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Thread: Danny's Japan Rot 540i Touring Thread

  1. #926
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    Red zip tie drift stitch?

    Seriously, though, I wouldn’t bother to fix that bumper cover again. That’s a lot of damage that the plastic has taken over the years, and I’d bet it’s likely to split again. I’d source a new or used cover.
    Nate J.

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  2. #927
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    Quote Originally Posted by computiNATEor View Post
    Red zip tie drift stitch?

    Seriously, though, I wouldn’t bother to fix that bumper cover again. That’s a lot of damage that the plastic has taken over the years, and I’d bet it’s likely to split again. I’d source a new or used cover.
    Yeah I considered zip ties but the universe kinda made the decision for me. A week or two after the first major cracks, there were huge cracks all over the place. Eventually it started to kinda fall apart:



    There were cracks all over it, though oddly enough none of them were in the areas that I had previously repaired. I guess the bumper had just gotten brittle over the years, even though it was a real BMW bumper and not a rep. Eventually it fell apart so much that I had to just remove it. Thankfully I still had my prefacelift bumper laying around so I could still look presentable.





    I miss having an M5 bumper, so I'll probably get a rep and just deal with the less-than-stellar fitment. With my driving habits I would probably destroy a brand new $600 M5 bumper in no time— this one lasted less than a year! The crazy thing is that I've never hit anything obvious, nor have I crashed into anything. It's just been rocks and various bits of road debris that I either can't avoid or just don't notice. Ah well. Small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  3. #928
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    In my seemingly never-ending quest to make the rear of my wagon ride better, I adjusted the Koni shocks to full firm and then to full soft to see what would happen. Full firm was painful, as expected. Close to full soft feels a lot better though, and has made the ride a lot nicer overall, especially on the bumpy urban roads of Central Phoenix where I live.

    After adjusting the shocks I took a test drive with all of the rear panels removed to try and track down some more noises in the back, and I made an interesting discovery. I heard a scraping/dragging sound that only got louder with speed. It sounded like the brakes in the rear were dragging, and also I found that nearly all the brake squeal was coming from the back upon braking, not the front like I had previously thought. With an infrared thermometer, I did some testing and found that the rear brakes got consistently hotter by 40-50ºF, which was definitely abnormal given that the brake force is biased 70/30 front/rear.

    With that discovery, I went to my friend's house, jacked up the rear of the 540it, and tried to spin the rear wheels in neutral. They were oddly stubborn and didn't really want to spin much by hand. With the wheels off, I couldn't spin the rotors by hand at all. I removed the calipers and that didn't change anything, so it wasn't the brakes dragging. That meant it was the parking brake, so with the rotors removed, my friend and I adjusted both sides to be just right. There was a ton of parking brake shoe dust inside the rotors, so they've been dragging for quite some time. Crazy to think that I drag raced and took 11-hour road trips with the parking brake like that. That probably didn't help with gas mileage one bit, haha.

    Once the parking brakes were adjusted properly, I fully cleaned and lubed up all of the rear brakes and put everything back together. The first thing I noticed on the test drive was the complete lack of brake squeal. I don't think I've ever had zero brake squeal with this car so that alone was absolutely amazing. Even with me romping on the brakes in an abusive manner they didn't make a sound. The car felt a lot lighter and more willing to accelerate in general, which I was really stoked about. I can't believe I never thought about this before, but I never use the parking brake ever so it never even occurred to me that it wasn't working correctly. The car creeps forward in D now, whereas before it didn't really. The other benefit of fixing this is now I'll have a properly functioning parking brake for when the car gets a manual.

    Now that the car drove better than ever, I decided to treat it to a little cosmetic (and sorta functional?) mod:



    I don't really feel a difference with it installed but it sure gives it that racecar look, haha.

    I noticed I've been taking more pictures from the rear of the 540it, probably to hide my non-M front bumper shame. Probably.

    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  4. #929
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    Danny, every time you install new rotors, you have to adjust the parking brake as it auto adjusts, as the rotors wear.
    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

  5. #930
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    Danny, what was the source of the strut bar?
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  6. #931
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    Quote Originally Posted by BimmrMeUpSnotty View Post
    Danny, every time you install new rotors, you have to adjust the parking brake as it auto adjusts, as the rotors wear.
    Interesting, I wasn’t aware of that. I’ll keep that in mind for future brake jobs then.

    Quote Originally Posted by StephenVA View Post
    Danny, what was the source of the strut bar?
    It was in my 540i/6 parts car, so I just moved it over to the 540it. Not sure where it’s from originally, but I’d guess eBay.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  7. #932
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    Ouch Denny, that looks painful
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  8. #933
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    Sucks about the bumper Danny. I’ve learned the hard way that old abs bumpers can’t really be repaired and last long term. And with the ridiculous price of used oem bumpers, I gave in and went aftermarket.

    Looking forward to the black interior swap and manual swap


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    Chris
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  9. #934
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    Quote Originally Posted by NordmanMg View Post
    Ouch Denny, that looks painful
    Yeah, it sucked but that's just life.

    Quote Originally Posted by cnsorial View Post
    Sucks about the bumper Danny. I’ve learned the hard way that old abs bumpers can’t really be repaired and last long term. And with the ridiculous price of used oem bumpers, I gave in and went aftermarket.

    Looking forward to the black interior swap and manual swap
    Yeah, now I know that. The funny thing is that the areas I repaired didn't break! The cracks were in new places, haha. I'll go aftermarket as well, fitment be damned.

    The black interior swap is going to have to wait a little while, because I'm preparing for the manual swap now. I recently started parting out my 540i/6 to get the transmission out and make some money to buy a new clutch/flywheel/short shifter/bushings/etc.

    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  10. #935
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    What gasket was NOT leaking on that 540?!
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  11. #936
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    Quote Originally Posted by StephenVA View Post
    What gasket was NOT leaking on that 540?!
    Haha, that's what most M62tu's look like when they come to me. Nobody ever re-seals them aside from when the chain guide job is done, otherwise they just kinda seep for over a decade. It's not enough seepage to cause significant oil loss and the accessories cover it up pretty well, so most people don't pay any attention to it all.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  12. #937
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    Quote Originally Posted by dannyzabolotny View Post
    Yesterday I went on a fun little day trip with my girlfriend, we went from Phoenix to Sedona and then back to Phoenix through Payson. It was about 350 miles round trip, not bad at all. I managed to do all of that in less than a tank of gas— the M62tu loves highway driving. I did have some fun with it on the twisty roads to Payson though, the touring feels pretty good on them.

    The only downside was a silly little speeding ticket, for allegedly doing 64 in a 55. It's only a $62 ticket but still annoying. I need to invest in a radar detector already, as I have terrible luck with this kind of stuff— I'm completely oblivious and don't notice cop cars until they're like a few feet away. At least with something beeping at me I might pay more attention. The other annoying thing is that I get a ticket every single time I'm pulled over, like I don't ever get to talk my way out of it. Oh well. I'm not going to stop driving in a spirited manner any time soon so I should just have an annual budget for this kind of stuff.

    On the bright side, the touring looked and performed very well. No warnings or issues of any kind, and I'm almost at 203k miles.
    a little late to chime in on this, however.... I started driving in Phoenix. Received 14 speeding tickets in the 11 years I drove there. And beat 12 in traffic court.


    Danny, did it say “speed beyond safe and prudent” on the citation?

  13. #938
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    Quote Originally Posted by toybreaker View Post
    a little late to chime in on this, however.... I started driving in Phoenix. Received 14 speeding tickets in the 11 years I drove there. And beat 12 in traffic court.

    Danny, did it say “speed beyond safe and prudent” on the citation?
    Hm, I don't remember at this point. It wasn't in Phoenix though, it was in Payson. And it was a ticket for driving 64 in a 55 so it was pretty cheap. Wasn't really worth it to go to court especially since I didn't get any points from it.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  14. #939
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    The 2 i got “convicted” for were in rural Az.... local sheriffs and the hick judges are in cahoots,


    Its a conspiracy, lets make them city slickers pay for speeding in our area!

    ;-)


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  15. #940
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    The speed above safe and prudent
    Takes time of day, weather, and traffic load into account in determining if it is unsafe to drive at that speed.....

    I used to work 4pm-3/6 am.... so traffic court was easy for me to get to. Always good weather and no traffic load so VERY easy for me to argue safe to drive 10-15 over posted. Time well spent to see the look on the police officer/DPS officer’s face when it was dismissed.... those role models speed everywhere.........


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Current:
    2000 540I6 DD
    2001 F250 4X4 tow beast
    2016 RRS 3.0 supercharged (wifes DD)
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    1966 496 malibu 1969 Camaro 1970 Nova
    1997 528IA 1997 540I6 2000 528IA 2001 525IA

  16. #941
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    Quote Originally Posted by toybreaker View Post
    The speed above safe and prudent
    Takes time of day, weather, and traffic load into account in determining if it is unsafe to drive at that speed.....

    I used to work 4pm-3/6 am.... so traffic court was easy for me to get to. Always good weather and no traffic load so VERY easy for me to argue safe to drive 10-15 over posted. Time well spent to see the look on the police officer/DPS officer’s face when it was dismissed.... those role models speed everywhere.........


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    So you would just simply argue that it was safe and prudent based on conditions to drive 10-15 over?

  17. #942
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    The police in my area are perhaps the most aggressive and dangerous drivers...
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  18. #943
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    Quote Originally Posted by simmsled View Post
    So you would just simply argue that it was safe and prudent based on conditions to drive 10-15 over?
    It is how the traffic safety regulations were written. I was able to convince the court that due to “relative” time of day, weather and traffic conditions it was safe to drive at that speed.
    That was 1989-2001, not sure of how the regulations are written now.
    with age comes wisdom, now i try not to get pulled over.

  19. #944
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    No super exciting updates, just wanted to log what's happening. I'm almost at 208k miles, which means it'll be time for an oil change pretty soon. Thinking of using Liqui-Moly 5W40 this time around— my friend has it in his 200k mile 2002 540it and seems to be happy with it so I'll give it a shot.

    Other things to report— my gas tank leak has gotten worse, now there's a puddle every time I fill the tank fully. My solution is to not fill the tank fully, which has worked for now while I'm mostly driving around town. I'll look into it some more in the coming days, hopefully it's an easy fix. I've already replaced the gasket on the fuel sender, so I guess either that wasn't the source of the leak or it's still leaking.

    Transmission has actually been behaving quite well recently— it likes the 100ºF heat! So odd. Again, I'm choosing to ignore all of its faults since a manual swap is in the very near future.

    Speaking of the manual swap, the engine + transmission have been pulled out of the 540i/6 parts car (thanks to Graham for the help!). Eventually I'll split the two and start ordering new parts for the manual swap. Though first I need to sell some more stuff off the parts car, including the engine. My wishlist is a new M5 clutch, flywheel (if needed), DSSR, E60 545i short shifter, ZHP shift knob, new leather shift boot, new shifter bushings, clutch pedal bushings, and any other bushings that might need to be replaced while everything is out.

    The black interior swap will be happening at some point too... might happen sooner than the manual swap since I already have all the parts and it won't cost me anything to swap, aside from maybe a few new clips here and there.

    As for the bumper situation, I've decided that I'm going to wait until I can afford a new OEM bumper instead of settling for a replica. None of the replicas fit quite right and while some can live with that, I cannot. I need perfect fitment or else I'll go crazy.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  20. #945
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    Checking in for my monthly update— the 540it is still running nicely. At one point I got the itch to really drive it hard so I took it to a mountain road that I like to go on. It's about an hour north of me and it's usually deserted since it's a one way road with no through traffic. Harshness aside, the 540it handles the twisties very nicely, even when being pushed quite hard. The transmission is definitely the limiting factor at this point, more so than the suspension or tires, haha. I did my usual hooligan stuff in an empty stretch of road:





    It's good to know that the old girl still has some life left in her, haha. I love that I live close enough to mountains and desert roads to be able to casually do this whenever I want.



    Later on in the month I headed out to Bimmerfest, although this year I took the E36 M3 that Graham and I co-own. We had a blast, driving on a bunch of picturesque canyon roads, up the PCH, down to San Diego, and finishing it all off with drifting it at El Mirage:



    We also tried to bid on a neglected M5 touring that ended up at an auction in San Diego near the Mexican border. Unfortunately it was not able to be auctioned that day because it broke down (and the auction only sold running cars). I did keep on eye on the auction when it happened again last Saturday, and they were able to get it running, after which it sold for $5500. No idea who it sold to, but that was way more than I was willing to pay so whatever, haha. It was still a fun adventure and I got to sit in an M5 touring which just makes me want to do my build already (but no money).



    Anyways, back to this 540it. I finally found the cause of the gas leak that had been plaguing the car over the past year or so. It started out pretty minor so I ignored it for a while, plus I do enjoy the smell of gasoline so it didn't bother me much. When it really started bothering me is when I started losing a quarter tank of gas within 5 miles of gassing up, especially with how gas prices have been going up recently. As I mentioned in a previous post, my interim solution was to always fill the tank to about 3/4.

    To diagnose the gas leak, I filled the tank up to full, and as expected, it gushed out immediately, leaving a giant puddle at the gas station. I like how my main priority was that I was losing money via the gas leaking, not the massive fire hazard or gas fumes, lol. This time I was prepared to diagnose the leak immediately, and had the back seat loose and ready to remove (on the 540it there are a few more steps compared to the sedan, it's not as easy as just pulling up). When I checked the fuel sender, I couldn't believe what I was seeing:



    Aside from the puddle of gas, what really surprised me was the source of the leak (circled in the picture above). I've never seen these leak in that spot, but sure enough, that piece was almost completely broken off. Old plastic strikes again! Remarkably, this part was original, with 208k miles and 19 years on it. Same with the fuel pump, though that's still working fine so I'm choosing to ignore it. Given that these fuel senders aren't a super troublesome part, I elected to grab the one off my 540it parts car. Swapping it was stupidly easy, and no more gas leak. I confirmed that by filling the tank— no more leaks and no more gas smells. I should see an increase in my overall MPG now since all of the gas will be actually going into the engine instead of on the ground. It should take care of the intermittent P0442 code as well.

    With the fuel leak sorted for good, I gave the 540it a thorough wash and wax. It's so satisfying to detail this car. I also hit the headlights with some Meguiar's Plast-X to remove a bit of clouding that was starting to come back (the headlights were polished previously but not coated in anything). For a hand-applied product, it actually worked out quite nicely and was a super easy way to make the headlights look nice again. Next time I'll remove the headlights and give them a proper machine polish and some kind of coating, but for now I'm happy with the results.

    Before:



    After:



    The paint still shines up nice, even with the dented and rock-chipped hood. I plan to do a proper paint correction in the fall when it's not as hot, but for now the paint looks pretty good and I still get tons of compliments for it at car shows.







    It looks even better in the sun, along with the overpriced-but-nice BMW window shade.



    I will say, I'm getting a little tired of the M-Pars after having them for almost two years (and on previous cars). I'm trying to find somebody that wants to trade style 65's for the M-Pars— with or without cash on top, depending on condition. The style 65's would add a nice little flair, as seen on Aquila's Imola 525it. Yes, I know my car is a different shade of red, but close enough. And I'll eventually get proper M bumpers.

    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

  21. #946
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    I had the exact same fuel leak on the driver's side tank lid.
    And, it was leaking from that same spot too.
    I bought a new sending unit from ECS for ~$73.
    Now they are jacked-up in price to ~$140....!

    Looking for an E39 belly pan , passenger front inner fender liner …

  22. #947
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    Scotty has mentioned that the aftermarket M bumpers can be made to fit very nicely by slicing 10mm out of the front bumper support shocks and rewelding them. He’s willing to make a few sets if you provide the parts and shipping, so if you have spares from the parts car...
    Nate J.

    (oOO\ (|||)º(|||) /OOo)
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    (eŌō\ (||||)º(||||) / ōŌe)
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    Take 2 "Otto" - Toledo Blue/Sandbeige 04-25-2002 530iA Sport (CH98032). Sold 11-10-2017 at 147,743mi.
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  23. #948
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    Quote Originally Posted by computiNATEor View Post
    Scotty has mentioned that the aftermarket M bumpers can be made to fit very nicely by slicing 10mm out of the front bumper support shocks and rewelding them. He’s willing to make a few sets if you provide the parts and shipping, so if you have spares from the parts car...
    Whoa boy! What are you? My agent??? I didn’t mean I’d do it for everybody. I offered to do it for Chris because I will be doing it for myself in the next week, Hell, if I feel like it, might even be today, Freethrow jumped in and asked, he’s a purty cool chap, so he’s sending me a set to chop, but as it is, I don’t really have the time to be doing it for everybody. I’m just paying it forwards right now. I might take pictures of the process, might even make a jig, when I am done, I may start a thread, I may even pass the jig around like a $2 1/2 whore. But first, cutting the strut like we were talking about on the other thread, I did mine differently on my 530’s bumper mounts a few years ago, I cut the three mounting holes and set them forward, which in turn set the struts back, deeper into the frame rails. I may still do that, but I will try cutting the post right behind the vertical tubes, the tubes that the bolts for the bumper reinforcement goes through, like we were yakking about last week. I’m thinking it will blow the strut and the oil will oooz.... but there could be a chance it won’t, if BMW set the seal further back, either way, I have spares, and I’ve got balls, and I’ve been wondering about this for long enough, maybe the balls got a bit bigger, I don’t know. If I need an agent, I’ll let you know, lol
    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

  24. #949
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    01 M5 TiAg/M1SW
    Quote Originally Posted by BimmrMeUpSnotty View Post
    Whoa boy! What are you? My agent??? I didn’t mean I’d do it for everybody. I offered to do it for Chris because I will be doing it for myself in the next week, Hell, if I feel like it, might even be today, Freethrow jumped in and asked, he’s a purty cool chap, so he’s sending me a set to chop, but as it is, I don’t really have the time to be doing it for everybody. I’m just paying it forwards right now. I might take pictures of the process, might even make a jig, when I am done, I may start a thread, I may even pass the jig around like a $2 1/2 whore. But first, cutting the strut like we were talking about on the other thread, I did mine differently on my 530’s bumper mounts a few years ago, I cut the three mounting holes and set them forward, which in turn set the struts back, deeper into the frame rails. I may still do that, but I will try cutting the post right behind the vertical tubes, the tubes that the bolts for the bumper reinforcement goes through, like we were yakking about last week. I’m thinking it will blow the strut and the oil will oooz.... but there could be a chance it won’t, if BMW set the seal further back, either way, I have spares, and I’ve got balls, and I’ve been wondering about this for long enough, maybe the balls got a bit bigger, I don’t know. If I need an agent, I’ll let you know, lol
    Haha, fair enough.
    Nate J.

    (oOO\ (|||)º(|||) /OOo)
    Titanium Silver/Black Nappa Full 07-18-2001 E39 M5 Heritage (BZ99672). 198,000mi+. Increasing daily. Engine rebuild thread.
    (eŌō\ (||||)º(||||) / ōŌe)
    Alpineweiss III/Black Merino Full 03-26-2007 E60 M5 Manual (CX08265). 157,000+. Dead starter -_-

    RIP, Seabiscuit. Black Sapphire/Schwarz 03-11-2003 530iA Sport (CK39185). T-boned 03-01-2017 at 155,861mi.
    Take 2 "Otto" - Toledo Blue/Sandbeige 04-25-2002 530iA Sport (CH98032). Sold 11-10-2017 at 147,743mi.
    Take 3 "Manuel" - Toledo Blue/Grau 10-29-2001 530i5 Sport (CE92358). Sold 02-01-2019 at 217,600mi. I regret that. Build Log
    Reliable P.O.S. - Green/gray 1995 Camry V6 LE. 270k mi. Sold for space.

  25. #950
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Tempe, AZ
    Posts
    7,657
    My Cars
    1995 525i/5
    Welp, the 540it's 5HP24 has just about called it quits... pretty long run considering it got to 209k miles on the original transmission. The only thing I've done to it was a fluid + filter change around 178k, and I abused it mercilessly over the last 31k miles. Burnouts, donuts, hard launches, drag racing, and all sorts of shenanigans

    The transmission still shifts okay when it's cold, but the minute it heats up it goes into failsafe and throws a P1738 code. It's also started leaking fluid over the past week. I'm sure I could fix the transmission, but I don't care to throw more money at an old slushbox. Know what that means? Manual swap time!

    I've had the 540i/6 parts car in the backyard for a while in anticipation of this swap. That's the whole reason I bought that car, after my transmission initially started misbehaving last December. I've got all the bits I'll need for the swap, like the hydraulic components, the transmission, the driveshaft, the manual crossmember, the pedal box, etc. All I need to buy now are the bits that'll be replaced, like a clutch kit, trans mounts, guibo, CSB, rear main seal, and whatever else I might need.

    I'll be ordering the parts next week most likely. A local 540it buddy who's done the swap recommended me a $204 LUK clutch kit from Parts Geek. For that price, it's hard to say no, haha. The rest of the parts will likely be sourced from either FCP Euro or AutohausAZ. As much as I'd love to buy a bunch of cool stuff like an SSK and a DSSR, that'll have to wait since I don't have the money for anything other than the absolute necessities. Plus I figure I can install all the shifter niceties later on as funds allow, it's not hard to install that stuff with the transmission in the car.

    I'll be referencing Geargrinder's PDF guide for the swap, and I'll be having Graham (BimmerBreaker) help out, along with another friend that's done the swap on his 540it not too long ago. I'll be borrowing a transmission jack from a friend, and I'll also be ordering the special T60 bit for the clutch stuff.

    Exciting stuff! More to come.
    1995 525i 5-speed - Thread

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