[Big Chief Muffin]

Hi All.

Finally managed to convince myself that I really need a bit more power in my Alpina before I get too old, and exchanged my B10 3.3 for a B10 V8S with Sytner. The V8S is a great car - not only is there a lot more torque and oomph ( obviously ) but it also feels a lot more planted ( maybe the heavier engine in the front... ). It is a lot more relaxed cruiser and, thanks to the smaller steering wheel ( my old 2000 car had the larger 4 spoke rim which I never liked ) it even feels more nimble.

One questions though : When the car starts from cold, it really sounds rough, with a grumpy shuddering coming thru from the exhausts, almost as if they were loose. This goes away after about 3 minutes once the car has warmed up, and does not happen when I start the car warm. Is this normal ? Not sure if anyone has ever experienced it on a V8 or V8S - it certainly never happened on my 3.3, nor the M5 I had before that.... Comments and thoughts appreciated

 

[kees]

Congrads on the new car! We need to see some pictures!!

It quite possible the exhaust requires a bit of retightening. Why not bring it back to the dealer and ask them to fix it?

 

[jez]

Congrats on the V8s, I imagine it will be fantastic, let's see some pictures!

I have recently got the B10 V8 which I am really enjoying, fyi I don't notice any particular rumbling sounds from cold starts. While looking at Alpinas I noticed that many of them appeared to have loose exhausts that rattled on the rear spoiler - have you checked for this?

I also have the bigger 4 spoke wheel which does feel large after my previous 540i with sports wheel, might look into the practicalities of changing for a smaller Alpina wheel.

 

[Big Chief Muffin]

I am taking into a dealer on Tuesday. I must say that for a Synter car, it did come with a lot of faults ( the tracking was well off, PDC not working, Automatic wipers not connected ) though they are going to sort these out - I'll mention the cold start rumblings as well. Oddly enough, this car did not have a spoiler on the back, not even the thin lip one you get on the sport models. I think I will try to retro fit one, as they look a lot nicer that way ( and the back of the car seems to get less dirty ). I enquired from Sytner and Alpina about fitting a sport steering wheel onto my 2000 model B10 3.3 when I had one of those, but they said that it could not be done. Perhaps it is possible on facelift models though....

 

[B10BRW]

The steering wheel is the only thing that I do not like on my 2000 B10-V8.
The reason a newer wheel can not be fitted is that it has a two stage airbag and the old style wheel is only one stage.

When I mentioned this to Kris Odwarka from Alpina at Goodwood he said that
Alpina could take my original wheel remove the covering and rebuild it to my own thickness.

I did not ask the price hope to get an idea when I visit the factory in July.

Apart from the steering wheel the B10 is brilliant.:wroom:

 

[Big Chief Muffin]

Just spoke to my local BMW garage about the cold start rumblings and they said that this is a "characteristic" of the more recent V8 engines ( 745, 645, 545 and the B10 V8s ) - anyone else heard of this ?

 

[dosilet]

I have the same problems on my B3 3.3, 2000 my, and it's related to the air pump that didn't work correctly, sound and idle turns satble after 2 minutes more or less. Problem only arises on cold starting.

The air pump anly works the first minute or 90 seconds more or less, just to pass CO emisions regulations.

 

[m5 killer]

no thats rubbish its not supposed to be like that, get them to sort it and if they dont tell them you will ship the car to alpina in germany to rectify and they will recieve the bill and any inconvenience costs, sytners are getting worse by the day i hear so many stories about them but then what do you expect from ex kwik fit fitters ouich :cheers:

 

[Big Chief Muffin]

Got my local BMW dealer to look at it and there was a loose bracket or something which they have fixed ( and Sytners have agreed to pay the bill ). To be fair to Sytners, although the car they sold me had a lot of niggling faults with it ( tracking was off, PDC bust, a mirror broken etc.... ) they have been very good at rectifying them ( or paying for my local dealer to do so ).