B and I saw the car yesterday. Pics will be posted by tonight, hopefully. Anyway, the interior is in pretty good shape aside from a tear in the drivers seat, two or three cracks in the dash and the cruise control stalk is missing. The exterior looks great. Paint looks good but could use a wax and has maybe two or three dings. While looking over the paperwork (extensive), it seems that the timing belt was last changed in 1999 at around 111K miles. The odometer stopped working in 2007 at 170K miles so I estimate the timing belt broke around 70k miles and 10 years in service.
Right on schedule! Another object lesson in remembering to do it every 60K or 6 years, whichever comes first.
I've finally got exterior pics uploaded. I didn't take any interior pics because I thought the car was locked and didn't bother to check to see if the doors were open. Once we found out the doors were open, I just forgot about pics altogether...
Who knows with a car that is approaching 25 years. I just realized that the drivers side of the car is sitting rather high while the passenger side sits normal. What gives . I have records of the shocks/springs being changed out in 2005. I hope the car is not sitting tilted to the passenger side while its on level ground. Note that the hood wasn't latched properly but I did close it after pics were taken.
It looks too high for even a stock suspension, so my theory is, it was jacked up on that side for some reason and it hasn't been moved since. The suspension hasn't settled.
Probably so. I'm gonna pick it up this Thursday and have it taken to my mechanics shop so he can see what happened. Instead of getting a refurbished head, I might as well pick up B's M20 engine and have my mechanic use parts from it. Right after I purchased this car, I saw a local 92 535i 5-speed for sale for $895 obo that needs some work. I asked my wife about it and she knew where I was going. She looked at me and said, "You know I can't say no" Seriously, I though about looking at this 535i and taking it for a test drive. It has many upgrades such as a cold air intake, short shift kit, lowered suspension and claims to have engine mods. What it needs is new headlights, paint on the hood (not important) and a idle control valve and the rear window is broken but he said that he can put in a used one. Black over tan. Now many of you are thinking that I am all over the map here but if I have support from wifey, why not? The 528e may either be a keeper or I may just sell it to make a little profit after I get it running. It has been a while since I have owned a E34 so lets see what happens.
You, sir, need to get yourself into an E30. Forget all this 5 rubbish. *puts flame suit on* Note: Can I haz your E39?
Nice pics. I like how the previous owner was thoughtful enough to aim the fog lights straight down so they can clearly see that curb they are about to run into!!
If I keep this thing I'll throw euro bumpers on it so those fog lights will be a figment of your own imagination . First things first, I need to get this car running.
Car is at the shop but she still sits high on the drivers side. Can I put lowering springs (not slammed) on the car w/o changing the stock shocks? The shocks are four years old, however, I'm trying to save $$$ here (remember, I'm still unemployed ). I will be picking up B's M20 from NJ next weekend so my mechanic could probably swap heads once he confirms the tb broke. Probably needs a bew battery since the car has no power whatsoever. Does anyone have E34 15' basketweaves laying around so I could ditch the fugly bottlecap 14's?
I managed to get sport seats for my first e28 but for a little extra $ I got a sport steering wheel that I will install in the 2nd one. I still have to get B's old M20 in NJ so my mechanic could install it. I know a new battery will be required at least but I hope the alternator is fine as wine.
The answer to using lowering springs with stock struts/shocks is: A provisional "Maybe". It is generally not a good idea as the rod in the shocks will hit the internal bumper on bigger bumps. However, depending on the stiffness of the springs and the amount of drop the provide you might get away with it. A drop of over an 25mm would be a bad idea with stock struts/shocks.
Bear in mind, though, that the only major shock manufacturer to build shorter shocks for this is Bilstein. All others use the same shock length for all applications, lowered or not. For that matter, I have (and have had) standard length Bilstein HDs on lowered E28s for almost a decade without a problem.
