E34 Touring Family Wagon

Steering wheel turned up after the re trim, and sorted a new gear knob, I’ve got all the bits now pretty well, just need to find time to refurbish the calipers then get on with fitting it all.

Looking really good, working under the bonnet with less than perfect struts in windy conditions got a bit sketchy! There's a lot of weight ready to come down on your head 😂

I do like the look of these in Touring format. They look great. A friend's dad had a dead ringer of this car but as a saloon. That was good fun.

As a daily however, I'd definitely get on top of rot issues with a decent quality underseal



N53 is direct injection which, unless the stock ECU could be made to fit in without needing other 'bits' to make it work, would be expensive (From memory, Pectal wanted £2k for just an injector driver set, as DI injectors run at 52 Volts); I think a dedicated ECU was almost £10k, as the options were very limited (most standalone ECUs can be ruled out). The N53 also has a varied reputation to the early incarnation, the N52. That's a lovely engine, but again Valvetronic may make getting it running tricky, unless the factory ECU can be used.

Then again, S54 engines are now well North of £5k for something worth buying, but are relatively simple to bolt in .



Nice progress.

Calipers, assuming the piston bores aren't too bad, I'd do myself . Some Bilt Hamber rust powder stuff will have those looking lovely.



I did this with mine , albeit in an M3 CSL format being an E46.

The calipers may flex less, which could give the advantage mind you to them, and the unsprung weight may be better, depending on the material of them.

I say about the flex, from something adam73bgt mentioned a while ago, as well as some folks using Boxster calipers on E46 M3s, but with almost everyone being happy with the result, despite the caliper piston area being smaller!

Can't remember exact sizes, but the e39 4 pots have the same total piston areas as the 540 single pot calipers, so no more clamping force but they do look cool. They are the same piston size as Audi A8 4 pots too,. only factory 4 pots with bigger pistons are some Lexus ones that I think are 44 dia each. All porsche 4 pots have less clamping force, so there is a lot of nonsense on some forums

the e39 530/40 calipers are monsters, well up to the job if all in good order

Had a day on the car yesterday. Switched rear bumpers so no more tow bar and fitted the USA marker lights.

I wanted the marker lights on my 1st e34 10+ years ago but never did it. So glad I have. Love how they look

The USA trim was a smooth finish and my current stuff was textured so ordered a new rear bumper strip and front number plate trim.

Didn’t realise until I fitted it, it’s a USA size plate holder too. So need to see if they can get a uk plate trim in smooth finish.

Great cars. Had two 525i SE's both manuals, even the first one with the M20 was o.k. power wise for fast cruising. Really like the fact that this is a Touring and the colour looks fab. Keep up the good work. Bookmarked.

Those look like standard leather seats with an "M" style badge pressed into them, not worth as much as the Sport seats, but still in good condition and black leather is a desirable colour so worth some money.

Sport bumpers always seemed to sell well, I can't remember what I got for mine when I was breaking a Sport but had plenty of interest, I even sold the full sunroof cassette out of my touring to someone so if the sunroof on that car works it might be worth considering!

Yeah it’s only an SE model as half the interior is still grey. Last owner changed to black seats and door cards.

Yeah sport bumpers are best part of £400-£500 each now.

I’ll try and sell everything I can.

525i sport. Might aswell have two cars to break. Now I’ve defiantly got all the bits to make the touring a full sport touring. And got loads of stuff to sell on.