Danny's 92 525it/5

[dannyzabolotny]

Hey all,

I'm new to the E34 subforum, but I've spent a ton of time in the E38/E39 forums, so some of you may recognize me— I have a 2000 540it and have owned countless V8-powered E39's, along with an E36 M3. Anyways, I bought a 1992 525it with a 5-speed swap the other day. It's pretty rough but for the 3-digit price I paid, I can't really complain. It's silver with the gray interior and it's a bit cosmetically challenged at the moment but I'll take care of that later.

The main issue right now is that it doesn't run, for the obvious reason that it's missing some parts due to an unscrupulous previous owner. Basically the previous owner attempted an OBDII conversion— for the sake of tuning I suppose? They destroyed the original DME and hacked up the engine harness a bit. I removed that engine harness today so I can troubleshoot it and find out what's missing or to see if I need to just buy another harness entirely. The car did run and drive a few months ago before that so mechanically it should be okay for the most part.

That leads me to my next question— should I revert everything back to how it was originally and source a 90-92 DME (my M50 is pre-vanos so I'll have to keep that in mind), or use the included 1996 DME along with the OBDII harness that was included in the car? What would converting to OBDII entail? Sorry if these are noob questions, I've never had to deal with this as all the cars I've ever owned were firmly in the OBDII camp. My ultimate goal with this engine is to put an eBay turbo on it so whichever option makes that work better would be preferable. I'm personally fine with either, as the harness in these cars appears to be pretty simple unlike the E39 and newer harnesses. Also, does the DME need to be coded to the car to work properly? I know on the E39's they need to be paired with the EWS.

Aside from the harness issues, the car is missing the fuel injectors, an intake boot, a MAF, an airbox, and it needs a valve cover because the previous owner drilled a bunch of senseless oil fittings into it for some grandiose build that was never realized. Since I have the pre-Vanos M50, I assume that's what I'll need to look for at the junkyards, 90-92 525i's? Or are there certain newer parts that might interchange? There's a few newer (93-94) 525i's in the junkyards right now.

The listing pictures:





When it arrived at my house on a flatbed, like all good projects do:



One of the previous owners was trying to make more clearance under the hood so they put like an inch worth of washers under the hood latch to prop it up... so stupid. I removed those today, now the hood sits nicely again:

[Singing6]

Welcome to E34, hope you enjoy it as much as your E39! As for the physical components; the airbox, maf, intake and injectors should all be compatible with any M50 powered E34 (some parts will also interchange from m50 E36's). I would need more detail to be able to assess the condition of the loom, but one thing to note is that the full ETM for all E34 model years is readily available online. search "1992 BMW e34 electrical troubleshooting manual" on google.

[dannyzabolotny]

Ah, thanks for the tip! There are a few newer M50-powered E34’s in junkyards here so I’ll keep that in mind. I have a lead on a full OBDI harness along with a MAF, so I might just be putting the car back to stock to get it running, which is fine with me. I want to get it fully sorted before I start throwing more power at it, that’s for sure.

[bigsixe34]

Nice buy. 3 digits for a 5 speed touring is a score. I can't get over how good the e38 16" weaves look on these cars recently. Makes me miss my set and my e34!
Yes, valve cover will need to be from a 1991/1992 MY 525i only. '89 and '90 used the m20 engine while '93 and later 525s had VANOS which distinguishes itself visually as a forward-facing bulge on the driver's front side of the motor.
The DMEs are different as well. There is a little nitty gritty with the years that I'm starting to get cloudy on, but basically early VANOS cars have the desirable 413 Red Label which will open up the most doors for management. The DME from the touring won't run anything with the variable valve timing correctly. Also notable is the earlier NonVanos's lack of knock sensors. Should you update your motor to one that utilized them (VANOS m50s and newer) you'll need to grab a new harness with the connectors in place.
Regarding the turbo, I haven't done my own build but I would tend to believe that OBD1 would be the way to stay if you're going that route. Hopefully the FI folk will chime in there.

[dannyzabolotny]

Nice buy. 3 digits for a 5 speed touring is a score. I can't get over how good the e38 16" weaves look on these cars recently. Makes me miss my set and my e34!
Yes, valve cover will need to be from a 1991/1992 MY 525i only. '89 and '90 used the m20 engine while '93 and later 525s had VANOS which distinguishes itself visually as a forward-facing bulge on the driver's front side of the motor.
The DMEs are different as well. There is a little nitty gritty with the years that I'm starting to get cloudy on, but basically early VANOS cars have the desirable 413 Red Label which will open up the most doors for management. The DME from the touring won't run anything with the variable valve timing correctly. Also notable is the earlier NonVanos's lack of knock sensors. Should you update your motor to one that utilized them (VANOS m50s and newer) you'll need to grab a new harness with the connectors in place.
Regarding the turbo, I haven't done my own build but I would tend to believe that OBD1 would be the way to stay if you're going that route. Hopefully the FI folk will chime in there.

Gotcha. At this point I've decided to just bring the car back to stock so I'm not opening a new can of worms by trying to "upgrade" it to OBDII. I got a proper 525i non-Vanos DME locally last night, and I'm getting an engine harness, ignition coils, and MAF from a member.

And yeah, I absolutely love the wheels on this car. I was never much of a mesh wheel guy with my E39's, but they look so right on an E34. I've really fallen in love with the way the E34s look, especially the tourings. I'm stoked to get this one back on the road, it's been through a few neglectful owners but hopefully I can nurse it back to health.

[dannyzabolotny]

Alright, so I've sourced everything that the E34 will need to run. Now we play the waiting game for stuff to ship, haha.

I bought a fully intact pre-vanos 525i wiring harness from a member, along with ignition coils. And I got a fully unmolested M50 valve cover at the local junkyard from a pretty clean-looking 92 325is. That's also where I got a good condition used MAF and intake boot. I figure I don't really need a stock airbox since I plan to go FI, so I'll just use a cone filter to get everything running. I'm going to order new valve cover gaskets, oil filter, And last but not least, I have a 525i non-Vanos DME. Once everything arrives, I'll install it all with the help of an E34-savvy buddy for the wiring parts. Hopefully she fires right up!

While I'm waiting for the wiring harness to arrive, I'll start removing all the junk from inside the car— it's absolutely disgusting and everything I touch has a thick layer of dirt and grime on it. Everything is sticky, the car smells awful, and the seats are falling apart. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll do a thorough interior cleaning to remove all the ickiness. And a thorough bath for the outside too.

[dannyzabolotny]

So now for the ugly bits... also known as the interior. It smells like a musty combination of cigarettes, cheap air fresheners, and other illicit substances. Here's how it looked before I started the cleanup effort, it's pretty graphic so you've been warned.

The front door panels are shot... almost looks like water damage. All the clips are broken off and they're peeling badly.



Who knows what's in that floormat? Gross.



The driver's seat is gnarly. Definitely beyond saving.



No comment. Let's just say I was really glad to be wearing rubber gloves when going through this interior...



Thankfully the radio, HVAC, and OBC haven't been tampered with. Small victories!



You can see the large amount of air fresheners hanging from the mirror, along with the peeling sunroof switch panel.



The passenger side door panel looks slightly better, but it's randomly swollen in some parts... probably some water damage.



The headliner isn't perfect, but it is intact and reasonably clean. Glad I don't have to mess with that for now.



Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt, makes me wonder if the car sat outside with the windows down at some point.



The rear door panels have the inserts peeling, but otherwise they're pretty straight so I'll attempt to re-glue them to see if I can bring them back to life.



The back seat is a little dirty, but I think with some cleaning and conditioning it can be brought back to a half-decent state. No rips or any major stains, thankfully.



This is possibly the grossest part of the whole car. I call it the hell-hole. I might just remove the center console from the car and let it soak in an APC to try and dissolve some of the filth.



The shifter surround looks pretty gross, but given the relative lack of replacement parts (most junkyard E34's are automatics), I'm inclined to just clean it up as much as possible and cover it in a nice fabric.



I then proceeded to remove several pounds of trash from the car and trashed the disgusting floormats. Threw the air fresheners in the trash, emptied the full ashtray (somebody smoked a lot in this car), vacuumed every surface, and wiped down every surface with an interior cleaner. It's starting to look less scary:



The dashboard, steering wheel, and gauge cluster cleaned up pretty nicely:



At this point I'm on the lookout for a set of front seats and front door cards. E34's show up relatively frequently in the local junkyards so it shouldn't be too hard to find that stuff.

[BimmerBreaker]

How does one fix an E34 panoramic sunroof? When we picked up the car one of the hombres there said we could convert it to manual to make the system more reliable?

It's one of my favorite things in the world and I want it to work when I'm in Danny's E34

[atl530i]

http://www.gabimmers.com/docs/Servic...%20Sunroof.pdf

[trackerrrr]

I just started on the interior of my beater and it's almost as bad as yours. My front seats are somewhat better shape though. Might need a tetanus shot later...

[dannyzabolotny]

How does one fix an E34 panoramic sunroof? When we picked up the car one of the hombres there said we could convert it to manual to make the system more reliable?

It's one of my favorite things in the world and I want it to work when I'm in Danny's E34

We'll get it working, don't worry. And then you can use it all the time, much to my chagrin (I'm not a sunroof guy).

http://www.gabimmers.com/docs/Servic...%20Sunroof.pdf

Ah, thanks. I'll have to take a look at that when the time comes to address the sunroof. Right now the priority is in getting the car running.

I just started on the interior of my beater and it's almost as bad as yours. My front seats are somewhat better shape though. Might need a tetanus shot later...

I wore rubber gloves for a reason! It's cleaned up pretty nicely for the most part, but I will need to take some things apart and some things out of the car in order to get them truly clean. A smart person would just look for a clean E34 touring to get a whole interior, but I'm trying to be cheap about it, haha. I've got a buddy with a steam cleaner so that will probably do wonders for the carpets. Once the gross old seats are replaced and the carpet is cleaned, that should take care of most of the smell.

[imola38]

Man, do I love a good restoration thread. She's definitely in need of some love. I've bought an E34 with a filthy interior, but I think that's a whole new level of human stank. It's amazing what disgusting slobs people can be.

I doubt water is the issue with those panels as unfortunately, the early E34 door panels are essentially garbage and tend to shrink and tear over time. I've seen and owned plenty that were that bad. They almost make E36 door panels seem like they're higher quality...

Car looks decent otherwise, and reasonably dry underneath. Although, my OCD was screaming inside for a pressure washer on that undercarriage

Loved your 4.6is build thread and YouTube videos btw. I've owned 2 of them so far.

Good luck with her. Glad to see another E34 being saved!

-Ben

[dannyzabolotny]

Man, do I love a good restoration thread. She's definitely in need of some love. I've bought an E34 with a filthy interior, but I think that's a whole new level of human stank. It's amazing what disgusting slobs people can be.

I doubt water is the issue with those panels as unfortunately, the early E34 door panels are essentially garbage and tend to shrink and tear over time. I've seen and owned plenty that were that bad. They almost make E36 door panels seem like they're higher quality...

Car looks decent otherwise, and reasonably dry underneath. Although, my OCD was screaming inside for a pressure washer on that undercarriage

Loved your 4.6is build thread and YouTube videos btw. I've owned 2 of them so far.

Good luck with her. Glad to see another E34 being saved!

-Ben

Yeah, it blows my mind how people can let these cars get so bad, but that's just the reality of it. My friend (BimmerBreaker) and I are saving a whole bunch of old BMW's, so this is what we do for fun. We're working on this project together and working on a 97 M3 together as well. Eventually we'll have a pretty sweet collection of oldschool Bimmers between the two of us

I'm curious to see what it looks like underneath, haha— I'll get there eventually. While I'm waiting for parts to show up, I figured I might as well start cleaning it so I don't get tetanus once we get it running and driving.

[trackerrrr]

I'm also working on a '91 Mercury Capri that I picked up for $125. Your interior looks pristine compared to my pile the day I dragged it home. I nearly gagged cleaning it out.

Capri inside 2.jpg Capri inside.jpg

[Kingpin025]

Here's a few things from my experience of my touring. Granted it wasn't nearly as dirty as the one you're working on, but I'm about 80% done now. If you can find decent passenger seats, the cushions can be removed pretty easily and swapped over. Driver and passenger cushions are the same.

When you decide to repair the sunroof, get on Real OEM and buy all new cables, connectors and gaskets. If it has plastic or rubber, spring for the new stuff. Nothing more frustrating than getting it all back together and having to order a $50 part because you used the old one and it broke. You'll see what parts I'm talking about when you lay the old ones out. This is a perfect time to order from FCP Euro just in case, you'll never have to pay for them again. This is not a cheap fix for sure but it sure is cool. I had a local stereo shop that I've used for years repair mine. We learned the hard way that we should've just ordered the new stuff from jump street.

Damaged wiring looms in both sides of the hatch will cause more electrical issues than seem to make sense.

Liquid Nails Perfect Glue seems to work very well for door panel repair. It's pretty easy to find in small tubes on Amazon (gold, blue with a red top .75oz). I've yet to find any larger containers of this particular type of Liquid Nails so you'll need several (8-10) to do all the door inserts. I've used a few of the other recommendations people toss out and this one works the best in the California desert. So far, so good through one full summer.

PM me with any questions you might have. I've searched and found most parts I needed for my restoration. Here's a link to my thread. I had just finished the door panels and wrapped the trim when I started it up. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ight=new+to+me

[BimmerBreaker]

When you decide to repair the sunroof, get on Real OEM and buy all new cables, connectors and gaskets. If it has plastic or rubber, spring for the new stuff. Nothing more frustrating than getting it all back together and having to order a $50 part because you used the old one and it broke. You'll see what parts I'm talking about when you lay the old ones out. This is a perfect time to order from FCP Euro just in case, you'll never have to pay for them again. This is not a cheap fix for sure but it sure is cool. I had a local stereo shop that I've used for years repair mine. We learned the hard way that we should've just ordered the new stuff from jump street.

Did you just say to spend money??? But that will come out of our turbo budget...

Shoot! Slicktop conversion it is...

[Kingpin025]

Did you just say to spend money??? But that will come out of our turbo budget...

Shoot! Slicktop conversion it is...

So much for all that sunroof love!

Turbo would be fun and fast but they are almost never reliable. My touring is my daily so the two M5s and the Lightning available for weekends and shows.

[dannyzabolotny]

So much for all that sunroof love!

Turbo would be fun and fast but they are almost never reliable. My touring is my daily so the two M5s and the Lightning available for weekends and shows.

This won't be a daily, haha. Both Graham and I have fairly reliable daily drivers (his is a 2000 S54-powered Z3 Coupe, mine is a 2000 540it) so this going to be a bit of a crazier project. Reliability isn't a big concern, we're just going to have fun with it and see where it ends up.

[dannyzabolotny]

Got a bunch of work done today! First, I unwrapped the wiring harness that Justin (atl530i) sent me. It was in excellent condition, thanks dude!



I also hit up the local junkyard and got some little things for the touring. The first thing I got were hood struts, as they were completely missing before. No wonder the hood opened so far out and kept denting the front nose panel!





Next up were the mirror controls. The door panel is still gross and falling apart but at least now I'll be able to adjust the mirrors.



At one point I put the battery on a charger so I was able to power up the car for the first time to see what worked inside. Some of the windows worked, the cluster worked (212k miles apparently), and the HVAC worked. OBC panel worked but the display was dim and the radio kept saying "CODE," so I'll have to do some more research on those.

Moving under the hood, I replaced the modified valve cover with a stock one. The previous owner had intended to install a catch can, at least that's what I think those fittings were for? Replacing the valve cover took no time at all, these straight sixes are so easy to work on compared to the V8's, haha. I replaced some of the missing hardware while I was at it too. The engine looks reasonably clean underneath the valve cover— some typical varnish but the cams are in great shape and I didn't see anything concerning.







Later in the day, my friend Brad came over to help out with the wiring harness installation, since he's much more familiar with E34's than I am (he's got a sweet 95 540i/6 M-Sport). We got a lot of it situated, but then we found that the fuel lines were cut up and pretty old. After a quick trip to O'Reilly's, we had fresh new fuel lines. After that, we removed a few more randomly snipped connectors, since the new harness had everything intact and stock. As we were reaching completion, we noticed a few things weren't quite adding up...

The knock sensor connector looked all wrong, the cam sensor connector looked wrong, the coolant temp sensor looked wrong, and there was a random O2 sensor going from the exhaust manifold (probably for an AFR gauge)... Clearly these were leftovers from a horribly misguided attempt at converting the touring to OBDII. Not trying to knock people that do the conversion properly, but this guy's attempt was utterly terrible— when I got the car it had three butchered harnesses and nothing was connected properly, plus the guy fried the original DME too.







Tomorrow I'll be hitting the junkyard yet again to scavenge some more parts off a 92 325i (that's where I got the intake boot and valve cover).

[dannyzabolotny]

Today I hit up the junkyard yet again, scoring a camshaft position sensor, throttle body hardware + gasket, and the hard lines for the fuel that run underneath the manifold. Apparently the non-Vanos M50's didn't really have a knock sensor so I just removed those to clean things up a bit. After that I replaced the cam sensor, coolant temp sensor, and a few other little bits. At this point the harness is mostly installed, and I've more or less figured out most of the grounds based on pictures and the Bentley manual wiring diagrams. All I have to replace now is the crank sensor, which is again the wrong part thanks to the previous owner.

On the bright side, I'll soon be an expert on M50 wiring, haha.

[bigsixe34]

Nice buy. 3 digits for a 5 speed touring is a score. I can't get over how good the e38 16" weaves look on these cars recently. Makes me miss my set and my e34!
Yes, valve cover will need to be from a 1991/1992 MY 525i only. '89 and '90 used the m20 engine while '93 and later 525s had VANOS which distinguishes itself visually as a forward-facing bulge on the driver's front side of the motor.
The DMEs are different as well. There is a little nitty gritty with the years that I'm starting to get cloudy on, but basically early VANOS cars have the desirable 413 Red Label which will open up the most doors for management. The DME from the touring won't run anything with the variable valve timing correctly. Also notable is the earlier NonVanos's lack of knock sensors. Should you update your motor to one that utilized them (VANOS m50s and newer) you'll need to grab a new harness with the connectors in place.
Regarding the turbo, I haven't done my own build but I would tend to believe that OBD1 would be the way to stay if you're going that route. Hopefully the FI folk will chime in there.

The 4-prong one in question between the knock sensors is I believe an OBD2 temperature sensor patch? When I did the OBD1 conversion on my s52 I remember ordering an adapter that brought the two separate OBD1 temp sensor leads into that connector to mate with (I believe) the single OBD2 temp sensor in the block? It's been a while.....

[dannyzabolotny]

Alright, so time for an update! I've been super busy with the E34 but I'll try and catch up on everything I've done so far on it (with the help of my friends Graham and Brad, you guys rock!).

I got all the correct sensors, had to replace most of em since they were all the wrong ones for OBDI. In total I ended up replacing the crank sensor, camshaft sensor, removed the knock sensors, and replaced the coolant temp sensor. After bothering atl530i a bunch (thanks for answering all my dumb questions, it really helped me out) I got all the grounds sorted out. I also had to make a bunch more junkyard trips to get the little bits to make the car complete, like this nifty little junction block next to the relays in the DME box:



With all the electric connections sorted, new fuel lines, and new intake manifold gaskets, I had everything together for the first start. I added a few gallons of gas to the empty tank, plugged in the DME, and hoped for the best. I turned the key and it cranked, but no start. Bummer. I figured out that it was a fuel issue when I had my friend crank the engine while I sprayed starter fluid into the intake (with the MAF removed to avoid damaging it). With the fluid, the engine roared to life, albeit for a very short time.

The next day, I probed connectors 4 & 5 on the fuel pump connector to see if the fuel pump was getting voltage with the key on. It was not, so after some Googling my friend and I deduced that the crank and cam sensor plugs were swapped, so the DME wasn't sending power to the fuel pump. After swapping the cam and crank sensor connectors, we got voltage at the pump. Once that was sorted, we were able to start the engine for the very first time! It was a very satisfying feeling indeed. It ran like crap and didn't want to idle at all, but it was a start (pun intended?).

Doing more investigation, I found that the TPS and ICV connectors were swapped. Silly BMW, making all these connectors keyed the same way. Once I swapped the connectors, I verified that the ICV was working correctly with it humming a bit with the key on, and now the stomp test worked whereas before it hadn't worked at all. At this point the engine would occasionally start but it would still run terribly, with almost no throttle response.

At this point I figured vacuum leaks were to blame, so I removed the intake manifold and double checked all the vacuum lines, along with cleaning up the wiring and installing a few junkyard-sourced brackets that were missing from the engine for some reason. I also took the time to clean the ICV thoroughly, just in case it was causing the crappy idle. The ICV hose was also shot so I sourced another one at the junkyard (I went to the junkyard A LOT during this process, even in 100ºF+ weather, now that's dedication!). With everything put back together the car started sorta idling, but still refused to rev and would backfire when given any amount of throttle input.

With all of the vacuum issues sorted, I turned my attention back to the fuel supply. I sourced a good condition used fuel pump from a 94 525i in the junkyard and proceeded to swap it in. The fuel pump that was in the 525it looked to be original, and replacing it was almost like an archeological dig, haha.



The tank looked pretty clean inside, no rust and not too much crud in the tank.



The original pump looked pretty tired, no wonder since it had 212k miles on it.



I also removed the ancient-looking fuel filter and straight-piped it, just to rule it out. Don't worry, I'm getting a new fuel filter ASAP, not gonna leave this in there for long.



With all of that done, the car started running somewhat normally, but still with a fairly choppy idle and a hefty amount of rev hang. I turned my attention to the fuel rail, which clearly wasn't the right one (I just used the one that was in the trunk of the car when I bought it). After yet another junkyard run, I sourced a proper M50 fuel rail with a fuel pressure regulator.



Initially the car didn't start at all, after which I came to the startling realization that I had the fuel lines running backwards.... oops. When I had the straight-through rail installed it made no real difference, but with the fuel pressure regulator in the mix, the lines being backwards meant zero fuel to the rail. Thankfully it wasn't hard to switch the lines around.

Now that the fuel lines were run correctly, the engine came to life almost immediately! It still idled a little weird, but it didn't stall anymore and had actual throttle response. Victory! Without checking anything else, I immediately took the car on its maiden voyage to the local gas station to get myself a snack and some more gas in the tank. It made it there, but barely. It still wasn't fully happy and kept stalling here and there.



I limped it back home and looked into why it wasn't running happily— apparently I had left some sensors unplugged from a previous round of troubleshooting... oops! With those plugged in, the engine ran much steadier, and I was able to drive it around a bit more.

For whatever reason, the 525it feels a lot more nimble than my 540it, despite having a steering box setup and being only 300lbs lighter than my 540it. There's a clunking in the front suspension, probably a bad bushing. The AC actually works pretty well! Brakes feel good, clutch feels pretty good too. Overall, not bad for $350!

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, a fact that I realized when I pulled the 525it back into my driveway and watched it shoot out all of its coolant from the throttle body. The next day I said "screw it" and bypassed the throttle body entirely, removing the throttle body thermostat in the process. That cleaned up the engine bay quite a bit and completely solved all of my coolant leaks, awesome! I live in Phoenix where it never dips below like 40ºF, so I don't need a heated throttle body.

Earlier today I replaced the spark plugs with new NGK Platinums, and man did the old plugs look gross:



With the NGK plugs in place, the engine seemed a LOT happier. I've never seen such a difference from just replacing spark plugs, but then again I've never owned a car that was as neglected as this one. I'm not even kidding when I say that the engine feels twice as powerful now. I also replaced a few fuses and got the power windows and central locking working properly. Progress!

At this stage, the engine was running pretty well, so I got temporary tags and took the 525it on its first long-ish trip of a few miles, to the nearest Taco Bell for lunch. After sitting in stop-and-go traffic I'm pleased to report that the clutch felt good, the engine didn't overheat, and the AC blew nice and cold despite it being 107ºF outside. The ride on the 16" wheels is so cushy, it's crazy! My E39 540it is on 18" wheels and has a rock-hard ride in comparison.

The 525it at Taco Bell where I had a very satisfying victory meal:



And some pictures I took of it in my driveway with decent lighting for once:









Now that the car runs reasonably well, it's time to address some cosmetic issues. I'm going to try removing the nasty yellow spray tint from the headlights, along with getting new amber turn signals. There's a silver 535i at a junkyard that I might go and pull the nose panel from, since this one is both the wrong color and bent heavily. And I need to replace the gas cap hinge, as it's completely broken off.

[moroza]

Good stuff!

What's the suspension setup?

Those front door panels are *the worst* I have ever seen. Fortunately, all door cards interchange among all E34, sedan and wagon. I may have a set of '95 panels for sale soon, though they are black.

Take good care of the rear seat, for it is not interchangeable with sedans, not even close. It's probably the most important Touring-specific part to take care of (the rest are either interchangeable, unimportant, durable, or easy to repair).

Having driven the 2/98 540i/6 that donated its engine and transmission to my (recently sold) E34 544iT, I thought the E34 felt more nimble too, even with the same powertrain and similar suspension tune. It is in fact lighter, and generally less isolated. Also, E34T are rear-heavy and have a noticably different feel in turns than sedans.

E39 540 had a steerbox as well as all E34.

[dannyzabolotny]

Good stuff!

What's the suspension setup?

Those front door panels are *the worst* I have ever seen. Fortunately, all door cards interchange among all E34, sedan and wagon. I may have a set of '95 panels for sale soon, though they are black.

Take good care of the rear seat, for it is not interchangeable with sedans, not even close. It's probably the most important Touring-specific part to take care of (the rest are either interchangeable, unimportant, durable, or easy to repair).

Having driven the 2/98 540i/6 that donated its engine and transmission to my (recently sold) E34 544iT, I thought the E34 felt more nimble too, even with the same powertrain and similar suspension tune. It is in fact lighter, and generally less isolated. Also, E34T are rear-heavy and have a noticably different feel in turns than sedans.

E39 540 had a steerbox as well as all E34.

Not 100% sure what the suspension setup is, looks to be some kind of lowering springs on stock-ish shocks? I'll have to investigate further. Rides decently though, and the SLS has already been deleted in the rear.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing how badly people treat these cars, though it's probably more so due to the heat in Arizona— every E34/E32 in the junkyard has the same level of damage in the door panels. Thankfully the rear seat is still in decent shape, with no real tears in the leather. Just needs a good cleaning and conditioning to be decent.

Yep, my 540it has a steering box, as does this 525it. That's why I was amazed at how different the steering feels between the two cars despite being fundamentally the same technology. Haven't noticed the rear heaviness yet, but I also haven't pushed the 525it very hard since it's on very sketchy, old Chinese tires.

[moroza]

Window tint and regular conditioning go a long way towards keeping the seat leather happy. The ones in my car turn 30 years old in November, and are in better shape than most 5-year old cars'. For 12 of those years they had Leatherique every 6 months and 5-15% tint protecting them. I worry about jean studs and pocket knife holsters more than the elements.