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Fabrication of mounting points has started:

Sold for $1236. Thats a steal. The wheels alone would be worth close to that. Hope it was bought by someone who's going to bring it back to it's former glory.

Hello everyone just ventured into BMW ownership after a long period of Japanese performance car ownership. Hope to catch up with other BMW owners in Christchurch. Cheers Craig

G'day everyone, Has anyone already seen this car in person? http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1070183126.htm Looks like it has a crack on the right hand side of the front bumper but other than that looks good. Maybe it is a member's car? Might go check it out this weekend.

I think I see a market opening for Bimmersport branded tampons

I just picked picked up an 03 540i and can't stop driving it! The power and that sound just makes me smile.. I had it inspected and a only raised 2 common wear and tear issues. It's all getting done next week inc a full service. Happy hunting..

I will say...if it looks good... feels good... drives well and the price is within your budget... organise a PPI with a specialist before you commit ..... end of story. You could debate your OP and end up with 15 pages of info which will completely confuse you

Should probably add- whatever you buy, be prepared to spend another 1K or thereabouts on a cooling system refresh. There are plenty of these cars about with old pipes etc just waiting to fail. Case in point, within a month of buying, my current 530 required a new top coolant hose and a new radiator cap.

Project: Convert E46 HELLM3 into a S65/manual E46/E92 hybrid. Our approach will differ to the other more complicated ways of making things fit. We aim to not tamper with steering and suspension setup. Started with a donor E46 to use as a mockup with a cutoff wheel taken to a subframe. Engine /gearbox placement has been achieved quite nicely (great skills `HellBoy`) Engine mounts ,gearbox mounts,exhaust to be fabricated by Quest. To compensate for the extra height added by the E65 plenum we will fabricate an E92 M3 bonnet dome onto the E46 M3 bonnet. Pics will tell the story.

Some days are better than others. Today this transporter picked up all the M cars (one of each of the full M models) for the BMW M Festival at Hampton Downs, which starts on Monday. Hopefully a few Bimmersporters will get to sample them over the coming weeks.

Hi All Long time lurker, first time poster. Got an E39 528i with 245250 km on the clock. Love this car but I wish I'd gotton a 2003 530i instead *sigh* Oh well, next time

As title states, I am thinking of getting an E39 530i or 540i, facelift Msport. The car will be used mostly for daily commute but it would be a great addition to have next to an E28 M535i. I have been reading online about coolant issues and pixels dying on the dash. Things I am interested in are, what are the usual rust locations, oil leak issues, electrical stuff, usual service and maintenance costs. Most of the cars I am seeing have clocked around the 170,000 - 220,000km mark. What things break down at this point that need replacing? I appreciate the responses.

Paint.. & Replaced the rubber tape in the bottom corners of the windshield. It took a while to find out what this stuff was and where to get it. Ended up using sellotape roof and gutter flashing tape from bunnings.

But seriously. Any business that can't answer their phone hardly deserves new customers right?

Awesome.

Welcome, nice colour choice

looks great. Drive, maintain, enjoy

Perfect design, love that graceful curve on the drivers side. PS, Good to have a brief catch up today!

shouldnt be any rust worth mentioning on an e39, especially a facelift, unless its had a dodgy repair or been parked in the ocean!! Test drive plenty, buy the best one for you, v8 or 6, both have good and bad points. If you plan to spend 1500 - 2000 on it within 6 months of getting it you should cover most of the common issues, but it might be worth looking at a higher mileage car that has had the work done already (like my 540i wagon !) good luck.

This is a subject much debated on this forum 540 or 530 personnel I feel the 530 is a better all round package. Had a 530 for 5 and half years despite the faults it was a nice vehicle to drive in more so the open road than in the city. Look for a late 03 model with these being near the end of the series they had all the options fitted as standard. As for looks the vote for me is M sport it has a firm ride though so if not your thing go standard. The e39 has a number of faults these are some I can remember Oil leaks, sump, cam cover, "O" rings cam sensors, oil filter housing these are the common ones. The hose connections on the power steering reservoir and the crushed "o" ring on the dip stick lid Main drive belt system, mechanical type can chatter hydraulic a better option bearing noise on these pulleys also Crankcase vent system hoses can collapse and other issues. The normal weak cooling system, electrical connections to the thermostat and the thermostat itself, viscous fan, expansion tanks internally cracking Electrical the wiring in the flexible connector between boot and body wear through and brake coursing all sorts of funny things The common problem dropped out pixels in the cluster Rear tail light sealing gaskets these prevent water entering the boot as the drain channel from the boot pass over them. Battery located not to far away Rear door window switch's sometimes the guts in them fall apart Wet carpet apart from the very obverse sometimes a damaged,missing of miss fitted plastic door membrane Headlights if the rubber vent holes in these get blocked they can make the headlights start to fog up and once condensation is present it is very hard to remove. The only place I can thing of rust could be a problem is around the petrol tank filler neck it always had water their on the 530 I owned The pedal shimmy this is either wrapped discs or worn control arms or thrust arm bushes.

V8's will have issues regarding cam chain guides etc at these km if the issue hasn't already been fixed. If you are daily driving around the city, you will probably find the inline 6 a much nicer steer. When buying my 530i, I considered the expected lower maintenance and fuel bills, and the nicer steering, more important than the grunt and noise of the V8. I'd advise you to test drive both, decide on V8 or I6, and then choose a car on it's own merits. Plenty of 200,000km plus cars about (with either engine) are giving reliable service.

It's not Beisan that are the robbers. The guy there is a good guy and really helpful. It's USPS that have increased their prices recently by 25%.

Would you like me to drive over there for you and ask them and then report back to you ??...... because I don't know for sure. You would need to check with them and they usually don't answer the phone as I said in my second post on here

I did a bit of research and it seems that carbon wrap comes in different 'grades'. Not sure if this is an official thing across brands or just a guideline tho. Also a shot from the front Roof2 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Edit - I had a layer of 3M protection film applied to the front splitter after the last Rally to help protect it against gravel rash. It was pretty bad haha 13086877_1054817571231770_5435005651463935159_o by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

I went for a proper drive on the new wheels last weekend, and having a little more sidewall on smaller wheels seemed to give the car a more stable feeling on the road. It didn't seem so bouncy or jittery over bumps, and was still quite planted at 99kph - not sure how much of this was a placebo with shiny new wheels tho tbh. I'm still chipping away at the odd thing here & there on this car. The boys at AutoStance kindly applied a 5d carbon film to the roof panel. Whilst I'm a huge fan of real carbon fiber and all the other carbon parts on this car are genuine, I can't afford a new roof panel. Besides, I'm not a good enough driver to justify the weight saving of a real carbon roof, so this is purely for aesthetics. This wrap is awesome, and adds nicely to the look imo. If you're after carbon wrap definitely check them out - Matt or Heino at autostance.co.nz or just pm me and I'll send details. Roof3 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Roof1 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr Close up Fake by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

Your title got my attention real quick..lol Was kinda hoping it'd be a E38 but congrats on your purchase. Post up some pics when you can and welcome to the forum.

Always loved these.... And don't see many sets for sale They look AWESOME on E46 and E90 just not sure about on an E87... Think they look a little boring?!? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This post is old. But f**k Baycorp (and the like)

Progress is slow at the moment as we are getting to the difficult parts of the build at the moment. All the driveline parts have been mocked up, drive shaft is out being shortened and balanced at the moment. Have refreshed all bushes in the shifter with delrin and added a custom built DSSR. the shifter feel now is fantastic now to add a weighted gear knob to finish the whole setup off. Have been spending the last few weeks trying to get the new exhaust manifolds built to work around the the steering shaft and be able to have them fitted to the engine before install. Will get photos up when the extractors are completed. Fingers crossed in the next two weeks the exhaust will be completed then i can haul the engine out for the final time to refresh everything and paint the engine bay. Picked up some E38 wheels from francois and fitted with some more appropriate sized tyres fitted them up and pushed the car out of the shed to see how the final fitment will be, quite happy with how its sitting now.

Got a bit more work done over the weekend just little bits that i was putting off while waiting to sort out my brake setup with the certification guy. Got all the wiring side of things done, e36 window switches, fitted the garagistic rpm converter, built my loom converter. started here and finished Had a play with my headlights and built some cross hairs so have full tinted headlights now Dyed the rear bench black until stage stage as i re-trim the seats, just tidy's the interior up a little bit. Hopefully this week will get on to installing fuel pump, running battery to boot wiring and the exhaust headers so i can remove the engine to get the final prep under way. Hopefully will order clutch kit this week and have the driveshaft built so i have all the stuff there to get it all moving again.

Next I removed the hot air intake setup by plumbing the miller maf into the original air box. Original air box + afm meter adaptor + silicone reducer + bolts.. I got the 'e30 air flow meter adaptor' off ebay for $15. It is meant to be for connecting a pod filter to the stock afm, however in reverse it works great for plumbing the original air box into the maf. The silicone reducer 3" to 2.75" ID and 3" long. It also has a 5mm 4-ply reinforced thickness which is good considering it is going to be under vacuum. You need to remove the little positioning pins on the air box to allow the adapter to sit flush. I decided to carefully line up the holes and drill through the adapter to help keep it in the right place. Not that it should go anywhere with 4 bolts holding it, just being fussy really. Some adapter plates don't have the square shape, notice how this one matches the outlet on the air box. Nice... The bracket bit for the stock afm on the air box had to be cut off to make room for the maf plug.. It turned out just as clean and tidy as I hoped it would Feels better knowing I'm not sucking air from the middle of the engine bay anymore too.