E61 V8 Bearding
Discussion
hornetrider said:
I did a search honest....I like it. Sure they're a few niggles but that's always going to be the case buying private for reasonable money. I'm already thinking of non-rft as I am a serial hater of rft. I did check the pressures on mine yesterday and found that 3 were on around 20 - 25 psi. I only managed to do 3 for 20p and refused to put a 50p in the machine. Then this morning on my way to the gym I got a flat tyre warning come up. I've got my own pump somewhere so I'll need to do them again and reset the computer.
Anyway on to today's niggle. As above - now moved to here -
So this is what is now starting to niggle 5 days in. It feels like there is some throttle pedal lag. In normal drive [not tested sport] at lower revs if you blip the throttle pedal quickly then the engine doesn't respond. It is as if the fly by wire - I hope it is fly by wire or I'll look like a plum - waits for a second to see what you do next with the throttle. Has anyone else noticed this or is mine goosed?
Anyway on to today's niggle. As above - now moved to here -
So this is what is now starting to niggle 5 days in. It feels like there is some throttle pedal lag. In normal drive [not tested sport] at lower revs if you blip the throttle pedal quickly then the engine doesn't respond. It is as if the fly by wire - I hope it is fly by wire or I'll look like a plum - waits for a second to see what you do next with the throttle. Has anyone else noticed this or is mine goosed?
ATM said:
hornetrider said:
I did a search honest....jboy72 said:
hornetrider said:
That's the problem isn't it 
Mind you deep down I am mightily tempted by the E66 750i posted the other day for the princely sum of 5k.
Yes, it is a bit. A cheaper v8 is also much more tempting for me and I am considering swapping my Alfa for an e39 540i!Mind you deep down I am mightily tempted by the E66 750i posted the other day for the princely sum of 5k.
hornetrider said:
ATM said:
I was looking for a nice E39 540i Touring but they were going for like 4 grand and I thought for the extra money I'd prefer an E61.
The problem with the E39 V8 is the steering is a recirculating ball instead of the conventional rack found on the E61. It makes a real difference to the driving experience, I drove one and it felt really vague.While I mention it, it also had a manual box which felt like stirring porridge. In that respect, those two primary controls on the 61 are light years ahead of the 39.
jboy72 said:
hornetrider said:
The problem with the E39 V8 is the steering is a recirculating ball instead of the conventional rack found on the E61. It makes a real difference to the driving experience, I drove one and it felt really vague.
While I mention it, it also had a manual box which felt like stirring porridge. In that respect, those two primary controls on the 61 are light years ahead of the 39.
I owned an e39 530i and recall that the general wisdom at the time was that the power hike in the 540i was not worth suffering the vague steering. Having said that, the 540i did have plenty of fans. I have never driven an e39 540i though, I just like the look of it on paper. Maybe I should go back to an e39 530i sport - it was a pretty good drivers car it must be said.While I mention it, it also had a manual box which felt like stirring porridge. In that respect, those two primary controls on the 61 are light years ahead of the 39.
On another note, I drove a manual 523i and 525i (both e39s) and the box felt ok to me - admittedly not as good as the manual box in the e60 525d I had a go in.
It's an auto and occasionally the box seems a bit sluggish but I suspect a fluid change might help. Obviously I have done very little to it and now I've decided I need an estate it's basically surplus to requirements.
philmots said:
ATM said:
I like it. Sure they're a few niggles but that's always going to be the case buying private for reasonable money. I'm already thinking of non-rft as I am a serial hater of rft. I did check the pressures on mine yesterday and found that 3 were on around 20 - 25 psi. I only managed to do 3 for 20p and refused to put a 50p in the machine. Then this morning on my way to the gym I got a flat tyre warning come up. I've got my own pump somewhere so I'll need to do them again and reset the computer.
Anyway on to today's niggle. As above - now moved to here -
So this is what is now starting to niggle 5 days in. It feels like there is some throttle pedal lag. In normal drive [not tested sport] at lower revs if you blip the throttle pedal quickly then the engine doesn't respond. It is as if the fly by wire - I hope it is fly by wire or I'll look like a plum - waits for a second to see what you do next with the throttle. Has anyone else noticed this or is mine goosed?
Mine came with 4x new Goodyear NCT5 Runflats, I don't mind the Runflats bit as it rides ok but the tyres are terrible.. I can't bear to throw them so they'll stay for the meantime. I'm going to replace them with Pilot Supersports when the time comes, I'm also tempted by the 19" Spiders too. Although the Touring officially needs 4 x front wheels as you can't fit the staggered wider rears without spacers - not for me.Anyway on to today's niggle. As above - now moved to here -
So this is what is now starting to niggle 5 days in. It feels like there is some throttle pedal lag. In normal drive [not tested sport] at lower revs if you blip the throttle pedal quickly then the engine doesn't respond. It is as if the fly by wire - I hope it is fly by wire or I'll look like a plum - waits for a second to see what you do next with the throttle. Has anyone else noticed this or is mine goosed?
They take very high pressures, sure it's 2.5/3.0 front/back.. Then reset the tyre warning straight away.
Re throttle blipping, when you say quick, how quickly? If I blip mine as quick as I possibly could it doesn't do much but it does respond. If I blip it just fairly quick then it's super responsive. There's a way of resetting the throttle pedal which I can't quite remember but it's all over Google, I did it and noticed a faint beep and a difference, but apparently by just using a lot of full throttle will do the same thing as it wakes the car up to your driving style.
Mines averaging 21mpg, never really do any long runs in that average (last average on a long highish speed run was 24mpg) I think that's all pretty reasonable really. Mpg is calculated properly as the computer is optimistic!
Another nice tip (I got from Hornetrider) is you've a few miles left on the range after you've passed 0 which does help as it can be a pain going to the petrol station too often. I went about 2 miles over and got 67 litres in. Tank holds 70 I think.
Edited by philmots on Monday 27th July 17:06
hornetrider said:
Linky no worky
I like this one but my baby would destroy those back seats in 15 seconds.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...
dom9 said:
wsurfa said:
Lovely but the £12k above a 550i is too much for me to consider. I do love the idea of a 500bhp estate (was looking at RS6's for a while). Decided the 550iT is the 'sensible' choice 
My thoughts exactly at 4x the cost of my car (ok, 3x now I've done some bits), just too rich for me when you consider bork and servicing.Plus, Bella the black Lab would have devalued it within minutes...
If they ever drop towards 10k, things may change!
Spuffington said:
jboy72 said:
Ellieb10 said:
My E61 545i has adaptive drive - I find it the only thing I really dislike about the car. Why BMW thought lighter steering at speed is desirable is beyond me. Perhaps the 550i's steering is recalibrated? Anyway, I run an Alpina B5 alignment pattern which makes a slight improvement.
I'm interested in a slightly more expressive back box too. Thought about the mod where you pull some of the wadding out and reweld the back boxes but decided it was too ghetto.
Do you perhaps have active steering rather than adaptive drive? I have never heard a bad word said about adaptive drive... plus I think it adjusts the suspension rather than the steering rack...I'm interested in a slightly more expressive back box too. Thought about the mod where you pull some of the wadding out and reweld the back boxes but decided it was too ghetto.
Edited by jboy72 on Thursday 30th July 16:48
Ok, so not unlikely that you could have Active Steering AND Adaptive Drive but I would suggest it's the former which will make the steering light, not the latter. Never had any issue with mine and made the 550i SO much more comfortable and capable than my 535d lci.
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