Mechanical things you need to know about your E34 - UPDATED 3/22/11

ok thanks.

transmission program intermitent

95 525i wagon new transmission/rebuilt 4L30e works fine goes to limp mod/display on dash trans program / see owner manuel intermitent cycle key will reset

Hey dogg. It would be better to post this as a new thread. Also try to give a little more info. I don't know a lot about the trans program error, but I have seen people post about it and they find that their alternator is faulty. There are a lot of other reasons that it could be doing that though.

Coming from a Mercedes guy, these cars seem to be alot of hassle. I have a 530i v8 and didn't realize it would require so much attention. How much the whole coolant system replacement cost. Seems $$$

Originally Posted by Chrisp23

Coming from a Mercedes guy, these cars seem to be alot of hassle. I have a 530i v8 and didn't realize it would require so much attention. How much the whole coolant system replacement cost. Seems $$$

They do require a lot of TLC. A full on coolant overhaul should cost ~ $600 in parts online. You may be able to find a better deal if you find a kit for the full system.

Originally Posted by Chrisp23

Coming from a Mercedes guy, these cars seem to be alot of hassle. I have a 530i v8 and didn't realize it would require so much attention. How much the whole coolant system replacement cost. Seems $$$

Your car is a lot of hassle due to improper maintaince by previous owners, it was up to you to inspect condition of coolant system prior to purchasing the vehicle.

Hi everyone....
Please bear with me, I am a rather girly girl without mechanical expertise but if my experience helps someone, it was worth trying to explain my overheat issues and resolution.
So.....she kept overheating, and hoses would burst, etc. I had thermostats replaced, radiators flushed, hoses burst and replaced...on and on and on...finally I researched and paid some mechanic 27$ for online advice and was told that this model often has problems with the fan....it doesn't stop turning...so mechanics miss it....but the silicone gets cracked or something like that and it turns SLOW....too slow to properly cool the car. I told the mechanic this, he replaced the fan and VOILA... she chugs along with the gauge at the perfect spot all the time! It is so fabulous!
Now...I had the shocks replaced and am having bizarre draining of the battery...been in the shop twice and it's still happening. The mechanic took out my chip to help with my atrocious mileage in the city (8 mpg), not sure what the chip was (Dinan?) but it did seem to help a little but now have this weird electrical problem which I described in another thread. Help anyone?

Great thread! Thanks for your hard work. No mention of the e34 front end shimmy (bad thrust/upper control arms) Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, I am new here. Oh, and...

[sarcasm]My back tire is flatter on the bottom than my other one. How do I even them out?[/sarcasm]

Originally Posted by =HPSF=roadrunne

Great thread! Thanks for your hard work. No mention of the e34 front end shimmy (bad thrust/upper control arms) Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, I am new here. Oh, and...

[sarcasm]My back tire is flatter on the bottom than my other one. How do I even them out?[/sarcasm]

Yeah, the thread closed out (it would not let me update it) after a certain time frame and I never got to the shimmy issue.

The front end suspension and steering components wear out on these cars in about 100K mile intervals. The infamous shimmy usually occurs as you hit about 52 mph and continues until about 57 mph or so. The most common cause is worn thrust arms. It can be the bushing, ball joint or both. However, other worn components can cause it as well. It can also be brake rotors that are warped (although this usually only causes shimmy when braking) or out of balance wheels/tires. It is best to rebuild the entire front end all at once, but it can be costly if you plan to use premium parts.

I just rebuilt mine and the parts alone were about $660. Keep in mind that I used Lemforder parts because I plan to drive the car for another 150K miles if possible. A company called FCP Groton sells front end kits that are much, much less expensive. However, there are mixed reviews on the quality and durability of the FCP parts. It is a lot of work to rebuild the front end and I just didn’t feel like gambling that I might have to do it again in short order if I used the less expensive parts.

If you are on a budget and want to try to eliminate the shimmy at the least cost possible, I would start with replacing the thrust arms. Mind you that there are special loading requirements when torqueing the bolts down. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow those specific instructions because I did not have 500 pounds of ballast available. I am in the process of trying to come up with a way to produce the ballast (friends that weigh 150 pounds each, bricks in boxes, free weights, etc.) and plan to re-torque the bolts once I come up with a workable solution.

Good luck with getting your baby into shape.

PS: regarding your tire issue, you need to invert and rotate your flux capacitor hyper-inflator

Great read again, another thing to check, love the m50

Hello - Well, after reading all of this thread and watching the videos, it looks like I am not alone when trying to figure out my cooling problem. My ride is a 1990 525i, 159,xxx miles. The temp gage shows the engine is running hot, but I can not find anything else to tell me the temp is too high. No steam, no hissing noise from the radiator, no sign of a coolant leak from the head gasket (or anywhere else), ect. The thing that stumps me is how fast the temp gage goes up. According to the temp gage the engine is at operating temp within about 20 seconds of starting the car (engine dead cold at start up). I've never had a car that would warm up so fast! Is it normal for a 525i to warm up so fast?
Temp gage will slowly keep going up until it hits the 3/4 mark. Then vary slowly keep going up a little more. Looks like the needle will barley get into the red when the engine is ideling for an extended amount of time (as an example, I had the car ideling in my driveway for about 20 minuets, temp gage needle was just barley touching the red. While driving down the road, needle was not in the red, but was a little bit past the 3/4 mark on the gage. Turn the heater on full blast, the gage will go down a little. Rev the engine to 2500 RMP & hold it there, the temp gage goes down a little more).
Is it possible that the temp gage is not accurate, or is there an actual cooling problem? Is there a way to tell the temp of an engine other than going by the temp gage (some sort of diagnostic tool)? Is there a way to test the temp gage itself?
I just replaced both temp sensors (the 2 in the t-stat housing), no change in the temp gage. Check engine light was on, code was for a temp sensor. Check engine light went out once the 2 sensors were replaced. Coolant level was a little low, but not much. I topped off the coolant, no change in the temp gage.
Previous owner said he replaced the t-stat, t-stat housing & water pump. Maybe a few hundred miles on the car since these parts were replaced. I have no idea which t-stat he used, or what brand the parts are.
Temp going up to the red while ideling leads me to believe the problem is with the fan, or fan clutch (not enough air flow over the engine???). But i'm confused by how fast the engine warms up.
I'm a little hesitant to overhaul the entire cooling system if the problem is just the gage, but I also don't want to damage the engine. After watching the videos in this thread, I now know how to check the fan clutch, but what else can I do about this problem?
Thanks in advance!

Jay, note my post above: it was the silicone around the fan that had worn out...thus the fan spun too slow (initially missed because the fan did indeed spin). When that taken care of the engine hasn't overheated even once in the past two years. I spent hundreds and hundreds to try to resolve the issue before that point...simple and cheap answer. Apparently it's a design defect, the silicone doesn't last....hope that helps!

every time I turn on the sprinklers to clean the windshield they won't turn off, unless I restart the car. any ideas how to fix this?

thanks

You didn't tell us what year car you have

If it is a 91-95, there is a washer pump relay located in the front power distribution box which is on the driver's side (here in the states - not sure if yours is opposite). I would check that. It seems that perhaps the contacts within the relay may be sticking. It would probably be an inexpensive relay.

It is covered on page 610-1 of the Bentley manual.

Hope this helps mate

yes my steering wheel is on the right side as for the manual, the hard copy I gave it away when I sold my 89 model because I didn't imagine I will miss it so much and buy another one, and my hard drive sort-of burned las week and I kinda lost everything. But thanks for the info, I will look for a manual now and see how it goes

thanks