BMW 740i...135,000 miles

[thesteve123]

Hello everyone! I am fascinated at reading these threads. I am looking at a 1994 740i, with 135,000 miles on it. The car I am looking at drives like a dream already, and the owner tells me that it's engine is only 65000 miles old. He also claims to have all service records. I am very leery of buying a big problem, mainly because I am married to a wonderful woman. My present car is dependable, but just does nothing for me, check my profile, you'll see why.

When I am considering this car, which the first price offer is $7200, what is the top five things to check? Or ten, or twenty? Any help would be appreciated.

Is it true these cars can go 250,000-300,000?

Dreaming of a fine, fine car in Nashville

[libertylover]

FYI my wife and I paid $7750 for a '93 740iL with 113,xxx miles on it last August, so the price is close to what we paid. Even more important is that it's worth every penny! My wife and I both LOVE this car. It drives and feels like no other. We've concluded they don't call 'em "The Ultimate Driving Machine" for nothin''. This car's engine was probably replaced due to the infamous "Nikasil Problem". BMW may have replaced it with another Nikasil engine but most of the "danger" is past IMHO. And yes, many owners report 200,000-300,000 miles without major overhaul.

However, they are complex cars and things do go wrong and fixing those things can cost quite a lot more than on, say, a Chevy. I've got pretty good tools and pretty good skills so I can do a lot myself. If I had to depend on the dealer to fix everything, I couldn't afford it. This forum and www.roadfly.org help a LOT, a LOT, a LOT.

Here's some things that likely need to be done to a 740 at the age of the car you're looking at in no particular order:

1) Bushings on the Upper Control Arm (also known as the Thrust Arms) probably need to be changed. The bushings don't cost much but they are a PITA to change. Replace them if the car shakes when braking or if the tires start to "cup" (will look like someone took a spoon to the edge).

2) The two oxygen sensors wear out at 60,000 miles so this car is probably on its 2nd set. Symptoms: rough idle, Check Engine light on sometimes. Advice: Use the (user unfriendly) Bosch website to find the right part number, then use Ebay to buy the right part number, borrow special tool from auto parts store and do the work yourself. Or, buy the parts on Ebay and find someone to install them.

3) The driveshafts often need to be replaced at about this milage. Symptoms: A bit of vibration during acceleration, OK at cruise. Buy a rebuilt shaft and have someone install it. (This is hard to do at home because you have to drop a large portion of the exhaust.)

4) Change the transmission fluid. Originally the makers of the transmissions, ZF Industries in Germany, claimed they were a "lifetime" fill. Now they say the fluid should be changed at 100,000 miles (See recent post for email exchanges). The fluid for these cars is very expensive so it will cost several hundred dollars to have it changed but it should be done. Again, you can find an internet source like Jaggi Transmissions and pay someone to do the (messy) work.

Hope this helps. I've done all of these things so we've probably got about $10,000 invested in this car. But again, it's worth every penny.

Good luck.

[lapchole]

Originally Posted by thesteve123

Hello everyone! I am fascinated at reading these threads. I am looking at a 1994 740i, with 135,000 miles on it. The car I am looking at drives like a dream already, and the owner tells me that it's engine is only 65000 miles old. He also claims to have all service records. I am very leery of buying a big problem, mainly because I am married to a wonderful woman. My present car is dependable, but just does nothing for me, check my profile, you'll see why.

When I am considering this car, which the first price offer is $7200, what is the top five things to check? Or ten, or twenty? Any help would be appreciated.

Is it true these cars can go 250,000-300,000?

Dreaming of a fine, fine car in Nashville

transmission failure plagues this 740 il's from the early nineties.
research this carefully.

[Blade727]

You might want to think about looking at a 735 instead of the 740. The 735 uses the m30 inline 6 engine, which is one of the best engines bmw has made to date. the 740's v8 engines are known to have many problems especially with over heating

[1988735iLBrooklyn]

Wow this car is beautiful this you dropped the springs on this car if so do you remember the part number and how much did you pay for them. Awesome look. Good Luck

[pdbjc]

Liberitylover,

I have read a few of your posts and am impressed by your affection for your car and the knowledge you have gained about it. I would like your opinion. I have a 1995 740 il that I purchased about 8 months ago. It had 218,000 so though it seemed ok I knew it would need some things. Well.... I have just replaced the engine (sat in the garage for a week and when I tried to start it, it just kept turning over. Mechanic said engine had no compression, attached air hose to a spark plug hole and blew oil out of the dip stick. could have been clever tirck but seemed pretty convincing at the time. Engine rebuild,...$6,000) Anyway, my concern is that the car never has run like the driving machine I hear many people rave about. The engine seems louder than I would expect from a sedan and the ride is not as good as my former company car, a Toyota Camery (see below). I had the fromt shocks repalced but read somewhere that the rears should not need replacing unless leaking. I saw your posting about the drive shaft and oxygen sensors and that probably applies to me. The trans fluid change may help also. I would like to enjoy this car like others seem to. I only paid $5000 for the car but am now in another $7,000 in repairs. At this point my wife is no longer engaging in martial relations, barely speaking and wont let me buy another car for at least ten years. Since I will be driving this until my grandkids are out of college (and I don't even have grand kids yet) I would like to at least get it to specs. I still believe we will enjoy this car if I can get it right. If you have any other suggestions I would appreciate them so I don't spend additional money unneccessarily. Other than the overall ride, my LED display on the climate control does not work and a row of LED's on the eletronic display above the radio don't work either. Also, the headliner in the rear passenger compartment droops. Any suggestions on repairing trim from anyone who reads this would be welcome.
Well that's my sad little story Libertylover and anyone else who reads this. Look forward to your response. You know folks as I read this note I cant help but laugh at the fine mess I got myself into. I think this may be one of those threads in life that you pull and the whole thing unravels. (P.S. I lost my job about 3 months after I bought the car...buts that another thread!) (P.s.s. does anyone know about BMW's and bad Carma!)

I still love the car...

Another one in Nashville.

[libertylover]

pdbjc--

I appreciate your kind words but I'm sure others know a lot more than I, it's just that I'm more verbose in my answers. What I do know comes from hanging out at forums like this one and another good one, www.roadfly.org. Also I bought a Bentley's repair manual. Note: The Bentley's covers the E32 chassis, i.e., 1988-1994 7-series BMWs. Your 1995 740iL car is an E38 (1995-2001) chassis, so some things would be different for your car.

Re the spark plug hole to dipstick demo. I've read advice to pull the dipstick and see if the engine is smoking from there as a quick indication of worn rings, etc., so it probably was a valid demonstation. I've been reading up on Bosch fuel injection and it pointed out that on a modern car the dipstick has a seal so it doesn't leak air, which would screw up the fuel-air ratio.

Another thing is that some BMW V8s of that era had a problem with their Nikasil blocks which caused them to loose compression. These blocks were made of an alloy that had some nickle in it which was OK in Europe but in the U.S. the gasolines of those days had higher sulfer contents than the gasolines in Europe and the sulfer in the gas reacted with the nickle in the engine and caused erosion of the cylinder walls and thus caused poor compression and poor performance. BMW replaced many of those engines (and maybe beheaded their chief metallugist). My '93 has a Nikasil engine but I've had no problems but it may have been the problem with yours. Search for "Nikasil" and I'm sure you'll find a better explanation and also the way to identify Nikasil engines by their block numbers. Your new engine could be Nikasil as well. A few months back a refinery in Louisiana made a batch of gas that had a high sulfer content and was sold by Shell. Somehow this destroyed a bunch of car's gas gauges but would have been a problem too with a nikasil engine as well, so find out if your new engine is made of this material and be prepared. Generally speaking though, I believe if an engine is OK to this point there is a small probability of future problems since the gasoline content here in the U.S. has much less sulfer than it used to.

Re performance: With the transmission in Drive my car's performance is so-so since that gear is designed for fuel economy and to make the EPA happy. In sport mode (4th ,3rd, or 2nd selected) the shift points are different and the driving is a lot more lively. Also, Shogun's site, http://tridem.han-solo.net/auto/erich/auto.htm, has a "reset" procedure and some folks report great improvement following this.

Re wife is no longer engaging in martial relations: Sorry, you're on your own here, hehe.

Re Rows of LED display out. I've heard of this problem. I think the solution is to replace some capacitors which I believe are a part of the main instrument panel display. Search around on the roadfly site for better help.

Re headliner: About half-way down on Shogun's site there is a link about headliners. His site, and the ones he links to, may have good info about the LED problems as well.

Re I lost my job about 3 months after I bought the car... Let's see, your BMW is having problems, you're in the dog house, you lost your job, and you live in Nashville. Maybe you could turn this whole mess into a great country song and make a million. How's your dog doin', by the way? And too bad BMW doesn't make a pickup truck. Just kidding.

Good luck and I hope things improve for you real soon.

--libertylover

[pdbjc]

Liberitylover,

Thanks for your response. My life is not quite the country song it may seem to be but that's another post. Anyway,... those sites you suggested were informative. They gave me a whole new perspective on what I've gotten myself into here! I originally bought this car for my 17 year old son as (what I thought would be) a reliable older car that was safe and (at $5,000) not too expensive. Well... Now, however I see this as a project car for me. Something that can be a safe mid-life crisis object (though a cute 25 year old "honey" would be more useful right now).

I actually have what I believe is a good and fair-priced BMW mechanic in the area (anyone else from Nashville area who wants the name of the shop, send me a email or post), and I am looking forward to doing some of the work myself. The biggest challange at this point is informing my son that the car is no longer his! Now in addition to issues with my wife my son will hate me too! (if I can get my dog to bite me, I really could make a country song!).

Anyway,... I saw examples of leather restoration on Shogun's and other sites that were impressive. Also saw detailed instructions on repairing roof trim. Seemed do-able. AC control replacement looks easy also. Learned all about why most of the stuff I've already done (engine rebuild, front shocks, control arm bushing, AC work, etc...) were all probably necessary at this milage. The other stuff that has yet to be done makes sense too. I just hope I dont hit the tranny issue...

Anyway, (my favorite word) I still love this car...