SCHLEPN | The E39 540itA Story

DrLeadFoot

First, family of 4, road trip to Door County was a success!

Need to work out a few bugs and find & fix a new slow leak in the rear air suspension.

Bugs include:

- Code IKE to S62 coolant temp. Getting an engine light due to coolant temp mismatch. (Need to swap back in 540i cluster to get the NCS software to work then swap back M5 cluster. Need all VIN numbers to match in the modules otherwise I can't code.)

- Look into fuel tank purge valve. Getting a code from that not doing it's job for one reason or another.

- Adjust headlights.

patsbimmer1

This is so fucking practical that it makes me smile. Glad you guys are enjoying it!

Jdesign

Love the pics, the last one is great. Family truckster is an epic truckster.

wasnt m3

I had the opportunity to see this thing in person today. Quite impressive. The exhaust note sounds spot on, especially at WOT! Thanks for swinging by, John!

straight6pwr

so much win.

DrLeadFoot

Driver's side air suspension bag replaced with oem bmw. As I was pulling into Mike's garage the code for inactive air suspension came on the dash. Perfect timing!

He also popped on the front M5 under panel.

Hopefully the confirmed old leaking bag was the problem! The morning will tell all. Fingers crossed!

DrLeadFoot

Mike swapped lines and the leak switched sides. The 3rd Doorman pump is on it's way. Thank goodness for a lifetime warranty.

I also have the BMW 1.4 scanner & software coming to recode the M5 cluster to the 540i VIN so I can hopefully code the rest of the IKE.

DrLeadFoot

New pump in and working!

Jdesign

DrLeadFoot

Jdesign said:

Nawwwww, I'm too cheap!

DrLeadFoot

New, new pump threw an Inactive Suspension code. Popped on my computer with INPA and the pump would not work when I tried to activate it.

Took it apart and found one of the three bolts holding the pump up in the metal dome fell off as well as a popped fuse. Replaced the fuse and tightened up all the bolts and INPA tested it again and it worked. I messed around with the ride height tuning feature of INPA and will have to zero it in a couple of mm.

Place your bets on how long until the next air suspension code/problem! I'm going to say 2 weeks.

An old buddy of mine, Jon (@thic_f30), was in town and took a bunch of pics and videos. He drove the wagon and I was in the E30. A grand time, and a lot of 3rd gear pulls, were had.

DrLeadFoot

The video! E30 & Wagon content.

DrLeadFoot

Update! The wagon has been running great! I've been chipping away at some minor coding things here and there.

Turned some wrenches last night at Mike's house and added the updated nitrogen charged oil accumulator. This one has a valve that locks in oil pressure when the car shuts down and on start up it immediately throws pressurized oil into the vanos units to stop the 12v Cummins Diesel sounds.

Had to run a signal wire to the DME (Pin 8 on the module 2 connector) and splice into a ground crimp. My DME was apparently one from a newer M5 with this option as I was getting a accumulator error code. No coding necessary! Thank goodness!!

Did an oil/filter change (181000 on 540i cluster) after buttoning everything up and it was clattering for a second then ran quiet as a mouse! I'm wondering if the old accumulator lost its pressure.

Replaced the cracked fuel pressure vaccum hose under the intake. Noticed both my cyclone separator return lines are totally mush and cracking so I will be replacing those next week and doing a thermostat and possible water pump as a while I'm in there approach.

B C

The S62 is a very advanced beast and impressed that you have been able to get all these things figured out.

DrLeadFoot

Dropped off the Wagon at Mike's and he has been chipping away. We're replacing the water pump, thermostat, and coolant orings/pipes under the intake manifold just to do them. Taking the family on a road trip out east and wanted to take as many variables out of the stranded on the roadside equation that I could.

I've been getting a DTML code and Mike found that the 540it pumpkins leaking donwe will be replacing that as well. SO CLOSE TO BEING PERFECT!

New cyclone separator return lines in! Got new OEM damper bolts coming due to removing the damper to get at the lower water pump bolt.