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

[joropug]

They carry their miles well and still look great today.

I took a pre facelift 530i Sport saloon as PX against my 330 for just £100 about 6 years ago ! it was on similar mileage and had a broken front bumper and some other issues. Sold it to a mate for £250 same day, who sold it for £900 days later to a trader he knew, who then sold it for similar money to you paid once tarted up.

[Prohibiting]

Awesome.

I’ve bidded on 2 cars, unseen and ended up winning them both.

One of them was an E39 540i touring which I regret selling last year. Sold it for double the amount I paid though with a good advert and nice photos after a proper clean!

[JeremyH5]

swampy442 said:

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?

I have this BC button problem on my E38. The Man says it is caused by the slip ring electric circuit pathway being faulty on the steering column. Haven’t bothered to seek a fix.

[PurpleTurtle]

I love an E39 Touring, buckling in for the bearding!

[Alfred Pina]

I do love an e39 tourer. I only recently sold mine in the same spec as yours, but with a manual. I actually would have preferred the auto because it was a bit too much of a pudding.

Great work bidding blind and seeing it through

[carinaman]

Thanks for the updates.

[pits]

JeremyH5 said:

swampy442 said:

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?

I have this BC button problem on my E38. The Man says it is caused by the slip ring electric circuit pathway being faulty on the steering column. Haven’t bothered to seek a fix.

Usually there are two little wires in the button itself that breaks, new stalk usually fixes it, if you had said 2 weeks ago you both could have had one but I lobbed them all in the skip, along with loads of other E39/8 parts, even an E38 petrol tank which didn't leak but no one wanted to come pick it up.

[JeremyH5]

pits said:

Usually there are two little wires in the button itself that breaks, new stalk usually fixes it, if you had said 2 weeks ago you both could have had one but I lobbed them all in the skip, along with loads of other E39/8 parts, even an E38 petrol tank which didn't leak but no one wanted to come pick it up.

Good info. And. Bugger.

[swampy442]

pits said:

Usually there are two little wires in the button itself that breaks, new stalk usually fixes it, if you had said 2 weeks ago you both could have had one but I lobbed them all in the skip, along with loads of other E39/8 parts, even an E38 petrol tank which didn't leak but no one wanted to come pick it up.

Ah cool, new stalk's aren't a lot so I'll look into that, thanks I know on the whole it doesn't make a lot of difference but I'd rather it's working if its fitted.

Im working away this week so in the mean time my track control arms and heater valves have turned up, thats this weekend sorted out

[swampy442]

Prohibiting said:

Awesome.

I’ve bidded on 2 cars, unseen and ended up winning them both.

One of them was an E39 540i touring which I regret selling last year. Sold it for double the amount I paid though with a good advert and nice photos after a proper clean!

I really fancied the 540, but the rarity and occasionally problematic engines put me off, I stuck with the bullet proof 3 litre. Buying sight unseen is exciting and also scary because you rely entirely on the description. But if youre handy with a spanner its not really too bad

[Chopdogs]

A great car - I had a 530d version (slightly older). Loved it - basically a nice comfy armchair in a well appointed living room on wheels.

Drove it for many 10's of thousands of miles.

Swapped it for the newer (Bangle) version which I hated - so Mrs Chopdogs had that and I got a 330i convertible (another fantastic car).

[d_a_n1979]

swampy442 said:

Prohibiting said:

Awesome.

I’ve bidded on 2 cars, unseen and ended up winning them both.

One of them was an E39 540i touring which I regret selling last year. Sold it for double the amount I paid though with a good advert and nice photos after a proper clean!

I really fancied the 540, but the rarity and occasionally problematic engines put me off, I stuck with the bullet proof 3 litre. Buying sight unseen is exciting and also scary because you rely entirely on the description. But if youre handy with a spanner its not really too bad

Fully agree with that; the 'simple' issues that can go wrong with the M62 can be so much more expensive to fix than the same issues with the M54

And for me, the M54 is such a good engine and the steering is much better than the V8s

But; if an immaculate 540i touring cropped up; it'd be very hard to ignore IMO

|And then really it's the M5 territory and we all know how bloody expensive they are now!

[swampy442]

I turned down a 540i manual at 2.5k last year, mate of mine used it for a 'Ring tool lol

[Davyf]

I hate the way the "quality" brand being BMW fit those fake leather plastic seats, then sellers list them with leather.....

[ray-am7zo]

I have just taken this 530d back from a friend I sold it to last September. The first owner had it for 17 years or thereabouts. He was a scientist for Mobil and worked on the development of Mobil 1 (back in the 1970's I think it was called SHC). He did a massive mileage and changed the Mobil 1 engine oil every 5k miles. The car was mot'd on Monday at 279k miles! The E39 was an excellently designed and built car and if looked after is capable of USS Enterprise starship mileage. I doubt if any car of current manufacture will get that far.

[Cheburator mk2]

We had a 1997 540i Touring for 12 years and took it from 75k to 160k... It was the cable throttle, non-Vanos lump, Auto. Swapped to a set of Eibachs at the front and Bilsteins all round and it handled pretty nicely. It was an SE in Oxford Green 2, but with Sports seat in Ivory with green piping. Black dash and carpets. It looked stunning.

It was super reliable, but truth be told, it wasn't as good a steer as my mates E39 530i Touring. The heavy V8 and the steering box made it great at 7/10 but anything beyond that was a bit iffy. Glad that I have ticked that box. Sold it for £2k... Mind you, despite the full service history and all the care that I lavished upon it, it still leaked like a sieve. The current F15 50i is the first V8 BMW that I have owned, which hasn't started leaking... yet...

[Clarkedontgo]

Nice purchase !, get those sills done soon as little bits of rust there can turn into a huge job

[pits]

swampy442 said:

pits said:

Usually there are two little wires in the button itself that breaks, new stalk usually fixes it, if you had said 2 weeks ago you both could have had one but I lobbed them all in the skip, along with loads of other E39/8 parts, even an E38 petrol tank which didn't leak but no one wanted to come pick it up.

Ah cool, new stalk's aren't a lot so I'll look into that, thanks I know on the whole it doesn't make a lot of difference but I'd rather it's working if its fitted.

Im working away this week so in the mean time my track control arms and heater valves have turned up, thats this weekend sorted out

I'll have a look, I may have a few kicking about somewhere you can try.

[swampy442]

pits said:

swampy442 said:

pits said:

Usually there are two little wires in the button itself that breaks, new stalk usually fixes it, if you had said 2 weeks ago you both could have had one but I lobbed them all in the skip, along with loads of other E39/8 parts, even an E38 petrol tank which didn't leak but no one wanted to come pick it up.

Ah cool, new stalk's aren't a lot so I'll look into that, thanks I know on the whole it doesn't make a lot of difference but I'd rather it's working if its fitted.

Im working away this week so in the mean time my track control arms and heater valves have turned up, thats this weekend sorted out

I'll have a look, I may have a few kicking about somewhere you can try.

Thank you very much

[swampy442]

Weekend job - heater valve. Painless, too 10 minutes, no need for an in depth how to. Obvious why the old one wasn't working.

On a side note everything Ive touched so far looks to be original, so Im assuming I'll be changing a lot of bits soon lol.

Looks like the troublesome intake pipe was replaced recently though




New valve vs old valve






Also had a look into the drivers door speaker not working, looks like there's no power getting to it so more invest required on that front