AlpineF30’s 2008 E61 520d M Sport

[AlpineF30]

So we are back again with another E60 after the last one which was a total disaster

AlpineF30’s Bargain Basement E60 530d



Picked this up today and very pleased with it as my new daily to put the M3 in the shed over the winter.

Drives like a brand new car and has been well looked after by its previous owner with 4 brand new Uniroyal tyres.

Excuse the lack of pictures have yet to take any with this weather.

Comes with the M47 rather than the N47 so no timing chain issues to worry about.

Interior is complete Grandad spec but its growing in me

 

[AlpineF30]

Some better photos today as it was dark and raining when it got home.

Great driving thing and falling in love with it already. Not a single kerb mark on the MV2's which is a great plus.

I showed the advert to my wife and she said absolutely not that interior is disgusting I am not letting you buy that. Got it home to the reaction of oh that's not as bad as I thought and then she took it a drive and is as smitten with it as I am.

I think the Grandad spec cars are the better ones to go for as the more 'sporty' specced cars seem to be dogs now and have had about 18 different owners.

It's a weirdly specced car as it has the lane departure system and heated seats yet not CCC iDrive.

I am toying with the idea of doing a CCC or CIC retrofit but still 50/50 as it may not be worth the 500 odd quid and the hassle of retrofitting it as I use Google Maps for my nav anyway even when driving my M3 which has nav.

Options list below:

1CA	Selection Cop Relevant Vehicles	Selektion Cop Relevanter Fahrzeuge
205	Automatic Transmission	Automatic Getriebe
2NP	M Lt/aly W. Double Spoke 135 M W.runfla	M Lm R. Doppelspeiche 135 M Notlauf
302	Alarm System	Alarmanlage
337	M Sport Package	M Sportpaket
354	Green Stripe Windscreen	Gruenkeil-frontscheibe
386	Roof Rail	Dachreling
423	Floor Mats, Velour	Fussmatten In Velours
428	Warning Triangle	Warndreieck
431	Interior Rr Vw Mirror W Aut Anti-d	Innenspiegel,automatisch Abblendend
437	Fine-wood Trim	Edelholzausfuehrung
441	Smokers Package	Raucherpaket
442	Cupholder	Getraenkehalter
481	Sport Seats F Driver/front Passenger	Sportsitze Fuer Fahrer/beifahrer
493	Storage Compartment Package	Ablagenpaket
494	Seat Heating F Driver/front Passenger	Sitzheizung Fuer Fahrer/beifahrer
508	Park Distance Control (pdc)	Park Distance Control (pdc)
540	Cruise Control	Geschwindigkeitsregelung
5AD	Lane Deviation Warning	Spurverlassenswarnung
644	Prep. For. Mob. Ph. Bluet. Interf.	Handy Vorb. Mit Bluetooth-schnitts.

694	Preparation For Cd Changer	Cd-wechsler Vorbereitung
698	Area-code 2	Area-code 2
6FL	Usb-/audio Interface	Usb-audio-schnittstelle
704	M Sport Suspension	M Sportfahrwerk
710	M Leather Steering Wheel	M Lederlenkrad
715	M Aerodynamics Package	M Aerodynamikpaket
760	Individual High-gloss Satin Chrome	Individual Hochglanz Shadow Line
761	Individual Sun Protection Glazing	Individual Sonnenschutzverglasung
775	Individual Roof-lining Anthracite	Individual Dachhimmel Anthrazit
812	England Version	England/irland Ausfuehrung
850	Add Fuel Tank Filling For Export	Zusaetzl. Tankfuellung Export
853	Language Version English	Sprachversion Englisch
863	Europe/dealer Directory	Service Kontakt-flyer Europa
877	Deletion Cross-over Operation	Ueberkreuzbedienung Entfall
880	English / On-board Documentation	Englisch / Bordliteratur
8S2	Coding Of Alarm Signal	Kodierung Alarmsignal
8S8	Country Spec.navi Control (acc)	Laenderspez. Navi Zust. (fuer Acc)
8SA	Country Spec. Release Of Navigation	Laenderspez. Navi.-freischaltung
8SM	Vin, Visible From Outside	Fahrgestellnummer,v.aussen Sichtbar
8SP	Cop Control	Cop Steuerung

Model	520d
Market	Europe
Development Code	E61 (MUE)
Chassis	Touring
Steering	right
Doors	5
Engine	M47/T2
Displacement	2.00 l
Power	120 kW
Drivetrain	Rear-Wheel Drive
Color	Carbon-schwarz - 416
Upholstery	Leder "dakota"/beige - LCBA
Manufacturer	BMW AG
Production Plant	Dingolfing, Germany

Don't really have too much plans for it as it was fully serviced when I picked it up so it's not needing much but the list I have compiled so far.

• Replace missing square grill on bottom of front bumper - Most E60's have them missing as they love to bounce off on the road
• Sort bit of lacquer peel on back bumper - Might wait until the spring as its not noticeable and is covered when the tail gate is down
• Inspect the tailgate wiring loom - An issue every E61 suffers with as the loom wears over time and the wires break killing all power to the tailgate - No issues noted but can't be sure until I have the loom out then will make any repairs if needed then reinforce the wires to prevent it happening
• Maybe a pro iDrive retrofit - I'll see not sure if I would get the benefit and I think I am wanting it for cosmetic reasons

 

[Ghisallo]

That's class. Interior looks smashing. I have found that colour of interior easier to keep clean looking than black.

 

[Lappintyre]

Looks great that!

 

[Antoin]

Lovely outside.
Absolutely dire on the inside.
How anyone could tick that option on the options list is beyond me.
That said its a good point that it keeps the felt speccers away from buying/ destroying it.
HTD

 

[AlpineF30]

Lovely outside.
Absolutely dire on the inside.
How anyone could tick that option on the options list is beyond me.
That said its a good point that it keeps the felt speccers away from buying/ destroying it.
HTD

I went to look at one on Sunday.

530d/Black/Black Interior/Carbon Cube Trim/19 inch spiders - A felters wet dream

Was dog rough, struggled to start and pissing smoke out of its straight through exhaust. My last one was also of a similar condition then it turned out to be a stolen recovered car but hey thats another story

I was looking at black interiors as a swap wouldn't cost too much but the interior is in such good condition I think it would be a shame to remove it.

 

[Mickylad]

Interoir is hate it or love it for sure, but looks like a nice motor, HTD!

 

[Lyons]

Hard to beat the wood trim .

 

[AlpineF30]

Bit of coding done this evening.

Something that annoyed me with the car was it didn’t have daytime running lights however as its an LCI it is fitted with the LM2 light module which allows for DRL functionality.

Whenever the car is unlocked the angel eyes light up as welcome lights but then in order to get them on the sidelights need to be turned on.

My M3 has the angel eyes on all the time so I wanted to match that so out came the laptop and NCS Expert

Selcting the chassis in NCS Expert and hoping everything connects

The menus of NCS Expert is quite daunting after all these years I still need to make sure to follow the documentation so I don’t balls anything up.

Here it is reading the LMA(light module) to get the values from the car

Once these are read this allows me to open the file that was downloaded from the car and make my changes

DRL_TFL_33 is the angel eyes so these needed to be set to drl_s which turns them on at all times when the DRL option is selected in the iDrive

Then its a case of saving that file and re-uploading it to the car.


Brief flicker of all the lights on the car as the light module resets and now time to test.

I now have a DRL option in the iDrive

So now when the lights are in the off position the angel eyes will stay lit

Lights off

Sidelights on

 

[Brennan]

Wood trim, you are officially an old man now

Did you change the angel eyes to led ?

 

[Gavlar]

Love this! Maybe I'm getting old but I really like the interior

 

[AlpineF30]

Wood trim, you are officially an old man now

Did you change the angel eyes to led ?

It’s a great thing don’t know why I never had an estate before now.

Nah just the standard halogen’s I prefer them so won’t swap them to LED

 

[AlpineF30]

Whenever I got the car the rear demister and the rear screen wash wasn’t working.

A real common fault. Well it’s not common its a case of when it breaks not if it breaks on the E61.

The issue lies with the rear wiring loom. The loom is on the hinge for the tailgate and over time with constant opening and closing of the tail gate the wires end up breaking.

So I took today to rectify it. Total **** of a job and one I don’t fancy doing again. Not that its hard just one of those fiddly annoying jobs.

This is where the wires run basically two tunnels to the tailgate.

To get access I need to remove the rear speaker in the boot of the car which has a tunnel running above it where the loom feeds from the front of the car

Somebody has already been in here which fills me with confidance...

Upon getting access it was absolutely soaking so the screenwash has been getting dumped into the headliner

Next up had to remove the rear spoiler to get access to the diversity module

With everything disconnected was able to find the breakage.

The ground wire for the rear demister broke and then burnt through the pipe delivering the water to the rear window.

Got a new piece of wire installed and rejoined the hose and sealed it.

Tested the rear demist and I hear it clicking now when the button is pushed so good sign its working.

Haven’t tested the screen wash yet as I put a sealant over the join so want to give it time to cure.

Due to me removing the brackets for the hinge and somebody already removing them they are knackered. They need to be split open to gain access and splitting them twice hasn’t left them in good shape as BMW advises replacing after removal.

I will order a fresh set up from BMW tomorrow then to a full reinstall.

 

[Loggie]

Really like that - the tailgate comes in handy for sliding things in I’m sure!

 

[Blackie]

Very nice!! Did you seal up the rubber loom boots after you fixed the wires? If so how as I have the very same issue on my e46 touring, albeit the washer hose isn’t burnt through.

 

[AlpineF30]

Very nice!! Did you seal up the rubber loom boots after you fixed the wires? If so how as I have the very same issue on my e46 touring, albeit the washer hose isn’t burnt through.

No I didn’t seal them up as they were held on with a screw. Might seal them now though but means I may have issues if wires break in future lol

 

[AlpineF30]

So unfortunately gave in and bought the infamous Y cable.

60 quid lighter to get my phone work with the USB port in the car.

The car came with the USB audio interface option in the car. However it also won’t work with any cable and has to use a genuine BMW cable.

There is a chip inside the cable that responds to the iDrive. If the iDrive doesn’t get a response it won’t activate the option on the screen.

Was using an AUX cable before but lack of steering wheel options and the AUX volume is quite low compared to the CD player so unfortuantely this was the cheapest way round the issue.

Very impressed with it all music on my phone can be accessed from the iDrive and it works with Spotify as well.

Volume is much louder than a standard AUX cable too as well as charging my phone so I am happy with it, it’s not worth 60 quid but tough **** I suppose.

 

[G N K]

It’s a great thing don’t know why I never had an estate before now.

Nah just the standard halogen’s I prefer them so won’t swap them to LED

On my 1st estate and I honestly think the exact same, why have I not had one of these before!

I just need the matching M3 for the weekends

Cant love that interior, my dog would have it ruined also lol.

 

[Alexmck]

Where abouts is the usb port in your car and where do i get the lead you got? So unfortunately gave in and bought the infamous Y cable.

60 quid lighter to get my phone work with the USB port in the car.

The car came with the USB audio interface option in the car. However it also won’t work with any cable and has to use a genuine BMW cable.

There is a chip inside the cable that responds to the iDrive. If the iDrive doesn’t get a response it won’t activate the option on the screen.

Was using an AUX cable before but lack of steering wheel options and the AUX volume is quite low compared to the CD player so unfortuantely this was the cheapest way round the issue.

Very impressed wi

 

[AlpineF30]

On my 1st estate and I honestly think the exact same, why have I not had one of these before!

I just need the matching M3 for the weekends

Cant love that interior, my dog would have it ruined also lol.

Haha aye my dog has already got the boot in need of a desperate hoovering.

I hated it when I got the car, really hated it just bought the car on how clean it was. Plans were a full interior swap from a car with a black interior.

Now its grown on me and I love the wood getting old me thinks

Where abouts is the usb port in your car and where do i get the lead you got? So unfortunately gave in and bought the infamous Y cable.

Port is in the centre glovebox.

Lift the armrest then the phone holder thing and it’s under there.

Got it off BMW’s Amazon store.

 

[AlpineF30]

Another small job done today but it was annoying me everytime I drove the car at night.

The E60 has a starter button but overtime it begins to wear.

This then causes light to shine through on the portions of the button that has worn.

In this case it was around the ‘A’ of the word start.

Hard to capture on camera but in the picture below can see orange light around the words rather then just the words being lit.

I had a spare starter button from an E90 which was in good condition in the house so thought i’d try and swap them over.


Unfortunately the E60 starter button is built into the light control switch rather than a standalone button like the E90 so won’t be a straig

E90 button underneath the E60

Then with the E60 button removed from the light housing

I thought was better to swap the caps over rather than to make the E90 button fit the E60.

I proceeded to strip both buttons down and remove the caps.

Thankfully the caps are the same fitment so was just a case of rebuilding the E60 button with the cap from the E90.

And rebuilt. I need to tackle the chipped rubber paint that BMW were obsessed with in the mid 2000’s however if you follow my
M3 thread I have basically repainted every portion of the interior that was covered in that rubber ***** and I don’t fancy doing it just yet with the amount of time it takes to remove all the rubberised paint.

Also won a set of chrome grills that the 6 cylinder E60’s were fitted with for 99p. Seller had them up for auction or a best offer I punted them a tenner and they declined it and came back with a counter offer of 18. I declined and moved on but seen this evening that nobody had bid on them with 10 minutes to go so I am not too confident they will show up and will get the old ah they must have got lost in the post excuse.

I prefer the look of the chrome grill so will fit them when they arrive and it also takes it further away from the felt speccers with their blacked out grills.

 

[AlpineF30]

Knew it was too good to be true *******

 

[G N K]

Knew it was too good to be true *******
View attachment 301198

Pretty sure I have a spare set in the shed, sent you a message on Instagram there. Will check tomorrow.

 

[AlpineF30]

Pretty sure I have a spare set in the shed, sent you a message on Instagram there. Will check tomorrow.

Cheers

 

[AlpineF30]

Usual E60 story mirror glass begins to de-laminate.

Leaves brown spots on the glass and was driving me mad.

Only the passenger side has suffered so will keep an eye on the drivers.

Quite bad once it was removed from the car.

The replacement which cost the hefty amount of £11.95

Old vs New

And fitted into the car

I know they are trivial jobs but using this as a log of work carried out and especially with E60’s in this country to prove this one has been looked after