I found another car sitting. 540i Wagon

I know nothing about these cars. I found this sitting behind a triple deck-er in not a great part of Boston where I was doing some work. IT is sitting really funny. I have the address and was tempted to knock on the door and ask.

If I do get the opportunity to look at it what should I look for. Is the rear suspension adjustable? Is that why it is sitting low in the back? What about rust? Are these things rust prone? I am really suspecting that it is a victim of the motor issues that the 540's had and was probably never fixed. In that case I would look at LSX power. In either way it would be a really cool project.

Were they available with manual? I lust after 540i sedans, a wagon would be amazing!

HiTempguy wrote: Were they available with manual? I lust after 540i sedans, a wagon would be amazing!

Nope... only the 528i was available with a manual for the e39 wagon.

Oooh, nice. I'd love to have one of those.

In reply to dean1484:

Certainly is a cool discovery. If it's in a rough part of Boston, then think "years of deferred maintenance". Hood folk love to buy 10-year-old luxury cars but can't afford the maintenance on them.

The rear suspension is puzzling. Even if the struts were blown out, I don't know why the springs wouldn't still be holding it up. Maybe they're cut springs and the PO never got around to the front.

It looks like the body is in decent shape in those pics, though.

If you buy it, bring it down to RI in the Spring and I'll resurrect the paint.

Chances are it has a self leveling suspension that's gone bad or the rear coil springs are broken. Very common for the springs to break on BMW's that have spent time in the salt.

Rear suspension is one of those self leveling hydraulic types. Pretty much everything associated with it fails at some point. My friend spent a few months dealing with that issue on his 528 wagon. After replacing everything, it still sagged...

I can't even see the pics and I'm saying go for it if the price is right bmw wagons are my kryptonite.

Would the suspension sag like that if it sits for a long time? IE it is ok just that from sitting it eventially looses pressure. Can you just get rid of the self leveling stuff and put standard springs / shocks OR dare I say coilovers in it?

dean1484 wrote: Would the suspension sag like that if it sits for a long time? IE it is ok just that from sitting it eventially looses pressure. Can you just get rid of the self leveling stuff and put standard springs / shocks OR dare I say coilovers in it?

I've heard of the Mercedes dudes doing this--just converting it to coilovers.

^Yeah, that.

Cripes, if I had the money, I'd do an M5 engine swap!

amg_rx7 wrote: Rear suspension is one of those self leveling hydraulic types. Pretty much everything associated with it fails at some point. My friend spent a few months dealing with that issue on his 528 wagon. After replacing everything, it still sagged...

The good news is - you can replace the whole mess with a set of regular Bilsteins and pick up a decent car that the owner thinks needs a $2500 suspension overhaul.

Can't do that on these, it has airbags. My wreck is gone now but it would have combined with this one well.

chandlerGTi wrote: Can't do that on these, it has airbags. My wreck is gone now but it would have combined with this one well.

cant make a coil spring perch in place of where the bag was and run a reg strut?

chandlerGTi wrote: Can't do that on these, it has airbags. My wreck is gone now but it would have combined with this one well.

You may be incorrect in that assumption. The E28 M5s rear suspension was some sort of air bag IIRC & has been commonly replaced with more conventional suspension. This info is not from a leading expert in the field. You may indeed be right.

The rear suspension is an airbag style suspension. you can get new bags for about $200per side and slap them in quick enough. You can get a set of bilstien sports for them. combine them with a set BAVAUTO (bavarian motorsports in NH) front lowering springs and the cute little ride height adjusters for the rear air suspension and trust me you will have a wagon that will leave behind a TON of so called "sportscars" .

As to the "LSX" question, no need the 540i V8 has plenty of punch and if you deactivate the DSC/ASC it is a hooligan machine "hello Donuts-r-us, how can we help you?"

The only pain in the ass thing on these is the rear control arm ball joints and then the HUGE pain in the ass is the rear subframe bushings if it has any mileage it will need them and do your self a favor and rent the tool, other wise you will spend 1-2+ days trying to do the subframes bushings

buy it and drive it like you stole it!

M2Pilot wrote:

chandlerGTi wrote: Can't do that on these, it has airbags. My wreck is gone now but it would have combined with this one well.

You may be incorrect in that assumption. The E28 M5s rear suspension was some sort of air bag IIRC & has been commonly replaced with more conventional suspension. This info is not from a leading expert in the field. You may indeed be right.

this cannot be done as the wagon upper shock and air spring upper mount location differ completely from the sedan. So no dice you are stuck with the air setup trust me i tried.

That poor wagon! For sure the owner couldn't keep up with the maintenance costs. You have to pay to play with these. It looks like an easy save if you can pick it up, seems clean. Here is my pride and joy, looked for her for years! 2000 540iT M Sport with a few bits from the later E39's added, like NAV and HID headlights.

It can not be any worse than my porsche in terms of maintenance etc.

audifan wrote:

M2Pilot wrote:

chandler GTi wrote: Can't do that on these, it has airbags. My wreck is gone now but it would have combined with this one well.

You may be incorrect in that assumption. The E28 M5s rear suspension was some sort of air bag IIRC & has been commonly replaced with more conventional suspension. This info is not from a leading expert in the field. You may indeed be right.

this cannot be done as the wagon upper shock and air spring upper mount location differ completely from the sedan. So no dice you are stuck with the air setup trust me i tried.

There has to be a way to make / weld up something that will allow for the conversion. Now I am curious.

ZOOMX5 wrote: That poor wagon! For sure the owner couldn't keep up with the maintenance costs. You have to pay to play with these. It looks like an easy save if you can pick it up, seems clean. Here is my pride and joy, looked for her for years! 2000 540iT M Sport with a few bits from the later E39's added, like NAV and HID headlights.

That is sooo nice.

A dead BMW v8 from that era makes me think: neglected maintenance...

Sadly, if you can't find the owner (and said owner actually has the title), the effort/cost to get it back on the road would likely far exceed the cost of simply buying one ready to go.

audifan wrote: this cannot be done as the wagon upper shock and air spring upper mount location differ completely from the sedan.

You didn't try hard enough!

The older cars (E28, E34) were really easy - I assumed the E39 was the same but given the right tools... we could put another engine back there - dampers and springs are not a problem. Trust me ;)

From the number of 540's I see on CL, I'll bet there is a bad tranny there. Notorious problem.

The issue with the rear suspension is how it was created specific for the E39 wagon to improve the rear space. I know of one that runs custom built coils but he said it rides like a tank.

My manual trans and all new rear bag and bushing setup would have added nicely. It probably has a blown trans.