[jimspeed]

Hi I had an e39 tds and took it to 300 thousand miles. It only needed the water pump changing at 250 thou and I put two clutches in it. It was still on the original flywheel. They develop a hot starting issue which I cured with a cheap timed relay off eBay. It was smooth but not overly fast by modern standards. It averaged about 35 mpg on normal running about. They are prone to knocking front suspension joints but they are cheap an easy to sort. Rust may be an issue but no where as bad as the three series. It's was a cracking car and caused me less issues than my current E60. 525 D. I put a tuning box on it which livened it up a fair bit. They are very well built and good value. On some the injector with the trace wire can leak so worth checking you can not smell diesel when it's ticking over.
Cheers
Jim

 

[jimspeed]

Sounds like you did ok matey. The injerctor that leaks is number four I think but its not a common fault. The pump that fails is the pre delivery pump in the diesel tank and is an easy fix through a hole in the floor under the rear seat. The hot start issue isan odd one as the engine does not switch on the glow plugs or pre delivery pump when the engine is warm and this meant on mine I had to turn it over for a while before it would start. The relay just tricks the engine for 30 seconds into thinking its cold so the pump and glow plugs switch on and then the relay switched off and the engine runs as normal, dead easy fix and again not a common issue but one that affected mine. No idea about the SLS but you sound handy with a spanner and reckon you will soon have it sorted. Should be easy to get a nice leather interior. Enjoy your new motor.
Cheers
jim