BarryM

Hi Derek, just wondered if the bi-xenons have worked fine all this time?

I'd never heard of the E39 OEM oil cooler until Sayanthan advertised his gulf oil filter housing for sale and then I just had to do it, so I blame him for the following install Plenty of E39 M5 owners have fitted an oil cooler but they haven't used the OEM cooler and whilst I appreciate an aftermarket one might be a tad more efficient I prefer to install OEM stuff if possible. There's very little about this on any forums so thought I'd document what's involved although I appreciate no-one else is likely to do this, but as the M62 runs pretty hot I decided it couldn’t do any harm, and I am not interested in fitting the lower temp thermostat as that would be too easy! It turns out that whilst the OEM oil cooler is still available (managed to order a Behr instead of genuine BMW but it's the identical product), the BMW hoses are NLA. I ordered the E39 brackets and fittings from Cotswold so then just needed to think about how to get hoses made up! To start with the oil cooler fits where the horns are mounted behind the n/s fog light and there is really no spare room to just move them slightly so I ended up re-locating them to the o/s behind the fog light and making up a bracket. One of my horns was making a farting noise so I also replaced the standard horns with dual PIAA horns (500hz/600hz). I installed the oil cooler next, just to the right of the n/s fog light, there's a cut out in the plastic tray behind the headlight so the rad ends pop up below the oil filter housing but they are pretty close! As the OEM oil cooler has push fit hose ends I started to look at options and bought some used pipes from an E39 525TDS (which seems to have an oil cooler...), the plan was I would cut off the BMW fittings and get them welded to AN-10 oil hose fittings. I offered up the gulf housing a number of times to try and gauge what length hoses and fittings would be needed and they would be very short if I could go direct but clearance looked to be an issue. After searching for Goodridge suppliers locally I came across a small specialist called South Coast Workshop in Emsworth so pretty local to me, the boss specialises in Japanese performance cars but was game to make-up some oil lines for me. So I popped along and we talked about moving the oil filter housing to make space and he mentioned a company on eBay who sell top quality oil fittings at a fraction of the cost of Goodridge or Earls: torques_uk so I took a look at their ebay shop and that was a real bonus. Barry @ SCW says the torques fittings are on a par with the well known brands and he's used them plenty so that's what I did. One of torques products is an oil cooler adaptor kit to AN-10 designed for the E36/E46 but as luck would have it fitted onto my cooler so that meant I didn't have to weld any push fittings on and could try to use the high flow fittings instead. I needed to remove the standard oil filter housing and install the gulf version to fine tune the new hose sizes and fittings, once the n/s headlight is out of the way there's plenty of space and after spilling a surprisingly small amount of oil I had everything out of the way to test fit the new housing. With it being so tight I removed the housing bracket and bent the 3 tabs slightly to angle it up a tad and give a bit more room where the 4 hoses cross. Sayanthan provided some SUSA fittings and adaptors with the housing which I used and after some trial and error I came up with a short hose using 180 degree & straight fittings and a longer one to loop over the top using 180 & 30 degree fittings, popped them along to Barry @ SCW to make up and found one was too short! I hadn't realised just how much the compression fittings shorten the hose length and as my short hose has very little scope for flexing I'd been too cautious with the length. Luckily the fittings can be re-used so second time round it was about right! I pre-filled the oil cooler with 450ml of oil and still wasn't quite full to the top of the tubes so realistically the capacity is 0.5l, getting the AN-10 threads to catch was a bit challenging due to the hoses being very tight on length/angle but eventually I got all the hoses on and tightened up. Filled up the engine with oil as I'd done a full oil change and started the engine, within 30secs oil was weeping past the aluminium washers between the filter housing and adaptors so I stopped the engine! This is when I found out what dowty seals are for! Pretty hacked off as it was obviously gonna be messy removing everything to fit the seals I managed to siphon oil out of the housing etc and not make too much mess taking it all apart again but very frustrating! Once everything was removed I cleaned and refitted starting with the dowty seals between housing and adaptor, the AN-10 fittings take a bit of fiddling because they are being fitted under a little pressure due to their shape but once everything was re-fitted and oil topped up the engine ran with no apparent leaks. After a quick spin around the block and re-check for leaks I took it for a 30 mile run and it looks like it's oil tight now. I'd also read all the threads about only being able to display the oil temp in an E39 M5 but as the M5 uses the same oil level sensor as the M62 which also includes the thermal oil level sensor to provide temp as well I did some more searching and this company in Germany offers a little adaptor to allow you to display on the OBC: https://www.car-solution.de/produkt/ekombi-fuer-bmw-5er-e39-7er-e38-x5-e53/ Pretty pleased with the final install and will fit one of the gadgets to display the oil temp too in the near future.

Sounds like a challenging drive, are the roads back to normal now and was it nice driving on deserted roads over the last few months?

Wired>bluetooth phone BM24>BM54 CD>DVD nav Electric lumbar support E38 illuminated door handles LCM III>LCM IV Auto lights E39 homelink E38 front arrest (sliding & hinged) E38 rear armrest Double glazing (rear quarterlights still to fit) Rear parking camera (not OEM as NLA but fits in the handle just like OEM) M5 boot spoiler F86 LED number plate lights E53/E65 stainless pedal set Leather steering column E53 viscous fan E39 OEM oil cooler And my favourite....golf bag label in the boot

Plenty of posts but GER did both best: I copied him for both and they work perfectly

Finished installing the gulf oil filter housing & oil cooler, rather annoyingly oil is leaking past 2 aluminium washers. Quite a frustrating way to find out dowty seals are a better solution for oil cooler fittings so will have to take it apart again to fit them. Think it’s gonna be a messy job!

What's with the new wheel arch liners, surely not a part that needs to be replaced?

OEM oil cooler nearly fitted.....

Hi, Can I have individual costs for the following parts please: Description Qty Part Number Bracket drying container 1 64538367956 Hex head screw 4 7119904288 Expanding nut 4 63121374075 C-clip nut 4 51127070202 Hex bolt with washer 4 7119904524 Vibration damper 3 64118391398 Hex bolt with washer 3 7119904524 Upper protection grid f additional fan 1 64548361937 Lower protection grid f additional fan 1 64548371347 Torx bolt 9 51168108077 Clip 3 64509071431 Hex nut with plate 9 51117070183 Rubber Mounting 3 11727559515 Hex head screw 4 7119916822 Body nut 4 7129904231 Hex nut 4 7119905544 Holder 1 11721742479 Hex head screw 5 7119905807 Body nut 5 7129904232 Body nut 5 7129904221 Hex head screw 5 7119900753 O-ring 2 11421702916 Gasket ring 2 7119963201 Rubber Mounting 2 11421436982 Rubber grommet 1 11421742593 Self-locking collar nut 2 31316769731 Holder 1 11421745152 Connector 1 13321287132 These are for a BMW E39 GF13151 and I've got them from Realoem so happy I have the correct PNs, many thanks Barry

Don’t forget genuine M5 mirrors can have problems folding as well, one of mine clicks occasionally but still works. Plenty of posts about what mirror parts can be swapped but a bit of a minefield.

Hi mate, hopefully you do break the car as I’m looking for the oil filter housing bracket, cheers Barry

Cable received, cheers Chris

Car has been sitting in the garage for the last week while our path was re-laid, didn't realise all the dust from cutting the paving slabs was finding it's way inside.....car was covered in a blanket of white dust Carefully washed

Went out for a walk around the harbour this morning and had to drive there

Hi Chris, the forum won’t let me send you an IM?