Hey everybody,

I really don't post much but I felt like this was worth sharing with you all on the forums. I acquired my BMW 545i a few years ago and have been messing with it ever since. I am strictly posting this if anyone needs help or advice modding their e60’s. I do not care for any of your opinions, suggestions, or even compliments on my car. I am not posting this to show off my car. When I decided to attempt most of these projects on my car, I could't find much discussion online. I am happy to answer any questions about installation, where to purchase these parts, prices for projects, and anything else you may be wondering. Overall, here is what I have done to my car:

Exterior:
● M5 replica front bumper—decided to not go with the fog light Mtech bumper because I wanted my car to have that clean M5 look to it. Note: a real e60 M5 front bumper will not fit on our standard e60 models due to the fender flare difference.
● APR e92 M3 carbon fiber splitter—Yes I know, I bought a splitter for a different bmw model car! Simply because APR does not make e60 carbon fiber splitters and the e92 M3 splitter had almost identical dimensions to fit my replica M5 bumper!
● Mtech M5 side skirts
● AC Schnitzer trunk spoiler
● M5 replica rear bumper
● OEM M5 side mirrors—I bought some oem mirrors off a guy on the forums for like $600(normally $2500 online if you can even find them!). The biggest issue I had with these was re-wiring them!! Even though my car is a 2005(but was technically made in December of 2004) it has the old 3-clip wires for the mirrors. ANYBODY THAT NEEDS ADVICE ON RE-WIRING M5 SIDE MIRRORS TO A PRE-LCI E60 PLEASE MESSAGE ME! I was able to figure it out very easily and it’s actually not as hard of a project as one would think! Took only about 4 hours for me to remove my door trim panels, remove the old mirrors, splice wires, and install the M5 mirrors.
● VHT night shades blacked out side markers

Wheels:
● SSR GT-03 19”(found them for a very low $300!) restored with powder coated gloss black faces and lip, and polished bolts($400 for all of this work) on Pirelli P Zero Nero GT tires. 18mm rear spacers, and 30mm front spacers(rear spacers from BurgerTuning, front spacers from ECS. To get the wheels to not vibrate I needed to add 74.1/72.6 hub centric rings(ECS tuning). I custom vinyl wrapped my BMW center caps with gloss black 3M vinyl wrap and added a SSR decal, in addition to white SSR decals on wheel lips.
● StopTech slotted and cross drilled rotors(Turner Motorsports)
● OEM brake pad replacement(ECS)
● Red Duplicator painted brake calipers and ///M decal on them

Interior:
● 15% double ceramic window tint on every window
● OEM M5 floor mats
● black 3M vinyl wrapped gear shift knob and /// decal installed
● black plastidipped idrive knob
● carbon fiber vinyl wrapped interior trim—I need to update this next because it has been on my car for almost 4 years and is starting to peel

Lights:
● Clear bra 3M vinyl wrap on headlights and gloss black 3M vinyl wrap on top portion of headlights(vinyl wrap from Amazon) prior to headlight vinyl wrap installation I polished the headlights w/ Meguiar’s Heavy Duty Headlight Restoration Kit(from Costco)
● Ziza LED angel eye bulbs(ECS tuning)

Performance/Misc:
● quad cat-back exhaust(gutted muffler so basically a straight pipe)
● myself Duplicolor painted custom gloss black and gloss red engine cover w/ clear coat(Duplicolor Engine enamel 500°F high temp paint used)
● aFe cold air intake(Turner Motorsports)

Repairs/Replacements:
**Note: not all work has been done by myself. If you live in the metro-detroit area I highly recommend you visit All Pointes Auto! Mike is the man, and he knows almost everything there is to know about foreigns!
● myself ECS Ziza halo replacement(@110k; in Nov. 2014)
● alternator bracket gasket replaced(@110k; Mike All Pointes)
● valve cover gasket replaced(@110k; Mike All Pointes)
● timing chain gasket replaced(@110k; Mike All Pointes)
● VANOS seals replaced(@110k; Mike All Pointes), serpentine belt replaced(@110k; Mike All Pointes)
● original alternator rebuilt(the oil leaked from my old gaskets and basically fried the original alternator)(@110k; Mike All Pointes)
● myself cabin(a/c) filter replaced(@110k)
● front sub frame replaced from(@130k; Mike All Pointes)
● OEM brake pads and sensor replaced(@130k; Mike All Pointes)
● Pirelli P Zero Nero GT tires(@130k)
● ECS Ziza halo second replacement(@130k; ECS replaced them for free b/c they have a 30,000hr lifespan)

Miscellaneous & Car Care:
● TurtleWax Black Box wax applied to car every summer
● currently have been applying “wax as you dry” every 3-4 washes and works great!
● Tire shine every other time I wash the car

So far my car has ~140,000 miles on it and is still running strong! If you made it through the entire writeup congrats! If not, let me know if you have any questions regarding my car or future projects you plan to take on. I would love to eventually post a writeup for every project I have completed but at this point it would take too long. If I get enough feedback I might post the important projects. Thanks again!

 

Looks good! Nicely done! I have always loved the SSR's. Nice find!

 

hi///nice mods..

question...
its your car pre 9/05?
if yes how did u fit the after 9/05 (1 connector)m5 mirrors (heated.dim.power fold.)in a pre 9/05(3 conectors)>>??/
i know is possible to put pre 9/05 m5 mirrors on post 9/05 BUT not the other way around
thx u

 

Yes, even though my car is a 2005 it's actual date of production is late December of 2004. In the most simple way I can think to explain it, the steps I did went like this:
1) I removed my original 545i mirror motor from my original mirror and swapped it with the motor on the M5 mirrors
2) I then spliced all wires and removed the clips from the M5 mirrors, and re-attached these spliced wires to my original 3 connector clips. Every feature I originally had on my car works! The only thing that does not work is the auto folding mirrors(which my 545i did not have anyways since this is unique to the M5). To connect the wires to my 3 prong original clips, I simply used electrical tape to hold the M5 wires to the 545i wires(I know this might sound iffy but it's been almost 2 years and everything still works fine *knock on wood*).

 

if the mirrors of the m5 have power fold u can code it to lift up and come down from the key fob
plz let me know

thx u

steli

 

Yes this is true from what I have read online and seen on a few youtube videos. I did not want to spend the time coding in this feature, and I did not want to mess with the electronics of my car so I did not attempt this. However, it is possible to code the mirrors to fold on our cars!

 

Very Nice!! Love the effort.

 

I have a 07 550i non sport and so far I've put a mtech front bumper form umnitza and a 550i sport rear from rockauto.com on my car. Black out side markers and 10w halos from trinity autosport. A joystick shifter from bimmian.com. wrapped hood, roof and trunk lid in jet black. I live in florida and paint on a blk car fades easy. but I need to know a good place to get side skirts, brake disc/pads, struts/shocks at a good price. I'm most likely gonna go with the eibach pro kit. With the heavier v8 engine I want to make sure I get a suspension that will hold the weight.

 

Excellent attention to detail. You didn't mention the sound. Is it worth the straight pipe (no muffler) investment?