Raghza's '91 525i winter banger // long first post

[Raghza]

Hello all!
Being bored made me wanna write about my 5-series. Please note that this is a cheap banger, used and abused daily in the winter and it can't and probably never will compare to some of the gorgeous looking E34s here.

I'm 26, living in Tallinn, Estonia (so English is not my native language and I apologize for any mistakes) and a BMW enthusiast for a long time. Among the other cars, I've owned a '97 E39 535iA, '95 E36 325TDS M-Tech, '99 E46 328iA and currently owning a clean '00 E38 730dA M-Sport and this '91 E34 525i. I can post pics of those and also the other cars if any of you is interested.

Since the winters in Estonia are quite cold and snowy, the fact that chlorides are used for keeping the roads clean, having a winter car is very common for those, who don't want to ruin their good cars. That's also the case for my E38, which I've now owned for 1,5 years. The last winter beater I had, was a '92 Ford Sierra, an extremely popular winter beater in Estonia besides the BMWs. However this car did not have the potential to make it anything better, despite being a very clean example of a Ford Sierra. So in the late spring I sold it for more what I had paid and spent on it and decided to get me a BMW.
Some of my friends are active in Estonian drift scene and I had the same plan, so at first I was thinking about an E46, because that's the car they have with a M62B44 and I thought that having two identical cars would be a good idea. However, after research and discussing with them, I started to understand the HUGE amount on work and fabrication needed to build a M62 E46 (moving the firewall and the steering column to make it handle okay among other things), I realized that it would be a lot easier to get a model that could have been ordered with a V8 to make the installation easier. Buying a V8 straight away was out of the question because of the price: they start at ~500€ for the cheapest R4 and diesel cars, ~900€ for the cheapest R6 cars and around 2500€ for the V8s, which are also quite uncommon and most of them are automatics. Some more research and I realized that by building a turbocharged engine, I could get more power with less money than the V8. The most common turbo setup in Estonia is based on the M50B25 (non-vanos) engine, so I set my goal to getting one for myself.

It was already October and the prices of cheap RWD cars had gotten up, due to everybody looking for a winter banger. I kept my eye on the ads multiple times a day, but the only car I went to have a look at, is the same one I'm writing about.
It's a 1991 525i saloon, brought to Estonia in 2003 and since then had just one owner. This guy was into the tuning scene and in 2005-2007 this E34 visited several tuning shows. I remember being 16 and going to one of them and I actually still have the pictures of the show in my computer, amongst which are also a few pictures of this same car. I think it's a cool coincidence I've also owned a part of this car in 2011 - I was building a playseat for PS3 and I bought a single E34 front seat from a friend. It was black leather with red alcantara centre, so custom made. This seat was made by the owner of this car, but I think that in 2011 he sold the seats and replaced them with the standard gray sport seats that are in the car today.
Here's some pictures from the tuning shows in 2005-2007:



The car was sold by the long-time owner in August 2016 to some guys looking for quick cash, so they took out all of the soundsystem (speakers, woofers, amps, stereo) and sold them together with the bodykit and the rims. They didn't bother to make the car look fresh with the stock parts and that's how it looked in the ad:



The rubbish looks also meant a good price for me, so I bought it. The mileage was 229k km (142k miles), which has now gotten up to ~240k km (149k miles).
It's pretty standard with something that seems to be a sport package:

Engine M50
Displacement 2.50
Power 141
Drivetrain HECK
Transmission MECH
Color Calypsorot Metallic - 252
Upholstery Anthrazit Stoff - 0411
Production Plant DINGOLFING
Production Date 1991-05-14

S219 Sport leather steering wheel, 380 mm
S226 Sports suspension settings
S314 Door mirror / driver's lock, heated
S400 Slide/tilt sunroof, manual
S410 Window lifts, electric, front
S415 Sun-blind, rear
S428 Warning triangle and first aid kit
S464 Ski bag
S481 Sports seat
S510 Headlight aim control
S556 Outdoor temperature indicator
S653 Radio Bavaria C Reverse II
S690 Cassette holder
L801 National version Germany/Austria

The car had no MOT, so work had to begin.
The first pics I took myself:



To even get it to a garage at my parents' house, I bought a new battery (71Ah Centra) and some coolant (the level was low). On the way to the garage, I went and registered the car to myself and on the way one of the rear tires exploded So I limped to a garage and quickly found new tires - Goodyear Ultragrip Extreme 195/65/15.
The next thing that was bothering me, was that the dash lights were not working. So I changed a fuse and all the lights got illuminated. At the back of the car, no lights except the license plate lights, weren't working and I again was prepared for the worse. Luckily, it was just a case of replacing the broken bulbs and everythings was okay. Changed some bulbs at the front as well and since I had already bought the front foglights for the car (because I thought they are just missing), I noticed that the car didn't come with the front fogs, so because I didn't have the correct switch, I didn't install the fogs.

Then I drove to a workshop to get the exhaust sorted. Off came the nasty (looking and sounding) sports muffler and replaced it with a standard R6 endpipe. I got the one with a single tip (from a M50B20) and that's the one I liked better, because I think it fits in the rear bumper better and looks even more subtle than the standard two-tip.

The next thing was to clean up the interior, which looked absolutely horrible. During this, I found some fantastically ridiculous things:
1) All of the lightbulbs were replaced by red LED's - changed to standard bulbs.
2) The centre console had something terrible going on, most likely it was covered with some leather material a while ago - replaced it with a clean standard part.
3) Under the centre console I found A LOT of self-ran wires, coming from the back and running into a small red switch. I hold my breath and cut and removed every one of them, including the random on-off button. Nothing changed, so this was succesful
4) The upholstery on the front seats is dead. No other word for it. I covered the holes with tape, in order to no get foam debris all over the interior, but recently I bought a set of standard seats with the same upholstery, so I can get some replacement foam and cloth from those and hopefully make the seats looks okay.

That's what I started with:


After installing a random stereo and cleaning the interior:


Also the exterior had some interesting solutions (such tuning wow):
1) The fuel cap. It's built very well, using Sparco parts, but it just looks ricey. Also the filling neck is too long, so in some gas stations it's almost impossible to refuel, since the pistol doesn't reach in all the way. During time I've learned the correct position to hold the pistol in and I'm able to refuel quite quickly without splashback.
2) Rear window shade. Also looks terrible, but it's installed so well, that I'm afraid removing it would ruin the rear window. Will try to remove it though, when it gets warmer outside, using a fishing line.
3) No trunk lock/button. That was the reason for those wires and the switch in the centre console. The PO had put an E39? trunk lock actuator in the trunk lid and ran the wires to the switch, so the trunk could be opened from the inside. I kept the actuator in place and brought the original lock cable in front of the rear seats, so currently I'm opening the trunk by pulling this cable. I'll test the actuator and if it still works and opens the trunk, I might get an OEM trunk button and run wires to it. Not an OEM solution I like, but it might me cool. Also the trunk shocks are quite heavy load, so the trunk goes all the way up on its own.
4) The rear wing. Clearly not a standard one. I will definitely change it to a standard wing.
5) The bonnet was painted black on the centre and the badge hole was removed. It was filled with a lot of filler, so one hit with a sharp object and all of it broke free. A bit of cleaning and I was able to install back the badge. The black centre I painted back to Calypso red.
6) The door handles. Some of them were red, some of them black. I had a choice, whether I paint them black (standard) or red. I went with red, just to see how it looks. I quite like it, but if I want to go with standard black, I already have the color, so it would be a quick job.
7) The red leather around the handbrake and on the door cards and an aftermarket gear knob. Haven't changed those, because there are a lot of worse looking things on the car

And then there were some other problems:
1) The engine did not reach the correct working temperature. I changed the thermostat and the housing and everything is in best order. Topped it up with coolant and the levels haven't changed since, so no leaks there. Success.
2) The heater did not blow hot air. This got fixed after replacing the thermostat, however the centre vents in the dash still only blow cool air. All the other vents except these two blow mordor hot.
3) The driver side front window goes down, but doesn't come back up correctly. Removed the door panel and saw that the window is not attached to the metal bracket it's supposed to. So I'll get some adhesive meant for glass and make it work again.
4) The window washer pump didn't work. Replaced it with a new one and it was back in business.
5) The rear defroster doesn't work. The button lights up and all the fuses are okay, but it just doesn't do anything. I'm suspecting loose or broken wires near the rear window, but haven't yet checked.
6) The trim pieces on all the doors are broken. I will replace them if I have the time.
7) The bottom trim piece on the doors are a bit broken and they are from a car without sideskirts. I checked the price for OEM trim for a car with sideskirts and the set would cost nearly half the price of the whole car So I will either need to think of another solution or just leave it as is, which is something I wouldn't prefer, since this looks pretty bad.

Perhaps the biggest problem, which I was totally aware of before buying the car, is that the door sills are totally rusted through under the sideskirts and so is the area around the rear axle mounts. I hope to get all of this repaired in the spring and perhaps also weld some additional strengthening to the axle mounts.
Also the car needs general maintenance in the spring (spark plugs, oil, filters etc).

As you could see, the list of all the things wrong with it, was and is quite long, but actually most of those things were just really small imperfections, which could be taken care of for free Overall the engine is smooth and powerful and the body panels are straight and gaps look fine, so I think I found a pretty decent car for an excellent price.

First pictures after the MOT and when I started daily driving it after the E38 went on a well deserved rest:






And what it looks like now:


Since the car had no stereo, I got a few old stereos from a friend and put one in. The wiring was a mess, so I ripped it all out and replaced with new ISO connectors. The car has no original amplifier, so the speakers get power directly from the stereo. In the front I installed 200W Clarion component speakers (midbass + tweeter), that fitted nicely in the original speaker holes and have their own little filters. At the rear I put some random 100W Gas coaxial 5,25" speakers, but they are well overplayed by the nice Clarions in the front, so I need to find some more powerful speakers and replace them.

As of future plans, I'm not sure. I've been dailydriving it for quite some time now and will do so for at least a month, until the spring finally kicks in
As for my plans to get into drifting... well, maybe some day. At first, I would just like to keep improving this little car and eventually turbocharge it, while still keeping it street legal and a daily driver, in case I can't drive my other car.

In the spring I will get the sills and rear mounts welded, but I'm not sure, what next. I think I'll start improving different parts of the car to prepare it for a turbo engine in the later future (this will not happen earlier than the next year), so perhaps I'll change the suspension and the brakes.
Smaller things would include painting the chrome window lining matte black and finding some 17" rims and tires for the summer. I really like Style 19s, but they seem to be quite rare and too expensive Estonia, so most likely I will buy whatever 17" rims I like and can get for as cheap as possible.

Feel free to ask me anything or just ignore this boring thread. I will surely keep updating, if I do something with the car.
Take care!

[KSEADUB]

Nice calypso! I'll enjoy watching you bring this back. Sub'ed!


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[phishy]

looks great already! your english is completely flawless by the way

[Raghza]

Thanks!

Got hold of a complete S564A Interior lighting package (includes S560A, S562A, S563A) and immediately retrofitted:
S560A Reading light in rear compartment
S562A Map reading lights for driver and front passenger seat

S563A Lighted make-up mirror is waiting for its turn. I am not sure, what's the best way to cut the needed holes in the upholstery. Definitely not going to take it out of the car, as I have done it once and not going to do that again. Also I believe I would need new sun visors?

I also ghetto-fixed the seats and now they look kind of alright. A lot better than before (see the first interior pic in the first post for reference) and will do just fine until I decide to get them professionally restored.
20170528_180327.jpg
20170528_175205.jpg
20170528_192227.jpg

Next on the list is to remove that rear wing and the sun visor on the rear window.
Oh, also got these 16" Style 16s for the summer. They cost almost nothing and were needed to be able to move the car during the summer (can't drive with studded tires in the summer). I think they are the worst looking OEM BMW wheels ever made, but at least they are in excellent condition.

[ross1]

Looks better now without all that ginchy crap on it.
Those wheels may not be your taste but they sure are easy to clean, ideal for a winter banger.

[Raghza]

Thanks and I totally agree about the rims being ideal for the winter. Although I will keep the 15" BBS for the winter as I have very good tires on them.

Also got this today
20170531_091441.jpg
The price was just too good for an OE part, so I had to. I think I'll try to find a grommet or sth to cover up the lock hole, since mine does not have it.

[fo3]

Nice one Raghza, keep updating.
I bought my first 525 recently and also have a long list of things to do. Some due to age, some due to bad previous owner. I don't have any rust to deal with, but interior on mine needs work, along with engine (leaks), suspension and of course tyres.
I thought it would be easy, but so many people are flakes (mechanics, people selling old cars/wrecks, parts sellers and wreckers), so many dead links in online guides...

[Raghza]

That's sad to hear. In Estonia, owning an E34 is super easy. You can get all the parts whenever you need them - tons of good cars that are sold for parts.
If I need some small parts, it's often the easiest and also quite cheap to just buy them from a BMW dealer.

I forgot to get the two needed bits to install the rear license plate panel, so I ordered these - 4.77€ from the dealer or 4.22€ if I would have liked to wait for shipping.

Good luck with your 525i!