First BMW, 87' 535i . 2021 Update

[euronewbie]

Quick Question...
What are these things and were can i get new ones?

Those are the speed and reference sensors for the Motronic. In BMW speak they're called Pulse Generators, Item #1 in the diagram below. Part Number 12141708619, you need two of them. You should probably add these to your next order from Pelican Parts. Per Tischer BMW's website the MSRP is $87.86 each, their Online Price is $70.29, Pelican might not be able to match that pricing, but you can try.

Ahhh ok cool, thanks for the info- such a big change coming from a simple carby car to all these senders/sensors.
Going to chase up some local prices today but had a quick look on pelican.

they have and FAE branded one for ~$40 each, which looks pretty good.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/sma ... scription=

Great job!

Thanks mate. Good to be doing most of the work myself.

[euronewbie]

Had a couple spare hours today. Popped out of work early and put most of the new parts i had at home on the car.

-New Radiator, to replace old one with hole. For the price of the new one, i wasnt feasible to get old one fixed.
-New Thermostat
-New Water pump
-New Fan Clutch
-New Water temp senders

Was a fairly straight forward job. Bought myself a 32mm hub spanner($15AUD total)-for a land rover. Apparently landrovers and BMW have the same size fan clutch nut, and when your not buying things branded 'for BMW' then its like a million dollars cheaper. Made things allot eaiser.

Also car is booked in for paint (re spray of Alpinewhite) next week.. Cant wait. Then comes the put together....

Goodies


Old and New


Old radiator had a heap of 'dings' and knock marks. Turns out it is a BEHR too..




Kinda Hard to see, but A/C condensor has a big knock/hole in it too... ... Maybe that was the reason there was no belt on the compressor... Will chase some prices to fix it, but most likely will just take it all out...


Water Pump and thermostat manifold off


All back together


Cheers

[skip535i]

Nice work! Gotta love straightforward mechanical repairs!

[C.R. Krieger]

Bought myself a 32mm hub spanner($15AUD total)-for a land rover. Apparently landrovers and BMW have the same size fan clutch nut, and when your not buying things branded 'for BMW' then its like a million dollars cheaper.

Apparently, you've never been into an American Rover dealership ...

[euronewbie]

Apparently, you've never been into an American Rover dealership ...

Hahah no there are the same stupidly expensive parts here too. That spanner was off ebay-just cheaper cause it was for a landrover defender.

Nice work! Gotta love straightforward mechanical repairs!

Yep for sure. It actually allot easier to work on this car than i was expecting. Everyone seems to have a 'to hard to work on' stigma with BMW's for some reason.

Got the Crank angle sensors changed today, the old ones were falling apart brittle. Easy job only took 10mins or so.


looking up toward the engine bay. There is a little guard type thing that bolts onto the bolts that hold the sensors down.


Also was a little curious on finding out what brand the shocks and springs that were in the car were. It just seemed weird that they were a non standard colour.

This was the best pic (of 10 or so) that shows the info on the bottom of the shock. Its a BMW brand but it also says on the left Bilstein... Did they come out standard with them? or were they an option?


One last question guys. Any ideas on what these wheels are? They are 16inch and are BBS. But ive never seen any others like it around. Hopefully id like to find some more as im chasing a spare and one of the rear rims has taken a decent hit and has a big dint in the inside bead.


Cheers

[C.R. Krieger]

Always put those heat shields back. One keeps your suspension from being prematurely baked to death.

Yellow Bilsteins are either HD or Sport replacements.

The wheel looks like a stock M5 wheel. The size is right.

[Karl Grau]

Yellow Bilsteins are either HD or Sport replacements.

They have he Roundel on them. I think they're original Sports.

[wkohler]

BMW Bilstens are neither sports nor HDs. They're valved specifically for BMW to be used with stock springs and M-tech springs (same part number shock).

The wheels are BBS RAs. Most likely, you have a staggered 16x7et11 front and 16x8et24 rear. If its your rear wheel that's damaged, good luck finding one. I would look at having it fixed since its on the inside.

[Karl Grau]

BMW Bilstens are neither sports nor HDs. They're valved specifically for BMW to be used with stock springs and M-tech springs (same part number shock).

Welcome back Knowy McKnowitall

What I should have said was that I think they're the shocks that came with option code 226. Sports Suspension Settings.

[euronewbie]

Always put those heat shields back. One keeps your suspension from being prematurely baked to death.

Yeah it was all put back together right. That was a pic from the pull apart stage.

BMW Bilstens are neither sports nor HDs. They're valved specifically for BMW to be used with stock springs and M-tech springs (same part number shock).
The wheels are BBS RAs. Most likely, you have a staggered 16x7et11 front and 16x8et24 rear. If its your rear wheel that's damaged, good luck finding one. I would look at having it fixed since its on the inside.

What I should have said was that I think they're the shocks that came with option code 226. Sports Suspension Settings.

Thanks for the infomation guys, much appreciated.

One last question if you wouldnt mind. Does that mean with the option that the sports supension is lower than standard? Are the shocks shorter than standard as well? Just curious as i would like to possibly go an inch or so lower all around.

-I had no idea that you could repair alloy wheels, for some reason i thought once they were dinged they were done. great to hear though. Will chase up getting them fixed cause i really like they way they look on the car. Thinking maybe a polished lip would look great on them (maybe)

Heres probably the best pic i have at the moment of the dint


And she's going for paint next week too! cant wait!

Cheers

[euronewbie]

Yeww. Super stoked at the moment.

Picked the car up early this morning from the paint shop. Looks absolutely awesome. Full respray in alpine white after a couple more of the little rust spots got fixed.

Cant wait to start putting her back together this weekend.

(lots of pics! Was a bit camera happy)

Doors, Bonnet and boot are also done but still at the paint shop. Will get them before the weekend.

Cheers









That little bit of rust in the boot lip was cut out and a new piece welded in. You wont be able to see it with the rubber on but thats not the point

[Five two eight eye]

NICE! Looking great my friend Gonna black the intake manifold?

[Cooperman]

Great job. Can't wait to see it all back together.

[fastcrs]

Paint looks great...you have done one hell of a job, keep it up...

[skip535i]

Great progress! Nice to see someone doing it right!

[euronewbie]

NICE! Looking great my friend smile Gonna black the intake manifold?

Thanks mate. Yeah i want to do the intake-loved how the rocker cover turned out, ive allready got all the gaskets and bits to put it back together. Just getting the car put back together first.

Great job. Can't wait to see it all back together.

Paint looks great...you have done one hell of a job, keep it up...

Great progress! Nice to see someone doing it right!

Cheers guys. Its getting close now.


Started putting it all back together. So many little bits!
I have to chase down some assorted plastic clips- for the rubber bumper/moldings on the door and a couple for all the little plastic adjusters on the headlight assembly, but other than that its starting to look like a car again.

Spent a couple of hours chasing down and fixing some electrical problems with the fog lights, turned out to just be a dodgy old connector.

Still a couple days work left to get it all good. We stuffed the front glass getting it out so ive got a guy coming in some time this week to put a new one in for $220 which is an awesome price.. I had quotes all the way up too $500 .

Cheers

Still have to set that door and put the locks in etc (had to take it out to cut and weld in the new parts), loving that paint








Re-glueing the hood liner.


Yep even the chrome rings for the headlights got a polish while waiting.


Rear Glass back in. Using a string in the rubber channel made the glass go in no dramas. Those stupid locking channels took ages to get in.


Pretty much where we ended up after a day.
Boot, Bonnet, Rear glass, One side of headlights, bumpers and some more trim bits inside(Apoligies on bad phone pic)

[Mab1957]

Great work euronewbie. You may have to change your board name after this.

I love the Alpin/Pazifik combination. Good save.

[euronewbie]

Great work euronewbie. You may have to change your board name after this.

I love the Alpin/Pazifik combination. Good save.

Thanks mate. Yep i really like the colour combo too, id really like to get the front seats recovered, but id have to win the lotto though if any of the quotes ive got so far are anything to go by.


Little update.

Been keeping at a heap of little tasks over the weekend. Slowly getting there.

Putting the door trim back together. Just using some thickish builders plastic and some double sided tape.


All back together. Its just all the little bits that took some time getting (trim plugs, door handle surround plastics etc)



More speaker time!

I didnt want to cut holes for these in the parcel shelf as i like the original look of the round speakers in there, but i had a spare pair of 6x9's and wanted to jam them in somewhere else.
They just fit too! Got some 1inch (~25mm) MDF spacers on the back side of them so the pull up nice and to give it a bit more strength. We notched the MDF spacers so they would fit flush against the steel which works well.

Ill grab some dynamatt over the weekend and cover around the speaker, Ive got split opinions from friends reguarding dynamtt though- is it worth it?.


Also had an AFM cover turn up from the states thanks to 'fido'.
Should help things look a bit better in the engine bay.



Finally thanks to Das_Prachtstraße for his help/contacts organising parts for the car. Much appreciated

Cheers

[euronewbie]

Well some more progress on the old girl.

Got a great price on a new windscreen. It was organised through a mate through another mate.. Long story short i ended up having to put in the metal locking strip at the bottom of the windscreen and becasue all the old mylar locking strip was busted and the windscreen mob couldnt find any to fit they just left it... A bit peeved on that one, but at the price i got it im not that worried. Got some new genuine chrome strip coming anyway.

Hopefully getting a roadworthy certificate and have it registered next week.

Also put in new sunroof gaskets and made sure the drain holes were clear with some whippa snippa (weed wacka) line.

Moldings going back on




Under seat speakers installed



Also started sanding back and polishing the lips of the rims- loving the look so far.

Cheers

[euronewbie]

Well its been a while since the last update..

Its sooo close to being done. Like so damm close. Ive booked in the roadworthy guy for tomorrow after having to re-book after some setbacks in getting parts done.


Anyway here the most recent jobs done

Had trouble finding a 'proper' chrome locking strip for the front window. So bought a genuine one- the price was actually pretty good. Only took 20mins to put in, just with the right tools and a bottle with a 50/50 mix of water and dishwashing liquid helped it slide in nice. I also had the locking strip in a bucket of warm to hot water for 15min to soften it up a bit so the top curved sections were alot easier.



Saw the condition of the rear pitman arms and decided id replace them. Really easy job, only took 10min- did it with the car on a hoist but still on its own weight (if that makes sense). Just be careful as the pitman arms have to go in a certain way- one side(top/bottom) of the arm is different to the other, just take notice how the original ones came out.

Old ones coming out





Also serviced the auto (will most likely go a manual conversion in the future but need it running nice till i get all the bits). Was a fairly straight forward job. Was a little concerned about there being a little more than the 'normal' amount of metal paste on the magnets in the sump. We will have to see how it turns out.





In a great stroke of luck I found a guy advertising on the Bimmer forum that he was parting out a 528, He was local (first time in forever theres another bloke from Aus doing that). So i went over and got some bits off him. My wallet feels like we could be going back over again, as the 528 is a little rough but all the bumpers and trim is still mint-(and its manual). So with the new bits i finally have the interior 100% and the little bits like broken door latches etc are all fixed. Yeww



New sheepskin seatcovers to cover the seats




Originally I was going to leave the badges off the rear and keep it 'clean' but for some reason the idea of keeping it standard looking has grown more and more on me. So i found the BMW template for distances and put the badges back on. Love it



Hopefully the next update will be me driving it around.
Cheers

[euronewbie]

Road worthy- Done
Registered- Done
Insurance-Done



Spent today driving the old girl around for the first time!

Such as buzz after all this time to see a project finish (although with old cars they never never fully finish do they )

Pleasently suprised how nice it rides for a car of its age. Also with the power its got (although coming from my last car it's not that hard to beat)


There is a couple of like shakes and shimmy happening underneath, nothing major though, faint at best- i was just in hyperaware mode for the first drive.

I'll be getting the wheels balanced and aligned next week then slowly start going through and replacing some of the suspension stuff. But all in all im over the moon with the way it turned out...



Some pics of the end product.

[Drew in NYC]

Fan-flippin'-tastic!

[fastcrs]

Now go out and drive it!

[iamcreepingdeath]

That, my friend, is a beautiful machine.

I am insanely jealous that you came across a find like that.

I would



if i came across something like that here in the States.

[euronewbie]

That, my friend, is a beautiful machine.
I am insanely jealous that you came across a find like that.
I would
if i came across something like that here in the States.

Fan-flippin'-tastic!

Thanks, Well its taken ages but so so worth it.

Now go out and drive it! Thumbs Up

Thats excatly what i did. First was a quick 10min run then back on the hoist for a check that nothing major was leaking or had been forgotten. That was all good

Since then i would have put roughly another ~300km (200miles) on it in a couple of days.
It loves the highway- just effortlessly cruising on 110-120kmph (~75mph) and for the size of engine the fuel consumption isnt that bad either. No different to the 04 mitsubishi verada 3.5 that i was driving before. it sits on ~8 to 10L/100km on the highway.


Put a quick little list together of jobs i want to do/figure out whats wrong on the car to finish it off a bit better:

-Doors take a bit of a 'slam' to close properly. (Bought new door buffers- should fix that)
-Reset that stupid 'check' light
-Figure out the switch for the side electric windows
-Get new brake pad sensor wires so that light on the dash goes out. (Bought new ones)
-Fix the parcel shelf brake light
-Wheel balance/wheel alignment
-Oedometer not working. Are they cable driven?(Bought new odometer gears- should fix that)
-Some vage shimmys at low speeds (bought rear sway bar links and bushes, old ones were perished/split. Also getting wheels balanced and tape weights inside the rim insted of on the lip and a wheel alignment)
-Buy new exterior window rubbers that sit under the aluminium strip.
-Find my missing window washer jet
-Get new door locks
Cheers