The 'Oh crap, I won it' E39 530i
Discussion
Max M4X WW said:
Good tip, thanks 
I'm not a religious man, but in the words of Winston Zeddemore from Ghostbsters 'If theres a free long weekend off in it, I'll believe anything you say' Or words to that effect.
If I had a wife she'd say "Stop touching it, leave it alone" Instead my brother said those words, and he has a point, it works so why mess about? I want it to be right. So down the unit I went again
Really must crack on with this, but thats a story for another thread.
|https://thumbsnap.com/Nu3pG9rf[/url]
Anyway I digress, with the J man's resurrection, I took the opportunity to give the 5 a good, and much needed service. According to the book and receipts, it apparently hasn't seen a fresh drink of oil for 30k miles!
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So new filters, oil and spark plugs, here we go. The oil was filthy, jet black, it had clearly been in a long time, given by how flat the O ring was on the filter housing
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|https://thumbsnap.com/BegqJ5jU[/url]
And the spark plugs didnt look much better
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All in all a couple of hours well spent, runs much nicer no no surprises, gave the engine bay a bit of a spruce up to celebrate
If I had a wife she'd say "Stop touching it, leave it alone" Instead my brother said those words, and he has a point, it works so why mess about? I want it to be right. So down the unit I went again
Really must crack on with this, but thats a story for another thread.
|https://thumbsnap.com/Nu3pG9rf[/url]Anyway I digress, with the J man's resurrection, I took the opportunity to give the 5 a good, and much needed service. According to the book and receipts, it apparently hasn't seen a fresh drink of oil for 30k miles!
[url]So new filters, oil and spark plugs, here we go. The oil was filthy, jet black, it had clearly been in a long time, given by how flat the O ring was on the filter housing
\
|https://thumbsnap.com/BegqJ5jU[/url]And the spark plugs didnt look much better
[url]All in all a couple of hours well spent, runs much nicer no no surprises, gave the engine bay a bit of a spruce up to celebrate
Next problem - The failing stereo. It always had the drivers door blaring silence at me, I assumed a speaker but that was fine, in fact it woke up last weekend, and has been more or less fine ever since, sometimes it fades away then returns. Im assuming the radio unit is failing, as turning the volume dial results in all the volume or none in a degree of movement.
Pulled the stereo to check the wiring, found an aftermarket head unit adaptor, been there a while as it had an ooooold style iPhone adaptor plug
So now I have 2 options, fit an aftermarket head unit or source a replacement stock unit. Its never going to be brilliant, or even as good as the professional system in the 130, but I at least need it to work
Pulled the stereo to check the wiring, found an aftermarket head unit adaptor, been there a while as it had an ooooold style iPhone adaptor plug
So now I have 2 options, fit an aftermarket head unit or source a replacement stock unit. Its never going to be brilliant, or even as good as the professional system in the 130, but I at least need it to work
Its all about small victories today, the car came with 3 matching keys in various states of disrepair, unfortunately none of them operated the remote central locking. Normally it doesn't bother me, but a car with bells and whistles should have all said items working.
In the Jiffy bag containing keys and key parts were 2 batteries, but they have to be soldered to the circuit board, which isnt my strong point. But I had bash and blow me if it didnt work!! So now I have remote central locking keys fully working. Result!
In the Jiffy bag containing keys and key parts were 2 batteries, but they have to be soldered to the circuit board, which isnt my strong point. But I had bash and blow me if it didnt work!! So now I have remote central locking keys fully working. Result!
d_a_n1979 said:
You are using the button on the end of the stalk aren't you?
That's the intensive screen wash; not for the headlights...
Your touring will have 4 pumps; that one and then 3 attached to the main bottle that's behind the drivers side wheel arch (wheel off, wheel arch liner out and there it is)
Yes Ive used that but the line remains dry and I haven't used any wash as above. OK Ill look at the pumps over the weekend, cheers as always That's the intensive screen wash; not for the headlights...
Your touring will have 4 pumps; that one and then 3 attached to the main bottle that's behind the drivers side wheel arch (wheel off, wheel arch liner out and there it is)
Arch liner off, packed full of crap, which I expected.
Process of elimination and some studious plugging/unlugging of pumps turns out 2 of the 4 are shot, enhanced cleaning and headlight wash.
But during this process of power on and off, on a trolley jack an unexpected disaster hit, the rear suspension pumped itself up to max height and wont go down. Even my trusty Snap On code machine couldn't help, it didnt even register the car had SLS. Only option I can see is to bleed air off the springs to lower the car, take the battery off for a while and HOPE its sorts itself out
Process of elimination and some studious plugging/unlugging of pumps turns out 2 of the 4 are shot, enhanced cleaning and headlight wash.
But during this process of power on and off, on a trolley jack an unexpected disaster hit, the rear suspension pumped itself up to max height and wont go down. Even my trusty Snap On code machine couldn't help, it didnt even register the car had SLS. Only option I can see is to bleed air off the springs to lower the car, take the battery off for a while and HOPE its sorts itself out
d_a_n1979 said:
swampy442 said:
How would it fail when it was fine literally an hour earlier, there’s no dash warnings
That's just what they can do unfortunately. And they don't throw any warnings either 
Well worth taking them both off; cleaning the contacts and re-plugging them back in. That might sort it
But they do have a lovely habit of failing completely randomly...
Check the arms too and make sure they still move as they should. If not pop them off, clean and re-lubricate etc
CouncilFerrari said:
Interesting thread this, I've been looking at buying an E39 for a little while now. There's currently a 530i sport on ebay, manual. It's got a dent on every panel, so would be perfect for what I need!
I'm tempted to ape the OP's style and have a bid.
Did you win it? I'm tempted to ape the OP's style and have a bid.
Not really a lot to report, been driving it almost every day, loving it, taken care of a couple of diff naff jobs -
One of the LED angel eye bulbs packed up, a whopping 8 quid spend on Amazon and a new pair fitted, sorted.
Second one was slightly more involved, but didnt need to be...... This car has 4 washer pumps, front and rear screens, headlights and an intensive wash tank in the engine bay. The lights and intensive didnt work, the pumps looked ropey so got a new pair and stuck them in. Still don't work. Hmmm. Turns out the fuse was missing Didnt obey one of my basic rules, keep it simple, stupid. All working now,
The exhaust now sounds like a small man is hitting it with a hammer, embarrassing and it needs replacing, you cant hear it inside the car so im not so bothered lol. That just leaves the audio and the rear subframe bushes then Im then onto cosmetics.
I just love the way it drives, the way it looks, I just kind of like it
One of the LED angel eye bulbs packed up, a whopping 8 quid spend on Amazon and a new pair fitted, sorted.
Second one was slightly more involved, but didnt need to be...... This car has 4 washer pumps, front and rear screens, headlights and an intensive wash tank in the engine bay. The lights and intensive didnt work, the pumps looked ropey so got a new pair and stuck them in. Still don't work. Hmmm. Turns out the fuse was missing
Didnt obey one of my basic rules, keep it simple, stupid. All working now,The exhaust now sounds like a small man is hitting it with a hammer, embarrassing and it needs replacing, you cant hear it inside the car so im not so bothered lol. That just leaves the audio and the rear subframe bushes then Im then onto cosmetics.
I just love the way it drives, the way it looks, I just kind of like it
All is not well in E39 land.... Well it's not as bad as it sounds lol. The car was sold with an intermittent ABS fault, and so far that meant once when I picked it up, its been fine until this week. Error codes show a brake system pressure switch fault, which, using Google mechanics, seems to be a known problem so Ill look into that.
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