Re: Drew Zacharda, how are the brakes? (archive)

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I was impressed by how easy the swap was. We finished up in less than two hours and could have gone much faster if we hadn't spent time test fitting various wheels and getting side tracked by the other folks showing up for my E39 clutch delay valve clinic.

For those who are interested in the details, here's a "reprint" of the report I posted to the E39 message board:

Drew Zacharda arrived at 9:30 and we got right to work on his brake swap. It took just two hours to swap out the brakes in his E34 530iT for a set of used 850i brakes and some stainless lines. No snags, no tool runs, and I don't think there was even a curse word uttered. Everything just bolted right in. Randy (who brought lobster to my last CDV clinic) showed up while we were working on the 2nd brake and dropped off Mike Mario's Style 32 wheels that his wife had rejected due to the stiffer ride than the 16" wheels his 525iT came with. Poor Randy! You can see how beautiful the wheels looked in the post from my last clinic.

After the brakes were on and power bled, we installed the Style 32 wheels and took a couple photos for Drew's wife to approve. Hopefully, she'll be more into the great looks and improved ride than Randy's wife! He'll get back to me on Monday, at which point I'll let all the other folks here who have pending offers for the wheels know if they are still in the game or not.

Drew's E34 with Mike's wheels. Wheel well gap is from being jacked up, not from 4X4 conversion! :-)

As we finished with Drew's car, Gerry Bezems arrived in his silver 2001 530iA. He read my post of the day's agenda and noticed that my friend, David Yuk, was planning to look at a used 530iA at Morristown BMW following our group lunch. Turns out Gerry bought his car a couple months ago, his first automatic but NOT his first BMW, and HATED the slushbox. Rather than get screwed by the dealer on a low trade-in for a 5-speed 530i he wanted to order, he figured David might take this one off his hands. So he drove over from Allentown, PA to show off his car with only 4,000 miles on it. David yuk arrived a few minutes later and the two of them went off to check out the car, then to negotiate. (more on that later)

Next up was Peter's 540i 6-speed CDV extraction. That went quickly and without drama.

Then a 530i 5-speed, my first non-540i extraction. (I apologize, but I forget the owner's name) The 530i CDV is located in a different spot and is much harder to extract. Lots of brake fluid ended up draining down my right arm. (I need to come up with some sort of gadget to halt the flow of fluid at my wrist.)

The 530i CDV is visibly different than the 540i CDV, although they share the same length and thread sizes. So a drilled 540i CDV will work in a 530i, but we decided to drill this one anyway just to be anal about it.

While drilling it, the valve/seat assembly popped out, so we ended up using one of my pre-drilled 540i CDVs after all. Oops! I can't imagine any BMW mechanic will ever notice the difference.

Next up was Greg-NJ's 1998 528i 5-speed with over 60,000 miles on it. Just like the 530i, the 528i design tucks the CDV into a more difficult location and the resulting brake fluid flow completely soaked my right arm. I drilled Greg's CDV without major incident, then reinstalled it. As with the other cars, the power brake bleeder from The Ultimate Garage made short work of the clutch bleeding without requiring anyone to be inside the car pushing on the clutch pedal.

It was nearly 2:00 by the time we left for lunch and we were starving. These things rarely go off on schedule! Everyone except David (the other David) and Greg had left to participate in various family events, so we called up Mike Mario and arranged to meet him at Pane Vino for lunch. My wife joined us and was happy to find that Greg-NJ was a fellow Formula 1 racing enthusiast.

Maria, Greg-NJ, Mike Mario, David Yuk (imagining himself driving a 2001 530iA)

Lunch was delicious, as always, and it was nice to relax and enjoy good food and good company after the hectic morning.

Next, it was off to Morristown BMW to check out the Orient Blue (their Internet listing called it Oriental Blue!) 530iA with 11,000 miles. The car looked nice and the Sand interior was very clean. However, it didn't have the fold down rear seats that David Yuk wanted and we couldn't get the saleswoman, Ana Santos, to come down in price as far as we wanted. Despite not coming to a deal, Ana was quite pleasant and sharp and I recommend you ask for her if you're ever at Morristown BMW. She added me to her list for any used 2001 750iL's that show up and then we were on our way. A quick phone call to Gerry Bezems to confirm that he and David had a deal on his silver 530iA and then it was off in search of beer! :-)

We finished off the day drinking an excellent French beer, Castelain - Blond Biere de Garde, and having Ling Ling of Milburn deliver a wonderful meal.

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