THSCC Forums

Since Chuck asked:



How did I end up with it? Easy! I wrote a check. Now I just need to mortgage my house and sell some kidneys for the inevitable repairs.

Here's what I have to look forward to:

- Rod bearing failures
- Throttle actuators at $900 a piece
- Failing 1,000,000 psi Vanos pumps
- Disintegrating vanos oil lines
- Thousands of electrical gremlins
- Check engine lights every other day

After 9 days of ownership and 1000 miles, I'm disappointed to say that it runs and drives perfectly and nothing has gone wrong with it. I'm starting to get bored, need more to do at night other than listen to the sound of a 500hp F1-designed V10 supercar revving to 8250 RPM. Maybe I'll start watching more TV.

And yes, it's a 6-speed. Love it.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Good choice. 6MT is the only way to go with those. I assume you know of Jim Colley? He's done a lot of work on the S85, actuator redesign, etc. Ended up starting a business related to it, fastattackmotorsports.

The E60 M5 with 6MT is likely to be highly sought after out into the future imo. Only 1296 of them were made for the US market, 65 for Canada, none for ROW.

How many miles? Where did you buy it from?

I think one of the most amazing cars I've ever heard was an E60 M5 with the full meisterschaft exhaust -- simply unreal to hear it coming and then go by with the Doppler effect and all.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

I've read a lot of the posts from Jim Colley. I'll probably be sourcing bearings from him when I'm ready.

It's got 62k miles and is very clean with the exception of some paint work on the left rear quarter. Clean carfax and I can't find any filler work or dents, so I assume it was something like a parking lot scrape. Looks clean underneath, and unmodified or otherwise molested. One interesting thing about this car, it's post-LCI (facelift) built 06/2007 but before the software allowed full DSC-Off in 09/2007. So no one has ever done donuts in this car I'm going to have the DSC off software flashed to the car, can't do that with the handheld scanners.

Owner history isn't "ideal" but for the miles and price I jumped on it, glad I did. It's been a southern car since 4k miles, and spent the vast majority (50k+) with one owner in Florid, who maintained it at BMW dealers. Been looking on and off for a year, and really seriously for the last couple of months. Many 6MT cars are starting to command a premium, but not all, jump on them fast when they come up in the low-to-mid 20k's.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

That's excellent news about the DSC s/w for the LSD and every other part of the drivetrain! The s/w update hit production as of 09/2007 I believe. The 2008 model year ran from 03/2007 through 07/2008, so a good bit of the 2008 production and all 2007s (first year of 6MT) originally came without the ability to disable DSC on the 6MT cars. About that same time (09/2007), dealers were able to update to allow DSC off at customer request -- it was a no-charge update until the car left the warranty period.

I've pondered selling my E39 M5 after all these years, but these are really starting to appreciate (the well-kept, low mileage ones), so I'm not sure what to do with it. It's not nearly as rare as the E28, but given what happened to those during a 4 month span in 2015 has the whole market in a bit of a tizzy (E28 M5s almost tripled in price in those four months, i.e. a condition 1 car went from $35k to $90k, and even the lowest condition cars tripled in price).

It's been 24/7 garaged since new, never daily driven, essentially never in rain, etc, 66k miles now, so it's in extremely good condition, and only gets driven about 400 miles/year the past 5 years. I would need to sell it to open up garage space (only have 3 spots) for an E60. There are a couple of 6MTs on the market (one 2007, one 2008) that I've pondered pursuing further. I'd prefer IB versus black, but that is shopping within a group of about 120 cars.

I did a bit of work to figure out some cheap suspension updates on the E60 sometime back. I posted it on the M5board, but it involved using the front sway bar from the E63 M6 competition package (29mm) and the rear sway bar from the E64 M6 (vert) (20mm) then adding the Dinan roll control unit on the front bar. This was to work around the failing sway bars from the only aftermarket supplier for the E60 (RD Sport) -- steer clear of those.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

That's a pretty M5 Mike. Congrats on the new ride. - AB

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'14 Toyota Sequoia Platinum 4WD
Super Westerfield Bros - '93 Integra - LeChump Du Jour
STX 93 - Scion FR-S

Nice, if I ever win the lottery I'm going to hire you as my personal automotive shopper.

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Cline, I already am your personal automotive shopper. You just need to buy anything I have for sale, which you already have, twice

When do you want to come by for the Mercedes?

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Well, I have looked at the pictures a couple of times! But I am up to my self imposed limits on cars right now. Got to get some things "restored" before I make any other acquisitions.

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

I don't think you would be able to see over the dash in that Mercedes Cline....

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BenchWarmer Motorsports

another one of those damn LeMons heads

just another Chump

we are an Autocross Club Dammit............

Unless you have hit a growth spurt, you and I are the same height so you go check it out.

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2002 MCS, 2003 MCS Track Rat, 2003 Generic White Yukon, 2003 BMWk1200rs, 1973 CB350F, 02 996. 08 Cayenne Turbo
http://www.clinehallagency.com

Hooray!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Now that you can, it looks like it's gonna take 5k rpms to launch that sucker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J49CAIBZbQ0

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Nah, I'm not the type to go around doing smoky burnouts But when I'm having fun tossing the car into a corner under power, I'd like to be able to wag the tail a bit. So I set the "M" button on the steering wheel to DSC off, P500S throttle mode, EDC "middle" and dynamic seats.

The MDM "M Dynamic" mode (all there was before DSC-off) wasn't very "dynamic" at all, just felt like regular traction control. Cuts power for an excrutiatingly long time.

Chuck does the M3 have all the same gadgetry? I know the throttle sensitivity is adjustable but wasn't sure about the other stuff.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Not really, no. My car doesn't have EDC (electronic damper control) as I opted for "regular" struts/shocks. It just has controls for DSC (normal, MDM, off) and throttle (normal, sport, spot+) which you can set to the "M button." On the E9x M3 though you can code MDM to the EuroMDM mode with one setting change. I've not even bothered to do that since I have no need for electronic nannies, even a somewhat neutered one. At some point I'll code that and see what the difference is (been telling myself this for over 4 years now, lol).

You want to see a DSC that cuts power forever, try driving the E39 M5 with DSC enabled. It's an early gen system (almost 20 years old now), so it takes away almost everything at the first hint of wheelspin -- it's actually dangerous for a good driver imo. Of course the opposite is true for someone who doesn't know how to drive -- usually the first time someone like that disables DSC after having always used it, they crash.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2

Mike, updates? Rod bearing time? BE bearings? Factory or ARP bolts? Any interesting stories so far?

Saw this original owner 2007 priced at $24,500: http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=451077391&hideBackLink=true&Log=0. Pretty amazing car/engine with 6MT from original owner for that price it seems.

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Current stable:
2019 BMW M2 Competition slicktop 6MT
2011 BMW M3 sedan slicktop 6MT
2007 BMW 328i wagon (slushbox for now)
1975 CanAm 125MX2