E39 540i

I've just bought a 1998 one of these for not much money. Amazingly it seems
pretty good and everything I look at shows evidence of careful owners.
There are some faults (that I've found so far) and I'm listing them here in
the hope that some of them might be common ones. It's an automatic,
Steptronic.

Firstly the doors seem to rattle when I'm driving but not when I thump them.
Do I remember hearing this complaint about E39s before?

The DSC warning light is always on. No idea what fails on this, anyone
know?

I thought the coolant was low, suspecting a leak, but it turns out you read
the level from a floating pointy red thing, implying that you're not
supposed to see the water. However, the pointy thing is stuck. Maybe it
has a leak, maybe it doesn't, I can't tell without that indicator.

The check control display is missing a lot of dots, which I know is common,
but since it only lights up on warnings it's not too bad. Can it be
replaced cheaply though? More annoying is the lack of backlight on the
mileage reading on the display above - I'm hoping this might just be a
replaceable bulb or LED?

There is a light knocking from the engine at idle that you can hear from
underneath but not above. I wondered if it could be the gearbox but it
sounds like top end / cam noise except for the location.

It has the BMW phone which wants a credit card-sized SIM card. Can this be
useful at all? If it has a full hands free system can it be adapted to work
with a modern phone? Otherwise can the BMW phone be resurrected somehow?

Lovely car, seems to have all the options except sunroof, and everything
else seems to work, even the electric memory seats. Satnav, TV and CD all
work. Averaged an inspiring 18.7mpg so far.

Dan Buchan wrote:
>
> I thought the coolant was low, suspecting a leak, but it turns out you read
> the level from a floating pointy red thing, implying that you're not
> supposed to see the water. However, the pointy thing is stuck. Maybe it
> has a leak, maybe it doesn't, I can't tell without that indicator.

Hmm, sounds a bit odd.

>
> There is a light knocking from the engine at idle that you can hear from
> underneath but not above. I wondered if it could be the gearbox but it
> sounds like top end / cam noise except for the location.

Could this be the dreaded loose oil pump bolts?


> Lovely car, seems to have all the options except sunroof, and everything
> else seems to work, even the electric memory seats. Satnav, TV and CD all
> work. Averaged an inspiring 18.7mpg so far.

You'll get close to 30 on a run.

In article >,
Dan Buchan > wrote:
> I've just bought a 1998 one of these for not much money. Amazingly it
> seems pretty good and everything I look at shows evidence of careful
> owners. There are some faults (that I've found so far) and I'm listing
> them here in the hope that some of them might be common ones. It's an
> automatic, Steptronic.

Hope you're a lucky person. In general. they seem less reliable than their
6 cylinder siblings.

> Firstly the doors seem to rattle when I'm driving but not when I thump
> them. Do I remember hearing this complaint about E39s before?

Is it the windows? You could try wedging them to prove this.

> The DSC warning light is always on. No idea what fails on this, anyone
> know?

Not a common one that I know of.

> I thought the coolant was low, suspecting a leak, but it turns out you
> read the level from a floating pointy red thing, implying that you're
> not supposed to see the water. However, the pointy thing is stuck.
> Maybe it has a leak, maybe it doesn't, I can't tell without that
> indicator.

Another new one on me. Does the low coolant warning come on? The rads on
these can be a problem.

> The check control display is missing a lot of dots, which I know is
> common, but since it only lights up on warnings it's not too bad. Can
> it be replaced cheaply though? More annoying is the lack of backlight
> on the mileage reading on the display above - I'm hoping this might
> just be a replaceable bulb or LED?

IIRC, it's a dry solder joint problem and not easy to fix. But you might
find a specialist who does an exchange scheme.

> There is a light knocking from the engine at idle that you can hear from
> underneath but not above. I wondered if it could be the gearbox but it
> sounds like top end / cam noise except for the location.

Pass.

> It has the BMW phone which wants a credit card-sized SIM card. Can this
> be useful at all? If it has a full hands free system can it be adapted
> to work with a modern phone? Otherwise can the BMW phone be resurrected
> somehow?

Pass again.

> Lovely car, seems to have all the options except sunroof, and everything
> else seems to work, even the electric memory seats. Satnav, TV and CD
> all work. Averaged an inspiring 18.7mpg so far.

UK cars with climate control don't have sunroofs. Strangely. So that is
probably all V-8s. Although I *think* it could be a special order, so
probably not on early cars which were snapped up as soon as they left the
production lines.

I've not been much help but the group in my sig probably could be - lots
of V-8s in that while I've got the 6. ;-)

--
Is the hardness of the butter proportional to the softness of the bread?*

Dave Plowman
528 Auto London SW12 (UK)

Co-Moderator BMW E39 Enthusiast Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bmwe39

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
> In article >,
> Dan Buchan > wrote:
> > I've just bought a 1998 one of these for not much money. Amazingly it
> > seems pretty good and everything I look at shows evidence of careful
> > owners. There are some faults (that I've found so far) and I'm listing
> > them here in the hope that some of them might be common ones. It's an
> > automatic, Steptronic.
>
> Hope you're a lucky person. In general. they seem less reliable than their
> 6 cylinder siblings.
>

I think you mentioned this before but so far without backing any of it
up. Can you tell me why they're less reliable? I have both.

In article .com>,
adder1969 > wrote:
> > Hope you're a lucky person. In general. they seem less reliable than
> > their 6 cylinder siblings.
> >

> I think you mentioned this before but so far without backing any of it
> up. Can you tell me why they're less reliable? I have both.

Just a probably inaccurate straw poll. Seem to suffer much more from
cooling problems. But that doesn't mean all do.

--
*There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
...
> In article .com>,
> adder1969 > wrote:
>> > Hope you're a lucky person. In general. they seem less reliable than
>> > their 6 cylinder siblings.
>> >
>
>> I think you mentioned this before but so far without backing any of it
>> up. Can you tell me why they're less reliable? I have both.
>
> Just a probably inaccurate straw poll. Seem to suffer much more from
> cooling problems. But that doesn't mean all do.
>
> --
> *There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't.
>
> Dave Plowman London SW


On the cooling problems, I'd say 'most' do, or at least more than should.
Well known common problem. At 70-80K budget for a new radiator and
associated bits.

Tom Too wrote:
>
>
> On the cooling problems, I'd say 'most' do, or at least more than should.
> Well known common problem. At 70-80K budget for a new radiator and
> associated bits.

So on the V8 the rad is poorly designed and the I6 has a history of
water pump problems. I don't see how that warrants "good luck with the
V8" type of comments. I'm not saying they are more reliable just that
if they're not I'd like to know why so I can check some things out.

"adder1969" > wrote in message
ps.com...
>
> Tom Too wrote:
>>
>>
>> On the cooling problems, I'd say 'most' do, or at least more than should.
>> Well known common problem. At 70-80K budget for a new radiator and
>> associated bits.
>
> So on the V8 the rad is poorly designed and the I6 has a history of
> water pump problems. I don't see how that warrants "good luck with the
> V8" type of comments. I'm not saying they are more reliable just that
> if they're not I'd like to know why so I can check some things out.
>

Agreed. I sure hope the V8 is pretty reliable as I pick mine up from my
tech today with my new VF Engineering supercharger installed

Tom Scales wrote:
>
> Agreed. I sure hope the V8 is pretty reliable as I pick mine up from my
> tech today with my new VF Engineering supercharger installed

Nice :-)

"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
...
>
> Co-Moderator BMW E39 Enthusiast Group
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bmwe39

Nice group. Think I'll join.

I'm sure I remember you from years back. Can't think which group it was,
though..