looking at an E39 M5....

[Fordo]

Hi all

the E39 M5 has been a dream car for me for a few years now, and im finally in a position where i can seriously think about owning one.

I test drove one the other day, and absolutely fell in love. It drove like new, despite having 100,000 miles on the clock. It has a lot of service history, its a facelift one, with all the toys im after. it really seems to be the one.

But, i thought i should do a little more research.

Service intervals - are their any big services around 100k for these types of car? Are there any big things that I should look for in the receipts, that should have been done by now?

regards

Peter

[belleair302]

Regular servicing, decent stack of bills, talk to the people who have serviced the car over the last three years and find out what oil has been used. Also get the car onto a ramp and look at the underside and the shutlines, wealds in case of accident damage.

These cars are wonderful to own, but you do need good money to keep them in tip top condition in addition to having a decent specialist close at hand for when you have problems.

[Great Pretender]

At 100k miles it will either need new dampers or have had them replaced.

Worth checking.

[Slurms]

Lots of threads on this topic

Basically buy a decent one and they are great cars, buy a ropey one and you'll go broke trying to fix it all.

Ensure they have a good history, lots of old bills for work thats been done and if possible get it inspected.

They have no real weak points but if the routine maintence hasn't been completed you can be looking at a huge bill..

MAFs are maybe the most common point of failure so checking that they have been replaced recently will rule those out.

[s62]

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-dis...

[belleair302]

Get the car looked over by Phil Crouch at CPC in Rickmansworth. Possibly the best M Man within the M25 area!!!

[Fordo]

thanks for the replies everyone - some good info there, and that m5 board is a mine of information! many thanks