MyE28.com

Afternoon all,

I've had an '84 533i for about ten years now and have lurked on the site many times, frequently falling asleep on the couch reading old posts. Big THANK YOU for building and maintaining this resource. Its fantastic. The car is mostly running great, but lately has developed an idle issue that is well covered in the forum, so I've begun sorting it out using the Base-lining recommendations from this site to organize the work. I have rebuilt several old motorcycles, but this car is an order of magnitude more complex. That said, it still comes down to air, fuel, and spark, right?

As I dig into the car, I have noticed something in Real Oem and for which I have not been able to find an answer via searching the forum. In a couple of spots, Real Oem shows a part in the diagram which includes diagram reference number, but the number is "greyed" out and there is no corresponding part description or part number listed below the diagram. For instance the evaporator valve #25 in this diagram, and also part #29 in the same diagram-

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpa ... Id=16_0097

What is going on there? Presumably this is a way of conveying specific information, but I have found no way of decoding it. When something is NLA, it says so, when some part number has been updated, it also says so. There are other instance of this. As it happens, my car has that evaporator valve, wired to a sensor which in turn is also greyed out on this page - (though in my case it is a wired sensor and does not have the hose setup). The greyed out bit is #4 in this diagram -

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showpa ... Id=11_0712

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Hell, thank you regardless.

Andrew

Annoyingly, the greyed out parts are typically found on other years/models of the car. If you're looking at a 535i, try switching your search to a 533i or a 528i and you may find the number you're looking for.

yes and/or looking at the euro model may have the non-greyed out part number

Thanks guys. Interesting. Following your thoughts, I now note that if I plug in my VIN, and go to that diagram, it is as I described, greyed out and not listed below the diagram. However, if I get to the same diagram without the VIN, but instead using the prompts about years, model, etc, then the part is is fully there. Both ways indicate the car is American version, which as a 533i makes sense. Just a wrinkle in the algorithim I guess.

I don't need any of these parts, just looking to fully understand the information better as I research.

Often the grayed out numbers on Realoem are in fact shown on a different page. I'm pretty good on working it, but not one of the experts but I couldn't find it, but I bet it's there somewhere. Sometimes it's on a completely different page than what you expect, "engine cooling" has some oddball stuff on it that are in no way related to the cooling system. I'll give you a search tip though, on 533s it's an electric purge valve, if you're looking for what I think you'll looking for. So it might be under something electrical. Not saying it is, and Realoem while invaluable isn't perfect.

http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/ is another online parts catalog you can try.