Unseen eBay auction purchase...4.4 V8 Touring.. wish me luck

[Prohibiting]

This should supplment my current daily Ford Focus shed nicely. A 1999 BMW 540i touring (4.4 litre V8 engine)

All for the measly sum of £1091! Full service history and all electrics working. I don't intend to spend a fortune other than general maintenance to keep her running nicely. All she needs right now is some new rear tyres.

The drive home was a laugh. Here are some driveway pictures after returning home today but I'll tart her up a bit and take some better pictures in due course.









I don't think I've done too badly

Edited by Prohibiting on Saturday 21st March 18:10

[d_a_n1979]

Lovely!

Not many of them about now, even in SE guise.

Just make sure the rear SLS works as it should and the subframe bushes are in good order.

Check wheel well for water too

[andy118run]

You need to tell more. There seems to be an interesting back-story here.

A quick glance on ebay shows the listing ending at 8.42 this morning and the car is outside your house by the end of the afternoon.

If only all ebay auction winners were that efficient! From the listing it sounds a well looked after car.

I wish you luck, but for a grand or so, you can't lose really.

[Prohibiting]

andy118run said:

You need to tell more. There seems to be an interesting back-story here.

A quick glance on ebay shows the listing ending at 8.42 this morning and the car is outside your house by the end of the afternoon.

If only all ebay auction winners were that efficient! From the listing it sounds a well looked after car.

I wish you luck, but for a grand or so, you can't lose really.

Yep that's the one Auction ended this morning and I was already travelling to London early this morning so I took a slight detour on the way back to collect the BMW

It also had the SLS done 2-years ago.

[sophistoman]

I must stay off eBay..... I must stay off eBay......I must stay off eBay

[d_a_n1979]

Prohibiting said:

Yep that's the one Auction ended this morning and I was already travelling to London early this morning so I took a slight detour on the way back to collect the BMW

It also had the SLS done 2-years ago.

That's good; deffo check the boot well when you wash the car though; the seals on the boot vents that are behind the bumper perish and can start to let water in FYI

Great car though; I am biased

Any plans at all?

[Prohibiting]

d_a_n1979 said:

That's good; deffo check the boot well when you wash the car though; the seals on the boot vents that are behind the bumper perish and can start to let water in FYI

Great car though; I am biased

Any plans at all?

Great, thanks.

No major plans other than general maintenance and a good detail to get the paint looking as best as it can.

I did some research last night on how to unleash more of the V8 noise. A common a fairly cheap mod is to remove the rear back box (muffler and silence) and have a straight piece of exhaust tubing instead.

[d_a_n1979]

Prohibiting said:

Great, thanks.

No major plans other than general maintenance and a good detail to get the paint looking as best as it can.

I did some research last night on how to unleash more of the V8 noise. A common a fairly cheap mod is to remove the rear back box (muffler and silence) and have a straight piece of exhaust tubing instead.

Yeah, one of the first mods a lot of folk do re the exhaust.

If you’ve the twin ‘scuba tanks’ on the rear exhaust, you can remove the last one and add pipe to that which releases more noise and sounds well, but isn’t silly loud. If you want it loud, then remove both and add a piece of pipe and tail pipe of your choice etc

How is it for oil leaks, suspension and brakes etc... Are they all as should be and no shimmy when driving/braking?

FYI the 5 forums is a wealth of knowledge and the E39 tech section is the busiest of the lot. Worth joining if you’re not on there already

http://forum.bmw5.co.uk/

It’s undergoing security certification maintenance currently, so if it doesn’t open then come back in a day or so and it’ll be sorted

[njw1]

Awesome stuff! That looks like a proper bargain. Coincidentally my 540i was an unseen, last minute Ebay bid that cost me just over £1k too.

[Prohibiting]

Spend so far:

Essentials:

- Rear tyres x 2 including fitting: £200 (Vredestein Quatrac 5)
- Front and rear wipers: £15

Non-essentials:

- Fresh number plates: £15
- Wheel hub caps: £9
- Bonnet badge: £8

Total spend to date (excluding fuel, insurance, tax)
£1,338.

Edited by Prohibiting on Tuesday 24th March 12:11

[PurpleTurtle]

In and watching, love these!

I worked for BMW GB (as was) at the time these were current on the management fleet, only senior grades got a V8, so relatively few about.

Always lovely to heard them gently warbling into the car park each morning.

[Prohibiting]

Spent most of the today giving it a proper deep clean (removing tar spots etc)

Edited by Prohibiting on Saturday 28th March 17:51

[Phil Dicky]

Prohibiting said:

Spent most of the today giving it a proper deep clean (removing tar spots etc)

Edited by Prohibiting on Saturday 28th March 17:51

Looks really good OP.

[martin mrt]

Prohibiting said:

Spent most of the today giving it a proper deep clean (removing tar spots etc)

Edited by Prohibiting on Saturday 28th March 17:51

That looks fantastic, great buy op

[d_a_n1979]

Prohibiting said:

Spent most of the today giving it a proper deep clean (removing tar spots etc)

Edited by Prohibiting on Saturday 28th March 17:51

Cleaned up superbly, great project

[manmaths]

Scrubs up well!

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

Looking good.

Is there any mention in the service history of the fuel filter or cam chain tensioner? Two items that don't appear in the official service schedule, but need to be done at some point.

[njw1]

S. Gonzales Esq. said:

Looking good.

Is there any mention in the service history of the fuel filter or cam chain tensioner? Two items that don't appear in the official service schedule, but need to be done at some point.

Good advice, I had a nearly 170,000 mile 535i that, as it turned out had never had a new fuel filter and the cam chain tensioner is that easy and cheap to change it's silly not to really.

Edited by njw1 on Saturday 28th March 22:43