My BMW 528i project

[MedwayMonaro]

I wanted to start a thread at least to try and keep a lot of the work I am doing on my newly acquired E39 528.

To cut a long story short I bought this to tinker with, looked at various options but this came up on eBay on Saturday and by Sunday I'd left a deposit.

Car is a one owner vehicle, has only done 71k and was registered in 1998. Most importantly, no major rust. A big thick folder of receipts and original book pack too. Drive home today was great, I finally have an E39!

Being 22 years old I want to sort out a few pieces of broken trim and possibly some upgrades, and next year sort out the paintwork as it's had paint in the past which isn't to my high standards!

So far so good, will keep the thread updated...



[url|https://thumbsnap.com/bn4RHHas[/url]

[url|https://thumbsnap.com/mrRGTYD2[/url]

[url|https://thumbsnap.com/n7rSBbUL[/url]

[anonymous-user]

Nice. A good engine, too. Good luck.

[W201_190e]

Nice old cars, I've had a few E39's. A 530i Sport and A 528i SE. The 528i was better. The earlier cars had better rust protection too, good luck with it!

[g3org3y]

Congrats. A well sorted E39 is a very nice thing.

W201_190e said:

Nice old cars, I've had a few E39's. A 530i Sport and A 528i SE. The 528i was better. The earlier cars had better rust protection too, good luck with it!

Out of interest, what was better about the 528i? What did BMW change about the rust protection on the later models?

[d_a_n1979]

MedwayMonaro said:

I wanted to start a thread at least to try and keep a lot of the work I am doing on my newly acquired E39 528.

To cut a long story short I bought this to tinker with, looked at various options but this came up on eBay on Saturday and by Sunday I'd left a deposit.

Car is a one owner vehicle, has only done 71k and was registered in 1998. Most importantly, no major rust. A big thick folder of receipts and original book pack too. Drive home today was great, I finally have an E39!

Being 22 years old I want to sort out a few pieces of broken trim and possibly some upgrades, and next year sort out the paintwork as it's had paint in the past which isn't to my high standards!

So far so good, will keep the thread updated...



[url|https://thumbsnap.com/bn4RHHas[/url]

[url|https://thumbsnap.com/mrRGTYD2[/url]

[url|https://thumbsnap.com/n7rSBbUL[/url]

Lovely car

Another E39 on here; that's never a bad thing

There's a good few of us on here now; this is my thread FYI: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Jimmy Recard]

Nice car! From E36 328i experience, they’re a really nice engine

[d_a_n1979]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Probably; deffo 2 different shades there

Quite common with silver cars unfortunately

[tgr]

The M52TU engine was a peach. I would imagine the gearbox is ZF (I had a manual), which can fail. But the engine itself is superb, smooth, torquey and just seemed to me to be a pinnacle of engineering

[W00DY]

Nicely bought.With those miles it hopefully feels nice and fresh. Reminds me of my old 528i which was perfectly reliable and always a lovely thing to smoke around in. The early ones are the best.





No cruise control/multi-function wheel on yours which is very unusual for a UK car.

[d_a_n1979]

W00DY said:

Nicely bought.With those miles it hopefully feels nice and fresh. Reminds me of my old 528i which was perfectly reliable and always a lovely thing to smoke around in. The early ones are the best.





No cruise control/multi-function wheel on yours which is very unusual for a UK car.

Now that's lovely; a proper waft bus Sits so well on the 32s too

[d_a_n1979]

tgr said:

The M52TU engine was a peach. I would imagine the gearbox is ZF (I had a manual), which can fail. But the engine itself is superb, smooth, torquey and just seemed to me to be a pinnacle of engineering

Yup; totally agree

Although never had one in an E39 guise, I did have it in an E38 728i and it was a superb car & engine; plenty of get up & go when needed and great for chewing motorway miles to Dunkeld and Anglesey alike

[JakeT]

Nowadays I would rather a 528i over a 530i. The 2.8 feels truly unburstable, and the one I had in an E46 used 0 oil over 40,000 miles. Even when maxed in Germany for hours on end. I've come back around to appreciating the pre facelift looks. The 3.0 didn't quite 'feel' the same. I can't quite put my finger on it.

My E39 was a 530d, but a great car all the same. 16 inch wheels mean the ride quality is just fantastic.

[d_a_n1979]

JakeT said:

Nowadays I would rather a 528i over a 530i. The 2.8 feels truly unburstable, and the one I had in an E46 used 0 oil over 40,000 miles. Even when maxed in Germany for hours on end. I've come back around to appreciating the pre facelift looks. The 3.0 didn't quite 'feel' the same. I can't quite put my finger on it.

My E39 was a 530d, but a great car all the same. 16 inch wheels mean the ride quality is just fantastic.

I'd have either; zero issues with either engines for me

Maybe I'm lucky, but none of them have ever used oil or suffered other issues; then again they're maintained within an inch of their life and I only do around 6k mile a year!

[MedwayMonaro]

Thanks for the comments.

It has had paint, I've got receipts for it too, so I'll be addressing that in due course. In my experience, a good body shop shouldn't struggle with silver.

I'm hoping to add a multi function steering wheel on it at some point.

I had a look through the history I got with it, I've even got the original bill when the car was new, loads for servicing at BMW and tyres etc etc.

Going onto a ramp next week for a once over to see what lurks underneath..

[Triumph Man]

I do like an early E39, is it true that the M52s didn't suffer with the oil drinking that the M54s did?

They are also (generally) a joy to work on. A lot of stuff is well thought out and well engineered.

[JakeT]

Triumph Man said:

I do like an early E39, is it true that the M52s didn't suffer with the oil drinking that the M54s did?

They had a different piston ring design, so tended to be better for it. The PCV system was also less prone to clogging.

[Triumph Man]

JakeT said:

Triumph Man said:

I do like an early E39, is it true that the M52s didn't suffer with the oil drinking that the M54s did?

They had a different piston ring design, so tended to be better for it. The PCV system was also less prone to clogging.

Ah interesting - never knew the ring design was the reason... I wonder why BMW switched.

[james_gt3rs]

Nice, I'd like one of these as a tinkering/daily car.

[njw1]

Very nice! Be warned though, e39's don't half get under your skin, I'm on my fourth one as everytime I sell one I regret it and buy another. Good luck with it.

[StuntmanMike]

Triumph Man said:

I do like an early E39, is it true that the M52s didn't suffer with the oil drinking that the M54s did?

They are also (generally) a joy to work on. A lot of stuff is well thought out and well engineered.

I had both. The M52 was a 2.8 and very leggy, the M54 3.0 was a minter.

The M52 had more power low down but the M54 was faster everywhere else.

The M52 never used a drop of oil between servicesThe M54 was frankly a shock afterwards, every 2k was a litre of oil and that was within BMWs tolerances.

Edit: the M54 was never quite as good on fuel either.

Edited by StuntmanMike on Thursday 16th July 17:31