My new sloppy jalopy - slow build thread

[chrisdude328i]

Hey guys - I just bought a 2001 525i touring, it's been a while since I have been in the BMW game - My last one was a e36 328 (hence my screen name) which I had in highschool and through college. It was a great learning car, but unfortunately an automatic. I had an e39 528 sport model for a couple months until the auto started going out as well. I always loved the e39 wagons, it has been a goal of mine to aquire a manual wagon, fix it up, & go camping/road tripping in it - well, I finally made the plundge & found a project manual e39 touring. It's pretty rought right now - 205,000 miles, it was driving great when i picked her up. Ac blows cold, windows work flawlessly, ac blows cold. Has a few oil leaks, but no signs of overheating. I did an semi epic journy, driving 4 hours from SF to pick her up. Unfortunately on the way back the fuel pump took a crap - it's a total project and needs a lot to make it road worthy.

[Mike WW]

I hope for your sake "oil pump going out" doesn't mean what I think it does. If so, the time will never be better to make a 3.0 out of it which the heavy touring really needs. Not quite sure I'd say blessing in disguise, but might as well make the most out of the situation.

[chrisdude328i]

Ohh, I miss-typed haha - the fuel pump went out (corrected in my org post) Although you are right ^^ - This pig could use some more power.

[geargrinder]

Haha you Californiks and your "pretty rough". That car looks minty mint by northern standards. Mechanical hassles bits can always be fixed... Rust cancer is permanent... Look like clean style 42's too. Bonus.

[Mike WW]

Haha you Californiks and your "pretty rough". That car looks minty mint by northern standards. Mechanical hassles bits can always be fixed... Rust cancer is permanent... Look like clean style 42's too. Bonus.

What is this "rust" think you speak of...

In all seriousness, yeah of course the lack of rust is a blessing. But the rest of the car, the paint, the interior, even engine/tranny used hard on 7K passes get used much harder. Eastern cars are cheaper and much better 20 footers. You can make California cars last as long as you want if you're willing to do as needed for smog, but they take a beating in other ways than rust.

[dannyzabolotny]

California cars may have no rust, but those SoCal roads really take a toll on the suspension. My Arizona 2003 540i/6 had a far better suspension at 200k miles than my California 2000 540it with 174k miles. The suspension was completely shot when I bought it, literally nothing was in good shape.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

How do you know the suspension on the Arizona car hadn't been replaced?

[dannyzabolotny]

How do you know the suspension on the Arizona car hadn't been replaced?

A lot of the components had original date stamps and it wasn't anywhere in the maintenance history— I had the maintenance history on that car from the day it rolled off the showroom, it was super thorough. So I have a good reason to believe the components were original.

[geargrinder]

Dudes pulleez. The landmine frost-heave pothole mooncraters we have in snow country make "California roads" complaints a total joke. And hell, I mean things are bad where I live - every winter certain roads just puke up big chunks of their pavement - but try driving around Detroit after a bad winter - its like being in a warzone. You're ready to abandon your car roadside and looking for the nearest armoured HUM-V to jump into. Uh, OK maybe Cali has worse roads than Zona, but having driven there many times (both No and SoCal)... its freakin bucolic compared to real snow country. Hell I don't even remember seeing really bad roads up in the mountains in California...

The more legit Cali wear and tear AFAIC is - for SoCal at least - the heat-factor. Def have been seeing that on a California-raised E39 that is now around here. Poor thing got cooked to death... not a spec of rust but man the plastic and rubber stuff is all baked to brittle cracked mess, and stuff just falls apart in your hands when you go to touch it, where my NorEaster car with similar miles looks 100x better.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Hell, back in the summer of '81, when I lived in Walnut Creek, CA, I remember frying an egg on my neighbors Ferrari 308....That was a ridiculously hot summer, Lol!!!

[JimLev]

Hell, back in the summer of '81, when I lived in Walnut Creek, CA, I remember frying an egg on my neighbors Ferrari 308....That was a ridiculously hot summer, Lol!!!

Isn't the the opening line to some song? Maybe from the Band? Or was that the winter of '65?
And GG is right about the New England roads, they suck.
My 540 is so happy to now be rolling on nice pothole free NM roads.

Danny, just got back from Yosemite last week, what's up with i40 west of Flagstaff? It's almost as bad as MA roads.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Haha! Back in the summer of '69, wasn't that a lot newer, like Bryan Adams, or something.

You should've seen the pink stain that the egg left on the Ferrari. It's ok, the owner was a big plick. His younger son, Kevin would agree, hell, he was with me when I did it.

[dannyzabolotny]

The more legit Cali wear and tear AFAIC is - for SoCal at least - the heat-factor. Def have been seeing that on a California-raised E39 that is now around here. Poor thing got cooked to death... not a spec of rust but man the plastic and rubber stuff is all baked to brittle cracked mess, and stuff just falls apart in your hands when you go to touch it, where my NorEaster car with similar miles looks 100x better.

Hm, you have a point there. The heat really does wreck all the plastic and rubber on the car. My 540it's trims all looked pretty baked until I slathered them with Back To Black within the first week of owning it, and the windshield cowl trim is falling apart at this point too. The wipers are toast as well. Arizona is even more brutal on cars than Cali... if your car isn't waxed regularly and stored in the shade it's guaranteed to have peeling clear coat within a few years. There are cars from 2010 with peeling clear here.

Isn't the the opening line to some song? Maybe from the Band? Or was that the winter of '65?
And GG is right about the New England roads, they suck.
My 540 is so happy to now be rolling on nice pothole free NM roads.

Danny, just got back from Yosemite last week, what's up with i40 west of Flagstaff? It's almost as bad as MA roads.

Oh yeah, the roads around Flagstaff suck. Two reasons for that— Flagstaff actually gets freezing temperatures and snow in the winter, and the roads around it are a major route for trucks, so that tears up the roads pretty badly. That and the fact that mountain-y roads are not nearly as easy to redo as flat straight roads which means the roads are more likely to get patched or just flat-out ignored for much longer periods of time.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Well damn, suddenly Arizonads don't sound so appealing a place to live no more....

[chrisdude328i]

That's true - thankfully this has been a nor cal car it's entire life. From the history it was a one owner, dealer maintained at BMW Marin till it hit 185,000. Then he sold it to a woman who seems like she ragged it for 20k miles. The shift bushings are worn, valve cover gasket is seeping oil, oil filter housing is leaking oil, prob a few other misc. leaks. Steering is sloppy at best - Exterior and interior are it's best quality right now. Everything electrical works well, there's even no srs light and it's on some nice style 5s.

To your point about roads, I have lived in San Francisco for 10 years now - they have to be some of the worst roads in the US. I have no factual basis for this, but I have bent rims and have rattled my e36 interior to bits. It's better to classify our roads as dirt trails.

Back to the car - it's at a friends house in walnut creek right now - more in depth pics to come.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

I spent my middle school years in Walnut Creek, late '70's, early '80's, man, last time I went there, about 20 years ago, I couldn't recognize anything! The freekin' place changed! We were one of the first families to move into the neighborhood, brand new roads, brand new houses, brand new trees, right at the base of the foothills of Mt Diablo. Last time I was there, nothing looked the same, but for the mountain. Houses got repainted, streets weren't as good as I remembered, but the trees! The trees are what really changed the place. Downtown Walnut Creek blew my mind, skyscrapers! When I lived there, the hospital was the tallest building in the area. Times a trip! How are the roads out in Marin? Those roads were beautiful back then, I hope they still are.

[ColtonBH]

The roads in Wisconsin get messed up in a couple years. My road was repaved ~7 years ago, already pretty major cracks in and it's developing potholes, this is even with stress cuts made in it to prevent that from happening. 10* winters and 90* summers kill roads quick

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[chrisdude328i]

I spent my middle school years in Walnut Creek, late '70's, early '80's, man, last time I went there, about 20 years ago, I couldn't recognize anything! The freekin' place changed! We were one of the first families to move into the neighborhood, brand new roads, brand new houses, brand new trees, right at the base of the foothills of Mt Diablo. Last time I was there, nothing looked the same, but for the mountain. Houses got repainted, streets weren't as good as I remembered, but the trees! The trees are what really changed the place. Downtown Walnut Creek blew my mind, skyscrapers! When I lived there, the hospital was the tallest building in the area. Times a trip! How are the roads out in Marin? Those roads were beautiful back then, I hope they still are.

Yeah Walnut Creek is becoming a pretty big town - The whole bay area is blowing up because of the tech industry. It sounds like it has changed from your perspective. I grew up in Santa Cruz & only have been visiting Walnut Creek recently.

Now onto the car update:

I finally got the car back home in San Francisco - There's a bad leak with the power steering. I attached a photo of the trail of fluid when we pushed it into the garage, which we were manually steering. When we got it into the spot it was still gushing fluid. I suspect the hoses and the reservoir gasket are toast, I will be jacking the car up when I get some free time next week. The fluid will need to get flushed too, it's pretty dirty. It also got into the alternator, which is probably toast, although when the engine cranks the dash lights do not dim. Besides that the rear has a bit of a gansta lean going on. I don't know if I have the air suspension (there is no light present in the Instrument Panel), my friend has a wagon with optional coils (I didn't know this was an option). The xenon lights look pretty sketchy, loose wires going to a silver box which isn't attached to anything in the engine bay. Also it has some minor paint peal on the A-pillar & D-pillar, I will do a color matched auto spec rattle can to remedy this for the moment - I have some training in automotive paint application. The interior needs a good clean, I will take out the seats and scrub the carpet when the car is running. And finally I have to tackle the fuel delivery - fuel filter & cheap pump just to get it going. So that's the start to the list, I am looking forward to doing the repairs myself since this is currently a non-op & I have my daily Honda Accord
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[chrisdude328i]

Additional photos of reservoir & interior.

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