Purchasing An E39

Day 1 - The Look over

I decided to look the car over, check the brakes, suspension as one does with a new aquisition and I made a list of items to check and a list of jobs for immediate attention...

The first big job was to replace the rubber stop and plastic gaiters on the strut. have you ever taken a front N/S Strut and spring off a BMW e39, what a B#'?hrd, on this vehicle at least...it took nearly two days, I only wanted to replace the rubber stop and gaiter. My attitude when I finished the one side was: "The other side will have to wait, either for my death, accident or if I sell the car, then I won't need to bother!". It seemed like the spring was a lower suspension configuration with a long hidden telescopic arm that liked to withdraw into itself.... with reflection I knew what this meant.
The car was jacked-up near-side (left) wheel off, with the wrong spring bolts out of place and a spring ready for liftoff. (Ok! It had been a while since I had taken off a front strut and I had gone into automatic pilot, I had undone the main spring bolt and soon realised it was not recommended, when working on cars, one learns very quickly, too keep one's mind on the job). So a purchase of a set of spring retractors/compression/adjusters, (£30 from Halfords as I was at this point desperate). With the use of only hand tools and the threat of having my head blown off by the retracted spring added to the 'atmosphere'. Definitely a 'Murphy's Law' two days, oh! And to top it off, it had been raining all day, so totally wet through. This job is normally an easy process that takes 2-3 hours, if there are no complications.(More on this later....)

Day 3 Battery Drain
Anyone with a problem with a battery drain over night? After researching on the internet forums many suggested the problem was to do with the environmental system or the heater system to you or me. Varied individuals suggested I should purchase what was to be affectinately known as a 'Hedgehog' (for heater Unit or technically known as the FSU or Final Stage Resistor). Be warned there are people selling their old ones, (FSUs) on eBay when they have taken them out to recoup the cost of a new ones, (unfortunately, these people have no morels - update - prices have come down to an average of £19 now on eBay (mid Oct 2014) and selling used hedgehogs may have been addressed, but be careful). You should also try a new battery (must be at least 100Amp with around 960cc (start crank) and can be bought on eBay for £58 (New Tanya Batteries- overnight free delivery) - Should be the first thing you check with any new/old car you take on.

I bought this Beamer on the 13th July 2014 from a garage, lets just say somewhere on the Warwick Road in Birmingham, West Midlands, UK . I needed to drop my E36 as the bodywork was in need of some tender loving care and I just didn't have the finances to entertain a full facelift for the age of car. Mechanically it was sound, I do like a safe and legal car, especially when I need to transport family and friends anywhere. That doesn;t mean I am shy of a good free-for-all down the motorway, who wouldn't? So cash paid over, I thought at the time the price was reasonable compared to many Beemers of this age and condition, thery were selling for much more..... no, the penny hadn't dropped! The time was around 18:30 and a neighbour Kevin and I had seen a few 'buckets' and Kevin saw a garage still open as we were heading home, and so the story begins....