JCs 28

[owlsowls]

Evening all,

I’m not sure whether this is allowed, but I’ve seen a few other E28 threads on here so I thought I’d chance it…

I’ve always fancied an 80s/90s BMW as a bit of a runaround / project. I originally started looking at E30s earlier in the year, and made a few threads on this forum. My main problem was that I wanted something with four doors, which limited the amount of good E30s that were available. I also liked the idea of having something a little different, so settled on looking for an E28 5-Series. I opted for either a 518 or 520, as I’ll be using the car initially as a commuter so cheap insurance and fuel economy were a factor. I also wanted a dark colour, either black, lapis blue, dolphin or similar, and I wanted a standard car with as few owners as possible. I browsed all the usual places, eBay, Facebook, forums etc. and settled on a clean looking, standard 1986 518 in black, with a beige fabric interior. After winning the eBay action, I travelled to Liverpool with a friend and collected the car from a slightly dodgy feeling dockside.

The previous owner was very helpful and had partially restored the car with his son over the last two years. The car had a few brand new parts including an offside front wing, windscreen, tyres, battery and an open cone air filter. It had been recently serviced and came with 11 months MOT. The car was listed as an ex-demo, the story goes it had been bought by an old lady and kept MOT’d for around 30 years. It came with the original owner’s manuals and paperwork, including a BMW issued road atlas, and receipts dating back to the 80s, when an oil change from the dealership cost £5.13. The previous MOT had a load of initial fails, including washer and wiper failures, indicators not working, horn not working and some issues with the brakes, and all had been fixed except one advisory for a deteriorated nearside rear drive shaft constant velocity boot.

When I got to the car, it started and ran fine. The engine was smooth and the previous owner had fitted an adjustable thermostat which kicked the fan in. The owner took me through a few of the cars issues, the rear drums were sticking slightly, the heater didn’t work (which turned out to be a non-fault as the heater doesn’t provide heat to the driver and passenger facing vents). The advert described the car as needing attention to the bodywork, but I was surprised with how good it was. Considering the car was 33 years old, the panels were straight with very few dents or scratches, apart from one of the wings, which looked like it had been badly painted and the paint had cracked. The rear drivers side rear light was smashed, and had been repaired with parcel tape, but the car came with a replacement set of lights. The rubber boot had been removed from the gearbox, which made the gearbox selector loose, again though, a new boot was supplied with the car. I found a few pieces of exterior trim had fallen off, but were all in the car. The boot pusher didn’t pop back out, but I suspect this just needs some WD40. Finally, the car was missing its spare wheel. The owner had undertaken some minor repair work to the boot panels and rear arches. There were also a few DIY waterproofing jobs and I spotted a tiny hole in the spare wheel well, which would need welding. But most importantly, the car ran and drove fine, didn’t leak, and there was no obvious chassis rust.

Since owning and driving the car I’ve discovered a few more issues. The headlight glass is cracked, very finely, on both headlights. There’s an odd electrical issue where, if the car is started with the handbrake applied, and handbrake light on, the bottom three lights, which from memory are handbrake, engine oil pressure, and battery, do not extinguish when the handbrake is released. Whereas if the car is started with the handbrake off, the lights come on at the first two clicks as expected, then extinguish once the car is started. I’m not really sure what that’s about. The accelerator is very, very heavy. I don’t know if this is how the car should be, and I’ve actually got used to it now, but it could do with some adjusting to make the car easier to drive. Sometimes when I start the car, it struggles to pull away and feels like it’s got no power for 3-5 meters then all of a sudden picks up. I initially thought this was the sticking rear brakes, so I stopped using the handbrake when parking, but it hasn’t resolved the issue. My next thoughts are fuelling issues or a sticky throttle. The trip counter and mileage counter don’t work. The indicator doesn’t auto-off from the right position. The front fog button on the dash does not illuminate when pressed, and one of the fog lights is out, the car has no reverse lamps and there are a few other little things that just need tidying up – including a scratch on the rear bumper that wasn’t there when I bought it…

My plans are to continue the restoration, resolving the above issues. I want to fit a new head unit at some point very soon, something with modern features like DAB, Bluetooth etc. along with some new speakers because the originals are just terrible. The drivers front speaker didn’t initially work, but I have since resolved that. The radio antenna has also been removed, so the FM reception is terrible. The exhaust is looking a bit tired, so I plan to fit a twin pipe similar to those on higher engine models – possibly with a whole system, or just a backbox. I’d like to lower the car a little and fit some bigger alloys, either Style 5s from the E30 or a similar style BBS, as it sits quite high standard and looks a bit odd next to modern cars on the tiny standard bottle top wheels. Finally the toolkit is empty, so I want to repopulate that.

Long term, I have another project currently stored in the garage, and once that’s on the road it’ll give me the opportunity to take the E28 off the road. I want to get the whole car resprayed, in its original black colour, but metallic. Repad and retrim the interior, potentially in a dark brown leather. Change the wheels again, probably for some Group 5 / Group C racing wheels, which still look period correct, but would be lighter and wider, and give the car a more aggressive look. I’d also like to change the engine for something a little bigger – potentially a straight 6 from a later generation E46 3-Series or the 4.4 V8 from the E53, depending on how big of a job it is, along with the gearbox and bigger brakes etc. Long, long term, the dream would be to sell the car once I’ve done all of the above and use the cash as a springboard in to Mondial ownership.

Despite having owned the car since November, I still haven’t managed to take any decent pictures of it – so pictures to follow…

Any comments / suggestions welcome, and I hope I can keep this thread going without too much abuse, regardless of it not being an E30. For new generations the car already has its own progress Instagram, the handle is @e20state.

Jack.

[steve_k]

welcome to the zone,

sounds you have a solid(ish) base to work with,
dont worry about any hate as there's plenty of love for the early 5 series (e12 & e28) on here.

looking forward to the pics.

[flybynite]

welcome to the zone,

sounds you have a solid(ish) base to work with,
dont worry about any hate as there's plenty of love for the early 5 series (e12 & e28) on here.

looking forward to the pics.

+1
Saw a nice E12 the other day, If i didnt have so many to deal with already......could have been tempted

[steve_k]

welcome to the zone,

sounds you have a solid(ish) base to work with,
dont worry about any hate as there's plenty of love for the early 5 series (e12 & e28) on here.

looking forward to the pics.

+1
Saw a nice E12 the other day, If i didnt have so many to deal with already......could have been tempted

I'm the same, I know where there a really nice e12 535i but he wants strong money for it but it is in "as new" condition.

[owlsowls]

Cheers both. Looking forward to being part of the community.

However… The car let me down for the first time yesterday.

I was driving home from work in the snow, someone let me in front of them in traffic so I went to press the hazards as a thanks – and nothing happened, no lights flashed. I thought nothing of it at the time and added it to the list of things I needed to fix. The car was fine for the rest of the journey.

I got home, parked up, and a couple of hours later decided to nip out. I got about 10 meters down the road when I noticed the rev counter wasn’t working. The next thing I noticed was all the service lights lit up at once. Then the car cut out. I pulled over, and tried a couple of times to start it. The car turned over but wouldn’t start. I filled up a jerry can with fuel and tried again. Still nothing.

So I called the AA, who came out and initially suspected fuel. The fuel pump relay was tested, which was fine and the fuel pump could be heard priming. The spark plugs were checked and were covered in fuel, but worked fine and sparked. The spark plugged were cleaned and put back. The electrical connections were checked, all seemed fine. Then eventually, the car just started. The mechanic had no idea why, so agreed to follow me home to make sure everything was working again.

I drove the car another 30 meters or so, and everything was working. I noticed the hazard button was still depressed, so I pressed it again and as soon as I did the rev counter dropped to zero, but this time the service lights remained off and the car didn’t cut out. When I got home I went to press the hazards again, but this time they worked, lights flashed etc. and everything seemed to be operational. The AA mechanic couldn’t diagnose the issue so we put it down to some sort of electrical fault.

One colleague mentioned he had a similar issue where water that had made its way in to the central control module and it was throwing up all sorts of errors, central locking not working, brake lights on, warning issues on dash. All of which went away after he stuck a heater in the car and let it dry out. A new hazard light switch is about a tenner on eBay so that, and looking for any signs of water in the electronics, is probably where I’ll start, but any other thoughts welcomed.