540 advice

[cyberface]

After driving my supercharged V8 MG ZT, my old man has seen the light and wants to upgrade from his crappy 1.6 Peugeot to a proper car with a V8. He has had a BMW in the past and fancies another, and I pointed out that 540s are available with highish miles for around £6k.

What are the things to look out for on these cars? I'm making the assumption that if the majority of the miles have been motorway miles and the car has been serviced regularly then it should be just run-in at 100k miles! I have avoided M5s since at that pricepoint they are likely to have been bought by boy-racers and are likely to have been abused.

I know absolutely nothing about BMWs so as much advice as possible would be very welcome - I don't want him to buy some utter moneypit that's a nightmare to keep on the road.

Thanks in advance!

[bmgm3]

I guess you are talking about the E39 540 model ? There's usually a few on ebay,and the few that I have seen sold have gone from £2400 ( auto with 130K miles ) upwards. Have a look at this recent thread on PH about 540's www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=334216&f=72&h=0
This thread also makes interesting reading regarding which is the best model of the range www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=328243&f=72&h=0

Edited by bmgm3 on Thursday 14th December 22:12

[cyberface]

Many thanks - any more opinions? I'm trying to get him to buy a V8 rather than bottle it and get a 2.3 litre slowmobile, he rather liked the 430 lb ft torque of my car, but definitely wants a BMW.

Auto is not a problem, I've seen one 540 manual on PH once and I gather they're fairly rare, but he's not as much of a petrolhead as me (and he's 30 years older)

I've seen the super bargain basement cars but he'd rather pay 5-6k.

[dave_s13]

I've got a 1999 528 and as long as you can live with the fuel consumption then a 540 is basically the bollox.

I'd have one but I only really drive around town/stop start so the fuel would kill me. My 528 is currently doing 23mpg but can easy do 32mpg on a run, which is bloody good for such a big motor.

[off_again]

V8 E39's are not that rare - if you want a 6 speed manual then they can be hard to track down, but tracking down a good 540i should not be a problem. They sold in good numbers but you might need to travel to look at them.

[Denis O]

Took me 3 months to find a good 540 Touring and eventually I travelled to Glasgow to get it.

It had all the right extras including SatNav, TV Full BM History etc etc.

Superb car. Roomy, comfy, load lugger with more than enough umph to keep up with many high performance cars.

[silverback mike]

I've had 528s, a 523, a 535, and a 540.

Without a shadow of doubt the 540 was the best. Go for it.
(Check water pump though....)

[Marto]

Had my 540i for 3 years now and love it. Previously had an E34 535i. The 40 has never ever let me down. I would seek out a new one to replace my current 540 before I would buy the latest 5 series offerings

[vano]

Excellent! you have already supercharged your new MG :-)
E39 5 series is a great all-rounder.
Stright-six engined 528i has better steering then V8 535i and 540i (rack and pinion instead of recirculating ball) but you can't argue with a torque produced by 4.4 litre V8 BMW engine!

The weakest point of these cars is probably front suspension bushes.
5 series is quite heavy and standard rubber bushes wear out causing vibration at 50-60MPH.
The solution is to use PowerFlex polyurethine bushes.

Some engines are fitted with water pumps containing plastic impellers.
These crack with time and have a tendency of ruining the whole engine.
Solution is to replace with metal water pump.

Another known fault is pixels fail in driver's information display.

You may find these web sites useful:
http://forum.bmw5.co.uk
www.bmwland.co.uk/

Cheers,
Vano