E39 525i M Sport
Discussion
Hey everyone, I thought I would start a thread telling the story of my recent purchase - a 2001 E39 525i M Sport Auto in Avus Blue (an individual colour I am led to believe - ooooooh!)
Well after accepting a new job almost 300 miles away, I decided that my Mk1 MX5 wasn't the most ideal car for travelling up and down the country. Albeit only excessively for the first couple of months, whilst I arrange moving house etc - so I started looking at a bigger car. I have always liked the look of E39s, and decided that I had my sights set on the nicest, reasonably low mileage 530d M Sport I could find; for around £2k... This search ended quite abruptly, after I realised that any decent looking 530d was out of my price range. So I moved onto 530is, and after searching all the relevant websites I had found a couple that were 'OK', but in my searching I also found a clean looking 525i not far from me; so I went down to have a look at it.
Turning up at the garage I was surprised to see that the pictures really hadn't done it justice! Apart from needing a buff to remove some quite bad 'cobwebbing', it was incredibly clean, with no real notable dents or scratches inside or out. A check underneath and under the bonnet confirmed that the car was in very good shape, so realising I would be lucky to find a 530i anywhere near as good as this within my budget, I bought it!
The spec is almost spot on for what I was hoping for, bar the wood effect dash trim which isn't to my taste.
It has grey heated sports leather, a Minidisc (haha) business radio with 6 disk CD changer in the boot, smokers pack, dual zone climate control, cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, electric heated folding mirrors, OEM angel eyes with projector headlights, CELIS rear lights and style 66 alloys (17x8 on the front and 17x9 on the rear)
Sounds great! Haha
However it's not without its niggles (nothing major), which I will plan to get sorted as I go along... in addition to some modernising. :-)
Problems I can see so far are;
- Paintwork needs buffing badly/Needs a full detail (IMO)
- Missing N/S headlight washer jet
- O/S door mirror struggles to fold in properly
- BMW badge on bootlid needs replacing
- Headlights seem to point a little low
- O/S Rear interior light isn't working
Not too much at all! :-)
Also, even though I am yet to be its new owner for 12 hours... I have a few little modernisation/modification bits on order already! (damn Amazon's One-Click!)
- LED angel eye conversion
- 6000k HID kit
- LED number plate lamps (whole unit not just bulbs)
- E60 heated fan type windscreen washers
- Aero wipers
- Vinyl wrap for dash trim
- Black BMW badges
- Headlight washer
I guess that's enough talking for now.. So here are a couple of pictures from the advert, will put a few (probably a lot) more on once I get it in for a detail.
Well after accepting a new job almost 300 miles away, I decided that my Mk1 MX5 wasn't the most ideal car for travelling up and down the country. Albeit only excessively for the first couple of months, whilst I arrange moving house etc - so I started looking at a bigger car. I have always liked the look of E39s, and decided that I had my sights set on the nicest, reasonably low mileage 530d M Sport I could find; for around £2k... This search ended quite abruptly, after I realised that any decent looking 530d was out of my price range. So I moved onto 530is, and after searching all the relevant websites I had found a couple that were 'OK', but in my searching I also found a clean looking 525i not far from me; so I went down to have a look at it.
Turning up at the garage I was surprised to see that the pictures really hadn't done it justice! Apart from needing a buff to remove some quite bad 'cobwebbing', it was incredibly clean, with no real notable dents or scratches inside or out. A check underneath and under the bonnet confirmed that the car was in very good shape, so realising I would be lucky to find a 530i anywhere near as good as this within my budget, I bought it!
The spec is almost spot on for what I was hoping for, bar the wood effect dash trim which isn't to my taste.
It has grey heated sports leather, a Minidisc (haha) business radio with 6 disk CD changer in the boot, smokers pack, dual zone climate control, cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, electric heated folding mirrors, OEM angel eyes with projector headlights, CELIS rear lights and style 66 alloys (17x8 on the front and 17x9 on the rear)
Sounds great! Haha
However it's not without its niggles (nothing major), which I will plan to get sorted as I go along... in addition to some modernising. :-)
Problems I can see so far are;
- Paintwork needs buffing badly/Needs a full detail (IMO)
- Missing N/S headlight washer jet
- O/S door mirror struggles to fold in properly
- BMW badge on bootlid needs replacing
- Headlights seem to point a little low
- O/S Rear interior light isn't working
Not too much at all! :-)
Also, even though I am yet to be its new owner for 12 hours... I have a few little modernisation/modification bits on order already! (damn Amazon's One-Click!)
- LED angel eye conversion
- 6000k HID kit
- LED number plate lamps (whole unit not just bulbs)
- E60 heated fan type windscreen washers
- Aero wipers
- Vinyl wrap for dash trim
- Black BMW badges
- Headlight washer
I guess that's enough talking for now.. So here are a couple of pictures from the advert, will put a few (probably a lot) more on once I get it in for a detail.
That looks great in blue
Like the idea of wrapping the dash 'wood'
Someone PHr did the same with a 3 series and got it done in some brushed stainless steel or carbon fibre wrap and it totally transformed the interior and brought it right up to date
imagine getting it wrapping would be £100-150
or alternatively
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-5-Series-Silver-...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bmw-e39-5-series-dash-tr...
Like the idea of wrapping the dash 'wood'
Someone PHr did the same with a 3 series and got it done in some brushed stainless steel or carbon fibre wrap and it totally transformed the interior and brought it right up to date
imagine getting it wrapping would be £100-150
or alternatively
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-5-Series-Silver-...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bmw-e39-5-series-dash-tr...
Edited by tbc on Thursday 12th December 00:32
Managed to get my car into work for a couple of hours yesterday to do some little bits to it..
First up, which wasn't meant to be the first job, but when I noticed the state of the spare wheel (which appears to have been used for a LONG period of time) I had to sort it..
So before:
Cleaned out the wheel well quite easily, (though I forgot an after picture, Doh!) however I wish the same could be said about the alloy.. But after a lot of wheel acid, tar&glue, paint thinners and elbow grease:
Next up was a quick wash, I was intending to buff it but unfortunately someone had 'lost' the cutting compound, so it sufficed with a quick buff with a glaze.. Although it does show the colour a lot better :-)
Whilst cleaning it I also steam cleaned the engine bay and dressed it too:
Then since yesterday I have done over 300 miles travelling down to look at houses for when I relocate in January, so it's filthy on the outside again! Joy!!
Though I did get to fit my HID kit and LED number plate lights last night, so that's something I guess haha!
Might as well stick these two pictures on while I'm here as they're going on photobucket aswell.. Guess I went a little bit too far whilst detailing a X6M in work today.....
I actually altered that slightly by redoing the X6 logo closer to the ///M logo
And well that's it for today!
Though in reply to tbc, I'm having a go wrapping them myself, have some gloss black vinyl on order (haven't seen an e39 with black trim inside yet, so hope it looks good! Haha
First up, which wasn't meant to be the first job, but when I noticed the state of the spare wheel (which appears to have been used for a LONG period of time) I had to sort it..
So before:
Cleaned out the wheel well quite easily, (though I forgot an after picture, Doh!) however I wish the same could be said about the alloy.. But after a lot of wheel acid, tar&glue, paint thinners and elbow grease:
Next up was a quick wash, I was intending to buff it but unfortunately someone had 'lost' the cutting compound, so it sufficed with a quick buff with a glaze.. Although it does show the colour a lot better :-)
Whilst cleaning it I also steam cleaned the engine bay and dressed it too:
Then since yesterday I have done over 300 miles travelling down to look at houses for when I relocate in January, so it's filthy on the outside again! Joy!!
Though I did get to fit my HID kit and LED number plate lights last night, so that's something I guess haha!
Might as well stick these two pictures on while I'm here as they're going on photobucket aswell.. Guess I went a little bit too far whilst detailing a X6M in work today.....
I actually altered that slightly by redoing the X6 logo closer to the ///M logo
And well that's it for today!
Though in reply to tbc, I'm having a go wrapping them myself, have some gloss black vinyl on order (haven't seen an e39 with black trim inside yet, so hope it looks good! Haha
Max M4X WW said:
I assume you have noticed the boot badge is not right?
Yeah it is actually a very misaligned sticker for some strange reason.. Will order one soon once I've decided whether if I fancy all black ones or standard ones.Edited by LEE337 on Saturday 14th December 22:20
Edited by LEE337 on Saturday 14th December 22:26
Thanks for all the positive comments about the X6M.. It was all done free hand - we have to stripe the mats as part of the job but we do this after hoovering using a nail brush as it gives a better finish.
I'm liking the 540 keithton, very nice colour and it's also making me consider bigger wheels as mine do look a bit small from certain angles. Will have to wait till after the relocation and house related expenditure :-(
I'm liking the 540 keithton, very nice colour and it's also making me consider bigger wheels as mine do look a bit small from certain angles. Will have to wait till after the relocation and house related expenditure :-(
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