My Island Green 92 525i/5

[danespann]

Picked up another e34. Who could have seen that coming?

It’s a 92 NV 525i/5 that was listed suspiciously cheap with nearly no photos. Danny and I hopped in the car and headed to Tucson to pick it up one weekday night. Halfway to our destination, the seller texted me that the car was sold. I was sad but moved on.

A couple days later, a different person messaged me on facebook asking if I’d still like to buy the car. He gave me some better pictures. I ended up paying this person a little bit more money but I think it was still a great deal for a ZF manual car with a decent maintenance history. Plus, it comes on some Rondell wheels and Eibach lowering springs.

-The pictures:





Look at that nice shift surround. Took that for my white car. Working keyless too once a good GM was swapped in(thanks Danny).



Danny wasn't available for a drive to Tucson that weekend, so I convinced my mother to ride down with me in the e28 and drive back whichever car was the better of the two. That ended up being the e34 after adding some power steering fluid as there was none at all. The lack of any power steering on the test drive did help the negotiation.



After some struggling with Arizona testing stations testing the evap system wrong, it passed emissions and was registered.

The car had some awful DEPO angel eye headlights that I immediately swapped out for US ellipsoids with some silverstar ultra bulbs. Added a plate delete and 540 alternator duct at the same time.

I didn’t take many pictures, but I replaced every power steering line and the reservoir, the extremely blown and squeaky rear shock mounts, pedal bushings, dogbones, exhaust hangers, thrust arm bushings, rubber shift boot, and auxiliary fan.







While it was in the air, we confirmed that the car is optioned with an LSD as the vin decode says, but no heated seats.

I took off the super cool Rondell 0063’s for my Forgeline RS wheels that have good tires on them



Added some OEM sheepskin seat covers as these seats are a bit worse for wear (at least until I find some nice tan late seats)



A Renown wheel on a MOMO hub plus a short delrin shift knob round out the ergonomics of the car for now. This car also has wood trim equipped but the base OBC that’s really just a clock.



It’s been a pretty good car so far, with ice cold AC and good ride quality. Need to work on seeing what the gross fake carbon hood wrap is hiding and removing the vinyl lettering that’s baked onto the side skirt.

[dannyzabolotny]

Yay, you finally made a thread for this car!

Dane's finally learning the joys of a owning an M50 non-Vanos

[Old525i]

Can you reveal the purchase price?

[a777fan]

Great color!


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[atl530i]

A much better green than oxford Congrats on the pick up!

[circuit.heart]

This is crying out for a pair of cheap tan sports seats!

Besides the windshield and some body sketchiness looks like you picked yourself a decently easy project. Welcome to M5X tomfoolery.

[BleedsBlue]

Nice! Danny's influence had to rub off at some point. I've realized that some of my earliest BMW memories feature the smell of sheepskin covers. As frumpy as they can be, I'm kind of a fan.

A much better green than oxford

Hear, hear

[danespann]

This is crying out for a pair of cheap tan sports seats!

I unfortunately don't think "cheap" and "sport seats" exist in the same sentence anymore. I'd struggle to find any decent enough ones for less than this car cost.
However, I think I may have a solution....

[danespann]

Speaking of seats, I picked one up:



But not before removing the heinous faux-carbon hood wrap and side skirt die cuts from the car. It was baked and well past the prime removal time, but many hours of heat and elbow grease revealed… primer over the green paint. At least the vinyl is gone so I can pick up some island green spray cans and try to imitate failed paint.



Hopefully the newly-exposed black on the rocker panels fades quickly this summer:



I took the car on a lovely drive to Tortilla flats with a friend for dinner.



The car did great. However, the next day the power steering sounded angry and was aerating the fluid. Jacked the car up and it was leaking from the pump shaft seal, probably sucking in air through the seal. It was an original Vickers pump, not even a reman. 284k isn’t a horrible lifespan I suppose.

Swapped the pump and noticed the water pump leaking. Swapped the 2-year-old Graf metal impeller pump for a nice Saleri and put in a new coolant level sensor to get rid of the constant low coolant warning.



My good friend Kent picked up some nice door panels for me in Los Angeles that I will pick up in June.



Now, back to the seat. I picked up a EVO X Recaro SR11 from marketplace for cheap to use on my VAC floor mount plates. With the EVO mounting tabs cut off the sliders, they almost bolt up to the VAC rails. Unfortunately, the Recaro is a little bit too wide, so I had to make some brackets out of boxed steel. The e34 seat belt receiver mounts up to the factory evo bolt hole and so does the belt itself. The seat sits about the same height as the M5 sport seats in my 535 and around half an inch lower than 95 sport seats. Compared to the factory 92 comforts from this car, it has to be a mile lower.



The car also received its first ever wash in my ownership. Island is such an excellent green.

[danespann]

With around 5000 miles added since the last update, it’s about time to change the oil on this again. Changed to style 9 wheels shortly after the last update and have done absolutely nothing but drive the car and put in fuel until last week.



On one recent trip to Flagstaff, I noticed that it kept smelling horrible outside every time I’d get out of the car. The next morning, I realized the back of the car was saturated with oil. From the smell, I immediately knew it was differential fluid. Upon further inspection, the fuel tank and rear diff cover were soaked. Luckily the sides and front of the differential were still dry.





All the cover bolts were tight, so when I was back to town, Danny helped me reseal the rear cover with a special limited slip additive resistant RTV and a new speed sensor O-Ring. Luckily even with all that leaking, there was still plenty of fluid that came out so no damage was done to this S3.23.

[circuit.heart]

Man I am so familiar with that putrid smell. Check your trans seals as well, all the gear oil.

[danespann]

Another long time update, but many changes this time. This car received a lot of things at once a while back when I bought a good number of items from the Bronzit Bomber partout. I also replaced/upgraded some other things around this time. Here’s the list:

For suspension:
-Godspeed MonoRS coilovers


-AKG 25mm bump steer plates
-E31 lower control arms (spherical)

-Powerflex yellow subframe bushings

-540i calipers and rotors all 4 corners with akebono pads.


Maintenance:
-140a Bosch external fan alternator (car had noisy 80a reman)

-New ACM blower motor
-New OFGH

-New air filter
-New belt and INA pulleys
-New wiper blades

I’ve added quite a few miles to this thing in a pretty short time, approaching 300k for the next oil change.

[dannyzabolotny]

Update needs to be longer, my guy. I know we took plenty of pics throughout a lot of those jobs.

[BleedsBlue]

^Haha

Green on gold always works so well. And... let me just drop this here. Island > Boston

[fo3]

That last pic looks so good!

[danespann]

Due for another update as I’ve decided to make this car a semi-nice place to be. Added a bunch of pics to the previous update since it was lacking.

Just been driving it a ton. Even did some parts hauling.



2x G260/6 and a 3.91 LSD


Green and gold is a good combo


A local friend was parting out a pretty nice but now crashed ‘93 525ia that had super nice comfort seats. Sadly not heated, but already twist-fixed before and priced well. They really bring the interior together. Gave everything some cleaning and conditioning and even vacuumed the car.




Threw my track wheels (staggered 17” OZ Monte Carlo) with 255/40 square BFG Rival S1.5 on the car last week and have been enjoying having a grippy setup on the car. Not entirely sure which wheels will live on this car long-term yet but some change is nice sometimes.

[BleedsBlue]

This car is looking great, too. So you DO know where the secret 260/6 stash is...

[danespann]

So you DO know where the secret 260/6 stash is...

One of these has 7 neutrals and the other has broken mounting ears from removing itself from a car so I need to combine them at some point and see if I can make one working one.

[BleedsBlue]

One of these has 7 neutrals and the other has broken mounting ears from removing itself from a car so I need to combine them at some point and see if I can make one working one.

LOL. A seven speed before they were cool.