Davies first BMW and others

[Daviemck2006]

 

I have always been a french car fan having owned a string of citroens, peugeots and an occasional renault. Always hated BMW, my ex wife had a mini, it broke down twice and both times she got a 320D as a courtesy car and in my opinion I hated then, and her bini, and eventually her too! So I had a peugeot 307sw 1.6 hdi which was surplus to requirements, as I have two other sensible cars. I was offered, on this forum an e39 BMW540i in exchange for the 307 and a small amount of cash. I always, although hating BMW, had a little hankering for a 5 series, but probably a e34 in 525tds flavour or a e39 530d or 535d. So I thought why not, and an exchange took place on Sunday.

 

So my first impressions of the 540? Its fast, very fast. It's the biggest engine and most power I have ever owned. The nearest was the 407 2.7v6 hdi I owned. It was mapped to 240 bhp, this think has 286 according to the book. It feels like it still has every one too. Its comfortable at a steady 70 on the cruise. Its petrol gauge is knackered so previous owner said he filled it, reset the trip and did 200 milesapp. He said had filled it when he left. By the time I was at Aberdeen it had Don's 235 miles so I filled it and it took 35 litres. Handbook says it holds 70 so it should do well over 400 miles a tank. I think I will only go for 300 miles a tank.

 

What's it going to be used for? It's going to be purely a toy for me. I have a 2016 citroen c1 which is a workhorse for delivering hot food which I do a few nights every week and is hard worked and that's its purpose, it does nothing else. My car, which is also the family spare which my kids can use if theirs are broken, getting serviced etc is a 2012 seat leon 1.6td with dsg semi auto box which I am intending to keep for ages. I bought it as a damaged repaired cat s write off this time last year, and I have no idea why it got cat s, the only parts replaced are drivers wing and headlamp and front bumper. I got it at about 40% of what similar cars were selling for privately. I dont care its cat s, it is fixed well and drives perfectly. Those two cars take care of every conceivable motoring situation I could think of. Except fun! The leon is boring, the c1 can be fun as it can be thrown around at low speeds feeling nippy, but a 540i? That's a whole different type of fun! Highly probable it will cost me points on my licence. Its brutal in its acceleration compared to anything else I've driven, and I'm including the 2,7hdi. It suffered turbo lag, the 540 doesnt. It's a major difference.

 

More to come as I get acquainted with it properly.

 

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Edited June 14, 2020 by Daviemck2006
Adding the rest of my vehicles

[jonathan_dyane]

Good thread, would love to see some pics.

[HillmanImp]

26 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

Good thread, would love to see some pics.

Here's one of me and my son at the railway museum today. 

Heres what it looked like outside my house the other week. 

[taxi paul]

Cortina 1.6 cruesqder on the m62 today. Wasnt hanging around either. 

[Eyersey1234]

@HillmanImp which railway museum were you at?

 

Here's a picture of a Lotus Cortina I got a few months ago. 

 

[jonathan_dyane]

Much better

[FakeConcern]

Sounds really good fun, @Daviemck2006 I'm not a BMW fan, but I could probably manage to put up with something like that! Now how about some actual pictures of the BMW in question?

[Daviemck2006]

There is said BMWin all its glory. I have done the first job, fixed the front numberplate into its proper place with a couple of screws. I cant be arsed with sticky fixers that dont stick! It will run as is until spring when it is due an mot when it will also get a service and a really big clean and any other jobs it needs doing. Havent found much so far, certainly non unexpected ones and nothing unusual for 20 years and 156000 miles. A couple minor cosmetic faults which will stay exactly as they are. Its a toy for me, not a museum piece to only come out twice a year for shows.


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[FakeConcern]

That is tasty! I like the pale leather interior and it looks in very good shape from the pics.

Are the wheels the originals? If they are you'll need to get something different haha!

[Eyersey1234]

I must admit I'm not a fan of BMWs but yours looks very nice 

[spike60]

As a fan of big engined  Germanic stuff I approve. I had an E34 540i for years and would like another but that place is currently occupied by a Merc 500 SEC.

[Daviemck2006]

That is tasty! I like the pale leather interior and it looks in very good shape from the pics.
Are the wheels the originals? If they are you'll need to get something different haha!

You know I usually swap wheels, but in this case the ones on it are staying. The tyres are 235/45x17 which can be had at reasonable money when they need replacing. The car really is in a very reasonable condition for its age. A good polish outside and a leather clean and treatment will make a big difference. It will have to wait until warmer times though.

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[sutty2006]

An e39 530d auto tourer is on my bucket list of cars. Very much so. 

[Matty]

My 530i manual was our daily car for four years. Arrived with 150 thou up, left on 190. Peerless reliability and surprisingly economic as well. Really want to find a nice sport manual. Lovely cars ?

[FakeConcern]

Not the same BMW model, but gives some idea on the longevity of various makes of tyre...

 

[Daviemck2006]

I have no idea what kind of tyres are on the bmw. They are black and round, all the same make that I have never heard of, and all got good tread depth. The back of the car squirms a bit on kickdown with the traction control on, and with the traction control off would go round in circles in the dry, and near be undriveable in the wet! My son has not driven it yet, therfore it still has tyres on the back. He destroyed a pair of rear tyres on his mx5 in one evening in a carpark, and drove home 40 miles with no rubber, down to the steel cords!

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[Schaefft]

Man, those horrible aftermarket headlights need to go. Decent OEM ones are 50 quid used, takes 10 mins per side to swap them. Oxford green and sandbeige are a nice color combo tho!

[w00dy]

1 minute ago, Schaefft said:

Man, those horrible aftermarket headlights need to go. Decent OEM ones are 50 quid used, takes 10 mins per side to swap them. Oxford green and sandbeige are a nice color combo tho!

 

They're very  ugly, but given the awful light output of pre-facelift E39 lamps I can understand it. I hear LED bulbs very much improve them though.

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, w00dy said:

 

They're very  ugly, but given the awful light output of pre-facelift E39 lamps I can understand it. I hear LED bulbs very much improve them though.

Retrofitted Xenon headlights might work well once the lenses have been polished properly. I see them for sale as complete unit for little money regularly, usually nobody buys pre-fl stuff anymore.

[Daviemck2006]

The headlights arent the best on dip, in fact they are fucking rubbish! Main beam is ok though. I may have to look for different headlights then.

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[Daviemck2006]

Well this car is up for MOT at 1pm. I am expecting it to fail, the airbag light is lit, I have disconnected the plugs under the seats, sprayed them with contact cleaner and refitted but no joy. It also has a habit of randomly putting on and off the abs warning light. Electrics are one thing that is totally beyond me! So it will get its failure list thrown at a garage to sort out. It does look a lot better now having had a big clean inside and out.

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[FakeConcern]

Fingers crossed the warning lights go out at 12.59...

[Daviemck2006]

Not that bad really for an old car. Its getting thrown at a garage to get fixed next monday then up for retest.


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[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Dunno if these have that leaky ABS valve block issue like the 3 series of that era, that mucks about with the ABS and then the TC goes up too. 

[Daviemck2006]

Dunno if these have that leaky ABS valve block issue like the 3 series of that era, that mucks about with the ABS and then the TC goes up too. 

That's what I get intermittently. It wasnt on at the time of test, but if it comes on on the retest then that will be another fail point I suppose. It's the traction control light, the abs light and the brake pad wear light all come on together, ths TC is tits up when it's on, and it will just sit and spin the wheels if I'm the slightest heavy on the throttle. Does it need a new valve block or is there any way to tighten it up?

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[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Mine started as ABS lighting up on and off, then it stayed off for a while and then came on permanently. A few months later the TC came on too and they never went out. I changed all the speed sensors and cleaned the reluctor rings with no change. I guess where fluid is leaking onto circuit boards anything can happen! Hopefully yours doesn't have this issue. Google will tell you in a round about way I'm sure.

There is an in depth repair you can do, I never bothered and looked to replace the car as I was sort of done with it and wanted a change anyway.

[Schaefft]

Well, in the case of the E39 its actually more common that the solder points on the ABS control module go dry as the earlier ones never got a heatshield (they are located right above the exhaust manifold). That can caused an intermittent ABS light which usually also triggers the traction control light, its the same system. I've had the issue in my 528i before, in that case it was was one of the ABS sensors that had a wire rubbed through (not the first time that happened...) but it took a while to really fail. A quick code read would instantly tell you.

The rest just seems like the usual worn suspension and inefficient parking brake. Depending on how long you wanna keep the car, always go Sachs and Lemförder for suspension for long-term durability. They might be pricey but they are OEM components and by far the longest lasting. Meyle HD is not that great from what I hear.

[Daviemck2006]

Its booked in to a local back street garage I trust to get the MOT stuff done, I'm going to get two new tyres on to my leon, which has the same size tyres on it, and the part worns from it put onto the bmw. That sorts its immediate jobs. It is then for sale almost immediately, or if I decide to keep it for a while it's going to go to a bmw specialist and get the brake/abs issue fixed, and as the gearchange is sometimes a bit rough it will get the transmission fluid changed. The engine oil, air filter etc all look good for just now so that should make the car mechanically perfect, and bodily, well its 21 years old so there is a share of little chips, dents scrapes and a couple rust spots, and oh a wing that looks like a rattle can job, or maybe even painted with a broom lol

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[Springer]

On 12/31/2019 at 4:31 PM, Daviemck2006 said:

There is said BMWin all its glory. I have done the first job, fixed the front numberplate into its proper place with a couple of screws. I cant be arsed with sticky fixers that dont stick! It will run as is until spring when it is due an mot when it will also get a service and a really big clean and any other jobs it needs doing. Havent found much so far, certainly non unexpected ones and nothing unusual for 20 years and 156000 miles. A couple minor cosmetic faults which will stay exactly as they are. Its a toy for me, not a museum piece to only come out twice a year for shows.


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Just twigged where that pic was taken!  I grew up there (not on the edge of the cliff obvs, lol)

[Daviemck2006]

That's one of my favourite places to take pics of cars. I grew up 10 miles west of there. Last of the big movers, living a whole 10 miles away from home village. It only took 50 years to move lol.

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