I'm Colton, I'm 19, and I'm a BMW-aholic. This is the third BMW I've owned, preceded by a 2002 525iT and a 1998 740il. I wreckeed my last e38 a month or so ago, and have been on the car search since then. I was mostly looking for a e34 540i, I love the styling of the chassis, and I fell in love with the M6X engine in my 740il. Then I saw this baby posted on craigslist and immediately emailed the guy for it. I told him, if it runs, can hit 55, and the body is straight, I'll give him the $700 asking. A couple days later we drive to Chicago, I drive it around the block a couple times, hand him the cash and I'm off with my brand new V12. I have to say, jumping immediately from the V8 to V12 is night and day. I love the V8, but the v12 is such a silk smooth engine and paired with the 5hp30 has the best torque curve of any engine I've ever driven. Anyway, without any further ado, Here are a couple pictures. I'll get some better with my Nikon at a later time, but for now the phone pictures will have to suffice.
IMG_20170621_190553
IMG_20170621_190746
IMG_20170621_190750
IMG_20170621_190755
I'll update this lists as things come up
Current to-do list:
Front and rear suspension
Driver door handle
Battery issues
̶C̶o̶r̶r̶e̶c̶t̶ ̶t̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶i̶z̶e̶
̶B̶e̶l̶t̶ ̶s̶q̶u̶e̶a̶k̶ Distributor squeak
̶M̶u̶f̶f̶l̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶e̶t̶e̶
The good:
The engine seems to run perfectly
The trans shifts perfectly
Leather dash is in near perfect condition
Leather console is in very good condition
No major damage to body
No (none!) dead pixels in dash
Have yet to find any electronics issues
The bad (long list!):
EDC/SLS struts are completely dead on all corners (it drives like a 63 Cadillac, have coilovers to replace them)
The tires are the wrong size
ABS/Traction Control lights on (probably due to wrong tire size)
Rust on FR door
Rust on RL door
Missing left fog light (have from 740il)
Driver seat does not move forwards or reverse
Absurdly loud squeaking noise upon startup above 1K rpms, goes away after car is fully warm.
Interior in rough condition in general
Rear seat adjustment works partially
Other than dash and center console, all the leather in the car is in pretty rough condition.
lots of dings, paint chips, paint is in rough, irrecoverable condition
Front bumper is cracked beyond repair
rear bumper is cracked, probably repairable, but since the car needs paint anyway, I'll take the black of my 740il
missing engine cover
Windshield is cracked
one of the panes on the driver side quarter glass was shattered
Awful peeling purple tint on all the windows
Batteries may be iffy
Need brakes and sensors
Battery issues (isolator?)
Eventual Mods:
Re-dye / replace interior
Refinish wheels
Ultrasuede headliner, pilars, seatbacks
Strip, stain, and refinish all trip (testing now on e39 trim)
There's plenty more, I will add to this list as I think of things
Last edited by ColtonBH; 07-08-2017 at 01:33 AM.
I've always like the bigger BMW motors, v8/v12s but it's shame the majority of them are autos. I'd spring for one if it were manual.
Any who, nice find.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
Lucky guy you are
Sent from my LGLS996 using Tapatalk
The most expensive car is a cheap BMW. Good luck.
Sounds like a typical e38 owner. Happy resto!!! This time try not to roll it!!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
$700/12 = $58.33... just saying. Good luck with the project.
Looking forward to restoration progress.
The ABS/TC lights may also be due to a bad wheel speed sensor. Sometimes they are just rusty/clogged with junk and a cleaning will fix the problem; if you need to replace, don't use cheap Chinese ones, they often will not solve the problem.
[/IMG]
My 740il had a bad wheel speed sensor. The difference is, that threw abs/tc lights as soon as the car started, this doesn't throw them until the car hits ~3mph, which is right when the wheel speed sensor start picking up data. Anyway, I have a set of 235/60R16, where as these are 225/50R16 IIRC, so I'll test it out
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Dreams for interior. This has to be my favourite e38, I don't know who owns it, other than their Flickr is dominant_engineering. Since I would need to re-dye the interior black anyway, Might as well do a combo black and chocolate interior.
2016-09-28_12-05-37 by Dominic Biro, on Flickr
Congrats on new purchase. I'll be watching your progress.
Congrats! Look like you have some money to spend... A young bull like you should be able to tackle all of this and will be a fun restoration project for you...
Doesn't the 420G fit right up to that engine?
Absinthe makes the tart grow fonder
Begin dual battery trouble... Now!
It appears that the smaller battery for the auxillary power isn't charging, the symptoms are spelled out exactly in this person's post
I should also note that I took a spare battery and jumped it to the terminals on the top battery and everything was restored to normal. Also, the voltage on the dash diagnostics seems low, 13.5-13.7 with lights on and low 13s when at idle with lights on. My 740il was always at 14v
Is there a good, definitive test of the battery isolator that can tell me if it's bad and preventing it from charging? I do have two BMW batteries lying around as well that I could switch it with to test it out.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
On a side note, I'm not going to build an exhaust yet, but mufflers will be chopped very soon. I can't stand how quiet this car is.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
Bookmarks