FS - 1990 e34 M5 3.6

£10k spent in restoration over the last 18 months

I thought I'd be keeping this for a long time, but I fell in love with another, and I just can't afford the time, money or space to keep both.

If anyone wants a solid car, with a good chassis, a beautiful interior and lots of new parts on it then please consider this - the only mechanical issue is a
whining input shaft on the gearbox, although the gearbox has done about 30,000 miles with me and hasn't gotten any worse. Plus I'm throwing in a gearbox
rebuilt about 2000 miles ago, a clutch that was fitted at the time, flywheel and rebuilt propshaft.

The only part of the car I have not refreshed/replaced/refurbished is the engine, as it had a rebuild about a year before I bought it with 114,000 miles on it.
With this in mind, I assume the engine will be fine for another 100,000 miles and so I've concentrated on getting everything else up to scratch. We've got
excellent compression in all 6 cylinders, #4 is giving 13.5 bar compared to the 12.5 bar of the other 5. There is a seeping cam chest seal, but this has been
there a while and the only symptom is an oily smell after a run.

I've spent over £10,000 over the last 18 months getting this car back into good condition and was planning to keep this as long as my last one (over 6 years).


The car spec is as follows:
• 1990 E34 3.6 M5
• 315bhp
• 265lb/ft
• Diamond Schwarz metallic exterior
• Champagne leather interior
• Rare 4 seat interior (2 rear bucket-style seats rather than bench)
• Rear sun blind
• Climate control
• Ski-hatch
• 315mm front brakes
• Ferodo DS2500 pads all round
• M-Aerodynamic mirrors
• DARJAC Racing custom Bilstein suspension
• DARJAC Racing HID install
• Lightly tinted windows
• Clear indicators
• Heated windscreen washer jets
• Headlight washers
• Complete BMW tool-kit
• First aid kit
• Fire extinguisher
• Remote central locking, alarm & immobiliser
• Black centred-wheels with Turbine or Throwing Star covers
• JVC DAB radio/CD/MP3 head unit


To that end I've done the following (mostly by DARJAC Racing in Essex) - i.e. the 'good' bits:

• Replaced the standard BMW suspension with a custom Bilstein kit from DARJAC Racing - including new bushes, links, arms, etc. all round (about £2000
  in parts)
  
  
• Had the engine cooling system overhauled at DARJAC Racing - including heater matrix, radiator, fans, thermostat, water pump (about £2000 in parts)
  
  
• Replaced all the ignition & timing components in an effort to get to the bottom of my misfire - including coil, rotor & cap, distributor, ignition leads, plugs,
  throttle position sensor, cam position sensor, crank vibration damper, alternator, starter motor (about £2000)
  
  
• Had the climate control overhauled - including fan, refurbed compressor, air con condensor (about £750)
  
  
• Had the champagne interior completely stripped and reconnolised in the original champagne colour (£600)
  
  
• Put new discs & Ferodo DS2500 pads all round about 20,000 miles ago (about £750 in parts)
  
  
• 4 x Continental SportContact 2 tyres all round (now at 4/5mm) - 235/45z17 front and 255/40z17 rear (£500)
  
  
• Had a DARJAC Racing Gen 4 HID kit fitted
  
  
• Had regular scheduled servicing including valve clearances done at DARJAC Racing, plus interim oil changes done by me at 3,000 mile intervals - 2 gallons
  of my preferred oil will go with the car as I can't use it on the Z4MC
  
  
• Replaced boomy straight-through exhaust system (no cats or silencers) with a full M5 one
  
  
• Added a JVC DAB head unit with MP3 on CD capability

The car will also come supplied with some spares if sold for the full asking price:

• The big brakes listed below - plus an unopened set of Goodrich hoses - I intended to strip & refurbish the later 3.8 brakes (343mm front/328mm rear
  discs plus calipers), but have not got round to doing anything other than disassembling them and it'll just be an extra outlay that I can probably avoid (i.e. new
  pistons, seals, etc.)
  
  
• The reconditioned gearbox, clutch, flywheel and propshaft with which I was going to replace mine
  
  
• M-aerodynamic mirrors
  
  
• 2 x continental sportcontact 2 tyres that I took of for the Pistonheads tyre test I did - two of the test tyres are still on the front wheels, the rears now have
  two of the Continentals on
  
  
• 2 sets of wheel covers - the original Turbine covers and the later Throwing Star covers with new BMW centre caps
  
  
• plus whatever other bits & pieces I find in the garage

THE 'NOT-SO-GOOD' BITS:

• There an oil leak from the cam chest gasket - not a major leak and the car only uses about 1L of oil every 3000 miles - but the oil leaks down onto the
  exhaust manifold and you end up with an oily smell after a run
  
  
• The only cosmetic stuff that needs mentioning is some bubbling on the leading edge of the bonnet, two (almost identical) dings on the top of the bonnet
  between the washer jets, a slight dent in the rear offside wing, and there's been a poor touch-up job done on the top of the c-pillar - see the pictures for more
  details
  
  
• The passenger door lock cover plate is missing after an aborted break-in attempt as detailed on Pistonheads/M5Board.com earlier in the year
  
  
• During the same incident it required a new rear quarterlight - the only problem here is I've not reapplied a tint.
  
  
• The boot carpet is not in very good condition - it's had a gearbox sitting in there for a couple of months and that has taken its toll.
  
  
• There are also a couple of LEDs/bulbs out/intermittent on the dash & climate control - again see the night-time pictures to see what lights & what doesn't
  
  
• The OBC shows 3 faults, sometimes all at once, sometimes none at all for a while: washer fluid level - must be a sensor as bottle is full SLS error - there is
  no SLS anymore but the sensors been left on brake pad warning - the Ferodo DS2500 pads I've fitted all round don't seem to work with genuine BMW pad
  sensors as they were all replaced at the same time There's a slight gearbox whine that is still the same as when I bought the car - have been told it is an input
  shaft, and have bought a rebuilt gearbox to solve that when it becomes an issue
  
  
• The car developed a misfire on the 2nd trip to the 'Ring but I was able to drive it all the way back to the UK. The diagnostic showed a ignition problem so as
  shown above we swapped out every ignition part would could think of, but that didn't solved the problem. After spending about £2k and stripping the front of
  the car down, we found it was the crank mass damper which was split (see photo) and kept knocking the crank position sensor out of place and as such it was
  not getting the signal it needed for the timing - hence the misfire!

The car is running strong again now, right up to the redline and it almost as fun as my new Z4M Coupé

The car has done 3 laps at Bruntingthorpe during a magazine shoot, and has been to the 'Ring & back twice.

All this for £3500!












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Please PM me - Tony


Strictly no canvassers




Edited by thepits