Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol8]
Discussion
longblackcoat said:
Everyone has a view. Mine varies from yours.
But you've stated - as a total fact, no less - that loads of things will go wrong. I've checked mine all over for rust. Properly, removing the jacking pads and checking with a torch/poking with a screwdriver. The sills are completely fine. The filler cap, the wings .... all of it. Unless it's going to suddenly rust overnight, which is pretty unlikely.
There's never been a problem with the rear number plate light or the boot release, so I think I can leave the replacement of the rear loom for another day. I accept that it could fail, but there's no point stressing about it.
There isn't any blue smoke on startup, and the fuel consumption is fine, so my assumption is that the CCV is fine. If I have to replace, so be it.
Re the cooling system, I'm aware of the radiator issue; that's one that I might well do soon. There have been zero problems so far in 13 years and 130k, and if it weren't for all the dire prognostications from the E39 beards, I'd not be worrying about it even a little. It works, the temps are stable, and there's been no leaks of any sort. But I will do the rad.
The ABS sensor? It's lasted 130k miles so far. I'm not going to replace it on a whim.
Ultimately, it's a cheap (albeit very nice) car. It's not worth much, and never will be. I'm sure I could do a painstaking rolling refurbishemnt and stick £3k into the car (get the paint perfect, refurb the wheels, all the above work) but it's just not worh that to me, nor, it seems, to the market.
At the risk of adding fuel to the fire, whilst all very valid points and certainly worthy of checking thoroughly. That does all seem a bit doom and gloom. Its nice to know the weak points but read that and you'd never touch an E39 if you instantly had to spend ££££'s on it.But you've stated - as a total fact, no less - that loads of things will go wrong. I've checked mine all over for rust. Properly, removing the jacking pads and checking with a torch/poking with a screwdriver. The sills are completely fine. The filler cap, the wings .... all of it. Unless it's going to suddenly rust overnight, which is pretty unlikely.
There's never been a problem with the rear number plate light or the boot release, so I think I can leave the replacement of the rear loom for another day. I accept that it could fail, but there's no point stressing about it.
There isn't any blue smoke on startup, and the fuel consumption is fine, so my assumption is that the CCV is fine. If I have to replace, so be it.
Re the cooling system, I'm aware of the radiator issue; that's one that I might well do soon. There have been zero problems so far in 13 years and 130k, and if it weren't for all the dire prognostications from the E39 beards, I'd not be worrying about it even a little. It works, the temps are stable, and there's been no leaks of any sort. But I will do the rad.
The ABS sensor? It's lasted 130k miles so far. I'm not going to replace it on a whim.
Ultimately, it's a cheap (albeit very nice) car. It's not worth much, and never will be. I'm sure I could do a painstaking rolling refurbishemnt and stick £3k into the car (get the paint perfect, refurb the wheels, all the above work) but it's just not worh that to me, nor, it seems, to the market.
I had my 2003 530 sport for 2 years and took it from 130-156,000. When I bought it, it had a rough idle, the garage changed the rocker gasket, didnt fix it. They had it back a second time and changed all the CCV bits. Other than a cracked spark plug throwing an engine light, Nothing broke. Just routine servicing.
Be aware of all the points above, check them and double check them but don't run a mile if it hasn't had everything replaced and no rust remedy done. They are brilliant cars.
CharlesdeGaulle said:
KrisP. I looked at a few before buying mine just over 2 years ago, all of them well within thread budget. It is possible, and you do see them on e-bay and elsewhere from time to time. They tended to be the 4 cylinder models, which are invariably cheaper. Do look at the classifieds of the clubs too.
They all had the usual 124 issues, which are quite well known and generally pretty easily sorted. Interestingly, I saw fewer rusty wings on the A124 than I seemed to on the W124, although I suspect that may have just been coincidence.
The key with these, as has been said above, is the roof. A car with a non-working roof will be cheap to buy, but it will cost you to fix. They seem reliable once working, but can be tricky to get to that point. If you're a half-way competent mechanic/electrician/hydraulic bloke then I suspect it's all very do-able at home, but I'm not so was always going to have to buy a sorted car.
Overall, as you alluded to in your first post, I reckon you'd be able to get one around thread money, fix it yourself and still not exceed the price ceiling. They are wonderful cars. If you're anywhere near Farnborough, or are going to Benz on the Green this weekend, you're very welcome to have a play with mine.
They all had the usual 124 issues, which are quite well known and generally pretty easily sorted. Interestingly, I saw fewer rusty wings on the A124 than I seemed to on the W124, although I suspect that may have just been coincidence.
The key with these, as has been said above, is the roof. A car with a non-working roof will be cheap to buy, but it will cost you to fix. They seem reliable once working, but can be tricky to get to that point. If you're a half-way competent mechanic/electrician/hydraulic bloke then I suspect it's all very do-able at home, but I'm not so was always going to have to buy a sorted car.
Overall, as you alluded to in your first post, I reckon you'd be able to get one around thread money, fix it yourself and still not exceed the price ceiling. They are wonderful cars. If you're anywhere near Farnborough, or are going to Benz on the Green this weekend, you're very welcome to have a play with mine.
QuantumTokoloshi said:
The hood mechanism and associated roof control ECU module on the 140 for example, make SL parts look like pound store purchases, 140 cabrio specific parts arerare and costly. A none working hood would need a chunky discount to justify buying it on both the 129 and 140.
It much like the ever popular aircon regas, it maybe a £30 job or it maybe a £3000 job.
Thanks for the advice both. As it turns out, my procrastinating meant I missed out, beaten to the punch. Was an import 320, with what looked to be every option going. Full climate, electric, heated, memory and ortho front seats, sportline chassis. MOT ran out back in Nov and it had done 160k miles, but it was 2k. Even with a non working roof, my maths said that I could make it good for the 8k cost to bring it on par with ones costing 10k.It much like the ever popular aircon regas, it maybe a £30 job or it maybe a £3000 job.
Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Tuesday 12th May 09:57
Still, never mind. Another opportunity awaits somewhere, I hope
longblackcoat said:
There's never been a problem with the rear number plate light or the boot release, so I think I can leave the replacement of the rear loom for another day.
On my Touring I used to get an occasional rear number plate warning which seemed spurious but it went away after a summer of proper use. I think it was just a poor contact based on the car having sat for a while before I bought it. I waited for the rear loom to explode but it's been ok. Until the other day when it flagged it up after a year of no problems. Here we go, I thought. Turned out all it needed was a new number plate bulb.longblackcoat said:
The ABS sensor? It's lasted 130k miles so far. I'm not going to replace it on a whim.
It's the control module rather than the sensors. I suspect that these are susceptible to how the car is used. If you are obliged to spend a lot of time idling in heavy traffic or motorway queues I think the under-bonnet temps get quite high. Mine was cooked when I bought the car, which had spent much of its life in the home counties but I fitted a new one have been fine since. Fortunately in my present life and driving environment I mainly do longish runs on relatively free flowing roads and don't get held up in stop-start traffic, so there is always air flowing through the engine bay.
olly22n said:
dbdb said:
I don't think you can say with certainty that any of the failures on the E39 list is inevitable, but a friend's E39 530i did suffer pretty much all of them. I liked the car, but it was very troublesome.
My 540i from 80k to 100k threw up a £1-300 bill every month, without fail.My 1998 180k mile 528i SE is hands down the best car I've ever had and I think I've decided I need another.
Would anyone in the bucks area mind taking a look at the below for me?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-530i-M-SPORT-Rar...
Would anyone in the bucks area mind taking a look at the below for me?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-530i-M-SPORT-Rar...
Bought myself this one to replace my old E38 750, another E38 750, this one a slightly newer conciderably more rare antrazite grey 2000 Sport.
Posted it in readers cars, but figured I might aswell share it with the barge crew
A few things need adressing, trim is dull and a few electrical gremlins, no PDC working for instance, but other than that I'm a happy camper. 101000 miles and really pampered, especially by the last 2 owners, massive bills in the folder that came with it, so hopefully it will give me trouble free barging like the older one did (relatively)
Have to mention Lagerlauf's W140 a few pages back. Massive want, massive. And Olly's E32, and that Alpina kitted 740 a few posts up looked awesome.
Edit: Damn, again, the prices of used cars in the UK is making me want to move over to you guys, that Alpina 740 is under 3 grand, I payed more than twice that for the grey one...
Pics.
Old blue 750, which I love, would never sell, but have no more garage space, so she goes on friday.
Posted it in readers cars, but figured I might aswell share it with the barge crew
A few things need adressing, trim is dull and a few electrical gremlins, no PDC working for instance, but other than that I'm a happy camper. 101000 miles and really pampered, especially by the last 2 owners, massive bills in the folder that came with it, so hopefully it will give me trouble free barging like the older one did (relatively)
Have to mention Lagerlauf's W140 a few pages back. Massive want, massive. And Olly's E32, and that Alpina kitted 740 a few posts up looked awesome.
Edit: Damn, again, the prices of used cars in the UK is making me want to move over to you guys, that Alpina 740 is under 3 grand, I payed more than twice that for the grey one...
Pics.
Old blue 750, which I love, would never sell, but have no more garage space, so she goes on friday.
Edited by PowerslideSWE on Tuesday 12th May 16:46
Edited by PowerslideSWE on Tuesday 12th May 16:49
Edited by PowerslideSWE on Tuesday 12th May 17:29
longblackcoat said:
Everyone has a view. Mine varies from yours.
But you've stated - as a total fact, no less - that loads of things will go wrong. I've checked mine all over for rust. Properly, removing the jacking pads and checking with a torch/poking with a screwdriver. The sills are completely fine. The filler cap, the wings .... all of it. Unless it's going to suddenly rust overnight, which is pretty unlikely.
+1 mine (a 2001 facelift car) had zero rust in the sills or anywhere else but some light scabbing on one of the rear arches. Don't know if the cooling system in a diesel is more robust than the petrol but mine was fine at 14 years and no evidence of any change.But you've stated - as a total fact, no less - that loads of things will go wrong. I've checked mine all over for rust. Properly, removing the jacking pads and checking with a torch/poking with a screwdriver. The sills are completely fine. The filler cap, the wings .... all of it. Unless it's going to suddenly rust overnight, which is pretty unlikely.
More expensive than the CL that 0a posted above however this looks nice...
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/classifieds-cars-sa...
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/classifieds-cars-sa...
Lowtimer said:
They are a lot of car for the money but I just can't bring myself to entertain a Chrysler-era Mercedes. I know too many people who've found them seriously problematical. For me they need to be earlier or later.
In this case the good looks (the best looking Merc of the era) could just persuade me to pretend I had not heard the bork stories. Perhaps. Fuel economy and manufacturing cost, probably, at least on the evidence of the 5-litre V8 R129 SL. The earliest R129 500SL was the most powerful, then they deleted the full-throttle enrichment which took off a few BHP but left the same basic four-valve engine (essentially the same design as their sports car racing engine). Then later on swapped that for a lower build cost, and more fuel efficient 3 valve per cylinder V8 with a bit less power again, but by then they had upgraded from 4-speed to 5-speed transmission, which compensated somewhat. I think that's basically the setup this CL has. They are all good engines, mind you.
Edited by Lowtimer on Tuesday 12th May 21:17
0a said:
Lowtimer said:
They are a lot of car for the money but I just can't bring myself to entertain a Chrysler-era Mercedes. I know too many people who've found them seriously problematical. For me they need to be earlier or later.
In this case the good looks (the best looking Merc of the era) could just persuade me to pretend I had not heard the bork stories. Perhaps. 
, least that's how I'd justify it. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff