The 'Oh crap, I won it' E39 530i

[tobinen]

An excellent purchase sir. I too have recently joined the 530i touring 'club'.

[swampy442]

tobinen said:

An excellent purchase sir. I too have recently joined the 530i touring 'club'.

I know, yours is a bit better than mine though

[d_a_n1979]

Summit_Detailing said:

carinaman said:

Good looking car. I think that's a good price.

Does it have Xenons?

I'd say not, given the headlamp levelling slider in the last interior pic

^^^ This

Unless xenons have been retrofitted (very easy to do; just xenon ballasts, D2S to H7 adapters and then D2S bulbs of your choice); they're halogens

[d_a_n1979]

swampy442 said:

tobinen said:

An excellent purchase sir. I too have recently joined the 530i touring 'club'.

I know, yours is a bit better than mine though

They're all E39 Touring's

They're ALL excellent cars...

Unless it's a dirty oil burning 530D

[Huff]

That's ebay-buy full of win. Like it very much.

I completely agree with Dan's recommendations on parts/ approaches from my own experience.



& - do keep this thread updated

[swampy442]

Gearbox mounts on order, track control arms on order, then we'll see how we go

This weekend amongst other projects, sort the door speakers out.

[d_a_n1979]

swampy442 said:

Gearbox mounts on order, track control arms on order, then we'll see how we go

This weekend amongst other projects, sort the door speakers out.

Are the headlights ok; ie do they level out when you switch the engine on?

If unsure; wobble the bulb holder on the back of them, if they move, a lot, the adjusters are fubar unfortunately

But I'm sure you already know this

[g3org3y]

Congrats OP, great car, Sport kit really suits these.

Decent engine (watch the oil consumption). Always nice to see a matching set of 5x OEM alloys.

How the bodywork?

[Court_S]

That looks like a cracking buy OP.

Looking forward to updates and hearing how you get on with it.

[swampy442]

d_a_n1979 said:

Summit_Detailing said:

carinaman said:

Good looking car. I think that's a good price.

Does it have Xenons?

I'd say not, given the headlamp levelling slider in the last interior pic

^^^ This

Unless xenons have been retrofitted (very easy to do; just xenon ballasts, D2S to H7 adapters and then D2S bulbs of your choice); they're halogens

It doesn't have have Xenons I can report, just standard bulbs

[swampy442]

d_a_n1979 said:

Are the headlights ok; ie do they level out when you switch the engine on?

If unsure; wobble the bulb holder on the back of them, if they move, a lot, the adjusters are fubar unfortunately

But I'm sure you already know this

Yep, self levelling work fine, in fact the only electrickery thing that doesn't work is the key lock/unlock function

[swampy442]

Thanks everyone for all the kind comments

g3org3y said:

Congrats OP, great car, Sport kit really suits these.

Decent engine (watch the oil consumption). Always nice to see a matching set of 5x OEM alloys.

How the bodywork?

The oil consumption isnt helped by the fact a lot of it is leaking out Bodywork is very good, only rust is some minor patches in front of the rear wheels on the sills, which I plan to tackle soon, but other than that standard 200k mile wear and tear

[d_a_n1979]

swampy442 said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Are the headlights ok; ie do they level out when you switch the engine on?

If unsure; wobble the bulb holder on the back of them, if they move, a lot, the adjusters are fubar unfortunately

But I'm sure you already know this

Yep, self levelling work fine, in fact the only electrickery thing that doesn't work is the key lock/unlock function

Hmmmm.. Bad battery in fob or EWS issues?

[swampy442]

EWS?

[d_a_n1979]

swampy442 said:

EWS?

https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/34976-e39-ews-immobilizer-fault-not-cranking/

If not already, join the 5 forums.

Massive wealth of knowledge in there; we're a happy bunch of miserable gits

Edited by d_a_n1979 on Sunday 7th March 10:42

[99t]

swampy442 said:

Looks a cracking buy, always fancied an e39, never happened for various reasons.

I have to say though, having never been underneath one, that front sub-frame...

Honestly looks looks like something I knocked together out of bits of old scrap, in a hurry, on a bad day!! I guess it appears pretty clean at least!

Look forward to following though

[swampy442]

99t said:

Looks a cracking buy, always fancied an e39, never happened for various reasons.

I have to say though, having never been underneath one, that front sub-frame...

Honestly looks looks like something I knocked together out of bits of old scrap, in a hurry, on a bad day!! I guess it appears pretty clean at least!

Look forward to following though

Thats what I thought, looks like something off a kit car

[Mani59]

Congratulations! Looking forward to following this.

[swampy442]

As posted in the BM forumz, the car has a slight rumble, revs dependant not road speed, so as a quick kill I’d change the gearbox mounts. Cheap, easy.

Awful, soft misshapen nastiness out, freshness in







And I thought I’d found the exhaust rattle, the bracket had sheared, turns out that’s not it. Oh well

[swampy442]

And a mystery popped yesterday morning when the lower section of the dash, which I assumed was dead, sprung to life!



I have the stalk similar to below but the BC button doesn’t do anything, any ideas?