ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Oct 26, 2016 11:09:25 GMT
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Excellent stuff!
I am sure that I asked but where did you get your wheels refurbished from? I ask as most of my M3 ones are kerbed, but until I ditch the Falkens I plan to leave them as they are; 19" wheels with laughable sidewall protection in addition to a car that is hard to see out of doesn't make for a great car to park in town without parking a mile away from the kerbs LOL!
I hate to think about how much the refurbing of all of the sets of wheels has cost you, and all of the extras you've thrown onto the car but it looks good! I'm dreading taking my car in for the front end respray in terms of cost!
Did you ever cure your idling problem? If you can source an OBD-II to BMW connector I may be able to help in diagnosing it or whatever other issue the car has. I now have INPA (and DIS which I use more sparingly) which has come in handy on my car on a few occasions in addition to giving live data.
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Last Edit: Oct 26, 2016 11:11:45 GMT by ChasR
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 26, 2016 11:56:18 GMT
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Excellent stuff! I am sure that I asked but where did you get your wheels refurbished from? I ask as most of my M3 ones are kerbed, but until I ditch the Falkens I plan to leave them as they are; 19" wheels with laughable sidewall protection in addition to a car that is hard to see out of doesn't make for a great car to park in town without parking a mile away from the kerbs LOL! I hate to think about how much the refurbing of all of the sets of wheels has cost you, and all of the extras you've thrown onto the car but it looks good! I'm dreading taking my car in for the front end respray in terms of cost! Did you ever cure your idling problem? If you can source an OBD-II to BMW connector I may be able to help in diagnosing it or whatever other issue the car has. I now have INPA (and DIS which I use more sparingly) which has come in handy on my car on a few occasions in addition to giving live data. Cheers mate I used www.alloywheelrefurbishmentuk.co.uk in Cov again, they do a pretty decent job but yeah its certainly not overly cost effective to be getting two near identical sets of wheels refurbished! I am hoping I'll be able to sell off the set of 8's, grey leather and original bumpers to recoup some of the money I'm putting into it.. Erm the idling issue was a weird one, I changed the cam position sensor and the cam cover gaskets a while back and it seemed to sort it. But just this weekend when I was in Newcastle, coming back to the car after it was parked for a weekend it did idle a bit lumpy at first from a cold start Maybe a coil pack or an injector is failing? It certainly cleared up after a couple of moments anyway, I'll continue to monitor it but I'm a bit loathe to spend much on the engine at the moment although I may treat it to an oil service as its coming up to 130k miles I'm still due to collect a 525i rear end from the chap I bought the AC gubbins off, so that will get tucked away in the garage for if/when I get myself a bigger M50/M52 to go under the bonnet
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Oct 26, 2016 12:35:33 GMT
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Is fitting an M54 3.0 out of the question or are the M52s far simpler to fit? Hmmmm, a 528i E34. I would suggest fitting an S series engine but that would be silly . TBH the finish you get with powdercoating is pretty good and it is durable. As I said before I know of a couple of tyre shops that won't cover painted wheels.
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Last Edit: Oct 26, 2016 12:37:30 GMT by ChasR
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 26, 2016 12:40:17 GMT
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Is fitting an M54 3.0 out of the question or are the M52s far simpler to fit? Hmmmm, a 528i E34. I would suggest fitting an S series engine but that would be silly . S engines would be lovely but muchos dollars that I don't have Well, the M52 2.8 does fit, with some use of M50 ancilliaries, But its a bit unloved due to the ally block. (whether this would matter for a non boost application..) The M50 2.5 obviously can be bolted in from a 525i but would give me that nagging feeling that I should have just bought a 525i to start with Now the interesting thing about the M54 is that the crank, rods and pistons from a 3.0 can be fitted to an M50 (2.5) to make an M50b30 which gives the capacity benefits without having to faff with double VANOS, fly by wire throttles and all that stuff. The M50b30 does interest me a lot, but I'll do a fair bit of reading up before I take the plunge
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Oct 26, 2016 13:25:04 GMT
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Are lesser E34's cable throttle then? I thought they were mostly FBW as my TDS is.
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 26, 2016 13:50:23 GMT
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Are lesser E34's cable throttle then? I thought they were mostly FBW as my TDS is. I believe most/all of the petrol engined ones were cable, I have heard of the Diesels being FBW as its easier to retrofit Cruise Control to them compared to the Petrol cars (yes its another one of the retrofit jobs I've considered by currently put off for being too much of a faff )
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
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1995 BMW E34 520i- End.. 05/03ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Oct 26, 2016 19:54:54 GMT
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I was unlucky but given the reliability issues I had with the RST as well as other headaches (bigger capacity brings about breathing problems which on an OE car tend to be ironed out) I'd be tempted to do a 2.8 on an M50 manifold .
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Oct 26, 2016 21:26:53 GMT
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Twin turbo the M50!
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Click picture for more
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Oct 30, 2016 23:19:36 GMT
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Ooh cheers for the link, I hadn't seen someone go through the M50b30 process in detail before. I also note on one of his videos that he was making around 250bhp... Interesting Micro update while I'm here, I've nearly finished my very protracted house move The BMW has taken everything I've thrown at it so far including a sofa And more excitingly, the front bumper has returned after what feels like years It's not perfect, but it was in bad shape to start with so was going to be tricky to get perfect. But it looks great and will go well on the front of the car I hope to get it fitted soon!
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 19, 2016 10:03:28 GMT
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Been away a little bit due to moving house and not having any internet but I can now update on the 5 So after all the faff of moving house, I took a short break in Edinburgh with the girlfriend. The 5 didn't miss a beat on the way there or back Heres a pic parked up in the car park there (I got sprayed by a gritter as I got into Scotland ) After getting back, I had a couple of days off so alongside buying bits for the house, I took the opportunity to put the staggered Style 16s on. I also put 5mm spacers on all round as I had them kicking about and every little helps to fill the arches Before and after on the rear 8's to 9's I had a slight issue on the passenger side rear wheel as it was just touching on the exhaust The exhaust must be out of alignment or the 520i models were never designed to have the staggered wheel setup? Either way, some 'persuasion' using the handle from my trolley jack got me some clearance The finished article. It's a subtle change but it looks so much better with the staggered setup. As soon as they were on, I had to rush off to see the chap I'd bought the AC stuff off. He'd finished breaking the 525i touring and had earmarked the rear subframe/diff/axle assembly for me at a price that I couldn't refuse. It's in 'storage' at the moment but will be useful for if/when I get truly tired of the underpowered 2.0 engine. While I was getting the AC stuff, he also told me about some wheels he wanted rid of. They sounded good and again, the price was one I couldn't refuse so... BBS RT's (BMW style 19) in staggered BMW fitment. They're straight and not cracked but need a refurb typically. I'm in no rush to do these up but after refurbing a few sets of wheels by hand, I would like to try out doing a set using power tools Also the first set of proper split wheels I've owned Anyway, enough buying stuff, I had mods already at the house ready to fit Both the Sport bumpers were back in my possession so I didn't want to waste any time in fitting them. Front bumper was up first They come off fairly easily, but thats where the head scratching started! I knew that the Sport front bumper I had was pretty much just a shell and needed a fair bit transferring over from my old bumper. The foglights were an easy swap but there were plastic mounting bracket/frames that had to be removed These were plastic welded into place on the SE bumper, but looking at the two bumpers side by side showed that there were some unused slots on the brackets which corresponded with tabs on the Sport bumper. So with Curtis holding the bumper steady, I cracked out the Dremel Some noisy grinding later and we were left with two of these These pushed onto the Sport bumper tabs which had holes in them, through which we threaded some cable ties to hold the brackets firmly in place We then carefully offered it up to the car and bolted it on I love the look of it, was well worth the wait and effort in my opinion There are a couple of teething issues; theres a foglight which I need to change the bulb on, and the outside temp sensor loom doesn't reach as the sensor seems to be in a different place on the Sport bumper. So I'll probably extend the loom a little bit when I get a chance We then turned our attentions to the rear bumper This was going to be an easier swap in some respects as the Sport rear bumper had all the mountings and stuff already fitted. The slight complication came with the parking sensors, but I'll come back to that in a moment In the meantime, Rafftank arrived to do some service bits on his 328i As we were helping with that, we lost the daylight so the E34 rear bumper got chucked on. The parking sensors aren't fitted currently as I'm going to take the opportunity to paint them with some Satin Black to match the rubbing strip, the bumper will also need drilling to allow me to fit them Here's a pic of the rear bumper in some daylight Could do with a little altitude correction on the rear there.. and the exhaust is looking a bit weedy So once my wallet has recovered a bit, I'll sort both those things out
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Nov 19, 2016 11:16:57 GMT
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naah, positive rake is ideal, they do squat down under power and when you dump junk in the boot!
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gazjon
Part of things
Posts: 632
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Nov 19, 2016 11:52:50 GMT
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Just read from start to finish, looks awesome! I had an e34 almost identical to your mates. Top work and bookmarked. Edit: just found a pic of mine
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Last Edit: Nov 19, 2016 11:54:11 GMT by gazjon
Mk2 Cavalier saloon Mk4 Astra Van z20let
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 19, 2016 22:24:39 GMT
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welshpug those are good points, though mine hasn't got enough power to noticeably squat under acceleration I'd still like to lose a little bit of the rear arch gap, I think maybe 20mm would do it gazjon thats a beautiful looking example, the E39 M5 alloys look good on it I hope my thread is worth bookmarking, though there is going to be a fair bit of work coming up as I tackle the black interior and AC swaps... Sigh, this was meant to just be a daily
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 26, 2016 18:48:15 GMT
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Well if the last update was big, this one should be bigger Interior. Its grey and I just can't get on with it. The previous owner had retrofitted leather which was a nice improvement over cloth but the colour still just isn't right. Regular readers of this thread (ha! good one) may remember that I'd planned to change the interior to black. So far I'd bought a pair of Front sports leather seats and a black rear seat which had cost me a total of £250. Black interior bits are fairly rare for E34's and even more so for tourings so when this opportunity came up I had to go for it I'd already made a start on removing the interior of mine in preparation, with the small engine, the weight loss has made a noticeable impact on performance Today's story however starts with me catching a 6:50am train about 3.5 hours later I was in Fareham, near Southampton. Some money was exchanged, documents signed and hands shaked and I was left with this A nearly 204,000 mile, 525tds auto. This is the first diesel I've ever bought (I'm not usually a fan of oil burners) but the key thing here was the interior, full black leather, and its a facelift model like mine so straight swap Pointed it towards the motorway and headed home. To be fair, even though its a high mileage, old diesel it was very refined going along the motorway. The long gearing helps, 1750rpm at 70mph compared to around/over 3000rpm in the 520i There is a slight issue with it to do with an O ring in the lift pump however which saw me losing power on the A34 near Oxford. Thankfully it chose to do this as I was coming up to a BP station. A full tank of expensive Diesel later saw me get home without major issue Parking the two together gives a bit of a 'before and after' shot showing where the Green one has changed from the standard SE spec it was when I bought it Since I've been back I've been taking the interior out of the diesel one. Its going to be a full swap, so that means everything from seats to carpet to dashboard to all the little trim differences. Theres quite a bit to take out, but its not been too bad going. For example the rear door cards: 3 phillips screws behind the grab handle, door handle and ashtray, then a load of poppers around the sides and bottom of the card, then pull up and away from the door and it unlatches from the top rail along the bottom of the window. The E34's have a reputation for build quality and I can see why as I take them apart. Each bit is very well fastened down, theres NVH absorbing foam on everything, literally every plastic interior panel has a bit of foam stuck on the back of it So I'll be cracking on with getting the black interior out of the diesel, then I can take the remainder of the grey stuff out of the 520i, then fit the black stuff to the 520i (as I need to keep it usable for getting to work etc. and finally fit the grey interior to the diesel. The diesel will also get a general clean as its a bit nasty, it has other niggles but I'll just be putting it up for sale to get it gone and get the money back in my pocket so watch this space
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,858
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Nov 27, 2016 10:22:16 GMT
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I did the same thing years ago - had a Senator 24V with a grey interior and low miles and I wanted black I started collecting the interior and got a set of front seats but realising how much I needed - I bought a scruffy mega mileage car (190,000 miles) with the right black interior - now the Drivers seat was knackered but the rest of the interior looked like it had never been sat in - good job I had a spare front seat in much better condition
I swapped the lot over in a weekend and in the course of changing it over everything got cleaned - quick wash and wax for the donor plus a minor service and back up for sale it went
The interior looked nothing like a 190,000 mile car and I made 350 more than I bought the car for (after all the expenses)
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 27, 2016 13:51:18 GMT
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I did the same thing years ago - had a Senator 24V with a grey interior and low miles and I wanted black I started collecting the interior and got a set of front seats but realising how much I needed - I bought a scruffy mega mileage car (190,000 miles) with the right black interior - now the Drivers seat was knackered but the rest of the interior looked like it had never been sat in - good job I had a spare front seat in much better condition I swapped the lot over in a weekend and in the course of changing it over everything got cleaned - quick wash and wax for the donor plus a minor service and back up for sale it went The interior looked nothing like a 190,000 mile car and I made 350 more than I bought the car for (after all the expenses) Ha! that does sound exactly the same as what I'm doing The interior on the 200k diesel isn't bad for the miles to be honest, there are a couple of bits missing (like the rear load cover) which I'll have to get separately but it'll be a lot easier to get those odd couple of bits than a whole interior! When I come to sell it I'd like to try and make a little bit, but since its got a couple little issues which I don't want to get bogged down in sorting, I'd settle for breaking even after my train down and the fuel expenses etc. Having a clean interior should make it a much more saleable proposition in any case!
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Nov 27, 2016 14:52:13 GMT
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I'd have just run the diesel tbh
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adam73bgt
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,856
Club RR Member Number: 58
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Nov 27, 2016 17:20:38 GMT
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I'd have just run the diesel tbh Haha to be honest I think its got the basis for a good car for someone but it is a bit rougher than my Green one and I'm a petrophile at heart As I was taking bits of interior out I've actually found an envelope with a new O ring in it which I'll bet is for the lift pump, so I may actually be able to fix that issue at least It would seem the car has had rear light issues in the past as theres been some 'work' done.. Believe it or not, the rear lights all actually function as they're supposed to.. so I've left that lot well alone lol While I'm here I might as well give a quick update on todays progress. Mostly carried on the work of removing and cleaning bits of interior from the Silver car It was a bit grotty in places Amusingly, like my RX7, this BMW has also been the recipient of a dodgy looking cigarette lighter addition (Which got swiftly removed) The carpet itself looked quite nice after a good vacuum The only annoying bit is that tear in the passengers footwell, but I'm not really sure I can do much about that :/ I got the rear half of carpet out so I'll give that a further clean in the warmth of the house Also alongside the O ring I found, also found a spare HID bulb and a retro looking Ford motorcraft bulb hidden under the side panels in the boot along with 2 or 3 spare bulb holders for the rear lights
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Nov 27, 2016 17:41:57 GMT
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boot wiring is for the towbar.
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