I'm looking at 97-98 540i with 6 speed. Most of them that I'm interested in (good price) have anywhere from 85-100k miles which is fine with me but I was wondering what kind of problems can I expect with the engine or what maintenance needs/should have been done.

A few things DO go wrong on these cars

1 - radiator is know to fail somewhere between 50-75k miles


check out www.bmwtips.com and www.e38.org

the e38.org is for the 7 series... but we share much of the same components, motor, etc

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=207690&highlight=official

Thanks guys.