Free guide · 2005–2010 · S85 5.0 V10 · 507 PS
BMW M6 E63 / E64: what to check before you buy
What this car is, and the six questions that decide whether the one you are looking at is a good buy.
In this guide · 6 chapters
Who built it, and what they built
The M6 is a 6 Series Coupé with the M5's engine and gearbox and a roof made of carbon fibre. BMW built it in Dingolfing from 2005, and the Convertible followed in 2006. Under the bonnet is a naturally aspirated V10, and it is the reason most people come to this car at all.
The engine
The S85B50: a 5.0-litre V10, 507 PS at 7,750 rpm, 520 Nm at 6,100, and a maximum engine speed of 8,250 rpm. It is the engine of the M5 E60, and BMW's own training material for the M6 lists what came across with it: the engine and its management, the fuel system, the seven-speed SMG gearbox, the steering, the final drive and rear axle carrier, and the instrument cluster.
It does not start with all of it. The engine has three power settings — P400, P500 and P500 Sport — and BMW's press material for the Convertible notes that it "always starts in P400 mode". The Power button on the centre console switches to P500; P500 Sport, BMW UK adds, "can only be selected via MDrive Manager and not the button on the centre console" — it is stored on the M button on the steering wheel. The full 507 PS has to be asked for. And the rev counter has, in BMW UK's words, "a yellow pre-warning and a red warning field" that move with the oil temperature: "As the oil temperature rises the available speed range increases."
The gearbox
In Europe there was one gearbox: the seven-speed SMG III, a sequential manual with an automated clutch, operated by paddles or the lever — BMW UK's specification simply reads "Transmission 7-speed SMG". North American buyers were later offered a six-speed manual as well; the BMW M Registry: "sold in the United States and Canada beginning with March, 2007 production." In Europe a manual M6 is an import from North America.
The roof, and the rest of the body
The Coupé's roof is carbon fibre. In BMW's words: "BMW replaced the conventional steel roof of the 6 Series Coupé with a carbon fibre design. This reduces the weight of the roof by 50 per cent (nearly five kilos)" — built in-house at Landshut, bonded to the body rather than welded, and left unpainted so that you can see what it is. It changes one thing for a buyer that most do not think about: BMW's workshop material says minor scratches can be painted, but "the roof must be replaced in the event of more extensive damage".
The rest of the body is mostly the 6 Series': aluminium doors and bonnet, thermoplastic front wings, and a boot lid made of a plastic composite (SMC). BMW's M6 training notes that apart from the roof, the bumpers and the side sills, the body "corresponds to that of the basic E63 645i." So the lightweight panels are not special to the M6, but they are on it — and they matter when you look at accident repairs.
How many there are
Production ended in 2010. The BMW M Registry breaks it down by version, and its figures add up to 9,087 Coupés and 5,065 Convertibles — the totals reported when production ended.
How the figures in this guide work
How much work each job is, not what it costs. Every point in the buying guide carries an effort level — an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, or a week or more in the workshop — plus a line saying whether the money sits in the part or in getting to it.
There are no prices, and that is deliberate. What a job costs depends on which country you are in and which workshop you walk into, so a figure we cannot verify is worse than no figure. If you want an amount, ask any workshop one question — what is your hourly rate? — and every effort level in the buying guide becomes your own number, in your own currency.
None of this is advice about one particular car, because we have not seen the car you are looking at. Have every one of them inspected before you buy, by someone who knows this engine.
The six questions that decide whether this car is a good buy
These cars are now between sixteen and twenty-one years old, and on this model the paperwork matters more than the paint. Six questions.
1 · The rod bearings — done, or still to come?
In the records of NHTSA, the US road-safety authority, there is no BMW recall or warranty programme for the S85's rod bearings, and BMW gives no replacement interval. The specialists do give one, and owners do it preventively. On this car the bearings are not a question of whether, but of when — and of whether somebody has already paid for it. The interval the specialists work to is in the buying guide.
2 · The VANOS pump drive — updated or not, and when was the engine built?
The S85's VANOS — BMW's variable valve timing — has its own high-pressure pump, driven from the crankshaft through gears, and BMW issued a service bulletin for VANOS faults on the M5 and M6. The part that drives the pump was changed during production, and the sources do not agree on where the line falls. The build date is therefore not a detail — which dates matter, and what settles the cars in between, is in the buying guide.
3 · Both throttle actuators — original, or replaced as a pair?
There are two, one per cylinder bank, and when one fails the car goes into limp mode — a reduced-power emergency mode — with little warning.
4 · What state is the SMG in — the pump, the accumulator, the clutch?
The gearbox is the same seven-speed unit as the M5's, and its hydraulics and clutch wear. BMW's diagnostic system has a test for the hydraulic accumulator — the reservoir in which the pump stores its pressure — that no test drive can replace. That is why this is a question for a read-out and not only for your right foot.
5 · Coupé or Convertible — and if Convertible, does the roof work properly?
The Coupé's carbon roof is replaced rather than repaired if it is badly damaged. The Convertible's roof is a hydraulic mechanism with sensors, drains and a control unit of its own.
6 · What has already been paid for?
On an M6, the invoices tell you more than the odometer. A documented car with the bearings, the throttle actuators and recent SMG work behind it is a better buy than a low-mileage one with no history, and that is arithmetic rather than sentiment.
What the answers add up to
On a well-documented car, where the engine's known items have been done and invoiced, an owner faces mostly ordinary work in the first two years — half a day here and there — and none of the heavy jobs. On a car without that history, the heavy jobs are in front of you, and they are what separates a cheap M6 from a good one.
None of that is useful unless you know what it is made of. The buying guide takes each of these six apart, adds the things that are simply sixteen to twenty-one years old, and says for each one how much work it is, what tells you about it at a viewing, and whether it has to be done now, within a year or two, or not at all. It comes with a card you print and take with you, with the checks in the order you do them.
Which years, which specification
| Engine | S85B50, 5.0-litre V10, naturally aspirated |
|---|---|
| Output | 507 PS at 7,750 rpm; 520 Nm at 6,100 rpm; 8,250 rpm maximum |
| Gearbox | 7-speed SMG III in Europe; 6-speed manual offered in the US and Canada from March 2007 |
| Bodies | E63 Coupé from 2005; E64 Convertible from 2006 |
| 0–100 km/h | 4.6 s Coupé, 4.8 s Convertible (BMW UK, 0–62 mph) |
| Top speed | 250 km/h, electronically limited |
| Weight (EU, with driver) | 1,785 kg Coupé; 2,005 kg Convertible |
| Built | Dingolfing, 2005–2010 |
Coupé or Convertible. The Coupé has the carbon roof; the Convertible a fabric roof on a hydraulic mechanism, and about 220 kg more to carry. They have the same engine, gearbox and running gear. Price them separately.
What BMW left off. The M6 does not have Active Steering, which was an option on the 6 Series; BMW's US material for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 model years says so. It does not have the panoramic roof either. Its steering is hydraulically assisted with Servotronic, and its suspension has electronically controlled dampers adopted from the M5.
The manual cars. The six-speed manual was a North American option from March 2007 production. The BMW M Registry counts 702 of them, Coupé and Convertible together, "all exclusively for the USA and Canada". In Europe it is a rarity and an import.
And which year. Later cars are not simply better, but the build date does matter for a few specific items in the buying guide — the VANOS pump drive, an electronic steering-lock bulletin, and the iDrive generation. From September 2007 production the M6 had, by the Registry's list, "Updated headlight design and taillight design, both now incorporating LED turn signals", an updated iDrive and active head restraints. Get the build date before you go.
Two versions worth knowing about. From September 2008 production, in some markets, the Coupé was offered with a Competition Package (option 7MA): lower springs, revised dampers and stability control, a modified differential and a wider version of the forged wheel, by the Registry's description. And there was a limited M6 Competition Edition, of which "only 63 were ultimately produced".
Beyond that, look for a car nobody has modified. Factory 19-inch wheels (255/40 at the front, 285/35 at the rear) — the forged double-spoke wheel as standard, or, on some Coupés outside North America, the cast "Style 166M" wheel that BMW offered as a no-cost option — standard ride height and the original exhaust. A standard M6 is easier to judge than a modified one, and it usually tells you something about how it was kept.
What it is worth
This is the hardest thing to establish on your own, and it does as much as anything to decide whether you buy well. We are not going to give you a price list — it varies by country and by month, and it would be out of date before you used it. We are going to give you the method.
On this car, the engine's history sets the price. A car with documented rod bearings, throttle actuators and an SMG that reads well is a different car from one without, and that difference usually outweighs mileage, colour or body.
There are three kinds of car for sale, and each one deserves a different offer.
The documented car. Full history, invoices tied to readings, a read-out of the SMG and the engine, and an owner who knows what was done and when. Asking price at the top of the market, usually justified.
The tidy car with no paperwork. Drives well, sounds right, and the owner says it has always been serviced. The hardest of the three, because the most expensive thing you need to know — the bottom end — is exactly the thing you cannot see or hear.
The project. Known work, price adjusted to match. Be more careful here than with a cheaper car: an M6 with a noise nobody can explain is not a project but a possible engine replacement.
How to set the three against each other. Take the asking price, work through the questions in this guide — and the lists in the buying guide, if you have it — and add up what is coming in the first two years. Call that the entry price, and compare entry prices rather than asking prices.
Where to look: your country's big classified sites, the BMW M specialists, and the auction sites. Follow the market for a month before you go and see anything.
What it is actually like to own one
It is a large, heavy, very fast grand tourer with an engine that wants to rev, and the two sides of its character do not always agree. In P400, with the gearbox in its gentler settings, it is a quick, comfortable long-distance car. In P500 Sport with the gearbox in its fastest setting, it is a different car, and the V10 goes to 8,250 rpm to show you.
The gearbox is the part people have opinions about. The SMG is not an automatic but a manual gearbox with a computer working the clutch, and it behaves like one: quick and firm when you drive it hard and, in PistonHeads' words, "not always the easiest to live with when you weren't going gangbusters." Try one before you decide whether that suits you, and drive it in traffic as well as on an open road.
What it costs you in attention. More than a modern car, and concentrated in three places: the oil, the battery, and the read-outs. Short oil intervals with the right oil; a battery in good health and registered to the car — its electronics told that a new battery is fitted — when it is replaced; and a specialist who reads the engine and the gearbox once a year.
What it gives back. A V10 that revs to 8,250 rpm in a car you can cross a continent in. That is not an investment, and this guide will not pretend it is. It is a car you buy for its engine, and one drive is usually enough to explain why owners put up with the rest.
The buying guide — €24
Everything above is what the car is. This is what you check.
Ten faults that belong to this engine, taken apart one by one, with how much work each repair is and how to tell which of them you are looking at. Twenty-three things that are simply sixteen to twenty-one years old, every one with how much work it is, what tells you about it at a viewing, and whether it has to be done now, within a year or two, or not at all. Why rust on this car is a question about accident repairs rather than age, and where the water goes instead — the footwells, the boot floor and, on the Convertible, the roof compartment. What the carbon roof, the aluminium bonnet and doors, the plastic wings and the SMC boot lid each mean for an accident repair — and how to tell a Convertible roof that is broken from one that is only hot. The viewing in fourteen steps, including the two moments that come only once. The sentences you say to the seller, and how to build an offer out of what you found.
And a card you print and take with you — seventy-five lines, in the order you do them. That comes as a separate file, because nobody wants to print a whole guide to take a few pages to a car park.
This is what one of the twenty-three looks like
13 · Brake discs and pads
Half a day per axle · expensive part, easy access
The M6 shares the M5's compound discs, by BMW's US material, with two-piston front calipers; the BMW M Registry describes discs with "an aluminum inner hat and a cast iron outer portion that are connected with steel pins." BMW's service bulletin SI B34 04 14 names the E63 M6 and E64 M6, and it saves money. Hairline surface cracks "have no negative influence on the durability or braking performance", and "The rotors should not be replaced only for their appearance reasons." Replace them "if surface cracks are found to be greater than 13 mm, or if the brake disc thickness is below the minimum thickness", always in pairs per axle, with new pads. Vibrations from corrosion "will diminish with normal everyday operation. Parts replacement is not required."
Within a year or two as normal wear. Now if a crack is longer than 13 mm or a disc is below its minimum thickness — measured on the lift, not guessed.
And this is how the card reads
- 1 · Round the outside, before anybody starts it
- 2 · The boot and the floor
- 3 · The cold start · the seller starts it; nobody revs it
- 4 · The engine bay · look, don't touch
- 5 · The gearbox at a standstill
- 6 · The drive · DSC on; no M button, no launch control
What €24 buys, put next to what it saves
The rod bearings are two or three days in the workshop, and the money is in the labour — which is why, on an early engine, the VANOS gears are worth quoting for the same visit. A rebuilt cylinder bank after a dropped valve is a week or more. And the throttle actuators give little warning before they put the car in limp mode. The guide is €24. It will not stop any of that from being needed — but it does tell you which of them you are looking at before you agree a price, and that is the whole of the difference between paying for a car and paying for someone else's postponed maintenance.
Why there are no prices in it
Because a price we cannot verify is worse than no price, and because a price would be wrong for most of the people reading this anyway. Workshop rates across Europe differ widely, and so do parts prices. A quote from a specialist in one country tells you nothing in another.
What does not change is how much work a job is — that follows from what has to come off the car. So every point in the guide says whether it is an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, or a week or more in the workshop, with a labour figure where a source gives one. And it says whether the money sits in the part or in getting to it, which is what lets you tell a fair quote from a bad one.
If you want a figure, ask any workshop one question — what is your hourly rate? — and every effort level in the guide becomes your own number, in your own currency. One question, and the answer is actually true for you.
How this guide was put together
Because you should know before you pay for it.
- Every fault and symptom comes from a source the guide names, the manufacturer's own documents first. The effort levels are our assessment, unless a source gives the hours.
- Where the sources disagree — on which SMG the car has, on whether the V10 has VANOS problems, on how long a clutch lasts — it says so and shows you both, with BMW's own documents first.
- The effort of every job is counted item by item and checked against the list before every edition.
- It says as plainly what you can leave alone as what you have to do. Fifteen of the twenty-three age points start from leave it.
Leave your email address at the checkout and both files arrive straight away: one guide and one card, as two pdfs. No subscription, no account.
The full guide · €24
33-page guide, A4 and phone · 5-page inspection card · instant PDF · VAT included
Have every car inspected before you buy by someone who knows this engine. This is general information about the model and not advice about a specific car.