New to E34 and the forum. Several questions...

[StuartB]

Lo!

I recently aquired a 1989 525iSE with 95k miles for the princely sum of £570 from eBay UK. I love my new 5, despite all the little knocks and scrapes it's picked up, though I have a few questions:

OBC Retrofit:
I've heard this is relatively straightforward. Will I just need the OBC unit, stalk and temp sensor, or will I have to harvest lots of seperate bits like you would for an E30?

Interior:
I have particularly good front seats in this car due to the relatively low milage. Is it possible to retro-fit the centre armrests to the existing seats as-is, or will I have to replace the seats entirely?

Climate Control:
I'm currently not overly sure if my CC system (aircon not fitted) is working properly. I can't seem to get any heat out of the main vents, yet when I open the demister vent the warm air seems to come out of that.

Kangarooing at about 2k revs:
At about 2k revs it has a habit of kangarooing, jerkily pulling forward and getting progressively more violent until I either power out of it or put the clutch in. It also happens in every gear, although 3rd seems to be the favourite. I put a new air filter and spark plugs in there, and it seems to have taken the edge off it, though it still happens.

The engine bay is the dirtiest I've ever seen though, could some gunk have worked its way into the AFM plug?

Phew, well, that's pretty much all the troubles I've got (apart from a permenantly locked rear driver-side door). Any info would be appreciated ;)

Cheers!

[632 Regal]

Kangarooing at about 2k revs:

this is probably a worn flex disk, worn trans mounts and or worn engine mounts. Sounds like you should inspect this car well to see what all you have to get at once.

[Giles L]

Hi,

OBC is as you think not too bad.... You will need to alter the harness slightly tp get the power to the OBC and temp sensor.

SOunds like the car just needs a decent service to get the engine running right.

Giles


Lo!

I recently aquired a 1989 525iSE with 95k miles for the princely sum of £570 from eBay UK. I love my new 5, despite all the little knocks and scrapes it's picked up, though I have a few questions:

OBC Retrofit:
I've heard this is relatively straightforward. Will I just need the OBC unit, stalk and temp sensor, or will I have to harvest lots of seperate bits like you would for an E30?

Interior:
I have particularly good front seats in this car due to the relatively low milage. Is it possible to retro-fit the centre armrests to the existing seats as-is, or will I have to replace the seats entirely?

Climate Control:
I'm currently not overly sure if my CC system (aircon not fitted) is working properly. I can't seem to get any heat out of the main vents, yet when I open the demister vent the warm air seems to come out of that.

Kangarooing at about 2k revs:
At about 2k revs it has a habit of kangarooing, jerkily pulling forward and getting progressively more violent until I either power out of it or put the clutch in. It also happens in every gear, although 3rd seems to be the favourite. I put a new air filter and spark plugs in there, and it seems to have taken the edge off it, though it still happens.

The engine bay is the dirtiest I've ever seen though, could some gunk have worked its way into the AFM plug?

Phew, well, that's pretty much all the troubles I've got (apart from a permenantly locked rear driver-side door). Any info would be appreciated ;)

Cheers!

[ryan roopnarine]

look inside my reply, i left everything in the quotes, so it looks like its part of your original message. the two links below may be able to help you.



Lo!

Climate Control:
I'm currently not overly sure if my CC system (aircon not fitted) is working properly. I can't seem to get any heat out of the main vents, yet when I open the demister vent the warm air seems to come out of that.

http://www.users.qwest.net/~gbower/bmw/BMWheatervalve.htm

likely if you take it apart and clean the sliding metal parts with brasso, heat may come back. i'd try hitting the heater control valve with a rubber mallet a couple of times and seeing if that changes the output.


Phew, well, that's pretty much all the troubles I've got (apart from a permenantly locked rear driver-side door). Any info would be appreciated ;)

http://bmwe32.student.utwente.nl/johan/deadlocked_door/deadlocked_door.html

Cheers!

[John 535is (Sydney)]

Further to the link to Bruno's site in Ryans post, I found when the aux heater pump under the heater controls didn't work, the heat would still come out of the demister but nowhere else. If you need to pull the heater solenoids out, replace the aux water pump at the same time.

Did you read the handbook for the controls? these cars have a full heat and full cool control on one of the control knobs. If you turn it all the way, you should feel it click into a switch. This overrides the temp setting for both sides and provides full heat or full cool depending on where the knob is.

Lastly, the centre dash heat /cool is controlled independently to the temperature setting controls. The thumb wheel on the side of the vent has up for heat and down for cool. Apparently this is so the driver can change the air to his/her face and stop getting sleepy on long drives.

John 535is 1989

[Dan in NZ]

If you get hot air from the windscreen but not the dash vents, check that the little wheel between the vents is all the way to the red. When it's in the red, the air will be heated to whatever the temp is set to.

This reminded me of the day I drove around furious at my car thinking the heater had failed, because there was no heat when it was set to full hot, then realising after quite some time that I had left the vent set at the blue bit...

[Dan in NZ]

Oh yeah, I did the obc retrofit.

Putting the OBC in is easy as. Plug'n'play exchange for the analogue clock, just have to join two wires together on the connector harness, and hacksaw the back of the holder out. The indicator stalk is a little bit more difficult if you have an airbag, you have to take the steering wheel off, without airbag there's no worries. One thing to watch: when you put the new indicator in, make sure it's in the center position when you put the wheel on, otherwise you WILL break the self-cancel mechanism... Putting in the indicator involved a bit of thinking, but it's not that hard.

I haven't put the outside temp sensor in yet, because I haven't got one, so everytime I start the car I get a BING! out temp -37 C. There may or may not already be wiring in place for it at the bumper connection harness, stick your head in the engine bay on the left side and look towards the bumper for about 45mins, have a beer, then look again and you'll see the harness connector.