Stoney's E34 535i

[Rory]

That's mega cheap for the HID's. And to go OT for a sec, Rory your e34 gives me bone... 'nuff said

lol thanks. i really don't know what else to say to that! haha

[Stoney]

I know!!

I bought a kit 3 years ago for my S13 i had, and it cost me $300, i thought it was a bargain then, hahaha, times a changed

[Stoney]

Still waiting on the HID kits, not sure whats going on there?

However i received my electric 16" fan and thermo switch today in the mail, waste of time that was, packaging was done by a three year old autistic kid, which has resulted in the whole mounting surround of the fan being broken in transit due to no padding

Also bought an amp wiring kit, to get the most out of my 5.25" splits F&R, so i stripped the rear of the car including rear seats in anticipation of fitting the wiring kit this weekend, most likely wont happen and i'll be driving around with the rear gutted for a while though

Priced up some control arms off ebay today, at just over $200 delivered from the US, i cant really go wrong, even if they are shit and flog out in 2 years, also considered the braided brake kit too, will probably get that stuff next week

I seem to be spending more than i'm earning right now, and the bank balance is hurting, esp seeing as i have a few festivals I HAVE TO attend coming up

also upgraded the computer so i can play fallout 3 with good graphics

[BMWM535i]

Hi, noticed you said you were not happy with performance on you e34, try a Jim Conforti performance chip from Turner performance, you get about 40 HP more, my friend got one in his manual e35 535i, it flys now, oh with a little help from better injectors. If its auto car it will help but not as much in the low speed. Oh yeah, it is a nice car

[BMWM535i]

Oops, spoke too soon, just read in earlier forum that you have a chip and that it is auto, maybe try diff ratio change, maybe from e34 525i or something like that.

Hi, noticed you said you were not happy with performance on you e34, try a Jim Conforti performance chip from Turner performance, you get about 40 HP more, my friend got one in his manual e35 535i, it flys now, oh with a little help from better injectors. If its auto car it will help but not as much in the low speed. Oh yeah, it is a nice car

[Stoney]

I dont think i said i'm not happy with it, it certainly goes fast enough, but i much prefer a lighter car with a manual gearbox, my S13 SR20DET was a totally different car, and i'm looking to get back into something like that again


On another note, just fitted new door handle rubber gaskets as mne were beyond perished

[Stoney]

I just received my control arms and braided lines, will be fitting them once my broken bone AND torn ligament/tendon in my hand becomes managable and doesn't hurt too much - damn beach footy and alcohol shenanigans

its too damn hot to find motivation to work on my car anyway, when a beach is a much more appealing option

i suppose i should get it all done before my next roadtrip for christmas comes around, at leats fix the A/C so it's perfect (the aux fan doesn't work currently)

[Stoney]

well i have fixed the AUX fan on the BMW, i have a replacement fan sitting there, but decided to go over all the wiring and check to make sure that it was the fan that was dead before removing it
i used both of these as a basic guide as to what i had planned on doing
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1256597
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1075358

but used this link firstly to check everything else
http://www.bmw4life.com/auxFanR.htm

after going over all connections, checking relays, fuses, earths, plugs, i think it was either one of a few things, the earths looked a bit dodgy so i cleaned them, the connectors seemed fine, and currently my multimeter doesn't work (damn rain) but i have a feeling that the 30amp fuse was dodgy, doesn't look blown, but looks old

never the less after starting it up and letting it idle, after a while and when the temp guage went past half way, i was thinking "oh well, time to change the fan" it kicked in, happy days!!

now the next and final step in the cooling system is to replace or repair the viscous hub, as it's FUBAR, is actually leaking oil currently

so this is what i plan on doing to replace my viscous hub fan
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...1#post17719613

gotta love worldwide forums!!

[Stoney]

Still havent done anythign with the viscous fan... but wired the aux fan to come in on max whenever the A/C is on, works fine for now, dodge fix but only temp, no more temp flucuations though, the aux fan really pushes some air through the rad too

Finally got my HID kits, and fitted them on sat morning, removed bumper and did a pretty neat job on the fogs, also resecured a loose LHF fog bracket, so no more bouncing fog light over bumps

I fitted 6000K H1 HID kits to the low beam and the fog (i now have DIP BEAM fault light) but it lights up a lot better, have adjusted the lights to be down and to the left a bit so as to not blind on coming vehicles, since sat' have not had anyone complain about the lights, really changes the look of the car, yet to change the parker lights to suit though, they are still yellow

Next visual mod will be to lessen to darkness of the tail light inidcator section, i believe that i coated them too much and its too dark for the car and possibly too dark for people to see the blinkers, I will sand it back and respray it with less coats.

Also a mate has offered his skills in painting, so i will fix up the Mtech bodykit and fit it to the car, along with repairing the LHR door which has a deep key mark over the whole thing - the only real paint issue, which has been touched up with paint but poorly, but will look into doing the bonnet as well, as the clear coat is starting to glaze just a little, looks to have been polished one times too many, hard to describe, just looks older than the rest of the paint, probably just me being picky

A/C died again, but it just spat the belt, when that happened it took the powersteering belt along with it, so a quick swap of the parts cars belts and all is good again, icey cold A/C once more.

Other than that, it has been pleasurable motoring, numerous trips to sydney and brisbane have been done in this car, since i got it, i have done nearly 15,000kms!!!, wow, thats heaps, but doesn't feel like it, unlike my silvia with its coilovers, this, even with its firm koni shocks and springs is still a pleasure to drive long distances

[Stoney]

First attempt at wiring in the Amplifier to power the splits front and rear esulted in FAIL, extreme amounts of feedback interference in the speakers, badly setup amp, brand new soldering iron shit itself, so didn't get to finish wiring properly, gave up and went to work, will attack it again in the morning

On a side note, moving to sydney before the month is finished, going to uni to do engineering, still deciding between mechanical or aeronautical, maybe even civil

[Stoney]

so far today i have fixed both my faulty windows, the RHR one didn't work, so i removed the door trim to discover the plug had just come undone, zip tied it together to make sure it wouldn't unplug itself again, then swapped door trims over from the parts car, including chrome weatherstrips

will be doing this to all doors today, make the best from both cars (currently on lunch break)

still to tackle the left front window, but i think its just a loose window track, as when winding the window up, it clunks near the top


also repaired centre vent and auto selector, both just had minor issues with them, removed, cleaned, reattached clips etc and good as new(ish)

basically just doing as many small things inside that have been niggling me

I'm sure photos would make this thread so much more appealing to read, i know i only like to read a project that had heaps of pics, but in all honesty, there is nothing i have done to it, since the last photos that is anything visually different, apart from HID lights and tinted tail light indicators (which i need to redo lighter)

[Stoney]

Finally got around to replacing the front suspension today, with the aid of a mates hoist in his workshop i spent a few hours replacing all the control arms with FCP groton ones, and yes i followed workshop specs to tighten them up, no more shimmy!!

Replaced drag link and tie rods as well, now for a wheelalignment, i got it pretty close, after a two attempts of adjusting it

Next step is to fit all the removed suspension parts to the parts car, so it's driveable and can turn the front wheels

I might get the brakes of the parts car soon as my pads are getting low

[Stoney]

Fitted all the used suspension to the parts car to get it rolling again today,

I was making good progress until i demolished my pinky finger, tore half the nail off and split it completely down the centre most of the way to the quick, blood absolutley everywhere, and thinking back on it, i dont know how i did it, i think a combination of squashing it and catching it on something sharp whilst on the spanner work, needless to say it throbs a F%@#load and is one thing i definately dont miss about being a mechanic

Washed both cars and will tackle more tomorrow before shift work starts, maybe brake swap, interior detail of my car and book it in for a wheel alignment


Just a question, the parts car diff looks noticabely different to my cars diff, but both are open centres and have a 3.97 (or 3.91) tag on the side, but the parts car diff housing has a whole lot more cooling fins on the back of it, and looks a little larger maybe. Ideas??

[Stoney]

started sanding the bodykit for preperation to paint it

only issue i see with this is the front bumper, its cracked in a few places from the crash, and has also been fibreglass repaired for other cracks, mate can plastic weld, so thats his job,
BUT what do you guys think is the best way to remove paint off the plastic bumper, it appears to have been painted at least twice, so between all the paint and layers of primer, its thick, but is cracking so i reckon i need to remove all the paint to get a decent finish on it, otherwise i fear once painted and if i leave the old paint on, it will crack again and look bad

[Stoney]

Got a wheel alignment done today on the car, after changing all the suspension over the other day

What do people usually have for their toe settings on the E34

I just told the guys to set it up, and give me readings for front and rear before and after

the spec sheet is in the car, but the front toe settings are now at a total of +0.2mm, they were -7mm, but that was a guess setting, and i only drove a total of like 30kms with that setting

is a nil front setting on the toe whats recommended? yet to test it out to compare to the previous setting of the car, which was nice and sharp turn in

other specs from the read out include
F L camber is -1.13deg
F R camber is -0.47deg

R L camber is -1.5deg
R R camber is -1.24deg

R L toe is +0.6mm
R R toe is +1mm