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1 March 2010. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I applied the Meguiar Cleaner and Conditioner last weekend. It is easy to use and
only took me about 30 minutes to do both the front and rear seats. It would have
probably taken longer if I did not get lazy and do a more thorough job. Anyway,
the cloth looked dirty enough after the job to assure me that I have removed a
fair bit of dirt from the seats. The seats felt a little greasy and also looked
a bit shiny initially; but that disappeared after use. I thought the leather felt
softer too; but I suppose any old leather left unused for extended period would
feel softer after getting a few days use and after applying a reputable leather
cleaner and conditioner.
Overall, I am quite happy with the Meguiar leather cleaner and conditioner. It is
a little expensive but I guess my main (or only) complaint would be its smell. It
is quite strong and masked the original smell of the leather. Luckily that went
away after a few days.
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5 February 2010. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
After adding the leather interior, I have been looking at getting some leather care
products to improve the condition of the leather - particularly the front seats
which have definitely seen more use than the rears. I am sure that with some work,
the condition of the rear seats can be brought to almost as good as new since they
look and feel like they have hardly been sat on.
I thought about getting original BMW leather care products but decided against it
purely because of its price. Aftermarket products from the likes of Meguiars and
Turtle Wax are available for about half the price of the original BMW leather care
products; and I am certain the quality of these aftermarket products are just as
good (if not better) since they are specialist manufacturers of car care products.
Meguiar sells separate leather cleaner and conditioner and a 2-in-1 cleaner and
conditioner. I have no idea how much better it is to use separate cleaner and
conditioner; but I chose the Meguiar Gold Class Cleaner and Conditioner 2-in-1
spray type for convenience. I plan work on the leather myself and I will reserve
one of the coming weekends for this.
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14 January 2010. Blog entry by Daboss.
We got a very interesting email from a reader [Carl Fleming] regarding the BMW logo.
Apparently, he read an old article BimmerCenter regarding the BMW logo and believes
that he has related information that is of interest to other readers.
Sir:
The notes in my letter to you come from a recent article in the New York
Times; Sunday issue Jan. 10, 2010, Automobiles section, Page 3, under the
tile 'The Blog' by Stephen Williams.
"At the BMW Museum in Munich, my affable tour guide, Anne Schmidt Possiwal,
explained that the blue-and-white company logo did not represent a spinning
propeller, but was meant to show the colors of the Free State of Baveria."
Quoting the article again, "According to a history published on the BMW
enthusiast site 318ti.org, the trademark was registered in 1917, and
featured the letters BMW "at the top of the outer ring. The inner featured
quadrants in the Bavarian Free State colors of blue and white - but in the
opposed order - because it was illegal to use national symbols in a
commercial trademark." "
"The design was not in any way connected with aircraft engines or
propellers. The idea the blue and white had anything to do with propellers
comes from a 1929 advertisement, which featured aircraft with the image of
the roundel in the rotating propellers."
Well this was news to me and the countless others who read the article.
The entire BMW article is interesting.
Thanks for your time in this matter.
By the way I have a BMW.
Carl Fleming
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8 January 2010. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
The more I sat in the car, the more I'm pleased with the M5 interior. It is a big
set up from the tired regular manual seats I had. The condition of the leather
given its age is amazing. I recently sat in a friend's year old e90 320i that also
had leather interior and could not stop myself from comparing the leather seats on
his car with mine. Although new, it did not feel as nice as the leather in my car.
I also compared the quality of the leather interior in my car with those from a
couple of e39s and came to the conclusion that the quality of the leather used for
the e34 M5 interior is definitely of higher quality compared to the leather used
in the regular 3-series and 5-series. So I looked up for information on E34 M5
leather trim on the Internet and discovered that they are Nappa leather. I also
found out there is the option between basic Nappa or extended Nappa but I do not
know the difference. I suppose its expected that BMW M-cars will be spec'ed with
higher quality leather compared to their regular models. I wonder what Merino
leather on the current M5 and M6 feels like...
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26 December 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I have had the M5 sports seats for about a week now. It definitely takes a while to
get used to the M5 sports seats compared to the comfy regular seats.
I find that they are harder and the side bolsters are definitely more pronounced;
but not so much like the out-right sports seats that they get in the way. These
seats will definitely be able to hold the driver in position better during higher
cornering speeds compared to regular seats. The adjustable thigh support is
definitely a plus and I like the electric controls that allows very fine
adjustments to be made to the seating position. The door cards are also wrapped in
leather and double-stiched like the seats. The other thing is that the leather
still has the strong smell of leather common to new BMW cars despite its age. They
have to be at least 10 years and after a week in the car, the new seats definitely
made my car smell and look like a new car!
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15 December 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I have been looking around a few breakers yards for a suitable set of interior to
replace the one in my car. It had to be black with electric memory seats. At one
of the shops, they showed me a couple of M5 interiors. The asking price for the M5
interior was double that of the interior from the regular saloon. I guessed it is
worth the extra since they have the more stylish and sporty front seats and it
also came with eletric adjustments and memory. After looking at the M5 seats,
there is no going back to regular seats. One set of the interior was in BMW
motorsport fabric and the other in black leather. The motorsport fabric interior
is supposedly more difficult to find and was in very good condition - better than
those from regular saloons I have seen. However, I was also very tempted by the
black leather interior. This is because it also looked good and is the cheaper of
the two. After some negotiation and a little reduction price, I decided to take
the M5 interior. They agreed to wipe the leather clean and I can have it fixed
the next day.
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29 November 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I recently changed the interior of my car from the regular boring blue to a more
sporty black. The car originally came with fabric manual seats. I had both the
front and rear seat covers replaced a few years ago with grey fabric to match the
grey exterior of the car as the original cloth was starting to tear and show their
age. It was not a very good idea in hindsight; as the quality of the fabric that
was used was not as good as the original and the grey colour did not match the
blue interior. I considered re-upholstering the car in black leather and thus went
about obtaining quotes.
At one of the upholstery shop, I met another E34 owner who was also there to
enquire about re-upholstering the front leather seats on his car. His car had a
black interior with electric leather seats. The front leather were in very poor
condition compared to the rear seats that looked like they were hardly sat on. He
told me that he had only recently swapped the interior to his car and it
previously had the same blue coloured interior with fabric seats like mine. The
price he paid for the set of used black leather seats and door cards were about
same as the quote I obtained to re-upholster my interior in leather. After
thinking about it, the problem with upholstering my seats in leather is that I
will still be stuck with the blue interior bits. As such, I think I will also look
for a set of used black interior with electric seats.
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20 November 2009. Blog entry by Daboss.
I renewed my car insurance recently; and was surfing the Web for any new
developments in the car insurance industry that may affect me. I came across a
pleasant site that aspires to offer
cheapest auto quotes online.
The site provides fundamental information on auto-insurance; and also valuable tips
in buying auto-insurance. I found some interesting bits while surfing the site –
especially the tip on relying on your marital status to reduce auto-insurance
rates. Another bit of information I found useful is the information about the
different types of auto-insurance available. I definitely did not know that there
are auto-insurance types out there that catered specifically for teenagers! I will
book-mark the site and will drop by again some time later.
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18 November 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
What was immediately apparent as soon as the car came down from a ramp was how
light the steering wheel felt. It felt even lighter than previously - i.e. before
I changed to bigger wheels (235/45/17) and the smaller mtec-II steering wheel. The
steering was almost too easy to turn and is definitely most welcome; particularly
when trying to get into tight parking spots. Although its a very nice upgrade for
me, I think some might not share my view. I have friends who prefer less assist
and a heavier steering for better feel. I can now look for some under-drive
pulleys to free some power from the car. I had previously wanted to get
under-drive pulleys but was worried that the (already) heavy steering will get
worse when under-driving the power steering pulley.
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5 November 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
One possible upgrade that is not often performed is the retro-fitting of the
servotronic power steering. I guess this is because the required parts are harder
to come by in used form. The servotronic power steering came with higher end models
of the e34 such as the 540. The function of the servotronic system is to adjust
the amount of power steering-assist based on vehicle speed. The parts that are
needed for this upgrade are just the power steering box and servotronic module
from an e34 with servotronic power steering. There is no wiring work required.
The bulk of the work involved will be only the removing and replacing the
steering box. I am considering this upgrade - let's see.
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15 October 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I think one of the best upgrades I did for my car was the HID (High Intensity
Discharge) lights. The difference in brightness after installing HID was like night
and day. Maybe this is also because the brightness of the stock halogen headlights
on the e34 were terrible. After a few successive long distance trips at night, I
decided that I need to improve that aspect of the car. Some friends were impressed
with the improved lighting just by changing bulbs to Osram Night Breakers. So I
went to the workshop planning to do the same but ended up with a HID upgrade.
My mechanic suggested installing HID on the main driving lights instead of just
changing bulbs. I was not into HID as most of the aftermarket installs I have seen
gave a blueish glow. And also they cause massive glare to on-coming vehicles. I
guess, the headlights on these cars were not designed for use with HID, hence could
not properly focus the light beam. My mechanic told me not to worry as the e34 came
with projector headlights that are suited for HID use; and he will be using OEM
parts that were fitted to the e46. The ballast were labelled AL. I am very happy
I switched to HID as they put a lot more light on the road with a longer throw. I
highly recommend this if you do a lot of night driving.
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27 September 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
The weather was hot recently and I could feel the heat from sunlight when driving
even with the air-conditioning blowing. Also, the inside of the car feels like an
oven when parking the car under the sun even for just 10 mins. The steering wheel
is burning hot and impossible to grab. I have to turn the air-conditioning on full
blast for a good 5 mins before getting into the car. As sucg, I thought it would
be a good time to do tinting for the windows.
There are so many brands on the market it is quite difficult to decide which to go
with. I decided that since will be a one time deal, I might as well choose a
premium and proven brand. The most popular premium brand locally is V-Kool and it
shows in the price quoted. Despite the price, I was quite set on using V-Kool until
the day I went to the tint shop. I saw another car with a similar colour to mine
parked outside the shop. It just had V-Kool tinting done. The window looked
greenish and to me, it doesn't match the colour of the car. I eventually settled
for Ecotint Ray Barrier. It is also a premium quality tint with good heat rejection
properties - but it is cheaper and comes in a light grey shade, which was just
perfect.
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13 September 2009. Blog entry by Bimmerman.
I recently decided the car stereo needs a revamp. I have got custom-made
kick-panels that houses the Dynaudio 3-way speakers. That is a big mid-bass, dome
mid-range and tweeter all around in the kick-panel. It sounds really good. However,
there was one problem with this set up. The protusion from the kick-panel means
that there was less space between the brake-pedal and the kick-panel (right-hand
drive car). If I wear a pair of shoes that is wider at the front, my feet can
sometimes get stuck at the accelerator - which almost caused me not being able to
brake in time once!
After listening to a friend's car with replacement speakers in stock position, I
felt that the positions were sufficiently good. With that, I thought of removing
the custom kick-panels and go with a stealth install. I will definitely have to
switch to using 2-way components and run 5.25-inch mid-bass in order to use the
stock panels. I will need to do a bit more research for suitable speakers.
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