540/740? Which to buy?

Go on your gut feel but bear iun mind that its been done to show off the company's stuff.

I know Simon and have done for a few years and have bought quite a bit of stuff off Kudos and MOST of it has been good quality and good value but SOME of it hasn't.

Most of the stuff I've bought off him has been genuine stuff...the AEs I got off him were genuine Hella so I can't comment on his AE reps. I had a set of genuine hella Celis rear lights and a set of Celis reps and TBF they werent bad quality just took a bit of fiddling to get them to fit right.

AFAIK the wheels on the car are copies but could be wrong.

I've got sport suspension on my touring and I can't find a 'sport' setting button unless he's being toungue in cheek and means the ASCT button!! Check the interior photos for a 'sport' button.

He sells the front bumpers as direct copies of M5 bumpers taken from the same mould BMW uses. I shied away from M5 bumper as it doesnt have the brake cooling duct arrangement for the 540 though I suspect this wouldn't be a massive problem.

Did have a chuckle over his description of the interior trim being genuine BMW paint!!LOL. He's probably sprayed the existing 1s but thats quite commonly done.

If its as good as it looks go for it........

Edited by Stone-IslandV8

Due to a change in circumstance I never got to see Simon's car, I did however take a look at the clip Peter kindly sent me, thank you very much Peter as I pick the car up next week and can hardly wait, exactly the spec I was after and got it for the right money!

Thanks for all the advice that has lead to this point, I let you know how she drives!

Smigga

I was looking for a 540i too, for a few months, they are hard to find in the specs you are looking for, rare enough. I was checking Pistonheads every days too...Anyway I bought mine in July 2009.

Manual sticks are almost impossible to find...

Here is some info I gathered when I was searching and learned afterwards or knew before...

- Pre 09-1998, the M62 4.4 engine had no vanos. A single Vanos was first introduced in the 09-1998 production. The vanos engine is called the M62 TU.
- Vanos seals do go bad, changing it is not extremelly difficult but extremelly time consumming.
- Both engines, TU and non TU have their fair share of problems.
- Cooling system is weak, nothing new, all BMW are affected, mainly because of plastic used extensively in the different cooling system parts. Do not let a V8 overheat, it will cook immediately, unlike other smaller engines...Anyway, never good to let an engine overheat.
- TU engines are affected by the chain guide, this is plastic and has a tendency to break.
- A 540i is expensive to maintain. It uses 7.5l of engine oil, brakes are bigger, any issue on the engine will cost a little fortune, changing the head gasket for example, you have 8 sparks etc...Close to a M5 when it comes to maintenance.
- The M62 4.4l came with Nikasil too in the UK and the rest of europe (Never in the US), but it was discontinued around 1998. Some earlier version were Alusil already, but some Nikasil version got delivered in the UK too.

Recommendations:

- Buy original mactufacturers parts as opposed to BMW branded parts.
- The 540i is using Brembo brakes for example, rebranded BMW. ATE does brake parts too for the 540i, ATE is the biggest supplier of brakes to BMW (e46 etc...).
- Use Bosh for 02 sensors etc
- Use TRW (Called Lucas before, they merged) for other brake hydraulics, they are the original supplier of hydraulics onthe 540i
- Use Sachs/Boge for the suspension (BMW supplier too, provided suspension parts on the 540i and many other models).
- Make sure you do a full service to the car once you buy it, even if she is supposed to have had one recently, unless done by dealer or so.
=> Do a coolant change, sparks, oil, filters...full inspection for leaks etc.

A lot more to tell but that's all I can think about at the moment.

HTH





Edited by Fooljam

Stone-IslandV8 wrote: Where did you get the nikasil info? Build info direct from a tech at BMW says nikasil ceased on V8s on the M60 lump. My M62 which is a '97 model is alusil.However your date of 1998 coincides with the end of nikasil on the 6cyls. While the M60s were nikasil the M62 is a bigger capacity engine with both increased bore and stroke to get it to the 4.4L.....so did BMW make new engines,some out of nikasil and some of Alusil?

Most M62 4.4l in Europe were Nikasil, there has been a good bit of issues in the UK and BMW decided to rule Nikasil completely out of their engines and it was achieved sometime in 1998.

Other countries that had M62 4.4l like Germany, France etc had no issue because of the quality of petrol over there.

All Nikasil engines were not affected, even in UK or Ireland, really depends of petrol quality that was used.

There is a special bulletin on TIS about that that details the engine affected with dates, serial number etc.

The fact that nikasil was used up to M60 engines only is just a urban legends...

Many sources from internet, WIKI and different forums is very confusing and actually wrong.

On many forums you can read the M62 4.4l never had Nikasil, but this is wrong, and those posts are from US forums mainly. This is correct M62 US engines never had nikasil, but obviously they are speaking for US markets only.

Fooljam wrote: What is wrong with black leather and dash and plastic trim

To be honest a black interior is the only colour that IMHO looks ok with the silver, aluminium look, plastic trim.

 

Peter Fenwick wrote: To be honest a black interior is the only colour that IMHO looks ok with the silver, aluminium look, plastic trim.

Yeah agreed, it would not look to good with beige interior, wood would look better here.

Stone-IslandV8 wrote: I remember the article in TBMW however I seem to remember them altering that info after being called on it and certainly the M60 & M62 guide TotalBMW 05/2006 states that M60 nikasil,M62 alusil. I've stated that my german friend who is an engineer at BMW...or was til he moved abroad and started fettling on his own,stated that the nikasil engines died with the M60. But if you put TBMW aside for perhaps being wrong(not unheard of),AND my friend being wrong,AND Wiki and every other BMforum (or most anyway) being wrong it doesnt excuse or alter that BMW CS stated they were all alusil. If they were indeed produced with nikasil initially then why not the high levels of nikasil-related problems emerged? Its well documented on 6cyls cos there were high levels of failures....why not the same for the M62 lumps?

Yeah well I told you to check the TIS. I will publish the article tonight if you can't.

About this article published in 2005 that I mentionned, it was re-published by Total BMW again in 2008. Same wording again.

As I said the M62 was produced in 2 flavours, with and without Nikasil blocks, depending of the country of destination.

Many coutries where Nikasil blocks never had a single issue, although they had thousands and thousands of those engines of the road, because their petrol was a lot cleaner with not all that sulfur. So they engine were never affected.

 

Edited by Fooljam

There was Nikasil in some M62 engines mate, end of. Nothing to argue about. Whatever your friends or a guy over the phone is telling you!

As I said some countries were affected, some were not. M62 Nikasil engines were produced from 1995 to March 1997.

The exact date is that, after March 1997, no more Nikasil M62 engines were ever produced.

So yes Total BMW was also right in 2005 and 2008 again.






Edited by Fooljam

Stone-IslandV8 wrote: So March 1997...OP's safe then as are the tourings?

That is my understanding yes, any M62 4.4 and 3.5 was not using Nikasil anymore after March 1997.

Now as I said all countries were not affected. UK might not have had any M62 Nikasil delivered through BMW UK, but I am not sure about that.

I wanted to point this out anyway, as I know some are getting engines from abroad sometimes, like Germany. Germans had Nikasil M62 for sure.

bl**dy hell, the issue that wouldn't die!  Seems Fooljam has set us all straight anyway, tho whether it makes any difference for UK cars remains to be seen.  Doesn't make any for me anyway - mine's definitely Nikasil