2001 530i Msport

[A Chad 20]

Here is a 2001 e39 530i Msport. It has dropped a valve on number 2, so the engine is history, it happened whilst sitting idle at a traffic light. Strange that. Anyway, the gearbox shifted smoothly when it cut out (auto box), the interior is complete. Does anyone want this? Open to offers on parts. (original wheels are spoken for)

Take the whole car for $500. Or let me know if you need a part. The engine ancilliaries are all good and present, the gearbox received it's last two service intervals at least and shifted nicely when the valve came apart. 

Tauranga based.

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You Tube walk around : 2001 530i

Edited January 28 by A Chad

[topnotchrally 129]

I thought these engines were ‘bullet proof’. What has failed?

[Goose 45]

What colour interior trim? I'm after a titan silver ash tray cover / lid for the center console.

Also after the engine bay firewall trim panel that goes between the two cabin air filter boxes if its in reasonable condition, ie not brittle

Cheers

[A Chad 20]

Quote

I thought these engines were ‘bullet proof’. What has failed?

As stated above, it dropped a valve on cylinder 2 (intake) whilst sitting at traffic lights, which, as I said, is quite strange. This is normally a result of valve stem fatigue resulting in the stem shearing through right at the point that the valve stem enters the valve guide, which is a risk on high mileage engines. The engine in question has done over 200,000Km, but I still don't think that qualifies as super high mileage for an M54B30. From the forum searching I've done, there have been a few cases of valves being dropped on the M54, but obviously not a common occurrence, especially not sitting at idle.

At any rate the engine has had the whole head of a valve bounced around inside pot number 2, so head and block are trash.

Edited January 27 by A Chad

[Vass 925]

That's real peculiar. Have you taken it apart just out of interest? Haven't heard of valve stem fatigue on these but have seen a few reports of valve springs randomly shearing, would be interesting to find out what it was in this case.

[A Chad 20]

2 minutes ago, Vass said:

That's real peculiar. Have you taken it apart just out of interest? Haven't heard of valve stem fatigue on these but have seen a few reports of valve springs randomly shearing, would be interesting to find out what it was in this case.

I have put a bore scope down the plug hole, it wasn't pretty. The lifter is jammed down on that valve so it's hard to see what state the spring is in. Other than removing the cam cover there has been no further disassembly. At any rate I can see how spring failure and valve fatigue would both result in the exact same damage that I have observed thus far. So it could be spring failure on that specific valve. 

[A Chad 20]

*You Tube video walk around added to first post *

[A Chad 20]

On 1/28/2025 at 9:19 AM, Vass said:

That's real peculiar. Have you taken it apart just out of interest? Haven't heard of valve stem fatigue on these but have seen a few reports of valve springs randomly shearing, would be interesting to find out what it was in this case.

Follow up : valve spring came apart. Broken into a few pieces. Found a retainer floating around in the cam gallery.