First off I guess I will say Hi to everyone out there and thanks everyone for all of the helpfull info on the site.I recently purchased a 98 740il, it was my bosses old car and was sort off passed down when he purchased an escalade. In the last couple months i realized i don't own just a car, it seems to be a money drinking mythological creature the confuses car guys on a regular basis. To get to the point when i first purchased the car i noticed in gear 4 sport mode the transmision had a very slight whine, as time went on the car started to shift irregularly but less in 4 than regular drive, over a period of about a week the shifts started becoming worse. I searched and decided the tranny fluid may be low so i purchased 1 liter of fluid from bmw they gave it to me in a silver 20l container with the correct part# on the jug. That day i took the car to the the shop that works on all of our company vehicles(they were jokingly saying the must have 80 hours in on the vehicle) we emptied the contents into the transmission following procedures, the mechaninc said it was probably more like a liter and a half of fluid almost 2 but it was still low after the fill. I left the shop and immediatly noticed much worse noise comming from the transmission, it seeemed to generaly shift a little better but at times would act up much worse than it ever had. I decided i needed more fluid asap. the next morning i picked up 2 liters of audi fluid after searchin the site and reading for a bit. We put 1 liter of fluid in which filled the transmission, this seemed to improve the shifting some but with the first mile or 2 of driving the transmission is still making the god awefull metalic while my transmission is going to explode noise and not shifting well at all if you get into the throttle. It almost makes me question what bmw actually gave me in the jug. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.


Now round 2, Since i have had the car when the headlights are on it seems to have voltage spikes, the headlights will sort of flash dim along with all the instrument lights, this seems to be worse when the brakes are applied. When i obtained the vehicle i picked it up from bmw as they had just replaced both rear light assemblies due to a nagging brake light issue, i had a perioid of about 3 weeks when i was getting a brake light warning only one time was there a light not working but it started working again the same day, that issue has apperantly resolved itself, but i wonder if its related.

Any advice on either issue would be appreciated, im gind of a do it yourselfer so the more details the better.

Thanks

I'd go back to your boss and get your money back! From experience, buying an E38 with issues like that right off the bat, only leads to worse ones down the road. You can generally find nice E38's around for cheap, and from the sounds of it, in a lot better condition. In fact, there is a nice iL up the road from me with just over 100K on the clock for $7K. Black on Black. They are out there, just gotta look for em. I have small issues with mine, and it will drive you nuts, and drive you broke trying to play keep up. I would also look for a good indy if you do decide to keep the car. If your local shop that "always works on the company vehicles" isn't able to identify the trans. problem right off the bat, then I would go searching. It is very likely that there are more serious issues than you know with the tranny. I spoke to a local shop owner not long ago, that, as weird as it sounds, kinda made sense about one of the trannys. He said not to mess with the fluid unless you are having problems, and then, once you change the fluid, expect many more. As the fluid breaks down, and the parts wear, the old fluid and debris kind of fill in the voids left by the worn down parts, ensuring that everything still runs smoothly for the "lifetime" of the car. When you flush out the tranny, removing all of those debris and fluid buildup, you are left with clean parts that don't exactly fit together as tightly. I know that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as it didn't to me at first, but after time, it kinda set in and sounded a little better. Sorry for the long tangent!

As far as the electrical system, did they replace stock tail lights with stock tail lights, or did he have something aftermarket on there before? Did you check the charging system? Most likely sounds like an alternator issue to me with the surging power. Sounds like the voltage regulator is going....

First off I guess I will say Hi to everyone out there and thanks everyone for all of the helpfull info on the site.I recently purchased a 98 740il, it was my bosses old car and was sort off passed down when he purchased an escalade. In the last couple months i realized i don't own just a car, it seems to be a money drinking mythological creature the confuses car guys on a regular basis. To get to the point when i first purchased the car i noticed in gear 4 sport mode the transmision had a very slight whine, as time went on the car started to shift irregularly but less in 4 than regular drive, over a period of about a week the shifts started becoming worse. I searched and decided the tranny fluid may be low so i purchased 1 liter of fluid from bmw they gave it to me in a silver 20l container with the correct part# on the jug. That day i took the car to the the shop that works on all of our company vehicles(they were jokingly saying the must have 80 hours in on the vehicle) we emptied the contents into the transmission following procedures, the mechaninc said it was probably more like a liter and a half of fluid almost 2 but it was still low after the fill. I left the shop and immediatly noticed much worse noise comming from the transmission, it seeemed to generaly shift a little better but at times would act up much worse than it ever had. I decided i needed more fluid asap. the next morning i picked up 2 liters of audi fluid after searchin the site and reading for a bit. We put 1 liter of fluid in which filled the transmission, this seemed to improve the shifting some but with the first mile or 2 of driving the transmission is still making the god awefull metalic while my transmission is going to explode noise and not shifting well at all if you get into the throttle. It almost makes me question what bmw actually gave me in the jug. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.


Now round 2, Since i have had the car when the headlights are on it seems to have voltage spikes, the headlights will sort of flash dim along with all the instrument lights, this seems to be worse when the brakes are applied. When i obtained the vehicle i picked it up from bmw as they had just replaced both rear light assemblies due to a nagging brake light issue, i had a perioid of about 3 weeks when i was getting a brake light warning only one time was there a light not working but it started working again the same day, that issue has apperantly resolved itself, but i wonder if its related.

Any advice on either issue would be appreciated, im gind of a do it yourselfer so the more details the better.

Thanks


Welcome to the forum!!

I had an 88 735i about 10 years ago that had the same problem with the tranny. One day w/o any warning, it went out on me and would not shift into reverse. I ended up having to replace the tranny at a cost of $3,300.00.
It sounds to me as if the tranny may be on it's way out.

As to the light probem, it sounds like it may be an issue with the mustard relay. I also had that problem with the car previously mentioned. I'm not certain if the same goes for e38's though.

For more information on your car, follow this link. www.e38.org

Good Luck!!

I am glad you are here. Members are very helpful and will definitely try to guide you in the right direction.

It may seem like you are $crewed but that may not be the case. these cars - specialy the model year you have behave erratically with electronic fluctuations. I have seen transmissions go to safe mode because battery was not providing right voltage.

Here is my very sincere advice and i believe fellow members would agree - Take it to a reputable indy or the dealership. For $65, they will actually tell you whats wrong with it.

Once you know whats wrong - and it could be worst case scenario the trans itself, at least you can shop around. $3300 is typically retail and I actually know someone who bought a tranny for his 3-series for $600 and had it put in for $350 at an indy.

point is - usually its something small in these cars that make it appear as a big problem, and once those problems are resolved, its rewarding to drive them. My MY00 has ABS/Brake/DSC light combo on which prolly means an ABS electronic module, but I enjoy it nevertheless.

Take my advice, spend the dough on diagnosis. You will be happy you did. Worst case, you will have to evaluate if its worth fixin or getting rid off.

Well thanks for the advice, its a little late to simply give the car back and i purchased it far under 7k with 126k on the clock. The company car shop is owned by a very cool guy who is good friends with the owner of the company i work for. They filled the tranny for free and found a leak near the radiator in the tranny line. I guess what im looking fore is whether or not to completly drain all fluid and replace filter or am i better off with babying the car as long as i can with the part old part new mixture. Also reseting the tranny computer by unhooking the battery helpful? no?, just looking for any type of band aid salvage macgyver type manouver for the time being.

On the upperhand i supposed the voltage surge seems to have improved for the time being.

Welcome To BimmerForums! You came to the right place for advice on just about anything BMW-related! The Staff and Members here are an amazing wealth of knowledge and just by reading through the Forums you will probably have an answer to most of your questions or concerns!

Disconnecting the battery on these cars is VERY DIFFERENT than on most others as far as procedure goes! Take it from someone who knows all to well. Before you disconnect the battery... open the trunk (and/or battery location) and the panel on the left side of the trunk compartment where the Navigation computer/cd changer (*if applicable) is located. You'll see a little light flashing on the Nav computer. You MUST wait to disconnect the battery until the car has entered "Sleep Mode" where-as all items have completely shut down-usually 15 minutes or so but a half hour (from the time you shut the engine down and took the key out) isn't a bad idea just to make sure. Leave any door/trunk/hood open for this time period because if you open either again after waiting... the car wakes up and you'll have to wait again!

Might sound silly.... but these cars are especially sensative to this and not doing so can (and usually does!) cause irepairable or permanent damage to electrical items. Always Negative first off-last on, of course. You can perform a "Reset" by taking both battery cables (after waiting the time period and taking them off as directed) and holding the terminal ends together for about 20 seconds. Obviously.. make sure they are both off the battery first and aren't touching the battery terminal posts when doing so.

Trust Me.. You'll be glad you did it like this. I won't reiterate the good advice already given about your tranny... just say Welcome, again, and keep us posted on how you make out. Remember.. stupidity is proven by NOT asking the question.. not by what the question is (Usually)!

:cool