6 speed with the sport package

i know some of you people in the garage had/have a 540, hell i think a couple of you even owned the same one. what were your thoughts? overall it seems like a pretty awesome car, and the early 2000's ones are reasonably affordable with 60-75k miles on them.

i know bmw's have the rep of expensive to maintain, etc, but from those of you who owned one, what were they really like? aside from typical used car stuff, are there any specific issues i should look out for from this year/generation, or anything i should make sure has been taken care when checking one out?

thanks

1/6/2009 4:30:39 PM

only thing i know about bmw's are that they are a black man's wish. better check with optmusprimer for anything else related.

1/6/2009 8:18:24 PM

1/6/2009 8:19:43 PM

primer had one, I think a 99?

1/6/2009 9:28:13 PM

Quote :

"i know bmw's have the rep of are expensive to maintain, etc,"

You don't get a rep for nothing. When it breaks, its going to be $$

I thought that the e39s had some suspension issues, someone else may want to chime in on that


[Edited on January 6, 2009 at 10:05 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2009 10:04:50 PM

Quote :

"only thing i know about bmw's are that they are a black man's wish."

at first i was gonna call u racist... then i remembred how much i love those.

[Edited on January 6, 2009 at 11:50 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2009 11:49:50 PM

aren't the engines in those cars about $20k each?

1/6/2009 11:50:28 PM

I had one, Ahmet had one, and dannydigtl had one. Actually we all had the same one. I loved it, and while some parts are expensive (for example alternator) the common failure parts are usually much cheaper because they are mass produced. The thing that irked me the most was that to get a limited slip you had to find a M5 differential, and they were going for $4000/ea. Even without the posi though, keep in mind that it is a BMW, with plenty of power and if you drive it like it is supposed to be driven you will be buying 2 tires pretty often. Mine would have probably lasted me about 6 months, then get moved to the front and new ones on the rear.

1/7/2009 2:27:57 AM

Quote :

"I thought that the e39s bmws had some suspension issues"

1/7/2009 8:31:09 AM

watch out for valve cover gasket leaks(very common on the v8's but an easy fix), power steering hose leaks(common to every bmw freakin ever it seems), the final stage resistor in the heating/air system likes to die and your blower fan does funny things as a result. sport package has bigger wheels and brakes so tires and brakes are more expensive, etc...

1/7/2009 6:48:47 PM

nicholaspea also had an E39 540i-6. He had issues with the tires losing air because the wheels started to corrode and would no longer hold a bead, but I don't think it had the sport package and I believe the problem was specific to that particular style of wheel.

Doesn't SilverSurfer have one as well?

1/8/2009 1:42:15 AM

smoothcrim has one but his is fucked up

1/8/2009 3:07:34 AM

I really liked my (our? haha) 540. I would've preferred a later model one, but they're really nice cars none the less. Seductive engine with lots of torque, great (but subdued) sound, etc. One must absolutely get the 6 speed and the sports package, it's a different experience without, I mean that very strongly. I remember putting that car on VIR during an ice storm. Had the heated seats/steering wheel going...

The lack of an LSD was the only really annoying thing.

1/8/2009 4:54:54 AM

well i don't really plan on modding it (so no $4500 limited slip for me), and doubt it would ever see the track with my ass in the driver's seat

so it sounds like there's some common problems (valve cover gasket, hose leaks) i should look out for, and otherwise maintenance issues just pop up like they do any other car?

my big concern is buying a 540 for X dollars, then putting another $1000/month into it for time in the shop. my budget can't/won't handle that.

i have some basic repair/maintenance ability - mostly minor stuff like brakes and easy tuneups - so i hopefully shouldn't have to put it into the shop but for more advanced items.

[Edited on January 8, 2009 at 9:19 AM. Reason : thanks for all the input by the way]

1/8/2009 9:18:48 AM

if you're paying for service/labor, you might want to think twice. Even if you're DIY'in in, parts will pop up often enough and cost enough to be noticable.

Our 540i was great. Nice to drive, comfortable, roomy. I even tracked it once at VIR at a Lotus track day and passed two fucking Elises. LOL. But indeed the pegleg blows trying to power out of turns. I put new shocks on ours and it drove like a whole new car.

I'd read up on bimmerforums. Theyre nice, but theyre getting old now and that motor is not cheap at all. It also has some decent flaws like the leaky valley pans, leaky valve covers, vacuum leaks, etc. The clutches are kinda goofy too on those cars and a proper solution is expensive. I wouldn't expect the motor to just grenade before 200k, but small things will go wrong.

1/8/2009 10:39:07 AM