chit chat thread

[jc43089]

Rear sump.  The front sump would not have given me enough clearance anyway and the rear sump is what I have already.  My wife said whatever is cheaper to get the van on the road.  1200 to rebuild the Toyota transmission and probably another 300 minimum on engine seals and "while it's out" type things gives me some room to work with.  And I can sell the 3MZ engine, it ran excellent, 172k miles.  It wouldn't be cheaper if I didn't already have a whole BMW drivetrain ready to go.  After work I need to shorten my m54b30 cam gear so I can get it closed up.  This engine is the one from my 94.  It's .020 overbore, light pistons, UUC flywheel w/ M5 clutch and the m54b30 intake cam.  Hopefully the stock tune works ok with the bigger cam?  Thoughts?  I never ran it with the cam yet.  Still won't be quite the stock 3MZ-FE power but good enough.

[Jdesign]

Daggerty said:

Dug into it today, simple fix eliminated. It appears someone else has dug into this already. Some of the nuts and such were put on hand tight the fuse covers were all removed. The main fuses are good.  I couldn't get my star diagnostics to hook up when I looked at it. Going to try a few things but if it doesn't work, stripping her.

Super big bummer.

[Earl]

Wait...so what is going in the 94?

[jc43089]

Earl said:

Wait...so what is going in the 94? 

Nothing right now, it's from the Arctic Gray sedan I took apart 2 years ago and I thought this would be fun and might as well use the engine in the meantime.  It will probably go back in it someday.  I still need to get my shop done before I can finish it.  And we are making a push to pay off our house in the next couple years so I may or may not fit the concrete work in this summer which is the next step.  It depends on how much overtime I work.

[Daggerty]

jc43089 said:

Rear sump.  The front sump would not have given me enough clearance anyway and the rear sump is what I have already.  My wife said whatever is cheaper to get the van on the road.  1200 to rebuild the Toyota transmission and probably another 300 minimum on engine seals and "while it's out" type things gives me some room to work with.  And I can sell the 3MZ engine, it ran excellent, 172k miles.  It wouldn't be cheaper if I didn't already have a whole BMW drivetrain ready to go.  After work I need to shorten my m54b30 cam gear so I can get it closed up.  This engine is the one from my 94.  It's .020 overbore, light pistons, UUC flywheel w/ M5 clutch and the m54b30 intake cam.  Hopefully the stock tune works ok with the bigger cam?  Thoughts?  I never ran it with the cam yet.  Still won't be quite the stock 3MZ-FE power but good enough.

Bigger cams in the bmw world is different than bigger cams in the ls world.

they will work fine on stock tune just like any engine mod is best with a tune.

[jc43089]

Daggerty said:

Bigger cams in the bmw world is different than bigger cams in the ls world.

they will work fine on stock tune just like any engine mod is best with a tune.

Good deal!  I'll just giver.  I cut the cam gear down last night, it cut no problem on a lathe with carbide tooling.

[jc43089]

Going to look at an '06 530xi with a guy from work tonight, he would like to buy it if it is nice.  I think around 160k on it.  Any odd stuff to look at with the N52 and AWD?  I think they are asking 4900.  It has an oil leak, filter housing I assume which looks really easy on the N52, and also the window has a crack but not sure how bad.

[m42b32]

jc43089 said:

Going to look at an '06 530xi with a guy from work tonight, he would like to buy it if it is nice.  I think around 160k on it.  Any odd stuff to look at with the N52 and AWD?  I think they are asking 4900.  It has an oil leak, filter housing I assume which looks really easy on the N52, and also the window has a crack but not sure how bad.

I've been doing a lot of reading/research on N52 powered cars since I'm casually looking for an e91. All N52's seem to have a problem with broken bolts on the valve covers and oil pans that cause oil leaks. These bolts are made of aluminum and I guess they eventually fatigue fail as a result of all the heat cycling. The valve cover gasket isn't horrible to do, but the oil pan requires the subframe/etc to be removed and is a fairly substantial job. The most important thing to be aware of on an '06 is the head bolts as they are also prone to breaking. It seems that BMW fixed this problem for the '07+ models. Not sure how you'd check for it though. Other common failure points are the electric water pump ($400 for just the part from BMW, $300 aftermarket) and thermostat. 

I've also heard from Andy and others that have experience with these that if the serpentine belt fails, it can get pulled behind the crank pulley and through the front crank seal and potentially destroy the engine. So check on the condition of the belt/tensioners, if they're original at 160k I'd consider replacing them asap.

[wasnt m3]

Oil filter housing gasket is super easy and cheap. If he buys it, make sure the serpentine belt gets replaced right away. When the belt goes bad on an n52, they get sucked in through the front seal into the engine.

[wasnt m3]

Also, if the valve cover looks like it's leaking, make sure the cover itself isn't cracked as it's a $500 valve cover.

[suspenceful]

FWIW, I've had multiple serpentine belt failures on the variety of E82 and E9X cars I've owned. None of them got sucked in through the front seal.

It CAN happen, but isn't the common result. For peace of mind, I'd inspect and replace the belt if you see any wear signs. Doesn't hurt to replace OFH gaskets if it is seeping or weeping oil. Over time, the oil can drip on the belt and that isn't good.

I did the oil pan gasket on my 135i when the subframe was down while replacing turbos. It was leaking. I think the valve cover gasket was seeping as well. Both should be inspected. When you change the valve cover gasket, inspect the cover itself. They are plastic and can have very small cracks (bad), or can be warped. It is best practice to replace the cover and the gasket at the same time... even though it hurts the wallet.

[B C]

I will never own anything newer than an M54 unless it is under warranty

/scaredlittleboy

[jc43089]

Good stuff, thanks!  Good bargaining point if something like the valve cover is cracked etc to know how much parts cost.  According to realoem this one has a metal valve cover, looks like that ended mid year '07.  I wonder if while doing the valve cover gasket it would be wise to replace the head bolts one at a time?

[YoungCR]

The general control module is also located in the spare tire well on the wagons. If that gets wet, things start going haywire.

[jc43089]

Well the e60 was interesting.  "An oil leak" turned out to be pouring oil out everywhere as soon as you start it.  It's actually coming out where the oil filter cap meets the aluminum housing so it must be cracked from over tightening.  So the alternator is well lubricated.  Looking at the valve train through the oil fill cap it looks fairly clean like oil changes have been done at least at the BMW extended intervals.  The engine sounds good and runs really nice.  It's cool looking through the cap and seeing how the valvetronic works.  Valve cover kit 66$, aluminum bolt kit 15$,  OFH gasket kit 50$, New oil filter cap 40$.

So it's a black on saddle brown.  The interior isn't worn but pretty dirty, both cup holder thingys in front of the passenger are broken.  There was a scrape on the outside of both left doors that would mostly buff out I think but not worth really repairing.  It has decent tread summer tires (on an xi???) Cooper Zeon RS3-A.  Buy winter tires immediately 5-600$

The front suspension is clunky.  5-700$

There is a message about AWD and DSC functionality but I got no codes related to that on my scanner.  Some reading I did suggests that the steering angle sensor is a likely cause.  It's an optical encoder device and sometimes cleaning the disc fixes the problem, I read about people finding the disc hazy with dirt.  ?$

The CEL was on due to an O2 sensor fault.  Set P0138, P2271.  Pending P0139, P0171, P0174.  Those are all O2 sensor related.  1-200$ for upstream o2 sensors

Coolant temps were around 175-180F (from my OBD2 reader) while driving around town, is that too low.

Also the 2-1 downshift when coming to a stop is a little harsh, it surges the car forward.  Probably drain/fill transmission and a new filter.  300$

It is at a used car lot that mostly has domestic trucks and a few domestic cars.  Receipts in the glove box showed an early life in the Minneapolis area and then came down to this area a couple years ago.  4950 was the internet price.  After about 30 seconds of talking after the test drive he dropped to 3200 and take it as is.  I was actually quite surprised that he dropped that much so quickly.  I expected him to stay firm knowing he can clean it up and some sucker will pay at least 4500 for it that doesn't know better.  But maybe he got scared when I started talking.  I'm not the one potentially buying it but I came along because I'm the resident BMW guy.

So around 1200$ in parts to get it back to good condition, plus winter tires.  I think my top price would be 3000$ out the door.  What do you think?

[patsbimmer1]

I think $3200 is a good deal.  I wouldn't squabble over $200 if someone planned on cleaning it up and keeping it.  I'm sure the dealer is scared to death that he has a big scary BMW on his lot with issues and someone who's willing to take it off his hands is a god send.  I don't know what you mean by "broken" for the cup holders but a lot of the time they are just stuck and can be cleaned up by removing the trim and the cassette's.  Other e60 530xi's are going for about $5k-$7k.

[stealthbimmer]

jc43089 said:

 But maybe he got scared when I started talking. 

So, its on a lot? How long has it been sitting. They guy probably just wants it gone and didnt realize how much work is needed once you started getting into everything...especially if its not a bmw specifc (or euro) dealer.

[wasnt m3]

At the same time, you could probably find a nicer one for $5k and save all the time working on it. It'd be a pass for me.

[suspenceful]

wasnt m3 said:

At the same time, you could probably find a nicer one for $5k and save all the time working on it. It'd be a pass for me.

This. Unless all of the other boxes are checked for your buddy (color, interior, trans, driveline, condition, etc.)

[jc43089]

Yea he likes the color combo and it seems saddle brown interior is not super common and he thinks he needs an xi and has no desire for a manual transmission.  

So how many 5k ones do you think there are that don't need most of this stuff either very soon or the next couple years anyway?  My thought is that most of them need a lot of this work anyway but are all detailed and nice looking.  Yes they probably aren't puking oil everywhere but if they are leaking a little then the same stuff has to be replaced.  And it becomes a big bargaining chip if it looks really bad.  The biggest oil leak is the filter cap which a genuine one costs 40$ and 2 minutes to replace.

The biggest thing that won't get fixed is the scrape on the drivers side.  it looks like somebody hit it with a bumper backing out of a parking spot and its very slightly dented but mostly paint scratches about 18" long half on each left door.  The guy who might buy it really just wants a decent car to drive a lot of highway miles to/from work to avoid driving his Duramax truck and having it rust apart in the winter.  He has a '96 Duramax truck he would like to get rid of so he might offer that for a trade.  The sales guy was talking up Chevy diesels so that might be more up his alley.

Can you see how I talk myself into buying other peoples problems  Just like my Toyota van that was cheap but needs a transmission.  

I did some reading on the clunky 2-1 shift and it seems really common, fluid needs changing and the software apparently sucks?  I think it's the ZF 6 speed auto.  Are those the transmissions you can do the "Alpina flash" for?  I rode in an e92 with the Alpina flashed transmission and it was excellent.