Danny's Japan Rot 540i Touring Thread

[dannyzabolotny]

Love it! Sorry about the bumper, that must sting a little.

Eh, it's alright. It wasn't a perfect paint job anyways, lots of orange peel. Plus it was starting to crack in some spots because we didn't seal the repairs correctly so it'll be nice to redo it all properly.

I disagree on square vs. staggered, as handling trumps looks, IMO, but hey.

Are you using any spacers on the front?

I don't really think square wheels improve handling all that much, especially on a 4000lb wagon. The turning radius is quite large already, no need to make it bigger. And 90% of my driving is in straight lines so handling isn't really an issue. Even when I was ripping up and down the mountain roads I didn't feel like I was lacking in handling/traction.

I'm not using any spacers at all. These are E38 M-Pars that have been bored out to E39 fitment, so it's whatever offset they have. As it turns out, that offset works quite well on an E39. No rubbing at all.

Wow man, your car is actually really clean despite having gone 200,000 miles!

Thanks! I take care of it and clean it often so it doesn't look like the typical E39 beaters you usually see at this age/mileage. It'll look even newer once I polish the headlights, install a rear M-Sport bumper, get M5 mirrors, and repaint the door handles (they're starting to fade). The interior will soon receive a major facelift as well, with a full black touring interior (already have it, it's laying in my house ready to go).

[computiNATEor]

Eh, it's alright. It wasn't a perfect paint job anyways, lots of orange peel. Plus it was starting to crack in some spots because we didn't seal the repairs correctly so it'll be nice to redo it all properly.



I don't really think square wheels improve handling all that much, especially on a 4000lb wagon. The turning radius is quite large already, no need to make it bigger. And 90% of my driving is in straight lines so handling isn't really an issue. Even when I was ripping up and down the mountain roads I didn't feel like I was lacking in handling/traction.

I'm not using any spacers at all. These are E38 M-Pars that have been bored out to E39 fitment, so it's whatever offset they have. As it turns out, that offset works quite well on an E39. No rubbing at all.



Thanks! I take care of it and clean it often so it doesn't look like the typical E39 beaters you usually see at this age/mileage. It'll look even newer once I polish the headlights, install a rear M-Sport bumper, get M5 mirrors, and repaint the door handles (they're starting to fade). The interior will soon receive a major facelift as well, with a full black touring interior (already have it, it's laying in my house ready to go).

I bet you could get that orange peel out with some wet-sanding and buffing. Now's a great time to try, since you have to re-do it anyways. Larry Kosilla, as I'm sure you know, has some great videos on the topic featuring Matt Farah's Mustang.

Yeah, the stagger works better on the touring, especially because of the extra rear weight. On the sedans, I want a square setup to help neutralize some of the understeer that BMW designed in.

What is it with the door handles? Every E39 has issues with them, including both of my automatic 530is. My 530i5 has had the handles repainted already, but I suspect they'd have the same issue if they hadn't.

[cnsorial]

My handles faded too. I repainted them last year.

Car looks great, Danny! I’m not a huge wagon guy but seeing how great yours looks changes my perspective.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dannyzabolotny]

I bet you could get that orange peel out with some wet-sanding and buffing. Now's a great time to try, since you have to re-do it anyways. Larry Kosilla, as I'm sure you know, has some great videos on the topic featuring Matt Farah's Mustang.

Yeah, the stagger works better on the touring, especially because of the extra rear weight. On the sedans, I want a square setup to help neutralize some of the understeer that BMW designed in.

What is it with the door handles? Every E39 has issues with them, including both of my automatic 530is. My 530i5 has had the handles repainted already, but I suspect they'd have the same issue if they hadn't.

I already wet sanded it haha. I'm no stranger to detailing, I've watched all of Larry's videos at least twice. There were some runs I wasn't able to get out of the clear because it wasn't laid down very well, and there's quite a bit of contamination in the clear coat if you look closely, so I have no problem with just redoing the whole thing.

I think it's the plastic and/or the paint used on the door handles. The plastic bumpers often fade before the rest of the car does as well, so that's probably the cause. I figure I'll blast the handles at the same time as I repaint my bumper.

My handles faded too. I repainted them last year.

Car looks great, Danny! I’m not a huge wagon guy but seeing how great yours looks changes my perspective.

Thanks! Wagons are awesome— similar handling to a sedan but with loads more cargo space. Plus I feel like the lines of the E39 really work well in wagon form. I feel like E39 wagons get a bad rap because most of them are beat up and in a boring color, plus almost all of them are automatics (especially the 540it's). Once I put a manual in this one, it'll be as fun to drive as any 540i/6.

[cnsorial]

The door handles are actually pot metal. Which explains why I had one break on my car.

And I’m looking forward to your manual swap. Have any plans for when that’s to take place?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dannyzabolotny]

The door handles are actually pot metal. Which explains why I had one break on my car.

And I’m looking forward to your manual swap. Have any plans for when that’s to take place?

I think the door handles were metal on some earlier E39's, but mine are 100% plastic, that I know for sure.

I'm letting a friend borrow the 540i/6 while he's getting his car painted, so sometime after that, haha. I'll likely part out that car first, since I need to make some money to buy a new clutch, flywheel (if needed), short shifter, ZHP knob, DSSR, new shifter bushings, new rear main seal, new slave cylnder, and whatever else I may need. I basically want the manual to feel brand new when it's put into my 540it so that I can just drive it for a long time. I've got a lot of fun road trips planned for this year so this swap has to be done just right.

The physical aspect of the swap should be rather easy since both cars are 2000 model years. Everything should bolt right up (except for the CDV, just gonna leave that out) for the most part. The wiring shouldn't be too tough, since I have Geargrinder's guide to reference, along with a few electronically-savvy friends. I have another friend who's gonna help with the coding. My goal is to have everything 100% ready so that I can knock it out over a weekend. I'm thinking mid to late February is when I'll get to it.

[cnsorial]

Interesting regarding metal and plastic door handles. I didn’t know that.

It’ll drove so good with all those fresh parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ghandog]

Sweet ride. Touring/Wagons are not really my thing, but that looks good.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Hey ghandog, are there a lot of E39's running around in the Philippines these days?

[sooch]

This is the best angle for the M-pars, great shot Danny.... Car looks immaculate in pictures. I see a tiny bit of polish needed on the hood, otherwise it really looks great for a car that's nearing it's drinking age.....

The 6spd swap will really wake this beast up!

[philly98540]

Tour is looking very good Danny! Did you finally solve that pesky vibration?

[StephenVA]

Good Story!

[dannyzabolotny]

Interesting regarding metal and plastic door handles. I didn’t know that.

It’ll drive so good with all those fresh parts.

I agree, it'll feel amazing after the manual swap. The automatic gearbox works fine for now, but you can tell it's getting a bit tired— it takes a while to go from P to R to D when parking, and occasionally it'll have a less-than-great shift. Changed the fluid a bunch of times but it's at 200,000 miles so it is what it is.

Before I do that though, I have to tie up some loose ends. I have the new, correct Zimmerman front brake rotors that I'll be installing. When I did the brakes before, I accidentally ordered the front rotors for a newer build 540i (a post 4/2000), whereas my car is an 11/1999, so it didn't fit. Thankfully FCP Euro has their lifetime warranty so I was able to swap the rotors out for the correct ones. Now I'm just waiting on a set of fresh Akebono pads to come so I can complete the brake job properly. I also plan on installing the stainless steel lines that I bought, along with flushing and bleeding the system thoroughly (the brake fluid is black right now). Gotta make sure I stop properly before I make the 540it quicker!

And then I also have the center link and tie rod ends to replace, along with the idler arm. I have all those parts laying around, just have to set aside some time this weekend to replace it all. That's the last original suspension component remaining on this car, so I think it'll tighten up the front even more.

This is the best angle for the M-pars, great shot Danny.... Car looks immaculate in pictures. I see a tiny bit of polish needed on the hood, otherwise it really looks great for a car that's nearing it's drinking age.....

The 6spd swap will really wake this beast up!

I agree, the M-Pars look amazing when you can see the lip on them. That's also what bums me out about newer BMW's— all of the wheels have positive offsets so there's no lip anymore

Yeah, the hood's pretty beat up. It had a ton of deep scratches and rock chips when I bought it with 174k miles, and it certainly hasn't gotten better with all the road trips I've taken it on. I'll likely be respraying the hood when I redo the bumper, that'll be a nice facelift for the old girl. I got my bumper to match the rest of the car pretty well when I painted it previously, so I think the hood will match nicely when I paint it.

Your 1997 540i/6 is the best 1997 I've ever seen, so I guess we're both pretty good at taking car of our older cars. Crazy what some headlights and a bumper can do for an aging car, eh?

Tour is looking very good Danny! Did you finally solve that pesky vibration?

Thanks! I haven't solved it 100% but I've made a lot of progress! On a whim I decided to swap my spare wheel on to replace my front right wheel, and that seems to have improved things considerably. The steering wheel shake between 50 – 70mph is completely gone, and now there's just a minor vibration which is a lot easier to deal with than having to wrestle the steering wheel. My other set of wheels (the style 32's) had the front shake as well so I assume those wheels must not be great either. That's kinda the caveat of used wheels, you're never guaranteed straight ones.

Once I get my 540i/6 back (I'm loaning it to a friend for a bit) I'm going to take all of the 540it's M-Pars to a wheel shop to have the tires and wheels checked for straightness. At this point I'm convinced that all the problems are in that, especially since my friend and I went through the entire suspension and found nothing obviously wrong.

[sooch]

I agree, the M-Pars look amazing when you can see the lip on them. That's also what bums me out about newer BMW's— all of the wheels have positive offsets so there's no lip anymore

Yeah, the hood's pretty beat up. It had a ton of deep scratches and rock chips when I bought it with 174k miles, and it certainly hasn't gotten better with all the road trips I've taken it on. I'll likely be respraying the hood when I redo the bumper, that'll be a nice facelift for the old girl. I got my bumper to match the rest of the car pretty well when I painted it previously, so I think the hood will match nicely when I paint it.

Your 1997 540i/6 is the best 1997 I've ever seen, so I guess we're both pretty good at taking car of our older cars. Crazy what some headlights and a bumper can do for an aging car, eh?

You may have mistaken my ride, I had a '99 .... Howevah, I replaced the 540i this time last year with an e46 m3. I miss the 4 door comfort so I poke around here still.... Facelift headlights, m bumpers take 5+ years off their appearance, cannot go wrong. This era of BMW e38, e39 and e46 has aged so well and really created that timeless look of the early 00s. I ended up selling the 540i a really cool kid that I keep tabs on. He went pretty wild with it, definitely went to a good home so that's great news. TiAg looks great when taken care of.... (which is why I settled for it on the M).

As for M-pars, they may be the best wheel BMW has produced, maybe I'm biased IDK. They don't look too great on the e46 m3 unfortunately, or I'd already have a set. Settling for the square rear style 67 18's with a little bit of lip to em. A BBK under the m-pars could look killer, any plans for that? I know you revamped the brakes, but I'm sure the 996 brakes could work somehow

[cnsorial]

I hope he was talking about my 540 ;-)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dannyzabolotny]

You may have mistaken my ride, I had a '99 .... Howevah, I replaced the 540i this time last year with an e46 m3. I miss the 4 door comfort so I poke around here still.... Facelift headlights, m bumpers take 5+ years off their appearance, cannot go wrong. This era of BMW e38, e39 and e46 has aged so well and really created that timeless look of the early 00s. I ended up selling the 540i a really cool kid that I keep tabs on. He went pretty wild with it, definitely went to a good home so that's great news. TiAg looks great when taken care of.... (which is why I settled for it on the M).

As for M-pars, they may be the best wheel BMW has produced, maybe I'm biased IDK. They don't look too great on the e46 m3 unfortunately, or I'd already have a set. Settling for the square rear style 67 18's with a little bit of lip to em. A BBK under the m-pars could look killer, any plans for that? I know you revamped the brakes, but I'm sure the 996 brakes could work somehow

Ah, whoops. I thought I was talking to cnsorial, he's got the cleanest 1997 540i/6 that I've ever seen.

A BBK would indeed look killer, but that's pretty low on my list of priorities. The priorities go like this: black interior swap > manual swap > LSD > maybe a BBK. The stock brakes are decent when set up correctly, so I'm not about to throw thousands at something that isn't a problem yet.

- - - Updated - - -

I hope he was talking about my 540 ;-)

Yep, I was talking about yours. Got a little confused with the usernames there, sorry! I love your 97 540i/6, it looks absolutely amazing. You could tell me it's a sub-100k mile 03 M-Sport and I would completely believe you.

[cnsorial]

Ah, whoops. I thought I was talking to cnsorial, he's got the cleanest 1997 540i/6 that I've ever seen.

A BBK would indeed look killer, but that's pretty low on my list of priorities. The priorities go like this: black interior swap > manual swap > LSD > maybe a BBK. The stock brakes are decent when set up correctly, so I'm not about to throw thousands at something that isn't a problem yet.

- - - Updated - - -



Yep, I was talking about yours. Got a little confused with the usernames there, sorry! I love your 97 540i/6, it looks absolutely amazing. You could tell me it's a sub-100k mile 03 M-Sport and I would completely believe you.

The only thing that would give it away is my prefacelift steering wheel



Thanks for the compliments.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dannyzabolotny]

Around 201,000 miles I did an oil change, which was roughly a 7000 mile interval. The oil came out pretty dark so I'm going to try a 6000 mile interval for the next change and see if it comes out better. Maybe I'll also get a Blackstone report so I can know the optimal interval.

A few weeks ago I did the motor mounts on the 540it— both of them were pretty bad. It was a pretty straightforward swap and I used the M5 mounts since they're more durable. They also happened to be cheaper than the 540i mounts for some reason, but I'm not complaining!



The crazy thing is that I didn't really notice a difference with the new mounts. It just goes to show how over-engineered these mounts are— even when they're completely wrecked they still do a decent job.

And now for more shameless picture spam:





I also love how much fits into the E39 touring without even folding the seats down:



A few days after that picture, my license plate went missing randomly. Looks like it fell off with the plate filler... how odd. Thankfully Arizona makes it quite easy to get a replacement plate— I got a new plate for $10 that same day, and that was on a Sunday afternoon. Gotta love third party MVD offices!

I'm honestly surprised I never got pulled over looking like this:



After that, I redid the front brakes with the correct Zimmerman rotors and new Akebono pads. I made sure to lubricate all of the contact surfaces thoroughly, and after that I installed stainless steel brake lines all around. The stainless steel lines were a little fiddly to install, but overall it went pretty smoothly. Then, with a friend, we bled the brakes. The fluid was initially black— it probably hadn't been changed in years. We just kept pumping nasty old fluid out for a while but eventually it flowed clear so we bled the brakes at all four corners and verified that everything was working fine before taking it on a road test. The brakes felt great and I bedded them in by doing a bunch of 0-40-0 runs on an empty highway service road (the perks of wrenching at 2am). Even though the ceramic brake pads have less bite than conventional ones, the pedal feel has improved considerably, likely due to fresh fluid and stainless steel lines.

The old lines actually didn't look bad, but it was still a worthy upgrade.





With all of that work done, I was rewarded with good braking performance and zero squeal. I've actually had to adjust my braking habits to avoid stopping too soon, as I had gotten used to stopping extra early to compensate for my mediocre braking before.

At some point in the past week, my girlfriend broke the sun visor clip. It's not really her fault, the clip is just an original part that decided it was done after 18 years. I found a set of Genuine BMW black clips on Amazon for $16 a pair, so I ordered that and I swapped those in today. The black looks a little weird on a light headliner, but I'm thinking ahead for when I do my alcantara headliner.



I also fixed the license plate issue by grabbing the trim panel from my 540it parts car and trimming it down with a (way overkill) angle grinder. I basically trimmed it so that I could hide it completely behind the plate and create a clean Euro look. You know what they say— "when you lose your car's original-colored plate filler, time to do a Euro plate setup." Okay, nobody actually said that, but it makes me feel better about it, haha.



With that done, I took care of another cosmetic issue, this time under the hood. My positive terminal had been looking pretty unloved for a while, so I dressed it up a bit with a nice new cover & base. It didn't cost very much and improved the look of the engine bay considerably!





After that, I decided to give the engine bay a wash to get some of the dust and dirt off. I hosed everything down, sprayed on a bunch of Scrubbing Bubbles cleaner, used a brush to scrub some areas, and then rinsed it all off, followed by drying with a microfiber towel and a modest application of a quality water-based tire shine. I didn't cover anything during this process, and the car started up just fine. There's not much you'd need to cover anyway, especially since the alternator is fully sealed on these cars.

The engine bay looks wonderful again, though I definitely need to do something about those valve covers— one of them is beginning to deform and fall apart. I have some good condition valve covers from my 540it parts car so I'll likely get those powder coated this week and do a swap so there's zero downtime.





Once the engine bay was done, I washed the rest of the car. Tomorrow I'm driving up to Sedona with my girlfriend on a little day trip, so I'll probably get some pretty pictures of the car then.

Overall, the 540it has been great, rolling on past 202,000 miles with not a care in the world.

[cnsorial]

Lookin good Danny! When is the black interior happening?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[danmurphymn]

I've read a handful of build threads so far. Supercharged tourings, M5 tourings etc. They're great and all but I love your real mans build thread. Fixing things at night, buying parts as you can afford. I've enjoyed seeing your progress.
My new to me 540iT has 220k on it and I'm constantly struggling with wanting to mint it out vs. maintain it. It's cool to see you document your journey of maintaining your car and slowly fixing it up... Keep up the good work!

[dannyzabolotny]

Lookin good Danny! When is the black interior happening?

Most likely in March. I'm taking some time off from work then so I'll be able to do the swap at a relaxed pace as opposed to scrambling to get it done in a weekend. I plan on cleaning and conditioning every single trim piece and making sure every single clip is proper, so that I can have a rattle-free interior for a long time. I plan on making videos about that too, as a full interior swap is quite the undertaking.

I've read a handful of build threads so far. Supercharged tourings, M5 tourings etc. They're great and all but I love your real mans build thread. Fixing things at night, buying parts as you can afford. I've enjoyed seeing your progress.
My new to me 540iT has 220k on it and I'm constantly struggling with wanting to mint it out vs. maintain it. It's cool to see you document your journey of maintaining your car and slowly fixing it up... Keep up the good work!

Thanks! That means a lot to me I may not be doing anything super exciting with my 540it, but I'm doing it at a modest pace without wrecking my wallet. It's certainly a balancing act with trying to fix necessary things versus cosmetic things. While I'd love to supercharge it or S62-swap it, realistically I won't be able to afford that for a while. I do plan on manual-swapping it though, but I'm keeping that reasonable in cost by using a cheaply purchased parts car that I'll then part out to basically pay for the swap.

220k? That's awesome. Have the usual things (guides/suspension/subframe bushings) been done yet? I'm at 202k and all of that's been sorted on mine.

[dannyzabolotny]

Yesterday I went on a fun little day trip with my girlfriend, we went from Phoenix to Sedona and then back to Phoenix through Payson. It was about 350 miles round trip, not bad at all. I managed to do all of that in less than a tank of gas— the M62tu loves highway driving. I did have some fun with it on the twisty roads to Payson though, the touring feels pretty good on them.

The only downside was a silly little speeding ticket, for allegedly doing 64 in a 55. It's only a $62 ticket but still annoying. I need to invest in a radar detector already, as I have terrible luck with this kind of stuff— I'm completely oblivious and don't notice cop cars until they're like a few feet away. At least with something beeping at me I might pay more attention. The other annoying thing is that I get a ticket every single time I'm pulled over, like I don't ever get to talk my way out of it. Oh well. I'm not going to stop driving in a spirited manner any time soon so I should just have an annual budget for this kind of stuff.

On the bright side, the touring looked and performed very well. No warnings or issues of any kind, and I'm almost at 203k miles.

[geargrinder]

Sounds like nice day out bud.

I need to invest in a radar detector already, as I have terrible luck with this kind of stuff— I'm completely oblivious and don't notice cop cars until they're like a few feet away. At least with something beeping at me I might pay more attention. The other annoying thing is that I get a ticket every single time I'm pulled over, like I don't ever get to talk my way out of it.

From a voice of age and wisdom that's almost always owned the 'best' detectors from way back in the day Escort-Passport-V1 etc...

1. A detector is no replacement for eyeballs. In fact there's plenty of situations w/ instant-on gunning when eyeballs are needed to beat the detector, and the detector wont save you but eyeballs might.
2. If you are that distractable from the chore of watching, you'll VERY quickly just learn to ignore the beeping. Especially if you drive somewhere with lots of alarms - false or real. Newer detectors are better for screening false alarms but where I am the towns are using a lot of 'fixed' radar (speed signs) and so those for sure aren't 'false' but get you used to the thing beeping constantly.... and then you find yourself ignoring it some time when suddenly its a real speed-trap
3. Young males (to a degree, males in general) NEVER get off the hook with a warning, IME. Not your fault. I've gotten off w/ a warning 2 or 3 times in my entire heavy-driving life I think and in most/all cases it was a sweet girlfriend/wife in the passenger seat chatting up the cop that I think made him let us go. I have buds who have gotten off w/ warnings when driving super bad-ass cars cuz the cop wants to talk gearhead about their ride, but that's never happened to me (helps to drive a vintage 930 or a Cobra rep or something domestic-vintage...)

I'm not saying don't get one, just saying... it ain't gonna save you. Honestly these days techno-defense-wise, its Waze #1 and the detectors #2 for me. But if you can't watch the road itself, you'll also forget to notice the Waze cop warning flashing on the screen...

[danmurphymn]

I need to invest in a radar detector already, as I have terrible luck with this kind of stuff— I'm completely oblivious and don't notice cop cars until they're like a few feet away. At least with something beeping at me I might pay more attention.

Try riding a motorcycle for a few years... It'll train your brain to watch for how people drive, who's on their phone, who's texting, who's going to change lanes, dirt on the road, your body position etc... Then start riding 10-20 over the limit everywhere you go and you learn how to do all of that while keeping your eyes peeled for police. Once you spend a few years looking at everything and anticipating everyone's moves as a matter of life and death, you'll never need a radar detector

220k? That's awesome. Have the usual things (guides/suspension/subframe bushings) been done yet? I'm at 202k and all of that's been sorted on mine.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure everything has been done. Pretty sure as in, It was a fly and buy for me. He said he had all of the records. But he had just moved from CA, so he still had a lot in boxes so he couldn't find all of the records. Only a handful of receipts. He's still looking and said he'll send it all to me. Guides are supposedly done. Suspension and subframe all feels tight so I hope it's all done. I believe in the best of people so I'll just hope that he was honest...

[justinca540i]

Sounds like nice day out bud.



From a voice of age and wisdom that's almost always owned the 'best' detectors from way back in the day Escort-Passport-V1 etc...

1. A detector is no replacement for eyeballs. In fact there's plenty of situations w/ instant-on gunning when eyeballs are needed to beat the detector, and the detector wont save you but eyeballs might.
2. If you are that distractable from the chore of watching, you'll VERY quickly just learn to ignore the beeping. Especially if you drive somewhere with lots of alarms - false or real. Newer detectors are better for screening false alarms but where I am the towns are using a lot of 'fixed' radar (speed signs) and so those for sure aren't 'false' but get you used to the thing beeping constantly.... and then you find yourself ignoring it some time when suddenly its a real speed-trap
3. Young males (to a degree, males in general) NEVER get off the hook with a warning, IME. Not your fault. I've gotten off w/ a warning 2 or 3 times in my entire heavy-driving life I think and in most/all cases it was a sweet girlfriend/wife in the passenger seat chatting up the cop that I think made him let us go. I have buds who have gotten off w/ warnings when driving super bad-ass cars cuz the cop wants to talk gearhead about their ride, but that's never happened to me (helps to drive a vintage 930 or a Cobra rep or something domestic-vintage...)

I'm not saying don't get one, just saying... it ain't gonna save you. Honestly these days techno-defense-wise, its Waze #1 and the detectors #2 for me. But if you can't watch the road itself, you'll also forget to notice the Waze cop warning flashing on the screen...

I’ve been driving for 3 years, im 19. I’ve only been pulled over twice and got out both times. That’s coming from a guy with a heavy right foot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk