RE: Shed Of The Week: BMW 5 Series Touring

[nicfaz]

Worth £300 tops. Must try harder shed!

[Sardonicus]

helix402 said:

It has the GM box. Made in Strasbourg and containing lots of bits made in America.

No guarantee of that it may have a ZF 5HP 18 fitted, must admit I would rather have the GM

[Richard-390a0]

A grand?... I think the decimal point needs moving further to the left in this instance!.

[Limpet]

Probable impending transmission bork would put me right off for a grand, which is far too much to walk away from if it goes even in a few months (and you don't have time, space or inclination to recoup the money by breaking it)

At £500, it would be a better proposition.

[Brompty]

I must say, the photographs are excellent. The seller has really tried hard.

[leedsutd1]

with a full mot and genuine 50,000 it might be worth £500 ,,but that is worthless

[Kawasicki]

my friend has one in ireland...he pays insane yearly road tax, so he wants it to die...it just keeps on running. I've borrowed it a few times, it drives really well for a mega mileage car...not modern, floaty ride, rolls a lot, but still fun to thread down small country lanes.

[apm142001]

The E39 is wonderful, but you'd have to be drunk and mad to pay £1k for anything with that sort of mileage on it

[Spinner20]

What a load of cack.

And this coming from an e39 m5 owner.

Put the poor animal down.

[rallycross]

helix402 said:

It has the GM box. Made in Strasbourg and containing lots of bits made in America.

The GM box is more likely to go pop than the ZF, Ive just had to change one in a 330d auto E46.
Impossible to find a good 2nd hand GM5 box now, the BMW breakers say they are usually scrap when they come in.

[dirty_dog]

seefarr said:

Not sure why this e39 touring/wagon/estate wasn't the choice? It looks a bit more genuine and... running:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Thanks chaps as this one is mine. I can confirm no rear suspension issues, no shimmy and definitely no 26mpg! To be fair on the motorway they aren't bad at all, and quiet too.

[rallycross]

dirty_dog said:

seefarr said:

Not sure why this e39 touring/wagon/estate wasn't the choice? It looks a bit more genuine and... running:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Thanks chaps as this one is mine. I can confirm no rear suspension issues, no shimmy and definitely no 26mpg! To be fair on the motorway they aren't bad at all, and quiet too.

that looks to be a very nice car and a great price.

[GJR68]

Would have to have a look at the maintenance file, but on the info given, £500max. Cars sitting unused in the elements tend to get terminal very quickly.

[eastsider]

g3org3y said:

Good concept, crappy example (imvho)

Non OEM aftermarket angels. Rubbish photos. Crazy miles. No interior photos.

This.

(Declaration of interest - I've run a 2003 530i Sport Touring for the last 5 years.) Yes I have spent on it (gearbox refurb and cooling system main things above regular maintenance) but its a great family car for inner london living, <5000 miles / year, not too worried about theft/scratches etc. And I don't pay £500 or £700 or more a month on a lease

Re the shed nice idea but there are better examples out there for £1000. And I'd suggest petrol (cooling system is a fair point) makes a better shed than diesel. 520i probably the pick and you want an SE at shed level.

[pSyCoSiS]

I love the E39, but this example is not worth the asking price.

Recently sold my '02 530d SE Saloon for just under a grand, with over 200k miles.

As long as all the major failure points have been addressed, mileage is no problem on the M57 diesel.

My one had all 3 fuel pumps replaced, the turbo, EGR valve, suspension components and regular servicing.

Agree that the E39 Sport Touring is a much better buy.

[njw1]

I love e39's (I'm on my third!) but that one would be a definate no for me! It's got a dodgy 'box (oo-er!) and I'll bet it's rotten too underneath those sill covers that hide many, many horrors. I nearly bought a manual 530d touring which was up for £995 a while back, it had less mileage than this weeks shed and hadn't been sat unused for months (edit; a year!) although it wasn't in much better condition. I didn't buy it as it had an interior which was a lovely shade of dirty beige. I didn't even test drive it as the interior was hurting my eyes...
Oh, and I don't think the diesels tend to suffer with cooling system problems as much as they run a bit cooler than the petrols, although that's not hard, petrol e39's (especially V8's) tend to run hotter than the centre of the sun!

Edited by njw1 on Saturday 5th November 18:38

[Fox-]

Article said:

Today we have a 1999 530d Sport in green

No we don't. It's an SE.

[Huff]

njw1 said:

petrol e39's (especially V8's) tend to run hotter than the centre of the sun!

The straight-6s don't, unless neglected; system temps are/should be in teh range 93-95degC, i.e sub-boiling.
The V8s are set to run at 103-105degC in the interests of fuel economy, but also becasue that was the initial fix for early nikasil 4.0 problems and got carried straight over into the Alusil 4.4 used in the e39s.

Cheap EML327-based obd2 dongles are your friend to check things out in detail...

[njw1]

^^^Ahh, good to know, my three have all been V8's, my current one runs on lpg which I'm not sure is helping things re; temperatures.

[Loplop]

Mad what some people will pay for an E39, two have come through our mitts the past 18 months, one was an R reg 528i Manual with 140k up it that went out at a profit for £400 and the other is still with us which was an X-Reg 525i SE on LPG for £450, it even has electric (but cloth!) seats.