2000 528i Touring *restoration* thread (pic heavy)

[stephenk22]

Hey guys!
It's been about 10 years since I had a project car, didn't intentionally land on a an e39 but I had an opportunity to buy one and I couldn't pass it up. My 5 year old has been super into cars and I wanted something we could both work on together.

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The previous owner had already done a ton of restoration to the vehicle including:
-New brake lines
-New brake pads, rotors and calipers
-Koni suspension(not sure if just lowering springs and shocks or coilovers)
-New lsd
-Fixed 5 speed transmission and new shifter
-new clutch and flywheel
-catback magnaflow exhaust - not perfect but sounds pretty good
-New radiator and overflow (Zionsville autosport radiator)
-Dynavin 8 radio/navigation system
-*Probably a ton more stuff I don't know about

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Past owner provided me with brand new OEM headlights and a replacement Seibon carbon fiber hood.

The car was left outside for a few weeks and a small critter chewed through the crankshaft position sensor wiring, oil level sensor wiring, some sensor wiring on the bottom of the drivers side radiator. It was also discovered that the outside temp sensor was missing.

[stephenk22]

My goals for the car:

-Install carbon fiber hood
-Tint
-Vanos replacement
-Headlight adjustment
-New door sills
-New interior - or replaced cracked interior section
-02 sensor replacement (throwing a P1183 code)
-Front lip https://www.etsy.com/listing/9272408...search_click=1
-New BMW key

Crankshaft wiring was completely gone and had to butt splice it together (I know its not ideal)

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[Sam Son]

Nice looking touring. Congrats on the project.

How do you like the dynavin radio unit?

[stephenk22]

I love it so far! Probably one of my favorite parts of the car. It has apple airplay so i just plug my phone in and have navigation and spotify going at the same time

[stephenk22]

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks man! Love the Dynavin unit. My favorite part is the apple car play. Can just plug in the iphone and have navigation and spotify on the same screen

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Nice 528 wagon! Looks like the previous owner put some nice choice bits into it. As long as the maintenance wasn’t dropped on that thing, it should run like a top. I have a couple wagons, a 2000 528 just like yours, and a 2003 525. I have always loved the BMW i6 platforms, I have a 2001 540 sedan, but the 2 wagons I have are what I truly love. Stay on top of it and it will always put a smile on your face. What rims are those? OZ?

[stephenk22]

Thank you! Im pretty stoked to have it. Any things I should look out for with these wagons?
Yes, they are 17" OZ Rally rims with Blizzaks on them (I need to swap out the blizzaks for sure). I also have a set of 15" rims but I dont think they will look quite as good!

[stephenk22]

Dr. Vanos unit and new valve cover gasket came in last night. Hopefully I can find some time in the next few weeks to get this done.

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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

If it is an oily mess down below front end of the engine, drivers side, it will either be the power steering hoses, maybe the power steering bottle, the O-ring on the cap, but it could also be the rubber gasket on the oil filter housing, if that has not been taken care of, the rubber turns into brittle plastic. Cooling wise, looks like he got a good radiator and expansion tank on there, check the hoses, the thermostat housing, which comes with a new thermostat when you get them, a lot of people neglect to replace all the hoses, they do the fronts and call it a day, the hoses to the heater pump, the ones from the heater pump to the firewall, the two plastic pipes underneath the intake manifold, those get brittle where they go into the block, while you are at it, since the intake manifold has to come out, get all the intake gaskets, CCV pipes, a lot of people neglect the tensioners for the belts.

Suspension, there are a million threads about all that, mainly, the tension arms bushings go bad if you get the shakes at 70mph, if it wasn’t the balancing on the wheels, out at the rear, the bushings on all the arms, the subframe bushings are notorious, once you get all those things done, car will ride and handle like new for a while.

I found an issue that not too many people knew about on the wagons. I have a thread about it, started not too long ago. It involves the outer tail lights, read the thread and check your tail light housings. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-All-Tourings!

[stephenk22]

If it is an oily mess down below front end of the engine, drivers side, it will either be the power steering hoses, maybe the power steering bottle, the O-ring on the cap, but it could also be the rubber gasket on the oil filter housing, if that has not been taken care of, the rubber turns into brittle plastic. Cooling wise, looks like he got a good radiator and expansion tank on there, check the hoses, the thermostat housing, which comes with a new thermostat when you get them, a lot of people neglect to replace all the hoses, they do the fronts and call it a day, the hoses to the heater pump, the ones from the heater pump to the firewall, the two plastic pipes underneath the intake manifold, those get brittle where they go into the block, while you are at it, since the intake manifold has to come out, get all the intake gaskets, CCV pipes, a lot of people neglect the tensioners for the belts.

Suspension, there are a million threads about all that, mainly, the tension arms bushings go bad if you get the shakes at 70mph, if it wasn’t the balancing on the wheels, out at the rear, the bushings on all the arms, the subframe bushings are notorious, once you get all those things done, car will ride and handle like new for a while.

I found an issue that not too many people knew about on the wagons. I have a thread about it, started not too long ago. It involves the outer tail lights, read the thread and check your tail light housings. https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...-All-Tourings!

Thanks for that info! I will be sure to check all those things. So far I don't have any handling issues, so thats good!

Do you mean replace the tensioner for the belts preventatively?

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Well, yes, if you don’t have any records, get a good look at them, if they look real dirty, I would pull them off, get a look at manufacture dates, go from there. They are not that expensive, you want to get OEM, which were a company called INA, they are cheaper to get those, than to get the actual BMW part, same part. FCPeuro sells them, I usually get everything from them, take advantage of their lifetime warranty on everything when the time comes to replace things you got from them. Preventative maintenace is the name of the game, but even I drop the ball every now and then.

[StephenVA]

Like Snotty said: If it is old - replace them all. Cheap enough. Throw away the fan blades and clutch if they are still there (the image shows the stub of the water pump so I assume they are already gone) There is a replacement metal pully for the W/P if you see any cracks.

[adm750]

REALLY nice looking car...! congrats.

man, I miss these things. E70 now =

[stephenk22]

REALLY nice looking car...! congrats.

man, I miss these things. E70 now =

Thank you!

Started pulling apart the valve cover to replace the Vanos. Looks like somebody did this in "somewhat" recent history. Valve cover was in good shape. I'll still be replacing it.
Hopefully a project I can finish this weekend.

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[a91syncro]

Nice to see you here. We met at cars and coffee a few weeks back, I had the black 528 wagon. Are you still interested in the tailgate trim and cover? I’ll try to email you this weekend.

[stephenk22]

Nice to see you here. We met at cars and coffee a few weeks back, I had the black 528 wagon. Are you still interested in the tailgate trim and cover? I’ll try to email you this weekend.

Hey! Yes i'm still interested, shoot me an email.

[stephenk22]

Just finished up the Vanos project. Ended up breaking off the vanos bolt in the cam gear while putting it back together. Luckily it came out super easy.

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Ordered a front lip for it from Ukraine a few months ago and it finally arrived. I haven't decided if i'm going to put it on or leave it stock yet. My inner JDM enthusiast is telling me to do it, so we will see.



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Next week the car goes in for tint.

[stephenk22]

Great Wisconsin sunrise on my way to my cousins house Saturday.

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Drove out to my cousins place (2 hours away) this weekend and had him tint the car, after he tinted it I swapped out to the BBS wheels.

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I think it looks quite a bit better with full tint.

I dropped off the front lip with my cousin as well, hopefully will have that back in a few weeks.

I'm still deciding on the exact direction I want to take the car, but I think I'm starting to dial it in.

As of right now I'm thinking:
-Lowering the car even further on coilovers
-Ordering a set of Image wheels

I really like this set of wheels, but having a hard time dialing in the exact offset I would want.
Im thinking 18"x8.5" front and 18"x9.5" rear. Offset I dont quite understand.
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I would be working on achieving this look as well with those wheels
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[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Not into that slammed down look at all. You will be scraping everything on the road. The E39 is a classy car, that slammed down stancetard look makes these cars look like a little child owns it. But hey! It is your car, enjoy it. Me? When I lower them, it is for performance, not the look. Guess I am getting old, have had E39 BMW’s since 2000, I am set in my ways. I have a brand new set of Eibach pro springs for one of the wagons, and an almost brand new set of BC Racing coilovers for the other wagon, have had them forever, and they are still in the basement, lol! The cars are all driving great , time is short, one day, maybe the motivation level creeps back up a notch.

[stephenk22]

Not into that slammed down look at all. You will be scraping everything on the road. The E39 is a classy car, that slammed down stancetard look makes these cars look like a little child owns it. But hey! It is your car, enjoy it. Me? When I lower them, it is for performance, not the look. Guess I am getting old, have had E39 BMW’s since 2000, I am set in my ways. I have a brand new set of Eibach pro springs for one of the wagons, and an almost brand new set of BC Racing coilovers for the other wagon, have had them forever, and they are still in the basement, lol! The cars are all driving great , time is short, one day, maybe the motivation level creeps back up a notch.

That's fair! We all have our own taste and style. It's not the perfect platform for slamming/stancing but its the vehicle I have to do it with. I got a great deal on this car and originally thought it was a platform I could do some fun things with, unfortunately the more I researched the more disappointed I became with the aftermarket support/enthusiasm of the touring and E39 engine. If I could get $7k+ for the wagon in its stock configuration I might consider selling it and pursuing a different chassis and letting someone else enjoy this car in its stock configuration. The E39 market seams difficult to put a read on.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

It’s been a very clear read for me. I fell in love with the car as soon as BMW announced it. Now, I drove the old family beater Mercedes Benz’s when I was in high school, drove a friends dad’s E28 525, think it was an ‘84, instantly fell in love with the way they drove. I graduated high school in ‘86, and got lucky into getting hired to be an “actor” in a Vietnam war movie, which ended up being a really big movie when it was released. I worked in it for two and a half months, and earned a little bit over $85 grand. Just got lucky, but one of the things I did after the dust settled, was to fly out to Hong Kong (I lived in the Philippines at the time) and special order an ‘86 525 with a 5 speed. I have been a 5 series fan ever since.
Only up until recently, did I break this single love for the 5 series, I found a great deal on a 2001 330 convertible E46 last winter. It needed some work, the convertible top’s frame needed to be replaced. But the car came with the replacement frame, just had to pull the roof off, take everything off, the canvas, the headliner, had to do the bat wing repair on the headliner, those are the flaps that cover up the frame arms at the rear quarter windows. They flip open when the roof is going down, and shut when the roof goes back up and locks down, they cover the spars back up. And it’s kinda like a RubeGoldbergh puzzle, these strings connected to the flaps, weave through a certain way through the spars, through a bunch of stainless anchored rings on the frame. As the roof actuates, and the spars start to move around, changing angles on each other, it causes the strings to maneuver and flip the flaps open. Kinda cool, and also a huge pain in the butt to get your mind wrapped around how to route the strings properly. I actually had to go to youtube and get my brain youtube certified to figure out how the strings ran through. A few idiot youtube morons that don’t have a clue how to film stuff, total idiots that should get their cameras shoved up their a$$es, no lube.
But I found this gem of a well explained proper english spoken video from Jolly old England. I had to pull all the hydraulics off the old frame, everything, the lines, the wiring harness, it was a feat, but I got it working perfectly. Had a few mechanical issues, misfires, leaky valve cover gasket, cam sensors, and tie rods. Car was awesome! I say was, unfortunately, as much as I wanted to keep it, I did get it as a flipper and doubled my money. Topas Blue with a blue top, I am gonna find another one soon. It did drive very well, once I was done working on it. But circling back, I still love the E39 today, just as much as I loved it when they first came out. Never get tired of it, and anything newer just does not appeal to me at all. So I am in E39 purgatory it seems, and for me, it needs to stay fairly classy stock, hence my opinion. Enjoy the wagon!