My E39 M5 Thread

[the gymkhana fanatic]

Alrighty so for a while now I have been meaning to make a thread on my M5. I have owned it for a year now however I seldom drive it and will most likely be putting it on the market soon. So this thread will hopefully serve as a comprehensive report on my under-utilised M5 ownership experience.

The first time I saw this car was at a friends warehouse here in PE. He had bought it but never really drove it. I snapped this photo

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I have always wanted an E39 M5 since I watched the BMW Film "Star"...so when my friend indicated he would be keen on selling it sometime my interest was piqued. I knew it needed a bit of TLC but the price was good considering the price that these cars seem to be fetching lately. So eventually I took it off his hands. The idea was for this to be my fun car...mostly on the weekends.

It is rather thirsty so I mostly managed to stick to that. Problem is that one of the biggest issues I had was the lights. No indicators, headlights are like candles etc. So initial thoughts were that it was related to the cluster which also needed replacing. At this time the car went in to a electronics place in PE and it sat there for MONTHS...eventually I picked it up because it became quite clear nothing was happening there.

 

[VinceM]

And what's with the suspense ?

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

Such a classic M car this, there is a daily drive one at my office! Just seeing it in the basements when I drive in makes me smile! You should make some time and take this beast out for a drive :smilebounce:

 

[the gymkhana fanatic]

I started making a very comprehensive list of things that needed to be sorted on the car. It seems ignorance is bliss though as the more I researched and noticed on the odd occasion driving it the longer the list of work required became haha! Hunting for certain parts was a mission. Even when going to used part stores and being very specific about what part I was looking for I still ended up with an E46 door catch. The problem here is that the passenger front door would close by itself and you would need to really slam it.

This annoyance ended up being a free fix. The "arm" that I thought was missing had actually just pushed into the door. I managed to get the pin for the arm for free from a scrapyard and pulled the arm out of its hiding place. So I felt we were making progress at this point. Its not a great sign when you get excited about having a functional door. The problem with the headlights persisted and so did the hunt for a replacement cluster. It turned out that the cluster in my car when I bought it was actually an X3 cluster. I knew it wasn't right but I didn't realise how far off it actually was from the correct one. Not to mention the gauge was nothing short of a dysfunctional Christmas tree.

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The thing about not researching everything about a car before purchasing is that you really don't know what is normal and what isn't . And I definitely bought this car with rose tinted glasses. One day I was standing in my yard closing the gate and I suddenly realised that I had COMPLETELY different wheels on the rear of the car. In the photo below you can see the rear wheels are crazy wide/deep compared to the front.

Its even worse than that though. Its a 17" replica wheel! I still don't know how I did not notice that when buying it.

Somewhere around this time I realised my car was in fact a hybrid..it was a 2000 M5 with facelift lights. So from the outside one could easily be fooled into thinking it was a facelift. Only the screen inside and the steering wheel were evidence of its actual year. The cluster saga continued until one day I found an E39 M5 with a blown motor stripping for parts. I had already struggled so much with this cluster story that I did not want to take chances getting a facelift cluster and this car was a pre facelift and I was assured there were NO dead pixels...Ha! Spoiler Alert...there were some pixels that were NOT dead.

At this point I had the correct cluster installed (with a million dead pixels) and my lights were still not working. Because I seldom drive the car (Once every month maybe) it wasn't a massive concern but it did taint the experience. Then I received a call from a friend asking me if I wanted to sell or swap my M5 wheels as he knew a guy with an E39 M5 who needed stock wheels. I love the style 65 wheels so I would have never sold or swapped but I got his contact details and it turned out I actually knew this guy from the motorsport scene years ago. We had actually purchased our cars around the same time as well. The good news was that he had a mint facelift cluster and a not as mint steering wheel but he was looking for a preface lift cluster and wanted my steering wheel. So we did the swap and EVENTUALLY I had a completely functional cluster that looked amazing.

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Some photos of our M5's together. He has since left the country and he took his M5 with him.

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The new cluster installed.

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And what's with the suspense ?

Ha sorry...I didn't expect anyone to see this post so soon. Was busy typing up and hunting for photos.

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So this pretty much brings me to where I am today. I eventually put license plates on the car. I really don't think the car looks great with license plates on the front but I have been stopped twice for not running plates.

I would say I am at crossroads at the moment. A few months ago I decided I would sell the car and placed it on Gumtree but It was such a headache that I ended up removing it. The issue I am having at the moment is that my e90 320d is gaining mileage at a significant rate and I am in the market for an F30 320d. Unfortunately it seems no dealership is keen on the trade because of my mileage and since I still owe on the car the M5 may have to go. I will hopefully have some answers this week but it is unfortunate that I have driven less than 2000km with this car while owning it. I recently found a light control module to fix the light problems for around R500 and then the car would be even better. Does it still have issues? Yes...its not perfect but its somehow kept its horses over the years and it is a joy to drive.

 

[husaindindar]

Perfect or not...
It still looks epic!

 

[Yuben]

Moved to Showroom

 

[the gymkhana fanatic]

Perfect or not...
It still looks epic!

Thank you! Whenever I see an E39 on the road I can't help thinking its still one of the better looking models.

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Moved to Showroom

Oh wow thanks, I didn't even know there was a section like this.

 

[telegamer]

Still a beautiful car

 

[BadBoy23]

A legendary car bud. love the colour:bravo:

 

[the gymkhana fanatic]

Thanks guys...I am on the fence with Silverstone blue. It changes a lot with the light or time of day. I guess if I could choose a colour it would be alphine white, Le Mans blue or imola red.

 

[Nikhil]

That's awesome, laughed way to hard at the non M cluster saga. What actually happened to the car? How did it end up with the wrong cluster?:hammerhead:

 

[Coisman]

Alrighty so for a while now I have been meaning to make a thread on my M5. I have owned it for a year now however I seldom drive it and will most likely be putting it on the market soon. So this thread will hopefully serve as a comprehensive report on my under-utilised M5 ownership experience.

FOR SALE thread in disguise I think :thinking:

 

[Peter@AEW]

Being an early car piston ring failure is almost a guarantee.
To fix that engine is prohibitively expensive.

The later cars were updated to rectify the early models engine failures.

 

[Rotinaj]

This annoyance ended up being a free fix. The "arm" that I thought was missing had actually just pushed into the door. I managed to get the pin for the arm for free from a scrapyard and pulled the arm out of its hiding place. So I felt we were making progress at this point. Its not a great sign when you get excited about having a functional door. The problem with the headlights persisted and so did the hunt for a replacement cluster. It turned out that the cluster in my car when I bought it was actually an X3 cluster. I knew it wasn't right but I didn't realise how far off it actually was from the correct one. Not to mention the gauge was nothing short of a dysfunctional Christmas tree.

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Not to piss on your parade, but it can not be a X3 cluster.

Have a look and see how it looks like

https://www.autotrader.co.za/cars-f...cmQ9eDMmc29ydD1wcmljZSU3Q2FzYw&result-index=2

E53/E38/E39 i think used the same clusters.

 

[NBN]

Clusters are usually a sign of mileage tampering... After you had the 'correct cluster' installed, was the mileage matched to the ews and cas? Bmw stores the mileage in multiple locations and if they don't all match up, a small dot will appear on the cluster next to the mileage to indicate it has been 'tampered with'

That aside, I absolutely love these cars and would love to have one in my garage one day!

 

[the gymkhana fanatic]

Alrighty so for a while now I have been meaning to make a thread on my M5. I have owned it for a year now however I seldom drive it and will most likely be putting it on the market soon. So this thread will hopefully serve as a comprehensive report on my under-utilised M5 ownership experience.

FOR SALE thread in disguise I think :thinking:

Are you buying? Ha! No, it is currently not on the market...probably will be soon but I had it on Gumtree and Facebook a few months ago and that was a disaster of note so I removed it.

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This annoyance ended up being a free fix. The "arm" that I thought was missing had actually just pushed into the door. I managed to get the pin for the arm for free from a scrapyard and pulled the arm out of its hiding place. So I felt we were making progress at this point. Its not a great sign when you get excited about having a functional door. The problem with the headlights persisted and so did the hunt for a replacement cluster. It turned out that the cluster in my car when I bought it was actually an X3 cluster. I knew it wasn't right but I didn't realise how far off it actually was from the correct one. Not to mention the gauge was nothing short of a dysfunctional Christmas tree.

---

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Not to piss on your parade, but it can not be a X3 cluster.

Have a look and see how it looks like

https://www.autotrader.co.za/cars-f...cmQ9eDMmc29ydD1wcmljZSU3Q2FzYw&result-index=2

E53/E38/E39 i think used the same clusters.

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Well either way..it wasn't the correct cluster. The reason I was under the impression it was an X3 cluster is because when it was removed it had a big label on the back in tippex that said "BMW X3"

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Clusters are usually a sign of mileage tampering... After you had the 'correct cluster' installed, was the mileage matched to the ews and cas? Bmw stores the mileage in multiple locations and if they don't all match up, a small dot will appear on the cluster next to the mileage to indicate it has been 'tampered with'

That aside, I absolutely love these cars and would love to have one in my garage one day!

The mileage was not matched up no. The correct mileage is a mystery. I was told that one of the locations the mileage is kept is the light control module but my light control module is one of the issues I think I mentioned that needs fixing. There is no tamper dot...but I know that the mileage on the cluster is from the original M5 it was taken from.

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Took a drive today with the M5. Encountered an e92 M3 and had a bit of a TLGP. For a car as old as this I would have expected the M3 to be substantially quicker but they were incredibly well matched.

 

[VinceM]

Mileage is an issue on most e46s and e39.

Glad I have fsh on my CIs which I aim to keep as long as I can......I couldn't say the same on the lemon e46 sedan I had.

 

[the gymkhana fanatic]

Mileage is an issue on most e46s and e39.

Glad I have fsh on my CIs which I aim to keep as long as I can......I couldn't say the same on the lemon e46 sedan I had.

My e90 and the M5 have both been a lesson in car ownership for me...what to look out for when buying etc. The e90 has been fine but still some questions on the gap in service history. I now only look for FSH and do a ton of research. You can be glad you have neat cars from the get go.

 

[Rotinaj]

Mileage is an issue on most e46s and e39.

Glad I have fsh on my CIs which I aim to keep as long as I can......I couldn't say the same on the lemon e46 sedan I had.

My e90 and the M5 have both been a lesson in car ownership for me...what to look out for when buying etc. The e90 has been fine but still some questions on the gap in service history. I now only look for FSH and do a ton of research. You can be glad you have neat cars from the get go.

You are still in the wrong.

When buying a car - Sellers are scum is the way to go into any deal that you don't know the owner personally.

FSH on a bmw is a ticket for high millage engine death.

 

[modocrat]

This was getting interesting.. and then it just stops there. We need closure 😕