What did you do to your E28 today?

General conversations about BMW E28s and the people who own them.
Bigdoug92
Posts: 55
Joined: Aug 05, 2015 10:28 AM
Location: Chattanooga, TN

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Bigdoug92 »

Did a pair of front hubs and turned some rotors over the weekend. Still minimal vibrations at high speeds and pulls to the right. Hopefully an alighnment should fix that.

Anyone ever set up a hydro E-brake setup on their e28?
Ordnator
Posts: 552
Joined: Aug 31, 2015 7:34 PM
Location: Halifax NS

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Ordnator »

Fitted Clear front indicators and clear side repeaters to the Zobelbraun Eta.

Regards.

Mick
dsmith
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Joined: Jan 20, 2012 12:52 AM
Location: Charleston, SC

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by dsmith »

I made some progress while it snowed. Sometime I'll make a thread. I terminated my cut power window wires, rewrapped the wiring with some cool cloth wire tape, installed some black carpet, replaced the heater core and resistor, intalled the heater box and replaced the gas pedal linkage bushings, since they were awol.

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rvnmaniak
Posts: 92
Joined: Aug 31, 2012 9:26 PM
Location: westminster, md

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by rvnmaniak »

Used the paperclip trick to reset my service light. God this car drives like a magic carpet......
Collin380
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep 16, 2012 2:29 PM
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Fl

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Collin380 »

Installed H1 Hartge front spoiler and Euro headlights...

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Collin380
Posts: 333
Joined: Sep 16, 2012 2:29 PM
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Fl

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Collin380 »

Installed 17" Hartge Type A wheels...

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mattphillips
Posts: 3
Joined: Aug 26, 2013 7:56 PM

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by mattphillips »

The 88 528e we got to replace my sister's wrecked 86 528e decided to stall on her in our driveway last week and not restart. After unsuccessfully troubleshooting it, we reassembled it and it started....so my dad drove it around the block and made sure it wasn't just a fluke. We let her drive it to school yesterday and when she got home my dad was trying to find the exact problem and got the car to recreate the problem: he jiggled the coil wires and one of them was not even close to being a solid connection. Just to be sure, my mom drove it today so that it wouldn't quit on the 2 hour trip my sister has this evening. I was disappointed with the lack of clear troubleshooting procedures. Makes me want to make a new forum for people in the future. :x
Ordnator
Posts: 552
Joined: Aug 31, 2015 7:34 PM
Location: Halifax NS

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Ordnator »

Dropped off a set of front and rear euro bumpers in primer along with a set of euro head light frames at the powder coaters.

Regards,

Mick
Nesset
Posts: 67
Joined: Aug 31, 2016 9:42 PM
Location: Mammoth Lakes, CA

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Nesset »

Very needed drive to the fuel pumps. Haven't put gas in it in nearly 3 months because it was sitting dormant for the snow... (However I would start it up every two days.)

Remembered why I love this thing when I rolled the windows down and put the sunroof up. Yeah, it's a lovely car.

Fixed my radio losing power issue as well, turns out I had some really corroded fuses and each time I would touch the brake pedal it would loose power. Yay for working radio's and cruise control!
Federico
Posts: 567
Joined: Sep 16, 2013 6:38 PM
Location: Argentina / California

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Federico »

One of the factory injectors on the 528i burned out (and the others weren't great), so I replaced them with a set of Bosch 0280156372 EV6 ones.
Autohaus offers them as a replacement for the 0280150714 part: http://www.autohausaz.com/search/produc ... utton.y=12

Imagesubir fotos a internet

Imagesubir fotos a internet

I'm quite happy with them: better warm starting, smoother idle and acceleration, top end power is now correct and the pinging I had is gone. I even had to dial down the idle speed (this is an L-jet; no ICV); it went up 200 rpm with the new parts.
davintosh
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Location: Sioux Falls, SD
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by davintosh »

Drove it (to the grocery store, and took the long way home.) I noticed some slimy white goop on the trunk lid/spoiler, and cleaned that up a bit too; no idea what it was, but it was kind of disgusting.

This is the first time I've driven it more than a couple kilometers since before Christmas. It's also the first time the roads have been clear of ice & snow & deicer since then. I think that's a valid reason to leave it sit.
tig
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by tig »

davintosh wrote:Drove it (to the grocery store, and took the long way home.) I noticed some slimy white goop on the trunk lid/spoiler, and cleaned that up a bit too; no idea what it was, but it was kind of disgusting.
Reminds me, I forgot to post this pic of the mug a friend gave me last week:

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See also: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... mechaphile
e28Sean
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by e28Sean »

davintosh wrote:I noticed some slimy white goop on the trunk lid/spoiler...
Sounds like birdshit.
davintosh
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by davintosh »

e28Sean wrote:
davintosh wrote:I noticed some slimy white goop on the trunk lid/spoiler...
Sounds like birdshit.
Nope. I did figure it out though; it was white mistletoe berries. There are a number of mistletoe plants growing in the trees near where I park, and the berries are pretty delicate. I suppose the windy day we had a couple days before I drove it shook some loose, and they popped open. Gross stuff.

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BTW; who knew that mistletoe is actually a parasite? I didn't know that before coming here & seeing the stuff growing in trees.

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e28Sean
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by e28Sean »

Not so much something I did to the e28, but rather to the garage the e28 lives in when it's resting... I started re-hanging some of the wall decor in my freshly repainted garage.
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davintosh
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by davintosh »

Washed it after finding these; marder tracks. At least it was only crawling around on the outside, and not chewing up stuff under the hood. Nasty varmints.

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Shawn D.
Beamter
Beamter
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Shawn D. »

I opened up a shipment from reesesboot -- a full set of chrome Euro bumpers! OK, that's not a "did to my E28," but a "for my E28." :)
wkohler
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by wkohler »

Yay! Only 5 more years before they're on the car! :lol:
Shawn D.
Beamter
Beamter
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Shawn D. »

wkohler wrote:Yay! Only 5 more years before they're on the car! :lol:
:rofl:
dsmith
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Joined: Jan 20, 2012 12:52 AM
Location: Charleston, SC

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by dsmith »

More progress today. Manual window regs, manual steering box, brake lines and new tires.
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Last edited by dsmith on Feb 25, 2017 12:42 PM, edited 1 time in total.
wkohler
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by wkohler »

Is that the 70 turn lock to lock manual box?
Karl Grau
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Joined: Mar 10, 2006 7:34 PM
Location: Sandy Eggo

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by Karl Grau »

wkohler wrote:Is that the 70 turn lock to lock manual box?
It'll be alright with a Brodie Knob.

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dsmith
Posts: 2362
Joined: Jan 20, 2012 12:52 AM
Location: Charleston, SC

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by dsmith »

wkohler wrote:Is that the 70 turn lock to lock manual box?
It is close to 5 turns! If I hate it, the M5 box will go in. I just had to try it, though. Should make TOTD interesting.
a
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Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: Marshfield ,MA

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by a »

I'm so effen pissed off. The Camry was totaled Wed night. Lady ran a stop sign in a driving rain and t-boned. A passenger side hit . My son was nicked by some glass but there was nobody in the passenger's seat thank God. The 528e is doing fine filling in. Until, last night. I was going after take out Chinese and it wouldn't start. The battery is weak and I cranked until it was obviously not gonna fire Not a single pop. I suspect crank sensor or ECU Motronic 1.1 . It has been an intermittent gremlin I have been half heartedly chasing for a couple yrs. I put the charger on it when I made coffee. I'll willing to bet the damn thing will start with a fresh charge. I hope it doesn't. That will mean something has failed completely. Those are waaay easier to find and fix.

Yup lit right off. I'm going down town to get a new battery. Its easier to replace than anything else.
RonW
Posts: 5321
Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
Location: Long Island, NY

Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by RonW »

Tightened the power steering belt. The belt started to squeak loudly on the way home from work yesterday, so I pulled into a parking lot and tried to tighten it. It was really loose - I could turn the pump by hand. Tightening it should have been easy thanks to BMW's slick adjusting mechanism, but it turned out the adjusting bar had stripped its teeth, so what should have been easy was impossible at night in a parking lot.

Today I dismantled it, took a chisel and power drill to the mangled teeth on the adjusting bar, and reassembled. This time the mechanism worked, so I'm good to go, for now. I ordered a new adjusting bar, just in case. It's part # 12 31 1 719 992. RealOEM claims $5.93, but it's really more like $30.
dsmith
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Joined: Jan 20, 2012 12:52 AM
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by dsmith »

Put on tail light gaskets, fuel and cooling hoses, vacuum lines, tune up parts and front seats. Fired it up and ran smoooth.

Couldn't test drive, since I only had a gallon of coolant.
e28Sean
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by e28Sean »

I've been putting up with a bad coolant level sender for a while now, which means my Coolant light on the check panel has been perpetually on. ...Which is annoying.

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So, today, I decided to do something about it. I searched the forum and learned that the sender is a float and reed switch arrangement, based on a magnet in the float. The float feels just like a wad of plastic to me, but, this site has never steered me wrong before.

I pulled the sender out, and jumpered the connector, to confirm that the issue was the sender itself. With the connector jumpered, I got no warning light. So, knowing it was the sender, I pulled it apart.

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...and found a metric whacktonne of corrosion. The entire bottom end of the guts had been entirely corroded away, and came out of the sender casing as a bunch of grunchy bits of grot.

Firstly, I whipped out the soldering iron and restored the connection between the bottom end of the reed switch and the other leg of the circuit.
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As expected, this did not even come close to working. :?
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So, now knowing I need to replace the sender, I decided to just short the bastard internally to get rid of the damn warning light.
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SUCCESS!
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To be clear, this is a short term bodge. I will be replacing the sender in the near future.
wkohler
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by wkohler »

Here's a tip for when you get the new sender. Use your original nut. The new ones don't have enough threads and do not seal. Good luck!
e28Sean
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by e28Sean »

I also got off my lazy ass and replaced the dead LED in my left reverse light.
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wkohler wrote:Here's a tip for when you get the new sender. Use your original nut. The new ones don't have enough threads and do not seal. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip wkohler. For this and all the other tips you've given me here over the years, I might owe you a beer or two. :p
a
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Joined: Feb 12, 2006 12:00 PM
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Re: What did you do to your E28 today?

Post by a »

A working Low coolant switch can save you a head gasket. I have had 528e s for 20yrs and have never had a head off. :D

It appears that the low battery. was OK for daily use. Then it needed a charge every couple weeks. Also car needed to warm up to run without malaise and stalling. What the malaise was was a battery losing a valiant fight to function on only 5 cells. 12 volts is a nominal value. 12 volt stuff gets iffy around .10. XX V. I just doubled the 528e's value too. :D
Last edited by a on Feb 19, 2017 9:33 PM, edited 1 time in total.
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