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E39 530i Individual Aegean Edition Build Thread

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DJ Syxx View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: E39 530i Individual Aegean Edition Build Thread
    Posted: 03 Jan 2022 at 5:32pm
Thought I'd get a thread up for my E39 as I've taken some pictures of the car and few bits done but never shared it plus at some point I will be selling her in the not so distant future, so here goes.

So some of you know I've been a 3 series fanboy with every BMW owned so far being a 3 series. I have always admired the E39 and remembered when they came out and saw them on the road and thought they were good back then and they still are now despite being 20+ years old. The corona rings (angel eyes) were one of the great light features on the car and there was nothing like it out there at the time. The styling was just perfect and its surprising how much of the DNA from the E39 is in the E46.

Anyway, I was using my wifes Polo as a daily drive as I bought her a newish (at the time) Golf estate as her new daily which also takes care of family missions etc. with the kids. The Polo would have needed some money chucked at it and I had kept it going doing the minimum to keep it road worthy as it was not worth spending any more on it. I then started looking at E39's and it was two itches I wanted to scratch, own an E39 powered by a V8.

Having looked for quite a while what I noticed was a lot of the V8's were ropey and they had crept up a bit in price. I then looked at 530i's and scouted a few to have a look at. Viewed a Topaz blue one at a dealer but didn't test drive the car in the end as my gut instinct was telling me not to as when I looked at the boot floor there was a noticeable amount of corrosion along with only a service book present with no other reciepts or invoices for the car.

I then found one on of all places, Facebook marketplace which is the car in question. Went to view it and found it had  better history, was owned by a BMW technician and had been in use as their family car but they had a replacement already. It had been relegated to not being used much over the course of a few months but was road worthy and despite being rough round the edges with age related marks and scratches along with a damaged front bumper, the car checked out to me despite needing a few bits and I went ahead with it. I call it my Covid purchase as I ended up buying the car just a few days after the very 1st lockdown was implemented.

So here it is a 2003 Aegean Edition 530i, currently the 7th owner, clean title never been written off or put through salvage. As many of you know there were 300 brought over to the UK, 150 petrol and 150 diesel. No doubt there's far less of them on the road now so are becoming a little bit of a rarity.

Here's some pics when I bought her:










Edited by DJ Syxx - 03 Jan 2022 at 5:45pm
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DJ Syxx View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jan 2022 at 5:35pm
First job was to sort the interior rear view mirror. As many of you know its quite a common issue with these as the dimming fluid tends to leak. I couldn't find a replacement mirror glass so opted instead to buy a secondhand mirror. As the E39 shares this mirror with other models it was not hard to find one fairly cheap.

Old one:


New one:


Fitted:


Next was the expansion tank. I started to notice some weaping coming from it and knowing BMW's of this era in general, its a common thing. So went ahead and bought a replacement from ECP. Its quite straightforward in removing the old tank, the hard bit was removing the connectors from the bottom of the tank and after cutting my hand in the process it was off!

Here's the old tank and you can see it was starting to split from the seams:




New tank and old comparison. So I bought the Mahle one from ECP and you can see this is the same one that BMW sell you but with the stamp and part number grounded off.


Fitted:


Bleeding process was easy as well with no requirement to start the engine and simply let the Aux pump do its thing. I also found while I was carrying out the work was the radiator was fairly new with a 2017 label so one less to worry about.

I then had a failure with the window regulator on the passenger side with the regulator completely failing and my window was unable to be closed. Luckily no rain but for a temp fix after removing the door card I got the window pushed up.

I then ordered a replacement aftermarket one made by SKV which seems ok for the money and able to open and close the window again.

Stripped:


Old:


New:



Edited by DJ Syxx - 03 Jan 2022 at 5:54pm
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DJ Syxx View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jan 2022 at 5:57pm
Next job was to sort the front bumper. So it had a rather large crack and a chunk missing from the corner which happened during the previous ownership. So I got my good buddy and respected Dips from Custom Cars to sort the bumper. He sourced a secondhand one but completely intact OEM bumper with minimal damage. This was then prepped and sprayed in fresh Aegean blue paint. All bits, fog lights etc. transfered over and now the front end looks fresh.

Before:


After:


I had an issue with the front parking sensors and after scanning with INPA found 2 were faulty. So I sourced a complete set and fitted them on. Easy enough to do by simply carefully removing the black recess trim that the sensors are fitted into.

Sensors:


Last years weather was fairly cold and what with a cold snap I hadn't driven the car much as was on annual leave. When I did take it out for an MOT I started experiencing an intermittent wobble which eventually sorted itself out just in time for the MOT.

After a few it started coming back again. I loosely remembered a similar symptom on my old E46 330 where I had this wobble from the front where the steering wheel was shaking while driving along. So parked the car up and did a temp test and the front drivers wheel was noticeably a lot warmer compared to the other 3 which meant one thing, a sticking caliper. So cold weather snap had basically siezed it. So I ordered a refurbished one and got on with swapping it out.

Old one removed and found quite a lot of resistance with the piston not being able to retract:


New one fitted and then a case of just bleeding that caliper which took no time with my pressure bleeder:


Next job was replacing a breather hose. It was incredibly brittle and hard:


I had some hose leftover if anyone wishes to know the part number. Its a common vacuum line which has various applications across the BMW range:


Old and new, simple case of making it the same size as the one before:


Fitted:


Next up was to sort was the infamous 60mph front end shimmy. I had started noticing it more and more and at the time it was exagerrated further with the seized brake caliper. After replacing the caliper the symptoms were there so knew it had to be the thrust arms.

I setout to do it myself but I had an issue trying to get the shock to move within the pinch collar to gain clearance so the arm can be removed. Afterwards I gave up and found a local mobile mechanic to swap them out for me instead. Shout out to Aaron the Kerbside mechanic. Anyone based in the Bucks area that ever needs a mobile mechanic he gets a recommendation from me. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/Kerbside-Mobile-Mechanic-100504258693602

Pics of the old arms, as you will see they are the originals that came on the car back in 2003:






You can see the wear on the bushing and started to split:








Removed:


Old and new:


Since replacing them, the shimmy has disappeared and having had it checked on the alignment machine, the front end didn't need any adjustment.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Jan 2022 at 5:59pm
Next on the list was to sort a little squeel coming from the engine. I could instantly tell it was going to be the tensioner or idler pulley. As there was no record of them ever being replaced I figured it was a good opportunity to replace the AC and main tensioner and idler pulley. Although my drivebelts looked fine from a visual it was only until I removed it where it was changed over at the right time.

I ordered a complete kit from C3BMW who are really good for OEM quality parts, reasonably priced and are helpful.

So got the car jacked up with the undertray removed for access. You need to remove the viscous fan so I ended up ordering fan clutch holder and 32mm spanner which makes removing the fan a breeze and then raised the fan cowl for better access:


Then its onto removing the tension to whip the main belt off as you will see in the pic you just need a socket and bar and move to the right IIRC its a 16mm:


AC tensioner on mine uses a T60 to release tension on the AC belt:


Main drive belt has a split:


Old pulleys/idler top, fresh new ones bottom:


Fresh belts:


All installed and while I was under there I swapped the oil filter with fresh oil:


What i had found with the old tensioners and idler pulley was a noticeable skateboard type sound. That is where the bearing has worn out and on its way out where eventually it seizes. There is also no guide exactly as to how long they last as they can go with age too.

After a little while I had an issue with the car randomly not starting on certain occasions. After scanning the car for fault codes and nothing stored one of the common issues is the ignition switch which seems to cause all sorts of issues. So I ordered up a replacement. It is a febi bilstein one but upon closer inspection the switch is the same one that you get from the dealers. Some pictures showing the new and old one with the stamps and part numbers sanded off. Since fitting the new one, been no issues.







Which brings us to fairly recent and the alternator deciding to pack up! I noticed a strange but familiar whining noise one day. I knew the alternator was giving up as I remember it distinctly on my old M54 powered 330ci when that was gone.

So I ordered a Lucas refurbished unit from ECP. Not going to go through the removal process as there's plenty on the web but you need to remove the airbox out of the way and of course release tension on the drive belt to slip it off the alternator pulley. No need to remove the belt so I simply left in situ. Removing the alternator just requires removing two very long bolts and unbolting the positive cable connected to the back. Don't forget to disconnect the battery.

Surprisingly the alternator was a refurbished unit fitted some 8 years back and had only covered just over 40k miles which I thought was a bit premature to have it fail that soon. The alternator pulley was worn and again like the tensioners had a skateboard type sound. The new one was nice and smooth.


New and old:


Of course the old alternator not being up to scratch had also killed the battery as it was not able to hold a charge so a replacement Exide was swapped out.

And that brings us up to date so far of this build. Future plans are to give the car a good clean and run it over with a clay bar and possibly polish to bring out that paint.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Johnm7 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 Jan 2022 at 11:26pm
Lovely car , I just got a 02 530i with 73000 miles and I iam in the process 
Of refreshing some components on the car as they are inmost 20 yes old and there is no record of them ever being changed , good luck with the car 😀 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Jan 2022 at 12:24pm
Thanks mate, they aren't too bad to work on and once you address some of the wear and tear items, you have essentially a reliable car.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Dec 2022 at 3:22pm

Just a finale post to this thread. As some know I've sold this already. Going through some pictures I found a few jobs I did which I forgot to post up, so......

Had an intermittent issue with my parking sensors and needed to do another job while I had the car jacked up. Bumper strips removed and bumper unbolted. Fairly straight forward to do with just needing to remove some boot trim inside the boot to gain access to the 6 nuts that hold the bumper bar and just removing clips and screws inside the arch liner.


The sliders get a bit of stuck so some WD40 helps get things moving:


And its off:


New ebay sensors:


Then it was onto the main reason the car needed to be jacked up and that was to do the rear upper control arms. The ball joints were knackered and had excessive play so it was off with the old:


New febi bilstein items:


On the old arms you swap over the plastic brackets which is where one of the wiring harnesses clips to. On the feb arms the arms being slightly thicker and plastic being brittle, they weren't going to play ball so some cable ties always comes in handy.


Petrol filler cap seal was perished so old:


New:



Edited by DJ Syxx - 03 Dec 2022 at 3:23pm
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote DJ Syxx Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Dec 2022 at 3:23pm

And for the final send off, as mentioned I wanted to clay bar and polish up the paint which was looking a little tired. I bought a DAS 6 pro machine and this was the perfect candidate to try out on the tired looking paint.

These were pics I took which was in my sale ad and it really brought out the Aegean paintwork despite the various marks on the body of the car.

As mentioned the car is now sold but, has been a great experience owning an E39 and was a bucket list car to own. I can see why these cars have such an appreciation and cult following and with that, thanks for reading.



Edited by DJ Syxx - 03 Dec 2022 at 3:23pm
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