My 38,000 mile 2003 BMW E39 530i Sport
Discussion
Hi all,
I thought I would share my 2003 BMW E39 530i Champagne Edition II with you all which has done just 38,000 miles.
I purchased the car a few weeks ago after verifying the mileage carefully (vcheck, HPI, MOT history and service history with BMW since it is a full BMW service history car). It all checked out so that was great.
I always loved the E39 (I had one back in 2007) and I think most on here will think I am mad for spending so much maintaining what is an old car but I love these and want to keep it maintained and going for as long as possible! For me, it is a timeless design (the touring too) and from an era when it was very much driver orientated card (in my opinion).
I have had all sorts of other BMWs (E39 525d, E90 330i, E60 525i and 530i / 525d/535d, E65 730d, E90 M3, F20 M135i, E63 and E64 630i) but for me, I have always wished I never got rid of my original E39. Nice examples of the E39 are getting hard to find now so when I found this, it just ticked all the boxes for me. Being a Champagne Edition II was a bonus as I like the black/creme combination (similar to my E46 330i Individual which I also own).
Here is the car at the dealer on collection day:
Condition wise, it was fantastic given its almost 20 years old and the interior hardly had a scratch on it. Most importantly, there was no rust on or under the body so that was great!
The only problems I noted were the below:
-Dashboard pixels not working
-Navigation screen not working
Not a major issue in my eyes since the supplying dealer would pay me back to get these issues sorted so that was good.
On the 2-3 hour drive back home, I also noted vibration coming from the steering wheel when at 60-70MPH and braking hard. Since I had the car booked in for a Inspection 2 in a few days (and to get the car checked over), I would ask the independent BMW specialist I had it booked in with to take a look.
Upon getting it home, I undertook a quick detail of the car and interior.
Note the instrument cluster is missing since it was away for repair at the time of the photo:
During the Inspection 2, the garage also noted the below:
- Intake pipe split (common on the M54s)
- PAS cap leaking
- Front bendy control arms, front brakes and discs, both front tie rod and ends (which were seized) and Hunter 4 wheel alignment recommended to be replaced to fix the vibration issue
So I approved all of the above and the the difference it made to the ride was astonishing! Super comfortable and just glides along the road now.
The tyres on the car were a mix of Hankooks on the front and Toyo's on the rear so I corrected that. They were also 10 years old and whilst there was plenty of tread left, I did not feel comfortable driving on such old tyres given that this E39 is my daily. So after a lot of research and checking out the E39 forums in Germany, I decided to go with Falken FK510s which had good reviews (also the excellent M539 Restorations on YouTube has them on his E39 M5).
A few days later, I received the repaired instrument cluster back. I used a local automotive electronics shop to repair the instrument cluster with a lifetime warranty so that was good.
After doing some digging, I managed to get hold of the previous owner who was a great guy. He told me a little bit of history of the car (it was originally a Sytner car and then he purchased it in 2003) and for the last few years, he has had it in storage hence the low mileage. Really fascinating to hear his thoughts on the car, additions he asked Sytner to make to it (such as adding a CD Changer) keeping it all within the BMW network and the fact that he would love to see the car again! I said we will keep in touch and I am sure we can arrange something after Covid-19.
I then turned my attention to the navigation. Now the excellent guys on Forum5 (and Dan who is also a member on here) were a fantastic help in this. The problem was that there was no display being displayed on the screen. The Radio and CD worked fine. The navigation DVD unit in the boot seemed to be working as the red light was on and I could hear the disc spinning.
Anyway, I sent the DVD unit off to be looked at / repaired and once I got that back and adjusted a few connections, it was working fine!
It was then time for another mini-detail:
That brings us bang up to date.
What's left to do:
-Cooling system overhaul. This will be done within the next couple of months.
-Leather refurbishment. The leather is not in bad condition at all but it is something I would like to get refurbished. However, it is quite low on the priority list since I also need to spend some attention on my E46 330i Individual.
Apologies for the length of this and thanks if you managed to make it this far!
I thought I would share my 2003 BMW E39 530i Champagne Edition II with you all which has done just 38,000 miles.
I purchased the car a few weeks ago after verifying the mileage carefully (vcheck, HPI, MOT history and service history with BMW since it is a full BMW service history car). It all checked out so that was great.
I always loved the E39 (I had one back in 2007) and I think most on here will think I am mad for spending so much maintaining what is an old car but I love these and want to keep it maintained and going for as long as possible! For me, it is a timeless design (the touring too) and from an era when it was very much driver orientated card (in my opinion).
I have had all sorts of other BMWs (E39 525d, E90 330i, E60 525i and 530i / 525d/535d, E65 730d, E90 M3, F20 M135i, E63 and E64 630i) but for me, I have always wished I never got rid of my original E39. Nice examples of the E39 are getting hard to find now so when I found this, it just ticked all the boxes for me. Being a Champagne Edition II was a bonus as I like the black/creme combination (similar to my E46 330i Individual which I also own).
Here is the car at the dealer on collection day:
Condition wise, it was fantastic given its almost 20 years old and the interior hardly had a scratch on it. Most importantly, there was no rust on or under the body so that was great!
The only problems I noted were the below:
-Dashboard pixels not working
-Navigation screen not working
Not a major issue in my eyes since the supplying dealer would pay me back to get these issues sorted so that was good.
On the 2-3 hour drive back home, I also noted vibration coming from the steering wheel when at 60-70MPH and braking hard. Since I had the car booked in for a Inspection 2 in a few days (and to get the car checked over), I would ask the independent BMW specialist I had it booked in with to take a look.
Upon getting it home, I undertook a quick detail of the car and interior.
Note the instrument cluster is missing since it was away for repair at the time of the photo:
During the Inspection 2, the garage also noted the below:
- Intake pipe split (common on the M54s)
- PAS cap leaking
- Front bendy control arms, front brakes and discs, both front tie rod and ends (which were seized) and Hunter 4 wheel alignment recommended to be replaced to fix the vibration issue
So I approved all of the above and the the difference it made to the ride was astonishing! Super comfortable and just glides along the road now.
The tyres on the car were a mix of Hankooks on the front and Toyo's on the rear so I corrected that. They were also 10 years old and whilst there was plenty of tread left, I did not feel comfortable driving on such old tyres given that this E39 is my daily. So after a lot of research and checking out the E39 forums in Germany, I decided to go with Falken FK510s which had good reviews (also the excellent M539 Restorations on YouTube has them on his E39 M5).
A few days later, I received the repaired instrument cluster back. I used a local automotive electronics shop to repair the instrument cluster with a lifetime warranty so that was good.
After doing some digging, I managed to get hold of the previous owner who was a great guy. He told me a little bit of history of the car (it was originally a Sytner car and then he purchased it in 2003) and for the last few years, he has had it in storage hence the low mileage. Really fascinating to hear his thoughts on the car, additions he asked Sytner to make to it (such as adding a CD Changer) keeping it all within the BMW network and the fact that he would love to see the car again! I said we will keep in touch and I am sure we can arrange something after Covid-19.
I then turned my attention to the navigation. Now the excellent guys on Forum5 (and Dan who is also a member on here) were a fantastic help in this. The problem was that there was no display being displayed on the screen. The Radio and CD worked fine. The navigation DVD unit in the boot seemed to be working as the red light was on and I could hear the disc spinning.
Anyway, I sent the DVD unit off to be looked at / repaired and once I got that back and adjusted a few connections, it was working fine!
It was then time for another mini-detail:
That brings us bang up to date.
What's left to do:
-Cooling system overhaul. This will be done within the next couple of months.
-Leather refurbishment. The leather is not in bad condition at all but it is something I would like to get refurbished. However, it is quite low on the priority list since I also need to spend some attention on my E46 330i Individual.
Apologies for the length of this and thanks if you managed to make it this far!
Lovely car, I don’t think these will depreciate further given the interest in them and they are a ‘high water mark’ for the five series. My dad ran an ex dealer demo 525TDS touring manual and it was sadly missed when he replaced it with a new Discovery 2 that broke down constantly... congratulations for running it is a daily, I often muse over the practicalities of running and older daily after years of company cars, keep the updates coming please!
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