2001 E39 530i Msport Touring

[raymondt 1]

sold

Edited December 3, 2013 by muxout

[kiwi535 538]

got some interior pics?

[qube 3570]

i wonder what the life span of this engine would be even with the good maintenance? seems to be a good deal, would snatch it up myself but really cant be getting another car atm

[raymondt 1]

got some interior pics?

added

[raymondt 1]

i wonder what the life span of this engine would be even with the good maintenance? seems to be a good deal, would snatch it up myself but really cant be getting another car atm

The M54s are probably some the most reliable bmw engines, plenty of 300k miles+ (~480k kms) examples on overseas forums

[raymondt 1]

bump - offers welcome

Edited October 25, 2013 by muxout

[sascha 17]

Have you got a full service history for it? Or just what you've recently done? Cheers

[raymondt 1]

only have the 2.6k Bavarian receipt and some receipts for the parts I bought

previously owned by a company and they did most of the mileage

Have you got a full service history for it? Or just what you've recently done? Cheers

[jeffbebe 1559]

Is this still for sale?

[Yuen 16]

I had a look at this car last weekend as a potential swap for dad's E39 sedan, but he ultimately decided he wasn't comfortable getting one with that high KMs. Raymond's asked if I can put up a review. I've done so to the best of my memory.

I have to make the disclaimer that you shouldn't place any reliance on my review in making your decision and it reflects my personal experience/opinions only. Ultimately you should have a good look at it yourself, but hopefully this helps anyone sitting on the fence about viewing.

First thing I can confirm is that the pictures of the car are accurate. On my short drive (~2kms) I didn't notice anything that indicated the engine was tired. I started the car from cold, and the gearbox shifted fine and power delivery seemed ok. Upon discussion with Ray he did say the VANOS hadn't been done, so perhaps you will see gains if you replace the VANOS seals. I thought I felt a slight vibration at a certain speed which I wasn't able to replicate on the short drive, but Ray has confirmed that there is one and he was planning to replaced the wheel bearings next if he was keeping the car.

Good points

- Has the high cluster which is known to lose pixels, and on this car only one or two pixels were missing.

- Has the 16:9 Sat Nav screen which is a plus if you plan to retrofit NZ nav

- Decent tyres (Falken Ziex). Not staggered as standard on tourings (235/45/17 all around)

- Headlights (factory HIDs) and fogs work

- Sunroof works fine

- Has undergone a fairly extensive service recently, which Ray has mentioned above. One of the things I noticed was the power steering reservoir cap was really clean, due to a new cap seal having been fitted.

- All windows are original BMW which suggests they have not been replaced

Cons/To dos

- Coolant expansion tank currently tied on to broken fan shroud. The fan shroud is in a bad shape and you'd probably want to replace it.

- Missing underpanel under radiator

- At least one of the two guard liners needs to be replaced (i.e. the corner bits on the left and right of the underpanel). This is common for the E39.

- Comes with one key only. The remote doesn't work and Ray mentioned this was after he replaced the battery some weeks ago, so perhaps it just needs to be re-initialised.

- Doesn't come with any history aside from the one mentioned above (not uncommon for Japanese imports to not have history). From discussion with Ray, the previous business that owned the car was situated directly opposite Bavarian Motors and the business said they had it serviced there regularly. Ray has also done work on the car himself so I understand he can provide receipts for some of the parts.

- Rubber seals all around (windshield, windows) are old and cracked. On the other hand this implies they are original.

Other observations

- Colour is Titansilber

- Air filter is a Simota panel filter (blue in colour)

- Interior lamps and license plate light changed to white LEDs. The license plate lights have thrown a code on the cluster (which I understand is due to the different resistance)

- Interior is a little dirty - in particular, the alcantara appeared to have some stains (fairly subtle though). I suspect if you were willing to take the interior out for a good wash or steam clean it would come up well.

- Wear on steering wheel appears consistent with KMs. The leather has gone smooth in places but is not torn and still looks decent.

- The slat in the front bumper is not the body colour as it usually is on E39s

- Towbar is bent upwards a little - as Ray said it may mean someone hit the back bumper in the past, but there are no obvious signs of any previous damage.

- Passenger side mirror not original. It actually looks fine but I only picked it up because it wasn't the same as the driver's side glass

- Spare is the same as the other wheels (M-Sport type), with a Pirelli tyre.

Overall, my feeling was that it was a pretty honest car, and if you can accept the KMs and the to-dos above, it's definitely worth a look. Ray, feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong.

[raymondt 1]

Thanks for the detailed review Yuen. I can see evidence of a rocket cover gasket replacement and it's likely that the vanos seal was done at the same time but I can't say for sure.

It's still for sale, might put it up on tardme soon.