Little advice/help/thoughts needed on some BMW 540i's

Sounds considerably noisier than my old M60B40, and that had done 180k.

There does seem to be a bit of excess slap there, but I'm not really sure. Certainly more than the usual clatter of 32 valves, 8 injectors, all the associated valvetrain and so on.

Sorry I can't really be of more help....
 
MrLOL said:
Moeks

if Fox is telling you that your obsessing and worrying, then you've gone too far pal :D

relax.

On a side note, ask those same people to post a video of their idle to compare maybe ?
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Hehe that actually made me feel a lot better :)

Yea, I've been talking with CaPt BlaCk via email, he's given me some good advice and offered to let me have a listen to his 540i, he lives quite close to me so that'll help put my mind at ease ...or not. I suppose I'll be in a far better position to judge whem BMW have had a listen and changed the oil etc.
 
Are you sure its got worse recently, and not always been there?

I've bought a few car now and not picked up on things when i viewed them, even when i have had them for a week or so!
 
I cant offer anything useful, but I thought you'd like to know that starting your car gave me a funny tingling feeling.
 
it sounds no louder than my 95 328. I wouldnt worry.

-Edit as its almost pointless as my car is a i6- but i did fret about top end noise as i had a vanos jam code, did a oil change and its been fine since but still "tappy"
 
Phil W said:
Are you sure its got worse recently, and not always been there?

I've bought a few car now and not picked up on things when i viewed them, even when i have had them for a week or so!
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Not sure at all no, it probably was there, I just didn't notice it then and I don't recall really noticing it until I had, had the car around a week or so.

The sound is not present or just not noticeable at all when the engine is cold, nor can you really hear it inside when warm ...only outside when warm.

I admit I did not really have a good listen outside the car after my test drive when it was properly warmed up, I did my listening for odd noises and taps etc when it was cold and had the bonnet up when it was cold also.

I didn't hear anything unusual when driving it or when I parked it at the end of my test drive, so then I turned the engine off and had a quick look under the bonnet, I loosened the oil filler cap to check for any pressure build up or whooshing sounds as this can be an indicator of a bad oil separator valve etc. But having this in mind, and needing to turn the engine off to check this, I did not as I recall step outside the car at any point with the engine idling when warm ...only when cold. At least as far as I can remember, and recalling exactly what I did in exactly what order is easier said than done now. but it probably was there when I bought it, I just missed it.
 
Having another to listen to is very useful. I take the Z4 out every time I think mine makes a funny noise and it normally puts my mind at rest.
 
Well my Inspection II is all done and I feel much better now the car has some nice clean fluids in it, especially the engine oil.

Although them inspecting it turned up a few surprises;

First the front wishbones have been replaced within the last year apparently, so the tech said, so they are good and I don't need to worry about those.

Both of the rubber mounts for the rear stabiliser are knackered and need replacing, this is likely the cause of the knocking sound from the rear suspension.

The rubber mounts for the shock absorbers on all 4 corners are starting to decay, but they are 'ok' right now apparently.

My front brakes are shot to hell, pads are well past it and the discs are quite badly worn too, they have probably needed doing since it's last MOT pass if I had to guess, this is almost certainly the cause of my steering judder under breaking and why they do not feel very confidence inspiring anyway.

My rear brake pads are also very worn and need changing, the rear discs apparently could do with changing but they are not critical right now and could be left.

The rattling/tap from the front of my engine when idling and warm is 'probably' a VANOS unit, but to be honest they did not seem to investigate this to my satisfaction at all, they did not drop the oil pan to check for pieces of the guide rail and haven't even mentioned the tensioners I specifically asked them to check ...in writing! ...according to my service handler the tech guy just said chain problems don't really happen on BMW's and that was that, from what I was told he said, it sounded like he thought I thought the chain was broken ...wtf! ...I could hardly have driven it there if that was the case now could I! ...yea anyway ...no satisfaction with this one.

I am going to get someone else to take a look at this issue. But the rattle does seem to have lessened in severity a touch now, with some nice clean oil ...still very much there though.

And then the surprises I wasn't expecting;

Apparently my rocker cover gaskets are leaking oil "excessively" ...really? ...well I can't see any evidence of this, I can see those myself and my Dad took a good look too (he used to be an HGV mechanic, although he knows cars plenty well enough too) ...anyway they want £249.82 + VAT to change these! ...cough, oh yea ...no worries, especially when I can't see any evidence of this, neither can my Dad or Grandad ...not to mention the fact I'd expect to find some oil on the drive or at least in the engine pan ...and there isn't. Also it would likely have dripped onto the exhaust manifold when hot and I would have smelt that.

I will get someone my Dad knows to have a look at this anyway, but BMW can sod right off with their prices for that, it's not even a very big job.

Also apparently there is some leakage from around the radial oil seal on my torque converter ...well if there is it must be very minimal because there would be ATF stains on my light grey slabbed drive if it was anything to write home about. They want £373.85 + VAT to replace this! ...err no. And I did just mean the gasket there.

And then the real star of the show, the absolute kicker ...apparently there is a very slight leak from my steering box (although they did say this isn't an urgent fix) and to fix this they would fit a whole new steering box, and for this they want ...... £2,588 +VAT !!!! :o ...screw you! ...It's probably just a BMW approach to a slightly best it's past seal.

My steering feels fine, my fluid level hasn't noticeably changed since I had the car and again, no evidence of anything dripped anywhere on the drive or in the engine bay. The only oil I do have in the bay is where they spilt some fresh oil when installing the new filter and did not clean it up properly, so I'll have to do that tomorrow. Just so I can make sure I don't have any more fresh oil turning up, as they would indicate a leak.

I'm not paying BMW prices to do the breaks or rear stabiliser bushes either, I'll get someone I know to do those, BMW want about £550 for all the pads and disks ...although only £48 to do the stabiliser mounts. Still, those aren't hard specialised jobs. I suppose that's not a terrible prices for an alround break reknewal, but those aren't hard and I can save some money on their quote that's for sure.
 
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The steering box leak could be a big bill, on the other hand Moeks, it could be a simple keep your eye on it & top up routine to adopt.

My old mans 260k e39 has a similar leak, its required a few ml of fluid every 6000 miles or so, when my Dad had this pointed out to him, he was given an equally steep quote (iirc £2k), his garage suggest he keeps an eye on it and tops it up as & when. 2 years later (!) its still losing a few ml in between services and he says he can feel gradually through the steering when it needs a bit more.

Re the engine sound video's, it sounds a lot louder to my ear than my old mans e39 which itself despite its miles was quieter than my old e38, my e36's M52 is quite noisy, but nothing major.

Get that sludge out of its pan as soon as you can though, one key to my Dads e39's life has been his insistence on regular oil changes which probably explains its quietness & long life...... :)

O/T: Having just had my front anti roll bar bushes replaced as part of my MOT, get these done too, mine feels like its had new front suspension by comparison to how it felt previously! :o :D
 
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Aye yea, that's what everyone else told me, even the service guy at BMW said the same thing about the steering box, he said just keep an eye on it.

Speaking of which, do you by chance know if their is a particular fluid I should use for it as I better get a bottle ?

My engine is a bit quieter than it was now I'd say, I don't know how much sludge is really in there though, without taking the engine appart to look, from what Ican see from the oil filler cap ..which isn't all that much, it looks fairly clean, no gunk there anyway. I guess performing an oil/filter change myself in about 5k miles and and then do it once myself beteen services should be enough to clean in out.

I think it should be done twice as often as BMW's service interval recommends anyway.
 
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For my e36 I use common Dextron III / Mercon ? Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) - I'd hazard a guess its the same for an e39 a Google will quickly tell you.
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
The steering box leak could be a big bill, on the other hand Moeks, it could be a simple keep your eye on it & top up routine to adopt.

My old mans 260k e39 has a similar leak, its required a few ml of fluid every 6000 miles or so
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I'd be suprised if your old mans 528i has a similar leak given it doesnt have a steering box as it has superior rack and pinnion steering. It's more likely that his is leaking from beneath the power steering fluid reservoir instead, as is the case on every E39 ever made ever.

As for Moeks, brake discs and pads all round should be £450 on BMW Value Service - it is for a 6 cylinder but I cannot remember off the top of my head if the 540i has the same size discs as the 530i, I think it does?
 
I would get a decent 2nd opinion on the car before getting any work done. I would definitely be getting as little of it done at BMW as possible.

You need to find a decent Indy who is willing to get his hands dirty with a car like this.
 
[TW]Fox;16076204 said:
I'd be surprised if your old mans 528i has a similar leak given it doesnt have a steering box as it has superior rack and pinnion steering. It's more likely that his is leaking from beneath the power steering fluid reservoir instead, as is the case on every E39 ever made ever.
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Thats a good point - I will mention this to him when I see him later. :)

So what were they quoting an otherwise bill of £2k for? Hmm.....
 
NickXX said:
I would get a decent 2nd opinion on the car before getting any work done. I would definitely be getting as little of it done at BMW as possible.

You need to find a decent Indy who is willing to get his hands dirty with a car like this.
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Oh yes I am, I haven't told them I want them to do anything yet, all I have paid for is £349 for the Inspection II and that'll likely be all they get from me.

To be fair I'm not that impressed with Sytner Coventry (I made a special effort to go over there too since it came so highly recommended), especially as some of the very specific things I listed on a nice typed out note for the tech seems to have been largely ignored, I did not speak to the tech directly though but via a service handler who seemed to have very little tech knowledge, less than me and I'm not exactly Mr. Mechanic man, although I am learning a lot quite fast with all the reading I've been doing lately.

I also wasn't hugely impressed by their handling of the courtesy car situation, they said I could keep it for the night on the assumption I wanted them to do some work on it tomorrow. Well I said I needed to go away and look at my options and discuss it with someone. So based on this they insisted I get the car back tonight as all of a sudden one of the staff needed it to get home ...quite what he would have done in the event I was having the work done tomorrow and thus it was ok for me to keep the car ...I don't know, I smell bs there anyway.

But anyway, they had not phoned me by 16:30 so I phoned them and my service handler was apparently with a customer and was the only person that could really advise me on when my car would be ready. So I was told he would call me back, and he did ...but by this point it was about 17:00 ...and I knew I was getting short on time to actually get there before they closed.

So naturally the guy kept me on the phone for a good 20-25 minutes going through what they had found and quoting me prices for everything that needed fixing and then spending ages working out my 'discounts' for it being an old car etc, basically he didn't have it all ready when he rang and was doing it on the fly. ...then said as I wasn't going to make a decision to let them work on my car then and there I had to get the courtesy car back to them. Well by this point I knew I'd never get there for 18:00 (it says on their website that they are open till 18:30, servicing and sales) but he said 18:00 ...he seemed surprised at this and that I had travelled from North Worcestershire to go there ...and was urging me to try and get there by 18:15 ...while still faffing about keeping me on the phone ...anyway I eventually got there at 18:25 amazingly and he went through the paperwork ...so by this time I was the only customer there adn they had raised their bollard blocking the car park off ...also I heard another guy in the office behind the service guy on the phone to someone moaning about how late I had bought their much needed car back that night and they were all wondering where I was!

Despite the fact I called them in good time when they hadn't called me because I knew full well how long it would take me to get there, especially with traffic. So that was their damn fault not mine.

I'd have much sooner just gone back tomorrow and sorted it out, I do a lot of work from home so I can make the time for these things quite often.

Not really impressed by all this polava, and been made to feel like I shouldn't have had their car past 18:00 etc. They were just lax sorting stuff out and despite me telling them earlier, did not take account of the fact that I don't live down the road but 32 miles away.

I wouldn't say they were bad at all, but they did not live upto expectations or their 'reputation' ...not worth travelling to Coventry for anyway. I think I'll just go with Rybrook in Worcester next time.
 
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Thats not a great experience, I'd question bothering with them in future.

I get great service from my local dealer - they are always polite, helpful, curteous. They don't even bother to check I've refuelled the loaners these days either, though they have started asking when I'm going to upgrade, even though half the staff reckon I should just keep the E39.
 
Moeks said:
Apparently my rocker cover gaskets are leaking oil "excessively" ...really? ...well I can't see any evidence of this, I can see those myself and my Dad took a good look too (he used to be an HGV mechanic, although he knows cars plenty well enough too) ...anyway they want £249.82 + VAT to change these! ...cough, oh yea ...no worries, especially when I can't see any evidence of this, neither can my Dad or Grandad ...not to mention the fact I'd expect to find some oil on the drive or at least in the engine pan ...and there isn't. Also it would likely have dripped onto the exhaust manifold when hot and I would have smelt that.
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You will not see the leak as it will be into the spark plug recess in the centre of the cover on each bank. It is a fairly standard leak and can be fiddly/time consuming to rectify.
 
CaPtBlaCk said:
You will not see the leak as it will be into the spark plug recess in the centre of the cover on each bank. It is a fairly standard leak and can be fiddly/time consuming to rectify.
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Indeed - they'll have spotted it because they change the plugs as part of an Inspection II.
 
CaPtBlaCk said:
You will not see the leak as it will be into the spark plug recess in the centre of the cover on each bank. It is a fairly standard leak and can be fiddly/time consuming to rectify.
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Arhh ok, now that kind of info I like because I know exactly what they are talking about now. I was never told this until now. I just assumed their idea of excessive leakage and mine were two totally different things and my service handler was obviously not tech savvy enough to actually tell me what you just did ...only go umm err well our guy said it was like that. As I was looking at the gasket seal around the outside of the rocker covers, where there is nothing to see. I shall certainly have someone check that out then, my Dad knows someone who used to do some work for his company who could take a look for me, he sounds pretty decent and my Dad would not recommend him if he wasn't.

How hard is it to just open up the covers and put new gaskets in and torque it back down though ?
 
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