Augment, not convert, my BMW M5

1129 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by brian_, Oct 29, 2020

BMWe39

Discussion Starter · Oct 20, 2020

Hi everyone:

My first post here and I'm looking to learn. I'm a car enthusiast, have some common sense and currently drive a 2001 BMW M5. It has an aftermarket exhaust and it wakes up the family when I leave for work in the morning. I can get a silent muffler, but I'd rather make this an opportunity to learn about the future of cars.

I'd like a lightweight electric system that only needs to get the car out of the garage and down the road, where I'll start the gas engine and drive away. The car has a manual transmission and I can steer it without the power steering system - I just need propulsion for about 1/4 mile!

So what do you all think is the best way to go? I'm willing to learn...

Thank you

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4G63T

· #2 · Oct 20, 2020

If all you really want from electric conversion is to get out of the garage and down the street , I will tell you to look elsewhere.

Maybe someone here knows better options out there.. There is not really much you can do other than maybe this hub motor setup link below . As your car is rwd, you can set this in your front wheels to make it “awd”. But this will probably be really expensive for what small task you want to accomplish and the added weight not very beneficial for your needs .

I for one, always hated exhaust sounds. But if loud exhaust is your thing, put on the stock muffler and install an exhaust cutout. Maybe check the BMW forums they might have a muffler that has valves that open up during harder acceleration but are quiet at startup and cruise .

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brian_

· #3 · Oct 20, 2020

This is within the capability of a typical hybrid... and it doesn't even have to be a plug-in hybrid. That means a modest motor (as little as 10 kW) and a small battery (about 1 kWh). The easiest configuration is a parallel hybrid.

You could try to adapt the system from a Honda Insight or Civic hybrid, but even with this simple system fitting the motor in (before or after the transmission) and finding a place for the battery are difficult.

If you can make it work, and control it properly, you could get some of the usual hybrid fuel economy and performance benefits... but it will never be worth the cost and effort except as an entertaining and educational project.

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remy_martian

· #4 · Oct 23, 2020

1) Put the car up about 4ft on a rack and roll it off. PITA because you have to attach/detach ramps
2) Get an exhaust "cutout" that diverts between the two mufflers
3) Get rid of the dinosaur and buy electric. I paced an M4 off the stoplight to around 35-40MPH...with my Chevy Bolt, lol. Your farty ICE's days are numbered - sell it before it becomes worthless

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scerbera

· #5 · Oct 29, 2020

E39's are going up in value hugely, I owned one before i got my current E60 M5. As above, i'd suggest a simple diverter for exhaust, I too had a muffler delete as they are called in the E39 and it sounded incredible.

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brian_

· #6 · Oct 29, 2020

I initially answered the question and withheld my opinion on the exhaust, but apparently it was never a serious question (since BMWe39 never came back) and the whole idea of open exhausts is just too much to ignore.

BMWe39 said:
I'm a car enthusiast, have some common sense and currently drive a 2001 BMW M5. It has an aftermarket exhaust and it wakes up the family when I leave for work in the morning. I can get a silent muffler, but I'd rather make this an opportunity to learn about the future of cars...

So it's a problem to wake up your own family, but not the family a quarter mile away? That defies common sense.

scerbera said:
... I too had a muffler delete as they are called in the E39 and it sounded incredible.

I'm sure it sounds incredible... to you. To most people, it's just annoying noise.

I am an auto enthusiast, I had a race-prepared car with a muffler cutout for track use (only), and every time I hear some no-muffler thing on the street I think "what a pile of crap, driven by a jerk".

I think anyone with deliberately loud exhaust should be required to drive it past their own family at full throttle early every morning, and just after their kids go to sleep if they have those, since that's what they do to other people.

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remy_martian

· #7 · Oct 29, 2020

Other than beating the crap out of black people, don't we have cops that are supposed to also enforce noise ordinances? I totally agree about open exhausts on the street, and they are usually on cars that have a couple of hamsters in a wheel under the hood for power. You'll notice I posted "two mufflers" - you can wake people up with a nice sounding, legal, Borla on a V8 in a garage without being illegal. Though the "1/4 mile away" kinda negates that assumption, doesn't it?

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brian_

· #8 · Oct 29, 2020

remy_martian said:
... don't we have cops that are supposed to also enforce noise ordinances?

That's really difficult, since the law enforcement officer is not likely to be there, and without instrumentation noise is a very subjective thing. The idea of switched, even automatic, systems is that they are acceptable when checked and opened when the driver wants, making them very hard to find in inspections. To make things a little worse, noise is often governed by municipal ordinances which may be generally enforced by agencies other than the general police force.

BMWe39's neighbors could register a complaint, but the chance that any law enforcement officer will stake out the house waiting for him to blast out of this driveway is small.

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