2003 Bluewater Metallic 525iT

[BimmerBreaker]

A friend and forum member (Joe - thanks man!) shared a link to this car with me after I told him I was planning on building an E39 530iT sometime in the future. In the future...

I used to settle a lot on cars, but every "oh I got a good deal, I'll grow to love the color or this or that" purchase has ended up in regret (if my previous E39 M5 was Chiaretto instead of Jet Black, I'd probably still have it to this day). This car however was exactly what I wanted and in one of my favorite colors. I wasn't exactly ready to buy now - I wanted to build the 530iT in the future, because in the future I have money. But this car was literally exactly what I wanted so I pulled some strings and made it happen.
Walked away over $300 on the deal after driving 7 hours to get there too... that was hard. But the seller eventually accepted my offer so I was able to drive home in this 2003 525iT

2003 Bluewater Metallic 525iT, Gray interior
I believe these were the non-standard options:

S220A Self-levelling suspension
S227A Sport suspension+lowered+ride-height
S249A Multifunction f steering wheel
S417A Roller sun vizor, rear door
S464A Ski bag
S481A Sports seat
S494A Seat heating driver/passenger
S500A Headlight wipe/wash/Intensive cleaning
S508A Park Distance Control (PDC)
S521A Rain sensor
S522A Xenon Light
S710A M sports steering wheel, multifunction

It's very hard to capture the blue in bluewater. It usually just looks silver but its really quite an interesting color in person and in different lightings.

Will get some more pictures soon. Interior is in really nice shape, the seats were reupholstered very recently. Needs some odds and ends here and there, just some normal TLC, but I think it'll be brought back nicely
Hoping to keep this build thread somewhat updated, but I'm no Danny...

[dannyzabolotny]

It was a fun trip indeed, and I’m glad we got the seller to budge on the price, even if we did it in a somewhat desperate way.

There’s nothing quite like getting a car in a color that you actually like. That’s why I’ve kept my Japan Red 540it around for as long as I have, because the color is just perfect. Plus the Bluewater should stay nice and clean-looking compared to your other black BMW’s.

I’m stoked to do some work on it as well, it’s a really nice car that was just a little neglected mechanically.

Here’s my picture spam from yesterday:





Gotta get some interior pics too, it’s insanely clean inside.

[StephenVA]

Good deal!

[geargrinder]

Nice, G. I need something like that to keep the miles off the 540. Been thinkin about trying to find a beater touring for a winter/beater car...

[Jason5driver]

Wagon's Hooo!
LOL.
Awesomes !

[dannyzabolotny]

We did an extremely important modification today...

Before:



After:





Looks way better. Can’t wait to do a full paint correction on the 525it with Graham, it’s gonna look amazing!

[Mannyf540]

It was a fun trip indeed, and I’m glad we got the seller to budge on the price, even if we did it in a somewhat desperate way.

There’s nothing quite like getting a car in a color that you actually like. That’s why I’ve kept my Japan Red 540it around for as long as I have, because the color is just perfect. Plus the Bluewater should stay nice and clean-looking compared to your other black BMW’s.

I’m stoked to do some work on it as well, it’s a really nice car that was just a little neglected mechanically.

Here’s my picture spam from yesterday:





Gotta get some interior pics too, it’s insanely clean inside.

Looking good first pic you took really captures its unique qualities!

[amancuso]

Congratulations, Danny. I know what you mean about getting the right color. I don't settle anymore either! Oddly enough when I bought my 528i I was looking for silver as it made me nostalgic for the 540i I owned back in the day.

OG 540i:
IMG_2955 by Al, on Flickr
Current 528i:
%IUjHYKHRKSMQ2haKwG8OQ by Al, on Flickr

[BimmerBreaker]

Lol this is actually my car just to clarify

Today I started with an oil change, the oil change sticker said it was last done at 139,400 and its at 152,000 now! Seemed like it might have been serviced in between though, as the oil wasn't too bad coming out. Nice peace of mind though

Then got started on some fun stuff... swapped to amber sidemarkers - the OEM amber fronts, clear sides and red rears is a bit of a mess to my eyes! Euro amber tail lights are going in next week too
Plasti-dipped the body mouldings as well. Think it gives it a much more classic look. It also helps bring out the blue quite a lot I think. Front plate delete as well, as those are not needed in AZ. Danny gave me one from one of his parts cars

Before and afters











Next week getting the A/C recharged (hopefully that's all it needs) and ceramic tint. Going with a lighter shade, maybe a 40% on all side windows - and if they let me, as clear as possible on the windshield

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Looks like a real clean wagon, love it!

[computiNATEor]

Good buy, keep us updated as you make progress!

[amancuso]

Love it.

[dannyzabolotny]

Loving the front plate delete and black trims. It’s starting to look like a proper touring now!

[BimmerBreaker]

Thanks everyone Yeah its a lovely car, little nicer in pictures than in person (aren't they all?) but not in bad shape by any means

Nice, G. I need something like that to keep the miles off the 540. Been thinkin about trying to find a beater touring for a winter/beater car...

I think a 525i touring like mine makes a pretty good DD. Mind you I've had it less than a week but I've been around enough BMW's to know what to look for and these are pretty much exactly what you'd want in a daily - reliable, cheap (for a BMW anyways!) and practical.

About to head out to get the A/C looked at and recharged if thats what it needs (fingers crossed!). Appointment Wednesday for ceramic tint. Negotiating aggressively for euro amber headlights

Wanted to make a little list for myself of what I need done:
A/C fixed
Windows tinted
New tires
Front window regulators
CCV replaced
Rear subframe bushings

Some maybes would be trans fluid filter flush (why spend the money if I'm gonna engine swap anyways), swap sunroof mechanism as it doesn't seem to work 100%
Normally I'd do the cooling system pre-emptively but (knock on wood) it seems to be working pretty well right now, and some of the components were replaced just a few years ago.

[itsbrokeagain]

Does the aux fan work? I'm finding more and more of these E39s have one that went kaput and the AC doesn't work all too well without it

[BimmerBreaker]

Does the aux fan work? I'm finding more and more of these E39s have one that went kaput and the AC doesn't work all too well without it

It's kind of funny you said that...

Got the A/C charged yesterday, guy said it was a bit low, it'll blow freezing cold in any temperature now. Awesome. On the way back to the shop it went from freezing cold to slightly chilly to warm, then by the time we went back to the A/C shop after lunch it was just blowing hot air. Guy there jabs his fingers into the fan clutch, proclaims its broken and thats why the A/C isn't working and says $200 to fix it. I say ok and head back to the shop, get a good M54 fan clutch out of Danny's wagon (we took an extra with us on the trip) and slap it on. While the KTMP readout verified the car is running significantly cooler now, the A/C has not become any more reliable, it still fails after a few minutes of driving (usually it will be fine at idle forever basically but then after a few minutes of driving it fails).

We plug it into ISTA and it prompts us to do an electric fan test, we do and only the max speed on the aux fan on the car was working. Ok, so we swapped it for a part we took off Danny's 200K 540i. It was at least known to be working when removed, got it installed and did the ISTA test, it was working. Went on a short drive, A/C was colder than it ever was. Then after driving for a minute or two it gets warm again then hot...

And that is where the A/C saga concludes for now. Part 2 comes today...

[cnsorial]

Bad FSU? Sounds like an electrical problem


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BimmerBreaker]

FSU only controls blower motor speed as I understand it

We swapped the IHKA panel out as the IHKA is what controls the system for the most part, no relays or anything to speak of in these cars. So we are certainly narrowing it down. It's seeming to me like maybe the pressure switch, the replacement aux fan isn't working properly either (will do another ISTA test to see if its happy or not) so may just be that we replaced it with a bad fan.

Part of me wonders if, while hte part #"s do interchange from E39's, if some of the fan speeds on this aux fan failed. On the ISTA test the low speed didn't seem to trigger immediately or very happily. So it may just be a matter of needing an actual new aux fan... will go a little deeper down the diagnostic path before spending $$$ though

Think Danny has another aux fan he can bring me that we can test today too

[geargrinder]

M54 motor - Aux fan should be PWM driven so should be "infinite fan speeds", and swapping it seems to be same... so... I doubt its the Aux fan... plus while driving at highway speed the Aux fan (on facelift type DME's) gets disabled because it doesn't matter so.... The "fine at idle forever but fails while driving" bit seems like the clear tell-tale but I'm too stupid to figure out what it means. Derp.

Do you have INPA too Graham? If so, fire that up and look at the live values for the IHKA while you drive and force the failure. You may see that its going over pressure or something (also manually activating fan etc. to test is far easier in INPA than in the excessively-automated ISTA crap...) I assume there were no errors in the IHKA...

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Hey GiGi, when you swap in an IHKA unit from another car, is there any coding needed?

[geargrinder]

Without paging through a trace file, I"m gonna say - theoretically yes practically no? Like there's probably some rare options you can code like rear-AC and/or fridge or whatever... Probably the Sedan / Touring coding is theoretically different? But even then I can't imagine what would be coded... unless maybe there's a hysteresis difference w/ the temperature sensors to account for the giant rear air pocket and allow for more air to flow to the rear...

[geargrinder]

Yeah OK curiosity dammit. Had a look. Basically exactly what I thought.

Yeah, some 'convenience options' like key-memory-climate, some country-based (aka F vs C), some rare options - auxilary heating, rear AC.... A few 'model' differences - aux water pump y/n (some "ROW" budget 520i for isntance probably doens't have that)...

Did just see an interesting couple options I might fiddle with - "increase engine idle when heavy consumers are activated" and "increase engine idel when voltage is low"... both of which are not turned on by default. Innerblasting.

[BimmerBreaker]

As a note, it no longer seems to be cooling at idle and as of this morning the aux fan didn't seem to run for the entire trip, even with A/C on. Yesterday may have been a fluke, or maybe the new (by new I mean known working 200K+ mile assembly) fan has suddenly stopped working.

Going to try the ISTA fan test again first - if it works from ISTA, I'll look into other components (system overfilled? pressure switch?) if the ISTA test won't make it run, I will attempt what you mentioned with INPA to see what the system is doing elsewhere. We have an INPA laptop, however our cables weren't working - I have a new cable arriving today to be able to code my euro tails (also - anyone know how to set the outers to run at the correct voltage? US outers run at a higher voltage than euros) so will be setting that stuff all up today

[Jason5driver]

Sounds like the classic symptom of a bad expansion valve.
Check if the A/C pump is running while you have no cold air.
When turned off, pressures equalize, function normally or even colder, then the valve closes or freezes blocking flow.
No inpa testing will show this up.

Is this the same as the heater valve ? #6:
https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=64_0930

[BimmerBreaker]

Today we hooked up ISTA and no dice, aux fan test failed. Plugged in old one, it also failed. Fan didn't move at all, checked the fuse under glovebox the big 50a, it was good. We even drove all the way back to Danny's house to get a third aux fan that was working... plugged it in. Started the car with the fan on, A/C on, gave it a minute... fan didn't come on. Nothing

At a bit of a loss here. Tried to read the signal from the car at the aux fan harness with my multimeter, one seems to show a 12v, the other I can not get any reading from on my multimeter either in volts or %freq/duty cycle
ISTA is throwing an error for DME aux fan activation
I think my next course of action may be to check the harness connection and the wiring going to it? I'm wondering if the PWM wire is broken/frayed somewhere along the way. Maybe it was working intermittently because the wire would occasionally make contact and maybe it isn't working now because the connection completely gave way when stuff was moved around when we swapped the fans

I'm curious if anyone knows the proper way to test the harness (assuming I'm doing it wrong, with the negative on the ground and the positive on the positive I get 12v, with the positive on the other/PWM wire, with ISTA test activated, I get no reading in volts or frequency/duty cycle)
Or maybe a good point to start looking for wiring defects. Could it also be the DME? What is going on???

Sounds like the classic symptom of a bad expansion valve.
Check if the A/C pump is running while you have no cold air.
When turned off, pressures equalize, then system functions normally or even colder, then the valve closes or freezes blocking flow.
No inpa testing will show this up.

I would be inclined to believe that if the symptoms were still the same. However, now I no longer have any cold air in any circumstance (and no aux fan, at all)

Starting to suspect all the issues are/were fan related.