E61 Collection - back in Auckland now

[Twistee 454]

OK, following on from my intro thread https://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/65870-hopefully-a-new-owner-e61-m5/ here is my little South Island to Auckland trip with the new to me E61 M5. 

Firstly, to the various members that gave me assistance in Christchurch to make this all possible many thanks.

In short I drove my wife's MK6 GTI down to Christchurch for the trade on the E61, took collection of the E61 late on Friday, spent the weekend in Christchurch and then headed back to Auckland. Honestly I didn't expect much of a demand for images and details but I'm more than happy to provide what I can. Sorry for the delay, but I've been flat out squeezing work meetings into the rest stops along the trip north which has left little time to post / create this thread.

 

[Twistee 454]

I'll fill in my thoughts after travelling 1,000kms in two days in this machine tomorrow as I'm still catching up on sleep and work.

Cheers.

[C-130 Hercules 571]

Nice pics. Looks great. Colour shows well. 

[E28E30 335]

Looks fantastic and thanks for squeezing in photos and updates when you’re so busy

[aja540i 1906]

Are you bringing it to the meet on Sunday? Will be a first having 2 of them there!!

[Twistee 454]

3 hours ago, aja540i said:

Are you bringing it to the meet on Sunday? Will be a first having 2 of them there!!

My daughters birthday is this weekend, so it's a hard "maybe"... I would really like to attend, I'll know closer to the time if I'm going be make it though. 

[Twistee 454]

So the first night of having the car I noticed a vibration that I initially put down to needing the wheels balanced or possibly the tires being out of round as the car had stood for quite some time. First thing Saturday I got this checked over by Mag and Turbo, the tires while not in amazing condition from standing for months balanced up but did take a fair amount of weight. This unfortunately did not solve the vibration which was always present at motorway speeds, I pretty much had RSI in my wrist after the drive up just from that non stop vibration. The wagon will be heading in to BM Workshop to find out what is at the root of that issue. 

Other than the vibration the trip between Christchurch and Picton was uneventful ..... yeah right. About 20 minutes south of Kaikoura our 5 year old said she needed to go to the bathroom, so I asked her if she could wait just a little longer - silence..... followed by tears and breakfast now sitting in her lap. Luckily this all evacuated onto a blanket and not the interior. There was no where to stop that was not a blind corner, so I found a spot that was slightly less than a blind corner and did a road side cleanup effort. And for the shortest of times it wasn't hammering down with rain, but still got plenty wet and well frozen by the end of that little moment.

Had lunch in Kaikoura and then headed to Picton, I had 5:30 meeting that I had to be on and everything was looking good until about 10 minutes out from Picton in very heavy rain junior played back lunch this time into a plastic container that I had picked up after the Kaikoura incident "just in case". So this time in the middle of a massive down pour my wife bailed out and sorted out our daughter while I let people know that I may be late due to some "issues".  Anyway some more pic below:

First night in Christchurch.

Out at some country eatery in Christchurch.

And before anyone says the car sickness came from the way I was driving, it came from my daughter gluing her eyeballs to nav map and reading everything back to us non stop - never looking out the window. Once that was gone from view she was back to normal, it just took a couple of events to work out what was happening.

 

[balancerider 758]

Are we to assume the M5 is going to be the daily given the STi only has two doors? Looks great anyway

[m325i 709]

l/100km?

[KwS 2425]

25 minutes ago, m325i said:

l/100km?

All of them 😂

[Twistee 454]

2 hours ago, balancerider said:

Are we to assume the M5 is going to be the daily given the STi only has two doors? Looks great anyway

I work from home and have done for the past 14 years, so the M5 is doing the school run on the odd day shared with the wife's SUV. The STI RA is a 4 door, it is currently missing the interior while I do a wiring upgrade and arguably uses more fuel than the M5 when you're on it - I built it a very long time ago and the old school HKS turbo and big cams love loads acceleration enrichment, but it does leave nice flames as a result.

49 minutes ago, m325i said:

l/100km?

From Wellington to Auckland it averaged 17.1 L / 100 km. Given that I went the most indirect route possible and ended up going through the gorge between Whanganui and National Park in P500S I thought that was a really good effort - I certainly was not trying to hypermile a v10. 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Twistee
correcting grammar

[balancerider 758]

@Twistee WFH the only commute a V10 suits.

[Twistee 454]

1 hour ago, balancerider said:

@Twistee WFH the only commute a V10 suits.

We live in the countryside so getting anywhere is a bit of a drive, my wife and I agree that if we are going to be travelling in a car for hours at a time we want to enjoy what ever it is.

[aja540i 1906]

Hey just to calm my paranoia since I changed my thermostat, where did your oil temp sit on the trip back up? Mine  used to sit just below 100, but since the new thermostat went in it sits bang on 100 and I don't know if that's  where it should be.

[Twistee 454]

It sat just below 100 and at 100 when pushed hard. 

[aja540i 1906]

Ok, mine has never gone above 100 but it spends all of its time on 100 now, I might plug in my OBD bluetooth dongle and get the temps up on torque pro next time I do a long trip.

[Twistee 454]

OK works done and I can get back to the trip story. After getting settled at the overnight accommodation I emptied out the wagon and spent the next few hours cleaning the interior making sure that my daughter had not left any surprises behind. Knowing that we would be spending a couple of hours from 5am sitting in the line waiting for the ferry I made sure that the DVD's we had hunted down would play in the CIC unit - you would not believe how hard it was to find a place on the way that sold DVD's. As a BMW newb I found it both frustrating and ultimately rewarding in a "I beat your crazy German logic" once I managed to get the DVD's playing - I had forgotten just how long it took for most DVD units from that era to load / boot. 

But the relief of not having to deal with the "how much longer?" line from our daughter was almost worth the cost of the M5 (man math is great).

Finally we got onboard and parked behind a sheep truck, something that totally bit me when I forgot that the moonroof was cracked and let the delightful smell invade the interior. 

Other than the brutal smell (and we have sheep so it's not some city boy complaining) we had bigger problems as the ride leveling system threw a code when we arrived in Wellington. So first major mechanical failure, compressor looks to be on the way out - or at least sounds it.

After getting off the ferry and hunting through the online resources I concluded that we could proceed without issue as I could get air into the bags and the error was very intermittent. After spending a few hours in lovely Johnsonville at the mall carpark so I could take a meeting we spent what seemed like forever just getting out of Wellington. 

 

By now I was worried about getting home at a reasonable hour, which was great when I missed the turn towards Taupo and ended up miles off course, so well after sunset and on a road that I knew quite well between Whanganui and National Park I really started to push it. A few things immediately became apparent, the turn in for something of this size is fantastic, 6 - 8,000 rpm is like having a turbo come on boost and the sound of the rotors whistling makes it sound like a blower in action. The pad knockoff is pretty intense once things are up to temp, the Dunlops on the rear of the wagon are a 275/40/19 which makes for a tall sidewall which probably helped iron out a few of the bumps. I have never run Dunlops on anything, but these are pretty sticky in the wet which was great given the horrid conditions we were progressing through. At first glance it would appear that the S85 becomes more efficient when you are on it, the engine was certainly much happier and smoother after having been flexed on the way to National Park. 

On the final stretch out of the gorge I got stuck behind a couple of delightful individuals who I had earlier seen at a gas station, they looked like stand up (fall down) pot smokers who were slowly driving off with a trail of smoke and bumpers barely hanging on. After answering the age old question of why does anyone need 500hp to pass a Honda Civic, we stopped off at National Park and had in my opinion a well deserved steak. 

Then it was off for a final push to Auckland, as my wife had flown down we had to go all the way to airport to pick up her SUV and then back south again. That turned out to be great as the motorway was closed in both directions so we were diverted for what seemed like forever.

I think I turned her off around 2am at home.

So final thoughts, on this purchase:

- Initially it felt very much like this was someone elses car that I was babysitting, but after some hard miles on it and building the confidence to use it I feel much more like it's mine.

- I didn't buy this on impulse, I had been hunting for a few years for an E60 and had spent just as long researching how this was going to financially cripple me, that said I have built a career that allows me to have some toys in my life and I have chosen this path. I could have gone for a 911 Turbo, but that is a very selfish car when you have a family. 

- I am a firm believer in the "buy once cry once" mentality - and I have the T shirt to prove it many times over. So I paid a premium over an E60 - but then this is an E61 with all the boxes ticked.

- There are lots of things that I could have bought instead, but as others have put it "they are not an E61 M5". 

- The car has been well maintained by its previous owners from the limited documentation that I have, although I do have the service records - but a stamp and signature in a book doesn't always tell the whole story. 

- I think that cars like this are a rare breed, and people who can afford to buy and maintain them should. These cars are dinosaurs, they are the last of an era of big displacement high rpm powerplants with unique drivelines. While many will argue that the E60 / E61 is not a classic or future classic I would like to have that conversation in 10 years when there are even less of them and we are all daily driving hydrogen bombs. I'm not anti the future of fuel efficient ecomentalist cars but I guarantee that I plant more trees on my property in an average summer than all of the current policy makers combined, so if I want to put some CO2 back in the form of V10 noise and a happy smile then I will.

- I love the SMG, I think it makes for a unique drive where I have to think about what I'm doing with the throttle. Anyone that drives these and thinks that the SMG is the worst thing ever is totally entitled to that opinion. I was worried for all of 10 minutes that the SMG was going to be a pig, as dumb as it sounds I learned very quickly to drive it based on experiences with a horrid Ford gearbox that they put into the later gen Fiesta Zetec. While they are worlds apart in power, they can both be very stupid boxes until you work the throttle timing, and I know this is nothing new for most but this is my experience. 

- Last thing is that it works as an amazing family therapy tool, wife complains - press M, daughter moans - press M, need to get away from inlaws house fast - press M. As a family cruiser that you can do a holiday in the E61 has already proven itself, I didn't expect to make it home with a car that has been in hibernation for some time without some issues and they will get sorted out in the coming weeks. 

Cheers.

 

 

[Twistee 454]

One thing I forgot to mention was my almost lost the bonnet moment outside of Christchurch. Everytime a truck went by the bonnet looked like it was flexing, initially I thought it was just a really polished bonnet.... I started to get real paranoid and in the end pulled over and had a look, the bonnet appeared latched but it was spongy and initially I thought it was some bmw thing with lots of rubber seals around the front. Another 10 minutes and a few trucks and I decided this was not normal, pulled over and did a Google of my symptoms - plenty of badness to be had with poorly adjusted bonnet stops on the E60/61, so I wound then down and life was a whole lot less " is this bonnet about to take off. " 

I'm guessing someone played with them while they detailed the car and tried to get the shut lines correct. Having been in one car as a passenger that had a bonnet fold over the roof I was not looking for a repeat.

 

[aja540i 1906]

Yeah the bonnet latches on these are not the best, the top parts are held in with plastic rivets, mine closes fine on the passenger side but I always have to push the driver's side down to latch it! 

[lord_jagganath 421]

8 hours ago, aja540i said:

 I always have to push the driver's side down to latch it! 

a trait carried in to the F10s too. 

Excellent adventure mate! 

[Jun 233]

On 7/30/2021 at 9:19 PM, aja540i said:

Ok, mine has never gone above 100 but it spends all of its time on 100 now, I might plug in my OBD bluetooth dongle and get the temps up on torque pro next time I do a long trip.

Look at what oil you are using.  Penrite 10w-60 is much thicker than Castrol 10w-60 at 100c.  I noticed this when my mechanic used Penrite on our car.  I was a bit puzzled at first, thinking something in the cooling system.  I read on some M5 forums about how sensitive is the temp depending on the 100c viscosity.  Also after seeing how thick Penrite is on 100c, I think was the thickest on spec sheet.  I stopped using Penrite now my needle is about 2 ticks lower than 100, as opposed to the Penrite where it hugs the 100 mark normally.  Neither goes over 100 when driven hard.  It maybe something else, but it could be for you too.

[aja540i 1906]

8 hours ago, Jun said:

Look at what oil you are using.  Penrite 10w-60 is much thicker than Castrol 10w-60 at 100c.  I noticed this when my mechanic used Penrite on our car.  I was a bit puzzled at first, thinking something in the cooling system.  I read on some M5 forums about how sensitive is the temp depending on the 100c viscosity.  Also after seeing how thick Penrite is on 100c, I think was the thickest on spec sheet.  I stopped using Penrite now my needle is about 2 ticks lower than 100, as opposed to the Penrite where it hugs the 100 mark normally.  Neither goes over 100 when driven hard.  It maybe something else, but it could be for you too.

All Castrol, all the time!