New car - E34 540

[dunc_sx]

Thought I'd pop in and say hello, got this car about 3 weeks ago and happy with it so far. It's my first bm and it's been a pleasant experience so far - I've already had it through europe on a road trip plus other longish hauls. It's got the 6 speed box which is nice but I'm looking at replacing the springs for uprated ones, plenty available so that's fine but also want to uprate the exhaust but doesn't seem to be any off the shelf items?




Cheers,

Dunc.

[belleair302]

Is that an LPG cap at the rear??? Loads of exhaust pacakes available but what do you want, more noise, less noise, better performance a different look?

[dunc_sx]

Can't get less noise it's completely silient , so a bit more noise and less restriction. Please point me in direction of exhausts for this, I've looked loads of places without success.

Cheers,

Dunc.

PS yes it's got LPG.

Edited by dunc_sx on Monday 8th June 18:40

[Hammerhead]

Dunc,

Congrats on the e34 540 - and a rare manual too boot

Have heard good things about these people/exhuasts.
http://www.torqueflow.co.uk/index.html
Check out the video section as there's a 540 with a more rumbly box fitted.

Quite tempted to get one for mine...


Cheers,

Steve

[dunc_sx]

Cheers Steve!

Guess I'll be looking for a similar place up here in Scotland to do my car, take it youre not aware of any off the shelf parts either?

The std exhaust is very complicated, especailly as it travels the full length of the car as dual pipes.

How long have you had yours and how are you getting along with it?

Cheers,

Dunc.

[Job38]

1. Try and get someone to open up the rear mufflers and remove the wadding.
2. Replace rear mufflers with a custom replacement, try say Magnaflow
3. Remove rear resonator box and replace with an 'X' pipe cross-over.

Enjoy!

[Stu R]

Nice car fannybaws

[Hammerhead]

dunc_sx said:

How long have you had yours and how are you getting along with it?

Hi Dunc,

I had my e34 540 touring just under a 18 months (but have had 3 e34's before that over quite a few years) - brilliant cars. Only sold it last year to get an e39 540 touring (better in some ways & not so good in others). I've had no really big problems with any of them so champion a good 5 where-ever possible

Bit of extra rumblage would be a good thing though!

Have fun with yours,

Steve

[dunc_sx]

Cheers for the suggestions Job.

That sounds good hammerhead, a happy owner and repeat buyer

And there's just no response to that Stu LOL - what you driving these days anyway?

Dunc.

[filski666]

Hi, I got an excellent exhaust for my 540 6 speed from the States - the good exchnge rate at the time meant it was very cheap for full (cat back) stainless. I think it was called Billy Boat or something weird like that - but as the alternatives from people like Supersprint were over a grand it seemed a good alternative.

I should have the details on my computer at work - I will dig them out and update this post in the morning!

Have fun - it is a great car!!

Little trick for you - when you have started the car - you can press and hold the traction control button for 12 seconds - or until the T/C light goes off again on the dash - then you are in development mode and the traction control will work by applying the brakes to any wheel that slips - but won't cut the engine - it is a nice effect which can be fun in the wet if you haven't got the room for full on lairy oversteer!

[Stu R]

dunc_sx said:

And there's just no response to that Stu LOL - what you driving these days anyway?

How ya keeping buddy?

Concentrating on bikes these days mate, wafting around in a bimmer E38 740i for the daily grind, whilst keeping an eye on the ever-tempting Z4m used prices

[filski666]

here you go - it is one of these:
http://www.bbexhaust.com/car/e34/

- I got it from here:
http://www.bavauto.com/shop.asp

just put in your car details, click on exhaust on the left hand side and you have a choice of 2 tip styles.

They seem to call it a "Bavarian Auto Exhaust system" now - but it was the same one when I bought it - look same in photos.

When I bought mine back in 2006 it cost me $720 plus $275 shipping (but I bought a load of other heavy stuff at the same time) - so with the exchange rate back then it was very cheap (ie half that figure) Good quality too, and the whole thing is highly polished, so very shiny (not that you can see it as it is under the car - but looks nice when you unwrap it!!)

found a video of a 540 with this exhaust fitted on youtube so you can hear what it sounds like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9gNGmuLZ8

Edited by filski666 on Thursday 11th June 07:27

[dunc_sx]

Stu, all's well here - still got the track car so decided to start wafting about in this too

Filski - Cheers for the info, will have a better look at that later on today Oh and I always go for full off, shame you can't just have it permently off though as fed up pressing the button!

Gerradiuk - I had a look at the restrictor but couldn't work out how it removed, did you use a hacksaw?

Dunc.

Edited by dunc_sx on Thursday 11th June 11:54

[Huff]

The restrictor is held in with two clips that slip into place on the outside of the inner 'cone'. You'll find it rotates freely in the airbox body, so if you rotate it and uses short metal spatula or similar to locate these two clips, you can depress them and the thing just pulls out. Result, more grumble under load

The TCS trick does work, and if you like it, you can simply remove the TCS dedicated throttle butterfly from the intake by (carefully!) undoing two philps screws and sliding the butterfly out in about 10mins. Easy permanent fix...

[filski666]

dunc_sx said:

Stu, all's well here - still got the track car so decided to start wafting about in this too

Filski - Cheers for the info, will have a better look at that later on today Oh and I always go for full off, shame you can't just have it permently off though as fed up pressing the button!

Gerradiuk - I had a look at the restrictor but couldn't work out how it removed, did you use a hacksaw?

Dunc.

Edited by dunc_sx on Thursday 11th June 11:54

Full off on the T/C is obviously better - but I read somewhere that the development mode was supposed to make it work a bit like a LSD (a bit like using fiddle brakes on an off-roader - using the brakes to apply torque to the spinning wheel which directs torque back through the diff to the other wheel)

Personally I found it made the car lose too much speed - but something to play with sometimes anyway

Better to just fit an M5 rear diff wih LSD and a better ratio (and when I enquired at my local BMW dealer, I could get a complete new M5 rear diff assembly with LSD for about £700 - bargain!)

[Huff]

I would add that TCS fiddles the brakes anyway, holding-down the button just turns off the clunky throttle interference until next restart. Which is why I run without that butterfly...

[dunc_sx]

Cool, thanks for the TC tips - have been considering a LSD.

Will fire the intake restrictor out asap, cheers

Dunc.

[wrighty78]

Apologies in advance for a spot of thread-hijacking, but...

I'm hoping to have a look at a couple of 540s tomorrow - is there anything particular to look out for? Unfortunately, the "search" facility seems to be out of action today.

I'm aware of the possible Nikasil (sp?) issue, the wheel wobble at 60mph due to worn bushes, the fact that air con seldom works, and the need to check door bottoms for rust. Anything else?

Thanks!

[Hammerhead]

Slackness in the steering. Can be adjusted out in two ways, first being a big 32mm bolt at the end of the steering column just in front of the (interior) bulkhead. 2nd part is a bit more involved as you need to jack the engine up in order to access the steering box. Another screw to adjust here which then gets rid of any remaining slack.

Huff and I (Huff mostly, I passed tools ) did this on his 540.

[Huff]

and it was well worth the effort, even though mine had very little play.

More to the point, don't be put off by the prospect of a little DIY. 15months in I'm finding the beast very straightforward to work on. Esp. with Hammerhead proffering beer^^^ tools.