What your E28 Came with

[John in VA]

I knew this would cause confusion among you "purists".
How this fights its way into your brains when the words "halter top" and "girl" are involved needs a case study.
I couldn't tell you what the horse was wearing. . .although it did have a purty mouth.

"Purists?" "Our" brains? Rather than "I cherish the pictures of her with her horse wearing a halter top," writing "I cherish the pictures of her wearing a halter top with her horse" would have resulted in absolutely no confusion or comment. Back to skool...

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Mine was also very clean, inside and out. Had about 30 dollars worth of shrapnel under the rear seat, a copy of tubular bells in the tape player, and a full tank of fuel.

[jwhiii]

Detachable rear bumper. (after I got home driving from SF to Portland the bumper looked askew. I gave it a tug on the right side and it came out 2-3 inches. Pushed it back in and pulled from the center and it came off in my hands!)

Original owners manual in the plastic case with some sort of cassette tape instruction manual. Don't have a cassette player so I don't know what is on it.

Four tires with flat spots which necessitated pulling into a Les Schwab somewhere in NorCal for new tires. My initial thought was what the hell was wrong with the ABS. However after getting back to OR I stomped the brakes and the ABS worked just fine. My suspicion is the PO pulled them off of his L6 and put them on my E28.

[snakebrain]

Can anyone better this?! Stuffed under the carpets in the rear footwell. Dates to late 80s - beat that for provenance!!

NSFW

NSFW



Edited by Shawn D. to add NSFW tags!

[1st 5er]

Problems...
wore out paint,
slushbox,
trx's,
cracked dash,
leaky heater core,
etc., etc., etc.

[C.R. Krieger]

I got a rock ...

[PROJECT. E28]

Dead mouse under the rear seat. Real dead.

lol

[Mike W.]

Problems...
wore out paint,
slushbox,
trx's,
cracked dash,
leaky heater core,
etc., etc., etc.

That's more like I was thinking. Lets see,

Hole in the block. That was ok, I knew about it.
6" split in the radiator
leaky heater core
wrong and inop heater blower
dead A/C
3 of 4 power windows dead
flaky power locks
broken seat frame
Big time front end shimmy

There was more, but that's off the top of my head.

[PROJECT. E28]

Problems...
wore out paint,
slushbox,
trx's,
cracked dash,
leaky heater core,
etc., etc., etc.

That's more like I was thinking. Lets see,

Hole in the block. That was ok, I knew about it.
6" split in the radiator
leaky heater core
wrong and inop heater blower
dead A/C
3 of 4 power windows dead
flaky power locks
broken seat frame
Big time front end shimmy

There was more, but that's off the top of my head.

Holy Crap Dude!

[wkohler]

Mike, where did you get that garage queen?

[Gillis82628i]

ouch i got off relitvly scot free in that department had to replace a fog light rebuild the brake master cylinder, a new radiator cap, a couple new tyres and a rear axle boot

[Squire68]

The e28 came $1.78 in change in various places, including 33 cents and a child's handmade christmas card under the back seat.

The e24, had nearly $3 in change in various places including a nickel in the cigar lighter and several quarters under the shift console. It will occasionally blow dried leaves out the vents as I was unable to remove all of them from the intake. Also found were several dozen pumpkin seeds. Also used Kleenex under the seats.

Nothing cool other than the slight rebate though.

[ESchmitz]

I got a leaking strut, a temperamental brake light, no exhaust, torn up driver seat, ugly wheels, a TRX spare and some other little problems. On the plus side all the power seat functions work, a functioning check board, great running engine and full maintenance records. In terms of change and other random stuff my car was pretty clean except for these weird slip on rubber booties I found in the trunk.



Erik

[1st 5er]

E34T content.

These pictures ain't worth a thousand words, but they were still easier to post than pilfer through all that crap and catalog it here.
This is easily the nastiest car I've ever bought.
Thank God it was dark when I drove it the 230 miles home so I didn't have to look at all that crap.

All the little particles are cat litter, I think.
Anybody interested in buying that holster?



There's actually some good stuff down there.



This center console area cleaned up rather nicely.

[wkohler]

Wow. That car looks like it smells like a black lung. Nickname for the car, perhaps?

[Mike W.]

E34T content.

These pictures ain't worth a thousand words, but they were still easier to post than pilfer through all that crap and catalog it here.
This is easily the nastiest car I've ever bought.
Thank God it was dark when I drove it the 230 miles home so I didn't have to look at all that crap.

All the little particles are cat litter, I think.
Anybody interested in buying that holster?

To use a word the kids are all using these days, euuuuuu.

Looks like it has potential, but I can smell the smoke from here. Granted I put near zero miles on it, but it took me a year to get the smell out of an E24 one time. Looks good, but dirty.

[wkohler]

Looks like you need a beige cargo cover. I have one.

[1st 5er]

Looks like you need a beige cargo cover. I have one.

Trade it for a holster?

[wkohler]

No need for a holster.

[ilikemybike]

Those front seats look kinda tweaked. Are they?

[1st 5er]

Those front seats look kinda tweaked. Are they?

Those seats are hella twisted. Do you know how to fix them, or should I dig up the thread with the pics I made?

Yes they are, and we like them like that, NOT!


This is what I've used, but your link would be a good addition as well.

The reason the seats have the the issue is the cable housing stretches over time but the inner cable doesn't.
This causes the motor to spin but not engage the cable.
So the trick is to shorten the housing.

You need to first identify the culprit motor.
The motor for the recline option is under the front edge of the seat.

Remove the 2 rear bolts holding the seat in and slide it forward to lift the rails off the front tabs in the floor.
Leave the power all connected to the seat during the process.

Once the seat is loose and you can move it around,
lay it back into the rear seat so you can have access to the underside of the seat bottom.
You should see the motor once you do this.
There are 2 8mm bolts on each side of the motor connecting it to the holding bracket.
When you pull the motor the cables will come out of each end.

Once you have the cables loose you'll see there is the outer housing and the inner cable itself.
The inner cable is square on the end and that's what engages the motor.
The housing has a metal cap on the end, you need to heat it up and remove it.
Use the wife's pastry torch (but don't tell her), or you can use a lighter.
Heat it up and pull it off with a pair of pliers.
Once the cap is off take a razor blade and trim about 1/4" off of the outside housing.
Heat the end of the housing up again and slide the cap back on quickly before it cools down.
Repeat this process for the cable on the other end of the motor.

To get the seat even again you can either put the cables in one at a time and run the motor
or put the cable in an electric drill to run it.
Run both cables to full recline on the seat so you know they are even.
Once that's done stick the cables back in the motor and replace the motor in the bracket.
Make sure the cap on the end of the cable is all the way behind the bracket or it will pop back out.

From http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?p=809619#809619

[Coldswede]

Any good detailer has some magic spray that will make the smoke smell vanish forever

[wkohler]

Any good detailer has some magic spray that will make the smoke smell vanish forever

It doesn't work. Comes back as soon as you use the AC.

[derrith]

Any good detailer has some magic spray that will make the smoke smell vanish forever

It doesn't work. Comes back as soon as you use the AC.

Change the cabin air filter. Spray a 10% bleach solution into the blower intake vents in the engine bay with the system running. Run for a few weeks, change the cabin air filter again.

[Night Wolf]

Hmmm, I'll spare most of the problems and just leave the visual goodies (all in the sig linked build thread)

yummy carpet



yummy brake fluid



yummy motor mounts



yummy transmission mounts



a cracked oil pump causing the low oil pressure light to come on until 2000RPM as oil was being pumped back into the pan



sweet OEM floor mats!



yummy chain smokers goo













passenger door held closed with Sony Playstation AV cable (jambed latch wouldn't close)



Easy to find gas door



Who needs a main relay when some old wire works just as good?



more yummy smokers interior





Also came with a mix of 14" basketweaves and TRX, along with all 4 tires being different sizes and damaged.

Wow, looking back at those pictures - this car has really came a long way! I've since driven it to upstate NY and down to Tampa Bay Florida several times without issue. I trust it to take me anywhere. I really like this car! Some semi-current pictures from where it was.

(I recently replaced the leaking coolant expansion tank - brand new and white really makes the engine bay look better)



Cleaned up well. Fixed all the bad lights, rebuilt the cluster, upgraded the headunit (rewired the whole system, stock premium sound speakers sound excellent), painted gauge needles red, painted arm rests black, added real dash vent, did a complete deep clean to the interior. I bought an Mtech 1 wheel that I'll probably put on my e30, then put that tri-spoke Sport wheel in the e28, it also has a Z3 1.9 shifter for nice throws.



This picture was taken in Lakeland, FL when I picked up my new (reman) MB 6spd transmission for my Jeep. In the trunk (in this pic) was the new transmission, LuK clutch kit, battery core and a bunch of other vacation stuff, it was the Panzer parts express!



My car came with a whole lot of PO hack jobs and filth... but the darn thing has always been a Southern car and is nearly totally rust free. It passed 275k 2 days ago, then I just took it on a 500+ mile trip. Sure is fun

[Night Wolf]

Any good detailer has some magic spray that will make the smoke smell vanish forever

My car was heavily loaded with chain smokers nasty junk.

The real fix was to nearly completely strip the interior (dash and headliner stayed) I pressured washed the carpet then painted it. Replaced the seats with better condition junkyard seats and did a very, very deep cleaning on every interior surface. Took out the A/C vents and cleaned as much of the ducts as I could, cleaned the blower motor etc... then kept open bowls of fresh ground coffee in the car with the windows closed to absorb the nastiness and give a better smell in the car.

Now, you'd never know the amount of filth that was in the car, not a hint of smoke at all. But it sure wasn't fun... and was quite nasty...

[oldskool]

When I was valet parking in the late 80's we would fight over the Porsches but seriously strike blows if a smokers car came in!
Even the woman driving the Fiero who always wanted to squeeze my junk got better service than the smokers. She reeked of Giorgio.

[vinceg101]

I guess I too have been lucky with both my cars; pretty clean and mostly empty of debris. The 535 even came with the BMW Cassette Cleaning Tape package.

But in the M535 I am finding an abnormal amount of what I can think is some sort of bird seed mix underneath all the carpet and padding, in some of the A/C vents, and in the seats. I keep finding more as install the new stereo.

[mechacode]

The trunk held some various spare parts that look like they wouldn't have come off the car, an oem wind deflector for the sunroof, the wrench/holder for the rim's center knockoff, and a binder for someone's lawncare service. It had contracts, account infos, business cards, and a cell phone straight out of 2001.

[psychwarfare]

Let's see...

2 new primed front fenders still in their cardboard
$3 or so in change stashed in the ashtray
Strut brace (might sell this)
Leaves inside
Pollen caked on outside
2 TRX M+S 45 tires with a good amount of meat left (might sell these)
A small package of tissues in the passenger door pocket