RCB

I finally finished my project for the week. It took a little longer then expected because I decided to make mounting brackets for the VRSF 7" FMIC and found another surprise. I didn't have my lift free and figured this would be a quick project so I put the front of the car on jack stands to do the work. By doing so all of the trans fluid was pushed to the back of the trans. This apparently brought the level of the fluid high enough to submerge the mechtronic connector and it revealed a large leak from the mechtaronic sleeve. After two days of sitting at an angle I had a good size puddle under my car. Fortunately I had a mechatronic sleeve and 6 quarts of fluid in stock. I ended up putting the car on a lift this week and dropping the pan to replace the sleeve. I had done a drivetrain service last winter so my pan/filter was fine. Why I didn't replace the sleeve then is beyond me but I'm just happy that having the car on stands sped up the leak enough for me to catch it. I really dodged a bullet here!


Once that was taken car of I was able to finish the FMIC, M-sport front bumper cover, side skirts and updated color matched side markers. I also got new headlight seals and polished the lights while the bumper cover was off.




Once that was all set and the car was back on the ground I replace the sunroof peremiter seal.


The finished project-

JNJ

What wheels are those and specs? They look like perfect fitment. Love the new sides and bumper. I have the same color wagon and my wife just ordered me the m5 bumper and sides as my birthday gift. Now I can't wait for mine to look like that

pocholin

RBC, great looking wagon, kudos!

That's a good amount of work recently, hopefully all for the best.

RCB

Thanks, I'm really happy with the way the car sits right now. Silver is my favorite car color, my ISF is silver and my GTX will probably go back to its original silver paint soon
Did you get an M5 bumper cover and fenders or the M-sport bumper like me? I would have loved to go full M5 but this was a more reasonable approach for me.

The wheels are 20" BMW style 128 wheels with
Yokohama S.drive
F: 255/30R20 20x9 et20
R: 255/30R20 20x10 et21

From what I understand the 20" style 128 reps are very hard to come by, especially in the U.S. (This is just what I've been told)
Perfect fitment is a very subjective thing, especially these days with all the crazy things people are doing with stance.
I have to use a stretched tire to get the wheels to work. I also had to heat and reshape the front fender liners and the rears needed a fender roll, ~10mm stretch and the fender liners needed to be heated and reshaped.
I had the option of going to M5 rear hubs which would have pulled the wheels in 20mm but I decided I didn't want to but new brakes and hubs or do the work this year. Maybe if I keep these wheels beyond this set of tires I'll go that route and that will allow me to fit more tire with less stretch in the rear. Since I opted out of M5 bumper cover and fenders I'm kinda stuck with my current front tire size.


Thank you, it's surely a labor of love. I bought this car with 84k and it's been non-stop since then between mods, maintenance and failed parts. These cars are truly not for the faint of heart but nothing beats an E61 for what it offers.
I have a few more big projects left an then hopefully the car is happy for a while.
Next up is oil pan gasket, front axel and diff seals and inlets. Maybe a set of DPs while I'm doing the inlets to get me to FBO status but I haven't purchased those yet so we will see.

I'm also in the process of doing an alcantera headliner and pillars because my headliner started to sag. I want to run the wire for the rear camera and add the bimmer-tech iPhone mirroring so I can see my music and Waze on the screen but the spending on this car has been a bit much for me.

bmwmonkey

Where did you source the M-sport bumper from? Looks very nice!

quattromeister

Nice work!!!

pocholin

Changed the motor oil myself and replaced my vacuum lines with 4mm silicone hose. Also gave it a good wash to the car and the engine bay (yes with water from car wash).

535XI Wagon

Thanks!


I have a 2008 535xi 87000km,Platinum bronze, tire and wheel size, I believe is 245/35/20


I have OEM M5 all around!

RCB

All the parts I used were new OEM parts that I purchased from a guy in New Jersey that was about to do the conversion when a turbo blew and he decided to trade the car in.

phillc

I have been doing small bit and bobs since i had the car, the main thing was putting in the CIC but since i fitted the oe sport button by cutting into my gear surround i have not been happy with it, but i managed to pick up an smg surround with the sport button fitted of ebay.

[IMG][url=https://flic.kr/p/rgiNE4]

It was not quite plug and play (Well the sport button was) but the gater and rear stick was not, the smg leaver is more like the LCI one as in its mechanical not cable operated like mine and there is no park position so the hole is a bit smaller for the gear lever, i have not bothered with the gear indicator on the cover, i took the pcb board of my old one and tucked it under the console, and blanked off the smg marks.

Whilst i was doing this i found that i could change gears without the gear stick so i changed it for an after market one which i think looks ok, the black "Leather" is exactly the same as the centre console and the chrome goes with the shiny bit around the i-Drive controller.

[IMG][url=https://flic.kr/p/JRYmPi]



I had to trim the leather gater down a bit so the lever would move fully back and forward, and so i could move it across into DS.

Over all i am quite happy with it.