MyE28.com

Gave the engine bay a nice freshen up

Rained out at work today so I spent the afternoon looking into the e23's HVAC controls, One broken vacuum Tee and one dead micro switch so far. If the servos hold vacuum the next round of testing we should be good to go.... for a while.

I got another 'other' car today. Finally.

Shipping took a long time, and while there was no apparent damage sustained, the car was utterly filthy when it arrived. It sat in Cali for two weeks before it was loaded into a trailer, and from all the dirt in the nooks and crannies it must have been a windy dirt lot. Unfortunately, the shipper decided to try to wash it at some point during the journey, and I think they used dish soap and a push broom. There is little-to-no wax left on the car, and it probably would have been better if they just left it dirty.

NO MATTER! I've got my Touring! It's the "First M5T" that's been for sale for quite a while, finally found a new home.

These are pictures when it was still dirty, just off the truck. I'll get some real shots up in Eye Candy some time soon when I get it cleaned up and presentable. It did look comfy there next to the e28 when I left for work.

MicahO wrote: (pictures and words about one of my dream cars)

Drool. Congrats.

cek wrote:

MicahO wrote: (pictures and words about one of my dream cars)

Drool. Congrats.

What he said. Dang. Can you adopt me? I don't eat much.

Very nice, is it a factory car or a converted example? Either way, they're a brilliant machine. My buddy has one for sale at the moment, (525i converted with 3.6 gear from smashed M sedan) and I'm resisting the temptation. The lack of rear bulkhead makes that exhaust note reverberate through the cabin so much better than in the sedans.

Very nice indeed !
While it really does look great the way it is, that would be a car I would probably put a nice set of style 29's on and remove the M badges.
Perfect sleeeeeper.

davintosh wrote:

cek wrote:

MicahO wrote: (pictures and words about one of my dream cars)

Drool. Congrats.

What he said. Dang...

Exactly...

Das_Prachtstrasse wrote:Very nice, is it a factory car or a converted example?

This one is the real deal; Euro 3.8 with everything including the EDC still intact. It's the first one off the production line, serial number BL01001 that was for sale for some time. It's got a lot of miles (373K km) but got a new engine at 200K km. It's been very well owned and maintained; new seating by Jim's, loads of new parts (including some new EDC shocks) and a lot of refresh in the past two to three years.

This one will stay bone-stock, which means it's going to remain a fairly complicated beastie. The simplicity of the e28 and the S38B35 suddenly seems a bit quaint?!?!? The over-winter will see a few gaskets replaced and a full cooling system and some general baselining. I'm still digging through receipts to get a good picture of what I may need or want to do. It will be a great ride down to Vintage in May.

Congratulations Micah, I have been filling up the drool cup on that one for sale for a while. Glad YOU pulled the trigger!

Congrats. I have always wanted one of those. Let us know how you like it. I have had a couple of E34 M5's. Curious about the driving dynamics and noise level vs the sedan.

E38 window regulator......X5 rear brakes . The regulator was a bitch!

I saw that touring at a show a couple years ago, my first real view of an e34 m5 of any type. Being a touring owner, I'm jealous...

My pos saw a heater valve swap and a tailgate latch swap a couple days ago. I haven't been able to latch or lock the gate for over a year. And I no longer have only hot air coming out of the vents.

It was the E36's turn for some upgrades. There's a 7, a 11 and an 18 button OBC, I had a only sort of functioning 11 which tells me twice a year to add water, if I can decipher the missing pixels, which are most of them. But now I've got a nice used 18 button with temp and MPG and all sorts of good stuff. And it works too, along with a new/used turn signal switch so I can scroll thru the functions just like an E28. Also soldered up the (presumably) cracked solder joints on the radio so the display on it works now too. The OBC was a bit of wiring, not as much as I'd been led to believe, but some cut and splice. Worked first thing, though it's the only instrument in English measurements now, it's a Canadian car with a metric speedo etc.

All in all a very productive weekend.

Scrubbed the rear panels. The floor came out pretty good.
Swapped brake light sockets side to side to see if the wiring or the socket is bad. Now they both work and yet the brake light error message is still displayed.

Last week, tore the front strut assemblies from the e32 to put the original springs back in and yesterday finally figured out why lowering these cars PROPERLY is so difficult & fraught with compromise.



Also figured out the cause of my ABS issues on the car; broken lead on the front left sensor. And had a junkyard spare sitting on the shelf waiting to be installed.

Also cleaned the crud out of the drain holes in the lower spring perches. What a crappy design.

Bought another.

1986 325e Baur auto. It's got a blown headgasket but otherwise in really good shape, so I'll be replacing the engine or reconditioning the head depending on how it looks once it's torn down, and get it tidied up for resale. Doesn't need much aside from the aforementioned having been really well looked after and completely original. We'll give it a good polish, repair a few of the small rust spots in the backpanel, get it registered and flog it hopefully *enter Mike Brewer voice* FOR AN ELFY PROPHIT.

Not bad for $500.

Profit? What, are you the down-under EAG?!? How dare you.


Nice catch.

Gotta fund a hoist somehow!

Drove it to my work and again back to home for some work.

A little bling for the M5 highlighted by new euro headlight lenses. Plus a new clutch switch.






Ongoing study into which throwout bearing is really the right TO bearing. I've seen five different designs/lengths with the same pn so far.

I still have the e32 on jack stands in the garage; not that there's that much left to do to it to get it back on the road, it's just that there's so little time the last couple of weeks. And with several other projects lined up behind it, waiting for the garage to open up, I need to get rolling.

Sunday was encouraging; the M20B25 that's been lurking in my shed, waiting to go into the 528e, finally went away. The guy what took it left behind a nice wad of cash in exchange though; an amount that covered the acquisition cost for the Zinno 535is that wandered into my stable a while back. He also took the transmission I had for it, and paid very nearly what I was asking for it all without much dickering. Patience paid off. I had to laugh at how he came prepared to take it home with him. I told him up front that I didn't have a lift, and he said, "That's why I brought these guys along." The four of them grabbed onto whatever they could, lifted the thing up off the cart and into the back of the pickup. SD farm boys.

Last Saturday we drove to the in-laws' house for the day; five of us in the X5. My eldest son drove home, and I took the back seat; that back seat is like a torture device.

davintosh wrote:I had to laugh at how he came prepared to take it home with him. I told him up front that I didn't have a lift, and he said, "That's why I brought these guys along." The four of them grabbed onto whatever they could, lifted the thing up off the cart and into the back of the pickup. SD farm boys.

Reminds me of when I bought my first BMW, a Bav. It was apart with the engine and tranny bolted together. The friend who was giving me a hand, along with his pickup/tow vehicle, and the guy who I was buying it from picked up the M30, mit tranny and put it in the back of the pickup. Neither was 6' or weighed over 180 or so. I'm not a big guy either and while more than willing to help, I felt the safest for all involved was if I just stayed out of the way. Which I did.

Digging through the Touring has been fun, and the car has been very responsive to the half-baseline it's gotten so far. Generally speaking it's in great shape, with ~110K on the motor, 230K on the rest of the bits, and a lot of great care taken on the cosmetic side of the house.

To start, I replaced the dead brake light switch and put in some matched, working bulbs so the car was ready for a state inspection. New subframe bushings (split), dogbones (shredded) and two new front tires; now the car tracks nicely and goes in the direction it is driven. With the MAF clean and new spark plugs it feels even more responsive and smooth. VCG and valve adjustment was about 3K miles ago, so no need for that right away. Fresh transmission (perilously low) and diff oil and it's many whirrings are a lot quieter. The support struts at the hatch and tailgate glass are now new (the glass struts were dated 06/92 - original! no wonder the glass would bonk the back of the head!). Re-adjust the clutch switch and now the cruise works again.

There has been a lot of minor tweakery and cleaning and replacement of proper fittings and connectors and trim. I do miss having DPP to fill my long orders of worn/missing plastic bits and every nut and washer I expect to touch, though the guys at Tischer have been quite good at filling my orders.

At this point I've put a few hundred miles on the car and it's in a good spot until the over-winter when I can hit a bunch of minor engine gaskets and the cooling system and more replacements at the rear end. At some point I have to stop and take some pictures.

MicahO wrote: To start, I replaced the dead brake light switch...

Funny, I just did the same thing to the E36. That one was kind of funny, I bought a switch long ago due to the warning light sometimes coming on, but later found out it was a bad contact in the brake light assy. Figured I was having the same problem again and it looked flaky so I reworked it only to still have the warning light usually come on. New switch was a PITA just for a brake light switch, but it's in now.

Also a new fuel pump for the E39 to replace the junkyard one I put in when the original failed. A year older junkyard one. Hopefully the made in China one will give at least half the life of the original.