E39 purchase

[Palazzo 438]

Thought we had a buyers guide for these somewhere but can't find it in a search.

I had a look at one and it had a shimmy through the wheel at about 85km/h, is this the same problem as the E34, bushes? The drivers door mirror is delaminating also (the glass), easy/cheap repair?

It will go through a pre purchase check if I go ahead, just curious about those two items.

[dereklau007 1]

Did a quick search online and came up with this link

The shimmy can be down to a few things:

1) Balancing and alignment of the wheel/s

2) Bushings (as you've indicated)

3) Buckled or bent wheels

4) Tyre pressures

There's other things as well such as torquing the lug bolts correctly, valve stem cap covers but not sure if they would have that much of an impact.

The delaminating of the mirror is probably down to the degradation of the electro-chromatic (auto-dimming) gel in the mirrors. You can get replacements however it's not cheap... You can always replace them with non auto-dimming ones at a fraction of the price

I would definitely get it checked out by someone who knows their stuff about e39 or BMWs so will know what to look out for.

I'm not sure if the guide talks about the ABS/ASC/DSC module but that's also another area to watch out for.

Depending on the engine you get there are other common things to look out for. For the M54 or M52 engines the usual things to look out for would be the cooling system, vanos, cam/crank sensors, seals/gaskets

Didn't look into the M62 but I'm sure other's who own them will have more knowledge

Maintained well it's a car to enjoy for a very long time

Hope it helps

[hybrid 1039]

shimey @ 80+ is the thrust arm bush. fairly cheapish to buy but require a bit of work to fit. Ray @ hellbm's good at them just had mine done.

[allan 295]

Try Maintenance section DIY E39 guide might help you

[kiwi535 538]

was an easy search