Free '97 528i

[95naSTA]

Hello all. I've lurked on this site here and there since my join date but I've never owned a BMW until recently.

I've had an affinity for the E39 for a long time.. Which is part of why I molded in it's headlights onto a Bonneville 2x. To me, the E39 is the quintessential M5.

Go easy on me on the 1st pic. It was my 1st car.




Over the summer a family member gave my wife and I '97 528i that had been sitting for a couple years. It really just needed a battery to be a working car but it needed a bit more to be a (hopefully somewhat) reliable car. It's 2.8l I6 with a GM 4L30-E and has roughly 170k on it. Now, it would have been cooler if it was at least a 540 and/or a 5-speed but the underpowered I6 and common GM trans could make things less likely to break. I guess I'll find out.

I when through it on a lift, found all the common leaks, pulled on the suspension and starting adding up what parts would cost. To my surprise it really wasn't that bad even considering the car would be worth $2k tops. It was just going to be a fair amount of time spent. I had some free time around the holidays so I went for it. It'll also help with my dropped '07 G35s being completely unusable with more than a couple inches of snow..

Here's the list so far and a HUGE thanks to the members of this site who documented all the DIY guides related to the work below. It was a tremendous help. I've only every really worked on GM, Ford and Japanese cars before. The BMW world is new to me and working on this was actually kind of cool to get familiar with something new.

Complete:
Valve cover gasket and associated grommets
Oil filter adapter gasket
Oil filter and o-ring
New vanos oil line
Oil pan gasket
Passenger engine mount
Transmission pan gaskets + bolts. Helicoiled 2 bolt holes
Transmission filter
Transmission selector shaft seal (special tool made this not suck)
Both belts
Upper idler pulley
Power steering pump (the shaft walked out on the old one)
Rear ball joints and torque members
Front passenger door handle linkage un-stuck and lubed, vapor barrier re-seal. (this sucked)
Rear passenger door vapor barrier replaced with plastic and new butyl tape
New Tires 225/60R-15 General AltiMAX RT43
New wipers
Driver's mirror

To do:
Rear driver’s door regulator/motor and vapor barrier replace with plastic and new butyl tape
Rear wheel bearings

The result so far is a quiet 20 footer car. I'm going to look for another hood, Depo headlight lenses and maybe some other bits for it. I don't have any real plans. It'll just be a spare car, something new to learn and mess with.

[AusE39er]

Access to a lift eh, ya lucky bugger.

Already hit that oil filter housing gasket eh, nice one.

Still the weirdest thing about, GM trannys in BMWs.

Keep up the good work.

[JimLev]

Welcome to the forum.
Nice work in the 528. The Bonneville looked pretty good with the lights and wheels.

[geargrinder]

Still the weirdest thing about, GM trannys in BMWs.

Pre-90's Audis used GM HVAC control panels, and seat controls.

The clunky HVAC buttons & plexi panel stuck out like a sore thumb against all the rest of the high quality Euro-styled controls. The seats were great, typical Euro firm bolstered seats for most part, but then you'd look down and the chrome seat switches looked like they came straight out of an El Dorado or sumchit (derrr becuz they did...) Pix below. Sorry about the pix only ones I could find without breakin' my ballzorz.

#threadjackinallday

[philly98540]

^That HVAC panel. Just threw up a bit.

[geargrinder]

Those seats also WEIGHED A TON and the cars had fairly terrible headroom because the underlying chassis mechanism was huge and originally designed to fit into a giant tall Caddy or Buick cabin... so even with the seat all the way down you were pretty high up. Tall dudes complained and had to ride reclined-back to not head-bonk. Notice the somewhat ridiculous carpet-flap "dust ruffle" to hide the whole business from the side! Definitely a hack-retrofit in Ingolstadt.

[95naSTA]

Thanks for the welcome.

My buddies own a shop and let me get into trouble on their lifts often enough. I've done engine swaps, built exhausts, and other stuff like that. I'm no stranger to pulling engines on the street and working in my cramped 1 car garage. I actually did my Bonneville 6 speed swap on the floor of my garage.

Those seat controls are undeniable GM and that height is unbearable. As far as those dull HVAC and radio controls go in an older boxy Audi.. I feel like that's not as misplaced.

[edjack]

How about new VANOS seals?

[95naSTA]

I didn't actually know about that one till you mentioned it. Thanks for the heads up.

It doesn't seem too bad. Maybe an item for the next oil change.

[amancuso]

I can't believe how you haven't mentioned the quality of the 20+ year old BMW Vs. anything that's come out of GM, ever. I have a 528i and while it's no race car it's certainly no slouch. Welcome to the forums!

[95naSTA]

I mean.. I've never owned anything from the mid-late 90s GM that was worth almost $40k new so I have nothing to legitimately compare it to.

The 528i is a fairly simple car. Simple but classy. There are some cool things for a car that came out in 96. The Aluminum subframe and the multi-link rear suspension. Probably more I'm not aware of yet. The leather held up nice and the I6 lasts a long time..

It's not without it's quality issues. The headlight adjusters are made of glass, the interior wood all breaks, pixel issues, rear door water leaks. That's simple stuff that shouldn't go so easy.

190hp is cool for a 2.8l in '97 but the reliable boat anchor 3.8l in my Bonneville got the same MPG with more power.

[geargrinder]

Those seat controls are undeniable GM and that height is unbearable. As far as those dull HVAC and radio controls go in an older boxy Audi.. I feel like that's not as misplaced.

Yeah but no... cuz, if you’ve never owned one of those, and your just going on groupthtink old Audi perception , the interiors of the late 80’s to mid 90’s cars have a massive rock solid quality to them. On par or better than an old Merc/Benz. WAY more solid than contemporary BMW models (Ok so let’s not get into oversteer and weight balance comparos that’s a whole difft story...)

[amancuso]

I had 2 cars with the 3800 in them (1997 Grand Prix) which had their own level of fail like bad window switches, electronic gremlins, possessed gauge clusters, self colliding windshield wipers and leaking engine seals (one of my GPs had to have all the gaskets replaced under warranty.) Didn't feel any more powerful than the 528i. Sure the headlight adjusters suck, and some other things, but the ride quality and handling is far superior. There's a reason why e39 was the benchmark for so long. PS if you need a hand with anything, just let me know, not far from Philly!

[Aubergine]

Wow--Awesome! Way to keep that 528iA chugging!!

We do tri-state 5 Series meetups in the warmer months so watch for postings here. It would be awesome to add another E39 to the fold.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Now how about the turbo 3.8 liter Grand National engine into an E39??? Yeeeeeah...... .... ..

- - - Updated - - -

Better yet, the engine out of the GNX.... screw its rarity.

[JimLev]

Now how about the turbo 3.8 liter Grand National engine into an E39??? Yeeeeeah...... .... ..


Better yet, the engine out of the GNX.... screw its rarity.

Now ya talkin....GNX

[ULtm8drvnmchn]

Well, Im pretty happy with my 90's GM car.... handles quite well, and has some power to boot....

[geargrinder]

Now ya talkin....GNX

Yeah eggsept these days with the ease of buying amazingly great shelf parts, I'm guessing you can blow GNX numbers out of the water pretty easily without having to start with a stock $$$ rarity.

Do a tptrsn LRS style budget turbo build on a cheapo N/A 3800 and I bet you could make double GNX power for cheap. And spares are dirt cheap and everywhere, right? Of course why do that when you can do LSx instead blah blah blah except the V6 would be aa smaller package I imagine and just be interesting / 'Different' to do

[tptrsn]

Right there with you GG! I've given a lot of thought to 3800 projects. VERY interesting potential. L67 bottom end parts are just asking for abuse, aren't they?

[95naSTA]

Sure the headlight adjusters suck, and some other things, but the ride quality and handling is far superior. There's a reason why e39 was the benchmark for so long. PS if you need a hand with anything, just let me know, not far from Philly!

At double the price, it better well be higher quality.

Thanks for offering a hand. That's very cool.

Wow--Awesome! Way to keep that 528iA chugging!!

We do tri-state 5 Series meetups in the warmer months so watch for postings here. It would be awesome to add another E39 to the fold.

Thanks!

If I went it would just be to oogle at finer examples. I'll have to keep an eye out.

Well, Im pretty happy with my 90's GM car.... handles quite well, and has some power to boot....

LT5! I've been trying to convince a C4 buddy to do a LT5 top swap.

As far as 3800s go, they're surprisingly decent for what they are. I've actually been on 3800 forums since like '01. I've watched that drivetrain go from 13s being a thing to full drag 8s happening. The stock n/a L36/L26 bottom end can actually handle up to 500 wheel with the right tune and breathing mods. The L67/L32 can handle more. Either need to breathe to keep temps and cyl pressures down since the first thing to go is the piston above the top ring landing. Most don't even know when it happens. The 4T65 auto they're mated to is the real Achilles heal in FWD format but can be made to handle decent power with some money.

The the later pushrod GM 60* V6s (3800s were 90*) are actually superior from a design standpoint. Aluminum heads, splayed valve, flow well. But they had garbage gaskets and weren't as robust as the 3800 Series 2/3.

They're an antiquated boat anchor of an engine but they're cheap, fairly reliable and can be made reasonably quick.

Craigslist had a local Ti Silver partout pop up yesterday and I scooped up these panels for cheap. They're not perfect with they're miles better than what I currently have going on. I'll post some comparos when I get time to swap them out.

Otherwise for the exterior I'm only really looking at doing a front bumper and some Depo lenses or lights.

[amancuso]

I have a set of xenon headlamps that will be going up for sale soon. Available with white or amber turn signals. Anytime you need a hand just let me know.

[effduration]

Looks great...definitely a keeper. If interested consider swapping taillight lenses , side lights and headlight lenses with clear or white. You can buy all 3 for like $300 on amazon / eBay and it really gets the car to pop in appearance by taking the yellow out.

The pre-facelift headlights are great because lenses pop right off

[95naSTA]

The pre-facelift headlights are definitely way easier. I ended up getting a set of Depo smoked lenses and some new adjusters I'm hopefully installing soon.

I'll have to check out the tails and sides.

I've got about 80 miles on the car now. I put the miles on to see what else it needs and get the computer inspection ready. So far the only surprise is the hamster wheels on the blower motor might be letting go. I'll need to redo the 15 year old twist and tape job someone did on the speakers too. It's like speaker roulette.

I did the rear wheel bearings with the help of cnn's thread. That made it so much easier. The only thing I did different was use an air hammer to push the axle in and slide the hub back on. Mannn it is so nice to to hear that bearing whirling anymore.




I was able to get the new hood on but not the fenders just yet. The new hood has about 5-6 little hail dimples I could probably correct with a little PDR. You can see the rust spots on the driver's fender in these pics. The passenger side has some rust but it isn't as bad.







And I also made the key useable.

[amancuso]

Coming along nicely.

[95naSTA]

Thanks!

I was able to get the new lenses on today. These pre-facelift lenses are a dream to take apart compared to pretty much anything else. The plastic adjusters were all in a million pieces, so I replaced those. The only thing that sucked was I spun one of the adjustment knobs off it's knurled shaft.. A drill and ground down screw fixed that.

Broken adjuster knob fix:




Headlight upgrade:






I did end up ordering the smoked fender lights. I'll throw those on with the replacement fenders.