WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

[yoman1979]

Hi all,
see pics for my 1991 BMW 520i auto for sale. COE till 31 Aug 2019.
I forgot to include the description in my previous post so my apologies !!
I have taken great pain to keep my car in tip top condition as you will see.
Am letting go as am getting something else.

Here are some bullet points:

-Engine and gearbox overhauled recently. Powerful and smooth. Using mobil 1 engine oil. Mileage on overhauled eng and gbox is 77k km.
-New front thrust arm bushings, rear new axel bushings upgrade to 540i bushings
-Bilstein B12 coils and springs set (replaced 9 mths ago)
-M5 bodykit
- Aircon is cold, no overheating issues whatsoever even in a bad jam. Hoses in gd condition as you will see.
-All 4 tyres replaced few mths ago to continental tyres and computerized alignment done
-Re-wrapping of interior leather done recently
-Front strut bar (Ultra-racing)
-Brakes: uprated with 4 new 525i rotors, 9 mth brake pads. Bought from Eng Soon.

Current PQP for COE renewal is SGD$41.9k FYI.
Do contact my buddy Mr Lim at 96271512.

Offer me a decent price considering the condition, maintenance, long COE and current PQP and you will be definitely be considered.

Cheers,
Pro

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

description updated

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

Tkx for the queries, still available

 

[bayerische]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

ups for you. u wanna reconsider the offer price u pm'ed me?

 

[bayerische]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

ups for nice 5 series

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

tkx bayerische, all !!
Price negotiable. Call for fast deal.

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

available - upz !!

 

[Roberto]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

If i remember this car correctly, the only problems it had were a failing transmission and poor interior upholstery. That was over a year ago. Since its been overhauled and the interior has been stripped and renewed with new leather, this should be as fine a specimen of a sports sedan as you're going to get. Furthermore, the engine has been overhauled (full or just top?). New water pump and thermostat when you overhauled the engine too I bet (you must have forgotten to include in your description). Rear axle bushings are very expensive to change on any car and should last for 10 years. Also has the more aggressive early version front chrome grills and tapered bonnet (the later e34 bonnet and wider grills don't look as sharp imo).

So overall, its an excellent specimen for a 20 year old, at least on paper. Bumpz for the sale. In fact, I'm surprised you're selling it at all.

p.s. Did you put in a new radiator when you overhauled the engine?

 

[bayerische]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

what was the previous transmission problem Roberto?

 

[Roberto]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

Sometimes the 1st gear would not engage when starting off. The engine would just rpm up forward and no movement. Then after switching it to neutral and drive again, it would work. A classic case of a slipping clutch, or perhaps something was wrong with the gearshift lever (possible). All the clutches would have been replaced during an overhaul and everything else would have been checked. The valve body would have been cleaned out, the pressure plates' movement would have been inspected and the solenoids would have been tested for correct function. The torque convertor would also have been opened up, inspected and rebuilt if necessary. There's nothing like the security of a direct check via an overhaul....far better than buying a used transmission and swopping out even though its slightly more expensive than a swop.

I've never heard of an old bmw that did not require a transmission rebuild at some point. It is expensive, takes your car out of action for up to 1 week and can only be done by seasoned sifus reputed for gearbox overhauls. which of course makes it more expensive. Doing an overhaul, however, restores power, responsiveness and fuel economy to your car and usually well worth it, so the benefits don't stop at merely correcting problems like clutch slippage or jerky shifting.

Am still clueless as to why stuff like this happens to auto transmissions, but I believe clutches are purely wear and tear related. A good transmission that gets its regular oil changes every 40-50k and not suffered any prolonged overheating along the way (only happens when the engine itself overheats) or suffered from oil starvation due to leaks (generally only happens if gaskets are poorly installed) should last at least 10 years or 300k, longer if semi-synthetic trans oil (aka lifetime oil) has been used but that is like 3.5 times more pricey than Dex 5/6....i would personally use Dex 5/6 and go for more frequent oil change intervals than lifetime oil and not change the oil itself for years...there's still furious debate raging out there as to the lifespan of 'lifetime oil' and theres' no clear consensus about it.

 

[sportster]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

My previous 11yrs old E34 that I had 10 yrs ago tranny had to be sent in for overhaul/repair. There was once, my wife/GF then had to rush for a morning exam. Gearbox warning lights up and subsequent refused to start and that was after the overhaul. Over 6 months of ownership and 3 breakdown, I cut my loss at $25K for 6months depreciation COE car & $5K repair bill and throw it to a dealer. It's history then afterwhich I went for a 2 yrs old 2L Korean car which was fine till the 5th year mark.

Now driving my 6 yrs old 68000 mileage E60 the past 1 yr, so far so good, no problem. Think from E34, E39 to E60. Bimmer quality has improved by leaps and bounds.

 

[Roberto]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

My previous 11yrs old E34 that I had 10 yrs ago tranny had to be sent in for overhaul/repair. There was once, my wife/GF then had to rush for a morning exam. Gearbox warning lights up and subsequent refused to start and that was after the overhaul. Over 6 months of ownership and 3 breakdown, I cut my loss at $25K for 6months depreciation COE car & $5K repair bill and throw it to a dealer. It's history then afterwhich I going for a 2 yrs old 2L Korean car which will fine till the 5th year mark.

Now driving my 6 yrs old 68000 mileage E60 the past 1 yr, so far so good, no problem. Think from E34, E39 to E60. Bimmer quality has improved by leaps and bounds.

1. Obviously, a clown overhauled your gearbox. Transmissions are designed to last for 10 years if properly cared for. An overhauled transmission is 99% new where it matters, and may even be better than OEM if better clutch materials had been used for the overhaul than came with the car. You can't fault the E34 over a bad repair. BMW only uses ZF gearboxes, and ZF has been making gearboxes since before World War 1...so they are clearly very good at what they do.

2. If you were ok with a $30k loss, it would have been better to :

a. Threaten to publicise and sue the clowns who did this to you. Even if you had lost the lawsuit (costing you at most $10k at worst), the workshop's business would have died on the spot, so they would have caved in and fixed it up for you properly.
b. Get Performance to overhaul your transmission.
c. Buy a rebuilt transmission from the USA or Europe. With shipping and fixup, you're looking at around $3k-$4k. Ok, maybe another $1k more as the dollar exchange rate was much worse then.

3. Of course, the quality of the engines and technology has improved from the e34 to the e60, this is impossible to avoid, but the quality of the looks...that clearly went downhill, and that could have been avoided. The e39 and e60 are either nondescript or downright ugly, and require heavy aftermarket attention and correct colour schemes to restore decency (the only design saving grace with the E39 was the angel eye headlights). Not so with the e34. Only the latest 5 series looks good, and if you notice, it has revived the tapered bonnet ridges of the e34 that were absent from the e39 and e60.

The E34 has been universally acknowledged as being one of the best 5 series ever made by BMW.

4. Did you have any other problems with the car? Still don't understand why you sold it and swallowed such a huge loss over just the gearbox. At the point of selling off, it would still have been cheaper to pay PML $7-$10k for a new gearbox rather than lose $25k to the dealer.

5. I feel your pain over the bad repairs, but korean cars are not cool, don't handle solidly and anyway you bought a fairly new one which of course does not give you any problems for the first 3-5 years.

6. It is time for you to come full circle and put the past behind you. Perhaps you could start by purchasing the one advertised in this thread.


Cheers, Roberto

 

[sportster]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

The gearbox workshop is a overseas trained expert, and paid $2.8K then. Think he is still around today in Singapore, only a few Gearbox specialist nowadays

That was 10 years ago. Even my E30, E36 and E46 which I concurrently had for a moment had lesser problem compare to my E34 then. As for the 2 yrs old Korean ($51K COE) car which I bought many years back icost almost the same as a COE E34 that time which I only loss $5K depreciation per year for the next 3 yrs during the high COE days from year 2000, imagine depreciating only COE value from 3rd to 5th year mark is a no brainer not to buy/drive it

Common radiator problem, intemal parts dropping off one by one, Imagine, every weekend going to Sungei Kadut and Woodlands to look for interior parts for 6 months for my E34. My ride's engine was overhauled with Racing Dynamic light piston, maybe the power is too much for the Tranny to bare.

Seriously, the interior of the E34 is really dated nowadays. I dread sitting in one nowadays. Even the Sonata Cabs interior looks better.

 

[Roberto]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

The gearbox workshop is a overseas trained expert, and paid $2.8K then. Think he is still around today in Singapore, only a few Gearbox specialist nowadays

That was 10 years ago. Even my E30, E36 and E46 which I concurrently had for a moment had lesser problem compare to my E34 then. As for the 2 yrs old Korean ($51K COE) car which I bought many years back icost almost the same as a COE E34 that time which I only loss $5K depreciation per year for the next 3 yrs during the high COE days from year 2000, imagine depreciating only COE value from 2nd to 5th year mark is a no brainer not to buy/drive it

Common radiator problem, intemal parts dropping off one by one, Imagine, every weekend going to Sungei Kadut and Woodlands to look for interior parts for 6 months for my E34. My ride's engine was overhauled with Racing Dynamic light piston, maybe the power is too much for the Tranny to bare.

Seriously, the interior of the E34 is really dated nowadays. I dread sitting in one nowadays. Even the Sonata Cabs interior looks better.

Agreed the interior is dated. But then, the E34 is a classic car so it would be surprising if it looked contemporary. Not a fair criticism imo. The plastic E34 seats were very ugly, just like the mercedes E200s of the day, but yoman's car has been redone in leather. Anyway, most people buy a car for how it looks on the outside not the inside (assessing the looks purely, that is).

Well, if your new engine's power was too much for the tranny, the gearbox specialist should be advising you about that and insisting that you upgrade the torque convertor or something, especially if he was 'trained overseas' for this (most of them just learn through apprenticeship, experience and trial and error). Therefore, imo, he is a clown...especially after dealing with 3 breakdowns, he should have found the real problem and advised you about that or got it fixed himself, or at least given you a partial or full refund on all that you paid. Mind letting us know who he is? We need to know who to avoid.

Anyway Sportster, this discussion is getting too technical for thread meant to advertise a car, so perhaps we could continue in the forums proper, or offline via pm. I would certainly like you to let me know who messed up your transmission, if you don't mind.

Cheers and take care.

 

[niteblu]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

nice discussion folks, seriously.
and yes, often people dump a car w/o realising that the cost of proper rectification.
is likely cheaper than selling at a loss & chasing another.

I believe BMWs use both ZF & GM tranmissions...

I've always been a fan of the E34's lines.
The interior is dated yet, but can be cleaned up with a bit of work.
I half considered changing my E46 to tryout a E34 for fun.
except my wife would probably kick my ass if i did. haha...

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

thanks for your comments guys. My transmission works fantastic after the overhaul; a test drive would definitely convince anyone.
Have got nothing to hide.

Cheers all !

 

[niteblu]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

thanks for your comments guys. My transmission works fantastic after the overhaul; a test drive would definitely convince anyone.
Have got nothing to hide.

Cheers all !

Can i test drive, even if i can't buy? haha...

Saw your car when we last met at Rod's.
It's sweet lookin' ride to say the least.

 

[yoman1979]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

no probs bro Niteblu, and tkx for the kind words !
Sure you're welcome to test drive, just that I'm not in the country right now, so you could contact my friend whose contact is posted in the original posting.

Car available for the loving BMW enthusiast, at a decent price.

Thanks !

 

[syaheerbmw]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

Wow, Bro, nice car.. Reminds me of my dad's car when I was a kid, he drove a dark green 1991 E34 520i with the M5 bodykit with 18" deep dish BBS(I think), i still have the spare key and the stock 4-spoke steering wheel in my room for display.. The E34 & E36s are the Bimmers which first captured my heart, and still have my heart till date.. I've yet to drive any E34, which is a dream for me, but to buy anything above 1.6 at this moment is beyond my means *sianz*.. How i wish.. Upz for nicest (IMHO) E34 around..

 

[XXX]

Re: WTS BMW E34 520iA, 1991. COE till 31 Aug 2019

Wow, Bro, nice car.. Reminds me of my dad's car when I was a kid, he drove a dark green 1991 E34 520i with the M5 bodykit with 18" deep dish BBS(I think), i still have the spare key and the stock 4-spoke steering wheel in my room for display.. The E34 & E36s are the Bimmers which first captured my heart, and still have my heart till date.. I've yet to drive any E34, which is a dream for me, but to buy anything above 1.6 at this moment is beyond my means *sianz*.. How i wish.. Upz for nicest (IMHO) E34 around..

Theres a Manual 316 E36 for sale now