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Seeing if there's any interest in this old girl. Was our old tow rig but I've since bought a ute. Full service history, needs an oil change and a new alternator or battery. Started going into limp mode and aircon pump stopped working right before we discovered the alternator/battery issue, which might explain it. Aircon was fully re-gassed this year. Front lip is back on (not very well). Paint is peeling off in places, see pics. Interior is pretty good, screen has the usual spots. Located in Waipu, will need to be trailered I guess. Rego - 9/6/2025 WOF - 26/11/2025 SOLD

Down by the river. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Bimmersporters!

More powerful, more reliable\less things to go wrong. M62tu its a technical downgrade, no reason you'd pick it over the non vanos. Some of PFL modules\electronics probably arent quite a reliable as facelift cars eg LKM and ABS Touring's have their own little issues due to trunk\boot\tailgate and sunroof IMO the biggest weak point by far with all E39 540i autos is the 5HP24 transmission, over 1\2 the price of that car if you have to rebuild it

My read of the thread is that a motor and trans with 120kms was installed (along with the M5 goodies) in 2019 - the car had travelled 270kms at the time of the swap. So, lower km engine/trans than what the chassis is. Was really impressed with this build back in 2019 and still am, other than the red interior :-(. e39 540i Tourings don't come up that often either! Non-vanos = probably one less thing to fix haha!

Your thinking and logic is good. I have my 8s doing most of the bass range as they do it well and articulate the bass lines nicely with a reasonable amount of authority.

I'm sure you could snatch those for $3k? My staggered Maxilites were just under $2k landed from Classic Wheels Australia (split shipment to keep each under $1k threshold) - I love them TBH, a slightly larger centre cap and subtly angular design which I like against the chunky Tech 2 - look fanastic and still like new 2 years later. At that point a genuine set like this was for sale but $4k and I kind of wanted the staggered look, even if it made the car a little less lively.

I saw this and started wondering, but then reality smacked me in the face, you already have too many cars.

yeah that appears to be pretty well sorted.

Been slack on here again recently. Has been a busy time. Finally had my graduation after completing my practical work hours, so I am officially a mechanical engineer now, Ive become a New Zealand citizen and Ive signed a contract to start a new job in the new year. Not a whole lot has changed with the car to be honest. Ive had the car back on the dyno at work just to check the tune again to make sure all is still well, changed oil, the usual stuff. Car is happy and running well. Ive installed a RTD motorsport chassis mounted short shifter. Ive made some changes to the radio delete plate and cut a hole in it to install an OBDII scan gauge. This is a much better solution than MHD monitoring as its permanently installed in the car, doesnt require charging, turns on and off with ignition, and has been set up with Audible alarms should oil or coolant temp exceed set thresholds. Wrapped to plate in some alcantara/suede to eliminate glare, quite happy with how it turned out. Now need to make something similar as a shift surround for the new shifter. Also bought and sold a few cars in the meantime, traded the 123d hatch for a v6 tdi touareg, sold the touareg, bought another v6 tdi touareg but this time a facelift one in much better shape with all the options (minus a sunroof, dont trust those) and full dealership service history. Fantastic car and in my opinion the perfect daily driver. Incredible comfortable, spacious, smooth and quiet with sufficient power and surprsingly good fuel economy. Plus it can tow 3.5tonnes.

Been a minute... very busy time. Engine is back in the car, everything is connected back up. Cut and welded the chargepipe and throttle body for a wiggins style clamp, bonnet latch got zinc coated and a few other bits and pieces tidied up. Downpipes are back in also, very painful job, o2 sensors back in and new exhaust is almost finished. Full stainless 3inch exhaust from the downpipes back, with a single adrenalin r louvre baffle resonator. All thats left now is the oil cooler setup, parts are on the way, fresh aeroflow oil coolers and all teflon line and fittings. Also will be putting in a check valve and a tee to allow for an accusump to be fitted at a later stage. Parts should arrive soon and then it will be ready to be fired up and dyno tuned. Will try and keep this updated more often.

I thought I'd do a quick shout out - backstory is I wanted shift paddles for the E61 and I managed to get my hands on a M-Sport steering wheel from an E60 but it was in rough shape. Before I spent any money on repairing the wheel I got the shift paddles working which was easier said than done (the factory wiring diagrams were wrong and I had to spend a fair bit of time reading up on the right way to go about it.) I'm a massive fan of the shift paddles and I'm really happy with them now they work! I don't drive the car in manual mode but I do like to shift gears now and then - e.g. going up or down a hill the transmission doesn't always drive the car the way I want it to. Anyway I struggled to find someone in the Wellington region that could do a steering wheel. I was initially looking for someone to re cover it as I thought it was too far gone, but I ended up reaching out to Erika @ The Leather Doctor https://www.myleatherdoctor.co.nz who said she could fix it up without re covering. I offered to remove the wheel from the car which made the job a lot easier for her. The Leather Doctor is a mobile service so they came to my house meaning I didn't have to faff around dropping the car off somewhere for the day etc. I'm really happy with the result, it looks a million times better now! Here's a before and after photo. Apologies in advance for the background, I took the photo on the front steps and in hindsight that wasn't a good spot, but you can still see the difference , it's night and day.

Has been a busy few weeks but have managed to get a fair bit done. Took advantage of the long weekend (Auckland Anniversary) and pulled to old motor out the car. Wasn't too bad of a job, a bit messy with all the coolant and oil that keeps spilling out and a few bolts that were a little tricky to reach but not too bad all in all apart from the downpipes that put up a real fight. So, old motor is out, most parts stripped off it. New motor is mostly assembled apart from the hot side. Turbos will be getting dropped off for a rebuild and slightly different CHRAs tomorrow. Have since installed a VAC sump baffle in the new motor, put on the sump with a new gasket and new bolts torqued to NEWtis spec of course. Valve cover is on, also new genuine gasket, same with oil filter housing vanos solenoids etc etc, all new gasket the whole way round and new bolts where applicable. Injectors are in again new seals and decouplers. Front main seal going in soon, wiring loom is half on. Waiting on turbos before i install water pump and thermostat. Then inlets and outlets will go on and the motor can go back in the car. I have cleaned the entire empty engine bay subframe steering rack etc and installed new Condorspeedshop engine mounts, have matching ones for the gearbox also. Have also stripped and cleaned the inline oil thermostat to ensure there are no metal bits in it and reassembled it with a 93C insert instead of the 85C insert to help car reach operating temp when street driven. Some photos below. Front end of the car coming off Engine coming out Sump baffle going in New motor with baffled sump installed New genuine gaskets Inejctors getting new seals and decouplers Engine bay being cleaned up Valve cover and injectors on the new engine New engine mounts Loom half on Oil thermsotat rebuild

A bunch of parts have arrived, the entire ECS tuning order of all the gaskets and one time use bolts, as well as the rod bearings. Condorspeedshop engine and transmission mounts showed up too, as well as some oe braided vacuum line. Also got the aftermarket oil pressure sensor and wiring i will be hooking up to the ECU as from factory there is only a pressure switch. Pulled the sump back off again, oil pump back out, and began replacing the rod bearings. Pretty straight froward job just have to pay attention and be careful, and make sure to work in a clean environment. Did rod bearings one at a time, cap off, push rod off crank, remove both bearing shells, clean surfaces, install new rod bearings, clean crank shaft, install dry with plastiguage, torque back down with old bolts, remove cap, check clearance, clean up plastigauge residue, lubricate bearing surfaces and crank, bolt back together with new OEM rod bolts and torque to 20nm + 2x 70* as prescribed by bmw NEWtis. Just got to do it 6 times. Then put the oil pump and tray back on, all new bolts once again, torqued and stretched to spec. Then placed sump back on, not putting on new gasket/bolts just yet as I am still waiting for VAC motorsport to ship my baffle, they are being extremely slow. In the meantime, trying to organize turbo rebuild, also need to order 6x new injector seals and decoupling elements from bmw as well as a coolant temp sensor. Will also need new oil coolers... but getting there. Been seeing lots of interesting videos of turbolamik 8hp swaps which have me intrigued, the shift times look pretty damn quick...