Just bought an E34 525i Touring!

[pundit]

Well after a couple of years away from this place I'm back!

I've had my '89 E34 535i Executive for six years and while it's been a good old thang, a recent accident amongst other things made me decide it was time to move on.

After looking at several E39's the only version I could stomach was a 530 'M' Sport.

However these are still cracking in at around $25k in Oz for something late with low km's so I went back to thinking about an E34 touring.

After looking around a white '92 525i caught my eye. I had a look at it and the body was clean and straight, 260k km's, factory 17" alloys (not T Stars), dual sunroofs but a cloth interior with a few worn spots.

There was also another white 525i Touring listed with the main differences being standard basketweaves, 20k less on the clock and a blue leather interior.

This one was listed at $13,000 while the cloth interior one was $6,900.
In a nutshell I ended up buying the first one for $6,500.

I picked it up this morning. Overall I'm pretty happy with it especially for the money.
A few things don't work such as the cruise control, auto sports mode switch, the left hand power mirror and I can't seem to reset the trip meter but all in all I think it was a reasonable buy. It has a reco auto, new disc rotors and pads and came with a roadworthy and rego until September 2011.

I'm thinking the recently recoed auto may have something to do with the sports mode and cruise control not working. I'll need to investigate this further. (UPDATE: The cruise control and auto sports mode started working again. Obviously some intermittant electrical gremlins going on!)

Basically I'm going to swap the best bits out of my 535i Executive sedan into the Touring such as my leather memory seats, (I'll get the rear Touring seat retrimmed to match) door trims, full OBC, driving lights, auto dimming mirror, front Eibach springs and Koni's and maybe my T Stars and a few other things.

If anyone (Shogun?) can please advise regarding fitting the November 1989 535i memory seats (also with memory mirror function) into a May 1992 525i Touring I would appreciate it. Is it possible to fit and connect the 535i memory seat loom directly into the 525 Touring without cutting any of the wiring?

Here's some pics...

http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319746.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319754.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319759.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319760.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319764.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319771.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319778.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319783.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319786.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319794.jpg
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~rowmat/photos/bmw/touring/10319803.jpg

[genphreak]

Congrats! She looks like a beauty! Welcome to Touring Heaven. I reckon the M50 is one of the sweetest engines the e34 has. With an EAT chip it'd have to be a ball! Beware the OBC ocnversion, it requires you to swap the whole dash surround and also to rewire the connector, I did it but didn't realise about the connector so have a dead OBC in mine. Tranny will probably just be the switch suffering drinks spillage or loose plug... Lovely car u got there, and the best colour too...

[Mr._Graybeard]

To me, Style 32 wheels are among the nicest to have on an E34. They look ... elegant.

[Tiger]

Keep it simple! Less headaches. Clean out that A/S tranny switch.... easy fix.

[Bo525i]

Sweet ride, and I adore the tourings in white!

[BigKriss]

I really like the look of tourings.

[Bruno]

Very nice car, my touring is my summer car I love it. This summer I will swap the transmission to a 5 speed and I am now buying the pieces to install a turbo.

[genphreak]

Yea, M50 turbo, 5 speed. I'll probably wreck my manual 525i one day and build up an s50 lookalike, turbo, megasquirt and manual, then stick it in the touring... one day!

In the meantime, Go Bruno! Should be a very worthwhile project, eonomy, feel, performance, touring style... nice!

[Bruno]

I will document the project, I picked up a bunch of turbo parts from an E36 owner. The advantage over the M30 turbo build is that there is tons of E36s with turbos and there is a lot of different turbo kits and manifolds available.
I will document both the 5 speed swap and the turbo install and also megasquirt, I will also make my megasquirt files available for both my M30 turbo and M50 turbo.

I love turbo cars, so much fun!!!

[ltflint]

Sweet ride, and I adore the tourings in white!

Me too!


Very nice car, my touring is my summer car I love it. This summer I will swap the transmission to a 5 speed and I am now buying the pieces to install a turbo.

5 speed really transformed my car. I would love to do a turbo as well. Can't wait to read the documentation on yours!

[actech]

Hi,
newbie here from the Gold coast. (E36 540iLE + E36 325i.)
Thought I recognised this touring. I lusted after it in 2007 when it was on carsales. I saved the advert and the pics as I loved the combo of a white touring and those wheels !
Just love those wheels, BMW Style 32's ? In 2007 I though they were Alpina rims, but I guess not.
What put me off was the blue cloth interior, but sounds like you have that sorted.
If you want a copy of the ad from back then just let me know, I could email it or post it somewhere.
It was advertised for $11,990 then with 280,000kms.

Nice buying for 6500.

Cheers,

Andrew

[tim eh?]

nice ride!

[pundit]

Hi Andrew,

I'm in Melbourne and bought it privately down here.

The guy I bought it off only owned it for around a year. He had also bought a damaged E34 540 and was intending to transfer all the 540 mechanicals over to the Touring in order to convert it into a 540 Touring but he told me he lost interest. His wife had been driving the Touring and I suspect she probably got sick of the electrical bugs and that's why it was sold fairly cheap.

However I can tell you it was sold new in Sydney to the Hungarian Consulate in 1992.

The genuine style 32 wheels (5 including spare) were purchased new in 1993 with tyres for $2500.

Overall I'm pretty happy with it though I am still chasing the electrical gremlins.

The sunroof leaked quite badly during the heavy rain we had down here a few weeks ago saturating the console area and carpets.

I'm now suspecting this has happened previously which may be the cause of some of the electrical bugs due to moisture getting into some of the electrics.

I would appreciate a copy of the ad if you have it.

I'll PM you with my email address.

Cheers

[pundit]

Hmmm just noticed what you wrote...

"It was advertised for $11,990 then with 280,000kms."

Mine had 260,000kms on it.

Either different car or... ???