The M10 sensation: Euro 518i

[wkohler]

Elvisnbc has one too.

[Justin_FL]

Well, did a test fit yesterday for some Rial 15x7s. Wrong size tires, but from the side these wheels look decent and are a period correct upgrade.



The ET9 offset is a bit problematic once you look closer, but I wasn't expecting it to work:



Too bad! Even with a 205/60-15 I don't see the wheels working out in the rear. The wheels came from an E24 and looked great, since those have wider bodywork and fenders.

[1st 5er]

Unique and nice.

[Collin380]

Hey Justin,

I have just finished reading through this thread, and I am more so now very happy that my 518i ended up in your ownership. Based on all the comments made by the E28 forum members, you are definitely the right person to keep and enjoy this very unique E28. BTW I just acquired another E28 to proceed with my Hartge H5S tribute, so thanks for not buying the Type "A" wheels with the car:-) Hope to meet up sometime and talk Bimmers since we are within driving distance of each other.

All the best!

Alex

[Justin_FL]

OK, so I'm a bit embarrassed about not paying any attention to this car in 2 years. My garage is not a black hole! I have all parts for a suspension rebuild, plus a few other bits and bobs. Need to find wherever the hell the subframe bushings went along with the tool...



So not this weekend, but perhaps very soon I'll sort out the suspension and get this thing safely on the road.

[tig]

I missed this thread before. Glad you're posting updates. Neat car!

[Justin_FL]

I missed this thread before. Glad you're posting updates. Neat car!

During this time you have owned the 535is and done a bunch of work, I have managed to accomplish nothing with the 518i. LOL.

[grahamular]

Those Rial's look a lot like my Melber's! Mine are ET11 though, and fit ok with 215/60's.



-Graham

[Justin_FL]

Those Rial's look a lot like my Melber's! Mine are ET11 though, and fit ok with 215/60's.

Those wheels look awesome on that car. I would love to have an arctic blue E28 again. Once I'm motivated enough, I'll probably mount a junk 205/60 on the Rials and see how they clear the back fender. I've also got a set of 16" BBS RAs, which would look good too, but more tire than a 518i requires.

Since 14" tires are hard to find to fit a 14x5.5, a 15" steel wheel might be something I'd consider to keep the base model look. Early base E34s used as best as I can tell an identical hubcap design.

[NAH]

Sharp looking car!
Even here in Europe, it's "hard" to find an example this nice.

[TurboE28]

Nice example, no doubt the person in El Salvador was/is very wealthy. Things could have gone much worse for that nice example.

[Justin_FL]

Maybe it is time for a yearly update, although there is not much to report. Life has been busy! So I got some room finally in the garage after clearing out stuff over X-mas break (was storing several cars for someone else making it gridlock). Put the car up on the lift for inspection. No surprises. Just a lot of GA clay residue and factory cosmoline. This is the first time I have gone over the underside in detail since buying it. The 4 post lift is not mine, it will be picked up sooner or later and I'll buy a 2 post for better wrenching access. I am planning (for reals) to get cracking on this thing. Engine health is currently a question mark, so that is the only unknown variable at this time.

Up in the air:


The engine and trans sure is short compared to the 535i:


Medium case 4.10 diff, not the small case E30 one as is sometimes mentioned in the archives:


Blown out ball joints, etc:




Typical exhaust butchery. O2 sensor does connect to a small box that I assume intercepts the CTS signal by the ECU.


No rust up behind the rear tail panel:


Looks like the original shocks were made by AP Parts. Never heard of them:


A friendly face with a growth on his forehead (I believe the mount is one of the attachment points for the missing plastic under tray):

[tig]

This is neat Justin. Sub'd for moar!

[Karl Grau]

Typical exhaust butchery. O2 sensor does connect to a small box that I assume intercepts the CTS signal by the ECU.

The generic term is 'Johnson Box' but they were made by others too.

[wkohler]

I'm afraid to send my Valentine Model 1 in for an update.

The 518i is looking great, Justin!

[Kyle in NO]

/\/\ LoL.

[Conanblau]

Winner of a car here. Super nice.

When you've got it sorted to your liking, do share your driving impressions of such a lightweight E28. The M10 is rarely accused of being overpowered but once this car is moving I'll bet it gets around a corner real sweet like.

[Adam W in MN]

What a cool car, I like to see these longer period updates actually. There's more story to tell all at once.

[T_C_D]

I still want a m10 powered euro e28.

[Justin_FL]

Winner of a car here. Super nice.

When you've got it sorted to your liking, do share your driving impressions of such a lightweight E28. The M10 is rarely accused of being overpowered but once this car is moving I'll bet it gets around a corner real sweet like.

Thanks, it's far from perfect but overall presents well for a 30 year old car! I really have no idea of the true mileage or kilometers on this thing, but given that a vast majority of the common wear items are still the factory installed pieces there is a lot of work to do before making it 100% roadworthy.

I have driven it only very little due to the horrible suspension, but it's obvious the car is 500-600lbs lighter than my 535is. Unfortunately with 14" wheels, replacement OEM shocks, the small front roll bar and an absence of the rear one this 518i probably won't add up to much cornering ability

My first E28 was a 535i that I put many miles on the stock suspension with 15" wheels and to be honest, it was no less enjoyable to me than every E28 of mine since then with upgraded suspensions and 16 or 17" wheels. So I was thinking a generally stock E28 on wheels/tires with some sidewall cushion could be fun to drive again.

[Justin_FL]

What a cool car, I like to see these longer period updates actually. There's more story to tell all at once.

I would tend to agree, less frequent and higher quality can be a good thing, Adam-- but I laugh because all I've done is just buy parts and talk about the car after almost 3 damn years with little progress

I feel motivated to work on the front suspension today but I might be getting a 2 post lift quite soon and the big open work area to explode the 518i is where the lift is to go. While I have the suspension parts I probably want to go through the brakes, paint things, etc so that takes longer than a weekend if I need to order and wait for parts. When the garage slab was poured 5 years ago, we planned ahead and made two 4x4' sections about 18" deep in the side bay in preparation for a lift, so the lift install is just assembly and running electrical-- the slab is fine. Since my brother had a 4 poster that he found locally for cheap, that is why a 2 post lift never got around to being installed. He got married and moved out about 2.5 years ago but left his stuff in the garage, just recently moving his stuff out of my garage after completing his own. I'm going through the garage and having to set things up the way I want, buy tools that he owned and I used but don't have access to any longer, etc before starting any big projects. That is kind of where I'm at for now. I want to get some better lighting in the garage too and spray foam the building, then get A/C installed, but none of that is a high priority and would stop me from working on the cars. Well, maybe the lack of A/C part during the summer because the humidity is nasty and makes everything less fun.

I still want a m10 powered euro e28.

Todd, believe me I thought about asking if you were still interested in the car! I was pretty frustrated in general last year about lack of time, desire, space, etc to get any car projects done so that had me bummed out. When I did have energy and motivation to spare, I preferred doing work on the house or in the yard instead.

[Justin_FL]

So I'm starting to do some things the past couple weeks. Haven't bought any lifts yet for the garage but I decided to say fuck it as my back has been feeling good and don't mind working on the floor now.

Front strut assemblies are now broken apart to install new Sachs/Boge inserts, probably going to repaint them while apart (no pics yet of today's progress). Need to order front rotors (518i uses solid discs). Everything popped right apart, no issues unlike you rust belt guy's experience

Pics for evidence:

[wkohler]

Yes!!

[Justin_FL]

Yes!!

LOL, I know, right? I would love for it to be road trip worthy for The Vintage but majorly doubt it. Suspension will be done of course in time but a lot of other fiddly things need attention on the car.

[tig]

Bad backs suck. Glad yours is doing better.

[Justin_FL]

Bad backs suck. Glad yours is doing better.

Sure does especially when it has been going on for years, but I have lost almost 35lbs since December which helps greatly.

[Justin_FL]

Struts partially disassembled, want to paint them especially the inside of the spring perch which had lots of GA clay stowed away. The car spent most of it's US life in the Atlanta area.

[Justin_FL]

Alright, been a bit distracted with the 528e and other pursuits. But I got the struts cleaned, cosmoline removed, degreased and ready for paint. I think it was the right spring perch that was packed fully with clay and you can see some of the light surface rust inside the one photo. All surface rust was sanded or wire brushed, scuffed and treated with Ospho (a rust converter) which gives the rust a whitish almost galvanized look after the chemical process completes. Will give everything a final wipe down and paint them tomorrow after work so they can hopefully dry and be ready on Saturday/Sunday for assembly.

Probably would have been easier to just sand blast and repaint the whole things, lol.

[Justin_FL]

Applied one coat of paint to the strut housings tonight. Will probably have to hit inside the spring perch again to make sure it is sealed nicely.

[tig]

Dunno about the rest of you, but I am glad Justin is in my life.

[Justin_FL]

Dunno about the rest of you, but I am glad Justin is in my life.

Are my rattle can skillz really that good?

[tig]

Dunno about the rest of you, but I am glad Justin is in my life.

Are my rattle can skillz really that good?

I've oft been told I'm easy.

[Justin_FL]

Well, puffed a second coat of paint on the strut housings.

Since I was in the garage, decided to replace the bearings of the spindle assembly for my surface cleaner and give it a test since the pressure washer was all gassed up from cleaning the strut housings. Yay! Haven't pressure washed in a year, so it was starting to look nasty. I have a 160ft concrete driveway and about 2500 sqft around two sides of the garage that need cleaning, so a surface cleaner is absolutely required and saves the back ache from using the lance/wand.



Obligatory BMW content:

[Zeta]

Ah, I see you're enjoying live oak pollen season right now too

[tig]

Well, puffed a second coat of paint on the strut housings.

Since I was in the garage, decided to replace the bearings of the spindle assembly for my surface cleaner and give it a test since the pressure washer was all gassed up from cleaning the strut housings. Yay! Haven't pressure washed in a year, so it was starting to look nasty. I have a 160ft concrete driveway and about 2500 sqft around two sides of the garage that need cleaning, so a surface cleaner is absolutely required and saves the back ache from using the lance/wand.



Obligatory BMW content:

https://www.reddit.com/r/powerwashingporn/

[1st 5er]

https://www.reddit.com/r/powerwashingporn/

"What you want, baby I've got it..."

[Justin_FL]

Ah, I see you're enjoying live oak pollen season right now too

I have lots of oaks in my yard but no live oaks unfortunately! The afternoon sun is just reflecting off the pine trees nearby so the runoff appears yellow/green. The pine trees do make a mess when they are pollinating, but that is December to mid-February usually.

https://www.reddit.com/r/powerwashingporn/

Haha, Reddit never fails to deliver.

[Justin_FL]

Got the upper spring perches cleaned up and washed the spring pads. I have new ones somewhere in my parts collection but things are not organized well enough for me to find them after checking my boxes from 2005-era E28 stuff

Anyway, the old ones look fine to me so I don't see a problem reusing them...




I also found a 20 year old set of "used" front brake pads in my parts collection, they might be PBR/Axxis Deluxe (but pads have a RH stamp on all four pads along with WVA 20629 so not sure since my guess is these were swapped out in favor of the Axxis Deluxe). Pretty much full material, so not many miles on them at any rate. My brother bought a 635csi from an obsessive owner and we got a bunch of extra parts with the car-- there was also a set of new BMW-logo'd OE Jurid front pads in there too along with a set of new ATE pads but not sure I want to deal with the dust. The 518i pads literally have 1-3mm of material left. Found a new pair of front brake hoses, so I'll probably put those to use since the ones on this car are originals.

Which pads would you run: mystery pads, Jurid or ATEs?



Found two new hood roundels:

[Justin_FL]

I got the front struts assembled today, a few pictures below!

Everything on hand to install the inserts:


Went over to my Dad's place to use his chain wrench. This thing is older than me:


Inserts installed with some oil in the housing and ready for the return trip across the neighborhood:


Transferring over the bearing cover from the old mount:


Using my Harbor Fright special pass-thru wrench to hold the strut rod while tightening the top mount nut:


Complete assemblies with new bump stops and protective boots:

[Justin_FL]

Got home earlier today and decided to tackle the driver side front suspension.

Popping off the LCA:


Popping off the UCA:


Success!


Loosening the LCA bolts:


Control arms extracted:


Looks like an '86 manufacturing stamp on the UCA bushings? Judging by the cosmoline on all the suspension parts the UCAs appear original. Maybe the light 518i doesn't destroy the bushings like an M30 car?