Road trip story & Project thread: 2001 Titanium Silver e39 M5

[Sreten]

More updates.

I installed Meyle HD front & rear sway bar links.

Replacing rear links was pretty much a waste of time and money. The original ones were still like new and fully functional, but anyway it was cheap to replace them and now I have shiny bits there.
The front ones were not perfect, but they weren't bad either, though it does feel little tighter at the front now.





I was missing the flashlight from the glovebox so I added a new one.
I also bought the plastic compartment for the first aid kit, just waiting on the bracket to mount it under the passenger seat. It's the little things that complete the car.





And some modern technology in the old girl.

I wanted the ability to stream music via Bluetooth in the car. I ended up getting this - Anycar AL-1080B for BMW. It can be found on German Amazon or eBay, it's around $100. It's also possible to get this for e46 if anyone becomes interested in something like this.

Plug & play gadget that connects to the back of the amp. This one comes with cables for BM24 amp, you can also get it with the connectors for BM54. It has Bluetooth, mic, SD slot, USB and AUX.

Sound quality is very good, the only complaint would be the static that is coming from the speakers when in Bluetooth mode.
The static can only be heard when the song is not playing so I can live with it for now. Beats listening to German commercials.







Now the notorious M lower fender liner aka pork chops.

BMW prices them new ridiculously at 250 euro per side and I simply don't want to spend that much dough on a piece of plastic that will inevitably break again. I would rather spend that money on a weekend in Budapest which is in fact what I'm doing.

So, that means I went for the eBay cheapos made from recycled yogurt cups.

You can currently find 2 kinds on German eBay. The most common one on the left and the greyish one with a different texture in the middle of the picture. You can see what's left of my original on the right.



I ordered the left one two times in the row because to me it looked better in the pictures and both times it arrived poorly packaged and already broken in the corners like this. Luckily I got my money back from the seller.





I decided to try the one with a different finish and at just $15 shipped it was even cheaper than the other one.
This one might not look better but it is. The finish is slightly better and the plastic is more flexible while the previous one feels like it made of eggshells and will break at the slightest pressure.







I was also missing screws that secure the pork chop to the bumper (part # 07119916966 - the one in the middle) but I picked up longer ones from a local hardware store because it helps to grab the bumper better.



I transferred the rubber from the leftovers of the old pork chop.



Here it is fitted.







The fitment is bound not to be perfect, but at a fraction of the price of the original one, this will do the trick until I can find a good used OEM pork chop.
At least it looks better than having nothing there and it will keep the crap out of engine undertray.

This brings us to the most anticipated mod for me. Found this at my doorstep today!









Eisenmann has delivered! I went for a Sport version with TÜV and 83mm tips.

I must give a shoutout to Sven Johann from Eisenmann that was great to deal with it and hooking me up with a great price.
Provided service and response time was spot on and they even delivered before the promised deadline.

Should go on the car this Saturday. I simply can't wait.

[RUS_ZHP]

Waiting to hear a beautiful soundtrack from Eisenmann.
Just for curiosity, why did you chose Meyle over Lemforder links?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Sockethead]

Waiting to hear a beautiful soundtrack from Eisenmann.

+1 !

[Sreten]

Me too. Been waiting long to hear it.

I always go with Lemforder when it comes to suspension part, but I find Meyle sway bar links to be somewhat more robust. I installed Lemforder sway bar links on my old e39 530i and they failed after 6 months and 11k miles. I bought them from FCP Euro and they replaced them without a problem for Meyle HD. Since then, I'm kinda leaning towards Meyle HD when it comes to sway bar links. Could be just bad luck and I still like and prefer Lemforder for everything else.

[Sockethead]

I've had the opposite luck with Meyle... at least with their lower control arm bushings and rear shock mounts...

[Sreten]

For everything else, I would go with Lemforder. Sway bar links are anyway cheap and easy to replace should they fail.

I had a great experience with Lemforder controls arms and strut mounts on 530i. I overhauled the complete suspension with them at roughly the same time and the sway bar links were the only thing that failed after 11k miles. It wasn't catastrophic fail either just the ball joints would come back to center when pushed to the side. Control arms were still rock solid after 20k miles.

[Sockethead]

Yea, my front control arms and bushings are Lemforder

[RUS_ZHP]

I've been using Lemforder all the time. But I've seen that many people are using Meyle HD bushing and control arms. I just want to hear you experince.

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[Sreten]

Got the exhaust fitted!

But before getting to that part, I must jump back to the transmission oil. When I did the clutch job I used Liqui Moly 75W-80 GL 3+ which is not a bad oil, but it was simply unbearable when the car was cold. First 3 gears and especially the 2nd was really difficult to shift. After the car is warmed up, all of the gears were buttery smooth so I decided to try something different.

After doing some research, I found that Royal Purple Synchromax is amongst popular oils with the M5 crowd, but that stuff isn't very easy to find here.

I got in touch with Motul and at their recommendation, I bought 2L of Motul DCTF. Mainly used in dual-clutch gearboxes but it's also applicable in conventional gearboxes. Most importantly it fulfills proper specification - SEA 75W and BMW MTF LT-1 & 2 specifications.

The data sheet can be found here - https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/m...pdf?1508420965

While the car was up in the air for the exhaust install, I used that opportunity and changed the tranny oil.







This morning I had a nice cold start and it's already much better! I can shift in the first 3 gears without much effort while before I had to work to slot into the 2nd gear. Of course, it's still not fully warmed up smooth, but it's a vast improvement from before. This oil is definitely a better choice for cold shifting.

Now back to the exhaust. I had a nearby shop to help me with this as I was lacking proper tools and didn't want to try this on my garage floor.

While the finish quality is great, the fitment could be better.

It was a pain to get everything aligned properly. Once we mounted the Eisenmann mufflers, the right one was sitting too close to the diffuser and left one was actually touching it. So after much adjustments we got it to clear the diffuser, but I think for how expensive the exhaust is the fitment should've been better. Eisenmann does tell you that the diffuser needs to be trimmed down but I wasn't willing to do that. After learning a couple of new swears in German, it all worked out well. ��











I'm still gathering impressions, but the M5 is now definitely making all of the right noises!

On idle and lower rpms it's very much the same to stock but when you push it, it's where the Eisenmann earns its money and reputation. It's just a glorious exhaust note.

Though I must admit I wish it was a little louder and I'm hoping that will change once the exhaust is fully broken in as I drive it more.

I will try to get a nice video soon. It'll take some getting used to those big guns in the back now. ��

[Sockethead]

Sucks about all the issues getting it to fit but Damn that looks bad-ass!