2003 BMW M5

[95naSTA]

^^ I agree.

I just came across this.. A clone of my car with 7k less miles at time of sale, a clean title and being sold by the 'original' went for $49k.

I guestimated my car would have been worth $10k more with a clean title but it's looking like it would be more. Either way it's cool to see for me considering it looks identical.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-bmw-m5-96/

[Sirius]

That's pretty cool. If you can see past the rebuilt title it's fun owning something that's worth a lot more than you paid.

[95naSTA]

Yeah the title doesn't bother me any and I feel like it gives me more freedom from guilt when it comes to messing around with it.

[95naSTA]

Camera roll from a road trip to the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea was formed by accident in the early 1900s when a irrigation diversion of the Colorado River went wrong and filled a low lying basin. It was a popular resort hot spot in the 50s/60s even though it was starting to dry up and salinity was rising. Tourism dried up with the water and much of the area is abandoned. What's left are some dilapidated relics, a few parks/camping areas, a ton of art displays and even an off-grid lawless town called Slab City.












It was about 300 miles round trip with almost no traffic. The car felt great and even returned +20MPG. Much of that was going over 80. I definitely feel like this car is capable of 21-22 at slower cruise speeds (rated at 21) which probably translates to 20ish with the rear to be installed. Not bad, all things considered.

[Sirius]

Must have been "road trip weekend" - I see that Matt posted a trip up to the UP, and I have a post to make when I get time!

So, how did you get up on that star without slashing yourself on the barbed wire? Or are all your lacerations on your back from squeezing under the wire? LOL!

[95naSTA]

Haha. Its not my first rodeo with razor wire. This one was easy since it wasn't really secured. I've logged some reminders to be careful from when I was a kid.

[Sirius]

Yes, the skills we acquired in our youth can become valuable assets in our more "adult" life.

[ErikZR1]

Great thread. Great info.

The E39 to me is Peak BMW. It never got better then that. I’d probably be ok with just a 530, with the BBS wheels, of course.

[ErikZR1]

Btw, where Is your Bonneville now? Still running? You were always the inspiration for us L36 guys.

[95naSTA]

^^ Thank you. I agree with you on the E39. I had a 170k '97 528i I got for free that sat for 2 years and had a lot of water in the cabin. In the process of fixing it up I realized how straight forward it was to work on and how much info was out there on the E39 in general. Then I saw that the S62 can easily hit 200k. That combo along with wanting something that felt as quick as my old swapped i30 landed me into an M5. I wouldn't have been mad about dailying the 528 by the time I was done fixing it up. (really wouldn't have been mad if it was stick) It rode awesome on the stock 170k struts. But, change of circumstance landed it back in the PO's hands.

I was still working on the Bonneville right up until I moved to Cali last month, redoing a lot of bodywork to get it painted again. The plan is to fly back and get it painted but leave it in PA until I get back. I don't have any way to get that thing to pass a CARB test and register it in Cali.

[95naSTA]

Over the weekend I swapped in the Dinan 3.45 rear, a new BMW front diff bushing and welded in a extra O2 bung for a wideband. The gearing feels great. It's noticeable but definitely doesn't feel too short. The car just wants to boogie a bit more.

Overall it went pretty smooth. I was glad to have my 0 offset wrenches.. I was also able to r&r the bushing with a cheap ball joint kit and c-clamp. Everyone else seems to use a very specific press kit.

My plan is to get a WOT a/f baseline before the headers go in and get comfortable tuning on this platform. It's double the work with taking the exhaust out but I don't really have the time to knock both out at once on my garage floor.

[Sirius]

Cool. Gearing can make such a difference.

One nice thing about being in CA is that open garage door - my days of open garage are limited. It was 22*F this morning!

[95naSTA]

Yep, it'll nice not to fight the weather all winter. Or at all really. 20*F is my lower limit for working outside. My hands literally stop working at that point. It'll be in the upper 40s tomorrow on my may to work but that's still motorcycle weather in my book.

[Sirius]

It'll be in the upper 40s tomorrow on my may to work but that's still motorcycle weather in my book.

Yep. You'll be zipping down the road sporting a t-shirt and the locals will be dressed like this:

https://www.theordinaryadventurer.com/w ... G_0728.jpg

[95naSTA]

LOL. That's the getup at 65* here.

[nos4blood70]

Nice! Glad to see you doing the little things to it, but especially like seeing you driving it around on trips and things.

[Sirius]

[95naSTA]

Thank s guys. I'm itching to get it out for another trip but I'll probably be messing with it quite a bit more before that happens.

I got the wideband wired up yesterday. I mounted the controller in the e box and it was pretty easy to fish wires through the bulkhead.

I'm seeing 11.0 AFR at the top of the rev range so it looks like the fueling needs some work.

[95naSTA]

I'm still working on integrating the wideband with my logging software for some proper logs. I hope to get that sorted soon.

In the mean time I addressed a few leaks I saw when I was under the car replacing the diff.

The power steering lines were seeping bad. I replaced the usual 3 plus the reservoir. I also upgraded the rubber mounts with some McMaster bits. All in all this was pretty easy. I probably spent more time cleaning things up than replacing the parts. Lining the banjo bolt back up at the rack sucked but after I set the bottom crush washer with dielectric grease, smooth sailing. I'm not sure what the drips are on the wheel house but they weren't coming off without the paint unfortunately.





The rubber on the clutch line running from the pedal to the slave was separating and seeping. The most annoying part about this was pulling the dead pedal plastic without breaking it. These engineers responsible for this did not hang with the rest of the engineers.






The transmission was damp around the drain plug.. It's more than likely the case seeping but I decided to do a fluid change with new plugs since I was unsure of the mileage. It actually looked pretty fresh.

[Sirius]

I like that the power steering reservoir is out there where you can actually see it.