Another E39? 2000 540i/6 Content

[justinca540i]

Wtf my MCS gets 300/tank oh nvm its because the E39 has 5 extra gallons

[e39jams]

Good read and a nice looking red wagon you have there.

[computiNATEor]

Wtf my MCS gets 300/tank oh nvm its because the E39 has 5 extra gallons

18.5 gallons! My dad's Tundra has a 22 gallon tank, which is too small. Only gets 13-ish around town, 17-18 on the highway

[justinca540i]

The F450 super duty has a 48 gallon tank

[computiNATEor]

The F450 super duty has a 48 gallon tank

Friend's Suburban has a 36 gallon tank. He calls it the bladder buster.

[dannyzabolotny]

Friend's Suburban has a 36 gallon tank. He calls it the bladder buster.

My bladder would be fine... I made it from San Francisco to Phoenix with only 1 bathroom break. Phoenix to LA or San Diego is non-stop with zero breaks, no problem.

[computiNATEor]

My bladder would be fine... I made it from San Francisco to Phoenix with only 1 bathroom break. Phoenix to LA or San Diego is non-stop with zero breaks, no problem.

I have the bladder of a 60 year old man, so yeah. Plus the Suburban has a dozen cupholders, maybe more, so there's more liquid to take in.

[dannyzabolotny]

I have the bladder of a 60 year old man, so yeah. Plus the Suburban has a dozen cupholders, maybe more, so there's more liquid to take in.

I drink plenty of water, don't get me wrong. My E39 has 4 functional cupholders, thanks to the aftermarket. Plus door pockets for more water bottles. I don't drink much caffeine though, so maybe that's why my bladder behaves pretty well on road trips.

[computiNATEor]

I drink plenty of water, don't get me wrong. My E39 has 4 functional cupholders, thanks to the aftermarket. Plus door pockets for more water bottles. I don't drink much caffeine though, so maybe that's why my bladder behaves pretty well on road trips.

Ah, that's it. I love my coffee and diet coke.

[dannyzabolotny]

She cleans up pretty nice! Threw my M-Pars on and it looks pretty darn good.

[justinca540i]

Extra set of Mpars?

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[dannyzabolotny]

Extra set of Mpars?

Nah, I was trying to find out if the vibrations in the wagon were coming from the wheels so I swapped the style 32's onto the wagon and swapped the M-Pars onto this car. No difference in the way the wagon drives so it's definitely not the wheels.

[sooch]

I mean..... That car is pretty clean, unless photos are hiding something.... That might be worthy of cleaning, fixing, and flipping. I'm sure you could find another more beat up candidate for a swap!

[dannyzabolotny]

I mean..... That car is pretty clean, unless photos are hiding something.... That might be worthy of cleaning, fixing, and flipping. I'm sure you could find another more beat up candidate for a swap!

Those are really well-taken photos, with strategically picked angles. I'm going to take a picture of everything that's actually wrong with the car tomorrow, and you'll see it's not that clean.

That being said, I am falling in love with it, slowly but surely. And the alternator may have died tonight... good thing I have a spare one in my wagon parts car.

[cnsorial]

You’re just falling in love with having a clutch pedal


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[dannyzabolotny]

You’re just falling in love with having a clutch pedal

Haha it's not just the manual transmission, I actually really like the ride quality and handling of the coilovers.

Anyways, time for more pics! This is the "good" side:



And the "not so good" side, with foggy headlights, a busted front bumper, and pretty faded paint on the rear door and quarter panel:



The other day I was driving it to Harbor Freight and I noticed a bunch of error lights flickering on, like the ABS/Brake/Traction trifecta. I initially thought it was the ABS module, but then the red battery light came on, indicating a bad alternator. I pulled up cluster test number 9 to see the battery voltage, and it was at 12.5V, indicating that the alternator wasn't charging properly anymore. I made it home just fine though, and immediately started scheming up ways to fix the problem because for some reason I just can't let this supposed "parts car" die.

I realized that I had an alternator in my 540it parts car, and after scraping off some dirt from it I found that it was a remanufactured Bosch alternator, score! So at midnight I changed the alternator. It took me under 2 hours for everything, start to finish. The failed alternator that I removed wasn't a reman, which means it was probably original at 140k miles. Not a bad run! With the new alternator, all of the problems went away and the voltage test now shows 13.5V - 13.8V.

The first step was removing the beat-up belly pan that was already scraping everywhere:



Plenty of oil under the car which I'll try to wash off so I can see what's actually leaking. I also spotted an ECS magnetic drain plug on the oil pan, which was a nice bonus. You can see how beat up the bumper is in this next picture. Draining the coolant was super easy thanks to the radiator drain plug, as opposed to disconnecting the trans cooler line on the automatics.



I *was* going to re-use the coolant to try and be cheap, but there was some crud in it so I figured it would be better to add some fresh coolant. I went with an Autozone brand of coolant so we'll see how that turns out. I have a friend who's been using cheap green coolant in his 540i for years now and he's never had any issues with the cooling system.



I also removed the tattered old belt which was pretty damaged from the prior clutch fan explosion. A new Dayco belt was pretty cheap and fit nicely.



Once everything was back together, I filled the cooling system from the upper radiator hose and bled the cooling system for a bit. I seem to have gotten pretty good at it, since I pretty much nailed it on the first try— I let the car idle at operating temperature for 15 minutes and it never exceeded 106ºC. This morning I added a bit more coolant and that wrapped up the alternator job.

Earlier today I wanted to do something about the super faded-looking paint on the driver's side, so I busted out the dual-action polisher and experimented a bit. I figured I couldn't possibly make it worse, right? To my excitement, it looks like this paint might be salvageable! Check out this comparison shot, the upper portion of the quarter panel/C-pillar is how it was when I bought the car, and the lower portion is after about 10 minutes of compounding with Meguiar's M105 and a Meguiar's microfiber cutting pad. Ignore the Crossfit sticker, that's a leftover from the previous owner and I haven't had a chance to scrape it off.



This week I'm going to order some new cutting pads so I can do a full wash, clay bar, and paint correction on the whole car. I bet I can make it look really good, aside from the holes in the hood. I might even go over the headlights with a 3M kit to clean them up.

[JimLev]

Good job Danny. The paint buffing looks good, you can't part it out now, it's a keeper.....or a seller$$$$$.

[philly98540]

Try and score a junkyard hood and bumper and that car will look pretty good!

[cnsorial]

So what are the current plans for the car. Swap to an auto and sell?


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[dannyzabolotny]

Good job Danny. The paint buffing looks good, you can't part it out now, it's a keeper.....or a seller$$$$$.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm not parting it out at this point. This car still has a lot of life left in it, it's only got 140k miles.

Try and score a junkyard hood and bumper and that car will look pretty good!

Yeah, if I could find a decent condition Anthracite Gray hood locally that would be cool. Otherwise I'll find any straight E39 hood and paint it in my garage, I need to practice my painting anyways. Not sure about the bumper, I'll figure that out eventually.

So what are the current plans for the car. Swap to an auto and sell?

Nah, I'm probably just going to keep it as it is. I got it for so cheap that I don't mind putting some money into it to fix the little things that are wrong with it.

[sooch]

What will be the fate of your friends 540? I hope you guys can keep em all on the road!

[douglawrence42]

How many total e39 540’s came to the U.S? At some point we need to start tracking the number Danny has worked on as a percentage.


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[dannyzabolotny]

What will be the fate of your friends 540? I hope you guys can keep em all on the road!

I gave him the silver hood from my 540it parts car, along with the bumper support and bumper shocks. Tried to use the radiator from it but it leaked, so my friend just got his Behr radiator exchanged for a new one since it was only like a month old. His car is back up and running and he'll be getting a nice insurance check so we'll likely be painting his car in my garage. Paint isn't that expensive and we'll probably do a better job than any body shop because we'll get it just right. It's got 259,000 miles and it refuses to die.

Photo Dec 14, 9 08 23 PM.jpg

How many total e39 540’s came to the U.S? At some point we need to start tracking the number Danny has worked on as a percentage.

Good question! I've personally owned 8 E39's (7 540i's, 1 M5) and worked on countless others. I've only scrapped 1 of those (the first 01 540i I owned, total basket case). The rest of them I put back on the road after fixing major issues like chain guides or rod bearings, so I've personally kept a few E39's alive, and from what I can tell, most are still running and driving to this day (my 03 M-Sport recently sold on BaT for $7k with 219k miles). I seem to be cursed by Anthracite Gray, as this is the third car in that color I've owned.

[dannyzabolotny]

Just passed emissions and registered/titled/plated the car. Cost under $100 for all of that, I love Arizona. Now I can drive the car legally!

[toybreaker]

Where in Phoenix are you?

I used to live all over the valley...
thunderbird and 36th st., greenway and cave creek rd, rural and baseline, dobson and southern, stapely and southern...