E39 540i Manual

RozeTheHornet

RozeTheHornet

Active Member
Hi all. I have just bought this E39 540i, it has been a drifter for many many years. my plan is to clean it up a bit and drift it till I wreck it. Just going to be slowly updating this thread as I start actually working on this car.

Current list of jobs to do:
Hook up a reversing light.
Remove horrible dildo shifter.
Delete leaky hydro.
Get dashboard working.
Clean / replace Idle Control Valve.
Replace nasty Halo's with Stock Headlights.
Replace cut up centre console.
Sort out wiring.
 
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First of all, a huge thanks to Sam Stocks and Ed Dyer for all their hard work yesterday.
Quick update on where we are at at the moment...
We actually had a look at the car yesterday for the first time and fixed some things:
Horrible dildo shifter has been replaced with a spare E46 M3 gear stick. If anyone wants a silver dildo shifter, let me know.
Found the OBD port hidden behind the dash, hooked up my reader and got some error codes, one to do with the steering wheel functions (aftermarket wheel), one to do with the radiator temp sensor, an abs/dsc error, an AC fan error and a MAF error.
Found the radiator temp sensor wiring was fucked and the temp sensor was missing, so Sam fixed the wiring and replaced the temp sensor with the old one out of Sam's 318 project.
The Car was running lumpy, so unplugged the MAF and it ran great, but rich. Stole the old airbox from the 318 and cut the MAF out of that as it was exactly the same part number as the 540 one. Replaced the MAF in the car and now it runs perfectly.
AC fan isn't working, but ignoring that because i don't need AC.
The Fake Nardi was being held on by a cheap wheel spacer, with all kinds of bolts. So we removed the Spacer and now there is no wobble (other than from the fake wheel itself).
The hydro was leaking really badly, so Sam removed the old brake line fitting and replaced with a new one, we then bled the breaks and all works great now.
The halo rings were not working on the passenger side. So instead of trying to fix it, we just found the cable that sends power to the ones on the right side, removed it and electrical taped it up.
Discovered that the reversing light is hooked up, however the switch on the gearbox is not working as the car thinks it is always in reverse, so this is the next job.
The stock handbrake also needs adjusting.

Current list of jobs to do:
Sort reversing light.
Get Spedo working.
Tidy wiring.
Tighten OEM Handbrake.
 
Had another quick look at the car today. Took a look at standard service stuff. Pads need replacing, none of ths arms are bent which is nice.
Tried to fix the Speedo again. However the sensor and wiring had been cut out. Managed the trace the rear speed sensor wiring and spliced a spare e46 connector onto it (same part number as E39) however the existing wheel speed sensor in the hub appears to be dead so have ordered two new wheel speed sensors (Rear left and Rear right). During testing however the car started running really rough, then began cutting out. After lots of troubleshooting we decided to put a full jerry can of petrol in (gauge was at 1/6 full). Fired right up and ran perfectly after that .
Whilst troubleshooting, noticed that there was a lot of loose wires, and various parts in the engine bay so bolted everything back where it should go.
New Pads and speed sensor arrive next week, so will update again next week, and will add pictures then...

Current list of jobs to do:
Sort reversing light.
Get Spedo working.
Tidy wiring.
Tighten OEM Handbrake.
Get an MOT.
Get an Alignment.
Do a service.
 
Yet another update...
Worked on the car this morning. Went to replace the front pads, removed the old pads and they looked absolutely fine, so simply cleaned up and re fit the existing pads.
Moved to the back of the car and replaced the rear speed sensors. Re wired these as they had previously been cut out, and to my surprise, the speedo actually worked!!!
Turned the car off and back on again, and the car fired up, showed idling rpm, and about 5 seconds later the tacho and speedo dropped to 0, and the temp gauge went past red...
Plugged in the OBD and temp, and rpm are still coming through the OBD, however speed shows 0, and the dashboard still shows nothing.
Spent the last 2 hours trying to solve this, ran out of ideas, had a little cry, and gave up.
The good news is the engine and gearbox are still great!
On the plus side, here are some pictures of the 540i looking as it does now for anyone who is interested :D.
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Quick update.
No idea how, but the Tacho decided to start working again and we got the GPS Speedo wired up properly and working. Sorted some new tyres for it, got them fitted. A friend made up some new license plates for the car, gave it a quick once over and took it for an MOT. Which it Passed!!!
Lots of advisory's, lots of small things added to the list of jobs to do, but the best thing to come out of the 30 mile round trip, was that the car runs and drives absolutely brilliantly, and is stupidly fast.

Current list of jobs to do:
Sort reversing light.
Get OEM Spedo working.
Tidy wiring.
Get an Alignment.
Soften the coil-overs and lower the car.
Do a service/full fluid change (engine, gearbox, diff, brake).
Buy and fit new front Drop Links.
Make new exhaust mounts.
Sort jacking point rust (might as well do properly and cut and weld new metal).
New sump gasket.
Do A SKID!!!.

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UPDATE!!!!! (This one is Picture Heavy... sorry)
Thursday Dan Cogswell fit some brand new 255's to the FYK rears and 225's to the FYK rears.
Car was running great, got home, drove over the drain cover on my drive and the rear right wheel broke the cover in half, fell in, and when it came back out i heard a snap from the rear end.
Jacked up the rear and established that i now had 1 wheel drive :no:.
(Video of just after this happened...)

Bought a 540 diff and two driveshafts, collected them from Manchester, drove home.

This morning went to Sam Stocks house, him and Dan Cogswell (Massive thanks to both!) removed the driveshafts, (which we later found out to be 528 driveshafts) replaced them, and removed the cups from the 540 diff and changed the cups on the diff in the car (also a 528 diff) to match with the new driveshafts.
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Sam then welded a nut onto my baffle so it is now removable.

We then decided to fix the leaky sump. Drained the oil, removed the sump (which looks like it has been smashed on every speed hump in England...), sump had 2 holes in it, Sam welded these up, re fit the sump, filled with new oil, and now it runs great with no leaks!
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Once again the car now drives great, is more reliable than it has ever been, and is ready for Santa Pod on the 21st.
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Tomorrow morning its time for an alignment and i will update again for anyone who cares :o.
 
Ok, so i had a trip to Santa Pod yesterday.
This car is sick, it has so much grip and basically steers itself.

Here is a link to 30 mins of RAW drift footage!

Good news, car preformed brilliantly all day. Super fast, super easy to drift, amazing in every way, I am completely in love with this car.

Bad news... about 30 mins before the last run of the day, i started to hear a nocking/ticking noise... thought sod it, i will do one more run then investigate it.
Did the last run, got back to the pits, jacked up the front.
Big oil leak, nocking/ticking sounds like it's coming from the lower end of the engine.
Filled up with oil, drove it home, have not looked at it since. This weekend i will start trying to source the mysterious ticking noise.
In the mean time, does anyone know of a M62B44 just lying around anywhere that i may or may not need to swap in :(.

Here are some cool photos from the day...
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Current list of jobs to do:
Sort reversing light.
Get OEM Spedo working.
Tidy wiring.
Do a service/full fluid change (engine, gearbox, diff, brake).
Buy and fit new front Drop Links.
Make new exhaust mounts.
Sort jacking point rust (might as well do properly and cut and weld new metal).
Sort Engine......... :/
 
Quick update.

Had another look at the 540 on the weekend. Started it up to jump the battery on my 330, couldn't hear any bad noises from the engine. Decided to keep running it till it got hot, still no noises. However still leaking slightly. Got under the car and tightened all of the sump bolts as we worked on the sump recently. Decided to take it for a quick rag to get it really hot to try force any issues if they were there. And couldn't get anything to make a noise again. And the car was not leaking any oil either!!! Result. Clearly I was just over reacting as usual .

Current list of jobs to do:
Sort reversing light.
Get OEM Spedo working.
Tidy wiring.
Do a service/full fluid change (Engine Done, to do :gearbox, diff, brake).
Buy and fit new front Drop Links.
Make new exhaust mounts.
Sort jacking point rust (might as well do properly and cut and weld new metal).
 
What suspension is this on mate?
Looking for info for my 535. Read somewhere the top mounts are different at the front on the V8’s so not sure
 
Joeb1992 said:
What suspension is this on mate?
Looking for info for my 535. Read somewhere the top mounts are different at the front on the V8’s so not sure
Click to expand...

This car is running HSD's, not home again till Wednesday, but will post a picture of the coilover tops then
 
RozeTheHornet said:
Quick update...... Sort jacking point rust (might as well do properly and cut and weld new metal).
Click to expand...

Enjoyed reading about your progress, and the loving the colour of this!

Have you considered reinforcing the jacking points with some simple box section inserted vertically? Food for thought.
 
I’ve recently broke a 540i manual so hit me up if you need anything and swapping the 540i manual swap I done for a customer 6 months ago to a 2jz now so have a engine aswell
 
Nice to see one of these drifting - lovely effortless power out that beast. Really nice looking car too tbh

As a side note lol, stick a helmet on yer birds head if you're wearing one - just incase you get in an otherwise minor accident and butt heads. :-)
 
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