rxstephen

Fantastic result. You must be one of the few people in the world who have been organised enough to run a before and after dyno! I suspect the M52 engine was more affected by the seals. I did my 530i and while I think there was some noticeable improvement (sorry no dyno results) I think the M54 ECU compensated to some degree for failure in the seals. My seals were definitely worn but the idle was near perfect and there was just a small improvement in smoothing out the torque delivery across the rev band up to 3000rpm. Still glad I did it though as the rocker cover gasket needed replacing anyways. Well done.

My BMW original battery has a hydrometer built in. It's a little spy glass that goes green if the battery is good, white if OK but needs some love and attention and red if its about to quit on you. I also make the point of using a multi stage battery charger/conditioner over night once a month to top up it. They put a full charge on the battery up to 15v then drop back to a holding voltage of 13.8. That prevents sulphation and extends the life of the battery for may years.

Your absolutely right that the battery is not holding charge, but also with the engine running the alternator should hold the voltage closer to 14v not 13v. It may be that your battery has died because it's not getting fully charged. Over time the battery will give up the ghost if not kept charged. When you get the new battery check the voltages again while the engine is running. If it's not up around 13.8 to 14v then you should get your alternator either repaired or replaced. Otherwise your new battery will only last a few months.

Its interesting that the Beisan systems web site suggests that the VANOS seals on a wide range of models will fail within very low K's. I guess mine are an example of just having 73,000K and appear to be worn out. I wonder how many out there could benefit from replacing them. Its an interesting read on their web site.

Not sure I'd trust oil made by pointy eared people with silly hats.

OK, I'm a sucker for the hard sell. How do we arrange the transaction? Cheers

Being lazy and not bothering to google it. But will it work on my 2001 E39? Other than reading error codes, what else can you do with one of these? Cheers

First off. Sorry I write long posts: There is a lot of chatter on the interweb about how the VANOS seals will fail, but it's very hard to tell if there is a problem or not, especially with the later M54 twin VANOS's. General wisdom should say if it aint broke then don't fix it.... but I've never subscribed to that defeatist type of talk. Having owned my 530i for a good few weeks now I thought it was time to get more intimate with it and pull out the VANOS for the fun of it. Firstly I'm glad I started the job. My E39 530i is 10 years old and just 73,000K on the pixelated clock, but the rocker cover gasket and bolt seals were hard and starting to leak. There was oil sitting around the coils and if left untouched would start to make a real mess of things. So the major cost of the operation being the complete seal kit from BMW, it was worth the effort. As far as I can tell my 530i performs well, I don't drive with a lead foot and was getting 8.1 Km/L commuting with a mix of highway and town driving. The low end torque felt smooth as a 6 should but there were times when it wavered, just a few odd things like the revs dropped momentarily when I applied more accelerator and not always an even amount of torque as the revs climbed. But that was based on the seat-of-the-pants-dyno. I purchased the after market VANOS seals from http://www.beisansystems.com which came to just under $NZ 100 including shipping. I would not recommend this job to anyone who has not had a good few hours tinkering around under a bonnet, but so long as you pay attention to detail and follow the instructions it's not too daunting a task. If anyone in the Wellington region is considering this job then I'd be glad to offer advice and maybe lend a 32mm spanner. As per other people's experience like this (mine was much much cleaner than this one), the VANOS seals felt loose and the inner rubber ring was hard. Result. Well once again this is anecdotal, every single result you read on the web will be anecdotal but it all adds up. As there is a running-in period for the Beisan seals for around 300Km, the engine felt stronger and stronger each day. At first you could touch the accelerator and get a response then the revs would drop. Now the torque is immediate and climbs without wavering. As for economy, I get 8.8 KM/L for the same type of driving but I'd take that result with a grain of salt as I've done very few K's. I'll let you know in a month or so how the economy is looking. The seat-of-the-pants-dyno reports that the car fair jumps across intersections with just a touch of the accelerator. I suspect everyone will get slightly different results, and some will be worse than others, so its very hard to tell if you have the failure or not. It's easy to think its snake oil as everyone who buy's these seals having spent money want to see a result. Quite honestly I feel it is an improvement but the only real non-subjective way to determine a result would be to do a real dyno run before and after and take a close look at the torque curve below 3000rpm. I believe the failure affects the cam timing response. So as the rev's rise and the oil leaks from the seals there is a lag in the timing response and therefore non-optimal torque. Over 3000 rpm the timing is fully advanced and even with leaking seals the cams will be held in the correct position. So, is there anyone else in the forum who's tried these out? How's your VANOS?

I've just put the Valvoline Synpower 5w40 into my E39 530i. It's BMW LL01 (long life 2001) certified and I've had good experience with Valvoline over the years (not that there is much difference at the top end of synthetics, oil change frequency is more important). I thought about putting the Castrol 0w40 in but it is BMW LL04 and should not be put in engines needing LL01. I believe the BMW supplied oil is an LL01 special euro blend of Castrol not available off the shelf other than from BMW service. If you don't think you'll be pushing the engine hard and will not go near the ski fields, then 10w30 will be OK, but I'll be using my car for towing so the extra durability and heat stability of a 40 oil is preferable for me. It's all within spec for the E39. Cheers

Gee I'd love to catch one of those F1 taxi's! Or did you mean Aussie V8 super cars

Yes the E39 looks very popular around here. I can see why. Although its a hypochondriacs wet dream reading about everything that can go wrong I assume not everyone has their vanos failing and suspension bushes splitting? :-) All I have is some pixel death and one broken up holder, everything else is very solid and as far as I can determine work 100%

Agree, Vielside is over the top and ruins the original curves of the car. What I have are the mazdaspeed skirts that complement the stock lines and a curvy lip spoiler and a rear wing similar to the series 8 rx-7. But the stock look is very stealth on the track where everyone is surprised how quick it is.

Mine's not too bad, just annoying. But was part of the negotiation to knock the dealer down in price. I'll probably repair it myself. Looking at the methods out there the best one looks to be to drill through the face to get to the screws that hold the display and then put packing in to put pressure back on the connector strip. I used to be an electronics tech, so doing work like this won't be too daunting. :^)

Thanks guys. Lots to read on this site. I hope I'll be able to return the help as time goes on. Already I've looked up what to do with the pixel death dash (about 10% of them are out on mine). Local service options. Air filter options (will stick with the stock paper ones). Cheers

OK, here goes the OT subject Here's an old pic before the roll cage went in and the single turbo conversion. But really it's pretty much the same stock exterior look. I do have a new wing, skirts and lip spoiler to go on, but no rush. Will look good on the trailer behind the bimmer. Cage before painting... But what I have done includes: stage 2 port TO4E single turbo with 60 trim compressor Tein RA dampers and springs urathane bushes, sway bar, engine and diff mounts solid mount trailing and toe links chrome-moly full cage racetech seat At current boost levels its probably around the high 300 to 400HP range but with head room to wind the boost up further (not dynoed since single turbo went on, but did put out 251KW atw with highly modified stock twin turbos). Here's a pic with my boy being a racer at the intermarque....