1987 BMW E24 635 CSi

Yes please..

Defo crisis car, well bought !!

It does seem better externally than others I've seen but it's definitely had a mild restoration in the last 10-15 years - the paint tells the tale. Some evidence of shoddy patching underneath too. Hey-Ho like I said - all old Bimmers rust - and usually in the same places...

Thanks man - the chromies are in good condition.

Good to know about the grill. I've seen later Highlines with blacked out grills - was that a factory option?

I do like the Highline interiors but prefer the smaller bumpers on mine.

Perhaps a set of style 5s with the centres in the correct gold would be a good substitute for those lovely ones in the photo?

So today, work was brightened up by the delivery of these from Germany. Uber cool Engelmann sports mirrors.



There are various types available for mounting on the actual door skin or like these on a mounting plate. I think these are much better looking than the standard E24 mirrors, which seem to drop down. Plus - I've loved these ever since living in Germany in the early 90s. All the Opel boys had these on their Kadett C coupes and Mantas!

They also seem to be near as damnit to the mirrors used on the JPS Aussie Touring cars..

Looks really clean, well done.
I feel that the 635 has just managed to come out at the other end now where the car with an MOT is worth more than a bag of parts. It's been a long slog waiting for the tide to turn but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. At one point, so many were being broken for spares and it was quite sad to see to the point where people were selling overpriced rubbish just because it had come from a 635. Understandably the rot killed most of these off and repairing the shell vastly outweighed the shiny bits value. I saved mine from a life of bent MOT's and an owner who drove it until it died, so there was much work to be done for a real MOT, mainly all rot and dead suspension.

I'm sure you'll know most of what follows but I run mine daily plus it might encourage someone else to take one on, so here's a couple of pointers for you to keep an eye out for, which can lurk in the darkness... knowledge is power:

Steamy windows. Generally as with most cars a 635 with condensation in it has a hole in it somewhere. 635's like holes. All the usual places, wings, floors, mounting points etc but specifically on these, the bulkhead drain to inner wing, the seam all the way up at the bulkhead/ inner wing and the top of the rear wheel wells by the shock mount reinforcement panel. You can check that by removing the rear seats and you'll find a little brown stain running down from where about the rear seat panel is fixed. And of course the rear panel as explained later.

Front lower arms shook like hell under braking at 50 so new poly bushes were a welcome addition. I polybushed it all except the rear trailing arms as they were unavailable but Powerflex (or the other one) has recently started to make them, adjustable too.
I was unhappy with the SPAX I put on it (it was the lowest I could get at the time) because the rear sat up in the air and others have reported that with other kits. I managed to pull it down a bit with help from my mate A.Grinder but then it eventually ate the rear shocks after some enthusiastic lane driving. It's on standard BOGES up back now with no issues as a temporary fix as these cars rely heavily on the rear dampers working, you'll know if one has gone as the wheel will spend more time bouncing in the air than on the road and cornering gets funky. The back sits currently 587mm to the wheel arch from the floor and the camber looks shocking but the tyres last out ok. It does however cause the center box exhaust to skim every other speed hump. After 4 years like that I'm messing with the idea of returning it to standard as some sports center carparks prove difficult, if not impossible to get into with those rubber speedbump things they have, shaving the underseal from the front chassis legs. Plus I'm getting tired of scanning the tarmac in front of me for lumps, debris and plastic doritos bags all of the time.

They are easy to live with as a daily once all the hard work is done but I find the attack from the elements is relentless and as the seals age, new issues crop up.
Recently I've found that the rear light seals are giant thick bits of rubber that start soaking up the weather and don't dry out causing issues to the frames and body, tiny holes rot out letting in water to the boot. It's an area I've visited more than once and my frames have turned into toast because of it all.
Boot seal needs to fit and be sealed to the body as you'll get gassed out from fume blow back. These come detached from people loading/ unloading stuff and catching the seal.
Area inside the number plate lights seems to attract water from somewhere too, most likely the lights themselves.

It's only let me down a couple of times, a loose battery earth causing the engine to cut out when the passenger door was slammed... that was fun to diagnose, much panic followed by great relief and a failed main relay which intermittently stopped it starting or made it cut out whilst driving. Carry a bridging wire or even better, a replacement relay to avoid getting stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Brake pressure switches can leak making a mess, fairly easy to source and change. I have a cupboard full of partially seized brake calipers too. Pumped it full of DOT 4 and I've had no issues since.
Power steering can lock up first thing on cold mornings scaring the curse word out of you, fluid change seemed to cure this, I'll find out this winter...
Rear brake back plates rot out causing the handbrake set up to detach and bind. Front ones rot too causing a metallic dinking noise as they flap about.

The fuel supply pipe that goes to the cold start injector rots out, dropping fuel onto the block but you'll smell that when you switch on the heater fan, from the pics though your one looks cool. There should be a filter trap inside the pipe by the injector, it's tiny and falls out when the pipe is pulled. These injectors can get stuck open causing rich running. Incidentally,  It looks like you have a manifold support bar missing from the head to the inlet manifold though. It's a mirror of the other one that's on there. Also the ICV mount seems to have vanished?
Fuel tank is a curse word trap around the filler base, lots of nastiness happens here and with three small breather outlets coming out, they get turned to dust.

The diff mount collapsed as it was knackered but the car still drove albeit with an uncomfortable rumbling feeling coming from the back end, part was easy to source and was one of very few parts supplied from ECP. They do not do 'every part for every car', running a 635 will confirm that... "A what?"

Worst mechanical job on this engine was replacing the starter motor, It's a blind job with gravity as your enemy. Best job was adjusting the tappets, a vast improvement on engine noise and performance, I found that measuring adjustment on the cam lobe rather than the actual tappet worked best. A pipercross filter also made a massive difference but that is all down to how much dirt you want to let into the engine.
Distributor caps/ rotors crack too, unseen as they hide under that plastic cover and you'll find that out, as I did, by accidently touching it whilst the engine is running. The bolts holding the cover on can be a sod to get out without damage.

Also the steering box adjustment can be microscopically nipped up to eat most of the wafty steering play, it's astounding the difference it makes but it wont cure tramlining in the lorry lanes, I found 17" tyres with rounded shoulders like Dunlop sports/ SP01/ MAXX reduced this quite a bit. In fact, the Dunlops suit it very well in all weathers and last about 25,000 miles at 2.4 bar.

At 207,000 miles, I've put a touch over 80,000 miles on it and it gets used, mostly taking whatever has been thrown at it which has turned it into a car that I don't think I'll ever get rid of.

Hope that is of some use. Best of luck with this fantastic piece of German engineering!

Once the intake is removed you'll wonder what all the fuss is about and you won't have to dislocate your wrist in seven places and force your other arm into a black hole of metallic straveller things with a backwards bent spanner to get to the bolts. My starter was ok but slipped on the ring gear occasionally so I thought I should fix it before I needed to. The newly recon'd unit came in labeled up as a 'rare unit' so it may be worth finding one to keep in the kitchen cupboard. However, your car is manual so at least it's bumpable. The main relay was a pig to source as the original units have been superseded twice over and kind of lost in translation but a firm called 'the green spark plug company' had a Bosch relay (0332019109- GS) which done the trick. I only go on about that relay because once it goes, the car aint moving unless you are prepared and the last thing you want to do is leave one of these cars laying about in the middle of nowhere or replacing the entire fuel system in the hope you are in the right area.
I also completely tore out the dysfunctional 'superwash' making a weight saving of 0.5 tonnes.
The lifter/ sender in the tank is also a hard part to find as the terminals corrode quite badly. There are two types, one has a primary pump, this was intended to cure fuel evaporation from the secondary or main pump under the car in hot countries and is the one you should have being an '86/'87 car, the earlier version doesn't have the primary pump. That is the only decent second hand unit I could source from Germany but it still works fine, even on hot days... more weight saving right there! The plug needs to be modified to fit and the pipes are reversed though. The motor in the primary pump can be changed to completely omit the secondary pump which is something on my project shelf to do one day... when I'm retired.

Cheers and thanks for the advice. Yes a mate suggested those arch liners - I was following a thread on a different site which did suggest they are a bit restrictive and not a perfect fit. One option is to remove the currently flawless wings, clean up, reseal with paint and then apply a layer of the 3m 08861 rubberised protection covering. I wonder if the liners you mentioned would restrict any suspension changes. On the subject of mirrors any mods will be reversible, so I'd use some alternative mounting plates.