Sir Anthony Regents-Park

Make sure you have the right pump as there are three different ones and they don't interchange. 995 on cars up to Feb 94, 993 up to Jan 1995 and the 994 for cars with EWS from Jan 1995 including the E39 525tds. The last one might be coded to the ECU with the chipped key, can't remember now.

Good working order from a 1989 535i Sport manual £80

New from BMW. Expensive but they are quiet, fit perfectly, perform as intended and last 15+ years.

Esso 99 is generally E0. They have to call it E5 by law. E10 is garbage.

Parkside garage in Worksop did mine. ZF Lifeguard Oil, sump and bridge seal. It's quite expensive and if it's working OK and not dripping you may want to just change the oil. Only ever use ZF sumps. I've seen too many 'good name' aftermarket ones leak like a fucked fridge.

The way to do these is to disconnect the steering track rod end, then unbolt the lower track control arm from the subframe. Once the three 13 mm top mount nuts are off and the brake caliper + drop link is unbolted, the strut can be pushed down and pulled out past the wheelarch. I generally put a bit of masking tape around the arch if it's a nice car. You don't touch the hub clamp bolt. Compressing the new spring enough to get the top mount on can be a right bastard though. The shorter M Sport springs aren't quite as grim. Broken springs is an old E38/E39 party trick, they all do it.

I only sell and keep purchases to a minimum.

Riiiiiight........

I'm doing okay and the new payment system is excellent - I get paid pretty much same day, perhaps because I post within 30 mins of selling. I was very dubious about it but it's very good indeed.

A 520i or 530i - both 4 cylinder petrol turbo - is remarkably good. It's like an F10 with knobs on and lovely to drive. The SE rides noticeably better than the Sport.

How did it fail? A complete loss of drive or just not working properly? Yours is a 190 PS 306D1 engine so it'll have the later GM gearbox, but they changed in late 2001 at the time of the E46 facelift. 330d and 530d boxes are the same. You need to put your VIN into RealOem and see which 'box you have. The normal failure is one of the two pressure solenoids in the valve body, one for main pressure and one for the converter lock up. You'll know when the latter fails as the car will feel strange to drive with a weird vibration. This is the torque converter clutch hammering itself to death and bits of friction lining end up going around the whole 'box, buggering it. A rebuild will be a couple of grand. A secondhand unit £250 plus two new solenoids, oil, converter oil seal etc. It depends on the predicted lifespan of the car. If the usual E39 rust dramas are on the horizon I know which route I'd take. BMR are in Sussex, not far from Gatwick. They would be able to read fault codes and give you an idea. http://www.bmrperformance.co.uk/ Automatic Transmissions in Hornchurch are also very good.

You did well. Reassembling CV joints can be a right bastard.

I'm amazed! I would have expected it to be knackered - just shows eh?

Parkside Garage, Worksop 01909 506555.

SOLD