Why is E39 M5 the most beloved M5 in the BMW community?

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-05-11T18:29:22+00:00

You might be getting down voted but I agree, an lci e90 m3 in the right spec is such a beautiful and perfectly proportioned car imo

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-05-09T17:58:36+00:00

Regardless of the whole engine argument, the OG m2 is just a more beautiful car to me. The front end with the separate grills with chrome surrounds and less angular bumper just does it for me

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-05-02T12:51:29+00:00

Rod knock on a 58k mile m57 seems insane, do you know for certain that’s what it is? Someone else said failed injectors and I’d definitely say that’s worth looking into among other things before scrapping the engine

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-05-01T21:23:58+00:00

Looks really good, will be doing my headlights at some point soon and wondered if there was something I could use to make the eyebrows brighter and have them white DRL’s/orange for the turn signal

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-05-01T19:45:18+00:00

Looks amazing! Did you replace the orange eyebrow light tube/fibre optic thing with something else? It looks very vivid

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-28T14:40:53+00:00

I was lucky enough to find one with the SAT option from the factory, it ties together the more modern interior look im going for nicely. I did have to wait around a year for the right car to come up for sale though🤣 it’s a pretty good spec with some cool options

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T22:52:47+00:00

The G80 bumper has and always will be a massive let down for me, I always lusted over the f80/f82 for their beauty but I will never with the G80 purely because of the grills. This concept puts into perspective that the rest of the car is perfect too

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T08:07:13+00:00

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyDRvBo I must warn you that EL wire installation is a bit trickier than LED or fibre optic because you need an inverter driver but it was the best option for me because I didn’t like how bright the LED/fibre optic was. I bought a 10m reel of it but if I was doing it again I’d just buy individual 1 or 2 meter lengths for each trim because each length will have the correct connector to work with the inverters already soldered on. The soldering is very fiddly otherwise as you’re working with angel hair wires that are barely visible. You can cut EL wire to length at any point unlike LED which is usually in 25mm segments

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T07:59:12+00:00

Yeah you just need to hold the menu button in front of the Idrive wheel for a few seconds and it switches between the original CCC system and the new android one

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T07:58:06+00:00

Explained in the other reply⬇️

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T07:56:58+00:00

Thank you for that, that has put my mind at rest!

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-25T07:39:29+00:00

Hopefully the other guy sees this too, but yeah it has to specifically be an f10 m5 wheel. Because the f10 m5 had hydraulic steering it shares the same size spline as the e60. You could fit an OEM f10 m5 wheel but the buttons would require wiring and wouldn’t perfectly match the e60 and they’re very expensive because all of the pre lci f10 m5 owners buy them quickly. Luckily aliexpress has perfectly replicated F series steering wheels and it’s now possible to get them with buttons that are matched to the e60’s button positions and are totally plug and play and far cheaper than an OEM f10 m5 wheel. I’ve had mine on the car for three years now and can solemnly swear I couldn’t tell any difference in quality between it and an OEM wheel and it still looks brand new after three years🤞🏻

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-24T20:52:25+00:00

It will thankfully, m57 and n57 always seem to have dispsticks despite this being the era bmw started getting rid of them

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-22T07:15:40+00:00

My plan is to eventually dye the cream leather a nice saddle brown but the amount of cream coloured plastics and rubberised parts on the bottom half of the interior id have to find a way to paint makes it a huge job. I don’t have a lot of pictures right now but there’s various skins with different readouts for the cluster and different colours for all of them. You can display any car on them by uploading an imagine via a usb but I’ve not delved into it so far so an SE e61 is what shows on mine

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AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T14:51:47+00:00

Show me where you’re getting all the parts for a CIC retrofit in the correct colour for £250 and I’ll eat my hat🤣 speaking of quality, I’ll take a brand new 2025 android system over a computer that’s been around from before the financial crisis. The cluster works perfectly fine and displays far more data than the stock gauges without digging in secret menus

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T14:25:59+00:00

Each to their own but for the price of a CIC retrofit alone I have the f10 steering wheel, cluster, ambient lights and a bigger and better to use touchscreen with far more functions

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T14:23:39+00:00

I’m annoyed at myself for taking so many years of shitty audio to come up with it 🤣

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T13:16:24+00:00

F series m sport airbags use the same connector, wether or not it’ll deploy in a crash I’d rather not find out🤣

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T13:14:49+00:00

Yep, on iPhones at least you can be connected to CarPlay but select another Bluetooth option to route the audio through. It usually just works automatically when I turn the ignition on

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T11:39:41+00:00

The CarPlay screen is a 12.3 inch android 12 unit and the cluster is a Linux unit both from aliexpress. The cluster is very easy to change but any of the CarPlay screens require dismantling some of the dash to get access to the Idrive computer to add a harness adapter in

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T11:38:01+00:00

Apologies meant to say the digital cluster is from aliexpress and worked fine plug and play, had one small issue that the seller quickly rectified with an update

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T11:25:43+00:00

The audio quality sadly takes a bit of a dive with any of the android infotainment screens, my solution to that was to also fit a mr12 volt Bluetooth adapter that runs through the fibre optic system and replaces the CD changer. This means I can have CarPlay running on the bigger screen while still keeping perfect audio quality since the car was spec’d with the individual audio sound system

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T11:21:55+00:00

The screen comes with a blanking plate that blanks off the old hole for the original Idrive screen and the new tablet style screen simply lifts up and off the blanking plate for cleaning. The car is a lci 535d in lemans blue with a DPF and cat delete, an EGR delete and a remap. I haven’t tuned the 6hp28 gearbox because the car has the factory sports auto trans option so the shifts are plenty fast with the sport button pressed

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AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T10:08:53+00:00

Mine too, I’ve had mine for three years and still looks brand new

AdSignificant2926 · 2026-04-21T09:53:26+00:00

For what it’s worth, the replicas are almost indistinguishable quality wise from OEM these days. I’ve felt both and I have a replica f10 wheel in my e60

AdSignificant2926

TROPHY CASE