New to the forum - 525iX owner

[Big Will]

Hi all,
I've benefited from some of the knowledge on this forum as there's quite a limited amount of info out there for the E34 525ix cars and thought I'd finally join and share a bit about my touring.


I picked up the car a little more than 3 years ago in The Netherlands. The car was a German-market car and the previous owner had intended it as a project but as projects often go, he didn't seem to get it finished (I think I found out why on my drive home - more on that later) and it ended up staying off the road for 7 years until a Subaru/Nissan dealer that sometimes buys interesting 'youngtimer' cars bought it. I thought I had done my due diligence on the car and had a thorough inspection done by a 3rd-party (DEKRA) which revealed a few issues but mostly good news including no rust issues other than the original exhaust and fuel pipes. The dealer agreed to install new front shocks and springs, new fuel pipes and related brackets for the fuel filter and steel straps for the gas tank, as well as rear brakes. I supplied the parts but they did the work and then I picked up the car. This iX Touring wasn't originally equipped with the sports suspension so I upgraded the front shocks and springs at that time.





On my drive home across Germany, the car wouldn't start after a coffee break until it had fully cooled off after a few hours. This problem continued over the next couple of days until it completely refused to start. Many weeks at a chain repair shop and then the BMW dealership throwing random parts at the car didn't help until someone finally had the idea to try a DME from another E34 and it started right up. It appears some solder joints had probably cracked from age...I believe this was why the car spent 7 years unregistered. The prior owner mustn't have been able to figure out the problem and gave up. And when the dealer bought it, they never ran it long enough to get it very warm and never had the issue.

I began collecting parts to bit by bit try to make the car better than it came out of the factory in some ways, as I use the car year-round and in the mountains. A stainless steel exhaust was installed to replaced the crusty original one and also upgraded the emissions system from a Euro1 cat to Euro2 (helps with vehicle taxes here and a little better for the environment).




I found a very used pair of rear SLS shocks and had them rebuilt by Nagengast in Poland so that the fresh front shocks would be matched by fresh rear suspension and some new hardware, pressure lines and brackets.

[Big Will]

This ended up turning into a much bigger project: Along the way, trying to find some used rear trailing arms, a good, used rear diff that was very clean, and rear subframe to restore nicely so that the car wouldn't have to be off the road for weeks and months.



A local independent BMW recycler and repair shop said they could sand and beautifully paint the spare parts I had and it all sounded good. It was only later that I learned they hadn't changed the 25-year-old rubber bushings with the new ones I gave them, or even bothered to cover the wheel bearing when sanding and painting and their 3-stage painting really turned out to be just 1. Nevertheless, we set out to install everything and ended up replacing all of the old SLS lines which at the time were still available. Also installed the 26mm front sport swaybar (regular is 24mm) and the 20mm rear swaybar from the M5 Touring Nürburgring edition which is Eibach made for BMW (the regular bar is 17 and the sport bar for the 525ix is 18mm). This is actually quite a nice upgrade to the handling.






In with the "new" out with the original.

[Big Will]

Proper underbody cleaning and sealing:


Converting the minor surface rust:



Sealing and cavity wax:

[Big Will]

And the iX in its natural environment:



The car isn't perfect and certainly has lots of small imperfections close up. It's not meant to be in a bubble. Cars should be driven. The roof has some clearcoat cracking from what looks like a bad respray of clear on it long ago and there are plenty of road chips on the front bumper cover and edge of the hood. The bottoms of the doors were just starting to get rust on the bottom edge so I removed the trims, cleaned them, sanded the surface rust away, converted and painted the lower edge again to protect them. None of that bothers me.




But my goal is to make the entire undercarriage better than when it left the factory and make small upgrades when convenient. In Germany, the inspections are very strict about changes to the car so you have to be mindful of that.

[Big Will]

Had some calipers and brackets powdercoated and then rebuilt them all:




Painted some clutch hydraulic parts (not installed yet):



Over the past months I've taken the original rear suspension apart and acquired other very well used spares like front control arms and spindles and CV axles etc. There is a great local business that does sandblasting and thermal zinc coating for very reasonable prices. This coating can then be painted or powdercoated over directly which results in very strong corrosion resistant parts.

[Big Will]

A little painting (the CV joints were just meant for the scrap bin - I just wanted to have the exposed part of the shafts coated and then I rebuild with other CV joints that haven't been media-blasted!):



And the rest powdercoated by another terrific local business:

[Big Will]

More powdercoated parts:

[Big Will]

Still trying to find a solution for the control arms. BMW no longer stocks one side and the ball joints aren't available separately. I'm trying to find a ball joint that will fit properly. The closest I've come so far is the Meyle HD ball joint for the E36...the problem being that i the tapered sleeve that fits into the front bearing holders is a bit too narrow. I'd like to find a cost-effective solution so that 525ix owners have an option in the future when their control arms need replacing and there is no aftermarket.



It's a project. Eventually I'll get around to installing it all and set of rebuilt SLS sport shocks and springs that are ready. I'm in the process of rebuilding axles and recently found a shop in Poland that could manufacture a copy of the short driveshaft that goes between the front differential and transfer case or a much more reasonable price than buying a BMW one. I just have to figure out exactly how long the splines should be as the original design only engages a small amount of the spline in the transfer case. It would be better to engage more or all of the splined flange. "Improved" copy vs. a worn original:
The new splines will have to be cut at some compromise between the original and the copy (76mm long spline). The original splines are 26mm but only 18mm are actually engaged based on the wear both in the transfer case and on the driveshaft. The splines inside the transfer case flange are 44mm long. Therefore the "improved" driveshaft should have splines that are either 44 or 52mm long. If anyone has insight into this I'd be grateful. This could be a good option for E30ix and E34ix folks in the future.




So thanks for having a look at my project! I hope I can contribute to the forum over the coming months.

[eternal24k]

looking great, the E34 wagon is one of my alltime favorites. I'm assuming it's the left control arm you cannot find?

31121093881

[Slybeanx]

Looks like a cool project, welcome!

[Big Will]

looking great, the E34 wagon is one of my alltime favorites. I'm assuming it's the left control arm you cannot find?

31121093881

Yes indeed. The ones on my car are pretty new but I'd like to help others keep these on the road so I'm trying to find a solution. There is someone in southern Germany who will rebuild a set for 450 euro and he presses in what I believe is the E36 Meyle HD ball joint and then claims to have some kind of adapter that I can only assume slips over the tapered part to make it fit snugly into the spindle. I imagine that's a great solution for a lot of folks but I feel like that it should be possible to make that kind of thing locally for less.

And thanks for the welcome!

[burkey001]

Did you ever get anywhere with the replacement for 31121093881 or a means to use a different ball joint??