Kouks e34 complete rebuild

[kouks]

1 - Replaced driver side fog light and both bulbs, no more fog light warning.

2 - New Meyle coolant level switch stopped working, constant coolant low warning, bled system only coolant coming out, so not that. For now I shorted the pigtail so it will not annoy us with the warning. Get a new switch in the near future.

3 - Aux fan will not come on in low mode. Fan runs fine with direct power. Discovered the low fan module is good, but socket 86 not powered from the battery. Tracing wires to find the problem. I hate electrical work.

[kouks]

1 - New VCG, I guess I disturbed the other new one I put in too much during the inspection of the oil pressur problem and had leaks in the aft section dripping onto the exhaust pipes and smoking/smelling.

2 - Oil level sensor was also leaking, drained oil, used black gasket maker and fixed that.

3 - Used the troubleshooting guide in Bentley which pointed to a bad aux fan temp switch on the radiator, replaced that.

4 - Replacement rear seat arrived today, looks good. Will go in after the window tinting is done.

[locknload]

Hey Kouks,
FYI, an oil analysis is fairly inexpensive and will usually tell you if there is microscopic metal in the oil and what the alloy is. Tin/copper would point to bearings, aluminum -block, oil pump etc, iron- rings, etc. Would also tell you if you have coolant.

[kouks]

Hey Kouks,
FYI, an oil analysis is fairly inexpensive and will usually tell you if there is microscopic metal in the oil and what the alloy is. Tin/copper would point to bearings, aluminum -block, oil pump etc, iron- rings, etc. Would also tell you if you have coolant.

Yea, I've thought about it, but you know when you have the feeling of you just don't want to know...May still do it for completeness.

1 - Charged AC system, works fine with 40deg air coming from vents. Amazing for an original 22 yr old system with still original seals.

2 - Leak from oil level sensor continued today, so resealed it. Checked possibility of leaks from filter housing or oil dipstick tube but those were fine. Hope this works this time.

3 - Aux fan is working fine

4 - Removed ACS warning lamp from display temporarily. Daughter is taking her driving test in the car tomorrow and everything needs to be working, so disconnected lamp so no questions from the DMV person.

Two questions:

1 - If I replace the DME, does it need re-coding? I placed another DME in the car today but it would not start. Back to original DME and started fine.

2 - Filled with gas first time since it started driving. With a nearly empty tank, soon as I inserted the hose alot of pressure relieved from the tank and fuel sprayed out. Fuel pump assembly is about 5 yrs old. Some check valve stuck somewhere?? EDIT - Read the charcoal canister is the most likely culprit. Got a spare from the JY so thats going in soon.

[AHenry014]

Being an '95 car, you have EWSII. It requires EWS recoding if going to a different ECU. On the other hand, you can convert to the red label 413 by cutting pin 66. It is documented multiple places around here. Why are you swapping the ECU?

[kouks]

Being an '95 car, you have EWSII. It requires EWS recoding if going to a different ECU. On the other hand, you can convert to the red label 413 by cutting pin 66. It is documented multiple places around here. Why are you swapping the ECU?

Well, I've replaced nearly every sensor and the darn thing still is running rich, so I was considering the DME. However, now that I figured the charcoal canister is probably clogged, that may be why I'm getting rich conditions or that fuel smell too.


%#$(&^%*^(& DANG OIL LEVEL SENSOR STILL LEAKING...What the *()&%&*()**(&!!. I think I'm going to the JY and getting one off the scrap e34, maybe the housing on it is cracked.

Daughter passed the driving test BTW. CA roads are now dangerous...actually we have plenty of fruits and nuts out here already.

So I got this fairly nice center panel with no cracks and wanted to replace mine that is crack city. Also came with a pristine shifter with no cracks, both from a forum member. Problem is, now I realize I have the ASC switch cutout on my panel. Is there a way to make this work or do I need a different panel? If so, if anyone has a nice panel with a cutout we can do an even swap if able.

[kouks]

1 - Tinted windows. 35% front, 50% rear



2 - Replaced driver seat. Used some 3M leather repair kit to fill in some minor cracks. With a bit of practice that stuff is not bad at all, lets see how long it lasts. Hardest part was matching the color. I used the rear pocket of the old seat, and when I fixed the replacement seat the color was a bit too much on the grey rather than brown side. But not bad for $8.99.

[kouks]

Feel almost defeated today.

1 - Having an issue with a battery draw. Found it to be the dome light, but not specifically the light itself, the door is slightly open (about 1-2mm) and I think the close switch is not always fully depressed. Some time ago I had a lock problem and replaced the driver door latch with one from a '92 I think, but the door was a bit open. So today I got one from a '95 from another forum member, replaced it, and still the same issue. Its not the latch. I live in a windy area and one day the wind took the door and slammed it open and snapped the door metal near the keep assembly near the hinges. I got it welded, but the welder had to ad a 1/16 in plate in the area. I think that is keeping the door from closing all the way. If not that, then the hinges may have bent slightly during that event. For now the solution is to keep the dome light switch in the OFF position all the time.

2 - Have an issue with the driver window, rear driver side window, and sunroof. When either window goes down, no problem. When the rear window goes up, the sunroof tilts up. When the driver window goes up, the sunroof tilts up, AND the rear window goes down. I figured one of the motors was having electrical issues (rear motor was not working well on the way up) so I replaced both front and back motors and regulators. No luck. Tried all combinations of old and replacement regulators and motors, still no luck. The workaround is to press both the driver and rear window switches to the up position and the windows will go up normally without affecting each other or the sunroof. There has to be an electrical load issue somewhere, looking at wiring diagrams tonight to figure something out. Cleaned the window switch assembly some time ago to solve this, but no luck either.

3 - Found a white wire snapped in the trunk (the bundle on the left support for the lid) and soldered back together. No idea what it did, but its fixed. Sometimes its the little victories that count.

Well, this also gave me the chance to repair all the broken clips on the door panels, so not a complete loss. About 5 hours of work...

[kouks]

Found Relay Module in JY e34, replaced with mine, windows work perfect. Thanks to Shogun who showed me where to find wiring diagrams other than the ones in Bentley. Driver window, sunroof and rear driver side window on same circuit going into Relay Module under rear seat.

[kouks]

Busy day...

1- New rear brakes (Ate rotor and pads from CarQuest that have been in my parts bin for 10 yrs) and and rear Pitman arm (Meyle).
2- New rear shocks, rubber spring seats, shock mount, and rubber stop (all Meyle), only original part is the dust cover. Springs are 535i OE replacements on the 525i. If you are wondering if they are different, yes they are. The 535i springs are 22 mm shorter. They are also wound tighter on the top 1/3 of the spring.
3- Replacement rear seats. Interior re-do almost complete. Need a new wood piece for the shifter panel and need new plastic trim for the top of the seat belts on the rear seat. They were all cracked up before this job and broke to pieces as I tried to remove them.
4- Painted rear window deck, but its too brown/tan, need to repaint as more Parchment. Maybe Michael's has a better color.

About 6 hours of work in the driveway. I hate using those "shadetree mechanic" spring compressors. When I was on the military base the Auto Hobby shop had a spring compressor that worked in less than half the time. But, deal with what you have.







Now I have one possible issue. The car rear is definitely lower, if you check a view in post #182 and the photo below, it is lower. Unfortunately I did not measure the prior ride height to report how much lower it is, I'm guessing about 20mm or about 8/10 of an inch.



However, I think the negative camber is too great at the rear axle. Is this normal or not? Is there a way to adjust the camber? If I go to 235 or 245 size tires I'm afraid there will be too much wear on the inside of the tires.




NEXT PROJECT: Front suspension

[KSEADUB]

That back seats lookin comfy!


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[kouks]

That back seats lookin comfy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They were in the garage for over a month still wrapped. When I took them out to install I was surprised how soft the leather felt. Previous owner must have taken good care of the leather or maybe garaged the car. I did have to swap the center armrest from my old ones to these, there was a pressed in stress area on the replacement seats.

Wish my 740iL back seats were this soft, it would make date night even better...

[kouks]

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...pping-Seal-Fix

Used the above thread and fixed my shrunken rear door weatherstrip. The local JY had a 95 e34 with Parchment interior, most of it trashed, but was planning to use the weatherstripping off it. I got there and the car, along with plenty of others was gone. The owner told me he sent it to the crusher, along with a Calypso e38 next to it. Still plenty of good parts on those cars. Had to use weather stripping from a e39 Touring.



Was planning to do the rear trailing arm link bushings this weekend, but with Mom's day and family coming into town, it will be next weekend. At least I washed it. Can't wait to get this car painted. I love Calypso, especially during sunset, the color really stands out.

[kouks]

Well, I was trying to do the RTAB this weekend but ran into a snag cause Bentley says ADC+T systems require special tools to disconnect the brake lines.

So I moved to the front axle while I figure that out.

Plan was to replace all front suspension, including the steering links and all new brakes.

Got the front bearings complete, removed struts and took them to a local tire shop with a bunch of "good 'ol boys" that help me out to remove the springs. I plan to replace mine with M5 springs instead. Got the springs off, only to discover the struts are complete junk. They are only about 60,000 miles old. Used to take it to a local BMW indy and I guess he used crap when he replaced them. So now at a standstill until the new struts get here...and I'm going on a 4 day trip tomorrow. My daughter is going to love it when I tell her she doesn't have a car this week and has to borrow mom's Burb.

I got the front bearings done at least. EDIT - Oops, forgot to install the dust shield first, well, off they come again.



Difference from standard to M5 Springs about 1 3/4 inches. That's just spring dimension, the M5 is stiffer and should not drop as much in the car. Any problems with camber lowering car this much??

[kouks]

Well, got the front end done

1. New strut cartridges (standard Gabriel shocks)
2. New strut mounts, rubber upper and lower linings, and new bump stop
3. Replaced standard springs with OE M5 springs
4. New Meyle sway bar dogbones
5. Drag strut and side brace are relatively new
6. New Bearings (BMG)
7. New Bosch QuietRide brakes

The car does not look any lower than before, even though I measured the M5 springs as about 1 3/4 inches shorter than standard (but they were stiffer) I'll let the car settle a few days and see what happens.




The ride is really nice and smooth, bumps are not harsh at all with the M5 springs.

Next, steering links.

[kouks]

Well, it appears the folks at Photobucket.com may be killing our third party posting of photos on the forum.

In the meantime, took the car for a 420 mile round trip, driving 7 hours, averaging 70 mph with runs up to 90 mph and two 2,000 ft climbs up Tehachapi pass and Kings Canyon taking my daughter to camp. Car drove like a champ. I was having sporadic trans issues with it thumping into R or D after starting, but that did not appear during the drive. It may be the new trans fluid loosening old gunk in the trans and causing sporadic interference with the Valve Body, don't know for sure until it reappears again. I'll be changing the fluid one more time.

I did learn one thing, the M5 springs are too tight for my driving pleasure. Yes, they are great for performance, but after spending 7 hours on them they really got to be tiring. During rough parts of the highway at 70 mph it felt like the tires were going over a washboard at times. I purchase a new set of Vogtland springs that will be installed this week. H&R was the other option, but Vogtland about 10% tighter than stock, and H&R are about 40%-50% tighter, so too much for me, especially if I'm going to install 235/45/17 tires. More to follow on the subject on a thread I strarted specifically with the suspension/wheel/tire subject.

[kouks]

Rear Trailing Arms removed using Bentley instructions. Bushings are being installed by a local shop.

[kouks]

Front Suspension

New control arms (Meyle)
New drag links (Meyle)
New idler arm, center link, steering links (Lemforder)

Rear Suspension

New RTABs (pressed in by local shop) (Febi)

New Vogtland Springs

I swapped out the M5 delete springs (front M5 OE and rear 535 OE) with Vogtland springs. Have not done the calculations yet, but my impression is that the M5 springs were about 30-40% stiffer then standard 525i springs. The Vogtland are measured at about 10% stiffer than standard. The M5 springs were too tight and would not allow the lightweight 525i to drop much if at all, however with the Vogtland springs the car has dropped nicely, only about an inch of space between the fender and the tires, with a small forward rake. Looks as good as my e38 on sport springs.

Initial ride impression with the Vogtland and standard 205/65/15 tires is close to OE, but some sportiness. Feels much like my e38 on Sport springs and 18" Staggered MPARS. Even over a washboard local road the car drove very well with no harshness. Did not go over any large magnitude bumps so can't comment on them bottoming out, as some may have said.

Still needs front end alignment.

The shift seal on the trans started leaking about a month ago. I redid ths during the rebuild, but for some reason it was damaged. Did not want to drop the trans to do it again so tried to do it with everything in place and using a small screwdriver and pick. Failed miserably, now leaking worse. I think I'm just going to take it to a local indy and have them do it, I'm tired of wrestling with it.

I'll post photos of the Vogtland spring stance when I get photos in the daytime.

[sugaki]

Yeah sucks about Photobucket, I had enough and downloaded all my albums and deleted my pictures.

[kouks]

Untitled by Bill Koukourikos, on Flickr

Stance on Vogtland springs. Standard shocks, standard 15" wheels with 205/65/15 Michelin tires. Plan is to go to 17" Style 32 wheels with 235/45/17 tires, as per the OE 540s were.

[KSEADUB]

Looks great! Love the rake.


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[kouks]

[IMG]Untitled by Bill Koukourikos, on Flickr[/IMG]

Test fit of the Volvo lip. It looks really cool, but there is no way I can operate this as a DD this low. I don't even think a Rieger lip can work effectively. To be practical I'd have to replace the front bumper with an M5 OE bumper. Good luck finding one of those at a reasonable price. For now I think staying with the plain bumper will have to suffice unless I can find another lip mod that is more practical.

EDIT: Just searched and found this on Amazon...https://www.amazon.com/1989-1995-Dur.../dp/B0019BUIKG

Anyone have opinions on this bumper? I think I had one of these on an e36 before it got totaled. Not OE quality, but painted it looks just like the real thing.

[kouks]

[IMG]Untitled by Bill Koukourikos, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by Bill Koukourikos, on Flickr[/IMG]

Style 32 with 235/45/17 and front end alignment complete!...need BMW wheel caps though

LAST MAJOR STEP REMAINING: Paint

[95525ibob]

did you still need the shifter surround with the button cut out? I need one with no cut out for a manual

great write ups and the car looks great

[kouks]

Well, I was hoping all I had was paint remaining in the rebuild process, but nooooooooo.......

Trans started acting up and is on the way out. After a couple weeks of contemplating, I bit the bullet...ordered a reman trans from Autozone for $2k. 3 yr/75,000 mile warrantee.

I had 4 choices

1. Used trans, about $500 and roll the dice
2. Rebuild myself (I did the ZF on my e38), about $1000 no warrantee
3. Reman, about $2000 3yr warrantee
4. Local shop rebuild, about $2,700-3,200, 2 yr warrantee.

I'm not too upset at the car since the trans did last me 242,000 trouble free miles, it was due to die soon enough, but the cost does hurt.

Since my daughter is driving it I thought the quickest way back on the road to reliable driving was a reman.

The car is worth about $2k itself, but I've already spent about $3k during the rebuild so this is a labor of love, not common sense, as if any of us on this forum have any sense left when it comes to our cars anyway.