BMW E39 525i Auto SE Touring - daily/tow car: DEAD!!

Almost, but wrong info on the gearboxes. It's the cars after September 2000 that suffer from an unreliable auto box.
Your towing needs will be within the scope of an e39, but they are actually quite poor at towing anything over a ton owing to the multilink rear suspension.
The best ones were right in the middle of the production run, Sept 98 to Sept 00. The engines and gearboxes from then are all ultimately reliable. Earlier engines, petrol are prone to HGF and other issues, especially when leggy, and diesels were reliable old anchors but getting harder to get parts for now, but they would be an option too. Later diesels are more refined and more powerful but less reliable, do not get a post 00 diesel auto as the box will explode. Late petrols are a lovely Engine but have their issues too and most of them are terminal issues. Auto boxes not great, manual fine of course.
The absolute most reliable thing imaginable in the e39 range, in my opinion, is a 99 to 00 528i or 523i. That's why when faced with a similar need I bought my mum a 00 528i auto touring in dark blue from a doctor who was the second owner, with a factory towbar and black leather.
If you fancy a road trip to Northern Ireland, it's for sale. A grand with a full MOT should leave plenty of extra play money but you may well be able to find a more local one similar, they're not rare yet, although one with full known history including cooling and all the other usual issues, maybe not so easy. Don't want to seem like I'm writing what I did to steer you towards this one, it just happens to coincide that after countless bmws this was the most reliable possibility and it's what I would always recommend, and this one may suit you too.

Thanks for all that info it'll all be useful in the long run. Would love a road trip to NI, but I fear events are contriving against that right now.

What you don't know about me is that I'm a bit impulsive and make my mind up pretty quickly things, let's see what today brings.




Just because you aren't licensed or prosecuted doesn't mean you're not a stalker!!! Last nights insomnia started with a missed call from the Maldives on both mine and my wife's mobiles at 1:21 and 2:23 respectively. If we have some friends in the Maldives, and they want to wake us up in the middle of the night, the least they could do is invite us to join them.

Yes, today is yesterday's tomorrow, let's see what it brings! It started with this scene (note I live 2 miles from work, so my commute is a short drive):

Yeah, my friend got a random call from the Maldives too.

Some great info from surprising skoda. Our of interest do you know what it is about the post 2000 auto box that explodes. It was the biggest thing to put me off taking a chance on a 530d, although all I heard were that oil changes were essential before 100k miles and even then you were likely to need a £3k rebuild by 150k miles. Thinking about it now I could probably put up with a manual being that the 3.0d is pretty smooth, but is just come from a 320d and just wanted to take the dieselness away as much as possible.

The other thing that was regularly found on my research was that they go through rear bushes at a fair rate and the rear alignment being slightly out can make a massive change to how the car feels to drive.

............ Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnd

Craig went quiet this morning early.

We were chatting at Stupid-0-Clock then silence.


Later on just when I started the Berlingo window tints.......

Whatsapp.

Bing !!!





So I guess its another win for the Retro Rides Collective Brainstorm.


He was sick yesterday and today when I spoke to him early on.

So expect a report when he gets home or out of bed.

Roadtrip I heard

Rear subframe bushes are easy to change with the right tool, can do all 4 in an afternoon no problem.

Looks a nice tidy one. Nice colour combo too, I regret selling my pre facelift, this isn't helping lol

Thanks, I wasn't sure about the colour, but I agree, it is a good combo.

The car looks better in photos than in real life, but that's always the case with these older beasts of burden that we love so.  It is nice though.  Previous owner for 9 years, which always bodes well.  It's when they start changing hands every couple of years, and only get maintenance re-actively to MOT advisories and failures that they become horrible.

Sounds like the way to go.  I've done nearly 200 miles in this one already and enjoying it!!!

Does this have airbags instead of springs on the rear?

My 525 was solid as a rock for the time I had it. The only issue I had was when I change the rocker cover and broke a pcv pipe, it caused me a whole world of pain replacing them all due to eml popping up all the time.