Greetings from Italy!
So I am the new (to me) owner of a 2005 E61. This is the first BMW car I've owned. All my previous vehicles were all Japanese imports w/the exception of my last one which was an '02 Audi TT (Mitsu Eclipse, '02 Mazda P5, Turbo'd '91 Mazda Miata, '06 Mazdaspeed6). The last 2 Mazdas were heavily modded & unfortunately had to sell them all when I moved overseas 3 years ago. Now, here I am in Europe w/the family from the US & I picked up the Touring for a good price...and the thought of modding the wagon has started to grow on me. Obviously, I don't want to go overboard as this is the family hauler/dd. But I would like to make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing. I've seen some other E61s around town that got me in the mood to mod even more now lol.

The only things I'd like to do are (from easiest to most difficult:
1- Tint the windows
2 - Plastidip the chrome window trim (YUCK!)
3 - Lower it* (then swap some sportier looking wheels from another BMW w/same offset (keep the current set as winter...all season tires currently mounted)

*I believe the lowering part is most difficult as I have read that only the front suspension requires a spring swap (relatively easy) & the rear airbags require adjustment via software (relatively harder as I've never used software to lower a car before.

Can anyone point me in the right direction in concerns to #3? Should I simply find a BMW specialist or should I make the attempt on my own? If it is truly easy enough to do it myself, can you kindly provide a link for where I can purchase exactly what is needed to make this happen?

I'll post some photos later.
Thanks & hoping to learn a lot from everyone here.

This is the look I'm going for minus the chrome...




My previous ventures...
My turbo'd NA


My Miata (while stationed in Turkey)

My Speed6

My Speed6

 

Nice to see another owner here with grand plans. Forum is a bit dead but apparently there just weren't many E61s sold to warrant lots of post traffic.

I totally agree with losing the chromey bits around the windows. At some point I'll either paint mine or have them vinyl wrapped in black to avoid them being a distraction from an otherwise awesome body style.

As for lowering, I hate to mess with anything too much involving ride quality and/or possible tire wear issues, so I'm more than content to continue at stock ride height. I used 3-series 8.5" wide wheels with a different offset that pushed the wheels out another half inch to fill the wheel wells better, and once these 225 tires wear out I'll put some 245s on it to toughen it up a bit more.

 

Oh I see...that does make a bit of sense...as I never really did notice many E61s when I was stateside. I will probably join a UK forum as well...as they seem to be plentiful over here in Europe...and I mean they are EVERYWHERE. I cannot go 2 mins driving ANYWHERE in Italy without seeing at least 2-3 E61s lol.

 

Being everywhere here, that's the domain of the 3-Series in the Bay Area, especially the 335i.
Man, I wish they'd have given us a Touring model of that chassis.
I still love my 5-Series, but a little less weight with this same power train would be even better.
At some point I'll be doing a Stage 2 tune on mine and changing to the 'real' 91 octane tune when I move to Boise.

 

Nice, before I moved here I was looking at the 3 series diesel Msport, the older gen 1 series & Cooper S R53s. The price was great too...like 3500 euro lol. But in the end I decided I wanted something large and comfortable for long road trips around Europe.

 

Congrats and welcome. The dark grey looks amazing.

To address lowering the E61, you're on the right track. The front is like the E60 AWD, so springs/struts can interchange; the issue is the rear as it's specific to the E61. You're able to keep the air system and program it to drop; all you need is a laptop, free software like ISTA-P, and a $10-$15 K+DCAN cable you can buy off eBay.

If you'd rather go coilover, ICS and KW are the only two that come to mind when it comes to coilovers for the E61. They offer front coilovers and rear spring/shock conversions. You can keep the air system intact (minus bags) or remove the entire thing. All up to you. I've gone the ISC coilover and remove entire air system route. No weight gained/lost, +/- 1-2lbs, IIRC.

EDIT: This is assuming you have AWD. When it comes to the RWD E61, I believe the front end is the same as the E60 RWD, I'm not 100% on the rear, though. Likely same issue when it comes to the AWD E61.


I would also see about doing the "intro maintenance" for the E61 and see if the sunroof drains are clear, the spare wheel well modules have been moved to the left side behind the cubby, and to check your wiring in the hinges of the tailgate.

There's an E60/E61 UK facebook group that I'm in, along with the US, and both are fairly active. Since you have the 525d, I'd join/look in to the UK group as the US never got it. I see them constantly talking about DPF removals, if that means anything.


According to Wikipedia, even though there were over a million E6x produced, only ~41k were an E61, most of which likely stayed in Europe.

 

Yeah, saw a thread on those north american production #s awhile back.
Not sure how accurate this is, but linked to the post with a graph. Says there's 40 or so of my exterior color (A76), and I've only ever seen mine in person, but who knows.
https://5series.net/forums/e61-touri...2/#post15660980

 

Great info...thank you very much! I'm definitely going to get the cables in the coming weeks. Any good source for a proper ISTA-P download?

My E61 is RWD not AWD, so all the research I have done points to it being only the front that is interchangeable. I don't have a sunroof so no worries there. I'll have to look into the other things you mentioned in concerns to the intro maintenance. Honestly, if it were just me & not the family I'd go to Germany and have a proper mod session as it is so close & all things BMW could be accomplished with ease. However the $2k that I would drop for just the coilovers goes a LOOOONG way for travel pocket money...especially since we want to go to every country in Europe before my 3 year tour is up lol. So reluctantly...and I mean this literally...reluctantly my other half agreed that I could do some mods on a paupers budget lol. Especially after I basically maxed out the mods on the Miata & pumped a good amount into the Speed6...In addition to that, I'm planning to take a posting in Japan or the UK after Italy...which means getting a J-Spec car that I can legally ship back stateside (Nissan Pulsar GTI-R, Nissan Stagea "Unicorn" or just an R33/34). So happy wife now = happy me later.

 

Thank you for your service!
I spent 8yrs in Japan (Iwakuni and Yokosuka) and miss it very much. I was trying to get my son to go back there for college and to possibly set up a rare car import business at some point, but life got in the way. LOL
Must be nice not having the massive and heavy panoramic sunroof on your E61. I've never liked them, as they cause too many headaches and weigh too much. I guess mine helped me save a few hundred dollars though, as prior to purchase the PO informed me the entire cargo area was full of water, which led to renegotiation on price. Turned out to be plugged drain hoses of course, and was an absolute pain to fix.

 

OUCH! I actually wanted one w/a pano roof...I'm glad I didn't now.

Thank you & thank you for your service as well! My mil days are behind me...however I just did a 3 year stint in Afghanistan (some good stories to tell over beers haha), so I am still fighting the good fight lol. Now in Civil Service..and Italy as my first posting is a blessing