Thinking of buying a 540i/6speed

[Jean]

I love how they look, and the m62 or m5 cars with a manual are awesome! But maint. is a bitch.

I am doing this (brothers car) next week, otherwise this is a $3-4k job at a local bmw shop.

BMW quotes $1100 to do rotors and pads on these cars.

[Alkasquawlik]

are they hard to DIY?

[blunttech]

e39 v8 = get ready to do the following if they haven't been done already

- coolant system with it's shitty radiator and valley cover gasket (pita job) $1100 job
- suspension (thrust) bushings, or you'll go through new 18" tires every 6 months
- driveshaft job is over a grand as well
- cluster pixels going out
- pretty much expensive everything lol.

ive done all this except the driveshaft and some of it more than once on my wifes e39 540 sport. it seems to be stable now but fuck this car

[Jean]

The valley cover job from what I read is not hard, just takes a long time to do as you have to drain coolant, remove the intake manifold and everything above/near it.

This thread has some pictures - http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1087940

Suspension bushing jobs is straight forward, but labor intensive. you either remove the arms and have the bushings pressed out/in or replace the complete arms ($150 each vs. $40 each bushings) as the other side of the arm has a ball joint that most likely will need to be replaced later on.

Starter job on a v8 car is a bitch as well, 400-600 job.

Basically, have some money aside for repairs...

[jahnaboi]

Buying a 540i/6speed E34 1995. I'm assuming no one has carfax for me to leech off of? =/

[e30s52]

Buying a 540i/6speed E34 1995. I'm assuming no one has carfax for me to leech off of? =/

Aw good choice my friend. The e34's are great cars. Sorry I dont have a carfax for you.

[Jean]

If you have AAA, you can purchase discounted carfax ;) That and PPI is well worth the purchase price of a car imho.

[SpecM]

I think the m60 Nickasil block was only used in the 3.0

and BMW fixed them anyway

[ILoveMPower]

I think the m60 Nickasil block was only used in the 3.0

and BMW fixed them anyway

Not true, the Nikasil issue was for all E34 V8's. A good amount of them were replaced with Alusil blocks (most under warranty) but the issue was mostly due to lower fuel grades of a few years back. Typically if the car still has good compression across all cylinders in this day and age you "shouldn't" have any issues with the Nikasil. Valley pan gasket is quite a bitch though (from what I hear). I ended up looking for an M30 car for daily drivability simply for it's ease of doing your own maintenance.

Get your E34 answers HERE: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...play.php?f=201

[bmwsone01]

Why? the e34 is a better built car then the e39.

x3