BMW 540i E39, what's the catch?
Discussion
Hi there
There is no 'catch' to these cars - there are common 'issues' yes, just like every other car out there!
for the 540i E39, then its the cooling system which a known weaker point, do the preventative maintenance on the whole system and you'll save plenty of bother later on. Or check to see this work has been done on the car you might buy.
Check forum5.co.uk which has many UK based E39 540i owners and much more knowledge access than here
If you could find a manual 540i that'd be the best of all!!
Cheers, Dennis!
There is no 'catch' to these cars - there are common 'issues' yes, just like every other car out there!
for the 540i E39, then its the cooling system which a known weaker point, do the preventative maintenance on the whole system and you'll save plenty of bother later on. Or check to see this work has been done on the car you might buy.
Check forum5.co.uk which has many UK based E39 540i owners and much more knowledge access than here
If you could find a manual 540i that'd be the best of all!!
Cheers, Dennis!
I recently bought a 535i Sport, and have spent around £700 overhauling the cooling system.
New viscous fan, new aux fan, and header tank + labour.
When looking, check the aux fan runs - it should run when the aircon is on (and engine up to temperature).
The viscous fan will be slightly audible when the engine is getting hot as well.
They are fantastic cars, very comfortable and handle very well.
I would avoid anything that is not standard, particularly anything with non BMW wheels.
Cheap aftermarket wheels tend to cause balancing issues.
New viscous fan, new aux fan, and header tank + labour.
When looking, check the aux fan runs - it should run when the aircon is on (and engine up to temperature).
The viscous fan will be slightly audible when the engine is getting hot as well.
They are fantastic cars, very comfortable and handle very well.
I would avoid anything that is not standard, particularly anything with non BMW wheels.
Cheap aftermarket wheels tend to cause balancing issues.
Stick Legs said:
www.forum5.co.uk seems to have a lot of naked ladies and no E39's! 
<discreetly wanders off to www.forum5.co.uk>Excellent car and my Touring averaged nearly 25mpg over 26,000 miles of ownership.
Other weak points are the auto box. It's sealed for life but the sensible view is to have it changed at 100k. I did with mne and it made a big difference. Front brakes can be a pain with judder. Discs warp and the only way to resolve is replacement.
Don't buy one without the factory nav. Many people do and their first question is how do I retrofit. It's a major job so get it right in the first place, Up-grading to 16:9 screen and Mk4 Nav Computer is easy albeit quite expensive.
Perfect car would be a 01 or 02 facelift Sport Auto in either saloon or touring.
Other weak points are the auto box. It's sealed for life but the sensible view is to have it changed at 100k. I did with mne and it made a big difference. Front brakes can be a pain with judder. Discs warp and the only way to resolve is replacement.
Don't buy one without the factory nav. Many people do and their first question is how do I retrofit. It's a major job so get it right in the first place, Up-grading to 16:9 screen and Mk4 Nav Computer is easy albeit quite expensive.
Perfect car would be a 01 or 02 facelift Sport Auto in either saloon or touring.
Denis O said:
Excellent car and my Touring averaged nearly 25mpg over 26,000 miles of ownership.
Other weak points are the auto box. It's sealed for life but the sensible view is to have it changed at 100k. I did with mne and it made a big difference. Front brakes can be a pain with judder. Discs warp and the only way to resolve is replacement.
Don't buy one without the factory nav. Many people do and their first question is how do I retrofit. It's a major job so get it right in the first place, Up-grading to 16:9 screen and Mk4 Nav Computer is easy albeit quite expensive.
Perfect car would be a 01 or 02 facelift Sport Auto in either saloon or touring.
When you say replace do you mean oil or gearbox?Other weak points are the auto box. It's sealed for life but the sensible view is to have it changed at 100k. I did with mne and it made a big difference. Front brakes can be a pain with judder. Discs warp and the only way to resolve is replacement.
Don't buy one without the factory nav. Many people do and their first question is how do I retrofit. It's a major job so get it right in the first place, Up-grading to 16:9 screen and Mk4 Nav Computer is easy albeit quite expensive.
Perfect car would be a 01 or 02 facelift Sport Auto in either saloon or touring.
I dislike sat-nav and have always gone to effort to avoid it, and asthetically I prefer the garage door arrangment on the E39 (one of it's nicet features for me, that and the bonnet going up into the a pillars). (I am a navigating officer in the Merchant Navy, looking out the window at the sky at noght and knowing where north is happens to be one of my more impressive talents, sat nav ruins all the fun of getting there!) I could use lack of sat nav to negotiate the price down.
I also prefer the non sport body, does it make a difference at 'usual' motorway speeds or is it more of a look kit. Ditto price coment.
Discs and pads for these are sensible prices if I recall, used to fit 540 kit to 635CSi's years ago.
Any word on manuals? I know they are rarer than honest politicians but I would like to find one for the rarity if nothing else unless they are more trouble than they are worth.
I belive Nikasil was dropped on the M62 around early 1997. All E39's are 4.4 are they not?
Cheers.
TonyRPH said:
Stick Legs said:
All E39's are 4.4 are they not?
Cheers.
No.Cheers.
Of the E39 V8 models. the 540 is 4.4, the 535 is 3.5, the M5 is 4.9.
See here for the different engine types.
Stick Legs said:
TonyRPH said:
Stick Legs said:
All E39's are 4.4 are they not?
Cheers.
No.Cheers.
Of the E39 V8 models. the 540 is 4.4, the 535 is 3.5, the M5 is 4.9.
See here for the different engine types.
Also fyi the E34 530 was 3.0, the 540 4.0 - you are correct.
Oddly enough, the E34 530 was only 218 bhp - not a huge power output, given that the E46 330i (3.0 straight 6) is 231bhp!
The E34 530 is a nice car though - the manual even better if you can find a good one!
Not blisteringly quick - which enables you to enjoy that V8 tone just a little more.
I find that with my 535, just as the lovely sound kicks in, I need to back off, as speed limits are easily broken! I would imagine the 540 is 'worse' lol!
The gearbox oil should be done, but its expensive to buy- Esso LT71141 (nor branded as Mobil) and a real pain to do if you dont have ramps.
Watch for the abs too- it goes, and you get three warning lights on the dash and other symptoms. These could be no automatic gearbox change (need to use the steptromic), no speedo, no rev counter
The information bit under the dials on the dash go, and need repairing. A pain, but cheap to get someone to fix
Watch for the abs too- it goes, and you get three warning lights on the dash and other symptoms. These could be no automatic gearbox change (need to use the steptromic), no speedo, no rev counter
The information bit under the dials on the dash go, and need repairing. A pain, but cheap to get someone to fix
john_p said:
Stick Legs said:
When you say replace do you mean oil or gearbox?
Quite sure he means the oil (ATF)You must be one of the few people that don't want the sport kit and the good news is that will save you a few quid. Sports are more desireable and consequently more expensive. I don't know if the sport kit is anything more than aesthetic. Mine was an SE but my son had a sport and they do look nicer and somewhat meaner.
Good luck with your search. They are a great car.
PS. If you fancy a trip to Germany to get it done by the experts have a look at this link.
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/527361/
Edited by Denis O on Monday 12th July 07:34
Satnavs are pointless unless they are very recent. My SLK has a Satnav being an 06 car and to be honest I use my Garmin as it is much better. Anything older than 2005 is completely useless and inferior to affordable handheld devices that are easily updated and have much better functionality than most even modern systems.
Picked my 840i up at the weekend and drove is 650 miles home. I now fully understand the term "mile muncher", effortless to drive and extremely comfortable, especially with massage seats 
Never thought I'd own an Auto, but it matches the engine really well. Plus mine has had paddles fitted. Easily the best daily car I've had, only let down by the slightly vague steering, but this isn't a sports car so it's not a problem. Averaged 29mpg on the motorway which isn't bad.
Never thought I'd own an Auto, but it matches the engine really well. Plus mine has had paddles fitted. Easily the best daily car I've had, only let down by the slightly vague steering, but this isn't a sports car so it's not a problem. Averaged 29mpg on the motorway which isn't bad.
christer said:
Satnavs are pointless unless they are very recent. My SLK has a Satnav being an 06 car and to be honest I use my Garmin as it is much better. Anything older than 2005 is completely useless and inferior to affordable handheld devices that are easily updated and have much better functionality than most even modern systems.
There speaks a man who has never used a BMW Mk4 with latest firmware and 2010 maps with speed cameras.
Hiya
I didn't know about the naked ladies thing on that forum?! anyway..
If you look at that and a few other forums, the whole 'change the autobox fluid or not' question has been asked thousands of times over. There is no answer to this at all, as those who did change the oil as a preventative measure have still found their autoboxes failing a relatively short time later, others have reported a failure much later, others haven't reported a failure. Then the other side is also well documented and reported, those who have not changed the oil, report failures at as low as 70K miles, others reported it at 120K miles and yet others are on 250K plus miles on the orginal stuff. There is simply no way of knowing for sure.
My car is Ex Police - I bought it at 150K just after it's 3rd birthday and it failed at 172K miles. Speaking to many specialists, including those within the Trade, a figure of around 150K miles was mentioned quite a bit. It seems these gearboxes will let go at that sort of miles - something to do with the deterioration of a 'spline' I think he mentioned.. and when it goes, it 'just goes' there's no preventative stuff you can do really. So I had mine re-conditioned and 30K or so miles later I'm fine.
As for the SatNav thing - many of these setups will become less useful once the analogue TV signals switchoff completes. The standard TV tuner will become useless. The Hybrid Analogue/Digtial TV tuner that BMW made is around £500-600 second hand on Ebay, usually German Ebay and that's when they do pop up. Get one of those, and you'll be able to recieve Freeview on the OEM audio/satnav/screen system. The Mk4 DVD based GPS computer is the last one, and the updates to it still are around, as for feature wise, then it was simply awesome in 2001, but now a £50 GPS unit will have more functionality. if the screen or computer or amplifier unit give up as they can and do, replacement's off ebay are insanely expensive. It'd be best in your case seeing as you know you way around to do as you say, negotiate any sellers down if it's not included as a benefit to you. Afterwards the choices are to perhaps fit one of the forthcoming Chinese E39 specific replacement units or add in an aftermarket system.
There are manuals out there as well, rare, but around, good luck with finding one of those in the spec you'd like !
As mentioned, plenty of advice and knowledge on the more specific forums
Cheers, Dennis!
I didn't know about the naked ladies thing on that forum?! anyway..
If you look at that and a few other forums, the whole 'change the autobox fluid or not' question has been asked thousands of times over. There is no answer to this at all, as those who did change the oil as a preventative measure have still found their autoboxes failing a relatively short time later, others have reported a failure much later, others haven't reported a failure. Then the other side is also well documented and reported, those who have not changed the oil, report failures at as low as 70K miles, others reported it at 120K miles and yet others are on 250K plus miles on the orginal stuff. There is simply no way of knowing for sure.
My car is Ex Police - I bought it at 150K just after it's 3rd birthday and it failed at 172K miles. Speaking to many specialists, including those within the Trade, a figure of around 150K miles was mentioned quite a bit. It seems these gearboxes will let go at that sort of miles - something to do with the deterioration of a 'spline' I think he mentioned.. and when it goes, it 'just goes' there's no preventative stuff you can do really. So I had mine re-conditioned and 30K or so miles later I'm fine.
As for the SatNav thing - many of these setups will become less useful once the analogue TV signals switchoff completes. The standard TV tuner will become useless. The Hybrid Analogue/Digtial TV tuner that BMW made is around £500-600 second hand on Ebay, usually German Ebay and that's when they do pop up. Get one of those, and you'll be able to recieve Freeview on the OEM audio/satnav/screen system. The Mk4 DVD based GPS computer is the last one, and the updates to it still are around, as for feature wise, then it was simply awesome in 2001, but now a £50 GPS unit will have more functionality. if the screen or computer or amplifier unit give up as they can and do, replacement's off ebay are insanely expensive. It'd be best in your case seeing as you know you way around to do as you say, negotiate any sellers down if it's not included as a benefit to you. Afterwards the choices are to perhaps fit one of the forthcoming Chinese E39 specific replacement units or add in an aftermarket system.
There are manuals out there as well, rare, but around, good luck with finding one of those in the spec you'd like !
As mentioned, plenty of advice and knowledge on the more specific forums
Cheers, Dennis!
When / if the auto box lets go it's going to be a good £1500-2k to get it refurbished so it makes sense to budget for this possibility if buying a car over 100k. If on a test drive there is any jerkiness in changing gear, constant hunting between gears, or long delays engaging between D and R then be very careful.
I quite like the Mk4 DVD system, I'd prefer it over a TomTom because it's integrated and it Just Works. However, the address search is probably it's biggest failing.
I quite like the Mk4 DVD system, I'd prefer it over a TomTom because it's integrated and it Just Works. However, the address search is probably it's biggest failing.
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