New to the 'fest
 

Hey all, just want to say hi, been in my E34 for about a year now and pretty happy with where it's at cosmetically, looking to work on some internals now.

Hi welcome ! What kind of rims are those? Could you give us a closer shot?

The rims are 17" replica throwing stars. I have the original throwing stars in the garage aswell as a set of 17" style 5's. I wasn't sure if I wanted to change them to black or keep chrome, so I got some replicas and now I have both.

Black looks terrible on your car due to your car's light colour. Its very incongruous and odd. Since you have the silver ones, I strongly suggest that you change them out immediately. Throwing stars look great on an E34....one of the few obviously flashy styles that somehow seems to work with a conservative german sedan....did i say conservative....i meant, passive-aggressive. :)

Check this out and you'll see what I mean :

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=650316

I don't seem to mind it. These angles aren't flattering either.

Put all the pictures side by side on your screen and you'll see what I mean.

All I have to do is go out to my garage to see how good it looks.

If you dig the way it looks that's all that matters....I like it myself

Thanks mate. These forums are visited by 17yr olds who have been given the E34 as their first car, by 60 year olds who bought their E34 brand new and have had it its whole life and a whole range of different people in between who have their own styles, tastes and uniqueness. I say do it how you like it, it's for you to enjoy, not everyone else.

Actually, thats a great idea. Place the rims in front of one set, take a good look, and walk to the other side. I am certain that you will find it better.

I thought this was about mechanical upgrades?:dunno:

Turbo... or simply buy an e34 with the next largest engine:thumbup:

There really isn't much you can do without spending a load of cash. The car came from the factory in a high state of tune and most bolt on mods don't offer much actual gain. I made mine loud and it makes me feel good and, the chip did help. Beyond that I wouldn't do much. Just keep the maint up.

Yeh after a bit of research I can see its not really worth the $ for the gain. All I'm really interested in doing now is getting it more fuel efficient. Currently it's running 12.8 mpg. I know this is bad and I think the obvious factor is the o2 sensors? Any other obvious fixes?

My car gets 23-25 but, I don't do much in town driving. I would definately do the O2 sensor. Buy the $12 tool (slotted socket) and it is an easy job. I also bought the generic sensor with connectors. It is a cut and splice but pretty much a no brainer.

If you are roddin it round town though, don't expect better than about 15.

Nice looking BMW E-34. Is 535 the big 6 cylinder engine? These are long lasting cars if maintenance is routine. Full tune ups will give better MPG.

Can you go over the o2 sensor job again? What do you do with the slotted socket?

Luckydog : Its the 3.4L 6 cylinder. been the most reliable vehicle ive ever had, and Ive had a lot of vehicles.

Tune ups and maybe a compression test just to scare you! Run premium fuel - the EMU will give you best mpg after a time. Also try the shorting the CAR's battery terminals out for 20min. It will clear historic faults from the EMU. (Note: Do not short out the battery - only the car's terminals with the battery disconnected)

Thanks for the tips. Will check all these. Its due for a service next week anyway.

I'd say that mine is probably the roughest daily driven 535i on the forum. And i don't even get that. 100% city driving and pedal happy? Sounds like It's ready for a tune up. Mine is also a auto, 168k and I'll pull in high 19s for average mpg. 15 if I have fun. If i were you i would get another head, port it, chip, maybe injectors, find a beefy cam, and full exhaust. You would get the better mileage as well as a bit of power. Could put it all in with a headgasket in a weekend. As for the rims. I like the black. I'm sure Chrome looks good. But these cars look great with black accents. Regardless of color.

We all need a 'head towards' point but get ALL the basic stuff back on track first. The car will be more reliable and responsive to future mods.

Just disconnect the ecu for 5 minutes and the stored error codes are deleted. A mechanic taught this to me. All the stuff about disconnecting batteries etc I have also done, and now realise that they were complete wastes of time.

How do I disconnect the ECU? Or can the battery just be disconnected?

Open up the box covering the ecu. You'll see a black plastic piece with a metal clamp on top of the ecu. Lift up the metal clamp and the plastic piece will come right off. You'll need to look at it to see how to do this right.

The stomp test will also tell you how to delete codes. Youtube has videos.

Lets kill this idea of disconnecting the battery and touching the terminals together in order to reset the ecu, once and for all. It slow, cumbersome, time consuming, dirty, requires tools, etc etc.

Is the ECU the one on the left or right? (this is a right hand side drive)

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/...pse62f0c53.jpg