528i

[st_files]

Thinking of trading in the Focus for a 1999-2003 528 or maybe 530.

Are there any particular problems I should look out for? I dont want to spend more than £4-4.5K.

Many thanks in advance.

[forsure]

I've had my '00/W, low mileage, fsh, 528iSE auto for 18 months, and I love it.

Described by 'Autocar', at the time, as 'The best car in the real world'.
The combination of comfort, space, perfomance, handling, refinement, build quality and economy is hard to beat - especially at their current values.
There are many satisfied E39-owning PH'ers on the site's BMW 'list'.

I paid £2850 for mine in '08; it has cost me £200 in servicing and £200 in repairs (water pump).

Problem areas are:
Cooling system (water-pumps and radiators - my pump failed at 75k).
Front suspension/steering joints/bearings - watch for vibration at speed and under braking.
Headlamps (esp. dipped) are poor, and prone to condensation - this was sorted from '01-on (530i), but fitting the later units to an earlier model will cost £300+.
Standard sound-system is poor and complicated/expensive to upgrade.

There are plenty of threads here discussing the above problems, and maybe others I'm not aware of.

Old enough that some are now 'bangers', but good enough that there are many well-maintained examples around with years of life left.

[miniman]

There are also a few easily sortable electrical gremlins:

- the climate control final stage resistor (the "hedgehog") fails causing the fan to stay running, killing the battery
- the clock spring connecting the steering wheel to the rest of the electrics fails causing airbag faults and multi-func steering wheel failure
- the ignition switch starts to fail causing random electrical gremlins (e.g. no wipers, radio comes on randomly etc.)

Mine has had all of the above - total cost of about £100 to fix.

[miniman]

One other thing. An old £100 laptop and one of these will be invaluable!

[BillyB]

miniman - what cable/software is that? I can never work out which software is best for e39's

[528Sport]

BillyB said:

miniman - what cable/software is that? I can never work out which software is best for e39's

If your car has the obd2 socket get the autel maxiscan 509 £109 I paid and its brilliant
The OBD2 socket is in the coin holder thingy below the steering wheel.
It does not do airbag faults or reset service lights but apart from that great


I have carsoft and I think its crap as it never seems to work

http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=5176728

Edited by 528Sport on Friday 12th February 15:09

[miniman]

BillyB said:

miniman - what cable/software is that? I can never work out which software is best for e39's

It works with INPA / Ediabas. Get the cable from a German seller on eBay rather than China for best quality. 9 times out of 10 the software will "accidentally" end up in the box.

With my car, 90% of the faults have been niggles that cause the airbag light to come on so software that doesn't deal with that is useless IMHO. £50 should see you up and running.

Worth reading this: http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=76... - I wrote it after spending quite a while getting it all working.

HTH