The M10 sensation: Euro 518i

[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?

[Shawn D.]

Coming along nicely!

[Justin_FL]

Also decided to be a little OCD and partially clean the wheel wells while the strut was out of the way for better access. I'll finish the rest of the wheel wells later once the car is mobile so I can do it outside and use the garden hose and not worry about containing the mess.

Before:


After:

[Justin_FL]

Coming along nicely!

Thanks! Too bad I work so damn slowly. Could have knocked it out in a weekend if I was motivated enough.

[Justin_FL]

Got a bit more done last night and today-- finished off the driver side completely today and nearly completed the passenger side.

After some deliberation I decided the Sachs boots and bump stops were not assembled right, so I broke down the strut and flipped the boot around so it was attached to the bump stop and loose at the strut retaining nut. The way I had them originally seemed that it would allow for dirt/moisture to collect at the strut retaining nut.


Forgot to take a picture of the left steering arm with the new LCA and UCA torqued, but there is one below at the end of this post from the right side.

In preparation of returning the strut assembly to the car, I cleaned up the mounting bolts. Started off with a wire brush and thought they were clean...


Nope! Old threadlocker:


Cleaned the grease off the bolts and saw the factory paint markings. The marking came off one when I was cleaning the grease/oil off of them.


Applying Loctite Red to steering arm bolts (#263, replacement for the #270 noted in the Bentley):


Strut attached and bolts torqued to 48 lb-ft.


Extra pictures with strut assembly returned to car:




I haven't decided whether to stay with the original 12mm solid rotors and calipers up front or switch over to 528e or 535i calipers and vented rotors. So I put the original stuff back on for the time being so the car is mobile. It pained me greatly to put dirty/old parts back on the car:


It looks like for now I'll be leaving the factory original steering parts on the car since they seemed perfectly tight and in good shape. I have new stuff on hand once the time comes.


I also got started on the passenger side control arm replacements.

Popped out control arm ball joints:


Started off removing the heat shield for the UCA from below, but then I realized this thing has an M10 and access is much easier from the engine bay




New control arms ready to go in:


Nuts torqued to 63 lb-ft. Kinda looks ugly under flash, I probably should have painted it after degreasing. Most of the splotchniess is cosmoline residue, though.


I'll be doing the final torque under pre-load later on the UCA and LCA bushings once it's on a 4 post lift.

[tig]

Nice work. I feel on putting those old brakes on...

[Justin_FL]

Today I finished up the passenger side of the car and got it back on 4 wheels.

Passenger side strut returned:


Miscellaneous picture:


Torqued the 13mm nuts to 16 lb-ft:


Replaced wheels in preparation to drop it like it's hot:


And the drop is... disappointing:


Bonus front end shot:


Maybe it will settle down a little bit! The upper strut bearing/mounts are probably 3/4" taller than the old flattened ones so some gain in ground clearance was expected. The 14" tires on the 5.5" wide wheels are not correct and are a bit short, which adds to the large fender gap. But I wanted to keep this thing as stock as possible.

I bounced the front end up and down and the 518i springs are super soft compared to my 528e. This car is probably going to be one plush ride, haha.

Need to go buy a new battery for the car so I can perhaps take it for a spin around the block.

All that is left now is to figure out the brake situation, do final torque on the control arms, and also put the front sway bar back on the car. The sway bar was left off because I wanted to clean it up before reinstalling-- the paint had flaked off most of it.

Then I will commence on the rear suspension work, or perhaps delay a bit and drive the car around to see what other mechanical needs are requiring attention. The clutch is almost completely shot and slips, so that one is priority #1 (already bought one a while back). Other than general tune up stuff, new fluids, belts, etc I don't recall many obvious issues. The alternator bushings are done however, so I'll have to replace those before putting on new belts.

[Justin_FL]

It's alive! Robbed a battery from the eta. Didn't make it too far, the alternator/water pump belt was extremely loose so I only looped around my driveway to not risk overheating. R12 A/C still blows ice cold

Hard to believe that I've had this car 5 years and haven't done anything with it until now.

[tig]

So weird, but I think that thing is just sexy.

[Justin_FL]

So weird, but I think that thing is just sexy.

You might need help!

[Justin_FL]

Crap that pisses me off: shitty mechanics, owner's manual that lists the incorrect size belts, and Conti belts that are made in China now

Got a license plate bracket for a US plate (used on E46 and various other newer BMWs) and refurb parts for the front calipers. I'm just going to keep the original non-vented discs on the front for now.



Don't believe your owner's manual (only one that works is the power steering belt):


The fan/alternator belt that was on the car I assumed was too long because the adjuster was all the way out. Turns out the belt was just worn a shit ton and seemed significantly too long so I'll buy a 10x888 belt as that was on the car. An 875 and 880 are impossible to fit. Power steering belt was 10x820, which seemed too long as the bracket was all the way out, so I went closest to the manual which was 10x813 and seems to be a good fit. The A/C belt on the car was a 13x818 and this was impossible to remove the belt with the compressor on the car (very small amount of adjustment is actually possible). So the 13x810 that I bought was obviously a no-go. Might order a 13x825 and see if that works and can slip on within the range of the slotted adjusters without having to undo half the compressor mounting bolts, which would be a bitch to do on the side of the road if any belt replacement was ever necessary.

And I discovered the alternator adjuster bar and nut teeth are chewed the fuck up. Lovely:

[Crazy_Canuck]

The fan/alternator belt that was on the car I assumed was too long because the adjuster was all the way out. Turns out the belt was just worn a shit ton and seemed significantly too long so I'll buy a 10x888 belt as that was on the car. An 875 and 880 are impossible to fit.

Yup, I've had that fight with the belt being too short.

[tig]

The fan/alternator belt that was on the car I assumed was too long because the adjuster was all the way out. Turns out the belt was just worn a shit ton and seemed significantly too long so I'll buy a 10x888 belt as that was on the car. An 875 and 880 are impossible to fit.

Yup, I've had that fight with the belt being too short.

I now have a very nice collection of brand new, odd sized belts that will never fit any car because I feel bad returning things to Blunt because he's awesome and I'm an idiot.

[Collin380]

Justin, nice to see you making progress!

[Burnze]

Great progress! Subscribed!

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

This thing is so great.

[Justin_FL]

Haha, thanks for the nice words guys. Disappointed about not making progress the past two weeks-- the fan belt and adjuster situation is not resolved, plus the weather has been utter crap lately. Since my garage does not have A/C and the lighting isn't the best, I sort of need to have the doors open to see and to get airflow. It has been like non-stop rain the past week and probably again this coming week, so the sideways rain precludes me from opening up the doors. Always seems like the weather is worse on the weekends but fine during the work week

[kzolee]

And I discovered the alternator adjuster bar and nut teeth are chewed the fuck up. Lovely:

Tooth Fairy was here.

[Justin_FL]

Something happened. A cool front decided to swing on down to Florida. It was in the 60s this morning so I decided to take advantage of the less than 85-90°F temps and work in the garage. The car was just parked in the garage while I've been focusing on exercise and other things around the house this summer. Also bought two new, full carbon fiber bicycles and have been riding the wheels off those. I'm surrounded by protected lands so plenty of nice stuff to see within a few minutes ride from the house



Anyway, it's finally time to replace the rear shocks this morning. Removal was a piece of cake, all nuts broke loose easily and the struts popped right out of the trailing arm with a tap of my hand. Much easier to roll around in the trunk when I weigh 70lbs less. Advantage goes to US-spec bumper cars as those provide a nice step to climb into the trunk. I spent more time sweeping out the garage, organizing tools, setting up the jack and jack stands, etc. Now I'll change into my short sleeve shirt and go back to work after posting this update



Time to climb in!

13mm gear wrench in action:


A tap of the hand and free at last:


Nice and clean:


Missed a spot:


No rust here:


Time to break these down, clean the springs and reinstall with new mounts and shocks!


Someone didn't like the game of hide and seek when I was in the trunk:

[Kyle in NO]

Nice progress on both the auto and health fronts!

[tig]

Nice work.

I think this car is neat.