1998 Dinan 7 Questions

[blaster3500]

My brother has a friend that works at a local car dealership and they just got a 1998 Dinan 7 on a trade in. It is in great shape but has 190,000 miles on it. What are the differences between the Dinan 7 and the 740i? Also in good shape with that kind of mileage how much is the car worth? My brother is interested but not sure how much they are worth. Thanks guys

[Auraraptor]

The question is how much Dinan did they add to it? Just some chips or the whole 9 yards from suspension to supercharger.

[plik]

The question is how much Dinan did they add to it? Just some chips or the whole 9 yards from suspension to supercharger.

+1

There's not actually a "Dinan" model, so they could have just stuck a Dinan logo on the back.

But if it is all-Dinanned out, then I'd say $18,000 - $22,000. The supercharger alone cost like $5,000.

Mileage is a non-issue.

[steve0suprem0]

there shouuld be a dinan plaque. can't remember if it'd be under the hood or in the door sill. check that, then the dinancars.com site.

[blaster3500]

Its not the fully decked out and supercharged however i do know it has the intake, larger air flow meter, engine chip, and i do believe it has a Dinan transmission in it. The Dinan plates are located in the door jams.

[blaster3500]

ok, im not positive, i will check the plaque tomorrow but i do believe it is the S-740 package

[Gatsby740il]

If it's a genuine Dinan build, the plate/plaque will also have individual serial numbers on them too (from Dinan).. if you find that you can call Dinan and make sure the vehicle they have on record is the same!


Good Luck! :cool

[JLe38]

Its not the fully decked out and supercharged however i do know it has the intake, larger air flow meter, engine chip, and i do believe it has a Dinan transmission in it. The Dinan plates are located in the door jams.

Dinan had higher points requirement up till around 2002 or 2003 before they would issue a Dinan 7 badge. They lowered the requirement later on so less mods would have been needed to receive a Dinan 7 badge. Here is a prestine example of a '98 740iL Dinan 7, Immaculate's ride (http://7er.aaronliao.com/). He used to post frequently till couple of years ago, still does occasionally.

My first E38 was a '97 with Dinan Stage 4 engine mods, I did those in 2001. The mods included the CAI, the High Flow Air Mass Meter and the accompanying Stage 4 Engine software. The throttle body and Intake Manifold was/is not available for '96 ~ '98 740's. I also had Dinan 3.15 Open Differential & Remus exhaust and the Stage 4/5 Transmission Chip, your '98 would be software download, my manufacture date barely missed the cutoff. How much is the car is worth in resale with those Dinan mods..... one can recoup 1/2 the mod value when E38 was still in production and up till 2002, I kept a close eye on the resale market then. After that, Dinan mod owners were/are usually better off selling the car and the mods seperately if he has the DIY skills to remove the Dinan parts. But Dinan required core exchanged or there is a extra fee, so most did not keep their original parts then. The car pulled stronger than non-mod '96 ~ '98 in S4 on highway driving. The 3.15 open diff gave it a bit more low/mid end.

I did those mods in stages, same with my current '01 740i Sport which had Dinan Stage 5 engine mods and other goodies before I opted for other mods (S/C & LSD). Doing the mods in stages help to tell the difference each mod brings. They were subtle individually, together they were nice. More noticeable when I switch to drive family's 2000 stock 740iL and DFW7 (http://dfw7.wordpress.com/) members rides. Check out this DFW7 meet (http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7252967), you can see an Imola Red Dinan 7 with stage 5 engine mods that belongs to one of our members, he has Dinan stickers in couple of places inside the engine bay. The other pic of the engine bay with the Strong Strut is mine before I removed the Dinan parts, I purchased my parts from different online Dinan dealers and only had the software downloaded at local BMW/Dinan dealer in 2003, no Dinan stickers on my engine bay. As you can see, though that is a Stage 5, there is no supercharger in the engine bay. If there is one, you can spot the supercharger right away in the front passenger side of the engine bay, see Dinan's own info here (http://www.dinancars.com/store/product.php?productid=183&cat=443&page=1).

If it is in good shape, my guess is a 190,000 miles '98 740i shouldn't cost you more than $8,000, not considering other factors such as credit scores, finance/cash or whatever else. Even with the Dinan mods, regardless of how expensive the they were when freshly installed. There are a lot of lower mileage '98 740i asking for less on Autotrader and been sold for less on ebay (do a search of Completed Items).

Good luck!

JL

Note:

I found couple of old pics of my '97 740i, if it has the Dinan Stage 4 engine mod (CAI & Air Mass Meter), you can see it with the two Dinan Decals, one on each of the Dinan parts. My CAI is carbon fiber, Dinan discontinued their CF CAI line for E38 a while back, but they also came in plastic ones.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k109/screenlin/97Dinan1.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k109/screenlin/97Dinan2.jpg

[Gatsby740il]

Too Bad they Disc. the CF CAI.. I'd order it up!

Looks good on your motor, JL! I'd like to see that beast in person sometime... VERY Nice Job with it!


-Gatsby :cool

[m5james]

They discontinued it because, regardless of how much they charged for it, it was poorly made and delaminated over time. There are many threads of people trying to get them warrantied to no avail.

[m5james]

+1

There's not actually a "Dinan" model, so they could have just stuck a Dinan logo on the back.

But if it is all-Dinanned out, then I'd say $18,000 - $22,000. The supercharger alone cost like $5,000.

Mileage is a non-issue.

$$Dinan$$'s S/C kit is like 15k, not 5k. The closest you can even touch a better priced s/c is VF's 6k kit, which as we know, is all physically the same parts anyways.

[Alan]

The Dinan supercharger for E38s is $10K for 97-98 and $12K for 99-01.

On my car I have the trans software, cold air intake (plastic) and stage 2 engine software as well as the suspension kit. I also have an Eisenmann exhaust. The car will never qualify as a S or S1 since I don't have the Dinan exhaust. I would love to do the high flow throttle body and air mass housing but $1000 bucks for the air mass housing is just crazy.

As for what the car is worth, ask youself if you are set on the Dinan mods and they pay what they are worth to you over what a stock car would cost. I bought my car this way simply because the previous owner (a friend of mine) did all the mods I would have wanted to do. While I paid a significant premium for the car, I think I still saved in the long run.

[seven11]

u can get a whole car for 10k - 12k

[m5james]

Exactly, so instead of going w/ $$Dinan$$ for what can be had for almost half the price makes more sense to me. A set of nice rims and a stereo system can put you past the price of these cars nowadays, kinda sad really. I've already rebuild my motor and diff, so the only reason why i'm keeping this car now and putting any money into it is because technically everything that keeps it on the road is brand new now, so I might as well enjoy it for another 10yrs.

[JLe38]

They discontinued it because, regardless of how much they charged for it, it was poorly made and delaminated over time. There are many threads of people trying to get them warrantied to no avail.

I guess I am the lucky one or that the CAI placement on E38 does not cause the problem like other BMW models? My '97 E38, still in the family, has the Dinan CF CAI for 70K miles, still looks the same as day one. My '01's Dinan CF CAI look brand new after quick clean when I removed it after 30K miles or use.


Exactly, so instead of going w/ $$$ for what can be had for almost half the price makes more sense to me. A set of nice rims and a stereo system can put you past the price of these cars nowadays, kinda sad really. I've already rebuild my motor and diff, so the only reason why i'm keeping this car now....

Agreed, I don't see many good reason to go with Dinan mods on E38 nowadays given its current resale value. Back when I did Dinan mods, used E38 under warranty were worth anywhere from mid $30K ~ $60K so the mod $ ratio made sense, and VF E38 kit was no where near in sight. Only game in town in US was Dinan or go with ESS, which had a "remote" setup here. I went with VF & LSD this year because I enjoy my E38 and see no reason to sell.

[m5james]

Still an awesome lookin and modded car you got Jle....with as much crap as i've done to my car, i'm still followin guys like you in the mods arena....slow down and let the fat kid catch up ;)