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New '03 Owner | Roadtrip Story & Pics Inside

62K views 295 replies 59 participants last post by  hluthijr 
#1 ·
First off, I want to say that I've been doing a lot of reading and researching on this forum for the past few months and it's been a great resource. Lots of informed and helpful people on here. :smile

Now for the story...

Last March I flew out to New Jersey to get the last manual Cayman S in Sapphire Blue, then had it shipped back to Los Angeles. After 6 months of it being the daily driver, the itch for another car came back and I started looking to check off another box on the automotive bucket list: an M car. Except this time I really wanted to be able to drive it home. Always loved the E39 body styling, probably since there was a Sterling Gray 540i in the house during high school. So I started looking daily (sometimes multiple times a day) and finally decided on this 2003 Sterling Grey in Seattle.

3 weeks ago I flew up to buy it (pending a PPI) and do a fun road trip. Another friend flew up from San Francisco and helped me drive it down back to his place, then I was solo for the last leg of the trip.

So far it's been...eventful.

Here's the basic route:



I've been to Seattle a few times and Rainier's size never ceases to amaze me.



Rented a zippy Sentra and almost ran someone over with the throttle response in Sport mode.



Checked out the car for a while and went on a pretty long test drive. Overall the car's in good condition and in the past 2 years, the water pump, thermostat, clutch, front pads, 3 coil packs, and 2 MAF sensors have apparently been replaced. It's got the extended leather package and the seats are in good condition but dirty & dry with some cracking (I've already cleaned and conditioned them with Lexol). The finish on the wheels is peeling off so that'll need attention.







It's got the Dinan CAI plus MAF housings, throttle bodies, tune, strut tower brace, and the rear diff.



I'll be removing the E36 M3 wing but unfortunately 4 holes have been drilled for it. I may look for another E39 trunk lid instead of having a shop fill in the holes, but we'll see. A paint-matched OEM lip will be going on.



Headed back to the hotel, ate oysters & calamari for dinner and caught a show at Neumos.



Since the PO was only available for a PPI on the weekend, I made an appointment with BMW Seattle which worked out since the airbag recall still needed to be performed. It took me 3 weeks to coordinate getting an airbag in stock, ultimately needing to get the general manager involved, but it's all good. Plus the center of the steering wheel is brand new now. Dropped off the car at 8 am, picked up my camera and spent some time in the city.





PPI revealed several items, biggest one being leaky valve cover gaskets (no surprise), worn serpentine belts (something I noticed the day before), and the door mirrors being broken (I was aware of this). Nothing screamed "run away!" but I also didn't wanna drive over 1,000 miles back home with one of the belts possibly ripping apart, so decided to play it safe and get new ones installed after the PO offered to put them on. The Seattle dealership didn't have any in stock, but Bellevue had 1 of each left. The time was 4:30, they closed at 6. A race against time!

Ended up buying the belts, then back to the his place where they were replaced, mainly due to my excellent lighting work (I'm actually on the other side providing additional lighting as we listened to 90s hip-hop).



The tensioners were pretty stiff and the PO was pulling hard while his friend was trying to put them on when all of a sudden his dad walks into the garage holding a Costco-sized box of ice cream bars. "Hey you boys want some of these?" Ummm...kinda busy here but thanks! :laugh

Handed over the check, completed the paperwork, returned the zippy Sentra, then back to the hotel. These eyes...quite angelic.



On Sunday we headed straight down to Portland where I called AAA from the passenger seat, answered a bunch of questions, then saw my annual insurance premium decrease by $80. Multi-car policies are great.

Downtown Portland is interesting. Saw some dude walking around with a 6-ft tree branch in one hand, a bunch of leaves in another, wrapped in a Camry-beige toga, with a ****-eating grin on his face. I can only assume he was living life to its fullest.

I was there back in October and visited a previous photo location.



On Monday we stopped by Corvalis and Eugene to check out the campuses and took more photos.









On Oregon's campus I was approached by some wildlife activists and invited to play the salmon game (you get 3 foam cubes and try to throw them through the hole). I got close but didn't make any, yet they still gave me salmon-shaped candy, which was nice.



Then we headed towards the coast and checked out some Dunes. On the way there we passed by a lot of moss. So much moss. Mas moss than I've seen before.



Walking through this was quite the workout.







Spent the night in Coos Bay and ate a German restaurant where the waitress would pour you water, then say "thank you" which was somewhat confusing. And...get this...if you paid in cash, you'd get a slice of carrot cake! I wonder if the cost of that slice is really less than the 3% credit card fee. Asking the important questions.

Now it's Tuesday and we're heading down the coast again. Decided to practice my action shots in a empty section of the road.



Then made a stop at the Coquille River Lighthouse.









The roads were pretty slippery at some points and we passed this upside down Beetle (emergency crews were there soon after).



Came across this interesting sign. What, pray tell, can be so awesome that requires such a sign?



Oh...



Next stop was seeing the Redwoods but unfortunately the main road was closed due to a fallen tree. Still a scenic route getting there while obeying posted speed limits at all times. :wink







Got to see Elk; they were chill. I named this one Charlie.







Kinda feel bad for the snake as I think he was about to eat that snail, but slid away after I took the shot.



Wednesday was the last fun day of the trip as we drove through Avenue of the Giants again. I absolutely love this road. 2 years ago I drove through it with the C63 which had superior handling and steering, but despite a sloppy, long-throw shifter (for now), just having the option to row my own gears more than made up for it. Looking forward to doing it with the Cayman at some point.



Made it back to SF without any issues and did some more photography. Well, almost without any issues...











So anyway, remember how the mirrors were broken? Yeah...well they were glued back on in Seattle, but the swivel plate on the passenger side finally gave way in SF. :(



Didn't want it dangling on the way home. Initiate mirror removal.



Seems legit.



Once I got back home, I bought an aftermarket replacement housing and decided to swap the internals so I wouldn't have to paint it. But as I'm sure some of you know, the connector doesn't go through the hole!



Ended up having to the cut and re-splice the wires.



The center dash vents were broken so I got new ones too. 2 of the screws holding the radio were stripped, so that required drilling them out.



So far I've also replaced the oil (where I discovered stripped threads in the oil pan), transmission fluid, and the rear diff oil which required the cutoff 14mm allen wrench trick to remove the plugs (so many great DIY threads on here).





This weekend I plan on doing a brake fluid flush, installing new pads (Porterfields), tightening the parking brake, and installing the E60 short shifter, ZHP knob, and replacing all shifter bushings. I'm also leaning towards doing a full cooling system replacement at some point but I need to spend more time on understanding the current state of things. The valve cover gasket replacement will also include replacing the coils, plugs, and from what I've read, as many vacuum lines as I can find!

Thanks for reading.

 
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#6 ·
Congrats on the M5 and just imagine how happy the car is to have you owning it now and tending to its needs. :) Love the pictures. Can't wait to do an SFO to Seattle road trip one day soon.
 
#9 ·
Thanks everyone!

It was something I was looking forward to for a while and glad it worked out. The reliability and turn-key operations of new cars is great, but sometimes you need to get your tools out and wrench on something.
 
#10 ·
Congrats! I remember seeing that M5 for sale.
Nice pics of the trip. Missing home, living in Seattle for 15 yrs, not the rainy weather though.
 
#12 ·
Thanks! It is a Dinan car with the throttle bodies and MAF sensor housings too (and associated tune) but the suspension looks to be stock. I don't have any records if any of the components were ever changed and I'm getting some squeaks over bumps, but haven't looked into it yet. If anything, I'd probably do a set of PSS9's at some point in the future.
 
#22 ·
It needed about 0.5 liter over ~1,300 miles. Visually it doesn't seem too bad but you can tell it needs attention. I plan on sticking with Liqui-Moly 10W-60.

The Dinan suspension will have Koni sport struts/shocks and they are yellow in color so a quick peak at your wheel gap will tell you what you have in there. The OEM Sach units will be white in color.
Yeah definitely no Koni's under there. I had Koni yellows on my MR2 and liked them. I've only driven one other E39 M5 which was stock, so I don't have much experience for comparison, but I'm sure I can tighten things up and reduce body roll if the itch grows strong enough. :)
 
#16 ·
Congrats !!! Fly in and road trip home is how I got mine too! It's the best way to christen the relationship. That was 5 years ago for me! Picked up in Tucson and drove to San Jose in a long day.

Btw - I tried a 996 for awhile but ended up selling it a year later. I am interested in the cayman maybe someday but for now my sports car is a 2016 camaro SS convertible with the 455hp LT1.


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#24 · (Edited)
Congrats !!! Fly in and road trip home is how I got mine too! It's the best way to christen the relationship. That was 5 years ago for me! Picked up in Tucson and drove to San Jose in a long day.

Btw - I tried a 996 for awhile but ended up selling it a year later. I am interested in the cayman maybe someday but for now my sports car is a 2016 camaro SS convertible with the 455hp LT1
Thanks! Wait, did you get that 2001 Anthracite over black with the CF wrapped interior? I was looking at that one back in December and was talking with the owner, but someone got it before things became serious.

Unless you had the 996TT, I don't blame you for not keeping it very long. The Cayman is an awesome car and arguably the better handling one compared to a 911. It's not as iconic and not as comfortable on long trips, but going through the twisties and feeling the CG next to your hip while the car pivots around it is a terrific sensation. Definitely recommend checking one out, though it's going to be severely disappointing in terms of torque compared to your SS...

Use the holes in the trunk to mount an STI style wing!!


;)

Edit - never mind, just saw your post.
 
#17 ·
Glad to see this car finally went to a good home. I poured one out for it over the spoiler when I was searching.

-Mike
 
#19 ·
Great road trip! Awesome car! Enjoy the M///
 
#27 · (Edited)
Updated exhaust tips



Thanks! I've done PCH a few times and it was actually part of the plan for this trip, doing SF to Cambria for day 1, then Cambria to LA for day 2, but the storms killed that idea.

On Friday I left work early today and decided to swap out the t-shirt cannon exhaust tips. Looked at some local places and saw a review where another E39 owner took his exhaust there and they did a good job. Let's do it.

I was greeted by the sweet melodies of Michael Bolton emanating from this classic GE radio. CSB: I still have my black GE radio/alarm clock with red numbers from the 80s, so this place just felt right.



Out with the old.



Weld with the new.



I don't know if I would've gone with these exact tips but I didn't feel like spending more time and money on a different set. Overall I'm pretty happy. :)





Oh...and I was so preoccupied by the size of the tips that I hadn't noticed the broken plastic on the right hand side of the diffuser. I'm thinking of getting an aftermarket one with fins (not carbon fiber).

Something like this?

 
#32 ·
Just stumbling on this post now, but congrats on the new ride and thank you for the fantastic story and pictures! You have lived my dream. I watched this car for a long time here in Seattle, but couldn't get past the rear wing. Glad to see it went to someone who is going to give it the love it deserves. I'm considering a car in the Bay area and would essentially do most of your trip in reverse. I can't wait for the opportunity, and you've motivated me to do a good job of documenting it!
 
#34 ·
Thanks! It's fun learning about others who were potential buyers for the same car. I always wonder how many people almost beat me to it.

I think in my 4 months of searching, this was the only car that didn't have the OEM lip but I also didn't come across too many '03 in SG. As long as nothing super expensive comes up *knocks on wood*, maintaining and upgrading it is part of the fun. This isn't a true "project car" but it's definitely going to be different and healthier in a few months.

I have a few other things to address but I think sometime in early May, I'll go hunting for a clean trunk lid in a junkyard and have it painted to match.

Speaking of which, I wonder if it'll fit in the back seat...
 
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