Another 540i/6 Build Thread

[dannyzabolotny]

Howdy y'all,

Some of you might have seen a sneak peak of this in my M5 thread, but if not, here are the details of my latest E39 acquisition. It's a 2000 540i with a 6-speed, 156k miles, clean title, Anthracite Gray Metallic on Gray, sport package, and cold weather package. It has the front M-Sport bumper, some kind of aftermarket wheels, a Borla muffler, coilovers (I think?), an E o n o n head unit, backup camera, M5 shift knob, aftermarket taillights, and OEM Hella Xenon facelift headlights with LED angel eyes.

Unlike most of my other purchases, this car is also somewhat internet famous, having been featured in these two articles:

http://thegarage.jalopnik.com/four-r...t-n-1659284463

http://thegarage.jalopnik.com/i-got-...dam-1761171905

(I was actually mentioned in the second article)

The tl;dr backstory is that I've known the writer of those articles (Tavarish) for a pretty long time, and I hung out with him in September last year, where we talked about the 540i and its various problems. He bought the car from a friend, wrote an article full of glowing praise for the car, and then the timing chain guides failed on him. He took it to a cheap shop and they messed the job up so badly that they bent a valve. Tavarish then had to do a head and valve job, after which the car kept smoking. I casually mentioned the OSV which is behind the timing chain, and it turned out that the sketchy shop just didn't even install it when doing the guide job. After that, Tavarish redid the whole timing chain guide job himself, but he didn't quite time it right so it kept throwing camshaft timing codes. He also had to replace the alternator and power steering pump that the shop messed up. Funnily enough, I was the one who sold him the replacement alternator and power steering pump from my 2001 parts car. So in a weird way, those parts are kinda back in my hands.

Out of curiosity, I kept checking in with Tavarish to see how the 540i was coming along, and most recently he told me that he had pretty much given up on the car, since he was way too deep into it financially but still unable to sell it due to all the issues it had. I made him an offer in a half-joking manner, but to my surprise, he accepted it immediately. The car was shipped out later that week, and it got to my house in around 5 days from New Jersey. Not bad.

Photo May 16, 1 20 43 PM.jpg

After it arrived, I parked it right next to my Anthracite M5. It's pretty interesting to see two Anthracite E39's together. The colors look slightly different despite both cars having the same exact paint code... interesting.

Photo May 21, 11 13 05 AM.jpg

This was the picture that I posted in my other thread, with the M5 lurking in the background.

Photo May 22, 8 47 30 AM.jpg

After a quick hose down to get rid of a year's worth of NJ dirt, the car looked a lot better.

Photo May 23, 7 32 26 PM.jpg

For this project, I'm collaborating with BimmerBreaker, who is now learning the fine art of repairing Bimmers as opposed to just Breaking them (sorry, had to!). He's been helping out with this project, and it's really made things go a lot faster.

So far, the car needs the following:

- Needs to be re-timed properly to eliminate the camshaft codes. Should be super easy, especially with a second person to make sure the cam blocks don't lift while timing.
- Needs the CCV replaced. Tavarish was kind enough to include a new CCV with the car, so that's going to be really easy.
- Needs the front bumper repaired, it's cracked and has a chunk missing.
- Needs the hood latches and release cables to be replaced. Tavarish also included these parts with the car, what a bro.
- Driver's side door latch mechanism doesn't quite work right, so I'll have to investigate.
- Keyless entry doesn't work.

Other things I'd like to do to the car:

- Rear M-Sport bumper to match the front one.
- Clean and leatherique the seats
- Give the car a thorough detailing
- Fix anything else that might come up.

In the next post, I'll talk about the work that me and BimmerBreaker have already done to the car.

[dannyzabolotny]

Upon receiving the car, we got a low coolant warning when we started it for the first time. I didn't think too much of it, thinking I could just pop the hood and add some more coolant. Well that was the first challenge, the hood latch cable was completely messed up and didn't do anything. We ended up getting the hood open with more... unorthodox methods. A sawzall may or may not have been involved :P

We drove the car to BimmerBreaker's house to park it there while we worked on other stuff, and it smoked like crazy. That's always fun. The car has a bit of a shake when driving it, but it may very well be the tires, they've probably flat-spotted after the car was parked for the better part of two years. Could also be the front suspension bushings, but I'll investigate that later.

We noticed that the intake manifold was covered in oil on the driver's side, so we quickly removed it. Then we saw where the oil was coming from, which was both hilarious and a total relief. Apparently the valve cover gasket on the driver's side was installed improperly so it was pinched. This allowed a whole bunch of oil to just flow out like a waterfall, right into the intake manifold. That might also explain the smoke, since the intake manifold was being flooded with oil from the outside, and probably inside as well, due to the bad CCV.

Photo May 31, 10 30 53 PM.jpg

Here's what we saw when we removed the intake manifold, which we did in about 15 minutes. This is like what, the fourth or fifth M62tu I'm working on?

Photo May 31, 10 30 55 PM.jpg

No, those aren't intake manifold gaskets you're seeing. That's all red RTV. Yikes. No wonder this car had a lumpy idle, there were probably vacuum leaks for days here. The intake manifold gaskets looked original, they were hard as rocks, and crumpled up when we touched them.

After that, we removed the valve covers. This went super quickly with two people working on them.

Photo May 31, 10 30 57 PM.jpg

For what it's worth, the engine itself looked pretty clean inside, and the valves all looked nice and clean too. This engine just needs some love (and a bunch of gaskets).

Here's my shopping list so far:

- Intake manifold gaskets
- CCV and throttle body gaskets
- Fuel injector o-rings (why not)
- Valve cover gaskets
- Valve cover grommets
- Upper timing cover gaskets

The valley pan looks gross, but it's just the oil that seeped in from the valve covers. The valley pan gasket itself has been replaced recently, so I'm just going to clean that area up.

[bfp9]

Dude. How many E39s do you have now?! Good gracious. I'll have to swing by later this summer so we can finally meet up.

[aharbaugh9]

Great to see you're bringing another one back to life. Subscribed.

[dannyzabolotny]

Dude. How many E39s do you have now?! Good gracious. I'll have to swing by later this summer so we can finally meet up.

Right now, only 2! This is my 5th one overall though. It's a bit of an addiction. E39's are great cars though, they still look awesome, they're really easy to work on, and parts are reasonably priced.

Feel free to swing by whenever, just let me know! I love talking to fellow enthusiasts in person.

Great to see you're bringing another one back to life. Subscribed.

Thanks! This one wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things, I'm just picking up where the previous owner left off, and finishing the job correctly.

[auaq]

Is that the same color as the M5?

[BimmerBreaker]

I think that RTV is a bad sign. We should sell it as-is for $12,000.

[justinca540i]

Nice. M5 looks higher off the ground maybe just the way it was parked but good luck! Can't wait till I can have more than one BMW!

[philly98540]

Just needs a little love! Sub'd to watch you resurrect another one. Way to go Danny!

[auaq]

Sometimes I wonder if your blood type is the same as Aquila's.

[MyLast540i]

Nice car. I'm sure it will clean up real nice. I have been working on resurrecting a "running" 540i/6 myself. Have you discovered anything else?

[gmak]

Was the Red RTV used instead of the gaskets or along with? If the latter, you might find some pitting and corrosion in the aluminum underneath. Time for some JB Weld epoxy and sanding again. It's good to see such passion about these cars. Subscribed to this one as well. What a sad life I lead.

[extra]

Miss my e39 so much, love watching your threads pretending I have my own to work on. After seeing your cars I really want an anthracite m5 with caramel extended leather.

[angeleye540i]

Mann! that makes me miss my first 540i6 sport... 2001 anthracite... I'm misty eyed just thinking about it...

As far as the paint code goes, that's why it's hard to match factory paint because every car gets sun bleached at a different rate... The Darker one was probly garaged and or protected from direct sun, either via maintaining wax better, and or garage or location or mix of all... Sweet DannyZ always like to see what u got cookin

[AquilaBMW]

Nice one Danny!

[dannyzabolotny]

Is that the same color as the M5?

Yep.

I think that RTV is a bad sign. We should sell it as-is for $12,000.

Oh for sure. $16,000 OBO. Super rare, internet famous 540i.

Nice. M5 looks higher off the ground maybe just the way it was parked but good luck! Can't wait till I can have more than one BMW!

The M5 actually is higher off the ground, because it's at stock ride height whereas the 540i is lowered. I like my M5's ride height way more.

It's easy to have more than one BMW, just have a house with a two car garage and a driveway. Finding cheap ones is pretty easy.

Just needs a little love! Sub'd to watch you resurrect another one. Way to go Danny!

Thanks! This one should turn out nicely.

Sometimes I wonder if your blood type is the same as Aquila's.

... no comment.

Nice car. I'm sure it will clean up real nice. I have been working on resurrecting a "running" 540i/6 myself. Have you discovered anything else?

Yeah, I discovered that the aftermarket head unit was disconnected, because apparently it was wired into a constant power source instead of a switched one, so it ends up killing the battery. That'll be fun to fix.

Was the Red RTV used instead of the gaskets or along with? If the latter, you might find some pitting and corrosion in the aluminum underneath. Time for some JB Weld epoxy and sanding again. It's good to see such passion about these cars. Subscribed to this one as well. What a sad life I lead.

It was used along with the gaskets, because the previous owner decided to not replace the stock intake gaskets with new ones. I'll clean up that mess and see what the metal looks like underneath.

Miss my e39 so much, love watching your threads pretending I have my own to work on. After seeing your cars I really want an anthracite m5 with caramel extended leather.

Buy another E39 then, they're pretty cheap at this point! I looked up the production numbers, and apparently my M5 is 1 of 17. It's caramel leather with the heritage seats, but it's like a two-tone black and caramel interior that isn't complete leather, which was exclusive to the 2000 model year. In 2001+ model years, the caramel was always full leather, and there were 37 of those built. Happy hunting!

- - - Updated - - -

Mann! that makes me miss my first 540i6 sport... 2001 anthracite... I'm misty eyed just thinking about it...

As far as the paint code goes, that's why it's hard to match factory paint because every car gets sun bleached at a different rate... The Darker one was probly garaged and or protected from direct sun, either via maintaining wax better, and or garage or location or mix of all... Sweet DannyZ always like to see what u got cookin

Yeah, that's probably why they don't quite match. The 2001 lived most of its life in New Jersey, while the M5 was originally sold in New Mexico, moved to Arizona, moved to Cali, and is now back in Arizona. All of which are very sunny places. That's why most reputable paint shops will ask to see the rest of the car instead of just blindly going by the paint code. My M5's bumper was painted without being properly color matched to the rest of the car, which is why it looks a little darker than the car in some angles.

[extra]

Buy another E39 then, they're pretty cheap at this point! I looked up the production numbers, and apparently my M5 is 1 of 17. It's caramel leather with the heritage seats, but it's like a two-tone black and caramel interior that isn't complete leather, which was exclusive to the 2000 model year. In 2001+ model years, the caramel was always full leather, and there were 37 of those built. Happy hunting!

no room for 2 cars, but an m5 is definitely next after my wrx. One day I do want to own a titansilver 2000 540/6 with grey interior just because of sentimental attachment. I've got my 540's vin saved so maybe one day ill try to see where it went.

It's interesting... I realized how much of an attachment I'd developed to my 540 after I sold it. Despite the pain and money pit it was that car, according to my friends, was a reflection of my personality... I had fun times with it and now my subaru is just a car; not that special, not attached to it. Maybe it's because I haven't done anything to it or worked on it in the 6k miles I've driven it.

[nsogiba]

subscribed, always enjoy your restorations.

[geargrinder]

Cool stuff Danny. I semi-hated those jalop articles for the baseless or at least uninformed E39 and M62 bashing they attracted but to your buds credit he did try to take the blame himself.

I always figured that car was full of corner hack mechanic disasters and there ya go... Right from the gun the red RTV!

But I hope it cleans up good - cool to enlist Graham's help - he used to be a big contrib around here, was wondering what he was up to..!

You gonna keep it as a beater to your M5 or just sell when it's sorted? Sorry if I missed that someplace above - I didn't tldr but I did scan pretty quick.

[dannyzabolotny]

no room for 2 cars, but an m5 is definitely next after my wrx. One day I do want to own a titansilver 2000 540/6 with grey interior just because of sentimental attachment. I've got my 540's vin saved so maybe one day ill try to see where it went.

It's interesting... I realized how much of an attachment I'd developed to my 540 after I sold it. Despite the pain and money pit it was that car, according to my friends, was a reflection of my personality... I had fun times with it and now my subaru is just a car; not that special, not attached to it. Maybe it's because I haven't done anything to it or worked on it in the 6k miles I've driven it.

Honestly, the 540i/6 isn't that much of a money pit once you get the clutch, suspension, and timing chain guides sorted. Doing your own work makes it pretty cheap. I still don't get why you sold your 540i/6, seems like you could tackle any problem that it threw at you. I feel the same way though, I really regret selling my 2003 540i/6 M-Sport at this point, that car was nearly flawless. If I had to do it again I probably would have swapped the seats for M5 seats, done some suspension work, and removed the CDV. That would have addressed pretty much all of my concerns with it.

I guess in a way this M5 I have now is like me trying to get back to that M-Sport. It's just a better version of it, with more power, an LSD, and more fun features (heated seats, folding mirrors, and PDC, woo!).

subscribed, always enjoy your restorations.

Thanks man! I won't be doing anything as radical as your builds, but I will be cleaning this car up nicely.

Cool stuff Danny. I semi-hated those jalop articles for the baseless or at least uninformed E39 and M62 bashing they attracted but to your buds credit he did try to take the blame himself.

I always figured that car was full of corner hack mechanic disasters and there ya go... Right from the gun the red RTV!

But I hope it cleans up good - cool to enlist Graham's help - he used to be a big contrib around here, was wondering what he was up to..!

You gonna keep it as a beater to your M5 or just sell when it's sorted? Sorry if I missed that someplace above - I didn't tldr but I did scan pretty quick.

What's funny is that my buddy wrote the article about the wonders of the 540i right before his timing chain guides fell apart. That changed his opinion of it pretty darn quickly.

The red RTV was not unexpected, and it came off pretty easily, so no harm done there. With some new intake manifold gaskets it should run a lot better.

Graham actually lives less than 10 minutes away from me, so we've been doing a lot of wrenching and car stuff together lately. He helped me replace the gas tank in my 1995 750il, and he helped me out with my M5's rod bearings. It's awesome to have a second person around to help with the bulky, awkward portions of some repairs; dropping the front subframe on your own is never fun nor safe. He's mostly been in the Z3 section, he's pretty much buried in his two Z3 M-Coupes.

Once this 540i is fully sorted I plan to sell it. The funds from that will go to buying cars to part out with Graham, as well as for some other fun stuff that we'll reveal in the near future

[geargrinder]

Sounds good man. Ha ha yeah he and I bounced around a parts biz idea a while back - I am sure you can find lots of ventures to cook up w him...

[extra]

Honestly, the 540i/6 isn't that much of a money pit once you get the clutch, suspension, and timing chain guides sorted. Doing your own work makes it pretty cheap. I still don't get why you sold your 540i/6, seems like you could tackle any problem that it threw at you. I feel the same way though, I really regret selling my 2003 540i/6 M-Sport at this point, that car was nearly flawless. If I had to do it again I probably would have swapped the seats for M5 seats, done some suspension work, and removed the CDV. That would have addressed pretty much all of my concerns with it.

My car had the tc guides does 30k before I bought it, did the suspension, clutch, etc... but so many other things kept going wrong and I had about 4-5k into it excluding cost to buy the car and paint.. and that's money in parts... what really got me was that the longest stretch of time over a year of ownership without an issue was three weeks. With school and a bunch of other stuff going on I didn't want to have to deal with it anymore and always be doing something on it; wanted piece of mind and that's what I got, but gave up having a car with character and road presence.

[dannyzabolotny]

My car had the tc guides does 30k before I bought it, did the suspension, clutch, etc... but so many other things kept going wrong and I had about 4-5k into it excluding cost to buy the car and paint.. and that's money in parts... what really got me was that the longest stretch of time over a year of ownership without an issue was three weeks. With school and a bunch of other stuff going on I didn't want to have to deal with it anymore and always be doing something on it; wanted piece of mind and that's what I got, but gave up having a car with character and road presence.

I mean it's just a matter of your attitude towards the issues. I always enjoy working on my cars, and I get bored of them if nothing breaks. I've never been left stranded in any of my E39's, I've only ever been stranded in my 750il and both times were completely my fault. Up until last week, I had to go to work 18 miles from home, and all of my E39's were fine with that.

Maybe your car wasn't maintained well? Like sure, the previous owner might have done the guides but maybe they neglected everything else. I bought a 2003 540i/6 M-Sport last year with 192,000 miles on it, and aside from doing the chain guides (preemptively) I didn't have to do anything to it. It more or less just worked, and it worked well. I drove that car everywhere and put like 8,000 miles on it in a few months, and I didn't really drive it gently either. My current M5 has been pretty trouble-free as well now that I've done the rod bearings on it.

[extra]

I mean it's just a matter of your attitude towards the issues. I always enjoy working on my cars, and I get bored of them if nothing breaks. I've never been left stranded in any of my E39's, I've only ever been stranded in my 750il and both times were completely my fault. Up until last week, I had to go to work 18 miles from home, and all of my E39's were fine with that.

Maybe your car wasn't maintained well? Like sure, the previous owner might have done the guides but maybe they neglected everything else. I bought a 2003 540i/6 M-Sport last year with 192,000 miles on it, and aside from doing the chain guides (preemptively) I didn't have to do anything to it. It more or less just worked, and it worked well. I drove that car everywhere and put like 8,000 miles on it in a few months, and I didn't really drive it gently either. My current M5 has been pretty trouble-free as well now that I've done the rod bearings on it.

I think a lot of it's luck of the draw. Mine was owned by a bmws indy but still had tons of things go wrong. Really shows ya gotta be careful as to which car you buy as far as looking into maintenance records.

[auaq]

Let me join the club and say that I think I've got a coolant leak somewhere. Every two days I get the warning message and sure enough I'm low when I check the level. Got to rent a pressure tester and find this damn leak. I have overhauled the entire cooling system last year ... now it's leaking again! Sigh ...

BMW literally stands for worst designed cooling system on the planet!