The 535 that Could

[danespann]

Small update:

Something was presented to me for sale by a local e34 friend that I just couldn’t pass up.

Picked up a front and rear set of AP Racing brakes from an e34 partial partout. I’m quite excited. Came with a bunch of sets of pads and extra rotor disks and some extra hats so I’ll have lots of combinations to try out.

(Need to clean up some surface rust as they’re from an east coast car that sat a while.)

[polov8]

Nice score! What size are they? Do the rears have a lining for the e-brake?

[danespann]

Had a lovely E34 trip up North. We visited the Grand Canyon and went to snowbowl.






Snowbowl ended up not being the best idea, with the road becoming icy as the temperature dropped. 2 cars had summer tires on them. I had the best tires for snow and an LSD, but ended up being the one stuck in a snowbank as I was being dumb.







A nice gentleman in a Raptor helped me get out of the snow. No damage to the car either somehow.







- - - Updated - - -

Nice score! What size are they? Do the rears have a lining for the e-brake?

Haven't measured sizes yet. I need to do that I suppose. I know they fit under 17's as that's what the previous car had over them but no real info on them, even in the previous car's build thread.

The rears do look to have a lining for the e-brake.

[moroza]

Even with snow tires (several - some sudded, some Blizzaks) and regardless of 3.15LSD or 2.65 open, my 544iT was embarrassingly incompetent on winter roads. I don't know what it is about these cars that makes them just fall flat on their face in such conditions.

Good score on the brakes. What about replacement consumables?

Those wheels look excellent!

[BleedsBlue]

I love seeing how much you use and enjoy this thing

Also re: winter conditions, I'm not sure if this is a snow vs ice thing, but in Colorado (very little ice, mostly snow) I daily drove RWD, manual, LSD-equipped BMWs for 10 years through winter conditions. Including regular trips from Denver to the ski slopes, 2 hours away. I always kept Blizzaks or Hakkas with good tread, and never had an issue.

A stoplight going up a steep hill would give me the most trouble, but with a manual trans it was always possible to feather my way to a rolling start.

I was stuck once, literally pulling out of my own driveway at my apartment. I underestimated how deep the snow was in the unplowed street, and go high-centered, LOL. Easy to dig out, and again I was at home, and this was a clearance issue, not traction.

[danespann]

I love seeing how much you use and enjoy this thing

Also re: winter conditions, I'm not sure if this is a snow vs ice thing,

I love using and enjoying it too! This was ice conditions and the car actually did quite well. I just let it get away from me having too much fun. Ended up high centered(luckily) and not down the hill.

[danespann]

Good score on the brakes. What about replacement consumables?

Brake setup included around 6 sets of pads and a spare set of rotors, but I'll have to see if new stuff is available still.

[danespann]

Car went on the lift last night for what I thought was going to be a major ordeal, but ended up being just a normal service and bolt-check. Took some pics while I was there.

Had a bad clunk from the rear, which I was sure was going to be the rear-most diff/subframe mount we skipped when doing the subframe refresh. Once in the air, it was obvious that the clunk was merely some loose bolts on the differential rear bracket. This prompted a full-car bolt-check, which revealed nothing besides the fact that my idler arm bushing still needs to be replaced.



Selector shaft seal has been leaking a while and I have been ignoring it. Last time trans fluid was changed was around 50k miles ago with ATF, so I grabbed some MTL from work and swapped that out.

One leaky trans:


Old fluid was grey in color and metallic:


That fresh Hyundai MTL:


New AC compressor doing alright (still in the 90’s in November here):



I think my cats are getting a little worn??



Went and helped a friend whose 540i/6 spit out a cam cap stud and most of its oil, so was able to bomb home at 3am with an open freeway.

White e34 action:



Decent MPG at speed:

[danespann]

That fresh Hyundai MTL:

Well, I do not recommend MTL in these Getrag 260/6's. Shifts terrible, especially when cold. Swapping back to ATF this week before a 24hr roadtrip this weekend.

[BleedsBlue]

Well that's a pain, but thanks for logging that for us! I'll likely change out my fluid soon.

[theBMWbeast]

It usually has an orange sticker on the trans saying ATF only. I use redline (d4 I believe) no complaints.

[danespann]

Well, impromptu trip to Denver this weekend to pick up some sport seats (for this car)







Trip went smoothly. Arrived Saturday morning and went to DBO (and visited BrentBleedsBlue’s old white car). Lots of cool things there but phone died and didn’t want to be awkward with a DSLR.



Another sticker for the window:




Midnight in Utah I think??




My last oil change was at 250k lol. Hasn’t burnt or leaked a drop.




Oh, and the sport seats I went up for. Gotta fix the twist (pay Danny to fix the twist), but they’re decent, heated, and they were very cheap.

[moroza]

Either you got on it long before it was warmed up (tsk tsk), or the temp gauge circuit has issues, or the thermostat is stuck, or a lower-temp one. Probably one of the latter two.

[BleedsBlue]

DBO! Love those guys, and they do have a lot of great stuff going on. Thanks for saying hi to my old love, Dane

[danespann]

Either you got on it long before it was warmed up (tsk tsk), or the temp gauge circuit has issues, or the thermostat is stuck, or a lower-temp one. Probably one of the latter two.

71c thermostat for AZ. It was also 16 degrees outside during that pic.

[moroza]

Your fuel economy will improve with the correct thermostat, AZ or not. What do you have for a radiator, shroud, and fans?

[danespann]

Normal Nissens Rad, Stock Clutch Fan and Aux Fan. Shroud is there. Everything in the system is new. I log my MPG's and haven't noticed any significant decline since thermostat surprisingly. Maybe 0.5 mpg loss. Still around 22-25 highway and 19-21 when commuting.

[danespann]

Your fuel economy will improve with the correct thermostat, AZ or not. What do you have for a radiator, shroud, and fans?

Well, have now confirmed this thermostat sticks open sometimes as the same one in my bronzit car sits just a tick off middle at all times. Ordered a new one.

[danespann]

I once again find myself busy lately so I’ve just been driving this thing. With New Year’s Day off, Danny and I had a free weekday to go for a drive. South Mountain is a blast with a lot of elevation change mid-corner and varying levels of grip. I used to go hit the road between classes in college all the time in this e34 so it was a nice drive down memory lane.

[BleedsBlue]

If (when) I see this car in person I'm probably gonna touch it. I need another dumped and stuffed Alpine car

[danespann]

If (when) I see this car in person I'm probably gonna touch it.

If we meet in person, you're welcome to drive it too. I'm all over the place so ending up in Texas wouldn't be too unusual either.

[BleedsBlue]

If we meet in person, you're welcome to drive it too. I'm all over the place so ending up in Texas wouldn't be too unusual either.

I love trading drives - you're on.

I talked with Danny briefly on IG about you guys making a trip out, sounds good! I'll be starting my suspension overhaul soon and would be sure to have that dialed in before you guys came out.

[danespann]

Small update as I have been distracted with other things (life things and e28 daily) and this car has mostly been parked lately:

500k-mile E28 I picked up on a whim and have been daily driving:



Danny fixed the twist on passenger sport seat and I put it in (none of the cables were connected to the motors at all they were so shrunk). All the adjustments work great now along with the heat.







Still need to fix twist on driver’s seat and figure out how to bypass the memory module (or swap the whole seat harness if we can’t figure that out).

Also need to finally put the AP Racing brakes on but I’m a little overwhelmed for now and Danny is crazy busy at the shop so those will have to wait.

[danespann]

Seems like I haven’t been keeping up with this thread. Happily, not much has happened with this car recently. Here’s the short list:

-Swapped in an M-Tech 1 wheel. Still not sure if I like it. Sits too close to the turn signal and wiper stalks.





-Drove it all over Arizona, trying to take full advantage of the few sub-100-degree weekends we have left and get some light hiking in.









-Swapped in some proper early tail lights I purchased from Kurtis (50 shades of glacier blue) a while back. Early tails are more yellow. The later tails appear more orange in color.

[xcastaway]

When I installed my E39 sport wheel, I had little clearance between the wheel and cruise stalk. I discovered that the cruise stalk from my 93 parts car had a much different bend to it, which gave me plenty of room. You might see if you can find one that has a different bend that would solve your issue.003.jpg