Vehicle
BMW 8 Series
The big coupé, and the two cars wearing the badge have almost nothing in common. The E31 of the 1990s is a V12 grand tourer with the most complicated electrical architecture BMW had built to that date — several bus systems, a body module that will not sleep, and a parasitic battery drain that is the classic complaint. The G15 revival from 2018 is a CLAR-platform car sharing its engines and most of its faults with the 5 and 7 Series, so information from those transfers directly where nothing about the E31 does.
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Generations
-
E31 1990–1999
V8 and V12 grand tourer. Its electrical complexity is the story — a drain here is a module that never went to sleep rather than a tired battery.
- Body styles
- Coupé
- Platform
- BMW E31
- Engines
-
- 4.0 V8 — M60 · petrol · 210 kW (282 hp) · 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) · 840i and 840Ci to 1996
- 4.4 V8 — M62 · petrol · 210 kW (282 hp) · 420 Nm (310 lb-ft) · 840Ci from 1995
- 5.0 V12 — M70 · petrol · 221 kW (296 hp) · 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) · 850i and 850Ci
- 5.4 V12 — M73 · petrol · 240 kW (322 hp) · 490 Nm (361 lb-ft) · 850Ci from 1994
- 5.6 V12 — S70 · petrol · 280 kW (375 hp) · 550 Nm (406 lb-ft) · 850CSi, six-speed manual only
- Transmissions
- 4-speed automatic · 5-speed automatic · 5-speed Auto Getrag ZF 5HP24 V8 · 4-speed Auto Getrag ZF 4HP24 V12 · 5-speed Auto Getrag ZF 5HP30 V12 · 6-speed Manual Getrag 420G V8 · 6-speed Manual Getrag 560G V12
- Drivetrain
- Rear-wheel drive
-
G14, G15 and G16 2018–2026
CLAR platform, shared with the 5 and 7 Series — their engine and electrical information applies here, which is not true of the E31.
- Body styles
- Coupé · Convertible · Sedan
- Platform
- BMW CLAR
- Engines
-
- 3.0 turbo straight-six — B58 · petrol · 245–250 kW (329–335 hp) · 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) · 840i
- 3.0 turbo straight-six diesel — B57 · diesel · 235–250 kW (315–335 hp) · 680 Nm (502 lb-ft) · 840d, with a 48-volt starter-generator
- 4.4 twin-turbo V8 M850i — N63 · petrol · 300–390 kW (402–523 hp) · 600–750 Nm (443–553 lb-ft)
- 4.4 twin-turbo V8 M8 — S63 · petrol · 408–460 kW (547–617 hp) · 680–750 Nm (502–553 lb-ft)
- Transmissions
- 8-speed ZF 8HP automatic
- Drivetrain
- Rear-wheel drive · Four-wheel drive
Service information
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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