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View Full Version : Farewell '95 525i, Stefanie; Hello 2001 M5, Clarkson (for sale/parting out 1995 525)



mzarifkar
05-22-2012, 07:52 PM
7638


The time has come to move on from my e34, Stefanie. It all started when the air intake thermostat broke one cold cold night causing an overheat, coupled with a slow leaking radiator, it made for a hell of a winter. Not having a garage, I had to wait for winter to warm up to change the radiator (the intake thermostat got bypassed). Replaced leaky radiator, which now that the coolant system was airtight, revealed a bigger problem...

Combustion gasses were getting in the coolant system, causing overheat to happen completely without warning. One such incident had me shut down a lane of interstate :/ as a geyser of coolant shot out of the vent screw. Over the course of my 50miles roundtrip every day, the car would use about a gallon of coolant.. on a bad day, coolant use > fuel consumption.

I bought a e30 318is to tide me over, while I tackled the head gasket on the 5.. reassembled everything, the head was surprisingly not warped, but being unable to remove the valves, I couldn't get it checked for cracks. all went well, reinstalled a new water pump, and installed a lower temp thermostat (88C instead of 92) all in hopes of giving it a new life.

Still loses coolant.. in addition the suspension is shot, it is at this point unalienable and shreds tires for lunch! the auto transmission is crap, lacking usable reverse gear, and the driveshaft wobblers and knocks under moderate acceleration.

deciding to part became a bit easier with the acquisition of a 2001 M5. A wonderful car, and the natural successor of the e34.

Time to let it go then.. if anyone is interested in buying whole, I will entertain offers, otherwise, car will be parted out and the remains sold for scrap. Interior is decent, radiator is new, as is water pump. Engine electronics all good, and other than a likely crack/warp in the head, engine runs well (no check engine light, idles and revs fine). Show interest and ill assemble a video of the exterior and interior.

7639

jfs356
05-23-2012, 08:14 AM
Looks to be a nice car, you should have no problems parting it out. For the life of me I cannot figure out why E34 cooling systems are
so problematic, a known weak spot on these cars. I have never seen anything like it.

genphreak
06-09-2012, 05:58 PM
Few are maintained, and the parts go bad with age too. I'd say once past 12 years old, it's quite likely. At 15, issues are guaranteed. Few people change the coolant every 2 years (maximum) and once it gets old it eats the plastics etc. so much so that many feel it eats the plastics regardless. I change mine out every year and have found no problems other than expected ones.

Paul in NZ
06-09-2012, 07:45 PM
i changed my coolant regularly too and changed the hoses as they started to look older.I had to get a new radiator too it started leaking .despite all this i still blew the headgasket,got that fixed and the car was as good as it ever was,better in fact.I think it was in better condition when i sold it at 260 ks than it was when i bought it at 150 ks.
It only ever let me down once.The dizzy cap was cracked the rotor was stuffed and it was damp in there.New cap and rotor fixed that.

genphreak
06-09-2012, 08:59 PM
Indeed. All BMW sixes suffer from being long engines. Later M50s are all alloy, so the block and the head expand and contract at much more similar rates to those that have iron blocks. Just a fact of life really... at 20 years or 250,000km, its one of the presents of ownership.

Still, I'd rather spend $2000 under the hood and afford one or two less flash dinners... than ever have to take my woman home in a Toyota!