Danny's 540i6 - This Time It's Orient Blue!

[nike32]

Nike, even though you and I hadn’t seen eye to eye, I agree, that blue on your E38 is sweet.

Yeah I still miss that car, actually been in touch today with the girl that bought it from me, been working fine, with no problems.


Lähetetty minun ONEPLUS A5010 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Yeah I still miss that car, actually been in touch today with the girl that bought it from me, been working fine, with no problems.


Lähetetty minun ONEPLUS A5010 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

I didn’t realize that you sold the E38.

[Nyc Dito]

Very nice, I LOVE Oriental Blau... but then again I might be a bit biased =)

[Mless5]

Love the color, car looks very clean - congratulations!

[dannyzabolotny]

Very nice, I LOVE Oriental Blau... but then again I might be a bit biased =)

Thanks! It's a fantastic color

Love the color, car looks very clean - congratulations!

Thanks! It's easily one of the cleanest E39's I've owned, second only to the 03 M-Sport that I had a few years back (and that car cost double what this car cost, with way more miles on it).

[dannyzabolotny]

The other day I did some more work on the 540i/6... first I took apart the brakes in the front and cleaned/lubricated them properly to reduce the insane squealing... it was somewhat effective but there's still squealing. The pads are some random Carquest pads and the rotors are a little rusty, so I'll just replace the front brakes in the near future. The rears have been done recently with quality pads and fresh, coated rotors, so those don't need to be touched at all.

After I did that, I moved on to deleting the CDV. It wasn't a particularly hard job, just annoying to get fluid everywhere. I bled the clutch afterwards and got it to feel pretty darn good. The difference is amazing, I'm so glad I did the delete. It's so much easier to shift smoothly and starting off from a dead stop is just so much easier. Downshifts are even more crisp now too, so it's kind of a win-win-win all around, especially for $0!







I then tested out the CDV by doing one of the best burnouts I've ever done... it must have been at least 30 feet long, with solid dual stripes the whole way through. Not too shabby for a car with an open 2.81 diff and new tires!



I also did a really lazy donut in second gear, it came out like a perfect circle, hilariously enough...



Earlier today I took the 540i/6 on a fun drive to Tortilla Flats (fun twisty mountain road in the eastern part of the Phoenix metro area). I went there pretty early in the morning at like 7:30am to avoid all the normies driving at 10 under the speed limit. The car impressed me, handling the corners and tight turns with perfect poise, despite having an original, stock suspension with 123k miles. These cars are just that good right out of the box, I guess







There's nothing this car can't do— it carves mountain roads, does triple digit speeds like it's nothing, does burnouts perfectly, and is just a generally nice car to cruise around town in. To reward it being so good to me, I gave it a really nice, thorough wash and followed up by compounding and polishing some faded areas to bring them back to life.



The trunk was particularly bad, with tons of swirls and an unclear reflection. After a quick pass with some compound, it looked awesome:



After I was done correcting the car, I finished it off by coating it in Ammo Skin. Unfortunately it was dark by the time I was done, but I'll take some pics of it tomorrow— it should look amazing!

[computiNATEor]

Nice looking car. Love the color combo, and I actually like the old lights on it. Kinda classy.

[Mless5]

Nice looking car. Love the color combo, and I actually like the old lights on it. Kinda classy.

I'm in the same boat. Angel eyes were cool when they came out, but not any more.
It may sound funny, but I'd even throw on original taillights with a yellow turn signal to match the rest of the car.

[dannyzabolotny]

Eh, I'm not a huge fan of the prefacelift headlights. The only reason they haven't been changed out yet is because I'm trying to pace myself and not spend a ton of money on this car all at once. When my next paycheck comes I'll be keeping an eye out at the junkyard and eBay for a set of facelift headlights. Then Euro clear lenses + new adjusters + Evo XR projectors. And clear side markers to match. I hate ambers.

[itsbrokeagain]

Eh, I'm not a huge fan of the prefacelift headlights. The only reason they haven't been changed out yet is because I'm trying to pace myself and not spend a ton of money on this car all at once. When my next paycheck comes I'll be keeping an eye out at the junkyard and eBay for a set of facelift headlights. Then Euro clear lenses + new adjusters + Evo XR projectors. And clear side markers to match. I hate ambers.

wow wow wow! Nice choice on the new ride!

I swapped my stock pre-facelift lenses for a set of very lightly smoked clear corner ones off ebay (Depos I believe) with black inserts. Threw in two orange turnsignal bulbs and it really cleaned up the front of the car. although the projector chrome tends to wear off at this age, the 4-bolt pattern seems to be easily swapped for a set of morimoto ones.....mine shine clear and bright at night so Im leaving them in....money needs to be spent elsewhere.

[dannyzabolotny]

The past week I had been battling some really irritating creaking and squeaking from the rear of the interior, to the point of where I've been casually removing bits of it to try and test what was causing the noises. I ended up fixing random clips and re-glued some loose parts in the rear right door panel, but the noises persisted. Eventually it got to the point of where I had a creak/squeak every single time I touched the gas pedal.

My solution was to have a friend drive the car while I sat in the back and poked things to try to silence the noises. I even went as far as leaving the door open while the car was moving, to rule it out. After two nights of poking and experimenting, we discovered the noises were coming from the door latch and door hinges. All they needed was a little bit of silicone grease and magically everything was silent! Sometimes it's the obvious stuff that gets ya! I've never had to lubricate anything on my other E39's, but all of those were from the southwest whereas this car is from the northeast— that might have something to do with it.

After that was fixed, the only other noises from the interior were from the leather creaking against itself and the hood release handle. I tightened down the screw on the hood release handle and that seems to have quieted it down, while the leather responded really nicely to a thorough cleaning and conditioning with Ammo Mousse. It's crazy how a few little things go such a long way to improving the overall experience inside the car.

I rewarded the 540i6 for behaving so well by giving it a nice bath on Saturday. Since I had already coated it in Ammo Skin last week, this maintenance wash was a breeze— Ammo Plum and Brute on wheels/tires, Ammo Foam on paint, dried off with Ammo Hydrate, wiped down with Ammo Spit wax, cleaned glass with Invisible Glass, and dressed the tires with Ammo Mud. Having the wash routine dialed in really makes owning a dark-colored car in Arizona a much less stressful experience.





(Finally got plates after riding around for two weeks on questionable paper temp tags)





Earlier today I addressed another annoyance with the car— the super cracked, curled center console trim. The front of it is lifting up pretty noticeably and it moves whenever I shift, which is not a reassuring sensation at all. Aside from all that, it's just super faded and bland-looking.



Enter the savior, aka a set of Vavona trim that I got. It's in super good shape, with almost no cracks and no real sun damage. I did have to transfer over the wood trim onto my existing center console trim bracket, because the one that came with the Vavona trim was in pretty bad shape. Thankfully the wood trim and ashtray cover are very easy to swap over, only being attached with a few small screws. Here's how it looks now, with the new trim installed:



It's a huge improvement, both in terms of looks and functionality. The only downside is that now the nussbaum (walnut) shift knob doesn't much, but that's okay because I plan to put a ZHP knob on there anyways. I plan on installing the rest of the trims tomorrow, it's going to look so good!

[dannyzabolotny]

Had some FCP Euro credits from returning some parts, so I ordered a pair of Lemforder thrust arms, a manual trans fluid service kit, both radiator hoses, overflow hose, expansion tank hose, and a fan shroud. All of the cooling system hoses have turned brown so that means they're pretty old and could fail at any point. As for the thrust arms, I have the typical steering wheel shimmy at 50-55, so those are due as well.

The other day I also added up all of the service records from the first owner of the car... from 2000 to 2014, the first owner spent almost $35,000 on this 540i6! That's with only 117,000 miles of driving. That number includes both repairs and maintenance, and about half of it is with independent shops. That also doesn't include the stuff that the previous (second) owner did, which includes tint, tires, and doing the timing chain guide job. So yeah, that's how you buy a 540i6 properly— find one with a ton of money thrown at it, and then pay almost nothing for it (I paid $3800 for this one).

[98OrientBlue]

If you think the CDV was good, swap your shift knob for a ZHP knob. It may seem strange that a little thing like a knob can make such a difference, but you'll feel more like you're shifting than rowing...

[dannyzabolotny]

If you think the CDV was good, swap your shift knob for a ZHP knob. It may seem strange that a little thing like a knob can make such a difference, but you'll feel more like you're shifting than rowing...

That's the plan, E60 545i short shifter + new shift boot + ZHP knob + transmission fluid change— shifting will feel amazing!

[98OrientBlue]

That's the plan, E60 545i short shifter + new shift boot + ZHP knob + transmission fluid change— shifting will feel amazing!

Try the knob change first.... it's quite a bit shorter than stock, so at least for me, I didn't feel I needed to get any shorter.

[98OrientBlue]

... or if you're going to do both, do the knob first, then the SSK. I'd be curious about your thoughts on the 3 setups. Maybe you'll convince me to do the SSK also ;-)

[dannyzabolotny]

I do have a 5-speed ZHP knob laying around from the E46, so I could pop that on in the meantime before getting a proper 6-speed knob. Hmmmmm...

[dannyzabolotny]

The other day I finished installing the nice Vavona wood trim set, it looks a lot nicer than the faded and cracked Nussbaum set that it's replacing. Here's what it looked like before:





And after:





The new wood trim looks a lot better, and has a really nice grain; I'm pretty pleased with it.

I also grabbed the ZHP shifter from the E46 330i5 before I sold it, so I threw it in earlier today. Yes, I know it's a 5-speed knob on a car with a 6-speed, but it's a perfectly good knob and it saves me $80 (or whatever they cost nowadays). It definitely shortens up the shifts, even with a stock shifter. I still want an E60 545i shifter, but this will do for now.



Last night I was hanging out with some friends, and one of them brought a C63 AMG. Naturally, we all took turns driving it— it was stupid loud and hilarious to drive. It reminded me of my old Corvette in a way— way too much power, not nearly enough grip, hilariously intrusive traction control, lazy slushbox, etc. This one also had a straight pipe so it was stupidly loud, especially on downshifts (when the slushbox allowed downshifts... sometimes it just ignored my inputs). I definitely need to make the 540i6 louder now.

The funny thing is that the C63-owning friend drove the 540i6 afterwards and liked it a lot, even though it's down like 150hp. The manual transmission and chassis really make the 540i6 a joy. The C63 is good at going fast but you don't feel safe at all, and it attracts way too much attention with its super aggressive body kit and AMG badges, whereas the 540i6 makes you feel like an expert driver at any speed and is totally under the radar.

[vien]

Today after work I decided to tackle a few things that had been bothering me since I bought the car. The biggest problem/annoyance was the front passenger window not rolling all the way up, causing tons of wind noise at higher speeds and ruining the wonderful quiet interior that E39's are known for. The glass could be pushed up by hand, but would fall down half an inch upon hitting any bump in the road. The solution was to replace the window regulator— I ordered a new one last night and AutohausAZ had it ready today.

Once I removed the door panel and peeled back the vapor barrier, it became obvious that the window regulator was falling apart:



The cable had skipped town and there were bits of plastic pulleys everywhere inside the door. Looks like it was from 2008, which is a decently long lifespan for a part that's so notoriously failure-prone. The new regulator went in happily, and with everything put together I now had a window that fully closed. I took extra time to make sure all the wiring inside the door was clipped in neatly, and I also fixed a non-working mid speaker (the one that's near the door vent).

With the interior's bank vault feel restored, I moved on to replacing the dead cluster display bulbs. That process was pretty straightforward with nothing too exciting to point out.

Before:



After:



With the top part of the display now working correctly, I saw that the external temperature sensor was malfunctioning in some way. That can cause all sorts of little issues as well as making the HVAC system really unhappy, so I peeked underneath the bumper to see what was up with the temperature sensor. Turns out that while the sensor itself was still there, the wiring to it had been damaged at some point. I removed the damaged sections of wiring and spliced together the intact portions of it. That seems to have fixed the problem entirely, so I now have a working temperature readout:



While I was there, I also re-routed the microphone for the head unit to sit on top of the steering column, as opposed to pointing into the footwell like before. That should work a lot better now that it's pointed in the correct direction.

so to repair the the cluster bulbs it wasnt hard at all? im thinking of doing so but afraid if the outcome lol.

[dannyzabolotny]

so to repair the the cluster bulbs it wasnt hard at all? im thinking of doing so but afraid if the outcome lol.

It's important to make the distinction between cluster pixels and cluster bulbs. The cluster pixels are the difficult repair, and as you can see, I'm still missing a few pixels but I'm choosing to ignore it until it gets worse. The bulbs sit behind the display and light up the display— they're fairly easy to swap out. You just remove the cluster and they're right there on the back.

[98OrientBlue]

It's important to make the distinction between cluster pixels and cluster bulbs. The cluster pixels are the difficult repair, and as you can see, I'm still missing a few pixels but I'm choosing to ignore it until it gets worse. The bulbs sit behind the display and light up the display— they're fairly easy to swap out. You just remove the cluster and they're right there on the back.

I had a BimmerOnly (dot) com in Fremont, CA fix mine years ago; and have been totally happy with the outcome. Still perfect 5 years later.
IMG_20150223_111151.jpg

And M5 instrument cluster trim rings FTW!

[vien]

I had a BimmerOnly (dot) com in Fremont, CA fix mine years ago; and have been totally happy with the outcome. Still perfect 5 years later.
IMG_20150223_111151.jpg

And M5 instrument cluster trim rings FTW!

crazy im 1ook miles exactly above yours hahah

[98OrientBlue]

crazy im 1ook miles exactly above yours hahah

Good to hear that yours is running strong!
Mine is now almost 170k... this is an old picture that I had on my computer, but the pixels are still going strong.

[dannyzabolotny]

I took the 540i6 on a little trip to Vegas and back this weekend, it performed marvelously. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures since I was with my girlfriend and her family...



It's pretty crazy how many bug splatters the 540i had after the trip, even though I only drove in the daytime on the way there and back. If I had driven at night it probably would have been a lot worse, haha.



I got crazy good gas mileage both ways, averaging around 24mpg and getting 400 miles per tank. The best part is that I wasn't driving economically at all— it was 90mph for the most part, going up and down hills most of the way.



Earlier today I addressed a few small issues, starting with installing a new expansion tank clip (it was just straight up missing).



Next was removing the broken trunk tool kit screw piece that was stuck in the receiver— I drilled into the remnant of the screw and was able to stick a large flathead in it to remove the broken piece.



With the trunk tool kit opening and closing properly, I was able to address the next issue— the complete lack of trunk tools.



It was definitely a little sketchy going on a road trip with a full size spare and no way to install it (or even get a tow). Thankfully I found a very well-priced set of trunk tools on eBay and threw those in:



The fact that I have all the proper tools (at least for a US-spec car, no warning triangle) makes me immensely happy. I don't think I've ever owned a car where the toolkit was 100% complete like this one is. It's the little things that count

[AusE39er]

That is good fuel economy. Congrats on the tools. Don't get used much but it's always nice to know they are there and presented quite nicely.

In Australia we got he warning triangle. Very useful when my previous E39 lost all power on the side of the highway in the middle of a 700 odd km trip.

Hey I noticed that socket you got there. Is it a proper BMW spark plug socket or something? I don't think we got them in our kits.