Philip Foglar
///Member
:drool:
That is all!!! :inlove:
That is all!!! :inlove:
-
Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Just Purchased a 2003 E39 540i Sport Six Speed Manual
- Thread starter venterj
- Start date
jeff_denning
Active member
WOW 
raise:raise:
My drool session has been completed for Monday. Fantastic car!
raise:raise:My drool session has been completed for Monday. Fantastic car!
venterj
Member
jeff said:WOW
My drool session has been completed for Monday. Fantastic car!
Hi Guys
Apologies for taking this long in giving you an update with what’s happening with my 540, well lots has happened since I purchased the car. Firstly the front tyres where completely gone, so I asked Investment Cars to replace them with Contis Sport Contact 3’s to match the rears before taking delivery at my expense. Investment Cars had made it clear that they were only prepared to fix the aircon and replace the spare key, getting the car for R28.5k less than the retail value in what seemed to be a very good condition, I was not going to argue.
The day I got the car I was in for a nasty surprised, I parked the car on a downhill and soon found out the handbrake could not hold the vehicle as it starting rolling, I had to react quickly to prevent an impending disaster. The surprises did not stop there within the first week I found out that the power steering virtually stopped working when the car was in a stationary position while trying to park. I had booked the car in for a lube change at Ross Duncan Auto, shortly after I got it, I decided to stick with Ross as he had been servicing the car for the last two years. Ross was not keen to change the gearbox and diff oil, just as well as a needed the extra cash to replace the power steering pump, nice introduction to the world of the E39 540. (At a later stage I also approach Evolution 2 Motorsport about changing the oil on the gearbox and diff and I got the feeling it’s not something that they encouraged, although I am still of the firm belief that it needs to be done not immediately though as I have racked up quite a bill with all the other fixes that were needed.)
It was not all bad news the handbrake only needed adjusting, three of the rims suffered from minor curb rash so I had a mobile specialist touch them up but on second thoughts I should just have kept the money and spent it on the total wheel refurb which I done later. Nevertheless the guy who did the wheels does a fantastic job if you want to cure minor imperfections. The one glaring thing that was very noticeable was that the right headlamp had been replaced (from my inspection I don’t believe that the vehicle was in a front smash), which looked very good but made the other headlamp look very tired although it was not bad, but comparing it to the new one it was a total mismatch so I got a specialist in to polish the old one, the condition improved but it’s never going to look as good as the new one, I don’t exactly have R7k laying around to replace it. The next big job was to do something about the stone chipped front bumper and bonnet, scuffs and scratches on the front fenders and rear bumper my mate owns a body shop and did all five areas at a very good price.
Next I got Sonax to do a body, wheel, interior and engine detail not bad but I would have preferred Definitive Detailing but they are in Cape Town. I then started focusing on the small cosmetics (I want to try and keep this car as close to the original state as possible), firstly needed the plastic caps that cover the lock nuts as these were missing from the front wheels, I suspect the outfit that fitted the new wheels, took two weeks to get it from Lyndhurst. The rear wheels also had chrome value sleeves while the fronts didn’t, eventually got it from Minty’s, which had an even better product as the sleeve covers the entire value exposing no rubber, fitted it to all four and it makes a huge difference to the wheels. Then I notice after the engine detail that the left bank engine cover was missing a square plastic cap that covers a nut, found that immediately at Lyndhurst, finding the round plastic cap that clips into the rear bulkhead keeping the carpet in the boot secure against the bulkhead was a mission, Lyndhurst kept on ordering the wrong plastic cap as it was very difficult to identify on their system outlining all the parts for the car. By this time I had also discovered that the torch in the cubby was missing again off to Lyndhurst, I went only to be asked a small fortune for a replacement, which is not made by the same company as the original, only to be given an original for free by the Lyndhurst Auto body shop a few days later while doing an enquiry.
Eventually when all of this was done the car was ready for the long road, so we headed off to George and the car when like a dream not missing a beat, achieving an average fuel consumption on the long road of 10l/100km which is really not bad and in sixth gear at 3000 revs achieving a speed of 160km/h is sheer joy. Unfortunately the journey to George was not without incident, somehow the right headlamp washer nozzle broke off, so while in George I order one from the local dealer, again I had to part with a small fortune for this rather small part. After having had a thoroughly good time in the southern Cape the day before we left one of my worst fears became a reality, a Coolant Level Low warning came on. I pulled to side of the road immediately and switched off, fortunately there was a garage nearby so we decided to risk it and drive very slow to the garage. After very slowly turning the cap off the expansion tank we topped it with some water, but it immediately became apparent that very little water was put into the tank, and shortly after we pulled away from the garage the warning came on again. I called Ross Duncan and told me that there was probably a sensor that failed not to panic but to watch the temperature gauge, by the time we got home we had realized that the expansion tank was leaking every so slight but even when it was full the warning light still came on.
I called Ross to book the car in but he was so busy I could only get in the following week, and by this time I was very frustrated with the rims that were cover with brake dust which I could not removed no matter what I tried, so after doing research on the Fanatics site and calling around I settled on Hi-Tech Mag Repair as they were literally half the price of Wheel Collusion Centre. After three days I was able to collect the car and had to balance the wheels immediately as they had not done a very good job.
The refurb is not perfect but you need to have the rims in your face to notice the minute imperfections which I can certainly live with. Eventually I took the car to Ross who replaced the expansion tank and sensor yesterday but I had also informed him that while under braking when the car reached 80kph there was a shudder, and explained that the front wheels were new and had been aligned and balanced when fitted and that the wheels had been balance several times since I had the car. No surprises, the control arm bushes need to be replace, Ross’s supplier is currently out of stock, he does not use BMW bushes I don’t blame him as they are not the best in the business, so next Saturday I am off to Midrand and then to Tiger Wheel for the balancing.
This is my second BMW, and I have a tendency to buy the older products as they seem to appeal to me more, one unfortunately then has to be prepared to put up with the ongoing maintenance I just hope that there is no more for the remainder of the year. The one thing that I also learned is you get what you pay for, the less you pay the less you ultimately get in terms of maintain a BMW. View the latest pictures I have posted on the Gallery by clicking on the link
http://www.bmwfanatics.co.za/showthread.php?tid=30154
bmwforlife
///Member
raise:raise:raise:raise::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove::inlove:beautiful
venterj
Member
Hi Guys
Thought I would give you a quick update on the experience with the E39, a few weeks ago I popped into the Woolworths at Blu Bird shopping centre just off Corlett Drive in Illovo. When I got home I realised that the rear bumper had been scratched and that in fact the bumper was pierced on the left hand side, obviously by some moron who just drove off. You can imagine the four letter words that came to mind, :argh: since I bought the car I have changed my insurance to Discovery and although I have comprehensive insurance there is a minimum access of R2000.
Anyway I called up Discovery and got the necessary information across so that the claim could be processed and I must admit it was handled very proficiently, within two days the assessor met me at Lyndhurst Auto Body and the claim was approved the following day. In all this time I kept on thinking how could I avoid the R2000 as I have spent a substantial amount of money on the car since I got it and just when I thought it was perfect some idiot comes along and ruins it. I had decided not to take the rental which I was entitled to as my wife was going to be out of town while the car was being repaired at Lyndhurst so I would use her car instead and so I decided I would use this as the basis for my argument to get Discovery to reduce the access.
I emailed them and explained that I had been with their health scheme since 1997, and that my wife was also going to be bring across her car and our house hold insurance from May and thirdly although I was entitled to the rental, I opted not to take it and in view of this if they could reduce the access. I could not believe it when they came back to me and said that they were going to waive the access completely :bravo: and best of all if you can believe this, said to me if I did need a rental it was still available. I was completely bowled over and definitely felt that it was one of the nicest things that has happened to me during 2012. :ty:
On the driving front, the 540i is definitely no frugal steed but I am glad to report that on my last tank I was able to achieve a 10.2 L average on a combined cycle and that I had covered 630 kms with a range of 50 kms left, not bad I think. :rollsmile:
As an aside, when I got the car I had the detailing done by Sonax which cost R1368 my wife had her Subaru Legacy done at Autoglam in Hurst Hill, close to Auckland Park and Brixton at a cost of only R300. They did an amazing job, I was very impressed with the way they were able to get the off white roof headlining looking as good as new but everything else was superb, the wheels, leather, engine and body outstanding. :bravo: They use mostly Autoglym products so for those interested, you can contact Faheema on 082 722 9949.
Thought I would give you a quick update on the experience with the E39, a few weeks ago I popped into the Woolworths at Blu Bird shopping centre just off Corlett Drive in Illovo. When I got home I realised that the rear bumper had been scratched and that in fact the bumper was pierced on the left hand side, obviously by some moron who just drove off.
You can imagine the four letter words that came to mind, :argh: since I bought the car I have changed my insurance to Discovery and although I have comprehensive insurance there is a minimum access of R2000.
Anyway I called up Discovery and got the necessary information across so that the claim could be processed and I must admit it was handled very proficiently, within two days the assessor met me at Lyndhurst Auto Body and the claim was approved the following day. In all this time I kept on thinking how could I avoid the R2000 as I have spent a substantial amount of money on the car since I got it and just when I thought it was perfect some idiot comes along and ruins it. I had decided not to take the rental which I was entitled to as my wife was going to be out of town while the car was being repaired at Lyndhurst so I would use her car instead and so I decided I would use this as the basis for my argument to get Discovery to reduce the access.
I emailed them and explained that I had been with their health scheme since 1997, and that my wife was also going to be bring across her car and our house hold insurance from May and thirdly although I was entitled to the rental, I opted not to take it and in view of this if they could reduce the access. I could not believe it when they came back to me and said that they were going to waive the access completely :bravo: and best of all if you can believe this, said to me if I did need a rental it was still available. I was completely bowled over and definitely felt that it was one of the nicest things that has happened to me during 2012. :ty:
On the driving front, the 540i is definitely no frugal steed but I am glad to report that on my last tank I was able to achieve a 10.2 L average on a combined cycle and that I had covered 630 kms with a range of 50 kms left, not bad I think. :rollsmile:
As an aside, when I got the car I had the detailing done by Sonax which cost R1368 my wife had her Subaru Legacy done at Autoglam in Hurst Hill, close to Auckland Park and Brixton at a cost of only R300. They did an amazing job, I was very impressed with the way they were able to get the off white roof headlining looking as good as new but everything else was superb, the wheels, leather, engine and body outstanding. :bravo: They use mostly Autoglym products so for those interested, you can contact Faheema on 082 722 9949.
Gregmeister
Member
Hey Johan. glad you got sorted there. A good job getting her to 10.2 L average!! That must have taken some discipline!! :rollsmile:
Philip Foglar
///Member
Annoying about the bumper, but glad you got it sorted out!
Wow, 10.2 is very good, and yes, as Greg says, must take a lot of discipline to get right!! :rollsmile:
Wow, 10.2 is very good, and yes, as Greg says, must take a lot of discipline to get right!! :rollsmile:
venterj
Member
I managed to get an even better fuel economy of 10 L/100 Km on a combined cycle with 655 kms covered with a range of 27 kms left, :joy: when I filled there was less than 2 litres left in the tank not good as scrapping the bottom of the barrel, literally can lead to dirt accumulating in the injectors. :yuck:
But I really wanted to see how far I could push it before filling and having to go to Vanderbijl on Monday was the perfect opportunity to do so, I will however not do this again as I nearly did not make the BP on the M1 :roflol: , not exactly an ideal place to get stuck, but it was good practice for the BMW Gauteng Club Economy Run that I will be doing on Saturday.
But I really wanted to see how far I could push it before filling and having to go to Vanderbijl on Monday was the perfect opportunity to do so, I will however not do this again as I nearly did not make the BP on the M1 :roflol: , not exactly an ideal place to get stuck, but it was good practice for the BMW Gauteng Club Economy Run that I will be doing on Saturday.
Budleigh
Member
venterj said:
Your car is awesome.
raise:But just a note - think about where the fuel pickup draws fuel from - the whole thing about residue/dirty fuel being sucked up isn't true. The reason they tell you to keep it above a certain point is that the fuel pump needs to be constantly primed, and is lubricated by the fuel that runs through it. So over time, you'll damage it if you run the car on vapour. But it sounds like you were far away from that point.
venterj
Member
So I was convinced at a very late stage to enter the Show & Shine category (for beginners) of the BMW Club Concours that was held on the 7 October, at Nelson Mandela Square :rollsmile:.
I spent the Thursday, Friday and Saturday preparing the 540 and to my surprise took 3rd place :joy:.
What stood out most for me is that my car is a daily runner, whereas the second runner up and winner do not use their vehicles on a daily basis :thumbs:.
I unfortunately I only took two pics but was fortunate to get a few more from the photographers that were there on the day enjoy.
I spent the Thursday, Friday and Saturday preparing the 540 and to my surprise took 3rd place :joy:.
What stood out most for me is that my car is a daily runner, whereas the second runner up and winner do not use their vehicles on a daily basis :thumbs:.
I unfortunately I only took two pics but was fortunate to get a few more from the photographers that were there on the day enjoy.
Philip Foglar
///Member
Wow! Stunning car!! raise:
raise:
Gregmeister
Member
Awesome stuff Johann! Well done! :thumbs: The car is looking brilliant!
