1994 540i 6 speed

[Jnarood04]

I’m looking at buying a 5 series listed as a oxford green 540i 6 speed manual car. Seems to be a unicorn, can’t find any to compare it against. The odometer reads 182k I have received a ton of pictures, the car is beautiful. What can you guys tell me about these cars? Are they as rare in the US as they seem? What’s a fair price to pay? How many were built in oxford green? I’ll upload pictures into my profile. Thanks in advance.

[JThomp33]

This must be a swapped 6-speed. To my knowledge, the only true 540i/6's that were produced were in 1995 - last year of production for the E34's. The best way to check is to obtain the VIN and do some research.

[jehu]

They did start production of the 540/6 in 1994 for the Model year '95.

This must be a swapped 6-speed. To my knowledge, the only true 540i/6's that were produced were in 1995 - last year of production for the E34's. The best way to check is to obtain the VIN and do some research.

I've owned four . the first had the engine swapped a mere 30,000 miles before I bought it . I paid $9,600. It was Oxford Green Parchment interior. It has 128,000 miles.on the odometer. and was virtually perfect.. .. I thought.. It had been in new England since new and within a year I found the floorboard had giant holes rusted through them and had to have new floors welded in.

original Clutch and flywheels seem to last around 150,000 miles. I got over 255,000 on my first replacement.

I am on my fourth. I bought it for $2,500 same as I paid for my third with 150,000 miles and $200.00 more than I paid for my second with 174,000.. In each I ended up needing to spend easily $5,000.00 since I had repairs done by others.. if you can do all your work yourself you'll save tons. I just drove mine about 400 miles over eight hours today and it was a total blast.

[moroza]

BMW played some trickery with model years (that concept itself a trickery by the culture of fashion and planned obsolescence, but I digress) and managed to get vehicles as early as 2/93 (confirmed) or 10/92 (unconfirmed) legally recognized as 1994 models. Such was the case with my 4/93 and 5/93 530i wagons. The normal practice, probably codified in law somewhere, is that September is the first month of the following model year. Wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened to 94/95 540i. Does it have a colored BMW badge on the steering wheel, body-colored rockers, gathered leather door cards, or brake ducts in the lower bumper? How about sport seats (do the front seats have armrests, or adjustable thigh supports)?

What to tell you? They're good cars! But we're all a bit biased. I find them easier and more straightforward to work on than other German cars, but like all European ones, they require diligent routine maintenance and are less neglect-tolerant than US or Asian vehicles. So a good service history is a major selling point. If you don't do your own work, maintenance is going to be expensive. If you do do your own work, you'll find plentiful repair info and help from other E34 owners; in this respect we're on par with VW/Audi owners (whose stuff is way worse to fix) and better than the Benz community (whose stuff is a little worse). Most parts are readily available but some are hard to find in quality (lots of Chinesium) and a few are frighteningly expensive (OE heater valve ~$530, quality subframe mounts ~$70 each, steerbox $1k+). Regarding E34 in general, I recommend you peruse bmwe34.net and some threads. Back in my early days, I found E34 vs. E39 comparisons particularly enlightening. Regarding 540i/6 specifically, they're arguably the best of the bunch - M5 is marginally faster (and sings a *very* nice song) but a lot pricier to buy and maintain, the rest are slower and overall not much easier to maintain, and other than later 525i the lesser models don't get significantly better mileage either if driven right.

I've owned five over 12+ years (535i sedan, 3x 530i wagons, including one with nearly the same powertrain as this, and now a 525i wagon), dived deep into their mechanicals, and could blather on for ages about what I like and don't like about them. They're not perfect and they're not for everybody. There's not much they do that another car doesn't do better. But there are very few cars that do as many things well, or have as few flaws as an E34. The design hits a sweet spot on many dimensions, and the sum of its values is quite high even if the individual values aren't. For example:

Lexus LS. Ride = 10, Handling = 2, Sum = 12
Corvette. Ride = 1, Handling = 10, Sum = 11
E34. Ride = 7, Handling = 7, Sum = 14
E39. Ride = 9, Handling = 8, Sum = 17 but visibility is worse, and it has more problems that are harder to fix.

[katit2]

Back in my early days, I found E34 vs. E39 comparisons particularly enlightening. Regarding 540i/6 specifically, they're arguably the best of the bunch - M5 is marginally faster (and sings a *very* nice song) but a lot pricier to buy and maintain, the rest are slower and overall not much easier to maintain, and other than later 525i the lesser models don't get significantly better mileage either if driven right.

E39. Ride = 9, Handling = 8, Sum = 17 but visibility is worse, and it has more problems that are harder to fix.

Hi Moroza,

If you don't mind can you elaborate on Audi (hard to fix), Mercedes(hard to fix?) and what in particular you don't like about E39?

As you see form my signature - I own 525 in i6 flavor (manual swap will happen soon). I picked i6 on purpose, didn't want to deal with M60 and underhood stuff.
I owned 540i6 E39 for 10 years. Did all maintenance and repairs possible and I still think this is the best car I had ever. All around. Visibility maybe little less but overall it's a great car. Everyone loved it. Smooth, quiet. Back then I was about V8, but thinking about it E39 with steering rack probably better balanced car.

If someone chooses between E34 and E39 I would say they are the same maintenance-wise. Yes, maybe rear suspension different but it's not a huge deal overall. E39 much better car. Pick E34 only if you want E34 look. This is what I did. I already had E39(why get the same) and I always digged E34 body style. Thats why I got it and will keep it around forever now. Why not?

I also owned 93 UrS4 and that was a great car too. Different way you have to approach repairs, much less info available. But if you know how - all very doable. Didn't see any problems with a car.

[ihm96]

I paid 4k for my 61,000 mile 1995 530i in Oxford Green last february if that helps at all

[moroza]

So, got any photos (I use CubeUpload), or more details of this car? Have you driven it, or another E34?

If you don't mind can you elaborate on Audi (hard to fix), Mercedes(hard to fix?) and what in particular you don't like about E39?

I call it the WTF-Were-They-Thinking Factor, expressed as a percentage of repairs that are made significantly - and, more important, unnecessarily - harder by flaws in the original design, the OEM having either 1. apparently failed to consider how their assembly would be taken apart and reassembled, especially under real-world conditions, or 2. designed a component with inadequate stressed parts, often out of inappropriate materials as well, or 3. apparently considered maintainability, but come up with a solution best described as asinine. IME, the Factor has ranged from 0% (John Deere 5205) to 2% (my 81 Hilux) to 10% (E34) to 25% (my former B4 Passat) to 40%+ (some ~10-20 year old Audis I saw while working at an import indy).

VW (since the early 90's or so; their earlier stuff is different) and especially Audi seem to have this hubris that "our scheiße stinkt nicht; dis technology ist PERFECT und HOW DARE YOU suggest it might ever fail and have to be worked on! Oh fine, very well, here - you can take it apart mit dis 7-pointed shallow special reverse-thread bolt conveniently placed inside the bellhousing. It ist der mathematically perfect fastener. Nau get aut."

Reverse-thread bolts holding flimsy door handles on a Passat, Torx-head proprietary screw-like clips holding an A6 splash shield on (that fall off in use and aren't a hardware store item), 98 A4 power steering banjo bolt took three excruciating hours to line up on the rack (car was on a lift and my hands are long and skinny)... on and on and then there's this:

A quad-cam BMW V8's timing looks like this:

While a quad-cam VAG W8 timing looks like this:

and it's at the back of the engine. It doesn't take a mechanic to see which is going to be easier to service.

My experience with Benz is more limited. Old (W123, 126) are fairly straightforward. The handful of newer (95-15) we saw at the import shop seemed complex, but for good reasons. Unlike VAG products, their difficult assemblies seemed to have no room for improvement. Again, just a general impression here. I may be biased from having learned on an E34, but I find BMW thinks through maintainability better than the other Germans. That said, the Factor is non-zero on an E34 and gets significantly worse with newer models.

E39 just seemed a little harder overall with a handful more failure points - dash pixels, climate control, a bit less room under the hood... nothing major. The trunk is small, climate control is an unergonomic button-fest, the seats aren't as good as E34, and I never felt as confident hustling it down narrow roads, between the visibility and the relative lack of road feel and connection with the car. Overall I still like them a lot, and the highway ride is fantastic. I want to build an E39T at some point...

[Nikdolmaza444]

Hello. I have such a problem with the E34 540. When I stop the car for a long time and then take out the rpm does not go above 5000. Knocking the shaft sensor can then be corrected. What can I do?