New member E39 owner from Chch

[mtk540 3]

Hi, have found this site via the eurosport and vask forums (my wife drives an A4 quattro Avant V6) after defending the honour of BMW owners... whew, some people can be so stereotypical! Recognise a few handles here - golfboy666, 007BMW, stew, f4llen - in the threads and member list.

I have a 1999 E39 540 in Highline trim which I picked up in August 2006. Cosmos black, black leather, 18" rims staggered with 235/45 P7000's at the front. The rear 265/35 Bridgestone G3's didn't pass muster at WOF time so changed them for some Fulda Exceleros (cheaper and not as soft). The P7000's will go when worn. No engine mods - it's already too fast. Have only added an M5 rear lip spoiler. Just had new front Brembo rotors and Mintex pads installed to finally cure a front end "shimmy" that annoyed the hell out of me. Now it's AWESOME.

Previous to the A4 we had a mint 1988 E30 320i (pre facelift) for 12 years - NZ new, champagne gold, 5spd man, sunroof, front & rear spoilers, 1/2 cloth trim and we added a Blaupunkt CD head unit. Absolutely no problems during that time and 160ks of driving apart from new front brakes, new radiator, replace cambelt, rear wheel bearings and 2 broken gear shift handles (snapped right off !!!). Sold to a good home - a work colleague - as too small for our lads car seat, stroller and stuff.

Keen to meet some other Chch / mainland E39 owners.

[greenday-rulz21 6]

Welcome mate, 540 sounds great. Upload some pic's sometime in the rides section. I'm sure quite a few people would be interested to see what you've done with it. Theres no shortage of E39 owners on here!! lol

[Yuen 16]

Welcome! We'd all love to see pictures of your car.

[cainchapman 0]

Welcome, nice car too.

Take it around Ruapuna, next time the club has a day. It's perfect for that track (well, a manual gearbox would improve), but Hoonapuna is a good track for handling and horsepower.

[MattA 162]

Welcome, nice car.. enjoy the boards

cheers Matt

[Andrew 30]

Welcome to the site

[mtk540 3]

Thanks guys. Will post some pics once I take some nice ones.

Here's a taste

[kiwi535 538]

the thrust arms bushings can also be a shimmy causing failure,common on e34 and e 39

[Keitipai 0]

Welcome! Hope you know what your getting yourself into!

[bravo 35]

Nice car - if I could afford to mod one It'd be my BMW of choice.

[RvT 9]

Hi

Looks like we have matching cars as mine is a 99 540 black but with Schnitzer alloys & white lens. Mine has a P/Plate FIVE40 on it which you may have seen around. Based in Rangiora though.

Ron

[318Touring 40]

Congrats on the new car.

You'd probably want to put these type of grilles on to make yours look updated (shameless self-promotion).

[mtk540 3]

You'd probably want to put these type of grilles on to make yours look updated (shameless self-promotion).

I'm quite keen on replacing the chrome grill with the matt black. I see there are some on trademe for $140 advertised by carspot. Did I read somewhere that they sponsors here and if so is there any member discount??