charles28

I had seen videos about this product online and it looked to work well, so I ordered some. (From United Car Care). All I did is spray on, wait 10 mins, hose off, did all of my 3 cars at the same time. My cars have not been cleaned in months, (never have time) the wheels were all rather dirty.. Obviously it hasn't done a perfect job using this method, but it still made quite a difference. Before: During: (The Iron particles etc are converted into a Purple Liquid). After:

Sort of , the E39 needs a new sump gasket, 9-10 Hours work i've been told.

About a week ago the heater core started leaking, causing the windscreen to fog up in a matter of seconds and the smell of coolant was evident. So I ordered a replacement. Got to work stripping the car down (Required removing the dash) and some bolts on the firewall etc. About 12 Hours of work later the job is complete, what a horrible job to have to do.

Had a go at cleaning the exhaust tips. before: After: yeah still room for improvement, but its something.

Yeah, its no Mk5, but its not terrible. I did a 0-100 test in it, seems to be 7.5 - 7.8 seconds. (this was before i cleaned the throttle body and MAF.)As far as I can tell the only modification is a Remus catback exhaust (not loud at all). My E39's is about the same, as is my Mk3 Golf VR6's I'm going to change the cambelt, waterpump etc next week, diagnose an issue the car has when its fully warmed up (Popping/backfiring on deceleration) which will likely be a Vac leak or Temp sensor etc. Once I know all is well with it, I am going to install a K03S or K04 turbo with a remapped ECU, for about 200-210hp. (Stock its only 150hp)

Yeah i had a Mk5 GTi about 2 years ago for 8 months, nice car, but had a lot of road noise, DSG gearbox was good, but in the back of my mind always worried about a 10k repair bill lol

Hehe i'd say it probably needs new PCV pipes etc, probably cracked, ruined etc like they were on my E39. I might get some nice aftermarket Silicon ones that will out live the car

I commute 400k's a week, so thought that I'd stop using the E39 for this, as its chewing up around 12L/100k due to heavy traffic etc and has some issues (such as oil leaks, running rough when cold etc to fix). I purchased This old Golf GTi from turners. Its a 1998 Mk4 Golf Gti with manual transmission, 196,000k on the clock. I got it for $2700, its had 1 NZ owner and seems to be fairly well looked after, as far as an old cheap car like this goes at least. One of the reasons the price was cheap , no WOF, but a carjam checked showed that it hadn't been taken through for a WOF and failed. I picked up the car up and dropped it at the local garage by work for a WOF check, it failed, but only on Strut mounts and 2 bulbs, later that day it had a new WOF and I drove it home. One issue I did notice, was a fluctuating idle, (rpm needle would bounce after slowing down and stopping at an intersection). A quick google and I discovered this was most likely a dirty throttle body. Sure enough.. Before: After: I took it for a good drive, idle issue resolved. Now to use it for work and see how much fuel I use etc. (will report back later). I will be doing a stage 1 remap on it soon (buying a remapped ecu from the UK) as its only $300 incl the ECU with the immo removed. Not a bad car to drive really, I like having a manual gearbox again. The recaro seats are decent too.

That fuel usage is probably about right in heavy Auckland traffic, my 530i uses plenty, (basically the same engine but an older model in a bigger heavier car) and 50% of my commute is open road driving, but I still use about 11.5L/100k. My smaller V6 Golf also uses plenty.. big engine in busy city traffic is never going to be all that economical. If yours has the 6 speed manual gearbox it will use a bit less than the automatic version. You can get your japanese system converted to NZ, one of the forum sponsors does this (Auto Gravity). http://www.fuelly.com/car/bmw/130i for an idea of other peoples usage.

You pretty much need to replace the parts showing on this picture. http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E39-530i-M54_3.0L/Engine/Cooling/ES1596865/ I've fixed 3 oil leaks on my 530i, but theres still more... valve cover gasket, oil separator system and hoses, oil filter housing gasket were all leaking.

probably not comparable, but the Msport suspension is no issue for me around Christchurch with my 530i I do a lot of road trips, ie Nelson, Queenstown, etc.

Don't buy it, that model is known to be poor. Buy a 323i or 325i etc

It was good that you changed that transmission oil, mine was dirty as too. 10,000k later and its still working fine too, some people say that servicing it can cause it to fail, but I suspect that's unusual. I think I'll get it done every 60,000k, if I keep the car that long, i've got a bit of a history.

From Christchurch BMW (Jeff Grays) Its not all that cheap, but importing one isn't either due to the freight cost. Misfire, well it hasn't done it again, did 1000ks in the last 2 days going on a road trip. But it idles a bit rough when cold, i have a new coil coming, i'll replace the one on Cyl #4 and see if it helps.

For a while the drivers side door frame seal has been a bit crap and you could hear a little bit of wind noise, all of the other door seals seemed to be in perfect condition, however the drivers one was worn out. Ie There was about 3 parts of it like this or worse. So I ordered a new one. I peeled off the old one and started installing the new one. It took a bit of effort to get it to meet up correctly, at the start it seemed like it was an inch too long. Final Result,. I decided to take the car for a drive and get fuel, its been sitting unused for a week, it ran like crap and shook, after 30 seconds it seemed to be running better, took it to get fuel, was running fine, scanned ECU, F1 Cylinder 4 Misfire.. Probably a coil, but i'll have to swap it to another cylinder and re-test

I guess its not a bad deal, the issue is I'd want to engine swap it to be a 4.4L

Your doing better than I ever have, i've owned 3x E39's and 2x Preludes with the H22a, they were quite fast for a 2.2L with 200hp etc. None of the E39's have been that economical, but are fine for the type / class of car. I struggle to do better than 12L/100k for around town driving in my 530i, on a trip 9-9.5L/100k, cars got a 70L tank, so I guess I can do over 700k on a trip, but around town its less, more like 550-580k a tank. I guess for mixed driving, town and country its around 11L/100k. Official Stats for the 530i: http://bmw-specifications.com/5_series/e39/e39_2-edycja/250/530ia.html

I've had a 523i (Badged as 525i, but Jap import Pre Facelift M52 model), 528i, 530i and loads of 3 series etc. The only ones you want are the 530i, 540i, M5 A 525i with a manual gearbox still goes well, but hard to find.

Nice, 530i's are good cars really. The cupholders are cheap on ebay, just make sure you choose ones that fit RHD car. You already have a 16.9 Headunit. The 4:3 Model has the wood trim around it and looks like http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m461/hobiedave02/Items%20for%20sale/P4182995.jpg

Hi there, I have replaced the factory Amp and speakers, but doing this alone doesn't help with the Sound Quality enough, the factory head unit is a lot of the issue. I use a Parrot MKI9100 device, which takes over and cancels out the factory headunit when its in use. (Bluetooth, USB, etc) I use DLS Speakers, however Infinity Kappa etc are fine, you need 5.25inch but a model thats no more than 58mm mounting depth if you want to install them into your factory speaker enclosures. You can replace the headunit no problem, you can buy fascias and wiring adapters on ebay etc. I didn't go this way as my car has the factory sat nav with NZ maps, also the car with the TV screen is harder to upgrade as you have to run all new wiring. Ideally you need something like http://www.dynavin.com/products/n6_e39.php

It may have been the oil filter o-ring, i changed the oil recently and I think it was from that, I removed the oil filter cap and replaced the o-ring again, as I think it might have snagged when doing up the oil filter. So far no more drops of oil on the ground, fingers crossed

Those E90 320i's seem to have a lot of issues, the inline 6 , ie 323i seems to have less problems.

This rusty E30 325i is a better buy so far http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=833339651

I've found this model scanner works well for the price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Creator-C110-Airbag-ABS-SRS-Diagnostic-Fault-Trouble-Code-Scanner-Reader-For-BMW-/221663126582?hash=item339c26e436&item=221663126582&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr I've had one for 3 months, its been quite useful, shows some real time data too, vanos, smooth running values etc etc etc. A mate of mine in Aucklands having issues with his fuel pump, if his car gets below between empty and 1/4 of a tank it acts like its run out of fuel despite having 12L of fuel left, did yours do something similar to this?

Excellent choice, i'm sure you will find plenty of things to repair/replace as I did with mine, but they drive so nice.