My new Cirrus Blue '89 535i/5 Speed Thread

[Old525i]

Thanks. Your car looks fabulous.

[Petrolheadpilot]

I can't believe I had to go back to November to find this thread! I've just been driving and enjoying the car, luckily it's been pretty trouble free.

It's been a year and 3000 miles since I got it home and changed the oil, so it's time for that again. From my research, I'm thinking of swapping to Valvoline VR1 20W-50 for the higher zinc content. Seems to be a popular option for the M30s.
Got some other small maintenance items I haven't found the time to do just yet, but the car is running and driving great.

I spent a little time this weekend cleaning the dog hair out of the interior. My god I adore this interior, it's such a lovely place to be.
Photo Jan 12 2024, 5 20 18 PM.jpg

I'm registered for Radwood Amelia Island in March, and The Vintage in May. Hope to see some of you guys out there!

[dannyzabolotny]

VR-1 is good stuff, and it's easy enough to find. Other good oils for M20/M30 include Castrol GTX Classic (Walmart sells it) and Total Classic Racing. M30's love a good zinc-filled oil.

[Pink120]

That interior is indeed fantastic!

[a777fan]

Love the wheel! Can you remind me when the wood trim phased in? I was surprised to see your interior ‘sans’!


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[Petrolheadpilot]

Love the wheel! Can you remind me when the wood trim phased in? I was surprised to see your interior ‘sans’!


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I’ve seen some ‘90 cars with wood trim, so it was pretty early into the production run. I’m sure somebody can chime in with more exact info.
Really wish mine had wood trim, I love how it looks in these old cars.


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[dannyzabolotny]

It was late 89 build cars that got the wood trim, aka 1990 model year cars. Wood trim is a wonderful part of the E34 interior, and it's not terribly hard to retrofit. Plenty of 535i's had the Natur interior color with the wood trim, you would just need the door cards, the wood trim pieces around the steering wheel, the shift surround, the piece of the center console near the glovebox, and the glovebox. I've retrofitted wood trim on quite a few of my 525i's, as a lot of the M50NV cars came without wood trim.

[danespann]

I’ve seen some ‘90 cars with wood trim, so it was pretty early into the production run. I’m sure somebody can chime in with more exact info.

No US '89 model year 535s seem to have wood trim. Early 89's also have strange perforated leather inserts on the door cards. All or most '90 535's have wood trim; I've not seen a 90 535 without wood personally. It's tough to find decent natur door cards since they're basically 2-years-only with only one year having wood.

[Petrolheadpilot]

Great info! That’s good to know it wouldn’t be too difficult to swap, I’ll have to keep my eyes open. It’ll be hard to find nice enough pieces for this car though haha.


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[fo3]

Interesting it's such a mix over there, or came in earlier.
Down here wood trim was always an option early on, but only came standard after the facelift models (after the wide grille, rocker trim and vanos updates), at least in the RHD market

When I was searching for interiors I was avoiding wood trim and most M20 or M30 cars didn't have it.
My 1990 has no wood trim, nearly every 535i I've seen has no wood trim, eg my replacement ultramarine interior came out of a 1992 535i with no wood trim. (post 1993 535is are rare as they were replaced with wood trim wide grille 530i v8s).

Nearly every 525i still around is post 09/92 with vanos, wide grille and wood trim. Same of course for the v8s.
So the general rule is if it has vanos, or rocker/bumper skirts, or a wide grille then it has wood trim.

[Petrolheadpilot]

Well, sorta bad news. I thought I could see a little bit of brown peeking out above the lower door trim on the driver door, so I pulled off the trim to have a look… and sure enough…





I think I caught it early enough that they might be savable, at least for now. Still doing some research, but I have a POR15 kit in the garage, and I think I’m going to give that a try. Maintaining originality is important for this car, and I really don’t want the headache of sourcing doors and painting them. But we’ll see. What do you guys think?

Strangely enough, it’s just the 2 left side doors. The right side ones are absolutely perfect.





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[dannyzabolotny]

Yeah just clean the rust off, hit the doors with POR-15 inside and out, install new trim strips, and move on with life. People make it out to be a way bigger deal than it is.

[a777fan]

Yeah. Looks surfacy. I’d sand it back. POR it and move on.

[fo3]

Yeah, the bottom of my doors and the bottom inside my fuel door cover is getting like this (E: not fuel cover door, the chassis joins/spotwelds on the rear fender in below/in front of the fuel cap).

I need to do something about mine too, while it's still surface rust.
Wire brush on a drill attachment, paint and then fish oil or something like that to deprive any remaining rust of oxygen.

E: Also you can see your first pic (drivers door?) is holding moisture for some reason and that's why it is the worst, fix the cause too.

[Petrolheadpilot]

I’m not sure what would be causing it to hold moisture, I’ll have to get the door card off and do some digging. For now I’ve just sprayed some harbor freight rust protectant.

Haven’t had time to do much car stuff lately, but I did manage an oil change this week, went with the valvoline VR1 I mentioned earlier. Car seems super happy with it so far, running much quieter it seems.
Sent a sample of the old Mobil 1 off to Blackstone Labs for an analysis, and I’m looking forward to getting those results back.

I think I might have some sort of oil leak coming from somewhere, as the pan had a little coating of oil. But of course I made a gigantic mess when I opened the filter canister, so that’ll be impossible to track down for a bit haha. Always amateur hour over here.


Can’t get enough of this old car


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[Petrolheadpilot]

Did a little bit of preventative maintenance today, in preparation for the road trip up to Amelia Island next month!
New spark plugs and a fuel filter. The old one was from 2015, so not too old. Seems to be running better now!
Old plugs didn’t look too bad really.


The trim piece in the passenger door opening was broken and my wife kept grabbing it on her shoe. Surprisingly, they’re still available new from Germany! BMW of South Atlanta ordered it in for me. I’ve been very impressed with that place, their online ordering process and cheap shipping!



Took the doggos for a ride too.



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[BleedsBlue]

Love it! This thread is the energy I need

[Petrolheadpilot]

I had an absolutely fantastic time at Amelia Island! First time showing the E34 was a big success, had so many people come up and chat about the car. I really wasn’t expecting that, but so many people loved it. I’m not generally a “car show” type of person, but it was definitely satisfying to witness the car getting so much love! Got to meet some other E34 owners as well, which is always nice.



It made the 600 mile round trip in perfect comfort with no issues at all, returning around 22mpg.

One small bit of potential bad news… my oil analysis came back from Blackstone, and there’s a bit more metal than they’d like to see, particularly lead and copper. That points to bearing wear.
I’m hoping the VR1 oil will help, going to send off another sample at 2,000 miles and see if there’s any improvement.


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[dannyzabolotny]

I wouldn’t worry about it, especially with an M30 that has as few miles as yours. I’ve honestly never seen anybody do a Blackstone report for an M30, they’re not known for having rod bearing issues or anything like that. Just keep changing the oil and keep driving it… that’s a 500k mile motor even with heavy abuse.

[Petrolheadpilot]

I wouldn’t worry about it, especially with an M30 that has as few miles as yours. I’ve honestly never seen anybody do a Blackstone report for an M30, they’re not known for having rod bearing issues or anything like that. Just keep changing the oil and keep driving it… that’s a 500k mile motor even with heavy abuse.

Ha that's fair enough really. I've just always enjoyed seeing the oil data over time with my cars, maybe i just like overthinking things haha.

[fo3]

I know you said you're looking into VR1 which is a 20w-50 but surely there are better options you can comfortable use as a year round oil?

Down here I use a synthetic 10W50 with zinc additive pack. not likely to be available there but here's the specs: https://penriteoil.com.au/products/h...full-synthetic

I have often used thinner oils in winter and a 20w50 in summer but recently someone locally had oil tests done comparing with their 330,000km car running 10w30 or 10w40 and hpr 10w50 which proved less wear with HPR10. The only downside is going to be a few hp and a tiny bit higher fuel consumption. Expected as that's why oils got thinner in the first place - to gain 0.5mpg and 2hp

But I'd go that route as even BMW S38 and S50 engines are supposed to have 10w60 so it's not crazy thinking for you to go to a thicker oil.

E: We even have the option of HPR15 which is a 15w-60 oil. A previous car I bought with 3.6L V6 GM motor - famous for timing chain wear "stretching" - survived without issue as the previous owner used that from 100,000km to 250,000km when I bought it and drove it trouble free for another 50,000km

[Petrolheadpilot]

I cannot believe that I haven't updated this thread since March!!! Haven't really done much with the car to report on honestly. Been driving it regularly, but that's about it. I've got some new rear dogbones to install, along with a few other small bits, just haven't found the time.

It's developing this small vibration/shudder under very specific small, but steady throttle input in 2nd and 3rd gear. I know my mechanic said the guibo needs changing, so I'm thinking that might be causing it. I'm hoping to get it up to the shop soon. It's been doing great overall though, coping with the horrible Florida summers very well. AC compressor is quite loud, so I'm assuming that will die at some point lol.
I think it's gonna need a heater core soon as well. There's a bit of crusty coolant under the dash, and can smell coolant when I turn the heat on. Great timing, as I'm getting the same symptoms in my Volvo too haha.

Anyways, gave it a nice wash and hoover tonight, I still can't get over what a beautiful machine it is.

Photo Jul 27 2024, 5 38 40 PM.jpg

Photo Jul 27 2024, 6 45 20 PM.jpg

[Jcbe34]

This thing looks great, glad to hear you're using it regularly. I'm working hard to get my M5 to that point but I still have a long way to go, specifically on the A/C.

I would agree it sounds like guibo and/or center bearing on the driveshaft, I would plan to do both.

[Petrolheadpilot]

This thing looks great, glad to hear you're using it regularly. I'm working hard to get my M5 to that point but I still have a long way to go, specifically on the A/C.

I would agree it sounds like guibo and/or center bearing on the driveshaft, I would plan to do both.

That’s a good idea, definitely makes sense to do both while it’s all apart. Maybe a good time to look at some shifter upgrades as well!


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[ZenitramNaes]

Sweet car, that interior is mint. What spline is the M-tech wheel? I also have an 89 535i and I know their column is different than a lot of the other newer e34s don't want to buy the wrong one.