E39 530i Sport Touring

[meb90]

Thought I ought to start a thread as I am sure they will be some people interested in the car.

So what is it? Its a Japanese import 2002 BMW E39 530i Sport Touring, in Titanium Silver Metallic.

I purchased from another PH'er, and his thread for the car can be found here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I travelled up on the train to Preston from Derby yesterday to meet Dan, who was great and had obviously taken care of the car. After a couple of hours going over things, I departed for the trip home which went by faultlessly. So far, I am very pleased.

This is my first foray into an E39 and BMW in general, but I have been wanting one for a little while. This one seemed to be a good example with none of the dreaded rust

Anyway, enough rambling, some pictures:
A pit-stop on the way home:


This morning on the driveway:

Please excuse the state of the driveway, it is a work in progress!

Cheers, Matt

Edited by meb90 on Tuesday 14th September 12:10

[Uncle Meat]

Oh that's great that's staying in the PH community.
I always watch Dan's posts as that looks an awesome example.

Enjoy!

[d_a_n1979]

Good to see the thread up & running Matt

It's an odd feeling seeing the car in those pics and it a) not being mine and b) not sat on my driveway

Enjoy the car

[Court_S]

You’ve bought a belter of an E39 there.

Looking forward to the continued updates.

[aaron_2000]

Following from the previous thread

[88LG]

Great car there! Well cared for! Good luck with it!

[JohnWest]

Congratulations on your new car, you’ve probably bought the cleanest E39 in the land! Looking forward to continue reading about your new car.

I spotted that Mondeo and had a feeling it’d be a 2.5T, do you have a thread on it? I had one for 3 years and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[meb90]

Thanks all

I would agree that it has been cared for by Dan, I intend to keep the car in the same condition. I've been rubbish at washing my other cars due to them having paintwork issues, but I don't have that excuse any more!

Dan - I can understand your view! I am enjoying it so far

Regarding the Mondeo, yes it is a 2.5T. No thread I'm afraid as I never started one. I'll write some words here though seeing as you asked.
It's been a great car, I bought it with 146,000 miles 5 years ago, replaced the entirety of the suspension as it was original and knackered, and replaced things as and when they were required (not much in truth). I did stage 1 Bluefin map it, so on paper it had about 260bhp and 400Nm but I never dyno'd it. As it sits, it is on 218,000 miles, but it won't cover anymore as I will be braking it soon. The engine developed a knock, and when I dropped the oil I found slivers of metal in the oil. I suspect a big end bearing has spun. It isn't worth fixing to me as it has some rust underneath, and rebuilding the engine isn't something I want to do. Hence the purchase of the 530i to take over estate car duties

Talking of estate car duties, I bought some compost for the garden which it coped with excellently, I love the self levelling suspension!

[d_a_n1979]

meb90 said:

Thanks all

I would agree that it has been cared for by Dan, I intend to keep the car in the same condition. I've been rubbish at washing my other cars due to them having paintwork issues, but I don't have that excuse any more!

Dan - I can understand your view! I am enjoying it so far

Regarding the Mondeo, yes it is a 2.5T. No thread I'm afraid as I never started one. I'll write some words here though seeing as you asked.
It's been a great car, I bought it with 146,000 miles 5 years ago, replaced the entirety of the suspension as it was original and knackered, and replaced things as and when they were required (not much in truth). I did stage 1 Bluefin map it, so on paper it had about 260bhp and 400Nm but I never dyno'd it. As it sits, it is on 218,000 miles, but it won't cover anymore as I will be braking it soon. The engine developed a knock, and when I dropped the oil I found slivers of metal in the oil. I suspect a big end bearing has spun. It isn't worth fixing to me as it has some rust underneath, and rebuilding the engine isn't something I want to do. Hence the purchase of the 530i to take over estate car duties

Talking of estate car duties, I bought some compost for the garden which it coped with excellently, I love the self levelling suspension!

Oi... Don't be getting it duurrrty

[meb90]

d_a_n1979 said:

Oi... Don't be getting it duurrrty

That's why the dust sheet got called into use! Haha.

[g3org3y]

Uncle Meat said:

Oh that's great that's staying in the PH community.
I always watch Dan's posts as that looks an awesome example.

Enjoy!

+1

[meb90]

MOT day today - passed with flying colours

Tester said it was cleaner than a clean thing underneath and was very impressed with it - guess Dan gets a good chunk of that credit!

[d_a_n1979]

meb90 said:

MOT day today - passed with flying colours

Tester said it was cleaner than a clean thing underneath and was very impressed with it - guess Dan gets a good chunk of that credit!

Thank goodness for that or I'd have owed you £40

Glad it's got another year of clean health pal Keep it in the condition it's in and it'll never fail an MOT

[meb90]

d_a_n1979 said:

Thank goodness for that or I'd have owed you £40

Glad it's got another year of clean health pal Keep it in the condition it's in and it'll never fail an MOT

Haha! I was 99.9% sure it would pass, but MOT day is always comes with a little nervousness.

I am glad too. That's my plan! Hopefully won't be much of a challenge

Quick question - I've had a scan through your thread (and not had a chance to get under it), did you get chance to Lanoguard the rear arches? I know you got to the front arches and the sills. Sorry if you did mention it.

[d_a_n1979]

meb90 said:

d_a_n1979 said:

Thank goodness for that or I'd have owed you £40

Glad it's got another year of clean health pal Keep it in the condition it's in and it'll never fail an MOT

Haha! I was 99.9% sure it would pass, but MOT day is always comes with a little nervousness.

I am glad too. That's my plan! Hopefully won't be much of a challenge

Quick question - I've had a scan through your thread (and not had a chance to get under it), did you get chance to Lanoguard the rear arches? I know you got to the front arches and the sills. Sorry if you did mention it.

I did, but not as much as I'd have liked. It was all down to time and fragility of the rear arches due to their age and the fact that you can't get them anymore!

So really; the best thing you can do is get the small Lanoguard kit; get the long nozzle too and just spray the hell out of the area again. You'll only need to loosen sections of the arches to do that; rather than removing them as I did with the fronts.

Oh; have a big tarp and plenty of soap to hand; you'll smell like old sheep for a few days, but you'll be fine out in the rain

[meb90]

d_a_n1979 said:

I did, but not as much as I'd have liked. It was all down to time and fragility of the rear arches due to their age and the fact that you can't get them anymore!

So really; the best thing you can do is get the small Lanoguard kit; get the long nozzle too and just spray the hell out of the area again. You'll only need to loosen sections of the arches to do that; rather than removing them as I did with the fronts.

Oh; have a big tarp and plenty of soap to hand; you'll smell like old sheep for a few days, but you'll be fine out in the rain

Cheers for that. I'll look at getting a kit. Think its one of the situations where proactive action is better than reactive.

Oh yummy, I am sure the wife will enjoy that! I'll have to tell her its better than smelling of another woman's perfume...

[d_a_n1979]

Haha absolutely... You deffo won't rust

Yeah, it'll be absolutely fine until next year, it's best to do it when it's warm & dry really.

But you can always have the kit in then you can do it if the time & weather is right etc

[voram]

Nice car. Things that will need doing if they haven't already been done,

• Corroded rear brake line. It runs above the fuel tank so is expensive to fix properly.
• Rear subframe bushes.
• Front control arms.
• Tailgate support springs. A fiddly job that involves removing the roof lining.

[d_a_n1979]

voram said:

Nice car. Things that will need doing if they haven't already been done,

• Corroded rear brake line. It runs above the fuel tank so is expensive to fix properly.
• Rear subframe bushes.
• Front control arms.
• Tailgate support springs. A fiddly job that involves removing the roof lining.

Erm...

Look at the link in the OPs first post

And re the tailgate springs; no, the roof lining does not need to be removed; plenty of info on Google/YT on how to do this without anything as OTT as that

[aaron_2000]

Would be surprised if there were many cleaner E39's in the UK right now