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1985 BMW E28 520i - Good-byes


SiC

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1 hour ago, SiC said:

Way too early for that. The ECU is pretty much analogue in its signal processing.

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Service interval PCB in the dash is needing some love after the usual Varta leakage that 80s electronics suffer from...

Ooh, where'd you get that technical gem from?

Are those Varta cells the typical tag-ended AA jobs? Been a long time, y'see - says the owner of a Quad FM4 tuner with much track damage ☹️

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There's not a lot to be gained from the diagnostic socket, it's also used for the service reset tool but unless the board/batteries are in prime condition even that is hit and miss.

Electronic fault diagnosis is relatively straightforward. In my experience most running faults, assuming the service items are in good condition, are down to air leaks in the vast amount of vacuum hoses. Or, if you're unlucky, a dodgy 'flap' AFM, the tracks wear and sometimes the flap sticks, which causes all sorts of odd symptoms.

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19 minutes ago, R1152 said:

"Not found" - no matter, can go looking for it myself now I know what it is.

Google L Jetronic and you should find it somewhere in the results. It's quite a decent detailed read, especially if you like electronics. 

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5 hours ago, SiC said:

Dash clocks don't work.

Not strictly true 😀. I removed the Si board from the cluster with a view to changing the batteries. AFAIK everything works bar the Si indicators and the speedo.

Put the board back in and it should work again

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What's this coming down the drive?

Walgraves Transport!
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Unloaded and deposited on the drive.
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This is my main fear at the moment and at the top of the priorities list.
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That bloody pillar is on the list of things to remove and move. For now it's a case of careful car Jenga.
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Found this in the glove box. Explains how BMW lovers got their reputation.
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  • SiC changed the title to 1985 BMW E28 520i - It's arrived!
24 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:
Trimz for the win!!!!!

I actually put them back on to make it more presentable for when Mrs SiC came back home from work. 😂

Her reaction to it?

"I didn't realise it was a horrible colour" then walked off. I did point out it's a similar colour to the Civic we had.

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1 hour ago, SiC said:

I actually put them back on to make it more presentable for when Mrs SiC came back home from work. 😂

Her reaction to it?

"I didn't realise it was a horrible colour" then walked off. I did point out it's a similar colour to the Civic we had.

Did you point out it had a sunroof though. I tried it and it definitely works.

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2 hours ago, Steve79 said:

Did you point out it had a sunroof though. I tried it and it definitely works.

No but she came back from a walk and remarked, when looking under the bonnet, that it was all rusty (air ducts on the bonnet) and had a tatty interior (because of the worn/torn bolster). I quipped that I was hoping she can repair the bolster for me. Apparently she can and has some flowery fabric that would make a perfect patch... 🤨

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8 hours ago, SiC said:

No but she came back from a walk and remarked, when looking under the bonnet, that it was all rusty (air ducts on the bonnet) and had a tatty interior (because of the worn/torn bolster). I quipped that I was hoping she can repair the bolster for me. Apparently she can and has some flowery fabric that would make a perfect patch... 🤨

So not a hit!☹️

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Very nice cars, always used to wonder the rationale for the slightly off-centre pipe.

Love the accessories catalogue, pretty sure radio and antenna would have been optional extras in theory although i suspect most UK dealers would order cars with them by default.

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1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

Very nice cars, always used to wonder the rationale for the slightly off-centre pipe.

Love the accessories catalogue, pretty sure radio and antenna would have been optional extras in theory although i suspect most UK dealers would order cars with them by default.

The electric aerial was, I think, made by Hirschmann and usually lasted quite a long time. Failures were mostly down to moisture getting into the drive motor, or the internal belt coming away from the guides. Not cheap to replace - I gritted my teeth at shelling out 60 quid for a replacement one on the 635CSi. 

 

This is a similar Hirschmann, still available

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10 hours ago, Six-cylinder said:

So not a hit!☹️

Very rarely do I get a purchase that impresses her! 

Last one was the TT MK2 I had. She really liked that. But I hated it. 

She did approve of the change to the Boxster though. But she doesn't like driving it much as she find the steering heavy. Likewise with the Clio. Apparently that's like driving a little tank. She has never driven a tank before. 

To be fair, none of my cars I've bought to impress anyone and they're not really cars to impress people with. Probably the only one that gets people interested is the Dolomite Sprint. Even then, it tends only to be 45+ year old men that appreciate that car. 😄

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23 minutes ago, SiC said:

Very rarely do I get a purchase that impresses her! 

Last one was the TT MK2 I had. She really liked that. But I hated it. 

She did approve of the change to the Boxster though. But she doesn't like driving it much as she find the steering heavy. Likewise with the Clio. Apparently that's like driving a little tank. She has never driven a tank before. 

To be fair, none of my cars I've bought to impress anyone and they're not really cars to impress people with. Probably the only one that gets people interested is the Dolomite Sprint. Even then, it tends only to be 45+ year old men that appreciate that car. 😄

I offered Mrs6C my Beetle to use and you should have seen the face she pulled.

Gruber had a little tank and loved it!

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Yesterday evening I did what I like to term as familiarisation. Going over the car with a lot of staring, figuring what needs doing and visualising how to do it. Others may term it as fiddling with no real achievable outcomes.

Firstly I removed the dash cluster. This has gone indoors for some soldering TLC to get the speedometer working again. Also I've got some headlight polishing compound coming which I'm hoping will remove the cloudiness.
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Later on in the evening I disassembled the unit. You can see the Varta Death caused by the leakage of the cells. Taken a few tracks out, so will be a bit of a pain to fix up.
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Also of interest is the green corrosion on the Speedo connection contacts. This could explain the Speedo being MIA.
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Back sat in the driver's seat I had a fiddle with some of the controls. The interior lights didn't work, nor the hazards. Headlights came on but the nearside was noticeably dimmer.

Turned to the fusebox to check for any blown fuses.
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None were blown but the contacts were pretty dirty. Interior lights and hazards shared the same fuse. This was oxidised and the contact not making the best connection. The headlight fuse wasn't much better and only light pressure on the contacts caused the light to flicker.
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I ended up going through, re-bending those that didn't make good connection and cleaning up the contacts.

I especially focused on the fuel pump relay. I know these can be troublesome and I intend to purchase a spare to keep in the car. Pricey things though.
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Then went back to try the window controls. Front electric windows work fine - possibly could do with some lube to make them smoother. Mirror controls a different ball game. Passenger side makes a good effort of sounding like it's moving, even if it's not very convincing. Drivers side did nothing. Poking the mirror got it creating some impressive crunching noises and some approximate movement.

I reckon the grease on the insides of the motor mechanism is probably all gummed up. Also the switch in the mirror control probably needs a good clean up on the contacts. Came out with a mild pull outwards. I put it back in as it's not urgent to be repaired just yet.
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The interior needs a bloody good clean. It smells a bit fusty and old which doesn't bother me, but the faint smell of cigarettes/cigars does. You can see the yellowing in the headlining.
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Thankfully that's mostly restricted to the drivers side headlining. I'll get the steam cleaner and fabric cleaning products on that to try removing some of that tar. The car will also get a couple of sessions with my OZone generator to try neutralising the smell. I like old car smells, but being a non smoker, I draw the line at the smell of nicotine products. Mrs SiC sense of smell is far more sensitive than mine and will be something she will bring up. Also my experience is that in the summer these smells come out with avengeance.

The seat bolster on the drivers side is in need of repair. Not sure what to do here as I guess getting hold of any fabric that is any sort of match will be impossible.
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Going down the list, the brakes were something I wanted to look at. Steve has spent a good chunk of money here so most of the hydraulic side should be ok. However the pedal sticks at the top of the travel. This leads the brakes to stick on.

It's apparently this cross linkage that takes the pedal movement on the right hand side of the car to the left hand where the hydraulics are, can stick and seize up. I always feel this is a cheat by manufacturers to get a vehicle into the RHD market. I've seen cross linkages on Renaults a lot especially.

You can see the bar that goes across in these pictures. This joins up with the linkage coming out of the bulkhead.
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I gave the linkage a liberal spray of Graphite lubricant and left it to soke. Then worked the pedal back and forth for a good 10 minutes to work it in. It seems to have freed it off but I will only really be able to tell once the car is started.

Caring on poking around I noticed the throttle linkage is a bit slack. Firstly the cable needs adjusting but I don't think there is much left to adjust on the cable. Stretched from age.

Also the butterfly valve linkage was jamming up on a vacuum pipe. This stopped the linkage from fully opening up. Good chance that Steve hasn't experienced the full 125bhp this engine can offer!

Rearranging the pipe fittings got it out of the way and full movement. Cable I'll have to look into what a replacement costs.

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Bonnet foam is peeling away pretty bad. Touching it causes it to crumble into many pieces. I think I may just scrape all this off as it's just making a mess under the bonnet.
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Headlamp bulbs are weird. Standard H4 is fitted but it appears the contacts of the connector are on the wrong place? So the high beam on the outer bulb doesn't make any connection at all. The back fitting appears to be polarised so you can't easily rotate it round without loosing side lights.
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Finally I inspected the belts. These squeal pretty bad and looking at them it's no surprise why! I dread to think what the 23 year old cambelt is like hiding away. I've pretty much banned myself from starting the car up now until after the cambelt is changed.

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Scream indeed. Is this an example of German engineering humour?
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Today I went down to my local GSF to pick a few bits up. They had much more part selection than Euros and with the correct promo code, turned out to be not much more expensive than Autodoc either.

Only issue is you don't really know what you're going to get. Choices are either GSF Premium or GSF Standard. But with the limited supply of parts available, you take what you get given.
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Turned out this meant the cambelt kit was INA, filters are Mann and Hengst, thermostat Topran and pump some Spanish brand. So all reasonably decent stuff really.

All that was just over £150 (including the aerosols). Not bad for what's in there.

Weirdly GSF didn't stock any of the aux belts, even though they're pretty standard sizes. Euro car parts had them but they're a good half hour drive. Hence the appropriate sizes in the Gates brand have now been ordered off eBay.

Additional work on the car is going to be on hold for a bit. Firstly as the Dolomite is in pieces, it is blocking the garage from having this put in it. So all work on this is going to have to be done outside. But I'm not going to do a cambelt when a large storm is blowing through. Secondly at the weekend I've got a whole lot of gardening that needs catching up on. Including moving 3 tonnes of aggregate from one end to the other. Fun.

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