E39 (and other models) Adventures in the junkyard! Share your stories?

[Dking078]

Our model is getting old and less than desirable examples have been hitting the scrapper more and more the past 4 years.

E38's and lower end e39's are dropping in like flies and most ain't pretty. :*(

More E39's have been showing up in the yard around 2013 and it's been nuts ever since.

As most would know I refurbish a lot of these parts in addition to importation from Europe for the more rare stuff. I must say, anything from the local junkyard needs heavy work. Nothing was a ever walk in the park, especially electronics .
Nav parts are sometimes expensive paper weights, headlight adjusters always busted (and then some), there's always something broken unless you're super lucky.

Since more threads on this are popping up, let's share some stories / interesting finds.

A rare sight in 2015. True Msport 01 740i dropped in as I was there.
Wheels aren't my thing, so a friend took them... Not to mention a never touched spare!
I've seen many 99-01's, but could not for the life of me find nice gray sport contours




If I still had my 97 540i I would have scooped these up. pre-99 sport manual seats!



Real 18 inch style... Ignorant as I was then, I left 'em. biggest regret ever.



I recently bought a set of style 66's in palm springs on a whim so this was perfect to make a 17x8 winter set... Until the knob working the tire machine gouged the entire face!... Expensive hose reel it is then.




The funny part of junkyards is seeing hack-job repairs. I mean duct tape is a good improvisation.



Forget the nav screen.... MASSAGING SEATS!



Pre-01 hella celis kit! These are usually hit / miss. I've seen many either with busted lenses or faulty ballast, but I got luck and a friend immediately wanted them for an M5 build.... He even made me install 'em too.





Remember what I said about hack-jobs?



BMW's latest East Los Angeles Art Car:



What would you do I you saw this? Nothing on/around the body was salvageable, but hmmm.
-Of all the yards, this only happened twice in 5 years. I lost a good bet saying these would never end up in a yard.



Yay I would do the same. Now you know why I can fix 2003 lights, both the easy and the hard way.... This was not a fun job, but so worth it. Again I hate wheels, so a friend took those. Shoulda taken the headliner thinking back on it.



One day I found this. For those who can ID it. No. I will never ever ever sell this.



V12 swap anyone . I've seen about 5 750ils so far. I'm sad to see how these were treated. TWO were 2001 Msports.



I'm also a chaotic good.




Random "repairs"




Sailing in Lake pick n pull.....Worth it.




Doors ALL double locked? The yards kindly supply "special" tools for easy entry.




Mpars are forged so for this to occur.... wow.

[whiteghost1]

You really get some scores there in SoCal. Up in my hood we would be lucky to get even one of those examples in a boneyard!

Do you take part requests?

[dannyzabolotny]

Good stuff in SoCal... here in Phoenix it's usually clapped out pre-facelift 528i's and older 740il's. I almost never see any 540i's or 750il's. The junkyard vultures also tear apart anything of value within a day so all I see are E39's with torn apart door panels (for window regulators) and missing lights. Lots of poor people in Phoenix drive 740il's, and I've seen people cut open M62 timing covers to try and remove old chain guides to reuse...


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[vien]

sooo damn lucky lol here in Orlando u pull and pay its once a blue moon if ever. There was a 740 sport with M parallels but this guy scooped them up right before i went in, i was very sad.

[Dking078]

Got kinda lucky today. Scored a few navigation bits....buuuuut 2/3 monitors were junk. Even after major surgery, I came to the conclusion that I will have to replace the screen or trash 'em Just gona chalk them up to a loss and try to break even.
Luckily One screen was salvageable and i put new knobs on it. Win some loose some.

Learned a few things. Don't mix n match E53 and E39/E38 spec monitors and Range rover screens are strange overall.

[computiNATEor]

Got kinda lucky today. Scored a few navigation bits....buuuuut 2/3 monitors were junk. Even after major surgery, I came to the conclusion that I will have to replace the screen or trash 'em Just gona chalk them up to a loss and try to break even.
Luckily One screen was salvageable and i put new knobs on it. Win some loose some.

Learned a few things. Don't mix n match E53 and E39/E38 spec monitors and Range rover screens are strange overall.

I was under the impression that the 16x9 displays are all interchangeable with the exception of the trim ring. Is that not the case? What are the external differences?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Man, it just breaks my heart to see these cars in junk yards....
We have Euro only yards out here, but you cannot go in with tools and pluck your own parts. To make things worst, they are closed on weekends. F'kin sucks.

[Dking078]

I was under the impression that the 16x9 displays are all interchangeable with the exception of the trim ring. Is that not the case? What are the external differences?

Many differences actually!
BMW and Land Rover units use different front fascias and rotary control knobs / assemblies.

The actual LCD screen on the E53 and LR is the same (R51U) Which has a modified viewing angle, where as E46, E39, and E38 use R52 to R54.
I was under the impression that LR's used the latter due to their elevated position, but nope!

The simple answer is if you want to swap the entire retracting / extending part of the monitor from one core to another (even E53 to E39 spec) it is possible.

The issue arises when you go deeper and want to swap the LCD screens themselves from E53 spec to E39 spec. One version is actually reverse mounted. To that, if you swap control boards for the buttons / LCD it get even more complex. I had symptoms of either a flipped image or refusal to project an image at all depending the "core" unit it was on.