That just narrowed down my 740 search to pre 02. My wife had been wanting one thinking it would be a good family sedan kid hall-er and the price drop on them after 5 years is just astounding. Looks like we are going for the older (and even less expensive) 
740 now
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May 12, 2011 8:03 a.m. dean1484 SuperDork
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May 12, 2011 8:18 a.m. pigeon Dork
In reply to dean1484:
I'd definitely stay away from the '02-'05 745. The motors have a known issue with a leaking coolant crossover pipe that runs through the valley in the block that is very expensive to fix. I'd be wary of transmission problems in E38 740s but other than that they are very well sorted cars. Check with Chris V. here - he loves his.
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May 12, 2011 9:51 a.m. Keith SuperDork
pigeon wrote:
Keith, as I implied earlier INPA is the BMW diagnostics computer, and with an appropriate cable it will read all your computer modules and tell you which ones don't respond. It's very powerful and can do virtually everything the dealer's computer can do. It can be a pain to set up initially on a laptop but once set up it will be your best friend for diagnosis. Which reminds me that I really need to set it up on a newer laptop for my E66. There's an entire diagnostic software section on Bimmerforums, prepare to spend some time learning.
Silly me, I bought the Peake tools that seem to be popularly recommended. The SRS one has proven to be basically useless. I'll look into this INPA setup. It will interrogate the SRS system, correct?
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May 12, 2011 12:33 p.m. pigeon Dork
Keith wrote:
pigeon wrote:
Keith, as I implied earlier INPA is the BMW diagnostics computer, and with an appropriate cable it will read all your computer modules and tell you which ones don't respond. It's very powerful and can do virtually everything the dealer's computer can do. It can be a pain to set up initially on a laptop but once set up it will be your best friend for diagnosis. Which reminds me that I really need to set it up on a newer laptop for my E66. There's an entire diagnostic software section on Bimmerforums, prepare to spend some time learning.
Silly me, I bought the Peake tools that seem to be popularly recommended. The SRS one has proven to be basically useless. I'll look into this INPA setup. It will interrogate the SRS system, correct?
I had the Peake tool, which was useful for identifying a failing belt pretensioner on my old E46 and turning off the fault code periodically when it would light the lamp. But the widely available BMW computer diagnostics out there now are like moving from the Link computer to megasquirt.
INPA will interrogate every computer on the car - it's an interface to the factory level diagnostics. Do some research (bimmerforums has an entire forum dedicated to this kind of stuff) then buy the correct cable, do the modifications needed to the cable, download the software and get your laptop set up, then have at it. Moving to more complicated stuff, NCS Expert will allow you to code the car, and PASoft will allow you to do even higher level coding, so once you get the correct compute isolated and replaced you can code it to the car if needed. That's not even getting into doing fun stuff like changing the Vehicle Order information to enable euro-only stuff like remote power trunk closure (US E65/66 will only open with the remote) and killing the lawyer nag screen on the navigation. You can also use DIS which is the dealer level program, not as powerful but harder to release the magic smoke from the expensive computers with it. The learning curve is steep but the payoff is worth it in no longer having to rely on the dealer for diagnosis and coding. One of these days I'll start climbing that curve; right now I only know enough to be dangerous
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May 12, 2011 12:36 p.m. tuna55 SuperDork
There is a fault for a belt tensioner?
I'll never buy one of these things.
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May 12, 2011 12:46 p.m. stuart in mn SuperDork
pigeon wrote: The following late-model vehicles require battery registration: · 2002 and newer 7-Series E65/E66 chassis · 2003 and newer 6-Series E54/E63 chassis · 2004 and newer 5-Series E60/E61 chassis · 2006 and newer 3-Series E90/E91/E92/E93 chassis · 2007 and newer X5 E70 chassis · 2008 and newer X6 E71 chassis
This month's Roundel magazine covered this issue in the tech help section. Apparently what happens is the car's charging system 'learns' the state of the old battery, and charges it harder as it ages. Then, when a new battery is installed the charging system keeps charging at that higher rate which can overcharge the new battery.
I'm always a little suspicious of cars that are smarter than I am.
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May 12, 2011 1:01 p.m. tuna55 SuperDork
stuart in mn wrote:
pigeon wrote: The following late-model vehicles require battery registration: · 2002 and newer 7-Series E65/E66 chassis · 2003 and newer 6-Series E54/E63 chassis · 2004 and newer 5-Series E60/E61 chassis · 2006 and newer 3-Series E90/E91/E92/E93 chassis · 2007 and newer X5 E70 chassis · 2008 and newer X6 E71 chassis
This month's Roundel magazine covered this issue in the tech help section. Apparently what happens is the car's charging system 'learns' the state of the old battery, and charges it harder as it ages. Then, when a new battery is installed the charging system keeps charging at that higher rate which can overcharge the new battery.
I'm always a little suspicious of cars that think they are smarter than I am and are thus nearly impossible to work on.
Fixed that for you
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May 12, 2011 1:10 p.m. Keith SuperDork
pigeon wrote:
I had the Peake tool, which was useful for identifying a failing belt pretensioner on my old E46 and turning off the fault code periodically when it would light the lamp. But the widely available BMW computer diagnostics out there now are like moving from the Link computer to megasquirt.
Based on your description, I'll modify that to say it's like moving from the Link computer to a Hydra
Guess I'll have to start on the learning curve, although I'm getting tired of putting money into magic tools for this car. Anyone want to buy a Peake SRS reader?
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May 12, 2011 1:21 p.m. pigeon Dork
If you have a laptop you can use the cable should be able to be had for under $20 off ebay and the software is, um, freely available to be downloaded
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May 12, 2011 3:38 p.m. Wonkothesane Reader
Just out of curiosity, can you use the INPA system work with a 99 E36 M3? I have a friend who wants to jack into his system for some diagnostic work?
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May 13, 2011 7:27 a.m. familytruckster New Reader
Toyman01 wrote:
Now I know I'll never own a BMW.
tuna55 wrote:
There is a fault for a belt tensioner?
I'll never buy one of these things.
Just don't buy one that was made this century...
I have an E36 and it's the easiest car I've ever worked on-and it's just a great car. Very well built.
I had a friend that got locked in an E46, some electrical issue....Too many computer controlled/monitored systems in the newer cars. I have a buddy that is a BMW certified mechanic and I love hearing the horror stories about all the newer cars.
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May 13, 2011 7:55 a.m. Strike_Zero HalfDork
^ This . . .
I have most of the tools to work on BMWs from late 90s and earlier.
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May 13, 2011 11:01 a.m. curtis73 Dork
E30 FTW.
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May 13, 2011 11:27 a.m. John Brown SuperDork
If you can afford a BMW, you can afford to locked inside one for a while .
Any updates Patrick?
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May 13, 2011 12:30 p.m. Wonkothesane Reader
So no one knows about INPA & 99 E36 M3s?
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May 13, 2011 12:48 p.m. pigeon Dork
It should work - look here for more info.
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May 13, 2011 9:17 p.m. Wonkothesane Reader
Whoops! I reread your post above, Pigeon, and found the link to the bimmerworld forums! Sorry I missed it. That'll teach me to skim during lunch break...
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May 13, 2011 11:28 p.m. Streetwiseguy Dork
Most automotive technicians these days will do just about anything to avoid disconnecting the battery, even changing starters and alternators, Its just too dangerous.
Policy at my shop when the battery has to be changed:
Bring car into shop, shut off, close doors, place keys on roof. Work on something else for 40 minutes. Change battery. Close hood, unlock drivers door with key, get in, close door, start car. Thank the stars if everything still works.
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May 14, 2011 8:37 a.m. dean1484 SuperDork
This may sound silly but can you attach another battery in parallel with the first one (call that battery #2) then remove the original battery and install a new one and then disconnect battery #2? This way there would be no interruption of power to the computers in the car.
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May 14, 2011 11:43 a.m. ansonivan Dork
dean1484 wrote:
can you attach another battery in parallel with the first one
I use a jump pack to accomplish this, on bmw's it's easy since they have a set of jumper terminals under the hood.
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May 19, 2011 2:30 p.m. John Brown SuperDork
Again, how did this all turn out Angry?
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May 19, 2011 3:13 p.m. AngryCorvair SuperDork
dealer tech disconnected siren, then scanned the modules and found two faults in the anti-theft module that he was unable to clear: driver's door switch and hood switch. but he could see the state of the switch on the diagnostic tool and could see them change state when opened and closed.
[my speculation] so, it appears that there is a permanent memory-write that occurs when battery power is cut and any of the apertures with anti-theft switches are in the open state. [/my speculation]
tech also said that the anti-theft system is stand-alone, and that there will be no effect to driveability, ie no lowered shift points or lowered max speed or inhibited transmission shifting etc. so we're just going to do our thing with the siren disconnected.
