1991 bmw 850i

[hassan salahudin]

i purchased a 1991 bmw 850i that had previously been in several accidents. there seems to be a shortage of technical information available for this vehicle. i would like to know why this car when it is first started has a noticable vibration in its idle. could it be caused by a single broken fan blade, once the engine runs for several seconds the vibration disappears.
also when the vehicle is idling although the idle is smooth, the exzaust on the drivers side is hot while the passengers side exzaust is cold.any suggestions greatly appreciated.

thank you hassan

[lowridder11]

?
shouldn't have gottin' the car

[Copper]

Hassan

Ignore the post from before.

Here is a better site with E31 8 Series owners who actually own the cars.

Come to www.roadfly.com

Go to Forums and click on "8 Series"

The idle or surging problem you are having is common. More than likely one of your two DK motors that control your fuel regulation for the throttle bodies is going south. It's not too bad to repair. You may have a manifold leak as well. Hard to tell.

The 8 Series has dual climate control. The heat you are getting on one side is from one of your two heater cylinoids failing. This controls the heat going through the floor vents and the upper defrost vents. This is a classic problem. The part is $140 and about 3 hours of labor at a good shop.

Can I make a suggestion? Find a good shop that has worked on these cars before, otherwise you will find that most shops are clueless about our cars. Most dealers will know how to repair the E31, but very few independents are savy with the car.

The 8 Series is a very reliable and rare car. Here are the know classic items that fail on EVERY E31 over time:

Driver's seat will twist when going up and down. This is tha cable bunching up. Easy fix

The power seat motors in bothe seat will give out and become noisy at some point.

DK motors often fail at about 70K miles.

Manifold leak after 80K miles.

Front control arm bushings wear out.

There are two batteries to replace. If one is low on juice, it will make the electronics to weird things and make you think you have other problems.

The on board computer's (OBC) pixels sometimes go out.. minor annoyance. Easy fix

The problem you are having with the heat is a known problem and so is the idle/surging.

That's it.

There could be other issues with your car since it has a questionable history, but the above list is for well documented cars. Most anyone who owns the car for some time will have one or all of these problems. Luckily there are very few random problems with the car. The car is really very reliable. The quality of a car is based on the consistency of the failures, vs. everything and anything failing like some domestics do (my Ford Crown Victoria P71 for instance!)

Check out the other board and learn as much as you can about the car so you don't waste time and money on things that appear to be big problems but are not.

Also check out this site with an excellent list of FAQs and Technical Info on our cars:
http://www.bmwe31.com/

The forum link is: http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/e31/

And another good site: http://www.clube31.com/

Good luck!

Sean
:licker: