1995 BMW 730I

[jyep]

Am in the market for a used car in Hong Kong and the above caught my eye, took it to a private mechanic who has the "BMW Diagnostic software", car in general is in great shape and internal electronice appear to be OK (except for the psgr side Temp readout).

Since the 3.0 engine is the "European version", can anybody tell me the specs on this Engine (ie. horsepower, torque, mpg, etc), can't seem to locate on the internet.

Any other items I should be looking for (ie. sulfur problems/engine block).

This car is sharp; interior & exterior; especially love the "deep purple" paint job.

If all goes well, can't wait to purchase (USD $10K), odometer reads 57K mileage but I don't trust as they tend to rollback the odometers here in Asia.

Spend the last 2 hours reviewing this site, what a wealth of information from current BMW owners....................Jyep

[MrM3]

Welcome jyep!

what year 730 are you looking at? if its a e32 then the 3.0L is a V8, but newer e38's could be 3L diesel (730d) or just a regular 730i with a I-6.



edit: whoops i missed the title. since your looking at a 95, it has the V8 (which has 218hp) even though its a e38 (the 730 v8's lasted from 94-96).

[jyep]

OK, 218HP, anyone can tell if what normal gas mileage for this type of engine would be.

Any known problems with this 3.0 V8 engine?

Also, took it out for a test drive yesterday and heard a strange noise:

turned on the defroster while driving to check if it was in working condition, when I shut it off, about a minute later I heard a loud whrrrrrrring noise what seemed to be coming from the top center of the dashboard. Noise would last for about 1 second, stop for approx 3-4 seconds and then come back on again. I pulled the car off to the side to listen more carefully and the noise stopped. Continued driving with no other problems.

The noise sounded like a small motor recycling, can anyone shed some light on this???

Salesman was no help, had no idea. Car manual is missing so I will be stuck learning the car functions on my own. Also 1995 BMW key has basically 2 buttons, can anyone tell me functions of these 2 buttons. I downloaded the PDF file for 1997 & series, however, some features are different on the 1995 7 series model. (ie. button towards front is for unlocking/locking door locks); can front button do any other function, what is back button for, I pressed but nothing happens.