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I've never been known for making good choices, so when I saw a craigslist post about a 2009 BMW 535Xi Touring with 155k miles for $6000, I had to jump on it. Especially seeing pictures showing that it was filthy and gently tapped a deer with the hood. What could go wrong? Well, I contacted the owner and he said that the AC just went out, too. GREAT! EVEN BETTER! So I met up with him and immediately saw it even had some significant hail damage. I'm in. He also had the turbos replaced (by the dealer!!!??? at a very significant bill, he said $7k. I don't believe it, but I don't know how bad dealers have gotten). I did some negotiating and gave him $4000 cash and he gave me the title and two keys. The thing drives loving great. No stumbles, no hesitation, no lag... and for a big car, it moves. Before I took it home, I had dad drive it and he said it felt a lot like his E92 M3. Not as fast, but similar. I concur. So. I got it home and got to work. The pictures I took didn't really show the level of profound filth in the interior, but I honestly don't know how people live in such literal dirt. It's not hard to dust and vacuum a car once a year or so. It's a tough one to get pictures of, but here's one of the interior... it's so much worse than it looks, though:  And one terrible picture from the ad:  So on the list is to get it clean first, then start checking stuff mechanically. I plugged the low-side AC gauge in and gave it a half can of refrigerant and the compressor came back on, but I can't get the high side connected since there's a bulkhead blocking my connector. I'll have to pull that all off to get a full idea of where the AC is at. It's also going to need all fluids changed, I'm assuming everything other than the engine oil and coolant is original (coolant I assume changed when they did the water pump and hoses). So yeah, a meatpimp car thread for the first time in way too long. Enjoy.
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Jun 12, 2018 01:25
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EVERYWHERE 
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ground floor Can't wait to see the night and day difference between those pics and your post-detail shots
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Jun 12, 2018 01:28
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I remember that MR2 you flipped a while back and the difference was loving staggering once you called it "done". Can't wait to see this one get transformed.
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Jun 12, 2018 01:46
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Wow that is an impressive find, eagerly awaiting the detailed shots.
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Jun 12, 2018 01:51
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In 
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Jun 12, 2018 01:53
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Nice find, hopefully it works out for you. We really wanted a 3 series wagon but I didn't want to deal with a BMW out of warranty. For that price I woulda jumped on a 5 series all day long tho.
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Jun 12, 2018 01:58
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That interior... definitely needs some love. Any saving the leather on that seat? drat, I thought I was a pig...
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Jun 12, 2018 06:49
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Sweet, beige leather interior on navy blue is far from the worst combo on big BMWs. Are those Thule Aerobars and were they included?
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Jun 12, 2018 07:12
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That interior though. Wow. It may not photo well, but it's obvious how dirty it is. Can't wait to see it cleaned up.
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Jun 12, 2018 11:48
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Beverly Cleavage posted:That interior though. Wow. It may not photo well, but it's obvious how dirty it is. Can't wait to see it cleaned up. The interior is terrible... but then there's the motor...  bolind posted:Are those Thule Aerobars and were they included? Yeah, they were held on with strap feet, also Thule, I guess they're good? (Edit: I just looked them up, retails for $400 for the bars and feet... not bad. Maybe I'll get $200 out of them and be into the car for $3800.) Started it this morning and had a good bit of smoke for the first couple minutes, PCV system check is on the list of things to do now. meatpimp fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jun 12, 2018 |
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Jun 12, 2018 12:53
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Seminal Flu posted:Yeah, they were held on with strap feet, also Thule, I guess they're good? (Edit: I just looked them up, retails for $400 for the bars and feet... not bad. Maybe I'll get $200 out of them and be into the car for $3800.) They're pretty good but a bit expensive... nice if you buy into the system with the t-slots and all that, for bike racks etc. Don't forget that they're modular so the bars can be used with different feet etc.
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Jun 12, 2018 13:48
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Remember to clean the sunroof drains, mine would fill the trunk with water whenever it rained. They got a sunroof cassette redesign in 07 that mine didn't have and the tiny lip would overflow. Yours probably will be better, but doesn't hurt to clean them. Luckily, they put really expensive modules in the spare tire well, so that when it rains, they short out! (also relocate those to the side panels, you just take them out of the styrofoam and tuck them wherever the wires came from). I have kept my 530xi e61 running for 5 years, so I know a little about these things. No turbos though.
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Jun 12, 2018 15:28
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My dad had a 530xi and it needed a lot of love and attention but was a really nice car.
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Jun 12, 2018 20:08
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Awesome. Can't wait for updates. You still have the Escalade?
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Jun 13, 2018 04:17
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You said in the general chat thread that it had some hail dents, are you going to try PDR or just have a shop do it?
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Jun 13, 2018 06:02
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blindjoe posted:Remember to clean the sunroof drains, mine would fill the trunk with water whenever it rained. That's high on my list, especially since this is going to be an outside car. Good news is that it has been an outside car and the back area is dead dry. Hughmoris posted:You still have the Escalade? Yup, hopefully it's an automotive cockroach. LloydDobler posted:You said in the general chat thread that it had some hail dents, are you going to try PDR or just have a shop do it? Yup, going to be glue-tabbing them, at least. New news: The codes it's throwing are P0597 and P0598. Pointing at the thermostat signal. My hope is that it's something fucky with the connector, because a) there's no reference to those codes being thrown on an N54 motor and b) it looks like the 535Xi is some unbelievable monster in packaging of the thermostat/water pump and I'll end up hating life if I get in there to replace it. Apparently it's an entirely different beast than the 535i because of the front drive stuff taking all the room.  Update: Unplugged the thermostat and cleared the codes. Started up and drove a mile with no light, but as soon as I got on the main road, light and P0597 came back. Looks like it's the thermostat. Kill me. 
meatpimp fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 11:22
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You're a gambling man, and you just lost.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:12
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IMHO you need to get yourself Carly for BMW and a dongle and get some more BMW-specific info out of that car.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:16
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Seminal Flu posted:That's high on my list, especially since this is going to be an outside car. Good news is that it has been an outside car and the back area is dead dry. Ha yep, mine shut down on the highway due to overheating. So I replaced the water pump and thermostat. And got a too cold code. So I paid someone to change the thermostat because you have to take the waterpump out first to get at it. The subframe for the 4wd gets in the way of doing it from the back like the youtubes show. Mine was an ebay thermostat/waterpump combo, so I didn't have a warranty, and wanted to get one so I didn't have to do it again. The other one that wasn't much fun was the HVAC fan, but it was just 20 hours of work carefully taking the interior apart. I was able to clean everything while it was apart, so you may want to preemptivly change that as mine needed to be done last year, you probably have a year or two before your brushes wear out too. Fan is like $90, so parts are cheap, unless you break something in the interior, then its so much money. Though after changing the thermostat you may not want to do much.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:39
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Good luck. I like BMWs and the m5x or s5x series of engines, but I'm not brave enough to tackle a N series. Thermostat, water pump or nearly anything is an easy job on a m5x
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Jun 13, 2018 15:45
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Nidhg00670000 posted:You're a gambling man, and you just lost. Possibly, but it's such a good running car otherwise, I'm not selling it out. We'll see what the quotes for thermostat replacement come back as and go from there. I'm in to it at a low enough price that I've got options. This is the first car repair I'm looking at farming out in 20+ years. I got close with my wife's old RAV4 with the V6 that was squeezed in so tight that the failing water pump looked like a similar nightmare to replace. I sold that one instead. blindjoe posted:Ha yep, mine shut down on the highway due to overheating. So I replaced the water pump and thermostat. And got a too cold code. The waterpump was supposedly replaced, so hopefully it's just the thermostat. How much did the labor cost you for the job?
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Jun 13, 2018 16:31
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I just found this post on bimmer https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2150414-E61-water-pump-and-thermostat-DIY&highlight=thermostat quote:I just changed the water pump and thermostat on my 530Xi Touring (120K miles). There is a nice video from Bavauto on this DIY. However, it seems that the Touring (at least the 2007 model that I have) is a bit different. below are few items to take note. https://www.bavauto.com/tech-info/ I haven't ever been able to pull tech or vid from their site (such a pain to search), but searching BMW forums and places that have sometimes given me a direct link to a particular bavauto page as always worked well. Otherwise pelican tech usually has some sort of write up with photos And of course start browsing realoem.com for parts and very rudimentary diagrams It's worth looking this up because in my quick research about e60/61, expect $1000-2000 if you farm it out. This was the era where BMW ownership was ridiculous "german engineering", and the cars being ugly anyway 
Fo3 fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 17:23
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Fo3 posted:I just found this post on bimmer https://blog.bavauto.com/14581/bmw-how-to-video-electric-water-pump-replacement-diy-n51-n52-n54-n55-6-cylinder/
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Jun 13, 2018 17:36
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Fo3 posted:I just found this post on bimmer Thanks, that doesn't look that bad. I was reading this thread: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=856598 that says it's nightmare fuel. Most threads and comments are putting it at a 2-4 hour job for a pro, I'd gladly pay that. We'll see what the local shops come back with. Dagen H posted:https://blog.bavauto.com/14581/bmw-how-to-video-electric-water-pump-replacement-diy-n51-n52-n54-n55-6-cylinder/ If only it were that easy. The RWD N54 cars have a lot more access. The x-drive fuckers are packed so tight as to be unreasonable.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:12
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The PO probably got quotes to fix it already and just sold it off to you instead of paying the ridiculous costs of having a BMW fixed Good luck man, hopefully it won't rape your wallet too bad.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:32
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New post because enough of that sad bastard poo poo. You're here to see clean things. My garage is an absolute mess. And BMW's paint has ridiculous levels of orange peel. My dad's E90 M3 is the same way.   And the interior is coming along, too. I need some leather touch-up for the edge of the armrest, but at least it's not covered in a layer of grunge.  It's getting better...
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Jun 13, 2018 18:32
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What did you use on the paint with the front door because seriously most tips I've seen suggested 1500grit sanding, which is something I wouldn't want to do on a newer car even if it had a bad orange peel effect. I did the 1000, 1500, 2000 grit sanding on my 2005 falcon ute because I was respraying it myself anyway, but I wouldn't do it on a car I wasn't already respraying. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 18:44
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Fo3 posted:What did you use on the paint with the front door because seriously most tips I've seen suggested 1500grit sanding, which is something I wouldn't want to do on a newer car even if it had a bad orange peel effect. I've found that Meguiars Ultimate Compound is amazingly versatile. It's gentle enough to use as a basic scrub with a soft pad and lower RPM, but I used it with a hard pad and high RPM to get some cutting and polish action. The other thing about UC is that as it breaks down, the grit value goes up, so you can start hard and finish soft in the same application. After that I used a coat of Chemical Guys Black Light and that really brought out the depth.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:50
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Yeah that's pretty good stuff. I used that myself to get rid of any sanding marks I left on my ute.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:52
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I have a replacement keyfob shell if the car doesn't have comfort access that you can have. edit:  You would have to cut your old key to get to the internals, but this new one snaps together. I was going to replace the shell of my 135i key but ended up selling it before I got a chance to do it. doogle fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 20:41
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doogle posted:I have a replacement keyfob shell if the car doesn't have comfort access that you can have. Man, that would have been perfect, since the PO's dog chewed one of my fobs... too bad I've got comfort access.  Thanks, though!
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Jun 13, 2018 22:06
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Thermostat or not, I think you got a bit of a bargain there. You going to turn the wick up on it at all?
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Jun 13, 2018 22:18
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Seminal Flu posted:
I think it was in the range of $400 cdn. But thats at an indy instead of the dealer. At that point I was just happy that it was driving again and I didn't have to get in there. That bavauto was the one I tried to follow and it isn't the same on the 4wd cars. e: now that I think about it, it wasn't actually that bad, just took a long time. And when its the family car your wife uses to get to work, I couldn't take it apart for another weekend. When I did the HVAC fan, it had been replaced already, so that took 2 weeks of evenings to get finished. Ooo another thing that isn't a lot of fun is front wheel bearings. The 2wd version its a nice bolt on part. 4wd gets to remove a big snapring and press the bearings out. Which means you have to get the whole strut out. Ended up with 10 stitches in the thumb doing that when I slipped on a bolt. blindjoe fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 22:23
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InitialDave posted:Thermostat or not, I think you got a bit of a bargain there. You going to turn the wick up on it at all? Oh man... I hadn't looked at tuning options until just now. $400 gets 80lb-ft at the wheels and more than 140lb-ft in spots under the curve.  The ideal thing to do to a 150k mile motor!blindjoe posted:I think it was in the range of $400 cdn. But thats at an indy instead of the dealer. Definitely sounds like you've been in, on and around these things. I haven't received any replies from my quote requests on the stat, what is there to look for with the HVAC fan?
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Jun 14, 2018 11:51
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The N54 will take 700hp/ftlb on a stock block. It's all the stuff bolted to it you need to worry about.
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Jun 14, 2018 12:15
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Yeah, bumping the power on the N54 is really easy. The N55 isn't bad, but the newer B58 basically requires a different exhaust to get more out of it. The thing I'll say though, is check what brakes you have. My dad's 335 has stock brakes, and personally I hate them compared to the M Sport brakes on my 335. Part of it's familiarity, but going faster is going to need better stopping. Not sure if they put different brakes on the 5s compared to the 3s. https://www.bmwvin.com/ should let you see what options it shipped with.
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Jun 14, 2018 14:28
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Seminal Flu posted:Oh man... I hadn't looked at tuning options until just now. $400 gets 80lb-ft at the wheels and more than 140lb-ft in spots under the curve. It manifests as rattling/grinding with the fan on, and changes when you turn (as the cages move around in the old bearings). This is the guide I printed out: https://5series.net/forums/diy-do-yourself-14/e60%5Ce61-aircon-blower-motor-replacement-120792/ The nice thing about these cars is usually some nerd has documented what you need to do already. This could be the case for many cars, but since mine was always broken I appreciated the bmw nerds. After my wife got fed up with it breaking and bought a new car, the e61 stayed in the family as it is now a vacation car in Hawaii. So I still get to fix it when it breaks. The last time I drove it, the glass hatch wouldn't stop opening as soon as power came on. I had the whole family in the car as I tore the hatch apart to get the solenoid unplugged so we could go the store to get breakfast on the first day of the vacation.
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Jun 14, 2018 15:19
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Alarbus posted:Yeah, bumping the power on the N54 is really easy. The N55 isn't bad, but the newer B58 basically requires a different exhaust to get more out of it. Brakes seem fine, but unremarkable. I looked up the options before I got it, nothing spectacular... no nav, just Premium, Cold Weather and Comfort Access packages. blindjoe posted:https://5series.net/forums/diy-do-yourself-14/e60%5Ce61-aircon-blower-motor-replacement-120792/ Thanks for the link. I'll be doing some digging there. I've been watching the AC and I don't think there's anything wrong with the AC system, but something's fucky with the blend doors. I get a mix of hot and cold out of the center vents, so something's stuck somewhere. On that note -- my OBDII reader doesn't work with Deep OBD, so I need to get a new one. Once I get that working, it should let me troubleshoot with the INPA stuff. Edit --  AC is fine. Someone hosed around with the vent settings and had the driver's side all the way hot in the settings, that's why I was feeling the hot/cold mix. I reset it to zero-offset and it's blowing nice and cold. 
meatpimp fucked around with this message at 16:36 on Jun 14, 2018 |
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Jun 14, 2018 15:53
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Probably has a passenger like my wife. That woman would make an Eskimo cringe in the goddamn car. I have to set my side at like 75 just to blend enough that extremities aren't going numb.
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Jun 14, 2018 17:31
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blindjoe posted:
You say vacation car and Hawaii? This sounds nice. Once stayed at my ex wife's family friend in Florida where they had a Jeep and a Jag that just stayed at their beach house. I wish that was me but that is my own fault.
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Jun 14, 2018 17:46
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