I’ve had my grease car for over a year now and I’ve thoroughly searched for technical resources supporting the rare 524td. Although there are a lot of general manuals, a few resources provide the most accurate and valuable information.
All the forums and car KBs online talk about the Bentley manual as being the premier manual. Compared to the other printed manuals, I would have to agree. But this manual specifically doesn’t cover the 524td, just the gas cars. It is helpful for general repair and maintenance, but not worth the 30$ you’ll pay on ebay.
Chilton’s General BMW repair manual for 1970-1988
This is not the greatest manual either. Probably the worst you can get for the 524td, just too general for most stuff and you’re constantly trying to find your model in each section.
Haynes Repair manual for 3 & 5 series
There is a PDF of this manual on almost every torrent site. Again, broken record, but this is a general manual which doesn’t cover the TD engine. Worth torrenting, but not buying a paper copy.
OnDemand5 software from Mitchell1
This software is available on torrents also. Large files due to the extensive coverage. I just DLed the imports DVDs, not domestic. Installation is pretty tricky. First you have to copy the DVDs to disk, in certain directories within the first DVD’s directory tree. On my laptop I needed to install a floppy disk emulator to install the license while I configured the repair manuals. So install was a pain, but this was definitely worth it. Good directions for diagnostics and repair. Tables, Graphs, Diagrams are invaluable.
The Mark VII has the M21 engine also, so this manual is great for engine related stuff. Best diagrams of the engine I’ve seen anywhere. The engine rebuilding section is very thorough.
BMW shop manual for 524td/535i
There is a copy available online (appears the domain is down right now). This is the best overall source you can get. The quality of the photos is pretty bad, but it’s directly from BMW so the information is great. This manual coupled with OnDemand5 makes for a better fight against tough to solve problems, or if you’re just a noob like me.
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