No.39 - 1995 BMW E34 M5 UK Limited Edition #39/50
Discussion
Another_James said:
Thanks!
I stumbled across an Imola individual at a 2nd hand car dealer in Peterborough around 2009. S reg with a number plate ending EBC. Up for £7k and he offered me £2k for my 328i sport. Turned it down as I thought mine was worth more than that! Seen that car trade hands for many times that since!
Finally got the M3 pictured in 2013 and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately it span a rod bearing for the 2nd time despite the engine having a very expensive full rebuild at BMW specialist CPC 2 years and 7k miles previous. Was looking to buy a house at the time and couldn’t really justify the expense of putting it right so sold it to a chap on the E36 coupe forum who put an S54 in it. Had a E46 M3 a couple of years later but I much preferred the E36 despite it being an objectively better car.
Never driven any E34’s of any flavour and can’t remember the last time I even saw one let alone an M5. Very special car you have there. That big straight six must sound incredible.
Wow £7,000 is well priced but then it was at the bottom of the depreciation curve around then. I must say my first 328i Sport I got in 2012 for an absolutely steal at £2,250 with just 68,000 miles the clock, Montreal Blue with cream leather and various options including Cruise Control it was a really lovely car. That was from a private seller however who I don't think really knew quite how desirable it was, one of those 'once in a lifetime' finds. That condition of car would be worth well over £5,000 by now or potentially even more considering the silly money people are asking for high milage tatty automatics.I stumbled across an Imola individual at a 2nd hand car dealer in Peterborough around 2009. S reg with a number plate ending EBC. Up for £7k and he offered me £2k for my 328i sport. Turned it down as I thought mine was worth more than that! Seen that car trade hands for many times that since!
Finally got the M3 pictured in 2013 and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately it span a rod bearing for the 2nd time despite the engine having a very expensive full rebuild at BMW specialist CPC 2 years and 7k miles previous. Was looking to buy a house at the time and couldn’t really justify the expense of putting it right so sold it to a chap on the E36 coupe forum who put an S54 in it. Had a E46 M3 a couple of years later but I much preferred the E36 despite it being an objectively better car.
Never driven any E34’s of any flavour and can’t remember the last time I even saw one let alone an M5. Very special car you have there. That big straight six must sound incredible.
Oh dear that is very bad luck having it happen twice...!
I'm familiar with CPC, they did a lot of work on my M5 back in 2012 prior to my ownership. Do you know what the cause of the bearing failure was? One of the jobs I want to get done on mine is the bearings, as well as timing chain and guides/tensioner. Coincidentally I'm also hoping to buy a house soon so progress on refurbishing my front axle along with all the other work I want to do is very far from the top of the list.Yes it's not too bad...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuiMPIjSND0
The first time it spun no2 rod bearing due to stretched rod bolts which is a fairly common failure on S50’s at higher mileages. This happened to the previous owner and he had CPC do a full rebuild for about £4.5k if memory serves. He then did around 4K miles over 18 months in it before selling.
I then did around 3k miles in it before it again spun a rod bearing on no2 cylinder. I don’t know for certain the exact cause but the other bearings were in good shape and the ARP rod bolts hadn’t stretched. As a part of the rebuild it had the crank reground and the effected rod replaced. I suspect the bearing clearance was incorrect which caused the bearing to wear out but I can’t know for sure. I know it was never over revved or run low on oil in my ownership but the previous owner possibly could have although it seems unlikely considering the money he’d put into the car and the meticulous records he kept.
CPC didn’t want to know as it’d had been 2yrs and the car had changed hands. I don’t know if the quality of the rebuild was at fault but I will say that they had billed for parts such as the water pump and a whole bunch of breather hoses that upon inspection had clearly never been replaced.
I then did around 3k miles in it before it again spun a rod bearing on no2 cylinder. I don’t know for certain the exact cause but the other bearings were in good shape and the ARP rod bolts hadn’t stretched. As a part of the rebuild it had the crank reground and the effected rod replaced. I suspect the bearing clearance was incorrect which caused the bearing to wear out but I can’t know for sure. I know it was never over revved or run low on oil in my ownership but the previous owner possibly could have although it seems unlikely considering the money he’d put into the car and the meticulous records he kept.
CPC didn’t want to know as it’d had been 2yrs and the car had changed hands. I don’t know if the quality of the rebuild was at fault but I will say that they had billed for parts such as the water pump and a whole bunch of breather hoses that upon inspection had clearly never been replaced.
Another_James said:
The first time it spun no2 rod bearing due to stretched rod bolts which is a fairly common failure on S50’s at higher mileages. This happened to the previous owner and he had CPC do a full rebuild for about £4.5k if memory serves. He then did around 4K miles over 18 months in it before selling.
I then did around 3k miles in it before it again spun a rod bearing on no2 cylinder. I don’t know for certain the exact cause but the other bearings were in good shape and the ARP rod bolts hadn’t stretched. As a part of the rebuild it had the crank reground and the effected rod replaced. I suspect the bearing clearance was incorrect which caused the bearing to wear out but I can’t know for sure. I know it was never over revved or run low on oil in my ownership but the previous owner possibly could have although it seems unlikely considering the money he’d put into the car and the meticulous records he kept.
CPC didn’t want to know as it’d had been 2yrs and the car had changed hands. I don’t know if the quality of the rebuild was at fault but I will say that they had billed for parts such as the water pump and a whole bunch of breather hoses that upon inspection had clearly never been replaced.
From what you've said I was thinking exactly the same in that the crank may have been ground too much for a standard bearing, but like you say, not possible to be sure.I then did around 3k miles in it before it again spun a rod bearing on no2 cylinder. I don’t know for certain the exact cause but the other bearings were in good shape and the ARP rod bolts hadn’t stretched. As a part of the rebuild it had the crank reground and the effected rod replaced. I suspect the bearing clearance was incorrect which caused the bearing to wear out but I can’t know for sure. I know it was never over revved or run low on oil in my ownership but the previous owner possibly could have although it seems unlikely considering the money he’d put into the car and the meticulous records he kept.
CPC didn’t want to know as it’d had been 2yrs and the car had changed hands. I don’t know if the quality of the rebuild was at fault but I will say that they had billed for parts such as the water pump and a whole bunch of breather hoses that upon inspection had clearly never been replaced.
I'm quite surprised at the water pump/hoses, they generally have a great reputation.
A couple of weeks has gone by but I finally managed to get out today and refit the slave.
Before fitting the refurbished unit I thought it wise to brim the reservoir with fresh fluid a couple of times and just keep slowly lifting the clutch pedal up and down by hand to flush out any old fluid. I used my handy oil drain box to collect the fluid exiting the flexihose.
I found it best to attach the union line before mounting the slave onto the bell housing, that way there is enough space to tighten the union securely. Before tightening I lifted the unit roughly up into place to ensure that I had the flexihose roughly in the right orientation in order to avoid any twisting once bolted into place.
Manoeuvring the unit in place while compressing the piston whilst lying on my back under the car and holding it with one hand whilst trying to get a nut on with zero space was an absolute pain in the arse. Finally managed to get the bottom mounting stud through just enough to get a nut on by leaving that union locating bracket off, I then 'levered' the assembly up using the bottom nut as an anchor which enabled me to get the top nut on. I then removed that bottom nut again and applied the same levering technique to get enough purchase to get the union bracket and nut back on. Tightening torque I believe is 22Nm however my torque wrench starts at 40Nm therefore I judged by hand what felt about right.
I had to bend the solid fluid line a little to ensure it doesn't foul on the transmission tunnel insulation, and then enlisted some assistance to pump the pedal whilst bleeding the system.
The car now moves under it's own power again, happy days. As previously mentioned there was some corrosion/scoring in the bore which I cleaned up a lot however there was still a small amount of pitting in the bottom which was minor. I'm hoping the pitting is small enough not to matter, and for the tiny cost of the resealing kit it was well worth ago. The clutch seems to operate well so hopefully all is cured.
Before fitting the refurbished unit I thought it wise to brim the reservoir with fresh fluid a couple of times and just keep slowly lifting the clutch pedal up and down by hand to flush out any old fluid. I used my handy oil drain box to collect the fluid exiting the flexihose.
I found it best to attach the union line before mounting the slave onto the bell housing, that way there is enough space to tighten the union securely. Before tightening I lifted the unit roughly up into place to ensure that I had the flexihose roughly in the right orientation in order to avoid any twisting once bolted into place.
Manoeuvring the unit in place while compressing the piston whilst lying on my back under the car and holding it with one hand whilst trying to get a nut on with zero space was an absolute pain in the arse. Finally managed to get the bottom mounting stud through just enough to get a nut on by leaving that union locating bracket off, I then 'levered' the assembly up using the bottom nut as an anchor which enabled me to get the top nut on. I then removed that bottom nut again and applied the same levering technique to get enough purchase to get the union bracket and nut back on. Tightening torque I believe is 22Nm however my torque wrench starts at 40Nm therefore I judged by hand what felt about right.
I had to bend the solid fluid line a little to ensure it doesn't foul on the transmission tunnel insulation, and then enlisted some assistance to pump the pedal whilst bleeding the system.
The car now moves under it's own power again, happy days. As previously mentioned there was some corrosion/scoring in the bore which I cleaned up a lot however there was still a small amount of pitting in the bottom which was minor. I'm hoping the pitting is small enough not to matter, and for the tiny cost of the resealing kit it was well worth ago. The clutch seems to operate well so hopefully all is cured.
For five and a half years I've experienced the tragic suffering of having to look at an utterly ghastly faded parcel shelf. I'm sure all 90s BMW owners are familiar with this monstrosity. Whilst funding was low I decided it was time to rectify this low cost problem!
There were two specific tasks; the reupholstery, and repairing the structure itself, as the off side section around the speaker had snapped off completely and broken in four places and was left clinging to the fabric. I think I know exactly how this happened, prior to my ownership the OSR damper was removed and it looks like an attempt to bend the shelf for better access to top mounts went wrong.
Peeling off the original fabric was easy, I then removed any glue residue with a wire brush which worked well. A cheap fibreglass repair kit was used to repair the structure around the speaker grill as well as a couple of cracks elsewhere. I wrapped the speaker grill in cling film trying to use it as a guide but it got in the way and kept falling off so I used clamps instead to try and place the broken pieces as accurately as possible. Once dry test fitting the grill thankfully showed I'd got the shape spot on! A dremel first with a small cutting disk and then a sandpaper grinding tool allowed the excess fibreglass to be trimmed and tidied.
Sourcing new fabric was initially difficult, I spoke to three different companies all of whom either provided terrible customer service, unsuitable fabric, or both. After a few months of back and forth mucking about chasing people and comparing samples finally Martrim came to the rescue with something similar enough to be suitable, a black suede/alcantara which more importantly is not foam backed which enables the fabric to be formed into tight spaces. It comes in 1.5 meter wide rolls so I ordered a 1 meter length which was more that enough, the total cost including delivery came to around £56.
https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/pr...
Sticking the fabric on was the hardest part, I used a general fabric spray adhesive and worked in sections gradually sticking and rolling the fabric over. This is the first upholstery I've ever done so found it tricky and soon found out that any mistakes need to be quickly rectified, but I got there in the end. Once the fabric was correctly fitted to all of the shapes and contours I trimmed off the excess around the edges and in the speaker grill holes with scissors and a stanley knife, leaving a centimetre or so for wrapping around the edges and gluing underneath.
The finished product isn't perfect, but is much better than it was. The type of fabric once brushed around helps hide some of the imperfections which is a bonus! Well chuffed.
There were two specific tasks; the reupholstery, and repairing the structure itself, as the off side section around the speaker had snapped off completely and broken in four places and was left clinging to the fabric. I think I know exactly how this happened, prior to my ownership the OSR damper was removed and it looks like an attempt to bend the shelf for better access to top mounts went wrong.
Peeling off the original fabric was easy, I then removed any glue residue with a wire brush which worked well. A cheap fibreglass repair kit was used to repair the structure around the speaker grill as well as a couple of cracks elsewhere. I wrapped the speaker grill in cling film trying to use it as a guide but it got in the way and kept falling off so I used clamps instead to try and place the broken pieces as accurately as possible. Once dry test fitting the grill thankfully showed I'd got the shape spot on! A dremel first with a small cutting disk and then a sandpaper grinding tool allowed the excess fibreglass to be trimmed and tidied.
Sourcing new fabric was initially difficult, I spoke to three different companies all of whom either provided terrible customer service, unsuitable fabric, or both. After a few months of back and forth mucking about chasing people and comparing samples finally Martrim came to the rescue with something similar enough to be suitable, a black suede/alcantara which more importantly is not foam backed which enables the fabric to be formed into tight spaces. It comes in 1.5 meter wide rolls so I ordered a 1 meter length which was more that enough, the total cost including delivery came to around £56.
https://www.martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-supplies/pr...
Sticking the fabric on was the hardest part, I used a general fabric spray adhesive and worked in sections gradually sticking and rolling the fabric over. This is the first upholstery I've ever done so found it tricky and soon found out that any mistakes need to be quickly rectified, but I got there in the end. Once the fabric was correctly fitted to all of the shapes and contours I trimmed off the excess around the edges and in the speaker grill holes with scissors and a stanley knife, leaving a centimetre or so for wrapping around the edges and gluing underneath.
The finished product isn't perfect, but is much better than it was. The type of fabric once brushed around helps hide some of the imperfections which is a bonus! Well chuffed.
Court_S said:
That’s a lovely thing OP and fair play for dong the work yourself on axle stands.
The parcel shelf looks good; much better than the old dealer trick of dusting it with black spray paint.
Cheers, hoping to start work on the front end within the next few months.The parcel shelf looks good; much better than the old dealer trick of dusting it with black spray paint.
Indeed! I thought about dying it but feared it a messy job, although to be fair probably no more difficult than reupholstery!
DannyB2007 said:
Good times mate, i do miss the "great white" in the photo! Glad you still have the M5 mate, and loved reading up on it and and all the photos! Hope to catch up with you soon
Danny
Cheers, hope you're keeping well. Yep I've still got it, no plans to move it on any time soon either.Danny
Edited by James Hay on Thursday 2nd December 11:24
That’s a lovely example you have there. Like many people I just wish I’d bought one when prices were on the floor.
I have a 535i sport though, which probably suits my wallet a little more. It might not have the power of the M5 but I’ve always liked the grunt of an M30b3.5 although I miss the revs of twin cam engine.
Here’s mine…
I have a 535i sport though, which probably suits my wallet a little more. It might not have the power of the M5 but I’ve always liked the grunt of an M30b3.5 although I miss the revs of twin cam engine.
Here’s mine…
Mark-E34-535 said:
That’s a lovely example you have there. Like many people I just wish I’d bought one when prices were on the floor.
I have a 535i sport though, which probably suits my wallet a little more. It might not have the power of the M5 but I’ve always liked the grunt of an M30b3.5 although I miss the revs of twin cam engine.
Here’s mine…
Very cool it looks great, nice to see another E34 survivor! Number plate is a nice touch as well.I have a 535i sport though, which probably suits my wallet a little more. It might not have the power of the M5 but I’ve always liked the grunt of an M30b3.5 although I miss the revs of twin cam engine.
Here’s mine…
Thanks.
I've been looking at sorting the faded parcel shelf and the sagging in the rear corner of the head liner so your link to Martrim could come in handy. The part I'm not confident about sorting though is the sunroof section so I've been considering using a pro trimmer instead. I'm also thinking of going with black rather than grey?
I've been looking at sorting the faded parcel shelf and the sagging in the rear corner of the head liner so your link to Martrim could come in handy. The part I'm not confident about sorting though is the sunroof section so I've been considering using a pro trimmer instead. I'm also thinking of going with black rather than grey?
Mark-E34-535 said:
Thanks.
I've been looking at sorting the faded parcel shelf and the sagging in the rear corner of the head liner so your link to Martrim could come in handy. The part I'm not confident about sorting though is the sunroof section so I've been considering using a pro trimmer instead. I'm also thinking of going with black rather than grey?
Glad it was helpful! The match isn't exact and there are likely better options available, but after speaking to a handful of people this was the closest I could find. I'd only recommend retiming any headlining or pillar sections if you're going to do the whole lot otherwise it would look odd, the parcel shelf is really the only part you could do on it's own.I've been looking at sorting the faded parcel shelf and the sagging in the rear corner of the head liner so your link to Martrim could come in handy. The part I'm not confident about sorting though is the sunroof section so I've been considering using a pro trimmer instead. I'm also thinking of going with black rather than grey?
The sunroof seems to be held on differently to the headlining on mine, looks like its hung from ribs rather than glued, not sure about yours? Grey is nice and airy, black makes a car feel more cocooned so depends when you like the look/feel of.
I also made a video if it helps...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTh9gbY7upM
Cheers.
Slight hijack...I think you may be the chap who owned my e39 M5 after me in 2016, would that be correct?
Had remembered our chat when you got in touch through FB back then and it was a photo of your e34 that led me here.
Assuming I'm not talking complete b
ks, did you get rid of the e39? Have always been curious as to how it's doing and I know it hasn't had an MOT for a good while now.
Had remembered our chat when you got in touch through FB back then and it was a photo of your e34 that led me here.
Assuming I'm not talking complete b
ks, did you get rid of the e39? Have always been curious as to how it's doing and I know it hasn't had an MOT for a good while now.Edited by Patrick Bateman on Thursday 27th January 22:29
Patrick Bateman said:
Slight hijack...I think you may be the chap who owned my e39 M5 after me in 2016, would that be correct?
Had remembered our chat when you got in touch through FB back then and it was a photo of your e34 that led me here.
Assuming I'm not talking complete bks, did you get rid of the e39? Have always been curious as to how it's doing and I know it hasn't had an MOT for a good while now.
Not quite, the E39 belonged to Fred a friend of mine. He loved it, I drove it briefly once as well. The caramel heritage leather was lovely.Had remembered our chat when you got in touch through FB back then and it was a photo of your e34 that led me here.
Assuming I'm not talking complete b
ks, did you get rid of the e39? Have always been curious as to how it's doing and I know it hasn't had an MOT for a good while now.Edited by Patrick Bateman on Thursday 27th January 22:29
I believe he changed it for a TVR but I don't know what life it had following Freds ownership I'm afraid.
Ah yes Fred, I couldn't remember the name as the facebook account he'd contacted me on has since been deactivated although I can see he's actually on here as e28525e further back in the thread anyway. 
Will need to fire him an email. Saw his youtube channel and it's weird seeing your old car on someone else's video-
https://youtu.be/M34TOrbHrv4
Will need to fire him an email. Saw his youtube channel and it's weird seeing your old car on someone else's video-
https://youtu.be/M34TOrbHrv4
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