Danny's White BMW (92 525i Thread)

[dannyzabolotny]

I got another E34, who could've seen that coming?!

As a bit of back story, I recently had another E34— a cashmere beige 95 525i/5, which got turned into a parts car through a combination of bad luck, previous owner neglect, and me getting mad at it. To make a long story short, it broke in ridiculous ways that I had never seen before, even as a professional mechanic. The final straw was when the driver's door latch completely seized up, requiring me to cut the door to open it. Combined with all the other stupid issues like the ignition cylinder being broken which required using a screwdriver to start the car, screwy door locks, non-working ABS, and broken shifter, I was thoroughly over it. So I sold some parts off of it and bought an E46 330ci to take my mind off things for a while and have a "boring" daily driver that didn't need too much.

The E46 330ci did exactly what it needed to do, but I never really fell in love with it. It's an automatic, silver over gray, and just feels kinda soulless compared to an E34. It's quick and has all the modern bells and whistles that I'd ever want (auto headlights, seat memory, factory aux-in, self-dimming mirror, auto climate control) but it just wasn't an E34.

Having recently accompanied my friend Dane to his latest sh*tbox purchase, I started feeling the itch to get into another E34. I even contemplated putting the gold 525i/5 back together, but decided against it, figuring that starting with another car would be better. This past Sunday, Dane messaged me and showed me an ad for a 1992 525i/5 that he found in California, around Murietta. The price seemed right, the car looked decent in the pictures, and I happened to have some money burning a hole in my pocket. My birthday was earlier this month and I hadn't really gotten myself anything, so I rationalized it as a belated birthday present to myself; with that, Dane, Kurtis, and I set off to California at like 3pm that same day. The E46 did just fine for the road trip, reliably getting the three of us to the Inland Empire in good time.

When I first saw the car, I remember thinking to myself that it looked better than in the ad (which is an incredibly rare occurrence). The paint shined nicely, all of the panels were straight with impeccable panel gaps, and the tires actually looked decent. After briefly chatting with the seller, we took the car on a test drive and found it to drive pretty well. By drive pretty well, I mean the engine and transmission worked well to propel the car. Everything else was... in need of attention. The shocks were all blown, the control arms were old, the driveshaft was angry, and the car shook pretty bad at triple digit speeds. Did I mention that the car had 268k miles? Of course I bought it, haha.

This was the first picture I took of the car, getting gas for the journey back home. Check out those gnarly 16" AC Schnitzer reps... at least they were period correct.



We quickly figured out that the cooling system was a little questionable, based on the fact that the engine got pretty darn hot in a drive-through while waiting for food. The clutch fan and aux fan appeared to be doing nothing, and while we had a spare clutch fan and the proper tools to install it, the old clutch fan was very much seized onto the water pump. We left it alone and figured that as long the car was moving, it wouldn't overheat, which turned out to be true.

The drive home was mostly uneventful, with the 525i getting pretty solid fuel economy and having a nice, strong engine. I remember driving back from LA in my last M50NV car, the silver 525it, and it felt like an absolute dog going up the hills after Indio, whereas this 525i did an easy 85mph in 5th gear without any complaints. My friends and I wondered if this car has some kind of performance tune, because even though it has the stock 6500 rev limit, it kept up with the 330ci exceptionally well (which is a much faster car on paper). The exhaust has definitely been modded in some way, as it's much louder and throatier than a bone stock 525i exhaust.

It's always amusing to see both of my cars together on a road trip... less amusing is having to gas up both of them with Californian gas prices.



We made it back to Phoenix around 3am, which wasn't too bad all things considered. I stopped by the shop to drop off some stuff before going home, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this white 525i parked next to the other E34's at the shop.



Back home, safe and sound.



That just about covers the tale of obtaining this car. The next post will be going into detail on all the little problems the car has, and how I've already started fixing some of them.

[dannyzabolotny]

Earlier today, I drove the 525i to my shop so I could throw it on the lift and see what was going on underneath.



Working from the back to the front, here's what I noted. First up were the trashed rear sway bar end links, which are almost certainly original (that's a common thread here).



Dogbones are trashed.



Exhaust mounts are made of hopes and dreams.



The diff is an open 3.23. I was really hoping it would be an LSD, but life seems pretty determined to never give me a car with one, as I've never owned a single E34 with an LSD.



The catalytic converters and oxygen sensor had been replaced recently, which is nice.



The giubo is heavily cracked and the transmission mounts are both cracked and collapsed.



All of the bushings in the shifter assembly are worn and sloppy.



Thrust arms, lower control arms, and steering linkage looked to either be original or ancient. A lot of the things still say BMW on them.



The belts looked surprisingly nice, they must have been done somewhat recently.



The motor mounts are from 91, so they're original. Crazy to think they've made it this far.



The valve cover gasket has been leaking/seeping for a while, as seen from this view of the engine. Also confirmed that the engine is numbers matching to the chassis.



The only bit of hackery I found was this nut used to space out a replacement caliper carrier bolt that was clearly too long. Otherwise everything just looked original and old.



All in all, it's about what I expected from a cheap 525i/5 with 268k miles. I would much rather work on a mostly original, neglected car than something that has been "maintained" by unqualified people.

Later that day I ran a short errand to the local mall, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of the car. I still can't get over how straight all the body lines are, and how well everything lines up, particularly the nose panel and front bumper.

[fo3]

Looks too far gone to me. I don't think it will ever be roadworthy again with all those faults. So just cut your losses, keep the memories not the car and sell me the trans, diff, driveshaft, pedal box, console etc

Seriously though I love it, you guys are e34 magnets so that means more content for sleepy forums.

[moroza]

Thanks for keeping a good body out of the crusher. Suspension shushmenshion; that all can be refreshed. How's the interior?

I dig those wheels. They look good and are right-sized. Keep me in mind in case you want to offload them.

[danespann]

Keep me in mind in case you want to offload them.

I may have claimed them...

[bigsixe34]

You missed being in an e34… Did you ditch the wagon?

Everything else was... in need of attention. The shocks were all blown, the control arms were old, the driveshaft was angry, and the car shook pretty bad at triple digit speeds.

“Man this thing shakes like a sumbitch….”
“Yeah…. Let’s see if it’ll do a hundred.”


Not surprised you’ve never found a LSD car in the desert. The cold weather package is probably the principal (and only) advantage of the remaining northern e34 stock. I’ve never had an e34 without one.


Agree with moroza, nice job saving that shell.

[dannyzabolotny]

Looks too far gone to me. I don't think it will ever be roadworthy again with all those faults. So just cut your losses, keep the memories not the car and sell me the trans, diff, driveshaft, pedal box, console etc

Seriously though I love it, you guys are e34 magnets so that means more content for sleepy forums.

Haha, good one Nah, I'm keeping this one around, it's got the best drivetrain with the ZF and all.

As long as we can afford em, we'll keep buying and enjoying our E34's!

Thanks for keeping a good body out of the crusher. Suspension shushmenshion; that all can be refreshed. How's the interior?

I dig those wheels. They look good and are right-sized. Keep me in mind in case you want to offload them.

I was looking for a good body to build, so I'm quite pleased with this one. Interior is parchment and in not-so-great condition... I'll go into that in another post. Dane may have already claimed the wheels and bribed me with M-Pars, oops.

You missed being in an e34… Did you ditch the wagon?


“Man this thing shakes like a sumbitch….”
“Yeah…. Let’s see if it’ll do a hundred.”


Not surprised you’ve never found a LSD car in the desert. The cold weather package is probably the principal (and only) advantage of the remaining northern e34 stock. I’ve never had an e34 without one.

Agree with moroza, nice job saving that shell.

You're a few cars behind there... let's go through a little refresher for those that don't know my ridiculous history.

It all started with the silver 1992 525it which I got for virtually free and learned a lot with. Sold it to a local guy that still has it and loves it.

Photo Oct 24, 5 56 12 PM.jpg

Then there was the red 1994 525i which was really darn nice and super clean. Traded this one for the next car in the list.

Photo Dec 19, 8 25 06 PM.jpg

The red car got traded for this 1994 530it when I was on a big wagon kick. I drove to El Paso, TX to make the trade and then drove the 530it back. Ended up selling it to a guy in Nevada after I lost interest in V8's.

Photo Feb 09, 6 11 45 PM.jpg

And most recently was the 1995 525i. I got it from an older enthusiast locally who was tired of watching it sit in his yard. I brought it back to life, drove it for a while, and now it sits in my shop's side lot while I steal parts off of it.

Photo Jun 07, 2 01 57 PM.jpg

And yes, doing 100mph on tires from 2009 was not the smartest thing I've done, but that's just how I roll.

Yeah, not having an LSD is a bummer, but not having to deal with rust is far nicer. LSD can always be swapped in, whereas rust is a nightmare to repair.

[dannyzabolotny]

Anyways, continuing the introductory tour of the car, let's move on to the interior. It definitely shows its 268k miles of living in California and Nevada, with ample sun damage.

The dashboard is burnt and cracked in a way I haven't ever seen before:





The driver's seat has twisting and is trashed. Still comfortable though.



Passenger seat is super torn up, I wonder how it got that bad.



The rear bench is in decent shape though, aside from being pretty dry.



Given that it's an early car, all of the door panels are in some state of decay.









All in all, it's not the worst thing ever and I can live with it for the time being. I have a whole black interior at the shop that'll get swapped in eventually. What I can't ignore is this horrible door brake failure on the driver's door, so I ordered the Koala Motorsport reinforcement plates (two of them) and a new door brake... my plan is to beat the twisted metal back into shape and use two plates to sandwich the remaining metal to create a workable door brake mount point.



My first "mod" was replacing the super weathered 268k mile shift knob with the slightly less bad shift knob from the gold car.





Next up was addressing the cooling system, since the car seemed to overheat at a standstill and run cold when moving. I initially suspected that there was no thermostat at all, but what I found was much more interesting.

Everything got torn down pretty quickly, it's almost like I've done this exact job a few dozen times, haha.



The thermostat came out in 3 pieces... nice! Looks to be a Genuine BMW thermostat from who knows when. The bits that hold it together corroded apart so the thermostat was flopping around and functioning as a trap door of sorts, allowing coolant flow only while under load.



The water pump looked okay but the bearing was starting to feel a little rough. This one was from 1998 and was a Genuine BMW water pump. This tells me two things: 1) this car was dealer maintained well into the late 90's, and 2) the cooling system was largely ancient.



Here's the pile of "new" parts for the cooling system. I had just put them into the gold car a month or two before it was parked, so I figured I might as well re-use them.



All done and back together. I noted that 2 out of 3 idler pulleys were new, which is a nice change from my norm of buying E34's with completely dead pulleys and being stranded by them exploding.



While I was doing all of this, Dane was working on his Bronzit 535i in the shop. The E34 madness is real.



The AC belt tensioner decided to come apart while reinstalling everything, so I just left that belt off. No big deal since the AC doesn't work— I'll have to revisit this in a few days once the new AC compressor, receiver drier, and belt tensioner show up.



After we were done fixing our respective cars for the night, we decided to swap some wheels around. Dane's 535i got the ACS reps, and I got a set of M-Pars that Dane had left at the shop a while back. I rather like the look of the M-Pars on this car... I know it's cliche as heck but it's such a good look. Now I just need to get some wider tires for the rear, because those 235's look very wimpy.

[dannyzabolotny]

This morning I walked up to the car and realized the power locks weren't working. Then once I got in, I realized that the windows, sunroof, and wipers weren't working either... classic GM failure symptoms. Once I got to the shop I went and grabbed the known-good GM and RM from the gold 525i and swapped them over, problem solved. Owning an E34 is great when you've got a parts car and a mountain of spare parts to swap when stupid stuff happens.

I also swapped in the official BMW windshield shade from the gold car too, which is real nice because it's still 95º in the daytime here and I won't have AC for at least a few more days.



The car just looks so right with the M-Pars, now I need to swap over the Bav Auto lowering springs from the other car.



Since I had to actually work on customer cars today I didn't have time to do too much, but I did sneak in some time after lunch and fixed the backlighting on the HVAC knobs. The panel came apart very easily, and it was a great opportunity to clean everything, including the super dusty temp sensor fan. For future reference, the bulb used in the HVAC panel backlighting (which also lights the cigarette lighter in a genius two-for-one setup) is a Sylvania 2723, which can be easily found at any parts store. It was super satisfying to clean everything and get it all looking fresh again.











My main reason for replacing the bulb wasn't really for the HVAC knobs (since I can adjust them without seeing them), it was more so for general ambiance and to make the cabin feel less dark at night.



Next up will to be to replace the cluster to see if that fixes the PPPP communication issue on the OBC. I replaced the OBC with a known good one and that didn't change anything, so my bet is that something in the cluster has gone bad. Since all clusters from like 9/1990 were the same, it should be pretty straightforward to swap in the one from the gold car.

[bigsixe34]

I see - I don’t come back around often. You’ve had quite a run since I last looked.
Wasn’t expecting that interior with such a straight body. Glad you have a spare.
Dig the Mpars.
Lost interest in V8s…. How come? The b40 is the only factory offering with real guts in these things. m30s are fun but unbelievably thirsty and hardly quick. m50s are rock solid but total dogs. What do you prefer about those choices?
I woulda held the 530iT. Of the available US models, it’s ironically aged the best as a canvas. I mean who doesn’t love a 6spd v8 wagon that can be put together with junkyard parts?
FWIW, that’s not coming from a place of v8 elitism; my 2 e34s were a 535i/5 and, funny enough, an alpine ’92 525i/5 that eventually received an s52.
Edit: looked like it had clears in the night pic. disparaging comment removed. stick with the ambers.

[dannyzabolotny]

I see - I don’t come back around often. You’ve had quite a run since I last looked.
Wasn’t expecting that interior with such a straight body. Glad you have a spare.
Dig the Mpars.
Lost interest in V8s…. How come? The b40 is the only factory offering with real guts in these things. m30s are fun but unbelievably thirsty and hardly quick. m50s are rock solid but total dogs. What do you prefer about those choices?
I woulda held the 530iT. Of the available US models, it’s ironically aged the best as a canvas. I mean who doesn’t love a 6spd v8 wagon that can be put together with junkyard parts?
FWIW, that’s not coming from a place of v8 elitism; my 2 e34s were a 535i/5 and, funny enough, an alpine ’92 525i/5 that eventually received an s52.
Edit: looked like it had clears in the night pic. disparaging comment removed. stick with the ambers.

Part of why the exterior still looks nice is because it's single stage paint, which has lasted a lot better than the two stage paints used in other colors. That doesn't stop the interior from getting trashed though, as you can see.

I had originally bought the 530it with the intent to turn it into a 540it/6, but then I realized just how expensive an endeavor like that would be. Finding an M60B40 would've been the easy part, but putting together a clutch + flywheel + transmission + driveshaft + diff is where it would get expensive. E34 540i/6's never show up in junkyards here, nor do E39 540i/6's, so the only place to find those parts are from part-outs where they command a premium. The rear end of a 530it is a medium case so you're stuck with either making a custom driveshaft or swapping to a large case diff + the appropriate axles. And don't even get me started on the cost of a large case LSD, it's ridiculous! Really, that's the main reason I lost interest, it was too expensive of a build for my budget.

I like the M50's— they love to rev, are super simple, and make a great sound. They get reasonably good fuel economy too, even without an overdrive gear; I averaged 22mpg on the way back from California, doing 90 most of the time with a few stints of 100+. I've never thought of them as particularly slow, they're just right for me. I can wind the engine out around town without worrying about going too fast (I realize that sounds a little silly after the last sentence, but whatever). They also don't seem to mind living at rev limiter, and the non-Vanos M50's can easily go to 7600 on stock everything— my silver touring had a chip that removed the limiter entirely and I never hurt the engine.

Oh and I've got an S50 at the shop that will eventually need a home. My friend Kurtis has an S50 in his 525i that I installed, and with a chip it really scoots around. It kept up with two different chipped E34 540i/6's, so I'd say it's plenty quick. That's the long term goal for this car.

The color correction on that picture made it look like it had clears, haha. Sorry to disappoint, but I'm probably going to install clears on this car. I like the clean European look, I don't like anything about the US-spec (nor do I like the US). Euro trims with corner marker deletes will come in the future too.

[dannyzabolotny]

While I wait for some more parts to show up, I've been keeping myself busy with doing all sorts of little tasks. First up was swapping the gauge cluster with the one from my 95 525i; I figured it might fix the OBC issue and the 92's cluster was having some issues with the mileage display:



The clusters are all the same from 9/90 onwards based on what I've read, and indeed my 95 cluster was exactly the same as the one from this late 91 build car. I swapped the coding plug, replaced all the bulbs, pulled the airbag bulb (since the system was already inop), and gave the lens a quick polish.



All the backlighting works properly now, no more SRS light, and perfect mileage display, so that's a victory!



The OBC still doesn't work, so that'll need some more troubleshooting now that I've tried all the "easy" stuff (checking fuses, swapping clusters, swapping OBC, swapping CCM).

Since this was a California car, it had an ugly spot in the front bumper for a front plate... thankfully there's a real easy fix for that eyesore with the plate delete panel.



Dane came by for lunch and our cars are like long-lost twins, haha. I need to lower my car and get smilies, it'll look so much better.





If you zoom out, you'll see there's actually a third white E34, a supercharged 540i/6 which I'm working on for a customer (supercharger rebuild, new bumper, and Angry Ass BBK install coming soon).



Earlier today my hood and trunk struts from Rock Auto showed up. I got some cheap Üro units, so we'll see how long they last. It's lovely having a trunk that stays open on its own.



With the trunk lid fixed, it was time to start filling out the factory tool set which was completely empty. I'm still missing a few pieces but it's a good start for now.



And because I'm somewhat paranoid of being stranded without tools (thanks, gold car!) I've also got this tool set from Harbor Freight. It was pretty cheap, has everything needed, and fits very neatly under the floor of the front the trunk.





The car was missing its factory tire iron so I found one and mounted it properly. Stuff like this excites me way too much for some reason.



To round out this day of minor work, I installed clear tails. I know it's a source of disagreement for many on this site, but I happen to like the clean look and I think it goes well with the white paint.

Before:



After:

[theBMWbeast]

Man, you’ve made good progress in short time. Thanks for the quick HVAC bulb DIY, got the bulbs and will be doing that today!

That harbor freight toolset is complete junk. At least the socket set, completely and utterly worthless. I have it in my trunk, along with a $40 husky set with sockets and ratchets. Do not use the harbor freight sockets, they will round off tight bolts instead of actually loosening them. I only keep it in my trunk for the top row of tools, and the fact that I can squish both toolboxes in the back of my trunk and they don’t slide around.

[dannyzabolotny]

Man, you’ve made good progress in short time. Thanks for the quick HVAC bulb DIY, got the bulbs and will be doing that today!

That harbor freight toolset is complete junk. At least the socket set, completely and utterly worthless. I have it in my trunk, along with a $40 husky set with sockets and ratchets. Do not use the harbor freight sockets, they will round off tight bolts instead of actually loosening them. I only keep it in my trunk for the top row of tools, and the fact that I can squish both toolboxes in the back of my trunk and they don’t slide around.

I mostly have Tom Mercer (Singing6 on here I think) to thank for the HVAC bulb tip. He posted about it on the E34 Facebook group.

I’ve had pretty good luck with the Harbor Freight toolkit, I’ve used this one for a number of roadside repairs in the gold car and for many junkyard runs with great success. I also exclusively use Harbor Freight tools at my shop so I generally know what to expect.

[consti2tion]

Car is coming along nicely! When will you be putting your other springs/struts on?

You motivated me to put my lug wrench and wheel chock back in their proper location, Haha!

[justinca540i]

Alpine white BMWs always look so good

[atl530i]

So what happened to the tan 525? Amazing progress so far.

[dannyzabolotny]

Car is coming along nicely! When will you be putting your other springs/struts on?

You motivated me to put my lug wrench and wheel chock back in their proper location, Haha!

I'll be putting on the Bilsteins and BavAuto springs later this week, actually. Just need to order new shock mounts since I used old ones on the gold car and regretted it.

Alpine white BMWs always look so good

Yes they do, especially when it's single-stage Alpine White that doesn't have peeling clear coat. That's the only reason this 29 year old car that lived in California and Nevada still has original paint.

So what happened to the tan 525? Amazing progress so far.

It got parted out, more or less. A bunch of dumb things broke and it was fundamentally kind of a crappy car, so it's been feeding this car and my friends' cars with parts for a bit now.

[fo3]

Yes they do, especially when it's single-stage Alpine White that doesn't have peeling clear coat. That's the only reason this 29 year old car that lived in California and Nevada still has original paint.

Yeah, I only had the space for one E34, so I made sure it was a white one, which for me meant a lowly 525i and unfortunately a trashed interior. I looked at heaps back in 2016/17 but I turned away from better ones because they were metallic with failing paint - and I'd just dealt with the peeling blue metallic on my falcon ute and didn't want to do it again.
I can buff mine up to look like new with the only problems being it's obvious there was some minor collision damage in it's past. The left front fender is clearly a non factory respray as it has some crazing on the top which I want to fix one day. Also the previous owners must have compounded and polished it a bit too much - on 2 curved sections the paint is worn very thin. one on the rhs bonnet where it curves up near the wipers, and the rhs roof gutter rail above the front door.

But it's build date was sept 1990 so it's 30 years old and held up very well, so I also recommend white E34s if you're not a spray painter

E: I tried to get a replacment fender as I know the factory paint is so good, but most have wheel arch scrapes so they need a respray anyway - and I've tried 2 local paints shops for a colour match but both failed (one too white, one too beigey cream). I got the closest match with an off the shelf can of appliance/refrigerator white but that isn't the right sort of paint for a car as it's enamel laquer.

[dannyzabolotny]

Quite a lot of stuff has happened in the last week (aside from the crazy election we've had), so it's time to bring this thread up to date.

The first order of business was replacing the AC compressor, as it did nothing whilst sounding like a bag of rocks. I got a new Valeo unit from Rock Auto, it was pretty reasonably priced for a brand new compressor. Off came the old compressor:





The old compressor looked to be a remanufactured unit from who knows when... it made awful noises when I spun it by hand. After transferring the manifold plate over to the new compressor (plus a new gasket), I had to adapt the wiring on the new compressor to match what was on the car.





The receiver drier was replaced— this should be replaced every time the system is opened up.



With the main components of the AC system replaced, it was time to give some attention to the supporting bits, namely the AC belt tensioner. It looked to be in a pretty sorry state so it got a new tensioner spring and pulley to freshen things up.





With the belt drive system all sorted, the last bit to get some attention was the cabin filter, which was predictably disgusting. It amazes me that every single E34 I've ever owned has had an ancient cabin filter. If left unchecked, these can kill blower motors and FSU's (best case) or cause fires (worst case).



The day after all this work was done, I took the car to the shop two doors down from mine and got the AC system charged. No leaks anywhere and the AC blows with a vengeance. Bitterly cold vengeance, in fact. I got to test it out pretty well as it was still like 98ºF that week (thanks Arizona!).

The next day I took it to test for emissions, and somehow it passed. It pops a good bit on deceleration and the cats rattle if you smack em around, so I'm surprised at how easily it passed. I'm not complaining though, haha.



Another nuisance I fixed was a rattling coming from the driver's front wheel area. Initially I thought it was a bad brake dust shield, but it turns out that the inner brake pad was loose. I took it apart and quickly found the culprit— somebody had bent the tabs in on the brake pad which kept it from staying in the caliper properly.



After correcting that, I reinstalled the brake pads after cleaning and lubricating them. While I was in there I also put in a new brake pad wear sensor to get rid of the annoying error... it boggles my mind as to why people never replace these when doing brakes, they're like $6!



Next up was installing a radio, since the lack of music was starting to drive me crazy and I had a road trip planned. As a happy accident, I found a disconnected white plug towards the driver's side in the radio hole, and after taking off the kick panel from under the steering wheel, I found a corresponding white plug in need of a friend. With the two reunited, my OBC started working properly, victory!



I love being able to see the time, my MPG, the outside temps, and range, I missed that so much. It works on the cluster display too!



As for the radio, I borrowed the JVC head unit that I had sold to Dane a while back. I plan to order another one for myself but I didn't have time to get it before my road trip.



This past weekend, my friends and I took our E34's up to Flagstaff for some winter fun. I'm happy to say that all us made it there and back just fine, even with some of the cars having summer tires. Photo credits to Dane for the next few pics.

From left to right:
Dane's 1990 535i/5
Brad's 1995 540i/6 M-Sport (I had just installed his BC Coilovers the day before the trip)
Kurtis' 1992 525i/5 (with an S50 that I installed in my shop)
my 1992 525i/5





Waking up to this view was a nice change of pace:





My car was not super pleased about starting in 25ºF weather with 15W50 oil, but it sounded fine once warmed up.

Dane got this cool shot of my car, it's got an interesting vibe to it.



On the way back, I rolled over 270,000 miles. That means I put on 2000 miles in less than a month, not bad! Maybe I'll keep this one long enough to roll over 300k...

[fo3]

Glad you got the OBC sorted and had some time on the road to enjoy it. The car is looking good!
I wish mine had the OBC read out on the cluster display but it can't do that (no idea if it's a later model feature or I lack something in the wiring, from what I remember the indicator stalk is a button but mine is solid/fixed).
E: I noticed you changed the wheels too, something else I wish I could do but they're rare/expensive here so unless I want to pay $2k there's no chance so I'm running e39 style 48 16" while keeping an eye out for 17" e39 540 wheels next time I need new tyres. I don't hate 15/16" wheels but tyre availability and pricing sucks compared to 17" and larger.

[dannyzabolotny]

Glad you got the OBC sorted and had some time on the road to enjoy it. The car is looking good!
I wish mine had the OBC read out on the cluster display but it can't do that (no idea if it's a later model feature or I lack something in the wiring, from what I remember the indicator stalk is a button but mine is solid/fixed).
E: I noticed you changed the wheels too, something else I wish I could do but they're rare/expensive here so unless I want to pay $2k there's no chance so I'm running e39 style 48 16" while keeping an eye out for 17" e39 540 wheels next time I need new tyres. I don't hate 15/16" wheels but tyre availability and pricing sucks compared to 17" and larger.

Yeah, some E34's are pre-wired for the full OBC while others aren't. Might be a US market vs. rest of the world kinda thing, as all US cars are pre-wired for OBC and the factory keyless entry.

I am certainly thankful for the easy availability of wheels and tires here... M-Pars come up for sale fairly often, and are generally not expensive, though prices on them have steadily been creeping up.

[dannyzabolotny]

The other day I had some time at the shop to fix a few little issues with the car. I also thought it was amusing that all of the cars in my shop right now are Alpine White...





The first issue I fixed was the trunk wiring. I first noticed it being a problem when one of the license plate lights would turn on whenever the trunk lid was opened, and after some time it also killed the reverse lights. I didn't care too much about the license plate lights but reverse lights are a safety thing so it became a priority to fix the wiring.

Unwrapping the harness, it was obvious that somebody had been in there before and that their repair had failed.



Rather than trying to repair the damaged wires, I just cut most of that stuff out and spliced in new wire, using some lovely heat shrink connectors. Not only are they heat shrink connectors, they've also got a solder section in the middle that melts with heat, so it makes for a very durable repair. I've used them on countless electrical job and they always seem to do the job nicely.



All done, rewrapped, and back in the housing.



Now the license plate lights and reverse lights work perfectly. I also threw in some new plate bulbs because one of them was burnt out.



The second thing I did was reattach my mirror which had come unglued from the still-original windshield. A little bit of mirror adhesive from the local auto parts store did the trick just fine.

[bigsixe34]

Looking good!
Seeing an e34 touring from that downward rear quarter angle makes me appreciate the design that much more.
What a great looking 5 door....

[justinca540i]

Hey, just my 2 cents, came across another thread about you mentioning the vaelo single mass flywheel conversion clutch kit. 10/10 would recommend, mine rattles a bit but that's known for those. But the price for the kit compared to OE parts is a steal, and I prefer the feel as well. Feels more mechanical, less guidance.