[rothwem]

I love the E39s. The indy I used to take my BMW to when I lived in Raleigh gave out E39's with 180k miles or more on them as loaners when you had to leave your car there for work. They were well maintained, and I was always impressed how tight and nicely driving a high mileage BMW could drive.

Also, FWIW, the E60 wheels on there tell me that they converted to E60 hubs, which have a smaller center bore than the original E39 hubs. I think you can still use E39/E38 wheels, but you'll need centering rings.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by rothwem

I love the E39s. The indy I used to take my BMW to when I lived in Raleigh gave out E39's with 180k miles or more on them as loaners when you had to leave your car there for work. They were well maintained, and I was always impressed how tight and nicely driving a high mileage BMW could drive.

Also, FWIW, the E60 wheels on there tell me that they converted to E60 hubs, which have a smaller center bore than the original E39 hubs. I think you can still use E39/E38 wheels, but you'll need centering rings.

They're solid cars! My wife commented how sturdy the door felt when she closed one. My mom actually had a 530i sedan that she bought as a CPO car and put about 100k on it before she sold it to a family friend who is a BMW tech. His wife ran it over 200k before she demanded an upgrade a couple years ago.

You were mostly right about the wheels, it has E39 hubs but my friend put adapters on there to run standard BMW bore wheels. It also has M5 brakes all around which I forgot to mention in my original post.

[M-technik-3]

For the e39 are you considering going back to a imo proper BME style 5 wheel? I feel they give the car some elegance. Plus they are not that bad in weight and at available in 17's or 18's.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

For the e39 are you considering going back to a imo proper BME style 5 wheel? I feel they give the car some elegance. Plus they are not that bad in weight and at available in 17's or 18's.

I like Style 5's, but I think I'll be targeting a set of Style 37 M Parallels for this car. The 18' 5's are stupid expensive and the 17's wont clear my M5 brakes.

I test fit my 260s with good tires to see if that was causing the driveability issues and it corrected about 90% of the steering wheel shake. I cant recall off hand which of the E39 front bushings is the common fail point to cause vibration at freeway speeds but that's still there.



In any case, I'm not a fan of the E60 545i wheels, but for now they'll get the job done!

[M-technik-3]

The 260's look very nice on it. My e39 is rusty as well. Funny there was another one just like yours on BAT that had E60 545i wheels on a silver car. Almost thought it was yours but it was a slushbox

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

The 260's look very nice on it. My e39 is rusty as well. Funny there was another one just like yours on BAT that had E60 545i wheels on a silver car. Almost thought it was yours but it was a slushbox

Zero rust here! I've seen some wild stuff on E39s where water collects next to the fuel filler cap.

That one on BaT looked similar but had painted moldings and standard rear bumper. What kind of E39 do you have?

[M-technik-3]

Mine is gone was just a plain jane 525i sedan that was donated to us for our lemons team. We used the the drivetrain in a 318Ti car for a season and sold that to continue with our 318iS E36 as we had a bunch of cheap M3 suspension we got on a parts car to make it into a fakey m3.

[E91WAG3N]

Suspension arrived for the Sparkling Graphite car! The goal for this car is a comfortable daily driver that feels planted and compliant but not stiff. I've been considering both a 100% OE refresh and Koni Special Actives for the past year or so. I pulled the trigger on the Koni's based on Streten aka M539 Restoration's experience with his E46 touring.

The shocks and struts along with a full overhaul kit for front and rear from FCPEuro arrived Friday afternoon and I got to work that evening.





I love tourings EXCEPT for accessing the rear suspension mounting points.



Rears assembled:


Old:


New:


Original shocks from July of 2006 with 128k miles. They were completely blown, if I realized they were this bad I would have replaced them sooner.



I'm waiting on a fancy spring compressor to arrive so I can do the fronts as I have misplaced my crappy $20 Autozone/HF special. I took the car for a short drive and the rear definitely feels way less floppy now. Really pleased with the results so far and can't wait to get the fronts in, get the car aligned and put some miles on it.

A bit of a shameless plug, but I have updated the first page with information on all 3 cars.

[E91WAG3N]

Nice shot of the E39. The 260s are growing on me but are just temporary until I can get tires to run them on the black car as intended.

[E91WAG3N]

I knocked out the front suspension during the evenings this week -

Before:


During:


Shiny:


And done!


I went for a drive around the block last night and all was good as there weren't any unpleasant clunks or noises and the car tracked straight. So far my impressions are positive! The car feels solid and compliant and the ride is planted but not firm or bouncy with the stock springs. I'm going to drive it a bit to let things settle, re-torque, then schedule an alignment.

[MichaelE91]

Hi, what is the ride height with those dampers? any difference from stock?

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by MichaelE91

Hi, what is the ride height with those dampers? any difference from stock?

Ditto just wondering how they are vs OEM Sach's Sports or Billie's

[E91WAG3N]

The ride height with the shock springs and Konis is about the same as stock, if not a touch higher. My factory shocks and struts were pretty blown so the car was likely sitting a little lower than it should have been.

If you're looking to lower the car you definitely need to pair with an aftermarket spring. I'd jump to a coilover setup since you'll be over the $1,000 price point anyways.

I've taken two drives totaling roughly 50 miles on the new setup and really like it so far. The car is feels planted yet comfortable. Highway speeds are really smooth and at lower speeds the car soaks up bumps way better than before. I'm comparing to blown/old suspension so the difference to a stock setup in good condition likely isn't as drastic. My wife is also happy with the ride quality and how it drives, it felt good to me as a passenger, as well.

At this point I'm not sure if the Konis were worth the extra money over OE Sachs dampers but in the end I'm happy with how the car drives. We're planning a day trip down to the Joshua Tree forest and there are some rough roads down there. We'll see how it performs then!

[ichibanset]

Would you happen to know the torque spec for this bolt for the rear shock mount? Let me know, thanks!

[andreu12qw]

Originally Posted by ichibanset

Would you happen to know the torque spec for this bolt for the rear shock mount? Let me know, thanks!

Bentley manual lists the rear tower shock mount is torqued to 44.2 ft-lb

[ichibanset]

Thank you andreu12qw!

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by ichibanset

Would you happen to know the torque spec for this bolt for the rear shock mount? Let me know, thanks!

I wasn't receiving alerts to my thread for some reason. The Bentley manual has torque specs for almost everything. I used it for my install.




Drove the black car to San Diego last week!

[E91WAG3N]

I had Pilot Sport 4S in 255/35/18 mounted on my set of four front Style 260 (18x8.5). The tires took a while to get here but finally buying my first set of 260s in 2019, they're on the car!

After 3 years I finally feel like the black car is "complete" like I imagined it would be. It's modded about as far as I want to go with it. All that's left to buy are M3 mirrors and a euro airbox. I have 335 brakes and an OE euro front bumper sitting in my garage.

At this point I'm at a loss of what to do. I've driven a few hundred miles on the new setup eclipsing the 70k mark and really enjoyed the car. This past weekend is the first time I've seriously contemplated selling it. I started looking at E36 M3s and tourings, every type of E46 under the sun, E39 M5s, and 1Ms. I suppose it's out of boredom and not having anything substantial to look forward to modding. Or maybe I've been driving it too much lately between my trip to San Diego and long weekend runs. I put about 1,500 miles on it in the last month compared to 2,000 in all of 2020. Who knows.

[M-technik-3]

I suggest sleeping on selling it a few days. Yes market is high, but so are the cars you mentioned replacing it with.

[donut_boi]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

I suggest sleeping on selling it a few days. Yes market is high, but so are the cars you mentioned replacing it with.

Agree, need to sleep on it E91WAG3N...you have something pretty rare here and will be hard to recreate or obtain later in time.

The other cars are worthy as well but maybe try to find a way to keep the BSM E91 and look for the right next car for you...would hate to see your wagon go

[E91WAG3N]

We'll see, was just a thought. It took me about a year to swap my E82 for an E91 so who knows. It's a great car but hopefully the E39 project will keep me busy!!

[E91WAG3N]

Couple of updates from the last week or two -

The Sparkling Graphite was taken in for alignment at Southwest Bimmers here in Las Vegas




I also got to work on the E39 after parts arrived.

The rear end was in need of some attention as the roundel was cracking and the diffuser was missing. I also removed the rear plate filler (don't have a great before pic).

The car was registered, new roundel was put on, and brand new diffuser was installed. I still need to trim the diffuser a touch to get the exhaust to fit even though I will be replacing the muffler in the future. Luckily the Eisenmann I want has the same fitment issues, as well.

Before:


After:



Next up is the oil pan gasket which is absolutely gushing oil. I bought the car knowing this was an issue and wasn't particularly looking forward to doing the job on the ground. Over the weekend I began the job by dropping the suspension and subframe. I'll be taking my time this week to clean the underside before removing the pan itself as oil is caked absolutely everywhere.





I'm still undecided on what I'll do once the car is mechanically back up to par but there are plenty of items to address before I have to chose a direction. Once the engine bay is leak free, I'll chip away at the interior and will put together a plan to refresh the suspension and bushings on the car in the fall. The front coilovers and rear airbags are in good shape however most of the rubber is in need of replacement.