First BMW, 87' 535i . 2021 Update

[tig]

Really nice work.

[euronewbie]

Ok so after leaving the car parked up for a month. As i was driving home it just died at the lights.

No warning no nothing. It had started a bit rough kinda like it was missing, but only just..... then at the lights i go to take off and the engine cuts. cant get it started and long story short have to stop 2 lanes of traffic to get off the road. After that it would crank but not fire.


So after a short tow truck home it was problem finding time... I had a rough guess it may have been fuel related, ie the main pump dying/struggling after sucking through a dead intank pump? fuel pump relay? or something simple like a split in the intake boots?

I checked the intake boots, they were very hard and had splits in them. only small ones though. maybe that was it? maybe only a contributing factor. either way i taped them up and it made no difference. But they were fairly cheap so i just ordered new ones to start crossing out possible causes.

Next was fuel/fuel pump or relay. i swapped out the fuel pump relay with a new relay. No good.
Next was fuel pressure, so i bought an inline fuel pressure gauge, and this is what i got



So according to Bentley pressure was a fair bit down (43.5 (+ or -) 0.9 psi), this lead me to belive it being a fuel pump problem.... So for piece of mind i decided to swap out both fuel pumps.... then i checked the prices! The inline one, not to bad... .but the intank fuel pump assembly
After a bit of reading decided to go down the 1971 chevy vega route. IE using one of these pumps with a bit of modification to be the intank pump. ~$30AUD off ebay was a alot better than $300....

[John in VA]

I've had similar issues in the past. Clean/wiggle the large electrical connector to the AFM = fixed mine.

[euronewbie]

I've had similar issues in the past. Clean/wiggle the large electrical connector to the AFM = fixed mine.

Yeah i checked all of that on my working down through the intake boots, That may have contributed to the problem but im not sure. I would have thought the metal retaining clip would have kept it in pretty well.



So i decided to try to solve a couple problems at the same time.
1) swap out all the vacuum lines in the engine bay with new silicone stuff, to get rid of any vacuum problems (looks good so that a bonus right?)
2)Swap out some old relays with new Bosch ones
3)Put in a new inline Bosch fuel pump
4)swap the hard cracked intake boots with new OE ones.

These are the old cracked intake boots.


The Chevy Vega Ebay pump turned out to be very very very close in dimensions an mounts to the OE BMW one.
Old intank pump out.... minus the fuel level sender and the 'strainer'


The chevy vega pump in. took a bit stuffing around with some fuel hose to make it line up and some 'dodgyness' to fit the strainer on the new pump. As i had bought the fuel pump without the new strainer, but it works and fit back in fine....




The inline pump also got swapped out with a new pump, and just for kicks i swapped the fuel filter out with it too.


And an after shot with the new boots and Vacuum lines in.... its really not that pretty of an engine bay. But it sure does get the job done and for 30yrs old you cant complain hey.

[euronewbie]

And the Beemer work continues.

Several months of faultless driving after the fuel pump shomozzolle, I started to get some vicious sounding knocking under the car on take off. Didnt really take a genius to narrow it down to a stuffed center bearing.

So after a morning of swearing at my exhaust and having dirt and crud fall in my eyes I had the driveshaft out... and yep. it was fairly stuffed...


It was really not that much of an issue to change. Mark everything before pulling it out, be careful with a cir-clip and keep things clean, then preload the center bearing once it was on....

And in much more mundane jobs i got heaps of new OE door trim clips to replace the old perished/destroyed ones. So my door trims now are firmly held in place.

[euronewbie]

So after almost 4 years of being my daily driver the old girl has finally died.

And by died i mean its becoming not worth chasing down little problems/waiting for parts (while riding my bike to/from work) just to get her running again.

My other half wants me to sell it. But there's no way thats happening. The old BMW's are getting rare-ish in AUS, I really like the shape and when its going it drives fantastically. Also the amount of time and money that has been spent on the car would never be recouped if i sold it. So really there is no point.

So i am going to sit on it for a couple of years then start a ground up resto (keeping in mind that majority of stuff ive done will still be good). Its undercover ATM snug under a waterproof car cover.

In all honesty it will give me the opportunity to source and E34 M30 and manual box, Freshen up the engine and then i should have a great weekend car.
The Plan so far is:

-E34 M30 and Manual box
-Saab sunroof swap
-Big brake swap (already got braided lines)
-UCA and LCA poly bush swap (all got them)
-Sub frame out, tidy up, new bushes, paint

Quite alot of work, but ive got the time and most of the parts already. And at least this time there is no pressure to have it done to be a daily driver.

[camplo]

Amazing restore. Sucks to hear its not running but hope to see you get going on this again.

[euronewbie]

So,

It's been 6years since the last update on the old girl.
She's been underwraps since 2015 but is now at my place and well and truly overdue for some work.

Surprisingly she still cranked over and drove for a little bit.
But I've got the time and a shed to spend a bit more time tearing it down and going a bit deeper into a rebuild.

Plans haven't changed much in those 6years.

Rough plan is:
1) tear it down and make sure there's no major rust or structural issues before throwing money at it.
2) decide if i go down the new engine and box route OR make mine manual and just freshen it up.

[leadphut]

It's great to see the resurrection of this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress. Good luck and please keep us updated.

[euronewbie]

It's great to see the resurrection of this thread. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress. Good luck and please keep us updated.

Thanks Mate, yeah I'm definitely excited to be making some progress on this after such a long time off it.

Before i start thinking about the whole engine situation ive decided to strip the car down at so i can get a full look at the overall condition. ie rust, damage etc. Due to it being my daily when this was originally done i really wasn't super concerned with this. but now while I've got the time id like to go over it with in a lot more detail.

currently these are the new parts i have waiting to go on IF the strip down shows it being not being in the need of major work.
- Braided brake lines (these will be in conjunction with a bigger brake kit)
- Full set of Poly sub frame bushes

So far ive found some areas of minor rust that will need work.





Also have bought a new(er) used set of taillights but are in much better condition than my set. Mainly in the wiring/contact strips on the backside
Old Set



Better Set

[Tiit]

Good luck with the project.

[euronewbie]

Good luck with the project.

Thanks mate.

Update 25NOV21

Been slowly chipping away at the old girl. As per what i said before. the main goal at least for now is a full strip of the bits i can get off, so i can get a 'full' look at the condition of the car and to make sure the body is mostly rust/issue free. I'm not going to start on a project and start putting things back together when she needs major work for the future.

In good news have not found any major bits of hidden rust, just a couple little spots here and there.

Im also quite glad that ive got the time to pull it apart much slowly now (there was always a time and 'near enough is good enough") pressure when she was my daily. The main focus will be going methodically through every bit and fixing what i can and improving what i can.












The interior is in 'Mostly' good condition. The rear bench seat in particular is great. The passenger seat is good.
however the armrests, rear head rests and driver seat are quite bad.











I would 'like' to the the front seats recovered in the future but at the moment chasing some prices for that as its quite a time off doing in the sense of the project.

Next projects will be:

1) Re- Fix the fuel tank. properly seal it with a kit that's already been ordered, remove the intank fuel pump contraption i made and replace it with a DW 255LPH in-tank pump (which will allow me to remove the underfloor one).Aiming to make things less complicated and tidier as i go. re paint the outside and replace any fuel lines. also if any body work needs to happen on the rear end ill do that too.

2) Fix any rust spots and in the trunk/boot and paint it before putting it all back together (the trunk has already been taken off, cleaned, touch up paint done and is waiting for this.

3) stripping out all the factory sound deadening stuff to fully check all the floors, then rust convert(where needed) and paint the floors before tidying up any wiring and putting new sound deadening in.