jeffbebe

I always run 98 and use actual consumption figures not OBC which is always optimistic in the cars I've owned. 540 consumption is high because I'm having fun. 528 consumption was high because my average speed over 18 months was 24km/h and it got driven cold s lot over short distances. On a decent trip consumption would be in the 8L/100 range.

Since I'd had a few dents knocked out I decided to give the car a thorough clean. Doing so revealed a plethora of stone chips some of which had started to rust so I thought I'd deal to them. I've done this successfully previously but never on a black car and I've found hand cutting looks pretty average on the black so it's obvious where I've made all the touch ups. Anyone got any advice how to cut black paint adequately by hand or got a buffer they can loan?

Be happy... In the V8 I managed a thirsty 5.12km/L since the last fill. Admittedly, I have been very heavy footed but the $/fun ratio has been excellent!! Have just ordered complete set of valve and timing gaskets + Beisan Systems vanos seals for an overhaul of the timing unit and valve boxes in the next couple of months. The goal is to fix the rough idle when cold, hunt down and eradicate all oil and vacuum leaks while the engine's in bits, repaint rocker covers and hopefully improve performance and fuel consumption. Will be interesting to compare after the pre and post vanos procedure so I'll definitely report back when it's all done. Just got to save up for the labour now as the vanos procedure is way beyond my limited skills. Ray reckoned around 10-15 hours of work to do the lot. EDIT: Incidentally, picked up a new thermostat from Schiedmann at the same time as the gaskets for around NZ$85. Their shipping prices are competitive but can't tell you exactly how much as I bought a bunch of stuff at the same time (a lot cheaper than Turner though!).

Hahah! I don't know, it was there when I bought it. Judging by the fact I couldn't push it out at all and that the bonnet needs a pretty hard push to close on occasion my best guess is that the PO dropped it closed with something still under the hood (a screwdriver, wrench, etc). Schoolboy error but could also knock the bonnet out of alignment and create a flat spot like this one.

It's because the time zone text is pushing the upload attachments buttons out of sight. If you reduce the font size in Windows or zoom out on a Mac (⌘-) then you can just see the upload attachment buttons.

When I bought the car it had a fair few bumps and scrapes... I don't really like bumps and scrapes so I decided to get rid of them... Before: During... (I'd like to say that's me but I hired a pro. Anton from AJ Dents, really nice guy, good price and did an exceptional job!! Highly recommended) After... Very happy with it. Looks as good as new, apart from the dirt, but that I can fix! Cost $300 all up which I think is great (The dent by the headlight and the one on the bonnet were much worse than they look in pics), especially considering it would have cost upwards of $600-800 to get a similar result from a panel and paint shop. Also, having watched Anton at work, I'm much more confident now that I could fix some of the smaller dings myself in the future (although, touch wood there won't be too many!)

Good work! Who on here is a commercial printer?

Ebay... Search Posi Quiet. They had pretty good customer reviews online. I paid $180 including shipping. Virtually no dust but I would only use them for normal driving.

I presume you just want replacement pads for normal daily driving. My advice is work out what kind of pads you want (i.e. low dust, bite, durability, etc) and then look online for ones that fit the bill. Search the forum, there have definitely been some discussions about E39 brake pads.On my old car which was just used for round daily driving I got a set of Posi Quiet low dust ceramic pads from the States for less than $200. Any mechanic worth his salt can fit them for you pretty cheaply. Plenty of forum sponsors who could help depending on your location. Buying the pads online will save you a fair bit in my experience.

It should reach the centre position within 5 minutes. Could be a faulty thermostat. Worth checking the actual operating temp as Allan suggests. Try this - http://www.ideaphile.com/bmw/540-obc.html - test no.7 gives engine core temp.

Very keen to do a few track days soon but need to get the 540i in order before hammering it - suspension's good, needs better brakes/pads for track, engine needs some work before that kind of strain... Don't want to blow it up.

If your commute is stop/start and low speed (and low gears) it'll use a fair bit of fuel but highway cruising should be better than 12L/100 unless you're driving up hill the whole time! Definitely worth checking some of things suggested above. Does it idle rough when cold? Quite a few folks reckon perished vanos seals can be responsible for poor consumption and other issues. I never got to them on my 528i but worked my way through all the cheaper stuff first - thermostat, vacuum hoses, injector seals, etc. Would have done Vanos too eventually if I'd kept the car and plan to do it on the 540i in the next couple of months as I need to replace valve cover gaskets soon anyway to fix an oil leak. Hopefully the complete vanos overhaul and replacing all of the gaskets recommended on the Beisan website will give the engine a new lease of life. Not cheap to do but worth it IMO to give the car the best chance of doing another 200,000+ mms of trouble free motoring!

I asked all the same questions when I got my 528i. Turns out after a lot of analysis and a fair bit of expense, that nothing was wrong. They're just really thirsty if you do a lot of stop/start city driving. I'd be lucky to get 18L/100 around town as I was doing a lot of short 5-10 minute drives from cold starts. As soon as she was on the open road would get 7-8L/100. Just got to go with it if you live in the city, I'm afraid. I only really use the 540i now as a weekender. Don't really need a daily anymore as work is 2mins walk from home and would rather not have to worry about fuel consumption because I want to enjoy my drives!!

Already tried to fix it myself and I'm experienced enough to know when to stop these days!! I think it cost me about $750 all up including shipping but the exchange rate was very favourable at the time. Make sure you at least pay through Paypal if you don't buy through eBay so you've got some protection.

Same thing except the Dinan manifold looks more like OEM but with improved flow instead of custom pipes.Depends what you mean by reasonable. The manifold's about $1500, CAI $500, throttle body $800, MAF $750 and engine tune $500 (approximately, depending on exchange rate). Plus shipping of course - and you've got to ship your ECU to the states for the tune. So all in all a pretty expensive effort for 30bhp (probably less for the straight six) and your car will be out of action for 2-3 weeks while your ECU is in transit. I'd go custom if you want to do it.

Yep, also don't think you'd get anywhere close to 15-20% increase. I spoke to a guy at Dinan who reckoned you'd get around 30bhp increase (just over 10% increase for the 540) for manifold, CAI, high flow MAF and throttle body + Stage 2 engine tune.

I stand corrected... This... Today. Nice work, son! No more annoying swishing sound as the offending plastic screw rolls around in the air con ducting in the centre console. Bonnet fix is going to have to be done by a pro. Anyone recommend a good paintless dent repairer - mobile or fixed?

Previous car but virtually identical! Never added the rear Msport bumper to the 528i.

The great thing about slaves is that they don't get paid!

Thanks, it's a factory motorsport, so the body kit, trim, suspension and steering wheel are all Msport.

It's because the make them to order... From gold. I was looking into headers and exhaust for my E39 540i. Decent free flow exhaust isn't too expensive but the only headers I could find were around NZ$3K+ shipped to NZ. I've been looking at Dinan for a few high quality mods - they do a high flow intake manifold for about NZ$1500 but can't see one for the 530i. Cost per horse doesn't seem worth it for yours though. Money better spent on tuning perhaps - or as many on here suggested to me when I had the 528i... Get a 540i. It'll give you an extra 90bhp and you can probably get one for the same or similar money as your 530i.

Thanks It's okay if you do it in your Honda Civic

Guess it's the same principle - heat and water to shrink the leather back to its original shape.Tristan, let me know how you go. I'm keen to give this a try before recolouring so happy to help with yours as well one weekend.

Looks good. Brushed steel 3M was going to be my second option if the red didn't work out! Where did you get the wrap? I could only find brushed ali wrap locally.

I used car paint from Repco. They had a wider range of colours than Mitre 10, etc. It actually looks great in the shade and then quite vibrant in the sunlight. It was the darkest red I could find that wasn't wine red. I thought burgundy would be a bit too old fashioned. Woah, that's awesome though bit of a worry there isn't more online about this... I wonder if a hair dryer would work? There would certainly be a lot less fear of burning the leather. The seats in mine aren't bad so it wouldn't take much to get them back into shape. I need to condition them first though as the PO has neglected them. Would be great to do this before recolouring I reckon as it should make that process much easier if there aren't too many creases in the leather.