Project Dingolfing E28 520i - Drop the hammer and step back!

[Steve79]

Think I'll get the board apart properly tomorrow and see how bad the batteries are

[Schaefft]

There is a new type board you can get without the battery nonsense, just plugs in and makes it all work. E28's are so far off my radar now, I'm actually forgetting stuff now.

 

Given that BMW want £1300 for an E34 SI board* any E28 stuff is going to be mental money.

 

 

 

*You read that right. £1300......for just the circuit board. 

 

Welcome to BMW Classic. The E39 has entered "classic" status this year, 3 more weeks and my front fender liners for the sport bumpers will be worth more than the whole car.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

There is a new type board you can get without the battery nonsense, just plugs in and makes it all work. ....

That's the one made by Programa.

[Steve79]

Endeavoring to determine whether the ni-cad batteries on the SI board are well and truly stuffed, i employed the accepted diagnostic bodge in the absence of the correct tool

 

Pins 1 and 7

 

This in theory should extinguish the service lights once the ignition is turned to the accessory position. 

 

However, it only succeeded in achieving this 

 

I think i can safely say that something is awry!

 

Didn't get around to get the dash out and stripped today owing to the fact that me and the missus had an unscheduled visit to the hospital last night with the little un till 3am due him having a sickness bug. I was knackered all today and just couldn't be arsed.

 

Normal service will resume tomorrow with dash clocks out and stripped by lunch.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

That's the one made by Programa.

This is the battery-less SI board

[spartacus]

Somebody has probably said this already but when the batteries are knackered they leak on to the SI board, that's more than likely the cause. If you can get to it it may* clean up with the correct sort of cleaner.

[Steve79]

Car has gone over to my mates to get started on the welding. Early prognosis is fair/medium. Bit more dismantling things than previously thought and have discovered a 50p sized hole where floorpan meets the inner arch. This is prior to any poking with a screwdriver.

 

I'm going over tomorrow afternoon to assist/make tea/get in the way.

[Steve79]

The tickle stick has been busy at work and has produced this soo far

 

 

However, upon further prodding we discovered this

 

 

This wasn't picked up on the latest mot which was a bit worrying and wasn't picked up on the previous two mot's either.

 

The N/S is showing similar rot so a little more welding require than previously thought, but not too bad!

 

Oh, and the drivers door lock has decided to neither lock or unlock anymore. So that's another job for the list!

[Steve79]

Fantastic! That's really nice, you'll love it, I'm sure. I've got a pair of heavily surface rusted but sound front struts if you're desperate. Mine has had lots of MOT welding and is really scruffy but it still got positive comments before I hid it in my lock up.

Well bought.

Spartacus - I've sent you a PM regarding the struts

[Peter C]

Bad news about the welding.

 

As part of my recommissioning project (W124 200E) I ended up spending £250 on unforeseen welding repairs, which was a bit of a bugger.

 

Once you’ve finished getting your BMW together we should have a retro German saloon photo session.

[Steve79]

Welding was going to be parked for the course! It had been layer up in a garage from 2008 to 2016 so knew it wasn't perfect. It's not the worst I've had to have welded up!

 

Definitely need to arrange a retro German meet up.

[Steve79]

 

The welding required for the MOT has now been completed and its going back in for the retest tomorrow.

 

The MOT place did note that the brake felt like they were binding but it went through the brake test but at the lower limits. So today it was time to get the wheels off and have a look at the calipers.

 

An hour of swearing, one bent breaker bar, an air gun rated at 90 psi running at 130 psi and much brute force the nuts finally cracked off. Reckon He-Man must have been the last one to tighten the nuts!

 

The calipers are not great and it took much persuasion with a sizable lump hammer and crowbar before they would relinquish their hold. The pistons are heavily pitted, extremely stiff and have very limited movement, so i think i'm probably going to get a reconditioned set.

 

I've priced up new discs, pads, shocks, aux belts, track rod assemblies and calipers. Autodoc appears to be the cheapest at £220.00 inc delivery. CP4L was £240.00 excluding the calipers which they can't get.

 

Has anyone had any experience buying from Autodoc?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

.....I've priced up new discs, pads, shocks, aux belts, track rod assemblies and calipers. Autodoc appears to be the cheapest at £220.00 inc delivery. CP4L was £240.00 excluding the calipers which they can't get.

 

Has anyone had any experience buying from Autodoc?

 

 

I used to buy most of my E24 consumables from Andy Howlett at Motormec

[Schaefft]

 

 

The welding required for the MOT has now been completed and its going back in for the retest tomorrow.

 

The MOT place did note that the brake felt like they were binding but it went through the brake test but at the lower limits. So today it was time to get the wheels off and have a look at the calipers.

 

An hour of swearing, one bent breaker bar, an air gun rated at 90 psi running at 130 psi and much brute force the nuts finally cracked off. Reckon He-Man must have been the last one to tighten the nuts!

 

The calipers are not great and it took much persuasion with a sizable lump hammer and crowbar before they would relinquish their hold. The pistons are heavily pitted, extremely stiff and have very limited movement, so i think i'm probably going to get a reconditioned set.

 

I've priced up new discs, pads, shocks, aux belts, track rod assemblies and calipers. Autodoc appears to be the cheapest at £220.00 inc delivery. CP4L was £240.00 excluding the calipers which they can't get.

 

Has anyone had any experience buying from Autodoc?

 

 

If you can, wait for autodoc to have a better sale going on, they seem to change the % every day or two. Right now its just 10%, down from 17% earlier today and 23% a few days ago. I'll wait for my order until they get up to at least 23% again, but I have time.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

You will need new flexy hoses as well. At least the 520i doesn’t have that fucking dreadful hydraulic servo nonsense.

[spartacus]

You will need new flexy hoses as well. At least the 520i doesn’t have that fucking dreadful hydraulic servo nonsense.

Ha ha! I'd forgotten about those on the big block sixes, with the accumulator sphere. They foxed a lot of garages when they first started playing up.

[Steve79]

Today this happened

[BavarianRetro]

Well done.

[Zelandeth]

Even if it has suffered some acid damage, surely that board should be repairable?

 

I've done quite a few repairs of similar damage to computer motherboards over the years, this should be pretty simple in comparison if anyone's got one that they'd like me to have a shot at repairing.

[stormee]

Endeavoring to determine whether the ni-cad batteries on the SI board are well and truly stuffed, i employed the accepted diagnostic bodge in the absence of the correct tool

 

Pins 1 and 7

 

This in theory should extinguish the service lights once the ignition is turned to the accessory position. 

 

However, it only succeeded in achieving this 

 

I think i can safely say that something is awry!

 

Didn't get around to get the dash out and stripped today owing to the fact that me and the missus had an unscheduled visit to the hospital last night with the little un till 3am due him having a sickness bug. I was knackered all today and just couldn't be arsed.

 

Normal service will resume tomorrow with dash clocks out and stripped by lunch.

Try again and connect 1-7 for 20-30 sec.

[Steve79]

Tried 3 or 4 times and waited upto a minute but no luck. Will finally get around to stripping the cluster down this afternoon to see what's what.

[stormee]

Maybe yours is the later Motronic-type which resets by connecting 7 and 19.

[stormee]

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=35609

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Tried 3 or 4 times and waited upto a minute but no luck. Will finally get around to stripping the cluster down this afternoon to see what's what.

 

I always used one of these:

 

[Steve79]

Finally managed to get the cluster apart this afternoon.

 

As predicted the battery have leaked. They are red varta's so I believe this denotes an early SI board.

 

There are about 4 dry joints but it looks like some of the tracks are also damaged.

 

Not sure if this is terminal or fixable?

[Zelandeth]

That looks eminently repairable to me. It's a pretty simple single sided board. Just bypassing the damaged tracks with suitable wire is probably the best bet. Just make sure everything is suitably well secured against vibration etc.

 

This is the board I'm currently repairing battery damage to...

 

 

That has dissolved a load of traces, including a bunch under the socketed ROM chips to the right. Fiddly is not the word!

[Steve79]

With FISTPAN Uno getting the lion's share of my attention and cash, the bmw has been basking gracefully in the sunshine on my drive awaiting the attention it deserves, so gave it a good wash

 

 

Tired of ECP and GSF quoting inflated pricing and then offering discounts to bring pricing back down to where it should have been all along, I have ventured into uncharted waters and have placed an order with Autodoc in Germany. They were offering a 22% discount today and we're the only place where I could get sensibly priced brake calipers (Ecp and gsf don't even list them!)

 

List of parts is

 

I also managed to get a great deal on shock absorbers. Some might frown on this but amazon had a kyb premium gas insert with one remaining in stock at just over £6.00 and also had 1 remaining of a bilstein at a shade over £14.00. They are both listed on their respective manufacturers websites as compatible with the e28 520i so got these as well.

 

Tired of the bonnet falling on my head due to knackered bonnet struts, i've got a pair of febi bilsteins coming from ebay.

 

I am a fan of originality but the original AM/LW Pioneer currently fitted just doesn't cut it as I need FM and ipod input capability. However, I'm not going to just jam in any old headunit in as I at least want to fit something that would have been a period upgrade.

 

I was going to fit my late 80's alpine 7290ls but it's illumination is green and the bmw is orange so it would just look odd.

 

However I found this on ebay which might look ok

 

 

I know it's not a recognised brand but it's got a decent spec, it's got the correct colour illumination, has rca cd input and is retro looking. It's also £14.95 brand new delivered.

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[dome]

I've used Autodoc a few times now, their prices are very good. 

 

Hope you're not in a rush to get your bits though, they've taken around a week each time for me.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

You may find the KYB is nothing like what comes out - too narrow with a plastic spacer tube. £6 is too much - I'd look for another Bilstein B4 for a matching set.

[Steve79]

You may find the KYB is nothing like what comes out - too narrow with a plastic spacer tube. £6 is too much - I'd look for another Bilstein B4 for a matching set.

They're supposed to be arriving today from Amazon Prime via DPD. I'll compare and send the KYB back if deemed to be shite