your view on a 2001 525i I may be getting soon

[SpecM]

i say go for it man

hehe

[der affe]

hehe

hehehehe ;)

[femme325is]

i say go for it man

lol! I get this alot in car forums ;)

So I've been talking more to him about the car and he REALLY wants to give it to me, as long as I get my work into a gallery soon. :P So I'm a little excited! I'll keep you boys updated if I get it

[uofom3]

3 grand for a 2001 525i? Grab it.

that's all you need to know

[Motorsports]

I would've jumped on it already.

[femme325is]

I've got some time. His 7 series isn't coming in until the beginning of the year.

[femme325is]

ok. Im frickin retarded. Apparently it's a 528i, not a 525i. Do you guys know that the difference is between the two?

[Axxe]

Not a 2001 then, must be 1997-2000 IIRC.

[TDE30]

E39 528i: $3000±
Aluminum thermostat housing from TMS: $24.95
M52 replacement water pump with metal impeller from TMS: $59.95

Give the cooling system and suspension components a good going-over and you may have scored yourself a hell of a bargain for less than $3100. It's a larger BMW saloon, so those are usually the two common faults, other than that the E39 is a very solid car (with the exception of various interior bits which may or may not be painted.)

Edit: I am 90% sure that gearbox is a GM unit. Carefully scrutinize it before buying, that could be a costly component.

[BMWLA]

the only real problem we saw on these were abs units failing and overheating but that was due to a lack of proper maintenance 99% of the time

[SpecM]

Edit: I am 90% sure that gearbox is a GM unit. Carefully scrutinize it before buying, that could be a costly component.

yep

Femme: the 528i had a m52b28, rather than the m54b25 like the 01+ 525i. Bigger engine, a little more power (192hp, iirc). Good engine, just give the cooling system a good work-over, as stated above.

[gearheadE30]

The GM unit fails around 120k to 140k usually, but they can go a lot longer if maintained. It is the same unit that has been having issues in 325i/328i e36s and e46s. The trannies aren't exactly the same, but they exhibit the same failures due to lack of maintainence.

[SpecM]

change the fluid (NOT FLUSH, just drain + refill) and the filter asap

[madformx5]

I want this car Femme if you don't. You should get it.

[Ben Carufel]

My E39 528iT went 260,000 miles before its stock GM transmission failed. Fluid was never changed.

The car was fully dealership maintained (meaning 15k mile oil changes), and now at 276,000 miles there are no signs of problems due to the lengthened oil change intervals.

An M52/TU is going to be a pretty bulletproof engine. Minor things need work, but nothing major. If you're handy enough to work on an E30, you can probably handle working on an E39.

To add to what others have said: DSC/ABS pump failures are an E39 thing for sure. There's a place that rebuilds the pumps for about $300 vs. a new one from the dealer for $1200+. Install is supposedly very easy. Front cupholders fail all the time if you use them -- your best bet is to just get a TEC cupholder and not use the stock front cupholders. Once you get into higher mileage numbers (200k+) you'll want to keep an eye on your DISA valve and CCV, which both have a tendency to fail. The best solution, which I did a few months ago, is to pull the intake manifold and replace both of those as well as all the vacuum hoses under there, which will be extremely brittle at this point.

Also plan on replacing your VANOS seals with something like the Besian vanos seal kit. That's next on my to-do list.