1994 540iA Work Log

[Sir Montalbon]

Picked this up a few weeks ago off of eBay to make into a reliable DD. I want to get rid of my W124 and Mazda Millenia so that I can drive something I like and also know how to fix.


It's a 1994 540iA with about 165kmi on the clock. The paint doesn't look quite as pretty up close as it does in the auction pics, but the car is also very dirty after sitting for a while and then being shipped. I'm most definitely not a fan of the wheels or the crappy eBay mods. I've already removed the $30 HID's and Layne has offered me the b40 half of an M60 airbox to replace the CAI. Just got to confirm I have my old b30 box in the basement. I then removed the high performance "strut brace." Lol, t'was just a single 1/16" piece of aluminum that could touch the engine with the push of an index finger. Also got rid of the LED license plate lights and plugged in the brake pad sensor. That got rid of all the Check Control warnings except for the coolant level, but I have a new sensor on order (old one metered as shorted out).



















Moving along, I tore into the top end and removed the belts, hoses, radiator, water pump, and all intake hardware to see what needs to be refreshed. Here's where I'm at so far:



From what I saw, mechanical plans consist of a complete intake/cooling system refresh. The water pump impeller was plastic, along with the thermostat housing. The thermostat was a 95C model, but I'm going to switch to the 85C model. The valley pan looks untouched, and all 4 knock sensors are cracked or completely broken. Going with a Mishimoto aluminum radiator from the M3 in place of the OEM M60 one. It's a lot of money to spend on a radiator I might not need, but it sounds like cheap peace of mind to my ears. I just got done placing this humongous order for all the rest:

Front TB to Manifold Gasket	11611729727
Rear PCV to Manifold Gasket	11611729728
Injector O-rings (16)	13641730767
Intake Temp Sensor gaskets	7119963150
	26111225404
	11611736013
Intake Gaskets (4)	11611433328
Valve Cover Gaskets Right	11129069871
Valve Cover Gaskets Left	11129069872
PCV Plate	11617501562
PCV Plate Cap	11611747085
PCV Plate Cap	11611437694
PCV Oil Return Pipe O-rings Front	11151747978
PCV Oil Return Pipe O-rings Rear	11151736140
Coolant crossover gasket (2)	11531731833
Coolant Pipe O-rings (2 each)	11531710055
	11531710048
Thermostat (85deg)	11531729720
Water Pump	11510007042
Thermostat Housing	11531720173
Lower Radiator Hose	11531741418
Upper radiator hoses	11531741405
Belt (PS, ALT, WP)	11281702898
Belt (AC)	11287833266
Knock Sensors (4)	12141702163
Valley Pan/Gasket	11141742042
M3 Mishismoto AL radiator
Left radiator mount	17111709332
Right Radiator mount	17111709333
Booster to TB plastic pipe	34331161511
Booster grommets (2)	34311163464
Coolant level sensor	61311378320

Cosmetic plans are to swap the Hammans for the throwing stars I got from MikeDay, Euro trim, replace black window trim with chrome, replace black kidneys with chrome, swap the beat up headlights for the US versions from my touring, and replace all the door trim with flat black pieces (someone painted all the trim gloss black). Needs a new front bumper, door trims and side skirts, amber turn signals front and rear, and last but not least, a set of Mtech springs I picked up from Leonator. I have almost every bit of this stuff in a pile of parts, so I'll just need some time to get it all installed.

Going for a mostly stock look and ride. I really just want something comfortable to putt around town and go to work in, but that I also enjoy to drive and work on. The Mellenia and W124 aren't cutting it in those departments. Something like this picture, courtesy of Google Images:





One issue I've noticed after tearing everything apart is that my right front cylinder seems much cleaner than all the others (suspect cylinder parts are on the left):








As you can see in the pics, on that cylinder the intake manifold is much cleaner, the spark plug almost looks unused, and the tip of the injector is much cleaner than the rest. I havent' gotten a chance to hook up my meter and run any test yet, but I suspect it may be a bad injector (or wiring) or a bad coil (or wiring) since I would think that if it was low compression, the spark plug and ports would look a little more used. My diagnosis skills have come a long way, but I still bow down to some of the far more experienced here. Any ideas from what I have to show at the moment?

[Waitedog]

Check out my videos for my repairs on my 1994 540i I am working on...they may be useful to you. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn6...Vbi4D-lYJJbf0g

Be prepared for seized bolts on the water accumulator and the valley pan gasket.

- - - Updated - - -

don't forget to buy six new bolts for the water accumulator. 20 new bolts for the valley pan. Two new temp senders on the passenger side of the water accumulator, tranny cooling lines for the driver and passenger side as well as new hoses for the ones that go to the auxiliary water pump.
Oh and then there are the torx bolts holding the throttle body together: mine needed to be replaced.
New scuff shield for your batter cable (8 bucks at nappa). All new rubber grommets for the valve cover bolts. 2 new gaskets for the water accumulator.
And I would suggest all new bmw clamps as well.
Once you get it back together you don't want to be going back in there for any reason.

[coolvegase34]

looks nice. subscribed for updates

[stoney85]

Don't fit the mishimoto radiator, its too small for the 540i, just suitable for the M30, the M60 radiator is thicker and wider than the M30 radiator, I'd say you are going backwards in cooling efficiency with that setup, it's about 150mm shorter in width.

Hit them up and see if they can make one that's the correct width for the E34 chassis.


You need euro bumper trims too

[S61Dan]

That paint looks really nice!

[atl530i]

Looks great Cliff. I'll send some pics of that bumper as soon as possible. Been busy.

[ShapeShifter]

Oi vhey! That strut brace.


Doesn't look like a bad starting point.

[SVD115]

540 rad is massive compared to m30
I've got one in my 535 and it was a tight fit!

[ShapeShifter]

I had zero issues with the e36 M3 mishimoto radiator paired with the Volvo fan while in 105deg stop and go rush hour traffic.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...onicles/page22




http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...onicles/page20

Here is my parts list when I refeshed
Auxiliary Fan Switch – 80-88°C 61318361787 Used in conjunction with electric fan conversion.
Radiator Mount Bracket - Upper 17111712660
Radiator Mount Support - Upper 17111712911
Lower Radiator Mount 17111178412
850 V12 Thermostat 85c 11531702279
Thermostat Housing Cover 11531720173 Be sure to seek out the Aluminum version not plastic
Thermostat Gasket 11511705408
Return Hose on Rad 17111712329
Lower Rad Hose 11531741407 Also note, of using the Mishimoto this hose needs to be modified. The correct hose needs to be ordered from Germany.
I believe the part number for that hose is: 11531741406
Overflow Return Hose to Expansion Tank 17111712356

Link to the Mishimoto
Price on these has gone up from previously posted. Everyone charges the same $255 shipped
http://www.ecstuning.com/BMW-E36-M3-...oto/ES1892545/

[Sir Montalbon]

Thanks everyone for all the comments and suggestions. Looking forward to getting this thing roadworthy and reliable.

Don't fit the mishimoto radiator, its too small for the 540i, just suitable for the M30, the M60 radiator is thicker and wider than the M30 radiator, I'd say you are going backwards in cooling efficiency with that setup, it's about 150mm shorter in width.

Hit them up and see if they can make one that's the correct width for the E34 chassis.


You need euro bumper trims too

Not sure if you have run across this thread:
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...6-M3-radiators

I've read it closely many times over the years and it is convincing enough for me to give it a shot. B

And yes, needs EU trim!

Looks great Cliff. I'll send some pics of that bumper as soon as possible. Been busy.

No problem, I've been pretty busy as well. I've bought some parts from Raziel (sp?) and was hoping to set up a weekend in the next month or so that I could make a loop through Atlanta to pick up parts from you guys, and then maybe hit the farmer's market and Antico.

[Leonator134]

Sweet!! Great DD.

[stoney85]

I've read that detailed post about the radiator, and it has it's merits. Do they uphold their warranty when the radiator is retrofitted into a different model?

I'd much rather be finding a closer to original size replacement rather than compromising with a much smaller surface area.

The radiators are probably overkill in standard form, I'm running no shroud and no viscous fan, with a lower aux temp switch, and have never seen the gauge go over half even with some lengthy traffic jams and spirited mountain drives, (I do have the stock fan and hub wrapped up in the boot though on the off chance)

The effort for mishimoto to make an longer cored radiator with exactly the same end tanks wouldn't be a difficult process to do at all, I'd have bought one instead of stock new when I redid my cooling system.

[Sir Montalbon]

It's been about a month, and I have gotten lots done with no updates, so here we go...

As stated before, the goal is to get the car running and reliable for DD duties. The plan was to get rid of as much plastic in the cooling system, overhaul the cooling system, overhaul the intake manifold, and address any other issues affecting drivability and reliability. After my last update, I received all the needed parts and began installing them. This went fairly smooth for the most part.





After putting everything back together the first time, I realized I had a poorly seated injector spraying gas everywhere. After re-pulling the manifold, reseating and double checking all the injectors and their clips, we were back in business. Other issues I had involved a few broken bolts on the valley pan, and a broken manifold stud. Because of this, I replace nearly every bolt and nut with new.


Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly. It was the fourth time doing this work on an M60, and I seem to learn a little more every time. Oh yeah, when I went to put my belts on, the drive belt tensioner took a dump, and with almost no force on it. Glad it happened now and not in a few months when I thought I had everything buttoned up!



Once the intake was buttoned up, I moved onto the Mishimoto radiator and modifying my fan shroud. I ran into a little problem when I ordered the longer radiator mount for non-AC M60B30 Euro cars. BMW of Macon put the order in, but later told me that it was no longer available, even though thy could see about 10 in stock around different dealers in the country (I've since read that BMW has stopped selling Euro parts to US customers through the dealerships. Not sure if this is true, but it seems to be from my experience. Maybe someone can chime in?). He contacted a guy at BMW of Beverly Hills who had three in stock and said he would sell me one. Expecting to do this job on my touring, and possibly another future M60 car someday, I bought all three. The fit is perfect with the Mishimoto and feels stock.


I was on the fence about whether to modify my radiator shroud, or buy the appropriate Euro one. After the trouble getting radiator mounts, I figured I'd take a stab at stabbing up my old shroud. It's not perfect. I still need to transfer the little slots at the bottom of the stock radiator over to the Mishimoto to hold the bottom of the shroud in. I haven't gotten around to this, but running the car in the 95deg southern humidity without the shroud, I haven't seen the temperature tick past the half way point. I imagine when I get the shroud in, it should be even better. I'll report back.











"What'd you do about the radiator hose!?!" I hear you say? Well, after spending a good hour in the back of the local parts store looking for something that may work, I ran across a generic radiator hose, like this one. I think I got the 9" version. It feels solid and was the perfect length. I'm not sure why no one thought of trying this in the Mishimoto thread.





At this point, the car was running ok. I still had a CEL and GT1 was reporting that both o2 sensors were open or shorted, but I began driving it around town and to work some. I also got the Throwing Starts balanced and put them on. I like the look MUCH better over the Hamanns that were on there. One problem that surfaced here (and it took me awhile to figure out) was that on the highway, the car never seemed to want to move into fourth or fifth gear without moving the A/M switch to Manual. I was having trouble figuring this new issue out when I ran across a post from PorscheH6 (I think that's his name) mentioning uneven front wheel pressure can make the transmission think the car is in a turn, thus not allowing it to shift past third, for stability. I thought this was just too easy (and cheap), but I couldn't find ANY info on this on the internet, so I tried it out. And lo and behold, one tire was 10psi different than the other, and now everything is shifting very nicely!

Throwing stars on 4x4 suspension:



Ok, so now the car is running pretty good (albeit the poor gas mileage and slightly rough idle from no o2 signal), so I decided I would replace the o2 sensors as well. I put in two new ones and still had a CEL and GT1 still showed a short or open condition. That's when Sunday Funday started....


I woke up diagnosing the car in my head, and thought I'd get up and check the o2 sensor relay. That also reminded me that I had seen some wire nuts in the ebox, and that never means anything good. So I opened up the ebox and about shat my pants:












There was nothing to do here except dive in with new wire, a soldering iron, and some heat shrink. It appeared the Red/Blue wire from the o2 sensor relay harness had shorted somewhere and burnt and melted all the wires from the eBox all the way down into the wiring harness box above the injectors. The corrosion and crappy "fix" from the PO confirmed this had happens some time in the past. I came to terms with myself regarding that opening this can of worms might be the end of the car ever starting again, but I also knew there was no way in hell I'd ever be able to live with a CEL and a rough idle in my DD, so in I went.


I started by slicing the off rubber boot from the eBox to the injector box with an Exacto knife. It got messy... I had to cut or peel most of the wires apart since they had melted together or completely burned themselves up. I'm actually amazed that the only thing that didn't seem to work was the o2 sensors. There was exposed wire and cut wires everywhere!






But I could see the light... repairing about 20 wires that had exposed copper, and completely replacing about 8 wires.




All "zipped" back up and looking mostly back to normal:





Notice the three shrink wrap butt connectors in lieu of wire nuts:



The offending parties:


And then the moment of truth... I turned the key to position I and jumped out and checked for any heat in the harness. Nope. Turned to position II, same thing. Finally, fired it up and stood right by the wires looking for signs of heat or smoke. None! CEL? Off! Confirmed with GT1, no more default .45V from the sensors. They were adjusting and reporting acceptable voltages! But, you take one step forward, and then one step back....

On my test drive, everything seemed well. I was on my way back to the house when I decided to floor it from a stop sign and see how much better it was running. Well, the car took off, but I immediately heard a pop and smelled coolant! NOOOO!!!! Limped home to find that I had blown two of the auxiliary water pump and valve connectors off, breaking the plastic nipples in the process. Oh well, the heat wasn't working, and this was next on my list anyway. Now it will just be sooner than later. No worries though, I have a temporary fix keeping the car on the reod until the new valve comes in....


Until next time...

[Bimmerick]

Man, that wiring harness looked like a real mess. It must have taken some real patience to sort it out. What's the deal with the Mishimoto radiator; is it the E36 M3 model?

[Sir Montalbon]

Man, that wiring harness looked like a real mess. It must have taken some real patience to sort it out. What's the deal with the Mishimoto radiator; is it the E36 M3 model?

Yeah Rick, that harness was a mess. Yet I did find the job oddly cathartic. I just took it one wire at a time, and when I saw something scary, I just ignored it until I got to that wire. Then suddenly, all the wires were fixed. After checking for shorts with the DMM I cautiously turned the key and everything came out better than expected!

As for the radiator, yes, that is the e36 M3 radiator. After reading through Moroza's Mishimoto thread, there were no surprises with the install or needed parts. It seems to be cooling very well, even without the shroud for now.

As for upcoming work, my new heater valve should arrive today, along with valve cover grommets. Over the next few days I'm hoping to knock out the valve covers, plugs, compression test (just out of curiosity), install two new coolant temp sensors (currently having a hard start issue when hot), do an oil change, and install the new heater valve. After that, the drivetrain should be in good shape and I'll move on to the suspension.

[stoney85]

Jeez, seeing that wiring loom, I'd just about cry. good to see you fixed it properly.

I'd suggest you loop the cooling system hoses if you weren't fixing them asap, it would help with coolant flow to be circulating rather than be blocked off like that and possibly cause hot spots

[Sir Montalbon]

Jeez, seeing that wiring loom, I'd just about cry. good to see you fixed it properly.

I'd suggest you loop the cooling system hoses if you weren't fixing them asap, it would help with coolant flow to be circulating rather than be blocked off like that and possibly cause hot spots

Haha, yeah, I wanted to cry too when I realized the damage went outside of the ebox. But I also realized I had to fix it and there was no point in getting all emo about it, so I just calmly and methodically started working my way through it. It probably took about 5-6hrs, including a trip to parts store to get the right gauge and color of wire needed for the various destroyed wires. The Bentley and ETM were big helps in figuring where everything went and what gauge wire was supposed to be used.

As for my caps, those have just been on since Monday. The new heater valve came in yesterday and I'm putting it in today. Hopefully then my heat will be working just in time for winter.

[Sir Montalbon]

Long time, no update. And boy I have a lot of updates. I'll try to put them together over the next few days for anyone interested. So, going back about 3-4 months...

After getting the wiring mess sorted out, I was able to pick up an un-cracked front bumper from atl530i. Not only was it in pretty good shape, but it was Schwartz and it is a 94 540i bumper. An exact match for my cracked bumper. Swapped everything over and got it installed. I originally tried the euro plate, but I have that setup on my touring, so I swapped over to good old stock.

Original:


New bumper from Justin:


Terrible potato pic, but here's the new bumper with the Euro plate I got from Raziel:


And another potato pic of stock bumper trim... mostly just a shameless plug for devil dog:



Since I'm on the subject of cosmetics (don't worry, tons of mechanical work has and is still going on), I'll go ahead and show some of the more recent work in the last month or so. My goal has been to take the car back to stock. So far I've added M tech skirts, chrome window trim and kidneys, amber turns front and rear, Shogun's door gaskets, along with repainting all the black trim on the car.

Before:


After:



And some trim painting and Shogun's door gaskets installed.
Before:




Old vs New:


Some fresh trim paint:


And the finished product:




And while I'm showing off some paint work, got my M-tech springs installed with all new rubber in the shock towers, and also got going on my T-star refurb this past week:


Smuged the 2 o'clock edge before they dried. Gonna have to touch up that spot once the paint is good and cured:








I was really impressed with how they turned out! I've never gotten such a good finish from a rattle can. I wet sanded the wheels with 500 grit, then 3 light coats of Dupli-color silver wheel paint, followed by a meadium coat. Then 2 light coats of Dupli-color clear, and then one medium coat. Came out great, with a nice smooth surface.


More updates to come... Like this stuff going in this weekend...

[Chivava]

God this looks good and also thank you, for showing the handles! I've been trying to find the seals, as I thought it were seals.. Love the throwing stars.

[Sir Montalbon]

Thanks! Glad the door trim pics helped. I got them from one of our moderators, Shogun. I never tried the cheaper eBay versions after reading comparisons of Shogun's. I've put his on two cars now with great results.

Thanks for the t-star love! Working on the driver's side now. Here's some pics with the center stickers I picked up today:

[Sir Montalbon]

Been busy the last few weeks....

Front brakes before:








More wiring gremlins fixed. This brought back my OBC, DWA alarm, keyless entry, as well as my passenger door locks. Still can't get the trunk to unlock with the key, though it does lock with the driver's or passengers locks, so not too much worry there, though I'll address it eventually. BTW, almost all of this stuff was found under the back seat and carpet on the driver's side. TONS of splices back there that go all over the car.

Another mess:


Here's some of the splices and a mystery connector I still can't trace down in the ETM



Got some fancy fabric electrical tape. Not an exact OEM match, but close enough



And back to normal



Also took care of the trunk hinge while I was at it







Finally got around to installing the rest of the front suspension parts. Most of them were due. If not original, they had been replaced with crappy URO stuff which looked way worse than the old original stuff. Just say NO to URO!



A couple of months ago I braked hard when someone jumped out in front of me in traffic. Immediately after I noticed a groaning sound from the front suspension, but only once the car was warmed up. After some looking around on the internet, I found that the steering arm in e38's had this issue (never really heard of it in my years of reaing the e34 section). I took the car to the shop and put it on the lift. After moving the steering back and forth, it was easy to identify that the steering arm was in fact the issue.


URO tie rod. All the old parts marked BMW or Made in Germany needed to be replaced, but looked nothing like this garbage.




Pretty sure these were original.



At this point, all suspension is done except for the rear M-tech springs and associated rubber in the strut housing, and the sub frame bushings. Everything was feeling so much better that I felt it was time for new shoes and an alignment. The good news was that the shop I work on the car at had everything I needed. The bad was I didn't know how to use any of it! Someone was looking down from above though. Turns out that the new guy a few desk down from me at work had been a BMW Master Tech for 7 years! He got me trained up on how to use the tire mounting machine, road force balance machine, and alignment rack.

New Goodyear Eagle Sports


Mounted and balanced


My first alignment. I feel victimized from all my previous $170 alignments at BMW or Indy shops. It took twice as much time to get the car set up than it did to do the alignment.




After all this, the car is feeling amazing on the road. I still need to put some new struts on all four corners (hopefully next month), but the old ones are hanging in there ok. I still get a little shudder over bigger bumps, but the car feels lightyears ahead of where it was in August. This weekend's plans are to install the M-tech rear springs and new strut mount rubbers. Once that's done, I need to do the struts and rear brakes and rotors, and save for cosmetics, this thing is DONE!

Testing out the homemade subframe bushing tool I put together from some pics on the internet. $36 at Lowes




Whew! I think that about catches me up with 90% of the progress. Thanks for looking.

[Sir Montalbon]

Long time, no update. Can't believe it's been since March and that it has been almost exactly a year since getting started on this car. Since my last post, I've done my sub-frame bushings with the tool I built and it worked great! All of the suspension work and new tires have made this car drive like a dream! I still need to replace all four shocks. They're not terrible, but they are definitely past their prime. Anyway, that's for another post. Here's the last 6 months or so in pics. Nothing major since most of the big stuff has been knocked out, but I'm happy with the progress so far.

Got a new key rubber insert for $1 off ebay. Worked great. Before and after:




New tires and cherry blossoms:




Although I find the e34 pretty modern for its age, it still needs some modern conveninces, like Bluetooth, a microphone, and dual 2.4A USB ports:




Pioneer MVH-580bt with custom color matching and Bluetooth mic:


Potato!


New guibo:


Driver's side washer was corroded. Got a decent used one from south42:


New rear rotors/pads and a caliper clean up. Before and after:





Most of my work has been concentrated on getting teh car to shift right. It appears to have a very freshly painted remanufactured transmission, but it never shifts right. I concentrated on fluid level first with no change. Next was a new filter. No change. Then I threw in my Dinan chip I was saving for once i sorted out the shifting and it was MUCH better, but still a little off. I'm detailing that work here:
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...nsmission-chip


Here's a pic of the chip that came out of the TCU. It was supposedly the chip for smoothing out shifts from the dealer. It sucks compared to the Dinan.

[atl530i]

Been a minute Cliff. Glad to see it's coming along nicely. Wiring is therapeutic at this point . How much of a difference did those HE53 springs make compared to the regular springs?

[Sir Montalbon]

Small update.... Hit 200kmi with the car running great! Recently installed a new MAF and DUDMD chip, both of which really smoothed out what I thought was a pretty good running car.