A little help

[silver50]

I've bought a Silver E34 525i 1995 today with manual transmission.I think it's been some time since the car was serviced(23.000 miles/5 years ago!)It was serviced at our local BMW Agent right up to 120,000 miles,now it's done 143,000.

It is a 24V straight 6-is it the M50 engine???

It's a little hesitant starting sometimes and occasionally idles slightly roughly.It drives perfectly and as smooth as it should however,so i'm hoping a service will cure matters.Certainly the Air Cleaner was genuine BMW and genuinely filthy!

Just to save me a little effort could someone point me to where the fuel filter is,and does the thin top engine cover come off to reveal the 'plugs?

Also reccomendations on what oil to use would be helpful.

So,gonna change oil/filter,fuel filter,plugs and air cleaner-anything else I could/should do/check?

Many many thanks

Hope to have it running very sweetly very soon!

[thejlevie]

Yes, the engine would be an M50B25.

The cover just above the exhaust headers must be removed to to get to the coils & plugs. By this time the coil boots are probably pretty well fried and should be replaced when you change plugs. If you see oil on any of the plugs you'll also need to replace the valve cover gaskets.

At that mileage, it is close to time for a second set of pre-cat O2 sensors and well past when they should have been replaced already. Since the car was dealer serviced, you should be able to find out if (and when) they were replaced. Figure on 80k as the useful life of a set of pre-cat O2 sensors.

The hesitant start and occassional rough idle could be be a contaminated MAF or intake leak. The car is old enough for any of the various vacuum hoses, intake gaskets, injector gaskets, or CCV to be leaking.

[silver50]

Thanks for your reply,very helpful.I've had a string of BMW's but never an E34-I must say I'm quite impressed with it.I sold my 750iL last week and have been looking for an E65 7 Series,I really only bought this to tide me over.I have to say i'm 50/50 as to keeping this 5 and modding it up a bit.I nearly bought a left hand drive 3.8 M5(i'm RHD of course here)last year.I love the M Parallel wheels on the E34 and know that if I keep it I will really start spending on it,it is a very clean fresh looking car,and I probably wouldn't find much better if i'd really been on the lookout for an E34.

[abakos]

I've bought a Silver E34 525i 1995 today with manual transmission.I think it's been some time since the car was serviced(23.000 miles/5 years ago!)It was serviced at our local BMW Agent right up to 120,000 miles,now it's done 143,000.

It is a 24V straight 6-is it the M50 engine???

It's a little hesitant starting sometimes and occasionally idles slightly roughly.It drives perfectly and as smooth as it should however,so i'm hoping a service will cure matters.Certainly the Air Cleaner was genuine BMW and genuinely filthy!

Just to save me a little effort could someone point me to where the fuel filter is,and does the thin top engine cover come off to reveal the 'plugs?

Also reccomendations on what oil to use would be helpful.

So,gonna change oil/filter,fuel filter,plugs and air cleaner-anything else I could/should do/check?

Many many thanks

Hope to have it running very sweetly very soon!

Engine is actually M50TU, 95 was a VANOS year.

Fuel filter is just in front of the fuel tank on the right side, easy to change.

Under the cover you'll find the plugs, OEM are recommended!

Before you change the plugs I'd change the fuel filter and give it a healthy dose of fuel injector cleaner. Trouble starting and rough idle could be an intake leak (as stated above). You can check for that by trying to push the intake boot around and see if it changes the idle. I don't have a lot of experience trouble-shooting a bad idle...so maybe somebody else can help out with that!

For the O2 sensor...IIRC there is only one pre-cat sensor. Lots of folks change them out as a PM item, I bought one and kept it on hand until I saw signs that the old one was going bad. It's pretty easy to run a diagnostic on one.

www.bmwe34.net is a great site. Check it out and read up on your new purchase.

Welcome to the club!

[silver50]

Thanks again-Are the 02 sensors expensive??

Here's a pic I took earlier today after an afternoon of serious cleaning yesterday!Why does it always rain right after???

[abakos]

I can buy an O2 sensor for $75.89 USD, so they're not that bad.

When they start going bad your fuel economy will suffer, the computer will flop a code as well.