What did you do to your E28 today?

[1st 5er]

It's been a minute or three since I posted in this thread... The e28 and I have been at odds lately; it decided to quit working last fall, and I lacked the motivation to do much of anything with it, so it just sat up against the wall on its wheel dollies all winter long. And it was a long winter.

But in recent weeks I found some motivation in a pipe dream to drive it to Vintage. That didn't happen, but I did track down the problem (kinda) and got it running long enough to drive it to Cars & Coffee last Saturday. Of course, it didn't want to start when I left, and it stalled twice on the way home, but it did get me there and back!

Now it's in time-out again until a friend has time to stop over and help me with a more permanent fix. Should be in a couple of weeks...

Progress, butt you missed a great event.

[BronzitBeauty]

Good Evening,
I have done a few things to my e28 today, I installed a carbon fiber cold air intake to clean up the engine bay. Installed LED bulbs in the exterior lights excluding the headlight, install the billet aluminum door handles, garagistics anodized black lock pulls, Thule evo square bar roof rack, and I am working on wrapping my door panels. I will post updated pictures with the finished product on the door panels.

IMG_1472 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

IMG_1370 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

CAD07DB7-0752-4BA0-B345-C3274EA3AE59 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

IMG_1088 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

IMG_1101 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

IMG_1630 by Mark Perez, on Flickr

[dcski]

I acquired a 1988 528E for free, been sitting in a garage for 16 years. dropped tank cleaned it out and changed oil. fired right up and idled like a champ. now I'm tearing it apart for timing belt and everything that goes with it. 71,000 miles plus a 5 spd. manual. Once I get it done and put new tires her see how she drives. not one spec of rust anywhere. i also changed out both fuel pumps, fuel filter and fuel sending unit. fuel gauge says on 3/4 but ill figure that out.

The fuel gauge on my newly acquired '84 528e also maxes out at 3/4, did you ever solve this issue?

[alemac1]

spent eh week end tinkering. took a new (to me) valance back to bare metal for a repaint, and dyed my headliner black while all in situ. came out really well and made a nice difference.

also picked up air ride management

[jimoreno]

This past Saturday I put my car on jack stands, removed the exhaust, removed the exhaust manifolds (and all 12 studs came out with the nuts) to test fit the Stahl long tube headers that I got t The Vintage. Getting them in there is a challenge but I got them in. They do finish at the same location as the hanger for the exhaust pipes next to the transmission. Also, took down the whole shifter assembly to refresh it (finally) and install a short shifter. Wow, what a difference! I used the Delrin bushings for the transmission side and the Turner Motorsports rear hanger in SS and poly bushing. Everything else is stock. Since I was in there I changed the shifter and rear end seals. The guibo had a torn section so I ordered a new one with new bolts from FCP Euro.
I'll be getting two quotes for ceramic coating of the headers and dropping them off hopefully before my trip to Puerto Rico this Saturday night. Then get the car to the muffler shop so they can build the two interconnecting pipes to the stock exhaust (for now).

[srini]

No i did not. I tinkered around with it i have 12 volts to middle connection on plug. i have 6 volts on one other connection , I'm guessing that's for the reserve light. still working on it.

[EuroShark]

I have done a few things to my e28 today, I installed a carbon fiber cold air intake to clean up the engine bay.

Did you get the 90 degree coupler from Race German as well? I need a filter solution for my B35 swapped car and I'd rather have something like that instead of an aluminum tube with a cone filter on the end.



I spent a few hours last night working on the exhaust system. I got a pair of small high flow cats (2" ID on both ends) that mated up really nicely with the Supersprint front pipes and an M5 rear section. Used v-bands to join everything so disassembling it won't be a chore. I'm no fabricator but it turned out fine and sounds great. I'll take everything down again to clean up some welds, install the heat shield and paint the rear section black. Might even replace the zip ties with actual exhaust hangers.

[Aldo525]

I acquired a 1988 528E for free, been sitting in a garage for 16 years. dropped tank cleaned it out and changed oil. fired right up and idled like a champ. now I'm tearing it apart for timing belt and everything that goes with it. 71,000 miles plus a 5 spd. manual. Once I get it done and put new tires her see how she drives. not one spec of rust anywhere. i also changed out both fuel pumps, fuel filter and fuel sending unit. fuel gauge says on 3/4 but ill figure that out.

The fuel gauge on my newly acquired '84 528e also maxes out at 3/4, did you ever solve this issue?

In my case the problem was a wrong fuel sender into the fuel tank: somebody put in there an e30 fuel sender instead of a e28 sender....e30 sender is almost 1 inch shorter than e28 sender, so no accurate readings.

[BronzitBeauty]

I have done a few things to my e28 today, I installed a carbon fiber cold air intake to clean up the engine bay.

Did you get the 90 degree coupler from Race German as well? I need a filter solution for my B35 swapped car and I'd rather have something like that instead of an aluminum tube with a cone filter on the end.



I spent a few hours last night working on the exhaust system. I got a pair of small high flow cats (2" ID on both ends) that mated up really nicely with the Supersprint front pipes and an M5 rear section. Used v-bands to join everything so disassembling it won't be a chore. I'm no fabricator but it turned out fine and sounds great. I'll take everything down again to clean up some welds, install the heat shield and paint the rear section black. Might even replace the zip ties with actual exhaust hangers.

The elbow that came with the kit form race German was a tad smaller than the air flow meter diameter. I ordered a elbow from a company on Las Vegas, let me look for it and I’ll send it to you.

[Sh00bs]

i installed a known working cluster in my 84 528e, since my oem cluster didnt have a working tach or speedo
still no luck. i have (from driver side to passenger side on the back of the cluster) a longer white plug, the little square white and blue plugs, then jump to the other side, the yellow plug and finally the matching blue plug.
my fuse is good. anything else i should check? i daily the thing, it's in great shape otherwise and everythign else works... temp, fuel level, turns, dummy lights, e brake, high beams...etc i just want my dang rpm and speedo ! aha idk what else to check, im not sure where those get signal from

[jimoreno]

I finally picked up from the powder coaters the set of Stahl long tube headers that I found at The Vintage. They look nice in CeraKote Silver!




and also decided to drop off the filter housing since the paint was flaking off:




The headers are now installed and I'm going to the muffler shop today to talk to them about making the connecting pipes between them and the factory exhaust. I hope to eventually get a Supersprint catback but noticed that they use the euro mounting arrangement. How have you guys dealt with this? Welding the stock euro support or some other way?
By the way this thing is loud with open headers and inside the garage!

[vinceg101]

Finally got around to installing new interior Door Latches/Handles. I got tired of the plastic trim rings constantly breaking and now that I can't find the correctly colored Taurusrot versions new from BMW (technically they sell Taurus versions, but the color is so far off it is more Cardinalrot). Also, the present supplier of the latch handle assembly has cheaped out and they don't stand up to even moderate use anymore (I've gone through at least two sets of fronts so far in the last 5 years).

I came across these from Leo Grande Racing out of Long Island, NY: Billet Aluminum assembly and trim rings. They make the latch assembly in either black anodized or mill finish, same for the trim rings. Unfortunately they don't do custom color anodizing or any powder coating either. I got my trim rings ahead of the assemblies, selected as close a match I could find to Taurusrot from Prismatic RAL colors (RAL 8016 Mahogany Brown) and had them powdercoated here locally. Downside is they only sell this color in a gloss finish so I may pull these off and see about adding a satin overcoat finish to dull them down a bit. I also need to get some kind of touch-up paint to cover the tiny set screws.

All in all they are pretty stout assemblies, they look good and as close to OEM as I could hope for, perfect fitment, and work very well; if all goes well, I won't ever have to worry about replacing these again.
The only other obvious downside were the costs: they aren't cheap so it was a bit of a splurge. Add to that I had to wait many many months to get them as they were back-ordered a long time.
Before:


After:

[dsw99a]

[alemac1]

mocked up some new material on the existing door cards temporarily to see if i like it enough to go for it, and replaced the outer window scraper rubbers.

[BDKawey]

yesterday after procrastinating long enough, I aligned tetanus using the string method. car had maybe 3/8 toe in each side in the front and one wheel had some toe out in the rear. wasnt planning on doing the rear but could bring myself to toe the front with the rear messed up so I jacked it up and adjusted that a little. dialed the front to about 1/16 toe in each side. car drive much nicer now and isn't so darty on the road.

I just order a new belt tensioner (ford 5.0 drivetrain) for it because it squeaks so loud it makes the whole car sound 10 times more janky than it already is. now that its cooling down maybe I'll actually try to drive it more.

[austin8753]

on Saturday, i drove my M5 1300 miles (in one day, no less), to go visit Derrith for the afternoon. A/C fixed, stereo fixed, and returned 20mpg with the cruise set at 85mph!

car did excellent. it's the most i've ever driven it in one sitting. feeling significantly more confident about taking it for longer trips now.

[Landberg]

First post here, Hi!

I swapped main and fuel pump relay which sorted my rough idle and random misfire! Recently bought my Euro M535i -87 that have been sitting for 3 years.

[LarryM]

I sorted through all the parts I've accumulated for my front suspension/steering rebuild, to make sure I've got everything I need. All BMW or Lemforder parts, including 750i UCA bushings from Korman. Now I just have to motivate myself to get started on the job. The car doesn't really need all this work, but like many others on this forum I'm afflicted with OCD when it comes to my BMWs.

[Mike W.]

on Saturday, i drove my M5 1300 miles (in one day, no less), to go visit Derrith for the afternoon. A/C fixed, stereo fixed, and returned 20mpg with the cruise set at 85mph!

car did excellent. it's the most i've ever driven it in one sitting. feeling significantly more confident about taking it for longer trips now.

Just saw this. 1300 in one day? You're a madman. If you averaged 85, it's still over 15 hours of seat time, not counting gas or piss stops. My longtime rule of thumb is you actually average 10 under what it seems like you're doing, which is then over 17 hours. I 5 in Or is not a quick or fast ride IMO. Some of Calif is better, but not like steaming across the desert on 40 where you can do a hundred comfortably if not for black and whites. I will add my E28, a more pedestrian 535i just seemed to hit it's stride at 85, but 1300 is just, I dunno...

Not sure whether to tip my hat or call you nuts. /

[HayekFan]

Changed the earl. 20W/50 not getting a lot of shelf space in the stores these days.

[Kerrvillian]

20W/50 not getting a lot of shelf space in the stores these days.

Most cars these days run on sewing machine oil or WD-40. Gotta stock what sells the most

[austin8753]

on Saturday, i drove my M5 1300 miles (in one day, no less), to go visit Derrith for the afternoon. A/C fixed, stereo fixed, and returned 20mpg with the cruise set at 85mph!

car did excellent. it's the most i've ever driven it in one sitting. feeling significantly more confident about taking it for longer trips now.

Just saw this. 1300 in one day? You're a madman. If you averaged 85, it's still over 15 hours of seat time, not counting gas or piss stops. My longtime rule of thumb is you actually average 10 under what it seems like you're doing, which is then over 17 hours. I 5 in Or is not a quick or fast ride IMO. Some of Calif is better, but not like steaming across the desert on 40 where you can do a hundred comfortably if not for black and whites. I will add my E28, a more pedestrian 535i just seemed to hit it's stride at 85, but 1300 is just, I dunno...

Not sure whether to tip my hat or call you nuts. /

not sure if i would do this again in the future, but it was fun to say i did it!

we left at 5:30 Saturday and arrived back at my house at 3:30 Sunday, with a ~4 hour pitstop in the Bay Area. had to pull off every 2-3 hours to fuel up and let the dog walk around, and had a lot of traffic leaving. was back to work at 6am Monday, absolutely wrecked, but present.

[stuartinmn]

Last year I had to replace the odometer gears in my M535i, this year it was the gears in my 325ix. Once again, https://www.odometergears.com came through. They shipped them super fast (I placed the order late on Friday and they were in my mailbox on Monday) and they worked perfectly.

[HayekFan]

[/quote]
Most cars these days run on sewing machine oil or WD-40. Gotta stock what sells the most
[/quote]

Yep. I was recently at Valvoline for an oil change on another vehicle and they didn't have 10W-40.

[LarryM]

Last week I finally installed all the front end parts I've had sitting around since accumulating them over the past 6 months: New BMW upper control arms (purchased from Schmiedmann sans the bushings), Lemforder lower control arms (aluminum, for E32/E34), BMW center link, and Lemforder tie rods and idler arm. I also purchased modified 750i UCA bushings from Korman and had those pressed into the UCAs.

The car didn't really need most of this work; however, upon disassembly I discovered the old UCA bushings were failing even though according to my records a PO had them replaced about 30K miles (and 15 years) ago. I know they're are a weak point in these cars but I suspect maybe the last installer hadn't loaded the suspension before torquing down the through-bolts.

Got the car aligned Wednesday and I plan on enjoying it on a spirited drive through the canyons this weekend!