Acquired My Very First BMW - 1998 E38 740i

[Llarry]

Regarding the wheels, I think the aftermarket (I think) wheels suit the car quite well. I understand that M parallels are desirable, but IMHO you should keep the wheels you've got.

You're a brave man to take on the challenge of owing an older 7er!

[MarcoF90]

Originally Posted by Llarry

Regarding the wheels, I think the aftermarket (I think) wheels suit the car quite well. I understand that M parallels are desirable, but IMHO you should keep the wheels you've got.

You're a brave man to take on the challenge of owing an older 7er!

Thank you I get alot of compliments on the wheels. Previous owner did a good job on the wheel choice and having the inserts painted black.

Yeah I've been told I'm braver than the marines for daily driving it too! But now that I'm down to this as my only car I can throw abit more cash at it until I purchase my M5 just waiting on this east coast weather to break and the snow to go away so its looking like a spring time purchase. So I'm gonna be running the gauntlet with 2 V8s soon haha

[Llarry]

Originally Posted by MarcoF90

Yeah I've been told I'm braver than the marines for daily driving it too! But now that I'm down to this as my only car I can throw abit more cash at it until I purchase my M5

This is your only car? Yes, you are braver than the Marines!

[IcewaterPete]

This is the most fascinating series of car mis-adventures on the whole internet!😜 If you have video of all this you could rival Sreten over on YouTube.

You’re my hero for daily driving one of the best looking sedans of all time. I’m sure it’s great to have a new OEM rear bumper cover. Keep going!

[IcewaterPete]

Originally Posted by MarcoF90

Yeah I've been told I'm braver than the marines for daily driving it too!

LEGEND!

[MarcoF90]

Originally Posted by IcewaterPete

This is the most fascinating series of car mis-adventures on the whole internet!😜 If you have video of all this you could rival Sreten over on YouTube.

You’re my hero for daily driving one of the best looking sedans of all time. I’m sure it’s great to have a new OEM rear bumper cover. Keep going!

Thank you! I have no recent videos but I got photos of most of the things I have done. I have put up about 2 YT videos on my 7 Series but everyone seemed to gravitate towards my Acura Content lol.

I actually will update this post later on today as I had to take my BMW to my indy shop for repair and got my first big repair bill. I also recently replaced my broken parking brake handle too.

[TimmyTurbos]

Godspeed my friend. You're definitely playing with fire with that one! Hahaha

[P1]

You got lucky being able to find the hit and runner and claim the rear bumper with their insurance! Did report the hit and runner to the police? Hopefully they didn't just get away with it.

[Timbo111]

I love the E38…. Reminds me of my uncles car….. it’s awesome!

[MarcoF90]

Originally Posted by P1

You got lucky being able to find the hit and runner and claim the rear bumper with their insurance! Did report the hit and runner to the police? Hopefully they didn't just get away with it.

Yeah I filed a police report and was able to get their insurance that way, and the police dealt with the driver of the car.

I was glad too, they helped pay for some of the exterior restoration so Im not mad at it lol

[MarcoF90]

So after I got my 740i from the body shop, I knew I still had to deal with the power steering leak where the fluid would just drain right out.

Took it straight to my trusted German indy to figure out what was going on.

Initial diagnosis was a failed high-pressure power steering line (pump to steering gear). Made sense. But once they started tearing into it, they found the real issue — both engine mounts were completely collapsed.

It was to the point that the engine was sitting on the steering gear and was ultimately the reason that the high-pressure steering fluid line broke.





Looked really bad and oil looks to be everywhere, which is coming from my valve cover gaskets.

I ended up having to replace Motor Mounts, Power Steering line & Power Steering pump (and serpentine belt) itself as it locked up internally and failed due to running dry between the time it was at the body shop to driving it home and then to the German Indy shop.

That trip to the shop costed me close to ~$2,000 but since I no longer have my Acura anymore, allocating funds to get major work done on my E38 wasn't a problem.

Next thing was I got around to fixing my parking brake handle that broke off a few months ago. DIY'd it ofcourse.







Took me almost two hours to do, but I got it done.

That Bowden cable was B*#%$ to take off the old handle latch and put back onto the new handle. Not to mention having to pull apart the lower dash and what not.

The space is tight, the Bowden cable has almost no slack, and I felt like I needed three hands to hold the panel, tension the cable, and latch it at the same time.

But many thanks to the BMW Forums archive for the tutorial on how to do the repair.

Next Up:
Front Suspension refresh, Valve Cover gaskets, and got to diagnose what's causing this low idle stall issue every now and then where the car will stall out at low rpms mainly when idling.

So far I am thinking Camshaft Position sensor or crankshaft position sensor. Perhaps I replace both as a safe measure.

[MarcoF90]

Finally was tired of the shaking when getting up to 60 mph and it was getting progressively worse so I went ahead and changed it all out a few weeks ago.


Everything came out easy and the new suspension parts went back in even easier!


Next is rear suspension and brakes. However I do wanna swap out the headlights for something more oem or oem-looking with amber turn signals again.





Not sure what or even why the previous owner or rather who they took it to. But in the picture with the center steering link, I was so confused as to why the stud bolt was shortened right there.



No matter as I replaced the whole center steering link.



Once the alignment was done, my 740i drives SO much smoother again! It drives smoother and more tighter than the day I bought it from the previous owner.

[John in VA]

Originally Posted by MarcoF90

Not sure what or even why the previous owner or rather who they took it to. But in the picture with the center steering link, I was so confused as to why the stud bolt was shortened right there.

Looks like the end of that bolt might have been hitting the swaybar.