. To the left of that should be a hole or a flap which opens to reveal a hole. There should be a unit vertically mounted. A sim card should fit in there but its very hard to see the slot on the top. Just feel it with your fingers and slot the card in (with the chip at the bottom and facing towards you).

Worked for me. Let me know if you need any more info.

Edited by strangehighways on Sunday 24th November 22:35

[Luca Brasi]

Lovely car but please put some original rear light clusters in and lose the naff badge on the steering wheel!

[Markgenesis]

strangehighways said:

Hi, lovely car there; I have just bought a 740 and there is a thread about it on here...

Regarding the phone, I got mine working.

Get a new o2 sim card free from their website and then install it in one of two places:-

Worked for me. Let me know if you need any more info.

Cheers for that, that's very helpfull, will check out your 740 later

Luca Brasi said:

Lovely car but please put some original rear light clusters in and lose the naff badge on the steering wheel!

Dont like the light clusters myself, will be swapping them for the ones on the 728 but those are the late spec ones with clear tops so not original either (but better looking than the smoked ones IMO).

Can live with the steering wheel badge, to be honest it's the least of my concerns at the minute

Cheers for the interest guys, will try and keep the thread updated

[chris182]

That is a proper car . There was me thinking that 18mpg average from my new car was bad too . At least the luxury and the power should make it all worthwhile.

I will be interested to see how your ownership goes (reliability, running costs etc).

[Markgenesis]

chris182 said:

That is a proper car . There was me thinking that 18mpg average from my new car was bad too . At least the luxury and the power should make it all worthwhile.

I will be interested to see how your ownership goes (reliability, running costs etc).

Cheers Chris, when i said i got the computer to 16.9 mpg the car used about £25 worth of fuel on the journey home (about 130 miles) which is'nt too bad, read somewhere (may have been the thread for the other 750iL on here) that it should see 26 mpg on a run and around 16 in town, it wont do high annual miles, i've only covered 6,000 miles my 728 in two years, the 750 should be about the same.

Did some poking around in the boot tonight, there is a bit of damp in there (ingress through rear lights maybe ?), stripped it to dry it out anyway, pulled off the L/H trim panel and found this.



Traffic Master has been disconnected already so not the problem of the dead dash screen, looks like i may need that Video unit BC.

Also while messing about i discovered the top of the CD multichanger is loose and the cartridge is'nt loaded properly so may need one of those too

Tried to cheer myself up so T-cutted an waxed a front wing to see how it would turn out and it looks superb , noticed when it was sitting outside the rain was laying on the paint and not formed into droplets, dont think the car has been waxed properly in years, should look stunning once i've done the whole car.



Incedentally previous owner of the car lived on a farm so it's filthy underneath (notice the inner arch), pressurewashed the worst off on Saturday but will take a while to get to a decent standard.

This is'nt in any way a criticism of the seller, just the time of year, where he lived, pretty much unavoidable.

Luckily i could see a nice car under all the dirt

[Max M4X WW]

I hope those badges are going! Top Barging

[Court_S]

I do like these a lot.

My uncle had a very late 735 sport in a dark blue with yellow leather which I thought was the dogs do dah's especially when I got to drive it at 22! It never felt like a big car but felt pretty quick although they were dark days in my motoring history having to share a Fist Seicento sporting with my sister so most things felt like a rocket shop to me!

[Markgenesis]

Max M4X WW said:

I hope those badges are going! Top Barging

What badges ?, the V12 ones ?, was'nt sure if those were original but now think they may be stick on letters from Halfords, dont think the front wings look too bad but there is one on the boot (not pictured) that looks a bit naff, may replace the wing ones with the proper ones mounted on the C pilars (and do away with the one on the boot).

Incedentally noticed the 750iL badge on the bootlid is a bit squint so i think the car has been de-badged then re-badged in it's life

[B'stard Child]

Markgenesis said:

Did some poking around in the boot tonight, there is a bit of damp in there (ingress through rear lights maybe ?), stripped it to dry it out anyway, pulled off the L/H trim panel and found this.



Traffic Master has been disconnected already so not the problem of the dead dash screen, looks like i may need that Video unit BC.

Message me your address then and I'll get it sent to you

Markgenesis said:

Also while messing about i discovered the top of the CD multichanger is loose and the cartridge is'nt loaded properly so may need one of those too

Mine isn't that tight either - the cartridges lose their balls and jam - as I found out last year - Rhiana CD destroyed in the recovery process after it jammed up

Good news is they aren't that hard to stip down and rebuild

[Markgenesis]

Took some better pics earlier, spent most nights during the week T-cutting, waxing and cleaning the glass etc, looking not bad, still got the leather to clean and feed, will probably leave the underside till the spring.



Fitted the M-Parallel wheels and clear rear lights from the 728, also fitted the crystal indicators and yellow tinted fogs (i know they wont suit everyones taste but i like them), will be replacing the naff V12 badge on the boot with a proper BMW one (i'm not into de-badging)



Black grills will be getting replaced with bright ones as soon as i can.



Wont be owning two E38's again so thought i'd picture it with the 728.

[ChrisDT]

Nice cars, we have a 740 (4.4) for the Scumrun next year - not sure it is going to be the most economical but it will be comfy!

[LanceRS]

Very nice, are you going to swap over the headlights as well?