P_Roloff

I never posted photos from the Vintage this year; the photo dump is at the end. Such a fun event that I’m going back this year! I put a lot of miles on it overall last season, driving it up until late November before finally putting it away. Had a minor issue with a hanging e brake halfway through the summer but beyond that it ran and worked great! I ended the year at 212,283 miles on the odometer, so over 7000 miles? Pretty proud of that. Took it up to Hayward in June, the Vintage in May, and all over the state after that. The z3 shifter made a world of difference, and I love the Stromung catback - it’s a little droney at neighborhood speeds but it sounds so good when wrung out that I don’t care. Minimal to no drone on the highway is way more important to me, and I can’t hear any over the wind noise! Winter projects: - Put in rebuilt alternator. Had it done at MJ Auto Electric in Butler and they did a great job, it looks excellent. - E46 rack swap (AAE 3310N). Currently in progress, I’m working on getting the steering coupler shaft thingy out now and fighting the upper splined joint hard. Any tips are welcome, it’s stuck fast. - Rebuilt PS pump, I’m swapping in a ZF to replace the Vickers that it had in there. Luckily got a ZF with all the brackets so it’s a direct swap - Replace all PS lines and the reservoir, goes hand in had with the rack swap. - Address a small coolant leak coming either from the looped throttle body heater hoses or from the thermostat gasket itself. - Correctly repair the C191 injector harness; I admittedly kludged it together to get it working last time and need to go back and fix it correctly with good heat shrink and crimp connectors. - If I can find good used speakers (or if anyone has recommendations), replace the blown rear speakers. - Replace the literally worn through seatbelt buckle. Old car problems! - Valve adjustment - New oil dipstick o-ring, the tube is dirty and im assuming the crankcase pressure is just enough to blow oily air past that o ring. - Replace the tee fitting for the headlight washers; it’s never worked and it’s annoying. Might put in a smaller fluid bottle to give more room for other things - Replace the cracked drivers side low beam; I scored a full set of ellipsoids from an old member here a month ago and I’ll probably refurb using the best lenses from both and new adjusters. MY EYES!!!! - Realign the muffler (it sits slightly twisted currently) and smoke test both the intake and exhaust to look for leaks. I’m almost positive I have some leaks in the cat section, but honestly with wanting to go to a header + universal cats at some point soon I’ll probably just use exhaust tape or JB weld to patch and send it for now if/when I find leaks. It isn’t winning any concours awards anyways.

Looks fantastic! We gotta get the cars out sometime together this summer, it’ll probably motivate me to buy new wheels to keep up 😂

Maintenance > photos Oil change: 208,357. Used a Mann filter and trying out the Liqui Moly Classic 20W-50. Seems okay for a car of this age and appears to have a little more ZDDP than standard Castrol GTX, and falls under the FCP euro lifetime guarantee, most importantly. It’s not like M20’s are overly picky about their oil. Also installed a new valve cover breather hose, and most importantly, my Strömung catback! The perforated old one that despite being so rusty it sounds like a maraca, weighs a good 10lbs more at least: It was fantastic!! You. Absolutely. Should. It’d be awesome to have an alpine e30 convoy! Bonus pics of my skidplate that saved my trip: Also found a busted headlight lens I missed. Booo!

146,650 Tension struts got tossed in awhile back, all is good so far. Swapped to summer wheels this week. New front struts came in this week, so going to replace those soon. I also got a new serpentine belt and crank seal guard over the winter, so I'll throw those on when I go digging for the whining noise eventually. Also got a new tweeter while on clearance from ECS to replace a blown front one. Other than front tires, it really just needs a good wash and paint correction/wax. I always forget how good of a car this is, I got out of the E30 and into this after a 2700 mile road trip and it was almost jarring how smooth, quiet, and competent it felt. Toying with selling the busted old Performance Aero front bumper to (partially) fund a manual swap. Thoughts from the peanut gallery? I also have a set of partially finished M-Systems with 3/4 turbine covers that I could donate to the cause and get close to breaking even between the two of them. It's tempting considering those parts are doing nothing but take up space and in the case of the M-Systems, I own nothing they even fit on anymore.

I will post a larger update down the road when i get around to uploading like a million photos, but I took the car down to The Vintage in Hendersonville, NC last week/weekend - needless to say, the trip was one for the books and a must - do for anyone on this forum. No major mechanical issues either - the worst one was a bad brake light switch that I fixed temporarily with a clutch switch and some good ole manual control . So much cool BMW brain-melt action, and even better, just an awesome group of people who love 'em and drive 'em hard. I made my trip a bit extra special by taking the long way there, driving to Pittsburgh day one, then cutting south along Skyline Drive/Blue Ridge Parkway for around 250 miles through VA until I reached NC where the majority of it is still closed due to damage from Hurricane Helene last fall. The event went for three days in NC, then i took two days coming home (including driving the Tail of the Dragon). All in all, a wonderful trip I'd love to have some fellow WIBimmers accompany me on with their own cars in future years! The stats: 2700 miles 8 days 12 states 2.5 days of rain One flash flood warning and one large rock hit to the skidplate 28.5mpg average One failed brake light switch - found a replacement at the Vintage! (no, I didn't steal it from another unsuspecting vert owner) 20lbs of Stromung exhaust lugged home with me diagonally across the interior 25+ Alpinas viewed at the CCA museum in Greer At least 10 E9's that i left drool puddles on And a partridge in a pear tree

America gets shafted with our model line. That is all.

Jeez, I’m bad about updates here. I put maybe 500 miles on it this fall, and installed factory rubber engine mounts the day I parked it to tone down NVH. The 95A poly ones were too harsh for my liking. Also installing a new Z3 shift lever and a completely refreshed OEM shift assembly with DSSR before the warm weather comes back - the garagistic shifter doesn’t have enough throw for my liking. Way too notchy. Black Friday sales were good this year too, so I bought a Continental/VDO Bluetooth head unit and will be installing that before spring as well. Super pumped to have a more OEM looking radio finally! Some pics: Just this last week, I took the time to pull the driver’s seat out so I could replace the driver’s bolster. I bought like 3-4 junk seats from someone on here a few years ago (turbo S5x in the fox valley area?) for one single bolster, and honestly, well worth it! I still need to correct the rear seatback tear but the driver’s seat is more important to me at this point. I used a cheapo hog ring kit off of Amazon and it worked surprisingly well - start to finish it probably only took me an hour or a little more including pulling the bolster off the old seat.

145,621 Installed the rear subframe inserts last night - no pics unfortunately, but I discovered that the E91 has a different rear subframe bushing than the sedans and coupes. The lower insert still went in fine but the upper was completely different. Some googling showed me that while FCP claims it’s for all chassis, the E91 does in fact have a slight bushing difference. Oh well, 6/8 isn’t bad and there was a very definite difference before and after. Firmer ride, but only because the rear shocks were now attenuating bumps instead of the subframe. No notable NVH increase, just better ride (IMO) and the car feels way more planted in really all cornering, but especially sweepers. Good bang for the buck I’d say! Ordered what will hopefully be my last set of front tension struts for awhile from FCP today - the M3 TRW struts had a COO change to Malaysia and ever since have had major ball joint failure problems that are being widely reported. Both pairs I bought failed within the first 5k or so. Going to try Meyle M3 arms to see if that fixes it permanently; if not, I think I’m just gonna light it all on fire 😂

Nice score, by far my favorite of all the factory spoiler options! Want to sell me your old IS spoiler now?

145,383 Picked the car up today from International Autos, they went in and did the PCV and VANOS recall work - they noted the exhaust adjuster already had the bolts replaced, and just did the intake ones as a result (which checks out from Joe’s thread). I’ll gladly take the free VCG! Changed oil tonight - Liqui-Moly Special Tec 5W-30 and a Mann filter. While I was down there, I pulled the belly pan off and replaced the primary ground strap - old one was original I believe and getting gross. I found a seeping PS line while I was under there, not leaking much but I’ll add it to the list. Looks like the return line from the cooler to the reservoir. I also found blue fluid down in the PS pan, but I’m pretty sure it’s washer fluid since I accidentally filled to the brim last time and it’s still basically that full. I’ll keep an eye on it just in case.

145,xxx - I have hardly driven this car now that it’s snowy, I find it hard to justify when my truck already has surface rust and is more tolerant of starting in the cold. Replaced the rear license plate frame; it already had one snapped bolt and I broke another this year when putting on my new registration sticker so I figured it was time for a new one. No more rattles when closing the hatch!! Also bought a new cabin air filter (Hengst), really high quality with the foam seal around the outside. Took the opportunity to wipe the engine bay plastics down while I was in there. Also replaced a few fender liner pop rivets that I lost the center pins for when fixing the leaking washer fluid pump seals. Next up is confirming whether the whining I’m hearing is indeed the PS pump (going to pull the serpentine belt and see if it goes away) or if it’s the A/C compressor or alternator. I still have rear subframe inserts to install this spring, and a new ground strap to go on at the next oil change, which will hopefully happen this week or next. Debating on what tires to get this spring - the summers need replacing. I’ve heard good things about the DWS06, but it has 300TW tires on it now and they aged/wore out at the same time, so I don’t think I need anything that’ll wear harder. Leaning PS4S unless anyone has something else they love and would recommend over it?

143,020: Replaced air filter - used a Mahle filter (P/N LX1035) in the euro airbox and it was an identical drop-in replacement. It doesn’t show up as compatible on FCP euro for the euro airbox, while the K&N does - the Mahle is 1/4 of the price and doesn’t need to be oiled or anything. Very happy. Upper control arm ball joint is already failing again after replacement earlier this year, sounds like the TRW upper control arms have been problematic since a COO change from Europe to Malaysia. They’re letting me warranty with Meyle M3 arms instead, hopefully those work better because swapping them every year is quite annoying. Pretty sure there’s either a sticking caliper (unlikely) or a failing wheel bearing on the drivers rear, it’s generating a lot of heat after even short drives. Going to temp gun it and see if I can diagnose further. Just got parts in to fix the leaking washer fluid (pump and filters), as well as rear sway links and rear subframe bushing inserts. Going to order front struts and start stockpiling all the rear suspension parts for some much-needed suspension refreshing this winter. In other news, I used the wagon for a weekend camping trip at Mirror Lake this past weekend, it was perfect for the job and never skipped a beat. I love this car.

It did! Exhaust is hitting the tunnel a little and needs adjusting, and the shifter I bought sucks (garagistic chassis mount… figured they couldn’t mess that up. I have been proven wrong) but generally it drove perfectly and ran okay once the plug was fixed. Idle is a tad low and it isn’t idling perfectly but it gets up and goes once you’re moving. Slight diff leak as well, either a halfshaft or the output seal but not worrying about that for now. That’s a winter project haha, interior reassembly and shakedown starts next week! Hoping to put on some real miles this fall before it gets parked for winter.

It drives!!!!! First time in nearly three years that this car has moved under its own power and it feels oh-so-good. Had a minor snafu with it running though on initial start. When I first lit it off last week it was idling super slow but Infigured it was just from time sitting and would quickly adjust, but no such luck. Got a CEL, read it via stomp test, and it came back as an “Injector Batch 1 Fault”. Some quick research pointed to the C191 connector under the intake manifold as a likely culprit, especially since I wasn’t able to separate it despite a lot of trying when the engine was out. I pulled the boots off of the connector and immediately saw major corrosion, and made the executive decision to just cut the connector out. It turned out to be the right call - I had to pretty much destroy the connector on the bench to eventually separate the halves. I spliced the wires back together, and lo and behold, running on all 6 again. Idle is a bit slow and it stumbles a little when recs return to idle, but I’ll chase that in time. Drove around for 20 minutes, bled the cooling system, checked function of all major systems, and it all seems OK. Next steps are interior and body reassembly, then I’ll get my skidplate welded and be good to go!

Update: It runs! I pulled the fuel pump assembly thinking I might’ve pushed a wire so it was shorting, and noticed my wires going in were opposite the ones on the pump body (brown to red, and brown to green/purple). The connector was busted partially so I just zip tied the two piles together when I put it back together; I must’ve reversed those somehow. Corrected it, was able to jump the fuel pump normally, and the car fired off almost immediately! Now for the clutch slave, driveshaft, and exhaust! Nearly there!

Had an interesting issue today I’d like to pick everyone’s brains on: reconnected everything on the e30, engine back in, cranks but no start. Cool. Engine and entire fuel system have been removed and out back in, so not that surprising. I started with the fuel system because it was the fastest - I pulled the fuel return line on the FPR, and it was bone dry even with cranking for a cumulative 20+ seconds. Didn’t smell like fuel either (new lines). Tried jumping fuel pump relay, no dice, so it’s something with fuel delivery. Found that the fuse is blown. Replaced, it blew again when I cranked it. So a short of some sort or a bad pump. This is where it gets interesting. I used a Milwaukee M12 battery to directly power the pump - ran fine. I then put my multimeter in-line and got something like 2-3 amps. Cool, so not the pump? Not so fast! I then used the multimeter on both pin 87 at the relay socket (feeds power to fuse and then the pump) and tested resistance to ground (with the pump unplugged) expecting to see low resistance indicating a short somewhere. No dice - seems to be normal with no completed circuit. After a lot of double checking of that result at various locations, I hooked up a jumper wire from the power wire of the fuel pump to the positive connector on the pump itself - but NOT connecting the ground on the pump to body/harness ground. I then jumped the fuel pump relay again, and POP goes the fuse again. So it appears my pump is faulty and shorting out internally? Anyone ever experience this? I’ll be ordering a new pump from FCP tonight but just seems weird. The car did sit for three years since it last ran, but it was inside and dry. No fuel pump issues before I parked it and the existing pump has about 10 years and 20k miles on it only. No idea of brand. Anyone have any thoughts?

Update at about 140k: turning the rotors and installing EBC Yellowstuff pads seems to have completely eliminated the braking shudder issue. I’ve put a little over a thousand miles on it already after the change with no issues. I will update if anything changes. I haven’t really gotten on them yet but I have zero complaints so far. Good cold bite, easy break in, and the 335i brakes with any pads have great power - I can only imagine that these will haul the car down like the hand of god. It still has a mild vibration at highway speed that comes and goes that was improved after the front brakes were done, but I’m going to start with a wheel balance and go from there. Pretty sure there’s a bad ball joint somewhere in the rear suspension too so that likely isn’t helping. If the front pads were this prone to pad deposits it could be that too but on the rears, but since there’s no pulsing anymore when braking it seems less likely.

I believe it’s just the performance aero stuff. M sport and regular are easy to get, so not sure how many people would pay for it. I certainly kept the old one though!

138,802: Oil change completed, swapped in new wishbones on the front due to a ball joint clunk I was hearing, and found that while they definitely weren’t perfect, those weren’t the problem. After some poking around, I concluded that the 1-year old tension struts were the issue. The passenger side arm had a bad ball joint already. Brake shudder is I believe still the culprit, I replaced the drivers side rotor and it improved, but now when I spin the passenger side rotor that one has a very obvious high spot in it. For now, I just replaced both tension struts again and am going to order new brake pads (EBC yellowstuff, going to get something with more bite to hopefully keep pad material from building up) to hopefully solve this permanently. Planning to just turn the rotors for the new pads since they’re almost new still. Front shocks are mega blown out, their replacements arrived a few days ago courtesy of @patsbimmer1. Went with soemthing a little spicier than OEM, I’ll share more details when they’re installed. Oh - last update: had a semi back up into this car in traffic in April, and I was extremely disappointed. The hit wasn’t too hard but it put a large crack in the front bumper, which is NLA and basically unobtanium (genuine performance aero bumper, and would’ve made the car have an incomplete kit) Through Reddit and a bit (read: a stupid amount) of luck, I found one on German EBay of all places, bought it, had it shipped here (in only bubble wrap 🙃) and finally painted and installed a week or two ago. I managed to snag a euro model bumper too without headlight washers, so I got to delete the ugly covers and the ugly side markers all in one fell swoop.

131,050 Well, my time with this car has come to an end. What a wonderful car and one I’ll truly miss, but it was time. It sat nearly all summer and was just getting to be a pain to maintain on top of the truck, e30, and e91. It went to a local guy who was looking for a neat older car to learn to wrench on, so I think it’ll suit him well. It remains the quietest, most solidly built car I’ve ever owned, it was seriously a tank. Hung the tail out in the snow pretty impressively too. Replaced the blower motor before I sold it, and sent two sets of wheels and most of my e34 spares along as well. I’m excited to have the space back, one less project, and to be able to focus more on the E91 and E30. I still have the MOMO Heritage 6’s and the m-systems, if anyone was wondering haha. MOMO’s will be listed as soon as I wash them, and the M-Systems will hopefully get their restoration completed once the e30 is back on the road. Farewell to the E34 club, it’s been a good ride!

I love that you drive it through this, how does it handle snow? Yeah, that was an experience. I nearly buried my truck trying to help some poor fella who butmried his civic on shitty tires in a 18” snowdrift on Capitol in Brookfield. I then went home, unburied the E34, and proceeded to rip big slides through the business park for an hour. Good times.

Images are below, I have more I can send but didn’t feel like clogging this up with them.

SOLD WIBimmers Price: $4500 Snow got you stuck? Don’t want to rust out your nice car/truck? Want an affordable fun car? This might be the car for you! It’s a 1995 BMW 525i with a 5-speed manual, 130,xxx miles. Purchased by my dad in 2018, I purchased it in 2021. Only selling because I bought @m42b32’s E91 and don’t drive this anymore. This car has an extensive maintenance history, please see the end of the ad for a full list. Lots of work in the last two years. I also have a few options for wheels and tires. The paint/body on this car is fair for its age, it’s not show car quality but doesn’t have any clear coat failure evident; mostly scratches, dings, chips and a few small dents. Rust is present on the door bottoms; the rest of the car is pretty clean. Couple small spots on the underside but nothing wild. Wasn’t driven in the snow often before it came to WI (lived in Jersey from new to ~2017). Nose of the car was repainted at one point I believe. Issues include small windshield crack, A/C stopped working this summer, drivers rear window and lock actuator not working, couple small tears in drivers seat bottom, slight stitching pull on the top of the rear seatback, and drivers door brake removed due to it tearing the bolts holding it to the door out (common e34 issue, not due to hitting something with it). Blower motor just went but will be replaced before sale. I have a full booklet of maintenance history going back to the early 2000’s, and have roughly 80 images of various points on the car as well - just ask if you have any questions at all. Things I’d probably recommend eventually would be shifter refresh, rear shocks, diff oil change, and eventually rear subframe bushings; they were all always on the list but I never got to them. Definitely doesn’t need them anytime in the near future but I’m picky about my shit. All my spares will be included for the asking price; mostly interior switchgear and trim bits. WIBimmers asking price w/ spare parts and no extra wheels: $4500 OBO. No trades unless @wasnt m3 wants to swap for his clownshoe… Current wheels: Car will come on stock 15”x7” bottlecap wheels and 205/65R15 Continental VikingContact winter tires; these are superb in the snow. I’ve driven through 20”+ drifts and foot high unplowed streets without issue. Date codes are I believe from 2021; tons of tread left. Maybe 12k miles on them? Purchased in late 2021 Extra wheel options include: - Full square set of 17x8.5” MOMO Heritage 6 wheels in satin black; purchased new by me in 2022. Good tread on the 235/45R17 Michelin Pilot A/S 3+’s that are mounted, I want to say date codes show 2018 or 2019 but not positive. I’d ask an additional $800 for the set with the car or $1000 separate for you guys. Retail price when they were still available was roughly $325/wheel. Neat wheels, and in good condition with only a few bucks here and there. No rash or bends. I also have a set of stock 15x7” style 5 basket weaves with two good and two trash tires, $100 extra for those. I’ll throw them in for free if you have a set of wheels and tires that hold air and fit a e28 well enough to roll it onto a trailer. Final wheel set option is a partially complete and partially refinished set of style 20/21 M-Systems. I have four forged wheels, 3X complete turbine covers in good used condition, and 4 caps - I’m missing only a left side cover and fan to complete the set. Wheels have been stripped/blasted to bare metal, checked to ensure they’re perfectly straight and true, and the lips polished out; a few lips need some final finish polishing but they’re generally very close to ready for paint. TBD on asking, I’d like to finish them myself and sell them but if you’re serious and interested, shoot me a message and I’ll send photos/details. . Completed Maintenance and Upgrades This likely isn’t an exhaustive list and doesn’t include a lot of the little trim bits, clips and minor stuff done over the years, but these are the heavy hitters: General: OEM BMW roof rails will be included with the car Chrome door trim has been “shadowlined” with vinyl trim tape; easily removable if you prefer the chrome look Interior/Exterior/Electrical: General module New sunroof button panel Auxiliary audio input wired into CD changer; completely reversible (I made a custom wiring harness) and exiting below stability control button Drivers front window regulator New midsection door trim Trunk shocks New battery last winter Various side trim pieces replaced - all with genuine BMW pieces Blower motor replaced and fuse de-rated to 20A to fix common wire melting issue - no evidence of problems with this car Rear headrests added from an E32; rare to find on US model E34’s I have a E32 rear motorized sunblind kit that I can include; it’ll require cutting to fit but would be an awesome upgrade Steering and Suspension: Upper and lower front control arms replaced in fall of 2021 - used E31 and M5 arms (spherical/solid rubber) for improved handling and longevity. All Lemforder components. Front shocks, shock mounts, and all related hardware replaced in fall of 2021 with OEM Sachs/lemorder components Front sway bar links changed in 2020 I have a set of new Lemforder tie rods to go with the car as well; I never got around to installing them Brakes: All new OEM pads and rotors last year all the way around Both front calipers replaced (and slide pins regreased before install) New front soft brake lines Hardlines all look good Engine/Driveline: New clutch master and slave last year Z3 shift lever - shorter throw. I believe I have the original still and can include it. ZHP shift knob Giubo replaced last year; CSB was fine but I have a spare I didn’t install that I’ll include with the car Transmission shift shaft and output shaft seals replaced this summer - major job Alternator replaced last winter with an OEM Bosch unit Serpentine belt, tensioner, and pulleys replaced in 2021 VANOS seals replaced this summer; valve cover gasket replaced at the same time New serpentine belt, a/c belt, pulleys, and tensioners in summer of 2021 Metal impeller water pump installed in 2017-ish

Great notes - looks like this car is a 528e, so M20? He’d want a kit from a 528e. I’ll second the single piece clutch line, I bought one from ChaseBays but it’s effectively the same as what @YoungCR did. The only other upgrade I might add would be a single mass flywheel conversion, and then get it lightened by Ireland engineering - they offer a resurface and lightening for about $210, very reasonable. Not sure what your goals are but it’ll make it rev faster, easier to heel-toe, and more fun, at the expense of a bit of forgiveness in stalling. Definitely start a build thread!

Welcome! I’m actually in the middle of a 5-speed swap on my m20 powered e30, so a pretty similar swap! I’d recommend getting the swap parts from one single car so you can be sure that stuff will fit; I had a driveshaft issue with mine because I bought a new replacement without realizing it didn’t fit my transmission output flange. Otherwise, just do the “while you’re in there” stuff and let us know if you have issues! Glad to have another m20 on the forum!