Big Bangle Booty - 635D

[CornedBeef]

Its been a little while since I made a thread on here, I had a brief stint in an SL500 last summer - and then sold that and had just been smoking about in my E350 which was getting up there on the mileage. Having very fond memories of my 335D a few years ago, and having spent quite some time browsing the classifieds - I remembered the 635D was a thing! And then started looking, convinced myself that I actually quite like the looks of the LCI.

Lots of mega mileage ones out there, a few dodgy examples and then I found this one. Low mileage at 58k, and a really nice spec with some choice extras - its got the night vision camera (which is a bit useless), the heads up display and all the usual goodies. Its also got the obligatory remap and goes very nicely! The seller unfortunately lived in the ULEZ expansion zone, which was ultimately a win for me. Its also got a Viper alarm system which I've decided to leave be, as its very panic-y when enabled - one trick feature of the system is remote start via the Viper remote though which works!

So far so good, its probably no where near as exciting as a lot of the cars on here - but I've chucked 4000 miles on it in about 2 months and I absolutely love it. I want to use this thread to document how much the little bugger costs me, I've had a couple of classic M57 niggles - and a specific E63 issue so far.

First week of ownership, oh dear - wet rear footwell. No pictures of this but it transpires the scuttle panels can become clogged with leaves (which mine had) and then water pools up, and runs through a firewall grommet into the cabin. Leaves duly removed and everything dried up, and we were back in business. Second week of ownership, both of the thermostats replaced as I found that the coolant was only reaching 65 degrees on a run - again this is super common on BMWs, but its particularly problematic on these as there is no coolant gauge to alert you of the fact, and also the car won't do a DPF regen with those temperatures. Then last month, all 6 glowplugs replaced plus a new controller.

Running tally:

Thermostats - £180
Glow Plugs & Controller - £690(!)
Wet carpets - £Free

Couple of pictures, it must be my age as I used to hate light interiors but this is now a bit of me:









Forgive the mess on the interior.

Plans for the near future -

Get it on a dyno to see where the remap stands.

Service the gearbox and rear diff.

Possibly a little touch with the lowering stick, and a front lip?

[MikeM6]

Nice, these have aged so well (I would say that, wouldn't I! )

Yours looks like a great spec and colour combo.

Glad you got the scuttle cleared out ok, it's a satisfying job to sort before the water ingress though!

[CarlosSainz100]

I rang up about one of these last year at a specialist German car dealer but unfortunately it had gone, they've aged really well

[CalisenQX]

I really like this, completely agree about light interiors - they provide a much more pleasant environment.

Would consider one but the bork potential has scared me off in the past.

[S8QUATTRO]

Lovely!

I’m on 222k miles on my 2009 facelift. Absolute bargain or a car, more than powerful enough with a remap, comfy great quality cabin and does 36-38mpg on runs! Not fun in the snow!

I’ll add the link to the gearbox service kit i used was less than £170. Mine gets an oil change every 5k miles, the bits cost £60

[Court_S]

I used to hate this era 6 when they were first released, but they’ve aged really well to be fair. The interior is still a nice place to sit abs I think they feel well made (the 630 that I looked at certainly did).

Light interiors work well with dark paint but are horrible with light paint.

[CornedBeef]

Thanks for the kind words chaps, and its nice to see one kicking about at 222k! My old 335D was much the same, I ran it to 197k - it felt fine at that mileage but had a few big jobs coming up. RE build quality, it does seem solid - the interior is lovely actually, this ones got the newer CIC IDrive which looks very modern to my eyes (not sure if I'd feel the same, if I climbed in a brand new BMW and compared it mind you...). I think these don't need a huge brave pill to own (hopefully), the engine and gearbox are well proven at least - reading the forums it looks like its more likely to be death by electrical niggles if anything does happen!

[S8QUATTRO]

Enjoy it mate, i went for a 640d it it didn’t feel as solid or fun to drive so went back to the updated 635d with the newer bonnet and cic/ nav unit.

Now I’m looking to change and will need to spend a fair bit more for something as good as the 6

[RDMcG]

I bought a couple of them when they came out..a 2004 645ci followed by a 2006 M6.

I remember how much abuse I took for choosing such horrible ugly cars at the time. It was a widely held opinion.

I always liked the appearance and as others have said they have aged very well.

[cerb4.5lee]

I always remember reading the reviews of the 635d version of these and they were always so well regarded by everyone.

Yours is a very nice colour combo too.

Enjoy it.

[S8QUATTRO]

Do you mind mentioning what you bought it for?

I guess my high miler 2009 might be worth £4000-£4500 to someone when i eventually change it.

Link to the service kit
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265149420662

Link to the 6HP26 transmission service kit
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265505709555

[Waynester]

Good choice, looks well with the lighter interior and dark paint colour. I have owned my 630 as my daily runabout for 4 years now. Anyone who knows me knows that’s a long time for me!
I have come close to replacing it many times (we all know ‘the itch’) but simply couldn’t find or decide on anything that was particularly better than the 630..for it’s price.

[CornedBeef]

I gave the interior a bit of a spruce today, as I'm off work burning a bit of leave! Vacuumed, plastics cleaned with some AG Interior Cleaner spray, and leather treated.

The only let downs are the seatbelts, and the carpets in some places look a bit grubby. I'm thinking of investing in a little spotwash carpet shampooer for the carpets - not sure on what to do with the seatbelts though? Even got a lint roller on the little felt trims around the doors!



Of course, a shade under £9k is what I paid, which I think is (hopefully) not bad given the low miles on it and the condition. I reckon you'd still get £4k at the mileage if it's in good nick (any pictures of yours? How's the interior held up?)

[S8QUATTRO]

Interior is still very clean, my leather is black and there is almost no wear on the drivers seat. The rest are still spotless and in the last 50k miles have barely been sat in. I need to refurb the wheels, preferably diamond cut but the issue has been having to leave the car with them for a couple of days. Not had chance yet

[gf15]

Lovely car!
Yours has the exclusive leather, like my 2005 650 did. The pictures below are from when I sold it with 201k miles. Still drove beautifully and was an extremely reliable car for the 8 years and 160k miles I put it through. It never let me down.

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|https://thumbsnap.com/quNReUDB[/url]

Gliptone leather feed made a massive difference with the seats. Only real change I made was to the steering wheel. I had extra padding added and had it covered in a very soft nappa leather, as I found the original wheel uncomfortably hard on long drives. Royal steering wheels did this at about 50k miles.

I tried all the premium non run flat tyres and found Michelin PS4S's to be the best and the most durable.
Enjoy it!

[S8QUATTRO]

A 650i is such a cool bargain of a motor! One words that sums of this era of 6 for me is quality. All of the interior, seat, buttons, surfaces still feel like new and have hardly any wear on them even after 223k miles

[CornedBeef]

So with the previous owner mentioning an 'eco map' in the advert when I bought that car, I'd wondered if the car had been mapped - and how aggressively. He also mentioned it was only active when in sport, which I wasn't sure about.

So - down to Charlie at Surrey Rolling Road for one of his Saturday sessions to see what's up!





It transpires that yes - mildly remapped to 332hp! And no, it doesn't toggle on the sport button as suspected, it's always there. I could if I wanted push to high 300s from what I've seen on the stock turbos, but I'm going to leave it here and not stress things.

In other news, new battery fitted and coded due to a 'High Power Consumption' error in the mornings, which hasn't fixed the issue. For you 6 series owners, is this likely a duff IBS cable?

[MikeM6]

Could be an IBS issue, could also be a battery drain somewhere.

I did have this for a while and kept the car on a battery tender, but since I stopped doing that it seems to have resolved itself and it never pops up with the warning.

[CornedBeef]

I suspect it is, the IBS isn't giving me and error code (yet) but so far I've had the following -

Battery drain test overnight - nothing untoward found, but advised battery is getting tired.

Battery replaced and coded - quicker cranking and no funny business when I start the car, barring 'high power consumption' alarm each start.

So I reckon the IBS is the next port of call, not sure if it needs coding or how DIY'able it is?

[CornedBeef]

Boo, today I learnt that runflats can't be puncture repaired apparently.