new to BMW

[2fast]

Hi guys and gals Im new the world of BMW and poor :( but I was thinking of getting a BMW 535iase 260,000Km I know the k's are high. For $3000 US
I took it to my mec and he says its in reasonable con for its age.

Thats all I know about the car it drives smooth,and I want it :D

What kind of problem would a car of this age and k's come across?

Love the site I only found it the other day and have done so much reading my eyes are popping out!

I've got the bimmer bug now.

thanks for reading Bob

[2fast]

Sorry it's a 1989

[2fast]

and a 3.5L as you can tell I'm new at this forum stuff as well

[crashnburn80]

Go to www.bmwe34.net and look under troubleshooting->what will break. It will give you a list of stuff to watch for, your car won't need all of the things but I am sure it will need a few.

[2fast]

Thankyou for your help ,I will check it out :)

[Dan in NZ]

Hey, good to see another New Zealander on the forum... Hope to see you at the bmw car club track day, at Ruapuna. Shouldn't be too far away, I think it was around easter last year. At that mileage you should probably get the transmission flushed, just to be sure it's been done, for peace of mind. I had my transmission flushed last year at Cooke Howlison BMW Dunedin, and it cost around $200.

[2fast]

Hi Dan

Thanks I want to get all the fluids changed starting with the tran's first.
One thing at a time $200 sounds like alot I will shop around see what deal I can get,I'm used to driving manual's.
But I'm getting the hang of it.

There's a button that has E,S and M on it I know what E,S means but what does M stand for??
Cheer's

[Paul in NZ]

any auto transmission place should be able to flush your trans,,,,I dont want to rain on your parade but 200 bucks aint much to spend on ANY car......welcome,,UK Jap or NZ new????the news aint good for me either way :(

[Dan in NZ]

Yeah, prices for trans flushes are all pretty much the same where ever you go. At least you know a dealer has the lest chance of ****ing it up, and you have recourse if they do.

[2fast]

NZ new

Have you guy done an auto flush yourself's??

[Paul in NZ]

no need mine is a 5 spd.....

[2fast]

Lucky
I think I would have more fun in a manual ;)

[2fast]

Oh by the way do you know what the button near the auto shifter mean's
it has E(economy) S(sports) and M what does the M button do??
Not much happends when I push it the car feels like **** when I tryed it out
only once.

[Dan in NZ]

M is for manual shifting. Put it in M, then used the gearstick to select 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (D). It felt like **** when you tried it because I'm guesssing it was in D, so you were taking off in 4th gear...

If you change your own transmission fluid, you can only change what is in the pan - a fraction of the total fluid volume, as the rest is trapped in the torque converter etc. A good mechanic will have a machine that hooks up to the cooler lines at the transmission, then pump new fluid in until all of the old fluid has been pushed out. A good mechanic will also be able to give you a rough idea of the overall condition of your transmission.

Brake fluid is another good thing to change, if you don't know when it was last done.

[2fast]

Thanks ,I put it in 3rd when I drove it up hill on the way to akaroa.
But I still had it in E mode what's the diff if it's in M mode?

When I change down to go up a steep hill should I put it in M mode?

Yer I think I will get the tran's flush done by BMW to be on the safe side.

[Dan in NZ]

3 + E means Economy program, only using the first 3 gears. 3 + M will use 3rd gear only, no matter what. Use M if you want to shift like a manual, it's actually pretty useless. For going up a hill, if you want to hold it in 3rd gear, I would just pull the shifter back a notch into 3rd like you did. Or just use Sport and make a day of it ;-).

Have you discovered the kickdown switch yet??? Floor it, then push harder, it takes more effort than normally pushing the accelerator, and will drop the transmission into the lowest gear possible. If you're going less than 80kph and floor it, it will kick down to second gear and hold that until the redline at about 115kph. Trust me, you'll FLY!

[Javier]

surfaces (like ice) as you can select a low torque starting 2nd o 3rd for example. M will not allow 4th gear so in M mode 3 and D are same. I do use M 2 when in heavy traffic, in convenient flat roads, I feel less stress keeping 2nd, than taking off, shifting into 2nd and braking to stop, in short runs. May be some expert can confirm my believe that it is better this way.

Javier

[2fast]

Thank's for the info guy's and yes I have found the kickdown :D
I don't do It too often as I'm scare I my blown some thing as It's done 260.000 KM

I did a speed test with a mate who is quite fat 110KG running on 91
0-100km in 8 sec.
I have changed to 96 gas but have not done the speed test yet, I'm sure I'll beat it.
That timer in the car came in handy!!