RE: SOTW: BMW 540i Touring

[va1o]

Love it

I would buy that, such an incredible amount of car for the money

[AV12]

Martian O said:

SOTW now sold!

Was going to comment, surely that's worth a monkey!

[Retset]

carinaman said:

How much did you get for your old alloys? Just helps with the 'you can part it out when it finally fails' angle.

£50 without tyres IIRC. Sold them to somebody who wanted winter wheels. Those old turbines are not worth much.

[Martin 480 Turbo]

THAT is shedding! Taking the risk. (of 950,-) So someone just bought
him self either a year or two of happy BMW motoring, as most of the
gremlins were already cured, or he bought himself knowingly the "worst
car ever" which is equaly good and matches the color combo of the car.

NAUGHTY BOY:

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000bxn6Qav...

[The Flyin Banana]

He couldnt have been short of offers tho, I mailed twice and left voicemail but no reply, at that money you would be surprised the amount of people who would take it on, i am thinking he had addressed the issues but was just moaning about it

[TORQ]

This shed is going to take some beating for comedy value (seller fail) and the car.

Another thing to watch with these already lightly touched upon- the SLS rear suspension can be a tremendous problem area. The airbags fail, the pipes fail, the pumps fail (specific to touring models). Check it out along with all the other stuff mentioned before buying one.

Local indy who I really got a bad vibe from diagnosed mine as needing two airbags after I found it on the deck one morning. Once I poked around I found it was a blown fuse, fixed it for 20p, a lucky escape and prompted me to sell it and never go back to that garage. Mine was a 530 Manual Touring.

I would have another, it would have to be mint though!

[carinaman]

Good point TORQ there's something to be said for keeping stuff simple as it gives less potential to be stitched up by garages.

Hopefully we'll get an update like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTvMjUzQE1U&fea...

Edited by carinaman on Friday 9th November 14:24

[Agent Orange]

TORQ said:

Mine was a 530 Manual Touring.

I would have another, it would have to be mint though!

Yep agree. Find me a 2002/2003 530D Sport Touring with <30K miles on it and I'll bite your hand off and replace my 2002 530i Touring.

Wouldn't touch an E60 but do like the F10 Tourings.

[carinaman]

Retset said:

£50 without tyres IIRC. Sold them to somebody who wanted winter wheels. Those old turbines are not worth much.

Cheers retset. I've some old Audi Ronals that I think will just go for scrap to cover the tyre disposal fee. I don't think alloy wheels fetch that much.

[TORQ]

carinaman said:

Retset said:

£50 without tyres IIRC. Sold them to somebody who wanted winter wheels. Those old turbines are not worth much.

Cheers retset. I've some old Audi Ronals that I think will just go for scrap to cover the tyre disposal fee. I don't think alloy wheels fetch that much.

Stick them on ebay and you will find out, someone will buy them.

[The Dirty Bubble]

I loved my E39 540i saloon, but it didn't love my wallet. Final nail in the coffin was a £1230 service in June, it was sold a week later.

Alternators, gaskets, power steering pumps, radiators (infact the whole cooling system) and rear suspension componants are all weak points and not particularily cheap to fix. My car was an immaculate 2000 plate with fsh and 100000 miles on the clock that cost me top money, buying one for shed money is a risk I wouldn't take.

[SuperchargedVR6]

TORQ said:

Another thing to watch with these already lightly touched upon- the SLS rear suspension can be a tremendous problem area. The airbags fail, the pipes fail, the pumps fail (specific to touring models). Check it out along with all the other stuff mentioned before buying one.

Can you not replace the self levelling stuff with normal fixed struts like you can on the E34 Tourings?

[J4CKO]

CampDavid said:

J4CKO said:

I reckon its £500 worth, above scrap and about what you would get as a trade in these days, some people price these still at 4 grand, cant imagine they sell, best of the best is 2k worth tops I reckon.

Best of the best is still £5000 and still worth it. This one though isn't worth a grand.

Kept nice these are great cars to be in. Knackered they're an expensive, unenjoyable heap

Five grand for an aging V8 barge, much as a like these and was looking at them before I got my 944 I wouldnt have paid five grand for one as it would be extremely unlikely you get anything like your money back, five grand is M5 territory, advertaised prices and actual sale prices can be a long way apart as well, the price cars like this change hands for in the trade is very low, then they chance their arm that someone will spend five grand on one as its a sport, in a decent colour and not totally ruined.

[Denorth]

CampDavid said:

pSyCoSiS said:

Isn't that colour known as Canyon Red? I may be mistaken....

I think it's menstruation red. I can't be sure though

isn't it the same, just upside down?

[TORQ]

SuperchargedVR6 said:

TORQ said:

Another thing to watch with these already lightly touched upon- the SLS rear suspension can be a tremendous problem area. The airbags fail, the pipes fail, the pumps fail (specific to touring models). Check it out along with all the other stuff mentioned before buying one.

Can you not replace the self levelling stuff with normal fixed struts like you can on the E34 Tourings?

I did deeply geek out on this at the time and found the answer- which I have now forgotten. I think it's a no, but I will get back to you!

[SuperchargedVR6]

TORQ said:

SuperchargedVR6 said:

Can you not replace the self levelling stuff with normal fixed struts like you can on the E34 Tourings?

I did deeply geek out on this at the time and found the answer- which I have now forgotten. I think it's a no, but I will get back to you!

Great, thanks!

When the hydraulic SLS packed up on my E34 525i Touring, it was a simple case of fitting fixed items from the saloon and deleting all the pump plumbing etc. The cost of replacing the SLS from a dealer would have cost 4 times the car's value, so ebay came up trumps!

I am very interested in the 540i Touring but really don't want to go through the hassle of SLS failing again, but if it can swapped out for fixed stuff, happy days!

[TORQ]

SuperchargedVR6 said:

TORQ said:

SuperchargedVR6 said:

Can you not replace the self levelling stuff with normal fixed struts like you can on the E34 Tourings?

I did deeply geek out on this at the time and found the answer- which I have now forgotten. I think it's a no, but I will get back to you!

Great, thanks!

When the hydraulic SLS packed up on my E34 525i Touring, it was a simple case of fitting fixed items from the saloon and deleting all the pump plumbing etc. The cost of replacing the SLS from a dealer would have cost 4 times the car's value, so ebay came up trumps!

I am very interested in the 540i Touring but really don't want to go through the hassle of SLS failing again, but if it can swapped out for fixed stuff, happy days!

Related, This would be the ultimate, an E39 M5 Touring. Only found out about it as the guy lives a few hundred meters from me! Incredible project. Think the airbag deletion answer is in there somewhere. Terrible photo sorry.

Build thread here:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?s=...

[thirsty]

This car "may" have some inherent issues, but for the price, who cares. You should get at least a year of good motoring from it. Buy it, thrash it, then trash it.

[da_murphster]

Currently halfway through my E39 530i manual sport (and LPG) suspension refresh to finally get rid of the shimmy. Parts are not cheap but simple enough to do and hopefully see another 100k out if it.

Probably cost me £500 in parts (new shocks, arb bushes, ball joints, thrust arms etc etc)

Lovely cars to work on - everything is accessible and easy to do.

You can get OEM parts at a decent price - can recommend http://www.allgermanparts.co.uk/ for all your bits (definitely the cheapest out there, including when I was considering importing from Germany)

I am struggling to think of a car that will replace my E39 - sort of wish I had gone for a touring but the manuals are impossible to find.

[bga]

TORQ said:

This shed is going to take some beating for comedy value (seller fail) and the car.

Another thing to watch with these already lightly touched upon- the SLS rear suspension can be a tremendous problem area. The airbags fail, the pipes fail, the pumps fail (specific to touring models). Check it out along with all the other stuff mentioned before buying one.

Local indy who I really got a bad vibe from diagnosed mine as needing two airbags after I found it on the deck one morning. Once I poked around I found it was a blown fuse, fixed it for 20p, a lucky escape and prompted me to sell it and never go back to that garage. Mine was a 530 Manual Touring.

I would have another, it would have to be mint though!

Airbags are a piece of cake if they need replacing. Only takes about an hour or so, most of that it getting it on stands.

From my experiences I would only buy another 540iA if it had a recon box.