[gt_nfr]

Hi Everyone,
This is my first thread on M5board. I just want to thank everyone on here for the abundance of DIYs and reference articles that have helped greatly with the purchase. The car was purchased in October with 97xxx miles. Performed a PPI and a few small issues were found...nothing I wasn't comfortable with addressing.

Here are a few photos of the car when I first purchased it:

My plan with the car is to make this a DD, so I don't have any crazy mod plans for the car. The car needed the following things:
- New shocks
- New Rotors & Pads
- Valve cover seal replacement
- Thrust arm bushing
- Thermostat Replacement
- Secondary air flow passage blocked [will not address for now]

After a few hundred, I discovered a cylinder 2 misfire that I could not recreate. I inspected the plugs and realized they will need to be replaced as well:

Since then, I have purchased and performed the following:

- New shocks [Purchased ST Coilovers]
- New Rotors & Pads [Purchased ECS Tuning kit]
- Valve cover seal replacement [Completed]
- Thrust arm bushing [Awaiting Coilover install]
- Spark plugs [Replaced]
- Thermostat [Ordered]

The car feels infinitely better with new plugs. I decided to seafoam the car while doing the plugs and the valve cover seals. I'm not sure if it did much....I didn't see much smoke during the process. I also took off the stupid plasti-dip the PO put on the beautiful OEM finish. Here is the car as it sits now. The finish isn't great, but its better than the black pasti-dip. I plan on purchasing some cleaner Style 65s when I come across some

I've put another 1000 miles since the Spark plug change. I took an EDIABAS reading of the cars vitals. I'm hoping some of you guys can comment on these numbers.

The next thing I plan on doing is the thermostat, the car runs on the cool side [~70 degC during the last week]
I pulled the error codes and I'm not sure if these are due to the coolant temperature:

 

[tmvatlanta]

Welcome aboard. I think you're the one who came with a friend to check out my silver for-sale.
Yours look to be in good shape. Most of the caramel interiors I see are faded.

 

[gt_nfr]

Welcome aboard. I think you're the one who came with a friend to check out my silver for-sale.
Yours look to be in good shape. Most of the caramel interiors I see are faded.

Yes, small world. I did come and look at your e39 a few weeks back. It was a good price! I hope you found a good home for it.

 

[tmvatlanta]

Whenever you wanna hang out and chat about dimmer, let me know. Did your friend found one yet?
Good luck with yours.

 

[technician117]

Welcome to the M5 club and congrats on buying the fastest color E39 M5! Also, this is the first time I've seen an interior other than black on an Anthracite car. Pretty cool.

Looks like you have a great start on the maintenance. The catalytic converter codes are usually generated from another problem, especially one like you have: the AF code. I'm surprised you don't also have the AE code for the other bank. I assume that you have cleared codes at some point and these are ones that returned? I say that because you mentioned having a misfire but there are no misfire codes shown. You may need new MAF's. Unfortunately the AF, AE codes are pretty broad and can mean any number of things are leaking air, etc.

 

[gt_nfr]

Thanks for your feedback. I did clear the codes after my spark plug change. I've performed a MAF cleaning per recommendations on the forums as well.

The codes above are really only for a few hundred miles of driving. I check my codes often since the car is still new to me and it makes me a bit nervous everytime a new one pops up. I'll stop clearing for a few weeks and see what I accumulate.

As for the interior, I wasnt a fan at first but it's grown on me since. It looks much more faded than that photo shows. It's actually darker too...
I plan on redying the leather when I get a chance...but that's low on my priority list

 

[E39///MPower]

I am sure that you will feel a difference in power with a new thermostat. I replaced mine last weekend and certainly have. I have linked our DIY

BMW E39 M5 Thermostat Replacement, an In-Depth Look - YouTube

 

[CarbonCopy]

I can't comment on the errors (I don't recognize the software). My two cents to perform on these cars (they're all over a decade old so regardless of mileage) is to replace the post cat O2 sensors, MAFs (cleaning only helps briefly from my read), consider replacing the 4 CPS (certainly due to how annoying they are to get to I understand deferring if no VANOS error codes), plugs (done), air filters, and consider replacing the fuel filter. These are all basic benchmarks to ensuring the car will run right. It sounds like you are on your way. Nice job cleaning the brake dust off the wheels!:7:

 

[AGM5]

Welcome to the board. Congratulations on acquiring the beast in the fastest colour. :biggrin: And thank you for getting rid of that awful black pasti-dip.

 

[Edgy36-39]

Congrats and welcome. Sounds like you're the kind of owner who will get the most out of the E39 M5 experience. Sorry can't help on the readings.

 

[fmcfad01]

Welcome and good luck getting her on the road to recovery. Nice taste in color too!

If it helps, the spreadsheet in my sig is all the stuff I've done to my 2000 MY since I took ownership...needless to say, it's a long road to perfection, but it'll be fun getting there.

 

[gt_nfr]

I am sure that you will feel a difference in power with a new thermostat. I replaced mine last weekend and certainly have. I have linked our DIY

BMW E39 M5 Thermostat Replacement, an In-Depth Look - YouTube

I watched your video and it addressed alot of the concerns I had just looking at the T-stat housing in prep for the replacement. Thanks for making and sharing.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I'll certainly continue updating this thread as I continue with my "build".

As for the errors, I'll try to rule out the most obvious [coolant temp] before I go swapping sensors. I have no doubt that some of these sensors need to be swapped but I want to go through the process of diagnosing the car since the PO did actually perform a lot of documented service on the car until 2012. I can only assume it fell to neglect from then on :dunno:

 

[gt_nfr]

Hey guys,
wanted to update this thread with some progress I made over the break. So far, I've done:
- Full OEM brake set replacement
- Full suspension replacement --> ST Coilovers
- Thrust arm bushing
- E60 OEM short throw shifter
- Thermostat replacement
- Newer style 65 OEM wheels
- Muffler Delete
- Interior trim wrap w/ 3M cf wrap

To do:
- Fuel filter
- Diff fluid flush
- Tranny fluid flush

Right now, after replacing the T-stat, I'm getting two new error codes:
- Bank 1 lean
- Bank 2 lean

I've tried clearing the codes once hoping it was the DME relearning the fuel trim after I replaced the T-stat but it comes back. My next step is to see if replacing the fuel filter helps

Here are some photos from the work I did and how the car sits now:

Old trim for comparison:

 

[tmvatlanta]

CF wrap trim looks better, however the pattern on the radio/Nav trim is not the same as the other pieces. A Cubic (Technical Graphite) set would look better in that interior.
Good job nonetheless.

 

[paul88]

Car looks great, congrats.

Side note, was the front right quarter panel painted?

 

[Kulan]

Which exhaust tips are thoose? Looking good.

 

[vics]

Please consider proactively replacing the fuel pump (!).
I've lost '2' w/o notice in 268,000 miles. As these degrade slowly, the upside's very evident once installed 'and' it won't leave you stranded on the highway looking @ a $300 tow.

Vic