e34 Touring

straight6pwr

also, I started diving into the hatch wiring and general hatch issues.

the passenger side ball joint that the tailgate strut mounts to has disintegrated to nothing, causing the strut to keep popping off. This is a real problem if it happens and you dont have torx bit to remove the strut from the hatch. collapsing the strut by hand takes a man stronger than me.

not much left there.

new ball joint. pretty interesting part, there is a gasket on the back of the integrated washer to keep water out of the body.

And finally, the dreaded e34 touring hatch wiring problems. for those not familiar, the e34 touring has fairly terribly engineering rear hatch. the wiring on every car will eventually break and need to be replaced. also, if the hatch glass is stuck closed due to electronic issues, there is no way to get it open without breaking interior pieces.

I've put off doing this, since the functions i've lost so far havent been inconviencing. but, a month ago, both hatch opening handles were inop, so wait longer I cannot.

things that don't work so far because of bad wiring:

interior dome light doesnt come on when you open the hatch
rear wiper does not return to same spot everytime
rear defroster inop
glass switch inop
gate switch inop

two broken wires, and about 4 wires that are about to break on passenger side

rear defroster harness crushed to almost nothing

two broken wires and several cracked on driver's side.

more updates on this in the future when it stops raining

also, I will be selling the touring in the spring. tell your friends, and such.

YoungCR

Selling?? Can’t wait to see what’s to come but hopefully this car stays around too.

HipMF

Nice work. That steering joint looks like a hassle. Glad it fixed the problem.

If my turbo install doesn't bleed me completely dry by spring, I may be interested...

straight6pwr

YoungCR said:

Selling?? Can’t wait to see what’s to come but hopefully this car stays around too.

yeah, it will be bittersweet.

HipMF said:

Nice work. That steering joint looks like a hassle. Glad it fixed the problem.

If my turbo install doesn't bleed me completely dry by spring, I may be interested...

for such a simple thing, it was a hassle. but, it could have been worse. I'm just glad it wasn't the steering box!

i'll hit you up first when the time comes.

Jdesign

This thing is sweet, sad to hear you are going to let it go. But I get it. Any ideas on replacements already?

straight6pwr

Jdesign said:

This thing is sweet, sad to hear you are going to let it go. But I get it. Any ideas on replacements already?

my options are open. need to find something that'll haul the kayaks and related fishing gear around, which could be a wagon/suv/small truck. I can haul them around with a car as small as an e30, but it's not ideal.

Jdesign

straight6pwr said:

my options are open. need to find something that'll haul the kayaks and related fishing gear around, which could be a wagon/suv/small truck. I can haul them around with a car as small as an e30, but it's not ideal.

Sounds like you need a roof rack from a van

straight6pwr

Jdesign said:

Sounds like you need a roof rack from a van

lol. its less about outside space, and more about fitting two kayak seats, kayak paddles, fishing poles, fishing gear, weather gear, luggage all inside the car. the e30 worked fine for day trips, but anything overnight requires a vehicle at least as roomy as the touring.

straight6pwr

hatch wiring replaced. its a tedious job. you have to splice in a 2' section for about 25 wires, stagger your splices, and attempt to get the lengths correct.

magically, everything in the hatch works after i closed it all up!

here's a diagram to explain the e34 touring's wiring setup. the wiring harness travels up the d-pillar, comes out of a grommet near the top, does a bend inside the roof body work, then travels along the outside of the hatch before going back inside the hatch near the taillight. at the blue circle, where the harness slightly bends everytime the hatch is opened, the wiring eventually fails and splits/cracks. there is no way to fix it except pull the wiring and patch it 1ft down into the d-pillar and 1ft' up the hatch.

inside the tailgate lies wiring for: 3rd brake light, defroster, hatch pop, glass pop, rear wiper, reverse lights, rear fogs, license plate lights, hatch open sensor, and window spray nozzle.

to get to this point, you have to pull the following panels/covers:

on the hatch, open the glass to remove: the triangle cover over the wiper motor, the trim pieces that go up the sides of the hatch

on the hatch, open the hatch to remove: the toolkit, then the interior panel that covers the inside of the hatch.

note: if your rear glass is inoperable, you have to rip the interior panel off and break clips because two screws are located under the triangle cover under the glass.

inside the car remove: the two side compartments and the foam covers over the taillights. i erroneously removed the d-pillar covers and wasted time.

driver's side harness cut at hatch

driver's side wire colors. they don't match 100% to the online diagrams i found, but it doesnt really matter, since we're just splicing in new sections.

driver's side section that was pulled down through the d-pillar. the connectors are the two wires for the defroster

passenger side cut at hatch

passenger side wire colors. the extra thick white wire is the extra wire i added to put a switch in the cabin to pop the hatch latch. i ran it all the way directly to the actuator since the existing wiring was broken and splicing in the d-pillar would have been pointless.

passenger side harness pulled down from the d-pillar. the connectors are for the 3rd brake light.

patching in the new wire sections. i used marine grade butt crimp connectors with shrink wrap/adhesive lines sheaths. also, I used extra flexible silicone sheathed 18 gauge wiring to hopefully prevent this from happening in the future again.

label your wires since you cant see the other end of the splice once you pull it back through the d-pillar. i used black wire for grounds, and red for everything else.

harness all wrapped up to pull through the d-pillar

a little big of grease helps pull the harness through the rubber grommet. the 4 black wires that are separate are the defroster harness.

connections at the hatch. I got the lengths pretty close, but not perfect.

all taped up. there is another plastic cover that goes over this at the end.

i'm not sure if my defroster fixing will work. the wiring was super messed up.

the corrosion may have traveled all the way up to the glass. the only place to patch this is is along the black bracket shown here. you can see where the wire goes into the glass just about the S section.

the patch on the driver's side. I used two smaller gauge wires, since I didnt have any large gauge to match the existing wire.

driver's side all done.

passenger side done.

P_Roloff

Looks good! Nice touch with the interior button for the hatch release, bet that’ll come in handy when camping in there.

straight6pwr

P_Roloff said:

Looks good! Nice touch with the interior button for the hatch release, bet that’ll come in handy when camping in there.

yup!

this weekend I was able to replace the steering idler arm. i am on the 3rd or 4th one in my ownership. i think lemforder is making bad parts. the lemforder part is $30 and the BMW part is $100. however, FCPeuro is footing the bill, as they offer their free replacement of worn parts, so i'm taking full advantage of it and getting new idler arms for free. *shrug*

for future reference and for you other e34 owners here, this tool that i rent from advance auto parts fits exactly on the flats of the idler, and fits under the chassis, so it makes pulling the idler from the steering drag link easy.

straight6pwr

welp, when you plan a day to fix something, you gotta get it done. first time i've worked in a full-out snow storm.

swapped the radiator (cracked) and upper radiator hose. also changed the oil.

YoungCR

I’m sure your ice fishing outfit came in handy

straight6pwr

YoungCR said:

I’m sure your ice fishing outfit came in handy

you're damn right it did!

B C

Uses blanket to keep engine warm

Replaces radiator to keep engine cool

Seems like it cancels out

SteelBlue

snap said:

Uses blanket to keep engine warm

Replaces radiator to keep engine cool

Seems like it cancels out

Addition by subtraction

straight6pwr

had my drivers front brake caliper sieze up on me last friday. i had a random excessive steering wheel shake that started a month ago or so, so this explains it.

replaced the caliper and rotor and beld the brakes

crusty!

mmm shiney
\

those guide pins LOL. the brake caliper piston wasn't great, either.

straight6pwr

more borked stuff.

on that super artic freezing day of -36deg my cluster decided it had enough of f*ing wisconsin weather and stopped working. can't blame it. the entire cluster was dead except the speedo, the tach bouncing like caffeinated child, and the message "Code?" on the display. i've dealt with guessing how much gas was left in the tank since then and hoping the car didnt overheat.

the internet suggests that either one of more of the capacitors has died, or, the cluster's Coding plug has malfunctioned. i decided to fix the capacitors and also buy a used Coding plug to cover both bases. both fixes cost about $25 combined. I have yet to investigate if BMW is willing to replace the Coding plug based on my VIN or if they will require me to buy a whole new cluster.

to remove the e34 cluster simply remove your steering wheel (process can vary if you have an airbag or not), remove the two screws in the top plastic bracket of the cluster, then slide the cluster out and unplug the connectors. with my non-airbag wheel, i can have the cluster out in 2 min.

then, to split the cluster open, flip it over and locate the two screws on the top and remove. you can't see them here due to the perspective, but one is above 'VDO' and the other is mirrored on the other side. also, twist the two black twist tabs on the bottom 90 deg. then, the back part should hinge down and you can pull the two halves apart.

on the back half you'll find the PCB. on the late e34 clusters (blue back) the board is held in by 10 plastic tabs that were expanded to pressure fit the board. you have to carefully drill out the tabs to remove the board.

here you can see two of the tabs which were drilled out.

different boards have different capacitors, but my board had 5 radial capacitors. shown below are three bluish gray capacitors on one end.

on the other end of the board are two black capacitors.

for my particular board the capacitor specs were:
(2) 22uF 50v (the ones on the board are listed as 40v, but that part is not readily available and 50v works fine)

(1)4.7uF 63v

(1)220uF 16v

(1)1000uF 16v

since I am a noobcake at this, I order (1) extra of everything in case I botch something:

here i've replaced one of the 22uf 50v capacitors with the new unit (but have not clipped the extra lead length yet). use your soldering iron and desoldering pump to remove the old capacitor, then simply solder in the new one. the old and new capacitors are marked with - or + signs for the leads, be sure to keep track of that - they are not bi-directional.

all three of the blue/gray capacitors replaced:

the old capacitors:

bonus nacho picture of me inspecting the whole board for other issues:

onto the coding plug! on the late model clusters (blue back) there is a small blue chip that plugs into the back of the board which is the Coding plug or Coding chip. it supposedly contains information such as model, vin, gas tank size, speed sensor/rear diff ratio for speed calculations, and mileage. for the moment, the closest chip i could find for sale was from a 94 540 with 182,000miles. My car is a 530iT with 165k miles.

To swap the chips, you have to pry up the blue cage that surrounds it on the back of the cluster (you will break it off, its designed that way) then you can just pull the old one out and plug in the new one. The picture shows the cage already removed. Refer to my 2nd photo above to see the cage.

I'm not sure how the difference in gas tank size will pan out on the sensor, but so far everything else works perfectly.

RPMs and speed are not perfect, but are within 'statistical error'. 3k rpms = 67mph with a 1:1 trans, 3.23 diff, 25" tires. Mathmatically it should be 69mph.

well, its a good thing i had my temperature gauge fixed when I did, because today my car decided to crap its pants.

Dejavu, anyone?

i was alerted to the issue when traveling down the highway and noticing quite the ploom of smoke following me. temperature guage was still normal, so it happened in a hurry and I pulled over.

turns out the outlet neck of the auxiliary water pump just up and sheered in half....

since I've been in a similar situation with the e30, i knew what i had to do. my wonderful gf came from home to take me to the auto parts store, I grabbed a coolant hose coupler and just bypassed the whole nonsense of aux water pump and heater valve and connected the block outlet and inlet together to get me home.

the stock aux water pump is BMW only and $180 (forget it!) but i think i found a universal bosch pump that will work in its place. the heater valve is only a $50 part, so I'll replace that at the same time since its all out. other e34 owners on the internet suggest you can bypass the pump and all will be well, but the coolant system on the v8s is already so damn fragile i'd rather fix it than risk it.

heater valve and aux water pump:

oh, and I ran into Joe when i was waiting for the car to cool and bleed off the excess air down by the lake, which was nice. his wagon is mmmmm

Boris3

And I thought the plastic pipe on the m42 block was a stupid design flaw. The whole e34 plastic aux pump thing looks like a failure point just waiting to happen. Glad you didn't trash the engine.

straight6pwr

i suppose the marketing wankateers at BMW thought the owners deserved INSTANT hot air in the cabin and this was their extra-complicated way of providing that.

WIBIMMERS

e34 Touring