Acquired My Very First BMW - 1998 E38 740i - BMW X5, X5M, X6 & X6M Forum (G05/G06)

10-09-2024

Last week I purchased my first BMW a decently maintained 1998 E38 740i in Schwarz Black over Tan Interior.

Only has just over 160k miles on it.

According to the previous owner who was an older gentleman who likes vintage BMWs, Interior is in a pretty good condition despite some minor interior issues. It even has the First Aid in the back seat still intact.

This was what he did during his ownership:

Maintenance
- Changed Power Steering Fluid
- Put on New Michelin Tires (Tread life is very good)
- Replaced the O2 sensors (Apparently not OEM)
- New Battery (From Die Hard)
- Catalytic Converter Replaced
- Timing Chain Guides and Belts replaced 55k miles ago
- Front struts replaced 5 years into his ownership
- Rear Shocks replaced

Add-Ons/Upgrades
- Had a Viper Alarm System Installed (He had this car since 2015 as I know Viper is kinda like a mid 2000s to early 2010s thing haha)
- Pioneer Audio System with Infotainment and Subwoofer (however it looks very mid 2010s)
-Backup Camera installed with the Pioneer System

So far I like driving it and it is pretty smooth once it gets going plus its a comfortable cruiser! :dance:

However, it still has some issues that I need to address mechanically and cosmetically. They are listed as follows.

Mechanical Issues to Address/Fixes

- 2 days after buying the car, it began bellowing alot of white smoke through the exhaust system on idle and start up .
(Found out this was the PCV Valve so I went ahead and replaced that which resolved this problem.)

- ABS Light is on previous owner stated that a sensor having to do with the ABS needs to be replaced.

- Check Engine Light is on ( I am going to have this diagnosed today on my Mechanic friend's scan tool. However from the past few days of driving it I have experienced some rough idling and shuddering intermittently while driving. Sometimes the car will stall from a cold start. From my research those appear to be symptoms of the Camshaft Position Sensor going bad thus the main or one of the reasons the Check Engine Light is on.)

- Air Intake Boot Hose is cracked and some outside air is able to escape in. (I have a new one ordered that should be delivered today. This might also fix issues I stated in the point above.)

So far I have replaced the PCV Valve and did a full oil and filter change on the 740i this past weekend and next up is replacing the Intake Boot Hose today.

Cosmetic Issues to Address/Fixes

-Headlights fogged up (I went ahead and got a kit to restore the headlights and was able to restore them to a near new-condition)

- One of the bulbs in the driver side headlight is out. (I plan on either replacing the bulb or swapping in new headlights entirely)

- Left side grille insert is cracked (I plan on replacing the entire grille and chrome surround for it)

- Cupholder in center dash is completely in-operable (not sure what I will do about this yet lol)

- Upper Body of the car on the sides could us a paint buff.

- Glove compartment latch is broken (Previous owner went ahead and had the latch pulled off and had the Glovebox literally nailed shut lmao) I might replace this but it'll be one of the last things I do haha

Any suggestions or helpful advice as I embark on this journey of E38 Ownership?

P.S. I still intend to live up to my username as I still desire to have a modern M5 (or M3)

10-09-2024

I love those shorty E38s. Congratulations. Have fun with it.

10-09-2024

This car always generates smiles among those who appreciate E38. Looking forward to updates!

10-16-2024

Many congrats on the purchase.

10-17-2024

Update

So after replacing the air intake hose, I had a weird shaking when under 2k rpm in D, R and sometimes in P at idle. Check Engine Light had came back on. Me and my buddy ran OBD Scanner and checked the codes, come to find out Cylinder 2 was misfiring and causing the other Cylinders to misfire I think.

Upon further inspection, cylinder 2 wasn't firing at all apparently, thus was causing that rough engine shake issue and also the loss of power I had experienced driving it the past few days. Seemed like the engine was in limp mode.

Changed the Spark Plug as we thought it was the spark plug at first but Cylinder 2 still wasn't firing. Swapped the ignition coil with another cylinder's coil and there lie the issue. Cylinder 2's ignition coil went bad and we went ahead and replaced the coil. Replacing the coil got Cylinder 2 up and going with no issue and power was restored to what feels like full power, V8 sounds nice aggressive again. Cleared the CEL and will monitor now, if it comes back on check for codes, investigate and repair based on codes.

Rinse and Repeat haha

Driver Side Hydraulic Trunk Strut broke on me last week so I ordered a replacement part and got that installed within 5 minutes! Easy fix! See photo below

Next Up

So my next thing to do is replace the center console armrest with the black container as the telephone holder currently in place serves me no purpose. Been looking for a guide to do that. Will try to tackle this task this upcoming weekend.

10-17-2024

MarcoF90 wrote

Any suggestions or helpful advice as I embark on this journey of E38 Ownership?

Cooling system overhaul including water pump. Congrats on the car, good luck with it.

10-17-2024

Chihuahua wrote
Cooling system overhaul including water pump. Congrats on the car, good luck with it.

You got an idea of how much that might run me price-wise parts and labor? :lol:

10-18-2024

MarcoF90 wrote
You got an idea of how much that might run me price-wise parts and labor?

Labor is free my friend! It's not hard, E38s are very DIY friendly. If you can change the oil on it, you can tackle this. Radiator, expansion tank, water pump, thermostat, all hoses. Get parts from places like FCP Euro, Pelican, etc. I worked for an indy many years ago, other than the normal service parts most E38s we saw came in for cooling system failures, valve cover gasket leaks, and misfires due to bad ignition coils. Good luck.

10-18-2024

Chihuahua wrote
Labor is free my friend! It's not hard, E38s are very DIY friendly. If you can change the oil on it, you can tackle this. Radiator, expansion tank, water pump, thermostat, all hoses. Get parts from places like FCP Euro, Pelican, etc. I worked for an indy many years ago, other than the normal service parts most E38s we saw came in for cooling system failures, valve cover gasket leaks, and misfires due to bad ignition coils. Good luck.

Funny you say that I just replaced a bad ignition coil! Thank you for the advice and info! I knew about FCP Euro and order from them just about weekly so far. Didn't know about Pelican. Also will check out the cooling system this weekend.

I am also apart of a local BMW Club so they are also presenting as a good resource for assistance too

10-18-2024

MarcoF90 wrote
Funny you say that I just replaced a bad ignition coil! Thank you for the advice and info! I knew about FCP Euro and order from them just about weekly so far. Didn't know about Pelican. Also will check out the cooling system this weekend.

I am also apart of a local BMW Club so they are also presenting as a good resource for assistance too

Not surprised, we did a lot of ignition coils on M62s an M5X engines. That was the first place I looked if one of those cars came in with misfire codes. Between your local BMW chapter and forums there isn't anything on that car you can't do yourself, all of the know-how is out there. Best of luck with it.

10-18-2024

18" M-Parallel wheels should be on your list.

10-18-2024

Wolf 335 wrote
18" M-Parallel wheels should be on your list.

I wanted these (still do kinda) and then I saw the E38 Alpina B12's wheels and fell in love :love:

03-26-2025

Alright got some updates for my "Heavy 7"

These particular fixes/replacements happened late last year, early this year in January

Transmission

- Something told me to get the transfluid checked and flush.. I turned out to be right the trans fluid looked quite bad, so I did the first stage of flushing the fluid with fresh fluid. (Btw does anyone know why BMW didn't put a trans fluid filler cap at the top of the engine bay? the whole pumping thing was confusing for my first time but I got it done and figured out.)

- Transmission feels much better and shifts better from what I've experienced since driving with the fluid flushed partially, the final stage of flushing the fluid will happen this spring

SUPRISE - Passenger Window Stuck Halfway Down!

- So I had a friend riding in the car with me one day late last year and they decided to roll the window down to get some food that was brought out to the car at this restaurant, and lucky me he rolls the window back up and it only goes halfway up and does not move any further. Quickly searched up a passenger side regulator and ordered one for $40 to replace it.

- Enlisted my trusty BMW Friend/Mechanic to help me with this one, took a good 2 hours or so but we got it done!

- If you take a look at the photos below you can see the old regulator, the motor was fine, but the cable was brittle and got mangled causing the window to be stuck in place.

Speedometer dead! - Wheel Speed Sensors

- I was meaning to get around to doing my wheel speed sensors on all 4 corners, as my ASC and ABS light was on since buying the car. But my 740 forced me to when the speedometer died on indefinitely. (which also freezes the mileage on the odo from what I found out.)

- I had the wheel speed sensors sitting around since early November, just didn't have the time to sit and do them with all the holidays and family gatherings happening on top of work and such.

- So I went ahead and swapped out the sensors today when the speedometer needle just fell yesterday evening and would not spring back to life. It was pretty easy to do myself with the help of taking the wheels off to do it it also cleared my ASC and ABS light as well

These are the factory OEM Sensors and they look DESTROYED I am surprised the wheel speed sensors worked for so long seems like they was NEVER changed

The new sensors went on just fine and all 4 were replaced

While I was at it I went ahead and did my best to clean off all the calipers they pretty much was consumed with brake dust & looked like they were never clean since leaving the showroom floor new.

I will need to have it water blasted to get the rest of the brake dust off of there, but to be honest its nearly impossible to keep them clean with the 'Style 5' wheels on the car.

03-26-2025

Chihuahua wrote
Cooling system overhaul including water pump. Congrats on the car, good luck with it.

Funnily enough the water pump failed earlier this year haha

Coolant system failed on me with little warning one night in February I had to pull off in a random hotel parking lot and get towed home so that I don't overheat the engine.

Smoke bellowed from the engine bay smelled like straight coolant.

Come to find out my water pump failed and the coolant expansion tank had a bad leak on top of the expansion tank cap no longer sealing the cap effectively

So I geared up, placed my order on FCP Euro and ordered new coolant tank, cap, and water pump. Had my trusty mechanic friend come help me with this. Because as @Chihuahua said "Labor is free!" Save for a meal and $100 to my mechanic for driving out to me lol

Recently I had another cylinder misfire caused by another ignition coil that failed. Replaced that with a new coil. You guys probably will tell me to go ahead and replace all the coils so I will go ahead and replace the rest in the next month or so.

Out with the old and in with the new! The fun part about this was finding which one as I didn’t have a OBD scanner on me and NOT losing my 10mm in the engine bay lol

My next big project for my "Sporty Shorty" is to refresh the front suspension I had taken it to an indy shop and upon inspection they stated they could not do an alignment on the car cause the suspension parts on it was too old. Now that I think about it I suppose I should just refresh the front and rear suspension at the same time.

What do you guys here recommend for refresh parts? I am thinking to go and order everything from FCP Euro but if there is a place where I can go to get similar or really better quality refresh suspension parts I will explore that option.

I really can't wait to get the mechanical stuff out the way so I can focus on the cosmetic restoration of the car

03-26-2025

Nice work bringing your car up to snuff. I too just (almost) got my first BMW. I got a new one (ordered it). Should be in my garage in two or three weeks.

03-27-2025

BWBike wrote
Nice work bringing your car up to snuff. I too just (almost) got my first BMW. I got a new one (ordered it). Should be in my garage in two or three weeks.

Awesome congrats in advance! I am looking to swap my weekend car out with a BMW so I can have an all BMW garage haha. Just waiting on the right deal for a Red M5 (hence the username haha)

03-27-2025

Congratulations on your E38. My first BMW was an E38 740i as well, although slightly newer, I remember having some of these same issues. As others have pointed out - very DIY friendly cars, though I would add that they can be a handful at times as well. Especially when electronics start acting up.

I see someone's already replaced the stock "infotainment" cluster in yours - mind sharing what's there now? I did a swap in mine as well although it was for another BMW system, but from the photo, yours looks aftermarket.

03-27-2025

W2k wrote
Congratulations on your E38. My first BMW was an E38 740i as well, although slightly newer, I remember having some of these same issues. As others have pointed out - very DIY friendly cars, though I would add that they can be a handful at times as well. Especially when electronics start acting up.

I see someone's already replaced the stock "infotainment" cluster in yours - mind sharing what's there now? I did a swap in mine as well although it was for another BMW system, but from the photo, yours looks aftermarket.

Thank you!!

Its funny you mentioned the infotainment! I am currently looking for some OEM infotainment frame pieces for my E38.

The previous owner replaced the OEM non-factory navi system with this pioneer audio system with the pioneer infotainment system. Its quite dated iirc the previous owner installed it in like 2014-2015

I am looking to replace the "tacky" infotainment with a more OEM+ one from Avin USA (https://avinusa.com/avant-4-multimedia-navigation-system-for-bmw-7-series-e38.html)

However I need to get the (51168175064) Instrument.Panel On Board Monitor frame piece and I cannot find it anywhere for a decent price that isn't $150+

Without that piece I can't install the Avin USA infotainment on my E38. Previous owner probably doesn't have the factory infotainment pieces I imagine as I do still keep in contact with them but I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.

04-18-2025

MarcoF90 wrote
Funnily enough the water pump failed earlier this year haha

Coolant system failed on me with little warning one night in February I had to pull off in a random hotel parking lot and get towed home so that I don't overheat the engine.

Smoke bellowed from the engine bay smelled like straight coolant.

Come to find out my water pump failed and the coolant expansion tank had a bad leak on top of the expansion tank cap no longer sealing the cap effectively

So I geared up, placed my order on FCP Euro and ordered new coolant tank, cap, and water pump. Had my trusty mechanic friend come help me with this. Because as @Chihuahua said "Labor is free!" Save for a meal and $100 to my mechanic for driving out to me lol

Recently I had another cylinder misfire caused by another ignition coil that failed. Replaced that with a new coil. You guys probably will tell me to go ahead and replace all the coils so I will go ahead and replace the rest in the next month or so.

Out with the old and in with the new! The fun part about this was finding which one as I didn’t have a OBD scanner on me and NOT losing my 10mm in the engine bay lol

My next big project for my "Sporty Shorty" is to refresh the front suspension I had taken it to an indy shop and upon inspection they stated they could not do an alignment on the car cause the suspension parts on it was too old. Now that I think about it I suppose I should just refresh the front and rear suspension at the same time.

What do you guys here recommend for refresh parts? I am thinking to go and order everything from FCP Euro but if there is a place where I can go to get similar or really better quality refresh suspension parts I will explore that option.

I really can't wait to get the mechanical stuff out the way so I can focus on the cosmetic restoration of the car

Rockauto.com

05-16-2025

AmuroRay wrote
Rockauto.com

This past month I have learned that RockAuto pretty much has the best price overall beating out even FCP Euro.

So as of recently I pretty much overhauled my entire coolant system now.

New Radiator and Thermostat

The Radiator had a blown tank on the inside and it was causing the whole system to lose pressure and cause the coolant to get hot thus steaming out the radiator.

I also replaced my hood struts since they also failed that was the easy part lol

Next up I finally can move on to suspension refresh and brakes

Front Suspension refresh is gonna run me about ~$650 in parts alone. not bad at all.

I got a "check brake linings" message in the dash so seems like the front pads have hit the wear sensor.

I have new rotors and pads ready to install just waiting to get with my mechanic and get them installed on within the next few days.

Do I need to replace the wear sensor too? or rather is it worth replacing the wear sensor? I can get one from FCP or Rock Auto for pennies just need to order it.

05-16-2025

Looking at the age of the car I would replace the sensor wire.

02-12-2026

Update 02/2026
It has been a long while and I got some updates for my E38 and my current car collection in general.

So I left off here basically overhauling the coolant system and squaring that away.

Next thing I got done was I got the new front pads and rotors installed onto the car:
An image attached to this post, provided by the poster

An image attached to this post, provided by the poster

I also had issues with the weather stripping around the windshield failing so I went ahead and replaced that and will be replacing the weatherstripping around the rest of the car soon.

An image attached to this post, provided by the poster

Lastly, I had an incident occur where someone hit the car in the back passenger side corner of the rear bumper and fled the scene while it was parked, and unattended in a parking garage. I was able to get footage from parking garage camera and information from a witness and file an insurance claim with the hit & runner's insurance.

An image attached to this post, provided by the poster

I was nervous that given the age and mileage of the car that it might be totaled out but to my surprise after the body shop gave a nearly $2000 estimate to fix, insurance went ahead with paying for the repairs to the car.

The body shop also gave me another surprise as they told me they were able to order a brand new OEM rear bumper for the car..... didn't know BMW still made OEM bumpers for E38s.

An image attached to this post, provided by the poster

Next up I need to address a Power Steering leak that I have pin pointed to the driver side suspension area. I replaced the low pressure hoses and the issue was still present.

Basically when I pour power steering into the reservoir it will go through the system for half a minute or so and then leak right out under the driver side suspension area.

So with no formal diagnosis I can presume that the high-pressure lines failed or rusted out and needs to be replaced. Would appreciate any insight from any other member here who has experienced this issue before.

Also I have mostly all of my suspension refresh parts in-hand so perhaps I can get this fixed and the suspension refreshed all in one go and save on the labor since the issue is in the front suspension area.

I guess as an overall update, the E38 is now my only car, in December of last year my Acura was stolen right from out front of my residence and eventually was a total theft loss.

Some of you probably would say I shouldn't daily an E38 but it'll be my daily car atleast for the next few months as I am taking my small insurance payout and spending a portion of it to get my E38 mechanically right (well the remaining things i need to do) and the rest will go towards getting an F90 M5... I came to like the idea of that combo F90 and a E38.

Maybe I am crazy for wanting to own 2 BMW V8s but they'll photograph nicely together right? haha.

Garage

1 Series

2 Series

3/4 Series

5 Series

6/M6 Series

7 Series

8/M8 Series

M2

M3/M4

M5

X1/X2

X3/X4

X5/X6

X7/XM

Z4

BMWi

Acquired My Very First BMW - 1998 E38 740i

Acquired My Very First BMW - 1998 E38 740i