Imminent house move means I have reluctantly decided to sell my Titan Silver E39 M5. The car was first registered in March 2003 so is likely to be one of the last E39 M5’s registered in the UK. I have owned it for the last 5 years and I am the 4th owner. The car has covered 138k miles and just 21k miles under my ownership. As with all M5’s of this age they need to be well maintained - shortly after I bought the car I carried out a full suspension & brake refurb including springs, dampers incl various rubber consumable parts, control arms, bushes, discs, pads and brake fluid. It now has the excellent Bilstein B8 dampers with Intrax springs which give great damping yet have enough compliance for UK roads. The car drives beautifully with no brake wobble and nice direct steering and wheel control. During this time I also replaced the gaskets which had gone brittle with age in and around the engine’s cam covers which cured oil weeping.
This is all age related maintenance that I believe all E39 M5’s will require at some point and that all owners should be prepared to carry out. The engine has never had any Vanos issues and revs wonderfully and has always been run on the correct Castrol Oil. The chain tensioner was replaced around 3 years ago as a precaution after I read on an M5 forum that they can fail and damage the engine. No way I was risking the engine for the sake of a relatively inexpensive part.
Earlier in my ownership I took the car to exhaust fabricators Pipewerx who made an OE looking Cat back stainless steel system that does away with the huge and heavy standard silencers. It now sounds brilliant. I still have the original silencers bubble wrapped up that could be easily refitted by an exhaust fabricator. The bodywork is in very good condition and in May this year I had a couple of common rust spots fixed namely inside the fuel filler flap where water collects, wheel arches and leading edge of the bonnet. The interior is black leather with aluminium trim which again is in very good condition. It even still has the original Nokia 3210 car phone and glovebox torch. The boot lid has the toolkit with all parts present and correct.
I have just had it serviced and a new MOT which required new front tyres. It has Goodyear Eagle’s all round. Downsides are the wheels - a previous owner had them refurbished in a dark gunmetal powder coat which looked ok but in my opinion weren’t anywhere near as good looking as the OE shadow chrome. My wife curbed the rear nearside wheel and a previous tyre fitter damaged the offside rim which I was furious about. Also a set of aggressive brake pads I used immediately after the brake refurb have left dust that I just cannot remove properly (the car now has Road biased Mintex 1144 pads which are miles better). So really all four wheels could do with a refurb which I have factored into the asking price. I have been quoted as £100 per wheel for shadow chrome for example. At this stage I don’t have the time to arrange for the wheels to be refurbed plus the new owner can choose which finish they want by whichever wheel company they prefer.
The car has a full service history with fully stamped service book and invoices for work carried over the years with BMW main dealer service stamps earlier in its life to independent BMW establishments to my preferred mechanic during my ownership who is excellent and very experienced in high performance and classic cars.
This is a reluctant sale of a much loved car that I have thoroughly enjoyed owning, driving and maintaining. A young family and house move mean that it’s time to let the car go to a new owner who I hope will have as much enjoyment from it as I have. I’d like to think I’ve left the car in good shape to be enjoyed for many years to come. Cheers. £13500
Pictures to follow…