Madison - E39 M5 - Thread
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Very excited to be a part of this WI based BMW community. Thought I'd share a little about my car and some of the recent work. Its no garage queen but I like to keep it in good shape
Details:
- Year - 2001
- Mileage - just rolled over 100k
- Exterior - Carbon Black
- Interior - 2 tone black and grey
- Origin - Colorado = no rust!!:
- Modifications when purchased: Tubi Style Exhaust; ipod integration
Since acquiring the car about a year ago I've been doing some preemptive & required maintenance and modifications. Luckily Kelly Moss is right around the corner and they have a BMW master tech so anything I cant do in the driveway gets taken to them.
- Suspension refresh - control arms, integral links, bushings
- PSS9 coilovers - stock struts were starting to go out. Wanted to make this a weekend backroads beast with occasional autoXing mixed in. More to come on these.
- E60 shift lever + F10 Shift knob - love the shorter throws while still maintaining a stock look and feel
- Upgraded steel sway bar brackets - lets see how long they last. E39 M5 are known to rip the stock ones apart
- Camshaft sensor replacement - If you have done this before you know how much this sucks. Spent ~10 hours for 4 sensors since BMW puts them between the engine and firewall behind a metal bracket.
- VANOS solenoid refresh



This summer was a little testing due to all of the above maintenance but I fell back in love with the car on weekend drives
Next up:
- Get the PSS9s adjusted to provide a better ride
- Shark Injector Euro tune
- Minor cosmetic things
- OEM wheels - Anyone have Style 65 wheels for sale?
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Glad to have you here!
@tehraydarlover here also has an M5 and could share your pain with cam sensor replacement
@REKIII also has one which is seeing some pretty extensive modificationWe should have at least 1 or 2 meets/drives this year in the madison area, hope to see you around at one of them
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Glad to see you made your way over here! Looking forward to seeing the progress you make over this winter.
Unfortunately, no garage space to work on it so everything will need to wait until the snow melts and the salt is washed away. That E30 should be an interesting change from M5 but let's see if things work out.
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Awesome! Nice to see you made it from the Madison C&C group! I have a set of B14 PSS on my 335i and I love them! The style 65's are one of the best looking wheels BMW made IMO. I don't get up to Madison C&C as much as I used to but I hope to see you around some time!
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Looks nice! Yeah, cam position sensors are a pain! Let me know if you need any help when you decide to tackle rod bearings haha.
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Every time I see these cars I want to buy one. E39 M5 looks so good.
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Looks nice! Yeah, cam position sensors are a pain! Let me know if you need any help when you decide to tackle rod bearings haha.
huh...at what point should I consider doing the rod bearings?
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Every time I see these cars I want to buy one. E39 M5 looks so good.
Now is the time. Nice ones are becoming harder to find and more $$$. Plenty of project version available cheap too.
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huh...at what point should I consider doing the rod bearings?
You're probably okay for a while at 100k. just something to keep in mind if you ever have the upper oil pan off for some reason. These were mine after 154k:
Old bearings are all out and new WPC treated ones are in 🖒
Cylinder 8 bearing definitely looks the worst, but minus the first two cylinders they all look pretty worn, very glad I decided to change them.
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Welcome! I love the E39 M5's. Im also in the Madison area and will keep a look out for you!
Looking forward to seeing you around Madison. I just bought an E30 that I'll post about shortly.
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I love it!
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