Grünhilde My '95 530it

[deutschman]

I would like to get a e34 touring here shortly, your experiences make me a little nervous haha. good on you for keeping at it though.

Just take your time in finding one with no electrical issues and a working sun roof. Those are the most annoying things to fix. Eveyrthing ells is a lot like the e30/e36. Iv just never owned a car with so many electrical whistles and bells that brake. Right now the car things there is a door open constantly even thought they are all closed. Bad door switch or something. Its never ending.
How ever it is incredibly comfortable with lost of room. Soooooo nice on the highway. I just ordered some ice/snow tires for it and my GF, mother, and I are driving it up to WA for a Christmas road trip. Should be fun.

As fare as everything ells. I am incredibly poor right now. I havent made this little money since graduating High School! So the only thing I can bearly aford to do is keep both my cars running. So my plans for both my truck and this car have been put on the back burner for a while.

[deutschman]

The GF and I had to redeem some credit card points so we got our selves a few Amazon cards. I got to spend some of this on some parts to finally put together a base speaker system.
I really really wanted to by a Luke box, but I wont be able to afford that for quite some time, so I am going to build my own box. Iv have all the tools and knowledge so why not. I already have the MDF in the form of some book shelves my mom is throwing away.
I still want to get a Luke box down the road.

I got a Polk Audio db1040DVC 10-Inch Dual Voice Coil Subwoofer, Alpine MRV-M250 Mono V-Power Digital Amplifier, and a Rockford Fosgate 8 AWG Amplifier Install Kit as well as terminal cup.

[CubbyChowder]

I just finally got my girlfriend's E34 Touring (525i) running properly. After a whole ignition related nightmare I had to tackle the violent hard shifting transmission problem, thought it was toast after finding out how unreliable the autos in these things are, and it seriously slammed into gear so hard. I dug deep in the forums and found that they can act up do to bad electrical connections, and low fluid. I eventually discovered that there was in fact a loose connection in the gear selector switch, and I changed the filter/fluid in the trans and the thing runs perfectly now, I am seriously amazed. After the few headaches I've been through with this thing, I was ready for a win, and I finally got it. Super comfortable ride, can't wait to take it on some road trips. We're planning on taking it up to Portland within the next few months.

Of course there is a slew of other quirks that need to be addressed pretty quickly. Got a small coolant leak and there are a few electrical related funks going on, but overall it's finally drivable and she's one happy ass camper.

One of the next things we are going to figure out is the audio situation, we are locked out of the OEM stereo but she wanted an aftermarket receiver anyways. I remembered that you had just done a bunch of stereo related work to yours so I want to go back and read through it again.

Sorry for the huge novel, I just feel like we're in pretty similar situations with these tourings and I had to share my experience so far. Excited to get a feel for this car but also a bit nervous as I know I will probably find too many things that I want to fix.

[deutschman]

I just finally got my girlfriend's E34 Touring (525i) running properly. After a whole ignition related nightmare I had to tackle the violent hard shifting transmission problem, thought it was toast after finding out how unreliable the autos in these things are, and it seriously slammed into gear so hard. I dug deep in the forums and found that they can act up do to bad electrical connections, and low fluid. I eventually discovered that there was in fact a loose connection in the gear selector switch, and I changed the filter/fluid in the trans and the thing runs perfectly now, I am seriously amazed. After the few headaches I've been through with this thing, I was ready for a win, and I finally got it. Super comfortable ride, can't wait to take it on some road trips. We're planning on taking it up to Portland within the next few months.

Of course there is a slew of other quirks that need to be addressed pretty quickly. Got a small coolant leak and there are a few electrical related funks going on, but overall it's finally drivable and she's one happy ass camper.

One of the next things we are going to figure out is the audio situation, we are locked out of the OEM stereo but she wanted an aftermarket receiver anyways. I remembered that you had just done a bunch of stereo related work to yours so I want to go back and read through it again.

Sorry for the huge novel, I just feel like we're in pretty similar situations with these tourings and I had to share my experience so far. Excited to get a feel for this car but also a bit nervous as I know I will probably find too many things that I want to fix.

Totally man. You may as well have the same car hahaha
I have the same problem, maybe not quite as bad, with my trans. Ill try doing what you did. Did you just take apart the shifter and clean the contacts? The new electrical part of the shifter is almost $80
What fluid did you use for the trans?
The audio is a fun project. I always enjoy wiring audio for some resin. My number one piece of advice is get a popper adapter harness for the head unit and wire that in. It keeps things so much cleaner.
Wiring the after market amp in using all the original wires was a bit harder because some of my wire color codes were different than the wiring diagrams I found. Finding the correct "in" and "out" for the amp wires just took a bit more testing of wires.

[CubbyChowder]

I think we have different transmissions since yours is the M60, but I'm not entirely sure.

The deal with mine was the gear selector switch and A/M mode switch weren't working properly. The cluster wouldn't show me what gear I was in, except for "3" and "2". I noticed that the plastic cover for the gear selector switch was missing but I didn't think much of it. I cleaned all the contacts and still no dice. I eventually realized that without the cover on, all the contacts weren't pressing together enough to make a good connection. Kind of hard to explain, but it was the small black piece that slides in the selector switch which connects to the shift rod. I could press it together by hand and it would show what gear I was in, in every gear. I later found the plastic cover in the glovebox, and as soon as I installed it, everything worked perfectly. Even the A/M mode switch (which I also cleaned out).

I also went ahead and changed the filter and fluid in the auto trans. I followed the write-up on Pelican Parts, it took kind of a long time as I had to drop both oil pans.

I'm not sure if your car has the same gear selector switch, but I would check to see if your cluster is always showing what gear you are in, and that your mode selection switch works when you pop it down into "3", the "E" should turn into either an "S" or "M" depending on what you switch it to.

I would definitely recommend changing the filter and fluid in the trans, I've heard that alone can work wonders.

[CubbyChowder]

This thread helped me with mine (second post down). I couldn't remove my gear selector switch because of some sort of ignition lock type of lever that was covering the mounting bolt. I just cleaned it while it was installed in the car.

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1031602-Trans-selector-switch-cleaning-question&p=13439687#post13439687

Good luck!

[deutschman]

Thanks man.
My trans does show me what gear I am in and the little gear selector switch thing does work. I will try the trans fluid and filter change. I think Ill take it to a shop though. I dont want to do that job. Sucks and Im lazy hahahaha



First base system arrivals. Amp should show up Monday and then I need to build a box.
Im hoping to get a bit of time in my friends cabinet shop so I can use his beautiful table saw and stay out of the rain. MDF does not like rain ;)

[deutschman]

Well I just did something I havent done for years. I put something I didnt actually NEED on my credit card. I really want the Luke box, and it will sound better and save me a lot of work. So yeah. Thats that

[E30NJ]

Did you get that CAN code squared away?

[deutschman]

Yeah it went away after the TB sensor was fixed
Still not sure what it was about

[deutschman]

Well the old wagon decided to brake something ells just a few days before our road trip up to WA for Christmas.
This. Drivers seat switches. Fried.


So I went to Pick N Pull and grabbed a new switch set. Plugged it in. No Go!
Passengers side seat still works, and even the heating on the drivers side still works. Just the seating position adjustments are kaputt.
So we drove down to 002 salvage in the East Bay to grab a set of matching seats. I was originally just going to grab a single non matching seat from golde30 but the GF wanted to get some matching seats. The passenger side seat was ripped anyways. What ever its her money right? hahaha
So hopefully it was a problem with the seat and the electronics inside of it. If not we have 90 days to bring the seats back to 002 and I can try and figure out why the car killed the seat.

[deutschman]

My wagon is back up for sale. We broke up today and she needs a new home. We just dont get along. Car will be available on the 1st next year. We are out of town.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/4810070072.html

[animal]

nice - I'm always looking out for a touring!

[deutschman]

nice - I'm always looking out for a touring!

Even though I bitch about it all the time its really not a bad car. I just dont enjoy it so problems that would usually not piss me off with other cars do piss me off with this car.
She needs some interior and exterior love, but is mechanically sound and drivers very well.

[deutschman]

I am actually really really sad I cant keep this and use it in another car. Iv never had a sub box in any care before and I was looking forward to finally have a comfortable car with a quality speaker system.