Member
Hello everyone! Some of you guys may remember me from a thread I made a few years ago. I had a black/parchment '95 525i that I was attempting to rebuild. I finally lost my parking spot for it and had to move it along. A nice guy from Maryland came and bought it, and last I heard, he is planning on turbocharging it! I was sad to let it go, but it was definitely the right thing to do, I had no business with a project of that magnitude haha.
But, the E34 has always been one of my all time favorite cars, and I knew I'd have another one someday. Cue my amazing wife...
She was procrastinating from work one night a couple weeks ago and was browsing old BMW listing on marketplace in random locations. And she came across this 535i. Located in a small town in Michigan, it looked clean, but there were only a few pictures. I figured it would be a rusty mess, but just for the heck of it, reached out to the seller.
Turns out, he had owned it for 4 years, and maybe put 100 miles on it in that time. He bought it basically because it was a good deal, and just never really did anything with it. Before him, it was owned by the same family since new, with a bunch of service records from back then. Car has NEVER been driven in winter, and he sent me more photos to confirm that. The underside is immaculate. Interior is absolutely perfect, and the exterior is a thorough detailing away from being truly showroom fresh...
So, one thing led to another... some skymiles were cashed in for a 1 way ticket to Detroit... and I bought it.
It was about a 1,400 mile journey home, and the car didn't miss a beat at all. Made the journey over 2 and a half days, and I completely bonded with the car in that time, it's just amazing!! So comfortable, everything feels so nice and tight, just like new. Only 109k miles on it.
Photo Oct 29 2022, 4 28 17 PM.jpg
Photo Oct 29 2022, 6 59 18 PM.jpg
Photo Oct 21 2022, 7 21 32 PM.jpg
Photo Oct 21 2022, 7 21 46 PM.jpg
Photo Oct 31 2022, 5 17 15 PM.jpg
So far, there's only a few minor things wrong with it. AC quit working, but it was still running the original R12, seller took it to a local shop and had them recharge it. They changed the caps to r134a, and I think it all leaked back out of there. Taking it to an AC shop soon, but hopefully that's an easy fix.
Temp gauge doesn't work, I think it's just a loose connection in the cluster, I could tap the cluster and it would come back for a minute or two.
One headlight and both fog lights aren't working, even after new bulbs.
That's really it so far... doesn't leak a drop of anything, and seems to run and drive perfectly.
I've ordered a few tune up things from FCP, and will get under it soon and check out the suspension and brakes. Cannot believe how nice this car is!! Plan is to just keep it nice and stock and original. It's far too nice to start modding.
So happy to be back in the E34 world!!
Last edited by Petrolheadpilot; 11-01-2022 at 06:52 PM.
Member
That is super clean! Look forward to seeing your progress!
peasant
Awesome color combo. That interior is in fantastic shape! Not many left in this kind of condition.
Member
Absolute stunner!! Mines got double that mileage and it runs like a dream! You got a nice one… and manual too, that’s what you want!!
Old BMW's FTW
Nice score! I didn't even realize you sold the old one, but congrats, this car looks real nice. We all come back to E34's sooner or later, haha.
Throw some back to black on those side trims and it'll look mint!
As for your headlights, check the wiring to them, but if that all looks okay, it could be a bad LKM, those can do all sorts of weird stuff when they fail. The cluster likely has some bad solder joints if the temp gauge is working intermittently. You can swap clusters pretty easily without losing the mileage by just swapping the coding plug— the only trick is to stay with the same style cluster. Your car is a 1989 so it likely has a white back cluster, whereas later cars have blue back clusters.
1992 525i 5-speed - Thread
Member
Wow, that looks awesome. That interior especially.
Welcome back!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Member
That thing looks mint! A nice find for sure.
I can only imagine how much trouble I would be in if my wife also procrastinated work by looking for old BMWs. We'd have cars coming out of our ears. Pretty awesome origination story, though.
Member
Truth.Originally Posted by BleedsBlue
You got a ‘keeper’ there petrol!
Member
Really beautiful example of 89 E34 535. Only 109K miles, it is just a baby. I am sure you will gets lots of thumbs up and compliments driving around town. Enjoy!
Last edited by E34 Lives; 11-05-2022 at 03:23 PM.
Member
She definitely 100% did not expect me to buy it haha. She wasn't thrilled about that at first. But I told her it was her doing haha. But once I got the car home, she really likes it!
Member
DSC_0334.jpg
I'm completely obsessed with this thing!! Done a few little jobs this week. The temp gauge was just a loose connector on the back of the cluster, seems to be working fine now. New coolant level sensor so it quits yelling at me about that, and new trunk struts. No more 2x4!
It's running a little bit warm when sitting still, I'm thinking fan clutch. So I've ordered a new one, as well as a thermostat. Hopefully that cures it!
Can't wait to get it detailed and do a proper photoshoot.
Member
The fan clutch is easy to test by hand, with the car off (it shouldn't spin without resistance). Often when things get warm at a stop, the aux fan is kaput (I mean, there are many culprits but this is a top risk in my experience). That's also easy to test by bridging connectors in the coolant temp sensor on the side of the rad. Or, by looking through your grill in case, as often happens, the aux fan isn't even intact anymore.
Edit: I just saw your post in the aux fan test thread, so nvm there
Last edited by BleedsBlue; 11-11-2022 at 02:29 PM.
Single Stage
Usually fan clutch or non-working aux fan if it's just with ac on. Make sure to do a mahle/behr thermostat and drill a little bleed hole at the top. I've had about 70% of the wahler m30 thermostats I've ordered for things arrive DOA in the last year. If it's normal temp when you're on the highway, the thermostat in the car is probably fine though.
1990 Alpine 535i/5 - BC Coilovers, LSD, M5 Swaybars, 540 Brakes, A/C Mods, Sport Seats
1986 Alpine 528e - 500k+ miles daily driver
1992 Island 525i/5
Member
Yeah I didn't mean to reply in that thread haha, whoops.
Aux fan is working fine seems like. It definitely helped cool things down when I turned the AC on.
Ordered Mahle thermostat and fan clutch, hopefully that sorts it out!!
Member
I've done a little bit of work on the car this week. Changed out the fan clutch with a new Mahle one, didn't really change anything in regards to the temperature.
I tried bleeding the system with the bleed screw on top of the thermostat, I couldn't really tell if air was coming out or not, but it's still showing hot on the temp gauge.
After that, I got my infrared thermometer out and pointed it at all the coolant hoses/thermostat/overflow tank and was all showing right around 80 degrees C, as it should be. Meanwhile the gauge was almost in the red... Could it be an issue with the temp gauge on the cluster?
Since I drove the car 1400 miles home with no temp gauge and it was fine the entire journey, I'm wondering about that. Clearly the thermostat is working properly.
Also changed the oil to 15W-50 this week, and the car seems much happier with that vs the 5W30 put in it by the previous owner.
Member
Could be the temp sensor itself. As well. Make sure the correct connector is plugged in to the correct sensor. One for the gauge, one for the DME
Member
That's a good idea. They're definitely in their correct coloured plugs. But I'll order some new sensors and see what happens!
Member
Nice score! Did you get your headlights / fogs working? I had a similar issue and like Danny mentioned above, it was the LKM module. I was able to open it up and find a failed solder joint. Re-heated that with another dab of solder and it's been 100% for about 4 years now.
Member
+1 for temp sensor resistance. If it's old, it can wander; if it's new (pandemic-era part), it could just be garbage. Different sensors have yielded drastically different readings on the gauge for me.
Member
I’ve ordered a good working LKM module, should be here soon hopefully.
I opened mine up and couldn’t see anything wrong with it, but I don’t know much about electrics at all.
Member
It wasn't easy to spot. Where one of the pins protrudes through the circuit board, the solder joint had broken and basically looked like a hair line crack all around the pin. A magnifying glass helps! Good to hear you have a working unit coming, that makes it a lot easier to fix.
Member
My new "used" LKM module arrived today. And it works! Sort of... Now I have both headlights and one foglight ha. But it's definitely an improvement so I'll take it. Will continue tinkering with the original one.. maybe I'll learn a new skill in soldering.\
Photo Nov 29 2022, 10 30 34 AM.jpg
And the coolant temp sensors did the trick! Rock solid right at the 12 o clock position after I took it out and romped on it a bit.
I love this car so much, the noise that M30 makes is just fantastic!!
Also, changed the air filter and found a big ol mouse nest! Gotta love it.
Photo Nov 29 2022, 2 26 20 PM.jpg
Next up to tackle is to finish removing the old window tint on the back window. And I got some door weather stripping from an E90 at the junkyard, gonna get my old nasty door rubber replaced.
Member
Good deal! Speaking as someone that got my feet wet (fingers burned?) soldering for the first time ever on an E34 LKM, I recommend giving that a try. The gear and tools aren't too expensive, and this is somewhat easy in terms of soldering overall - lots of space to operate in, etc. Plus buying used LKMs is a revolving door - they almost all need some help at this point.
Member
Aw man. I always was a fan of cirrus blau! Looks awesome!!
Member
Happy 2023 everyone! I've just been driving and enjoying the hell out of this car. It's so nice, drives like a brand new car. I'm not used to the attention it gets ha, everybody seems to like it.
I dropped it off at a local specialist to see about getting the AC working again. Turns out it's going to be a big undertaking...
So the previous owner tried to do me a favor and get the AC recharged before I flew in. Had some local shop drain the system and replace it with R134a. Somehow, they damaged the charge pipes when the put the new style fill caps on, which allowed the system to loose pressure.
Unbeknownst to me, I was running the AC with no pressure, which killed the compressor. Shop is saying the compressor and pipes will have to be replaced, which required going into the dash, very labor intensive. They quoted over $2000 to get everything working properly. Does that sound about right? Anybody dealt with something like this before? I definitely wasn't expecting that phone call today, sheesh!
Photo Jan 13 2023, 5 14 13 PM.jpg
But luckily this car is gorgeous and I've completely fallen in love with it. Look at these gorgeous original OEM floor mats! (No idea why it's posting the photo sideways)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks