150k mile E39 M5... daily

[seiben]

Many brave pills have been taken.

2017-09-13_08-33-44 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

What have I done?!

[seiben]

Picked up up last night, drove it home in the pissing rain and drove it into the office this morning. That's the only pic I've been able to take so far!

It's very tidy, but not perfect. I'm compiling a list in my head of bits that need attention (small bits so far, at least!). It's really bloody quick. It's a proper bucket-list car for me, but I'm still terrified it's going to ruin me

[seiben]

Honestly? I don't know. There's stacks of paperwork going back to the first registration, and while I've had a good rifle through I've not gone through in painstaking detail yet. I'm going to have a sit down this evening and familiarise myself with everything. Aside from anything else, it's got loads of options my old cooking E39 could only ever dream of!

Thanks for the encouragement though. I'll keep this thread updated with progress.

[seiben]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement, everyone. Managed to get some more pics last night:

2017-09-13_07-37-49 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2017-09-13_07-37-58 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2017-09-13_07-38-05 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2017-09-13_07-38-14 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

2017-09-13_07-38-26 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

So, what do I know? I'm the 7th owner, which isn't too bad in my mind for a 17 year old car. VANOS is lovely and quiet compared to some I've seen,and there are receipts in the history suggesting it has had some attention in the past. It drives beautifully - burbling along in traffic it feels like my old E39 SE, until you prod the loud pedal. It seems to have every toy imaginable, almost all of which still work. That rear blind was a shock when I went "ooh, what does this button do?"

As mentioned, there is a bit of a list compiling:

• The dimmable rear view mirror has shat itself and is permanently dimmed across the bottom half
• The reverse sensors work. Sometimes.
• Sport front bumper (thanks - hadn't spotted than if I'm honest, although as a purely aesthetic change it'll be quite far down on the list)
• The black wheels look horrible to my eye, so will be refurbished back to the original colour
• Accelera tyres have no place on an M5 (what are people thinking?!)
• Headlight aim is a bit low for my liking - I suspect broken adjusters.

That's what I've found so far. If it's all I find I'll be very happy - it was the cheapest facelift car on sale I think. I figured there was no point getting a low mileage minter if I'm going to be adding 12-15k miles a year to it!

[seiben]

The kidney grills? They we're fitted by the previous owner. I have the originals in a box

[seiben]

dumab said:

The originals will be the bigger facelift ones.

They are indeed. Will swap them over at some point, probably when the wheels are refurbished

e30m3Mark said:

Has it had any exhaust mods?

Nope! Totally stock.

[seiben]

akirk said:

The other upgrade worth doing - and the only one I have made to mine is to plug in an Intravee (google it) to change what you can do with the audio - that and an ipod in the boot allows you to control the ipod from the head unit...

my car connected by bluetooth to my iphone 7 without issue (though the bluetooth module may have been updated in the past)...

other upgrade worth considering is front brakes - as they are a weakness on this car - mine as the AP Racing 6 pots on it - expensive but very good...

Thanks for the tips. It actually has a nice aftermarket stereo - some sort of Android thingy I'm still getting to grips with, but more importantly it looks completely stock to the uninitiated and fits in really well with the interior.

I may well think about the brakes - will see how I get on with them. Somebody commented earlier about driving with mechanical sympathy, and I actually drive pretty gently 95% of the time. Hopefully it'll stand me in good stead

[seiben]

Nurburgsingh said:

Good choice !

Lol ... if you've taken many brave pills, I must have had a truck load.

I bought this a few weeks back... green on green







It's currently in having the following -

Wheel refurb
New tyres
Diff oil change
Gearbox mounts
New pads and discs
New brake lines
ALL bushes replaced
Power steering leak investigated
Jacking point rebuilt properly (MOT bodge by previous owner)
Suspension refresh.


Then I'll start with the DIY activities...

Clean up the lights
Replace some of the window switches
Upgrade the stereo software ( who knew!? )
Get the retro phone working ( I love that it has this!! )
collect LOTS of shell points !!

That, sir, is truly excellent. Makes me look positively sensible! Get a thread going

Edit: found it and tuned in!

Edited by seiben on Thursday 14th September 20:35

[seiben]

wjb said:

A true "hero car" well played op

Thank you!

Pickled Piper said:

Superb thread. My E39 528i was one of the best cars I ever owned. I still miss it today. An M5 was always a dream but now worryingly achievable.

I will watch this thread with much interest.

Thanks. Same - my old diesel E39 sofa was a wonderful car, and I was very pleased to find this is just as relaxing to pootle around in. It's a lot more fun if you stamp on the loud pedal though

Not much to report just yet. I've replaced the knackered fronts with a set of Eagle F1 AS3s, and the rears will be done later this week along with a full four-wheel alignment.

I also said 'au revoir' to my trusty old Subaru. Not 'goodbye' - it's going to a friend so I'll be seeing it regularly. I've told him I need first dibs when he eventually sells

2017-09-18_05-40-46 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

To make myself feel better, I gave the new bus a good polish and wax as it was clearly lacking. I also find this is a good way to get to know a new car - as expected, it's had a bit of paint here and there, but overall I'm pretty pleased with it. It's not a complete dog, but also not so immaculate I'll feel guilty parking at the station.

2017-09-18_05-41-06 by Ben Edwards, on Flickr

I'm still undergoing new car nerves as I get to grips with everything, but I'm (really!) hoping it will look after me.

[seiben]

dumab said:

Did you do a garage build thread and have a 7 type kit car?

No to the garage (it came with the house, luckily!) but I did have a Westfield until until recently: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=14...

[seiben]

SebringMan said:

For the mirror look up MirrorJohn ; the glass is about £110 delivered and if you are handy with a soldering iron it can be done in 30 minutes. I did a step by step guide to compliment MirrorJohn's guide on my thread, but I'll show the blog pics for now. Getting a secondhand one is tricky ; the original ones will fail due to a defect in all of the glasses. It's best to get it changed sooner rather than later ; if the dimming goo leaks out of the mirror it can eat up the interior plastics and hole them!

https://theleylandlegends.wordpress.com/2017/07/26...

That is super useful. Thanks!

[seiben]

Nope, bought it from a chap in Basingstoke. Before that I believe it was in Poole.

[seiben]

Fury RS said:

No problem, I apologise if I seemed a little nosey it's just I sold my M3 to a guy 10 days ago from Basingstoke funnily enough and his mate Paul who came with him to go over my car has had many guises of these 'M' cars and he commented that he had just sold a 150k mls E39 M5 several days prior. He seemed a very knowledgeable tidy guy fair play. It just seemed such a coincidence with the mileage and same colour.
Good luck with it, like I said prior it looks a tidy car

Edited by Fury RS on Sunday 24th September 21:44

Ah yes, that's the chap. Seemed genuine enough. Fingers crossed

[seiben]

alpinab3 said:

I hope it was cheap. Looks like some penny less losers have owned in the past. Nice to see it going back in the right hands.

Er, thanks. I think

'Cheap' is all relative, but to get into an M5 for less than this currently owes me (purchase price, a four wheel alignment and a full set of Eagle F1s) I'd be looking at a pre-facelift with even higher mileage. I'm under no illusions that it's not going to be a bit spendy (it will) but my priority is to make sure the mechanical side is ok before I go trying to make it look pretty.

I'm away on holiday at the moment which has given me a rare opportunity to gather my thoughts before getting stuck in. New tyres and balancing has almost (but not quite) cured a slight shimmy at motorway speeds, so that'll need looking at. I had a good poke around underneath when it was getting the tyres fitted - mercifully it's all very clean under there, but the diff is weeping a little. That, along with some perished auxiliary belts will be the first job. Oil consumption seems to be minimal after 600 miles, but I'll keep an eye on that still.

I'm still a bit nervous about it, if I'm honest - I think I need to get some decent miles under its wheels to bond with it properly. Plenty of time for that, though

[seiben]

Blimey, just realised I've not updated this in a while! It's about time we had a quick update on leggy E39 world, despite it looking like this for a couple of weeks recently...



First up was a full set of Goodyear Eagle F1 AS3's to replace the ste rubber that was on there. These, along with the alignment, have made a huge difference to the car and serve only to reinforce my view that cheap tyres are a mug's game. It's so much more sure-footed now, particularly in the wet.

Mileage has dropped off a bit of late, the brakes needed attention (particularly the rears) and an EML prompted a visit to a local BMW indy who confirmed a number of other items that wanted a refresh.

These were, in approximate order:

• Auxiliary belts perished
• Thermostat, coolant sensor and O2 sensor (bank 1) need replacing
• Rear discs and pads lifed
• Front pads worn
• Both rear upper suspension arms need replacing (bushes have play)
• Rear drop-links need replacing
• Diff pinion seal leaking

That's it so far. After collecting the requisite parts I've had the majority of the above changed over (minus the suspension bits, which will go in Jan) and it's made a massive difference. The M5 was clearly running rich before, and now everything's back up to spec it's a real pleasure to drive.

I've also bought and fitted a replacement mirror from mirrorjohn - thanks for the recommendation!



Other plans for new year? Well, I'd like to start sorting the cosmetics out - those black wheels are gopping and I've picked up a correct M5 lower front grill to cure the "why's it got a Sport bumper on it?" comments. I'm going to have a go at re-furbing the wheels myself in a gunmetal silver metalic - yes, I know this won't give the correct shadow chrome effect, but it'll be a big improvement and a damn sight cheaper! I'll look at getting them refurbished properly somewhere down the line if needs be.

I managed to pick up a cheap winter shed which is keeping the worst of the salt off the M5 and will allow it to be off the road for certain periods of time. It's not much fun, but it's bloody massive and on winter tyres was unstoppable in the recent snow



Oh, and I had a practice at refurbishing wheels using the stock road wheels from the track RX8. Obviously the M5 won't be getting the same colour, but I was pretty happy with the finish and learnt a few useful lessons along the way

[seiben]

It’s been a while since I updated this, and in the last 3 months I’ve not done nearly as many miles as I’d have hoped. As per my last post I had some work done before Christmas (sorting the brakes was the biggest issue that was ticked off the list) and the car was running better, but a number of irritating niggles were taking too long to sort and, with the crappy weather we had as well, I got a bit dispirited. The M5 is supposed to be my daily but, over the last few months, I’ve done almost twice the mileage in the old 400 quid Volvo V70 that was supposed to be a general runaround to see us through the worst of the winter!

First up was a selection of assorted incontinence – it was using oil at an alarming rate (even for an S62), the new thermostat was leaking and the diff pinion ‘seal’ wasn’t living up to its name. Having been backwards and forwards with the local BMW specialist – who, I’ve concluded, are good for small jobs but not big projects – there were still a variety of bits that needed attention and nothing was happening very quickly. Add to this a persistent EML, headlights that pointed to the floor, rear suspension that still needed attention and a selection of corroded brake pipes, I was starting to feel like there was no light at the end of the tunnel!

Drastic action was needed, so, having spoken to a couple of local-ish owners and checked the interwebs for reviews, I spoke to Phil at CPC in Amersham. Phil can be quite tricky to get hold of at times (I generally view it as a good sign when specialists are busy!) but he happily talked me through my options and I agreed to drop the car off a few days later, the idea being we’d end up with a check-list of ‘things that need urgent attention’ and ‘things that will need attention in future.’

News was mixed, really – the EML was traced to a stretched timing chain & worn guides (the originals on 155k) which had thrown the timing out. This in turn means the VANOS (which has had the seals replaced in the past but has otherwise been untouched) needed attention. On top of this were an exciting selection of oil leaks (as expected), crusty brake pipes, a handful of duff sensors, rusty exhaust brackets and the leaky diff I already knew about. On the plus side Phil was able to confirm that, bar some unsightly surface rust, the car was very solid overall – it’s just suffering from a severe lack of major servicing over the last few years.

I want this car to be a keeper, and buying as I did at the very bottom of the market this pretty much expected. Much of this work involved overlapping sections of the car, so Phil got cracking and a week later I was there to collect. The bill was, as expected, pretty eye-watering (enough I suspect to pick up a ropy 540i!) but – finally – I have an M5 that drives as an M5 should
The way the market is behaving (weirdly, mostly) I’m still happy that finding a car with all this work recently done would be an expensive affair in its own right, but it still smarts a bit. Still, the work by CPC was top notch and the old beasty does drive beautifully now.

We were even rewarded with some decent weather, so having neglected cleaning duties for some time it was time to give the fleet a good seeing to!









So, is that it? Of course not! My intention is to get the car mechanically sound before worrying too much about cosmetics, and I’m sure there will be other issues that arise. In the meantime I’m just going to drive it as much as I possibly can (particularly as the OH’s Alfa has come over all Italian, so she’ll be using the Volvo) – I’ve missed out on several weeks of bonding time, but even the last couple of days have reminded me just what a special car it is. I just hope the next update will be a less expensive one

[seiben]

Thanks Mark. It'll need a new alternator soon as the current one is a bit grumbly (a victim of those oil leaks ). There's also no evidence the plugs have been changed recently so I'll throw a new set of those in. I might even do this myself

Other bits that need attention?

• Front wings are starting to bubble a bit, as is the boot lid. Bodywork can wait though, I'd like to enjoy it through the summer first!
• Pixel repair needs doing
• There's still a bit of wheel wobble at motorway speeds. I'll try getting the wheels re-balanced on the off-chance this is the cause, but I imagine there will be some more suspension work needed at some point.
• MOT in a couple of months
• handful of reversing sensors need replacing

...that's all I can think of for now, but I'm sure there's more

[seiben]

olly22n said:

akirk said:

Apologies - typo - it is 10k I have done in the last year!
will edit my post

That sounds a bit more promising

[seiben]

johnao said:

Yes, it was based in Poole in August 2011. This is an extract from a spreadsheet I compiled at the time when looking for an E39 M5.

Mileage 100,000; Current price £6,950; Reduced from £7,950; Year 2001; Location Poole; Colour Silver/Blue; Reg No. X161 NNK; Advertiser Route One (T)

Thanks John, that's a nice little insight. Amazing how the values have changed since then!

Well I'm certainly enjoying it at the moment - it recently took me on a ~400 mile round trip to Liverpool. It really is an epic thing to cover long distance in, I made it each way without stopping (aside from the obligatory fuel stop on the way up!) and emerged fresh as a daisy at either end - despite the best efforts of the M42!.





Still, I'm sure the money spending will begin again soon. MOT time next week

[seiben]

helix402 said:

Have you checked if you’re steering wheel airbag needs changing under the recall? Best way is speaking to your local BMW dealership, the online checks can be iffy.

Thanks for the heads up. The online checker doesn't bring anything up, but I'll have a chat with the nearest dealer