Which 6 in the E39 ?

[Zeuk in Oz]

A friend is looking at a E39 touring '98 528i or '01 530i. (At my urging, I must add )

Were both of these engines double vanos ?

Shogun listed different engines and their specs somewhere but an hour of searching hasn't found it.

Any other differences / things he should know ?

Any help appreciated.

[Paul in NZ]

look at this
They are very misguided tho....we all know the real 5 dont we

[Ausmpower]

"On the other hand, the 530i had one of
the finest petrol engines money could buy,
smooth, powerful and it just loved to rev."

a snip from Paul's link.
Go the 530 not the 528.

[Bellicose Right Winger]

In the US , E39 528's didn't get double vanos until 9/98, making the M52 an M52TU.
Like the E34's, E39's have their own set of quirks. The one I fear most is the that all the expensive electronic modules need to coded/programmed by the dealer before they will work, so you can't take a junkyard ABS/DSC module, DME, inst cluster, plug it into your vehicle and expect it to work.

Paul Shovestul

A friend is looking at a E39 touring '98 528i or '01 530i. (At my urging, I must add )

Were both of these engines double vanos ?

[Zeuk in Oz]

In the US , E39 528's didn't get double vanos until 9/98, making the M52 an M52TU.
Like the E34's, E39's have their own set of quirks. The one I fear most is the that all the expensive electronic modules need to coded/programmed by the dealer before they will work, so you can't take a junkyard ABS/DSC module, DME, inst cluster, plug it into your vehicle and expect it to work.

Paul Shovestul

Thanks for the replies guys.

This guy will not do any work himself - I will need to get him organised with a good BMW specialist. He needs a safe tourer with space but has no appreciation of any details about anything automotive.

[mamilapon]

I reckon a 530d would be the go, considering the price of petrol.

[ILoveMPower]

go with the 530! i've heard the engine is amazing

[tim]

In the US , E39 528's didn't get double vanos until 9/98, making the M52 an M52TU.
Like the E34's, E39's have their own set of quirks. The one I fear most is the that all the expensive electronic modules need to coded/programmed by the dealer before they will work, so you can't take a junkyard ABS/DSC module, DME, inst cluster, plug it into your vehicle and expect it to work.

Paul Shovestul

This is great advice, and quite true. From what I have heard (and personally seen), the ABS/DSC module WILL fail on virtually all of the late 98/99/early'00 5 series. It had to do with an engineering error within the module whereby the input stage had an insufficient wire diameter for the amperage, leading to excessive heating and eventually, failure.

There is a way around the coding dilemma. I posted about a year back about the failure of my module in my '99 540iT. I sent it out to a module rebuilder ("Module Master" in my case, but there are others), drove for 10 days without the module in the car at all, and then when it came back, dropped it back in- fixed. If you use your own rebuilt module, it does not have to be recalibrated.

Paul is correct in pointing out- a parted module from another car WILL NOT WORK without recalibration, which is an expensive ($500+) procedure if you can find anybody these days who is even capable of doing it.

Be warned. Acquaint yourself with the symptoms of this problem if you own, or are looking at, a car in the affected years.

[Zeuk in Oz]

look at this
They are very misguided tho....we all know the real 5 dont we

Thanks Paul,
That was one of the articles I remembered seeing and thought I had saved but couldn't find.
Cheers,
Bo

[Zeuk in Oz]

"On the other hand, the 530i had one of
the finest petrol engines money could buy,
smooth, powerful and it just loved to rev."

a snip from Paul's link.
Go the 530 not the 528.

Not to be a pain, but would a 99 528i in Oz be double vanos ? Paul's article implies that (in the UK) the change happened in '98 but here it happened in 2000-2001.
Similarly, would all 523i cars in Oz be single vanos or was there a change in '98 ?
Any other reasons for saying go the 530i ?

Cheers,

Bo