Bavarian E34 interloper arrival...gearbox fixed!

[HMC]

Dunno if it helps in the sill cover saga, but my 1989 525i didn’t have them. Lovely looking car btw, there’s not a bad angle with the E34 an undertstated masterpiece!

[spike60]

And my 1993 540i had concave sills, not body coloured but no sill covers! 

 

[Steve79]

did someone mention a 518i that may be up for floggage??????

Possibly

[J-T]

Well at least something's fixed on this thing. Just needed the bulbs changing.

 

 

No idea how to use it like

 

 

And it turns out my temperature sensor thinks it's in Siberia. One step forward and all that...

[J-T]

HOORAY, IT'S FIXED!! ?

After systematically checking through everything relating to Pin 40/Pin 14 and not finding a fault, it pretty much left only the Transmission ECU or the Engine ECU to be at fault. Nosing around on ebay, transmission ECUs can be had for about £25 (however finding the one with the correct part number is not easy) but engine ECUs are around £80-£100 which is a bit much to throw on a hunch. They're also quite rare as the 520i uses a Seimens unit whereas the 525i uses a Bosch unit. Anyway, I got mega lucky; there was somone breaking a 520i and selling the engine, transmission and ABS ECUs (with either exact or compatible part numbers) for £35 for all 3 so I got them ordered and was waiting with baited breath for them to arrive all week.

They finally arrived at 8.30pm last night (wtf My Hermes?), so I swapped out the transmission ECU this morning (thankfully dead easy, they all live in a nice little box in the engine bay and are just held in with two big metal clips) and that was that! No more cog on the display, kicks down like a goodun', holds on to revs when you boot it, selects 5th and will now select sport/economy/winter mode. GET IN!! Drives lovely now, been in it all day.

Thinking about it, it had just had a new battery and the seller said he hardly used it, so I reckon it had been jumped before he replaced the battery and it spiked the ECU.

I'm just not quite sure what to do with it now. My OH has expressed an interest in maybe running it, but that means sinking some money into it; really it needs the bonnet and roof painting (and probably the boot lid if I'm being picky) and that sill repair sorting, although it probably is the kind of car where £500-750 spent on paint could be earned back when sold, what with the mileage etc. I'd probably want to go through it mechanically for some preventative maintenance as well as our current other car is a Toyota Corolla, so turnkey reliability would be expected, which may be a bit much from a 26yr old car.

I'll mull it over, as if I'm honest, I'm enjoying driving this more than my Alfa 147 daily but I've sunk that much cash into that bastard that I can't justify selling it

[spike60]

Good stuff, well sorted.?

[J-T]

Only took me 5 weeks ?

[The Moog]

Yes but you found it without resorting to petrol and matches

[J-T]

True although at one point a black cat & a rabbit’s foot were consulted 

[Redfred]

On 4/23/2019 at 6:33 PM, spike60 said:

And my 1993 540i had concave sills, not body coloured but no sill covers! 

 

That’s a good looking motor

[J-T]

I've put this up for sale. Thread in the for sale section, it's up at £1450. Although it pains me as I like it.