Leonator134's 2001 740i Sport Journal!

[Leonator134]

Hi E38ers,



Leo here from E34/E39/E32. This is my first E38, always wanted one. Recently found the right one to replace my 2500 Suburban in the Spring. Have a 2000 M5 that is a fun nice weather car- don't want to rack up the miles on it.

The Burb is great- total beater. But wanting to DD something a little nicer.

So, today I drove back (with the help of a friend) from CT, a 2001 740i Sport in Stratus metallic with black interior. It rolled over 197,000 miles on the way. I was also given a thick folder with tons of maintenance records, information etc. Also given boxes of spare parts.

The color is absolutely amazing. It looks gold, gray and blue all at the same time.

Immediate issues noticed:
-Paint chips on front end
-Squeaking rear suspension
-SRS light
-Split seem on driver's seat
-Rear power sunshade inop (stuck on)
-Brakes** were replaced recently with drilled and slotted rotors. Cool, but I've never had a car with them before. They seem to make some noise and vibrations.. almost like driving on the rumble strip on the highway. Maybe that's just how they are, idk.
-Chain guides have not been done!
-Headlight lowbeams different colors
-Oil leak

Nothing too crazy. Still runs and drives really well- one of the most smooth highway cars I have driven/owned so far. It also does a great burnout- tons of torque!

Some pictures from the trip to follow. We took my 18 year old neighbor's E46 325xi that I went with him to get, so he owed me one. Brought tons of tools, oil and coolant. You never know.

Left at 5:30AM, arrived at 8:15.


You'll notice his 2015 vette.. he also had a 1994 vette and a '57 Tbird, all mint.






Before we left I checked oil and coolant level.. and in so doing I maybe let air into the cooling system. 5 minutes onto I-95 the needle made quickly made it's way to the 3/4 mark and wanted to keep going. Shut it down immediately. Pulled over and waited for it to cool down enough to get the cap off. Cap off, started engine, heat on, filled it up, cracked the bleeder until just coolant was coming out. Hit the road, drove the rest of the ~3 hours perfectly.



Taken by my buddy..


Pit stop for coffee in RI.








Made it home by noon- did some washing and polishing of both cars!













This picture sort of depicts the possible different shades this color can be.. going down the side- gold, gray blue etc.


---










Spare parts




So this is what we have so far! Thinking black kidneys and some touch up paint before we dive into the chain guide job. Plan to keep otherwise stock and be a comfortable daily driver.

Always love to hear the thoughts of the other forumers!

Thanks all,
Leo

[clarkitect]

Nice score Leo! I think I saw that one on CL the other day. You got a nice deal, it looks really clean. Enjoy the ride!

[Leonator134]

Nice score Leo! I think I saw that one on CL the other day. You got a nice deal, it looks really clean. Enjoy the ride!

Thank you! It's a cool car, gonna need some work but nothing out of the ordinary.

[Trasportador]

Welcome Brother. Careful with that black interior in this place.....

[AquilaBMW]

Awesome Score Leo! Now..... about that Black interio...

[PiotrC70]

Brake issue could be suspension or just the way that slotted AND drilled are. I have Brembo slotted on all four and there is no vibration or anything odd. On the flip... I have drilled & slotted on my 300ZX and there is definitely a different sound/feel when stopping but zero vibration.

[kulgan]

Nice find Leo.
Luv the color on that one.

[NordmanMg]

Wow, that is a beauty right there, I like it, those interior looks sweet

[S61Dan]

197k no T-guides? Dang. How much did you get it for? Looks nice!

[Hartge 635]

If I had that color, I'd never get rid of it! Sweet!

[purplecty]

Looks awesome! Super rare color combo. Doubt checking the coolant introduced air. It was probably already in there and looks like you fixed her up by bleeding properly... Nice score! Makes one heck of a daily!

[Leonator134]

Thanks all!!

Correct, no indications of chain guides having been done. However research indicates the type of oil and frequency of changes plays a large part in the longevity.

This car has synthetic it's whole life. The engine runs extremely smoothly with no noises other than vanos dieseling (much like my M5).

Thought about waiting to swap in a Lower mileage motor and doing all the work while its out. But part of me wants to see how many miles this motor will go for.

Small maintenance will come first, chain guides and vanos later. The engine does pull really hard- tons of torque!
----------------

Touch Up paint ordered. Headed across the street to our BMW store to get a hood roundel and serpentine belt (thing screeeeeches!)

My tech buddy over there is going let me up it up on the lift tomorrow after work and poke around underneath- see what we're working with here.

[Leonator134]

One thing that's annoying me is the shifter takes some effort to from N to D- like you can go straight from P to D. Have to stop in N and then give it some muscle into D.

Hoping I can pull the shifter assembly off and grease or adjust some parts under there.

[blackknight530i]

One thing that's annoying me is the shifter takes some effort to from N to D- like you can go straight from P to D. Have to stop in N and then give it some muscle into D.

Hoping I can pull the shifter assembly off and grease or adjust some parts under there.

If it ends up being something wrong with the shifter itself, I have a spare e39 steptronic shifter I just pulled out when doing my 6-speed swap in my 530i. Let me know if you might need it. I would also check the cable end where it attaches to the transmission selector. You can remove the 10mm nut and see if the selector moves freely without the shifter cable attached. If so, that means it's not in the transmission. It's also possible that it's the interlock cable that goes to the back of the key lock cylinder.

[Leonator134]

If it ends up being something wrong with the shifter itself, I have a spare e39 steptronic shifter I just pulled out when doing my 6-speed swap in my 530i. Let me know if you might need it. I would also check the cable end where it attaches to the transmission selector. You can remove the 10mm nut and see if the selector moves freely without the shifter cable attached. If so, that means it's not in the transmission. It's also possible that it's the interlock cable that goes to the back of the key lock cylinder.

Hey thank you very much for the offer and info.

I've learned that If I hold the shifter the slightest bit to the left when I shift there is no issue. Doing that for now so as to focus on other issues first.
______

Got the new belt. My BMW tech buddy ran all the codes, 3 DME codes:

-Computer controlled Tstat
-aux fan
-DMTL pump

A new OEM tstat costs me $65 through work so grabbing one tomorrow. Will be looking into fuses and electrical system for aux fan.. dmtl pump may just leave alone as I believe '01 does not need to pass emissions in MA anymore.

[purplecty]

Aux fan is probably brunt out... I replaced mine since I couldn't activate it manually with INPA. The used replacement I put in works but still sometimes gets the AUX fan code. It activates manually 95% of the times ive tried and i also hear it come on when its supposed to by itself so im not replacing it again just yet...

[Staszek]

Looks great good luck!! Take off that rear deck and spray it with VHT carpet dye. Makes a HUGE difference turning it back to black again!

[Leonator134]

Looks great good luck!! Take off that rear deck and spray it with VHT carpet dye. Makes a HUGE difference turning it back to black again!

Thanks! I actually did that with my E34 and it looked great.

[Leonator134]

So, put it up on the lift at work and learned the following:

Big oil leak. Looking like it's coming from the timing covers.
Too much negative rear camber- looks like due to work read lower ball joints and upper control arms.
Front steering center tie rod needs to be replaced.
Will need brakes at some point.

Have a new belt and thermostat to throw on, just not sure if it makes sense to do those now if everything is gonna have to come off to do timing gaskets/ chain guides etc.

Engine runs smoothly and quietly so if I don't have to do guides for a while I wont.

Pics coming later. Did some paint touch up work to seal up any rusty chips.

Car is other wise clean underneath and still has the original cats

[Leonator134]

Time to spend money on this car..

Some updates

Polished the headlight lenses.. need headlight bulbs






Time for some underneath pics
















This little fella fell out from on top of the splash guard


Neg rear camber


c

As you can see pretty much the entire front half of the car is slick with oil. Tech buddies think its the timing cover seals.

Going to start with the rear end, Buying OEM (from work) rear upper control arms and lower ball joints. That's where the play is and should hopefully fix the negative camber and awful squeaking.

Then onto the front end, needs center drag link and probably outer tie rods.

Then brakes.

Then we'll drop the lower pan to do a guide inspection..

[clarkitect]

Boy it must must be nice to work in a heated space with a lift!

I had that self oil-undercoating feature too. VC and TC cover gaskets were beyond shot. Had to snap them out but by bit they were so brittle. I'll bet yours are the same way.

Have fun with the job and nice work with all the pix!📸

[absolutezero273]

Hey Leo! Nice score. Love that color. That was what I had initially set my heart on before I found my steel blue e38.

Heck of a leak.

[Leonator134]

Hey all,

Interests have changed. Have many new oem parts for this car. New rear upper control arms, belts, tstat and more.

For sale for $4,500. Exactly what I have into it.

Leo

[dannyzabolotny]

Hey all,

Interests have changed. Have many new oem parts for this car. New rear upper control arms, belts, tstat and more.

For sale for $4,500. Exactly what I have into it.

Leo

Wait, why? Do you not like it?

[racer2086]

Love the color. Wish I had the money and space. What changed your mind?