RE: SOTW: BMW 540i Touring
Discussion
TonyRPH said:
IMHO, I think those who extol the virtues of these cars have had lucky secondhand buys, or are in denial.
Depends when you buy them second hand. I bought my E39 530i Touring almost 8 years ago when 3-4 years old for £18K. I've never skimped on any servicing or parts and up until recently it has been nothing but exceptional for over 150,000 miles in my ownership with nothing major until an alternator.I think E39 are great second hand buys - until about 150K when the big bills start coming in. Then it's a bit of a gamble. But get one with all the work done or be prepared to throw a bit of cash and it'll do you fine until 250,000.
Strawman said:
CraigyMc said:
I wonder if it's a BMW thing to be pretty close to your proper top speed. This BMW is supposed to do 142mph:
I think so, the official figures used to be taken from a car with two adults, some luggage and a full tank of fuel on board, I guess when your main market can actually try out the v-max fairly easily it pays to be truthful.C
CraigyMc said:
I'm sure they are still done with a load - but weight has little to do with top speed.
C
True, it was more the reassurance they were trying to give real life figures for acceleration rather than trying to optimise the figures for marketing. Hence the top speed figure is more credible.C
blartbox said:
If the shimmy is particularly apparent under braking it is either warped discs or the bushes in the front torque reaction arms. Other clonks & shimmys from the back may well be knackered rear subframe bushes - £200 for the parts alone & you have to rent a special tool to change them. Then there was replacement of the rear susp airbags - an easy job but over 300 quid for parts. When one of these lets go you are stranded - no limping home as you usually can if a steel roadspring breaks. My 528 needed a new airbag ECU costing nearly 600 quid to fix. Recently spent £400 on air con repairs & £300 on a new cat. New rear tyres too. Presently my pride & joy is marooned in Scotland after boiling up on holiday. The garage have replaced the water pump, thermostat & head gasket. Still boils & still has signs of combustion products in the coolant so it looks like the head has cracked or gone porous. Time to weigh it in methinks. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED....
Oh dear! sounds terminal...Edited by blartbox on Monday 12th November 13:03
The waterpump on the M52(and M50/M54) motor is a plastic impellor on a metal shaft...It is very common for the plastic to crack and the shaft to just spin around inside the impellor resulting in no water being pumped around the engine.
If you don't notice and let the engine overheat, then the all alloy M52/M54 engines can quickly become scrap...or at least requiring a good specialist or machine shop to fix...
The head bolts are screwed into steel helicoil inserts in the alloy block. When the block overheats, the steel inserts become loose in the alloy and it makes torquing the head bolts impossible. Hence the head lifts under pressure allowing the water/oil/combustion material to all mix and the engine to continue overheating despite the new waterpump and 'stat...
Yes, the helicoils can be re-seated, but M52 528 motors are cheap enough secondhand to make a replacement engine a better solution...Just make sure the waterpump is replaced with a metal/metal type (ECP do one) and always use a decent antifreeze/coolant.
If the car is good enough to have spent money on aircon, cat, etc then it must be worth a punt on a s/h warranted motor.
eg: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-3-5-SERIES-528-328-E...
TonyRPH said:
IMHO, I think those who extol the virtues of these cars have had lucky secondhand buys, or are in denial.
That's a possiblity, but so is it a possibility that those who had bad experiences were unlucky.I've had three E39s, all over 10 years old when bought, and none cost more than £1400. I've had no cooling system, engine, gearbox, electrical, rust, or miscellaneous problems at all, and the only major thing I've replaced in c.30,000 miles across the three cars is one clutch and two brake discs. £300.
Maybe I was lucky, or maybe these are actually bloody tough cars, which sold so well and have such a following that there's a deceptive amount of posts on the internet about what problems they do incur.
SpeckledJim said:
TonyRPH said:
IMHO, I think those who extol the virtues of these cars have had lucky secondhand buys, or are in denial.
That's a possiblity, but so is it a possibility that those who had bad experiences were unlucky.I've had three E39s, all over 10 years old when bought, and none cost more than £1400. I've had no cooling system, engine, gearbox, electrical, rust, or miscellaneous problems at all, and the only major thing I've replaced in c.30,000 miles across the three cars is one clutch and two brake discs. £300.
Maybe I was lucky, or maybe these are actually bloody tough cars, which sold so well and have such a following that there's a deceptive amount of posts on the internet about what problems they do incur.
In my time it had a water pump fail (on the day I bought it), and a hole in the radiator (which was due to a combination of a road with loose chippings and a missing front undertray I hadn't realised was missing until the radiator was holed), a clutch went (well, it's a wear part, so that's fair enough - the car had done 97,000 before I bought it and another 30,000-odd after).
All in all it was a lovely big old barge, but you can't treat something of this vintage and class as a runabout without realistically expecting the occasional problem.
I took out a parts&labour warranty on mine when I bought it - they will cover anything up to 10 years old and up to 100,000 miles. Mine was 9.something years old and just under 100K on purpose (I wanted the warranty cover!).
The £75 P&L warranty (from the AA) covered the holed rad. (Cost: just under £400)
The dealer covered the water pump. (Cost: unknown.)
I covered the clutch myself. (Cost: £200-odd, iirc).
My point here is that you should expect the thing to break and plan accordingly. I did and I loved the car for it.
C
Ozzie Osmond said:
E39 was a big, complicated and expensive car.
Today you can buy one for Fiesta money. Your chances of running one for Fiesta money are very small indeed.
True...except BMW (non-M) parts are not expensive at all and are, on the whole, easily available even for cars 25+ years old.Today you can buy one for Fiesta money. Your chances of running one for Fiesta money are very small indeed.
They are renowned for electrical gremlins but, other than that, are generally pretty reliable and well built as are the E36 and E38 stable mates.
There are many decent specialists all over the country in the event you need parts or work doing.
I have an E36 328i (same engine/gearbox as the early 528i) and it is a superb unit...uses no oil, always reliable, powerful and fairly economical overall.
Yes, they do have issues if you allow them to overheat, but so long as the cooling system is in good condition and the oil is changed to schedule, then they will easily do 250K miles or more.
I must admit, the 540i in saloon form has really made me re-consider my post-Christmas next car purchase. I had initially set my sights on a Mk2 MR2 Turbo but the 540i really does appeal to me. I do get the feeling I may regret not plumping for the MR2 for it's sheer straight line speed and handling capabilities but a nice V8 in a comfortable shell with good torque seems tempting. I understand the two cars couldn't be more chalk and cheese, how much slower would the 1700kg 540 feel compares to the lightweight MR2? Has anybody had the pleasure of driving both?
Sam1990 said:
I must admit, the 540i in saloon form has really made me re-consider my post-Christmas next car purchase. I had initially set my sights on a Mk2 MR2 Turbo but the 540i really does appeal to me. I do get the feeling I may regret not plumping for the MR2 for it's sheer straight line speed and handling capabilities but a nice V8 in a comfortable shell with good torque seems tempting. I understand the two cars couldn't be more chalk and cheese, how much slower would the 1700kg 540 feel compares to the lightweight MR2? Has anybody had the pleasure of driving both?
The MR2 won't actually be all that much faster in a straight line anyway. If anything it'd be more likely to be quicker in corners.It does have a higher power to weight ratio (178bhp/ton versus 165bhp/ton for the 540).
Both cars do 0-60 in just over 6 seconds with a manual box (the 540 auto is about 6.5), but the 540 does 155mph (electronically limited) where the MR2 is limited to 149mph by only having 220bhp to the 540's 280bhp.
Put another way: at high speeds the 540 is probably quicker in a straight line because of the higher power level.
C
hornetrider said:
CampDavid said:
I can only really think of one good reason for not buying an E39 and that's the E38
Touring?! 
Would love to see an E38 Shooting Brake
CraigyMc said:
BMW actually built one, and a few enthusiasts have converted E39 saloon M5s into tourings themselves, but it's hardly the same as BMW mass producing them.
C
Thing is, it then starts becoming a pricey thing. An E39 at £3500 is an awesome, awesome thing.C
An E39 at big money is hard to stomach. An Alpina B10S would be awesome, really, really awesome but it'd cost 5 figures. The 530i Sport Touring though does 99% of everything the Alpina is good at for about £2-4k, that's surely where the smart money has to go
CampDavid said:
Thing is, it then starts becoming a pricey thing. An E39 at £3500 is an awesome, awesome thing.
An E39 at big money is hard to stomach. An Alpina B10S would be awesome, really, really awesome but it'd cost 5 figures. The 530i Sport Touring though does 99% of everything the Alpina is good at for about £2-4k, that's surely where the smart money has to go
Which Alpina? I'd say it does about 90% of a 3.2/3.3, and considerably less of a V8 or V8S car, perhaps 75% - they are poles apart in terms of performance and ride quality and a lot of the time equipment levels.An E39 at big money is hard to stomach. An Alpina B10S would be awesome, really, really awesome but it'd cost 5 figures. The 530i Sport Touring though does 99% of everything the Alpina is good at for about £2-4k, that's surely where the smart money has to go
Not sure the 'smart money' at £2k would go on a 530i Sport Touring to be honest. It's dubious as to the quality of the saloons at this money let alone the Tourers which are a little more desireable and rarer anyway.
If you have £2k then a 528i SE Touring is where the 'smart' money goes.
If you have £2k then a 528i SE Touring is where the 'smart' money goes.
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