Green on green e39 M5 - intergalactic mileage

[Nurburgsingh]

Evening all, I'm a bit late starting this this thread. I've recently picked up a 2000 E39 M5 finished in Oxford Green with green heritage leather interior.



By no means a garage queen... she's been around the block...



....two hundred thousand times!

I went into it with my eyes wide shut and I left my senses on the kitchen table before I left the house.

I've managed a few days driving, and it mostly all works, sort off.
It's been a while since I had an M car and I've missed it terribly, I can't believe I waited this long to get back into an M5 - it's amazing!
There was a lot of paperwork with the car, lots of bills to wade through, most of it good and then there was a heart stopping moment... a bill from a certain herr Bongard in Adenau..

That nearly floored me.. "Oh...tits.. its been rolled at Brunchen!! " thankfully a quick google later and it turns out it was a coolant leak tens of thousands of miles ago so that was panic over.

With all of the scare stories of things falling and monsterous ownership costs I drove it very very carefully for a few days. Every rattle, squeak, knock and thud had me picturing £10notes flying out of my wallet like Bats at dusk.

So I figured I'd get it looked over and work out if I'd bought a pup.. off to my local bmw specialist.
Couple of hours later I get the call.. it starts with "are you sitting down" .... arse! This isn't going well.

" on the whole it's a good car, just some age related things that need to be looked at"

What came next sounded like he was just reading a list of every part that's needed to build a new car..

... almost

So I figured in for a penny in for a pound.. the engine and gearbox are all good.. it's just everything else around them!!

So new bushes all round - ALL round.
New brake lines - while the rear subframe is off
New gearbox mounts
Diff oil change - as they fix the leak
New pads and disks
New tyres
Refurb wheels
Redo the crap fix on the jacking points
New locking wheel nut
Calliper rebuild

.... and then I'll sort out bits of trim and stuff...

[Nurburgsingh]

Very nice Pottman!!

Ok so today's dilemma has been KW or Bilstein ?

What have others done ?

[Nurburgsingh]

SebringMan said:

TDo you still go down to Kevin and his lads on a few occasions?

Not quite the every week I used to... but EMC still look after my 993 and stuff.

[Nurburgsingh]

Rear subframe with the powerflex bushes fitted. The guys at Crackly Garage are storming through it.




Turns out the calipers are fine, so I'll bank that saving towards an AP kit later.

New brake lines are also in and they also fitted new handbrake cables.

Should be back with me next weekend

[Nurburgsingh]

I forgot I took some pics of the inside..



And the important part of the inside



It needs a bloody good scrub!

[Nurburgsingh]

So I've been doing some more digging... and it looks like there used to be a way to fit Porsche calipers on e39's...

https://www.zeckhausen.com/catalog/index.php?cPath...

Anyone know anything about it? Anyone got them fitted in their car?

I've got a spare set of Porsche brakes so this would be a massive cost saving over an AP or similar kit

[Nurburgsingh]

The picture makes it look worse than it is. It truly is in exceptional condition for the mileage. It's worn much much better than my newer 1 series leather.

As for the brace pills.. well I figure if it's got to 220k miles then anything that has gone wrong must have been replaced to get it this far!?

Was looking at the jacking points with the garage yesterday. It's going to go off to the body shop to have them sorted and then I'll get the underside treated to make sure it's ready for its winter driving.


Oh... Does anyone know if the E39M5 and E36M3 had the same/similar front brake set up? I think I've got a line on some brackets designed to fit Porsche calipers to an M3.

I'll keep you all posted either way

Edited by Nurburgsingh on Sunday 17th September 17:28

[Nurburgsingh]

I'm not sure our ideas of what "big buggers" are is the same...
These look woefully inadequate, which is why everyone upgrades I guess...


It's something I'll work out over the winter. For now I'm just itching to get it back so I can drive the bugger!!

[Nurburgsingh]

So after a conversation with some people today it looks like we're going to be fitting the Bilstein B14 PSS kit to the car as well while it's still up in the air.
dammit I've just remebered I mean to ask the garage about the brake set up... distracted by talk of shiney stuff

[Nurburgsingh]

Cool !!

I've read that I need to swap the rear top mount for one from a 540i -?
Can anyone shed any light on that?

I'm expecting to have to swap all of the top mounts as part of this... no point in leaving one potentially shagged componant in the jigsaw right?

[Nurburgsingh]

Looking at the MOT history it looks like it rolled over 200k in 2013/14

A question for the more knowledgable out there...

If I swap the steering wheel for a face lift one, will all the buttons work straight off the bat or is there an update to anything required ?

I'm thinking like the LandRover I had, when I tried it the CAN Bus was different so not all of the buttons functioned.

Equally same as facelift light?

[Nurburgsingh]

So quick update...

The B14's are on route to the garage to be fitted. Everything else mechanical has been sorted. New boots going on freshly refurb'd wheels.

The weather looks a bit crap for the weekend but I'll get the child labour out to give the inside a proper clean, then I need to confirm my wheel retrim with Royal and that as they say will be when the fat lady sings.


....for now!

Will get pics up when she's home

[Nurburgsingh]

So the wheels are back from being refurb'd

[Nurburgsingh]

Way to cheer me up!

I've had bilstiens fitted to a number of cars in the past and it is because they just work straight out of the box that I went with them again.

The shocks are being fitted today, so hopefully I'll have the car back on weds.

In terms of the longevity of their performance - the kit on my 993 is more than 10 years old and on it's last visit to Center Gravity it was tested and Chris was more than happy that they were still performing as they should be.

In contrast when the fashion was to have KW v3's on your 968 I had nothing but trouble.. so I was reluctant to go to anything very adjustable and for me I don't need it adjustable, it's a road car.

And as I said I'm going into this eyes closed and wallet open...

Fingers crossed!!

[Nurburgsingh]

So... unfortunately a leaky power steering pipe means the car is still on the ramps at the garage but it does mean that I can take some pics of the new bilsteins

[Nurburgsingh]

So the stealth bomber is back from the garage.

Man ALIVE!!! With the new bushes, tyres, coilovers, suspension arms, brakes, power steering pipes, etc etc etc etc etc etc... unsurprisingly it feels right as a drum, but holy moly what a beautiful and rewarding drive.

Had a chance to try it out on a mixture of roads at the weekend... wow!

It's been a long time since I've driven an M car but wow wow and wow... Every input is rewarded tenfold in return, I've read stuff on the other forum about the cars being dull and uninvolving... wtf!??
The throttle response boom...
the steering.. it's almost telepathic - think "left a bit" and it goes left a bit..
The suspension needs a bit of a tweek, but I'll get a few hundred miles on it this week and then get it reset, I think it needs to go up a tad, and I need to dial out the 'mysterious - they all do that sir- droop on the offside rear"

Couple of other little jobs that need seeing too... short shift kit - do that this week.
Bit of body work - I'll see to that after the winter.

Until then, yes it's cost me as much to fettle as it did to buy.... but there is no car that comes close to doing what an M5 can do for the price in my book.

I'll get some pics up soon as I can

[Nurburgsingh]

So it's been a few weeks since the last update and it's been a bit of a roller coaster to be fair..

So after having :

New tyres
Wheels refurbished
Bilstein B12's
Full powerflex kit
Diff seals
Power steering pipes
Brake lines
Pads and discs all round
Hunter Geo set up


Picked it up and set up a weekend to do some back roads and oh my god it was fantastic. I mean seriously it goes like stink and just keeps on going!! Had a superb weekend of driving some new and familiar roads to get a feel for it and it was all going well, it was a tiny bit crashy on some proper undulating roads so I figured the ride heights needed an adjustment.

Got the car booked in to do that and then on my way home from work... felt the car lose power whilst cruising on the Mway - managed to get it to the hard shoulder and did the old IT trick of turn it off and on again - no response - bugger!!
Recovery arrived and typically it started first time !!

Figured it was booked in for the geo work again anyway so left it whilst I trawled the internet. So the forums point to a number of issues with the fuel system - pumps , relays, filter, guage.

So I started with the obvious - fill it up... managed to get 57litres in and no more. So could be the internal pump might be the issue?

Anyway - while it was in for the geo they couldn't find the problem so I guess I'm back to filling up every 200 miles juts in case - it's like my E28 all over again!!

Also while it was in I had the E60 short shift kit fitted- wow what a difference that makes!! The suspension is now just a bit lower than stock and it handles like a dream.

I'll get some pics up when the weather changes from rain and cack

[Nurburgsingh]

rassi said:

If you unlock the OBD, one of the menus will give you how much each side of the "saddle tank" (it is straddling the prop-shaft) holds. I think I regularly managed to fill mine with 68-69 litres, so 57 is too low, but also strange as I believe each side is equally sized.

I'll give that a go - got a long ish run out east tomorrow so I'll check and report back.

In the meantime I've got a pair of fuel tanks in the boot

[Nurburgsingh]

SebringMan said:

I'm surprised you're pouring that much into it NS. Most people would have saved their cash and got a low miler. I hate to think what the resale value of this will be (I had the same problem with my 190k 944 Turbo ; it was Andrew Sweetenaham's old car).

The mileage is something making me consider selling the M3 due to the crap I had with the 944 ; not the car but the offers.

But fair play to you. It sounds like it is one heck of an M5.

There are three things -

1. Resale hasn’t even crossed my mind - why would I want to sell it?
2. I could have quite easily spent exactly the same on a car with sub 100k miles, except I would have spend more than twice on the initial purchase. Most of what was replaced had or was about to fail because of age rather than mileage- rubber parts going hard/soft - fuel line corrosion etc..
3. The mileage thing reminds me of an old PH saying that used appear on every thread - keeping the miles low for the next owner is like marrying a VS model and not sleeping with her. Me... I intend to do what the previous owners have done and continue to ride her like Seabiscuit.

I used to own a white E28 M5 - more than any other car I’ve owned I miss that the most. Purchased it for peanuts and sold it for crumbs - if only I knew then what I know now!
So the e39 M5 is a keeper.

Sure it’s gonna cost me a bit to get it perfect, but I don’t want perfect... I want “lived in” and I want useable.
My 993 is the same - it’s got 110k miles on it and if i wanted to I’d get the front end refreshed to remove the paint chips etc.. but then I’d get paranoid about using it and it’d sit in the garage doing nothing.

Update on driving shinanigans - snow stopped play and I wasn’t required to be on site for anything so I stayed in. None of the cars went anywhere.
The recent M1 closures have required a few cross country alternatives which have been nothing short of remarkable - the overtaking ability is almost instant, the Stock exhaust means I’m not annoying anyone and the subtle looks mean I’m forgotten as quickly as I arrived.

My shell loyalty card has been racking the points up though that’s for sure.

It should be going into the garage later this week to have the thermostat changed so hopefully that will help a little with the MPG.

Happy new year and safe driving everyone!

[Nurburgsingh]

So it’s been a while since the last post and I thought I better pop something up..

Progress on the “known issues” has been thwarted slightly by some new issues...

Someth8ng wasn’t right with the handling following the fitting of the B14 kit.. on a good road it was great, on a marginal road it was ok, on a bad road it wasn’t good at all.

The kit was fitted and set up on a Hunter, but it’s clear that just having the tools is very different to know8ng how to use them...

...so it was off to Centre Gravity for an assessment and fix. The ride height had bothered me.. it was a bit ‘gansta’ for my liking - it was worse than that.. it had been set half way in the platform range but it meant that there was almost zero travel in the shock and the tyres were doing most of the work, which explains a fair bit.
The other thing I’d noticed was an unsettled feeling when crossing the crown of the road - I sort of knew what that was, I’d felt that before on the 993 - that’ll be a new rear bottom arm.
The one thing I couldn’t get to the bottom of was a an occasional left pull and hesitation in the otherwise seamless soaring acceleration.

Chris got to work and found a sticky front left calliper, this has been ‘fixed’ in as much as it works but I need to get the calipers refurbished / replaced / upgraded - but not down the usual AP route. There was a thread on a long since forgotten bmw forum about fitting Porsche calipers to an M5 and I just happen to have some of them in the garage.

So after a long day with Chris my patience was well rewarded. The ride height has gone up, the compliance has gone up, the harshness on bad roads has gone down, the smiles have gone through the roof !

Also now the brakes aren’t always on, the fuel efficiency has also improved.




...a tiny bit