Are there any 8ers out there?

Interested to know if there are any other 8 owners in this forum

PhilC

G'Day,  yes there is another 8 owner here!

Ian

94 840Ci

G'day Ian

Thanks for the wealth of information!! Great site with the overall numbers shipped abroard... The "-1"'s got me. Does that mean sent back??

Now I'm a member of the exclusive 645.16/E  club...

You may be able to get parts quicker from the US. (apart from the obvious RH drive stuff). Try http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums/e31/ (if you are not already a member) Its a fantastic site full of e31 fanatics. The archives are a great source of info especially if you want to work on the car yourself, or find out about different mods.

Enjoyed your 'before and after' site. Great car. Throwing stars look great. I have the original throwing stars. Take some beating on the 8 in my book. Only 18" Alpinas and maybe M parallels come close :-)

I've had my car since last Sept. Only home for half the time since. (writing this from the Gabonese jungle in Africa). Just love my car. Learnt alot about the car since I bought it and there's lots of mods I want to do to it after reading so much about what other people have done. Not done anything to the car except clean it (alot) and drive it (alot). The car is still under warranty so there's a limit to what I can change at the moment. Says alot for BMW when they will continue their used car warranty past 100K miles. Got the TIS and ETK although I cannot find the ETM anywhere.

Emigrating..... there was a time when I wanted too, after I spent 9 weeks roaming around Aus visiting long lost relatives. Loved the country. Especially Adelaide and Coffs harbour. Loved the VB, Kings Cross, Utes, Barbies, schooners, Ford Fairlaine's, wild wallaby's in the garden, vegimite, ski-ing in the snowies, I could very easily adapt.

Unfortunately, I have many piss poor excuses for living in the UK. Wife's career, kids growing up in this school system etc... Workwise the UK is the best place to be for me if I switch to consulting as all the best paying consultancies are there!! Fancied Woodside in Perth for a 2 year assignment but nothing ever gets advertised and if it did I'd not be the only applicant.

See you in Vladivostock!!

Cheers

Phil

G'Day Ian

I can see the E31 becoming an obsession. It is a complex car and that for me is the attraction. Trying to figure out why BMW did things the way they did. All those quirky things like the subversive little water tank at the back of the car, I assume is a safety feature as the petrol tank may be part of the crumple zone!!

I did notice your pics were off Roadfly. Were you a member of Club E31? A really excellent forum thats dead now. RIP. I'd just joined it just before it went tits up. Alot of knowledge and some good opportunities for big European meets.

2-4 weeks delivery. That's excellent considering.

Forgings.... never really thought much about it but since it does end up with the best mechanical properties it makes sense. As you say 2 tonnes at 200km/hr, and I imagine there are castings masquarading as copies of forged wheels out there. I've no experience with scrapping an alloy but I can imagine that castings can be subject to brittle failure with shock loading. Forgings are tougher and can withstand shock loads without brittle fracture.

I have some experience with driving in Aus and you guys have serious pot holes. I rember taking a 4WD van into the Flinders Ranges and it was safer driving on the plain than the road!!! Also, I was daft enough to think I could get some sleep on the Greyhound from Sydney to Coffs. 18 hours of potholes. Still I saw the cane fields alight and wouldn't have missed that for anything.

Agree on the Chrome. Can spoil a good looking car. Only had it once. I bought a new Ford Explorer when I was living in Muscat. It had chromed wheels and they got dusty after every trip down the road. Got sick of cleaning them.

I do travel alot with my work. Just about to finish in Africa. Ready for a move after 2 years. Back off to the desert in the Middle East, Syria. Good work good package and I can play golf in the desert. Lose too many balls in the jungle!!

Northern Territories - Is that where the Kakadoo National Park is? Fantastic. I can imagine some long straight tarmac roads. Hopefully flat. Big reds I assume roos the size of camels.

Poms have been making great in-roads into Perth and Adelaide. LOL. My family have managed to breed out the pom. Makes me laugh all the bullsh*t about the Queen in Aus. I can imagine most Australians don't give a toss, most Brits don't.

Looks like the interior colour is exactly the same. Can't remember the exact BMW name for it. It was all too grey for me so I have some custom car mats made with dark green bordered with grey leather (exterior is Oxford Green). Aluminium heel plate. The BMW plastic studs and little plastic roundel all fitted easily enough and it looks great. Green piping on the leather trims of the seats would look great too. Another one for the wish list.

The specs must be the same. Not sure about emmisions stuff but I doubt that there's much you can do about changing anything on the E31. I'm sure the cats are standard. The E31 is full of mysteries. I had a persistant oil leak, small but irritating enough to have it in the shop three times. Only on the 3rd attempt did they find it. There was a loose grub screw in the engine block which could only be accessed through the front engine mounting plate. None of it was on the TIS/EPC and my dealer had no idea other than it looked like a sensor port that may be used for something in the states. Pressure, temp??

Cheers

Phil

Good news! According to Phillipe (posting on roadfly) the www.clube31.com site will be back up and running soon!

Ian, yes been to the museum, but not yet done the factory tour...I must organise it soon.

G'Day Phil / Sniff,

Great news about clube31. Phil do you have a contact at AutoStyle? How much did you pay - one of our suppliers at work is in Groby, Leicester so I could get them to ship them down under for me. Did they put any logos on them?

Also curious, how much are you paying for a litre of fuel at the moment? I'm paying AUS$0.85 / litre for 98RON grade.  (35 pence / litre or 0.50 euro /litre)

Seeya Ian

With my schedule its different every time I get home. Feel like a virtual Brit. Here's a link with the reasonably upto date  info. http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/fuel/ 

Sure I paid less when I was home last. Notice that there's slightly more tax on the 95 RON than the 98 RON. In the Middle East petrol was cheaper than water!!!! Never had to use notes only small change. They don't have unleaded either. I just use 95 RON in mine. Either of you guys use 98 RON? Do you notice a difference apart from a sudden loss of weight?

Ian, I ordered my mats over the web. Came two weeks later. They do not put the BMW roundal on as I guess it would infringe on BM copyright.(look great if they did). You can have 'V12' or '8 Series" in limited configurations. I did not bother. I had the aluminium heel plate. The plastic grommets from the original mats are easy to transfer to the new ones. Have to make the holes yourself. The little plastic BMW roundal on the original drivers mat fits much the same way. They look great. Not a perfect fit in the back but hardly noticable. Fit OK in the front. I paid +- 94 GBP including postage. Didn't even try BM. I'm sure it would have been double that and more with a choice of grey or dark grey!!!

Our petrol prices are obscene. They are trying to price the motorist off the road when there are no viable alternatives to getting to work for most people. Its crap. Congestion charging will spread I guess.

Never tried optimax. Should give it a try. I'm surrounded by Shell stations. I'll give it a go this time home. Printed out the PDS. Sounds like Unleaded spiced with 'redex'.

On the Nikasil issue we had serious problems in the UK. My car had both engine blocks changed out to Alusil after only 26K miles!! Buying an older 840 or any of the affected engines is tricky business here. Wonder how many people have been caught out? I rang the dealer who originally sold the car last year to confirm the details.

Cheers

Phil

Hi everyone.  I have just concluded a deal to buy my first 850, up here in Scotland.  It is a near one owner car, actually still advertised on this site,, but sold 9 months ago for the first time.  It is a stunning red with black leather, immaculate, 1990 model.  It has  a huge mileage but full BMW hsitory, and all bills.  It even has the supplying dealers sticker on the rear screen.  It will be a second car as I run a 2000 523 sport.

I am a little scred about the repair buills I should expect and will be looking for advice in due course.

Glad to see such enthusiasm for these apparently unloved supercars.