E34 on a budget

[Phugoid]

I've just sold my 328i and I'm looking for an E34 as a cheap winter runaround.

I've looked at a few on various classifieds and there is no shortage between the £500 - £1000 bracket. Ideally I'd like to spend about £600 with about 6 months tax and test, and it'd have to be a 6 cylinder unit.

Are these generally reliable at this price or am I better slumming it in a cheap Fiesta?

[GTO Scott]

If you can stomach turning to the dark stuff you should be able to pick up a decent, if high mileage 525TDS for around £600. Mine was £400 and had well ove 220,000 miles. Totally reliable for the six months I owned it and even sounded quite good. Dad had a 525TDS Touring with the 5-speed auto - if you can find one the auto is the one to go for.

[Mustard]

Cant go wrong with a good 'un

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/members/showcar.asp?c...

Just buy a proper car from a long term owner whos looked after it properly rather than some used and abused barrow boys mota

[Phugoid]

Cheers guys. Want to avoid the 518, but the tds is an option i guess. A 525i with a slushbox is what I really want!

What shall I look out for when going to check one out, specific to the E34?

[Mustard]

Phugoid said:

Cheers guys. Want to avoid the 518, but the tds is an option i guess. A 525i with a slushbox is what I really want!

What shall I look out for when going to check one out, specific to the E34?

Nothing that specific, but check the rear axle bushes (MOT failure point) which perish (abt £150 at a specialist, not that easy a job that needs special tools)

Later cars have Metric tyres which are very expensive and not that good, swap to some earlier 15" BBS cross spokes or E39 16"'s with hub rings

Recent water pump is good.... cars oringinally had a crap plastic impellor which breaks up

Check the fan viscous coupling works effectively

Rest is just common sense

[sniff diesel]

GTO Scott said:

. Dad had a 525TDS Touring with the 5-speed auto - if you can find one the auto is the one to go for.

Funny you say that. The only 2 auto's I've ever owned were a '95 E34 525i touring and a '94 E36 325td, I found the M50 petrol engine brilliantly suited to the autobox - never caught in the wrong gear, smooth changes and kickdown etc. The M51 diesel however doesn't seem as well suited to the autobox IMO and the power and economy loss over the same engine with a manual (I also have a tds manual) is a lot worse. I'm not sure if both the cars have the same autobox, they appear to be pulling the same speed at a given revs in top - just under 3000 rpm @ 80 mph.

E34 is definitely more of a cruiser than an E36, was whisper quiet and very comfortable. Didn't handle as well IMO though. As already posted, I'd avoid the 518i and 520i, 525i is a great combination for the speed and fuel consumption, probably not worth going for a td/tds nowadays what with diesel being 16/17% more per litre than petrol.

[Phugoid]

Thanks for the input chaps.

Ten minutes ago my 328 drifted off to its new home, I need another 6 in my life already

I take it the 520i is a bit gutless too?

[Mustard]

Phugoid said:

Thanks for the input chaps.

Ten minutes ago my 328 drifted off to its new home, I need another 6 in my life already

I take it the 520i is a bit gutless too?

Its ok, sweet enough, but needs to be worked to make real progress and quite economical in day to day use

Off the line the 518i is probably quicker, but 520i cruises better, if your used to a 328i a 525i is the only real answer

[sniff diesel]

Mustard said:

Phugoid said:

Thanks for the input chaps.

Ten minutes ago my 328 drifted off to its new home, I need another 6 in my life already

I take it the 520i is a bit gutless too?

Its ok, sweet enough, but needs to be worked to make real progress and quite economical in day to day use

Off the line the 518i is probably quicker, but 520i cruises better, if your used to a 328i a 525i is the only real answer

In my experiences of owning an E30 320i, E28 520i and a E36 320i is the 2 litre isn't as powerful as you'd like and no more fuel efficient than the 2.5 litre. Being as they're all the same price SH near enough, you may as well go for a 2.5

[derin100]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/801741.htm

Not one of mine.

[Mustard]

derin100 said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/801741.htm

Not one of mine.

M43 Chain driven 1.8 is not such a bad engine as people think ours ran faultlessly over 7yrs 70k miles, comfortable, leisurely yes, but very economical and pulled away ok (better than the 520i if anything) even in the heavier touring body

[Kinky]

Ohhh - someones started the exact same thread I was about to start

Time to read and digest

K

[GTO Scott]

sniff diesel said:

GTO Scott said:

. Dad had a 525TDS Touring with the 5-speed auto - if you can find one the auto is the one to go for.

Funny you say that. The only 2 auto's I've ever owned were a '95 E34 525i touring and a '94 E36 325td, I found the M50 petrol engine brilliantly suited to the autobox - never caught in the wrong gear, smooth changes and kickdown etc. The M51 diesel however doesn't seem as well suited to the autobox IMO and the power and economy loss over the same engine with a manual (I also have a tds manual) is a lot worse. I'm not sure if both the cars have the same autobox, they appear to be pulling the same speed at a given revs in top - just under 3000 rpm @ 80 mph.

E34 is definitely more of a cruiser than an E36, was whisper quiet and very comfortable. Didn't handle as well IMO though. As already posted, I'd avoid the 518i and 520i, 525i is a great combination for the speed and fuel consumption, probably not worth going for a td/tds nowadays what with diesel being 16/17% more per litre than petrol.

Ah but aren't you comparing a TD auto against a TDS manual? Not sure about the E36 but the E34 TD only had 115bhp compared to the intercooled TDS' 143bhp.

As a back-to-back comparison I drove both my manual TDS & Dad's auto TDS and found the auto felt much nicer. Kickdown wasn't instant as it would be with a petrol, but I found the 5-speed auto always dropped into the power band and the car never lacked power when I needed to press on - the auto suited the car's purpose as a relaxed cruiser more than the manual. That said, the manual was definitely quicker and easier to get sideways. The other advantage to the diesel was 600+ mile range if driven sensibly - though as you say these days it's probably no more expensive per mile than a 525i.

Thought about this topic last night - regarding maintenance E34's have a habit of wearing out suspension components on the front, especially the lower ball joints. The TD/TDS models also eat glow plugs - I had to fit a set just after I bought it and Dad's had receipts for new sets of glow plugs for every year it'd been on the road. If you do look at a TD/S which has poor cold starting, a set of glow plugs is no more than £20 and are fairly easy to fit.

Slight thread hijack, but do you have any uprated suspension bits you don't need for your fleet Sniff? I'm after a set of shocks and springs for the E36.

[sniff diesel]

GTO Scott said:

Ah but aren't you comparing a TD auto against a TDS manual? Not sure about the E36 but the E34 TD only had 115bhp compared to the intercooled TDS' 143bhp....

Thought about this topic last night - regarding maintenance E34's have a habit of wearing out suspension components on the front, especially the lower ball joints. The TD/TDS models also eat glow plugs - I had to fit a set just after I bought it and Dad's had receipts for new sets of glow plugs for every year it'd been on the road. If you do look at a TD/S which has poor cold starting, a set of glow plugs is no more than £20 and are fairly easy to fit.

Slight thread hijack, but do you have any uprated suspension bits you don't need for your fleet Sniff? I'm after a set of shocks and springs for the E36.

Correct on the power difference, but the td drives the same as a tds but just with more power so I'd doubt it makes a huge difference to the smoothness. Maybe the 174k on mine has made the autobox less smooth than it should be? I think it may even be the older 4 speed box, will have to find out.

If you fit decent quality glowplugs they should last for several years. I put a set of Beru ones in mine when I first got it and they're still working fine.

Not got any spare suspension sorry Scott, I sold the Mtec stuff off my track car when I fitted the coilovers. If it's just for road use then a decent set of polybushes and just new standard dampers are good enough (very little difference with the Mtec stuff TBH) check your rear springs whislt you're down there - they tend to break.

[GTO Scott]

sniff diesel said:

Correct on the power difference, but the td drives the same as a tds but just with more power so I'd doubt it makes a huge difference to the smoothness. Maybe the 174k on mine has made the autobox less smooth than it should be? I think it may even be the older 4 speed box, will have to find out.

If you fit decent quality glowplugs they should last for several years. I put a set of Beru ones in mine when I first got it and they're still working fine.

Not got any spare suspension sorry Scott, I sold the Mtec stuff off my track car when I fitted the coilovers. If it's just for road use then a decent set of polybushes and just new standard dampers are good enough (very little difference with the Mtec stuff TBH) check your rear springs whislt you're down there - they tend to break.

Cheers for the advice sniff, according to the receipts for the last MoT mine had it was fitted with two new rear springs but I will check them - my other E36 broke both rear springs within a couple of weeks. I'm just aiming for a nice comfortable runabout that'll be fun on Welsh B-roads.

[sniff diesel]

They can go through springs at an alarming rate, genuine BMW springs seem to last longer than aftermarket ones though but not sure how much they are new - aftermarket are about £35 each from GSF.

[Phugoid]

What do we know about the 530i?

A late E34 with all the MTech kit, Alusil block replacement and black leather has popped up near me. £1000 or nearest offer.

If I can knock off a few hundred I reckon I'd get myself a bargain, just how thirsty are they though and does that big lump at the front eat it's way through more than its fair share of bushes?

V8!

[Diesel Meister]

I would have thought (I may be mistaken) that the only 3.0 available for the E34 would be the M30 (in which case you want the 535i ). Do you mean an E39 530i? I'd be surprised if they were as cheap as £1k but these days S/H market valuations are a free for all

[Phugoid]

It's a 94/95 E34 model. Is the V8 in this a bit archaic?

I guess being a 3.0 it bears no relation to the V8 that was doing the rounds in the 7 and 8 series at the time.

[Diesel Meister]

Phugoid said:

It's a 94/95 E34 model. Is the V8 in this a bit archaic?

I guess being a 3.0 it bears no relation to the V8 that was doing the rounds in the 7 and 8 series at the time.

No, you're right I meant straight sixes as per the OP There was a 3.0 V8 (218bhp) and the 4.0 (286). They're not archaic in the way the M30 is (chain driven straight six of 2.8, 3.0 and 3.5 litres, used in the E28, E32 and E34). The M60 3.0 V8 is a nice engine but the same as buying the 535 M62 3.5 V8 in the E39 - less go for the same thirst (think 19-20mpg). It's not a bad car (brisker than an M50 2.5 (only marginally though!) and makes a nice noise) but if you're going for an eight, it may as well be the 4.0 M60 (or 4.4 M62).

Edited by Diesel Meister on Thursday 27th November 14:10