E39 525i Touring advise

[GC318]

Ok, so I've chosen my next steed. Looking at an early to mid E39 525i Touring.

Could do with some advise on what to look out for and is the 2.5 the best engine to go for?

Any pointers would be great, thanks.

[BMracing]

Not a bad choice. A 525i (M54 engine) would be a late one though, facelift only. 2000 ish onwards iirc.
See if you can stretch to a 530i too, similar economy with plenty more grunt

Or do you mean the earlier 523i/528i (M52 2.5/2.??

[darkchild]

525i's are nice chariots. Decent grunt and reasonable economy on a run. The 530i is a lot more performance for not much greater running costs though. The M54B30 is just a fantastic engine.

523i's are a bit underpowered IMO, especially as an auto. Manual's aren't too bad but they need a good dose of the loud pedal to make rapid progress - they're a bit flat.

Flaky dash displays, asthmatic air-con (hedgehog relay if you're lucky, condenser if you're not) and rusty tailgates are all reasonably common. Suspension components, bushes etc need to be in good nick for these to drive as they should.

[B7]

As you state early to mid e39 I suspect you are looking at a prefacelift 523 ear car.

As above, I would leave the 523 TBO. In manual they are acceptable but the 528 is the one to have. More torque and 22hp more makes a difference in these heavy old busses.

I've had 2 now, a 2000 m52tu 523 auto and now have a 530i M54 Auto facelift sport. Two completely different animals.

[sajad09]

If you can strech the budget go for a 530d.

I have a 2001 525i sport, love it to bits but wish i had bought a diesel. i find the 525i a bit underpowered, dont get me wrong its not slow, nice cruiser, but i feel for the mpg i get i should of gone for a bigger engine, but i see the diesel as a good option for overall performance and economy.

The 525d is another option but iv driven one and found it to be underpowerd in low revs, but lovly little purrer on the mway with excelent mpg

Also go for a good spec car ie satnav, tv, xenons, sunroof, electric seats, etc makes a big difference for not alot more money..

watch out for rusty bootlids and also the sills tend to get a bit flakey on early cars from my experience, and finaly on tourings some had rear self leveling suspension, this tends to go wrong quite alot, so check all pumps etc are working ( you will hear them when you start the car) very expensive to fix..

good luck with the hunt.

[clipper]

All good advice above. I've got a 525i touring and compared to the 528i I had before it lacks a bit of low down torque. I wouldn't even consider anything lower than 2.5.

Basic touring E39 sound systems are impressively poor and expensive / complex to upgrade / replace so if you like your music check the stereo set up.

Rusty tailgates can be replaced but at the lower corners of the boot hatch opening there is a terrible rust trap just behind the rubber trim sections. Try to remove these and see how bad it is before you buy as this is a chassis area.

As sajad said the self leveling can fail but if the pumps are ok the airbag "springs" are actually reasonably easy and cheap to replace, good haggling point too.

My experience with E39s in general is don't buy onw with "a few little things" needing doing. A badly cared for car is a money pit you'll never be happy with, whereas a good one (full BMWSH FTW) is a joyous car to drive.

[GC318]

Thanks for all the advise people.

Something like this one would fit the bill:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

[Blitz]

Thanks for all the advise people.

Something like this one would fit the bill:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

Just a great colour.

[clipper]

Must be intergalactic mileage on it though !

[GC318]

Must be intergalactic mileage on it though !

possibly, not worried about anything up to about 140kish as long as it has FSH

[Simon13]

528i was the best all round car for a while back in the day!