Firstfives.org

I checked our parts interchange FAQ, but don't see this one. I believe the early E12-based E24 has the same coolant reservoir, except the E24 part has an extra port designed for a level sensor. Can anybody with both cars confirm? I consider that extra port an upgrade - extra gauge, extra sensor, plu...

OK. Good to know somebody else experienced the same with the starter (not that it was pleasant). Following up on this, I ended up restoring the ignition system on the Euro 528 basically as it would be on a U.S. 530i with two exceptions: 1. Left the red/black wire disconnected since I have the Bosch ...

canada karl wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 7:44 am Thanks for the info Robert. Are there still E12's at the wreckers in Austin Texas?

No, not that I know of. It's getting pretty sad.

Start with checking the grounds if your temp needle is flickering. These cars were notorious for running hot, even when new. Check the cooling system FAQ that covers everything I did to make the car reliable for a Texas climate. My Euro 528 has no aux fan and no A/C....yet. Two things trigger the au...

Ditto on Mike's input. This is one of several seemingly hard jobs that can be done if you got some extra jacks on hand and are careful. For supporting the engine, I like using some cinder blocks and have a lot of wood on hand. The wood helps on spreading the pressure from the jack, but it's also use...

After melting a second set of points, I stepped back and did some more research. A post from a few years back from Mike W. led me to look at the starter more closely as the wiring problem. One issue is having a polarity problem at the starter as apparently there are different terminal configurations...

As far as polishing the manifold and runners, I've been told by many it's a sand casting and therefore has a lot of voids and pits throughout, which prevents achieving a mirror-like finish. When I rebuilt my engine a few years ago, I simply had many of those aluminum pieces glass-bead blasted which ...

Some follow ups here: I took some measurements and found resistance wasn't useful in confirming anything about polarity for the low voltage coil terminals. I measured high voltage center to the low voltage terminals and found 8.8 kOhm in both cases on the 6V coil and found 14 kOhm in both cases on t...

Hey Mike,
Great pics. Good to see the FAQs are still getting used so many years later. Scott Stewart pioneered the conversion; I added the visuals after doing the project myself. Yeah, the E12 ECU is a basically a simple analog computer in a very large box by today's standards.

Awesome schematic, Mike! I particularly like seeing the inside of the coil which both explains 3 terminals, rather than 4 for a basic transformer, with the common node inside and the common node also creates asymmetry and explains a polarity difference for the low voltage terminals with respect to t...

Mike, Thanks for bouncing some ideas. It's definitely a 12V system, but I agree that the polarity issue is probably the most likely cause of my melted wires. In ordering that new 12V coil, I had checked that the Euro 528 coil and U.S. 530i coil are the same part number and I further confirmed that w...

Another detail. Old coil had blk/red wire on the negative terminal and that was a running arrangement. I kept blk/red on the negative terminal on the new coil. All the manual references I have show blk/red on the positive terminal. Perhaps reversed polarity was worse than the attempt without ballast...

Slow going on the Euro 528 project car...Been doing regular drives and dealing with a little bit of Solex 4A1 carb variable behavior. Latest issue is unreliable starting and troubleshooting has isolated it back to the high voltage terminal of the coil and no spark. I'm clearly dealing with some non-...

I've been running the Prestone long-life orange formula since around 1999. It's also an OAT or HOAT forumulation. I've been very happy with it and basically run it in all my vehicles. Engine was rebuilt in that span too and everything looked pretty good on the inside. Since it's free of silicates, y...

I used to frequent BMP, then BavAuto for common maintenance stuff. They're now both extinct. I agree with Mike on Autohaus AZ and RockAuto for common stuff. You might also check Pelican Parts (well liked by E28 guys I know) and ECS Tuning. ECS sort of paired up with BavAuto as BavAuto closed and wer...