Dead space ignition vacillating3/19/2024 ![]() ![]() The biggest incident occurred about a month ago, when it cyclically lost power on me in hot weather when the fuel tank was low. However, the car had zero maintenance records when I bought it it is about to roll over to 200,000 miles, and several deferred-maintenance issues are rearing their heads. And while it’s not a wagon, the split fold-down rear seat offers a lot of versatility in terms of stuff-hauling. It’s got the best-sounding stereo of any car that I’ve owned. Its sport seats are so supportive and comfortable that I can drive it without the Tempur-Pedic back pillow that I use for most other non-Recaro-equipped cars. I tend to like smaller, lighter BMWs, but this E39 wormed its way into my heart like no other daily in decades: It’s got exactly the right amount of power. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of why the car had been parked, but it never did. ![]() Other than a smoke test to find the tiny deteriorated hose on the back of the head that was triggering the evap-system code that lit the check-engine light, and replacement of a final-stage unit (FSU) that was draining the battery, the car needed almost nothing for me to begin daily-driving it. And when I drove it, after the shortest negotiation on record, it was mine for $1,500. When I saw the ad for a dead-in-a-snowbank E39 stick sport, I thought maybe I’d get an article out of it when I tossed a battery in it and it started right up, I was certain. It fell into my lap during a brutally cold Presidents Day weekend when I had little to do but pound on Craigslist and play the “What manual-transmission BMW would I buy for short money?” game. ![]() I bought the car 5-1/2 years ago, so it’s been around longer than most of my daily drivers. In several of my past columns, I’ve been whining about my 2003 E39 530i stick sport. ![]()
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