E39 Touring GS450h

[NiklasBuilds]

Hello! It's time for my debut on the forum and unveiling my first EV project for the community.

TL;DR: I'm converting a BMW E39 Touring with GS450h drivetrain to a daily driver that should be capable of a longish range (200-300 km) with the BACT (Best Available Cheap Technology) way of working.

About me:

I'm one of those whose gateway drug was Damien's videos including the 1000€ build that changed my understanding of conversions around: They are not only something that has a range only for short city driving and must cost tens of thousands to build. I found Damien's channel around 2019-2020 and the phrase of "hello folks" was the most common one for a few months.

I've been tinkering around quite a wide range of DIY from basic car repairs and household renovations to 3D scanners and larger CNC-machines. My main skills are in designing and building the mechanical side as being a structural engineer and having a small metal workshop as a side hustle/hobby. This project will be a huge leap for me when it comes to embedding custom software for controlling OEM parts through car data-busses. Yet I think I can manage this by taking part by part together with the help of the community and the open-source work that is done.

I've already used a great share of my spare time collecting information by going the road from understanding different EV-systems to the usage of AC OEM components, so I have a vision for what at least should be possible for me to achieve.


To the project itself:

The goal is to get a comfortable, spacious and economic DIY repairable EV with a range of +150 km even in winter. (winter meaning snow, ice and -20 Celsius).

I started by learning the local regulation here in Finland. In short and simplified: If the car is registered before 21.8.2002 you don't have to fulfil all chapters of the UN/ECE rule 100 for electric vehicles or EMC requirements. There is a short list of things (for example there must be a heater for demisting the windscreen) needed to do in the legislation but they aren't limiting the conversion.

So the choice of cars was ruled down to cars older than that. I went through old car magazines and collected drag coefficients etc. data of them for finding the "ultimate" conversion candidate. At the same time the Damien's "Bexus" project was alive with the GS450h drivetrain. It didn't take me long before i pulled the trigger for the transmission and inverter. This was in the beginning of 2020. This limited my choice to RWD cars.

After I while I was sure that the E39 BMW Touring is the one. Why? In short: The E39 is one of the best cars ever made. Extremely good handling, spacious, timeless, quiet, one of the most aerodynamic cars of it's time (sedan model as it is, Touring not bad either). They can also be bought with heavy powerfull drivetrains to strip for getting room and kilograms for the electric parts. A car with a small engine could be a problem, since here it is regulated how much you are allowed to gain power. Also that the E39 has already been converted here including open source can messages made the choise easy.

In the summer of 2020, I found a nice well equipped 2001 530D automatic Touring with only 220 000 km and the sandbeige interior I was after:

After that the project has been kind of on hold until 2021 autumn. We moved to a new place in the autumn 2020 so the spare time has been eaten up also by renovations and other changes in my personal life. I used the E39 as one of our daily drivers and absolutely loved it. So what should you do in that situation? Buy another one of course! Got an almost identical sedan with even better equipment and the sport package. The price was good because a faulty torque convertor.

The first idea after getting this one was to convert it first with cheaper components. The only problem with this is that it would need some welding and painting on it before it would be nice enough for daily use. (I bought it in the winter and It didn't look so bad in the pictures when covered in ice. ) I wouldn't want to use my spare time this year welding and painting, so this one might just serve as my "test bench" until I have time for the bodywork. Should be handy to have a fully working one to examine when implementing equipment on the other one!

Later on I would love to convert also a E39 sedan to a lighter and sporty one. This could mean a Tesla unit but that would need an even older model of the E39 (older than 1998). You're not allowed to modify the chassis or subframe in newer cars here without an special exemption arrangement and I would prefer to skip that by just changing to an older one. So I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with this sedan. This topic will be focused on the Touring even if the sedan would work as the test bench.


What is already bought for the project(s):

- Lexus GS450h transmission + inverter + oil pump + oil pump controller + all of the connectors for the system as new parts (The inverter one will be swapped to the one mentioned in OI wiki). I will do a separate post of all the connectors and where to find.

- ZombieVerter VCU from Damien + 2 pcs casings from Ali-E

- ISA shunt 1000 A (IVT-S-1K-U3-I-CAN1-12/24)

- E-Golf 24 kWh + 35,8 kWh + ID.3 62 kWh batteries. Got first the E-Golf ones for the project(s) but stumbled on a ID.3 battery few months ago and I couldn't resist buying it for achieving the wanted range capability and more. I think the E-Golf and ID.3 batteries have a nice "brick" formfactor for conversion use. The 62 kWh pack will be for the touring and 35,8 kWh for the sedan (Maybe). The 24 kWh one I think I'm going to just sell. The 108S configuration in the ID.3 pack however might make things more challenging for getting 453V supporting chargers and DC-DC. I could always drop one module for a 96s and decreasing the capacity to 55 kWh, but that might also have drawbacks when it comes to using the existing BMS slaves.

- Outlander 3 kW charger + DC-DC converter. This was intended for the sedan, but I might anyway first test the system with this one and later on get a 10 kW + three phase charger + separate DC-DC.

- Volt/Ampera heater

- 2 pcs Opel electric steering pumps and 1 pcs Volvo S20 2.0D steering pump. I have a similar Volvo as my second daily, so it would be nice to try to implement the can control of the steering assist depending on speed!

- For brakes 2 pcs 8E0927317 vacuum pump with connectors 1J0973722 + 2 pcs vacuum sensor 036906051G with connectors 1J0973704.

- Water pump 12V VAG 1K0965561J 2 pcs for smaller loops.

- E39 manual gas...torque pedals for testing and eliminating the kick down click of automatic ones.

- TE EV200AAANA 500A 900VDC contactors 2 pcs


Things to buy now or later:

- More contactors, fuses, cables, connectors etc

- Teensy + can board for testing SimpBMS

- More capable water pumps for larger loops: for example the CWA200

- BMW LIM module for CSS

- CSS port

- Beefier + 10 kW charger

- Separate DC-DC Converter

- AC Compressor


The plan:

- Get the motor spinning and do a test system of the components on a bench setup. My garage is a two cars garage meaning there is only room for one car so having a full car moved outside-inside for the whole time for testing wouldn't be ideal.

- 3D scan the underbody. This will unveil also if my idea of a tesla swap would be suitable in this frame for another project. If it would be, I would try to get a nice 1997 E39 instead for the testbench.- 1.4.2022: I'll use the 2002 Sedan as a test bench for getting all the communication working, since older E39 doesn't have CAN.

- Strip the sedan (the already acquired or maybe a 1997 one) from ICE parts- 1.4.2022: I'm getting an already ICE stripped E39 body next to nothing. I'll 3D scan the areas where new parts will be fitted. Also the touring body inside the boot will be scanned, since they are different.

- Fit all the parts in a 3D model and design battery boxes etc. I will try to maintain the 50:50 weight distribution: Would love to get the engine bay as spacy as possible for having a "Frunk" with a nicely lined luggage space for confusing eyes when opening the hood

- Ideal timeline would be to get at least one car moving and certified for road use this year, but we'll see.

- Aeromods with a good taste

- Fixing the Touring's rusty spots and other faults in the bodywork maybe when another EV is in use.


I'm keeping the lists here updated when things are settled.
Last update 1.4.2022


I will try to document the process as good as possible here (and in the wiki) part by part when proceeding. I hope this would take the step even lower for others starting an EV or specially an E39 project. I will also do YouTube videos on this in the near future with the same channel name as here (The blank channel is already there waiting for videos and subscribers ).

This became quite a long post even if I didn't yet open all my plans. I'll try to take one key element at a time to discussion in the following posts.

[PacEmaker]

Terrific project! I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress in the near future, best wishes from Australia!

[johu]

So that is how many projects? 3 batteries, 2 cars - I'm confused Nice plan anyhow.

I have also documented all my builds in the wiki, latest one here: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Audi_A2_Conversion
Feel free to add an E39 conversion page and link it to the main page (at the bottom)

It's nice to have all info in one spot

[NiklasBuilds]

Terrific project! I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress in the near future, best wishes from Australia!

Thank you!

So that is how many projects? 3 batteries, 2 cars - I'm confused Nice plan anyhow.
I have also documented all my builds in the wiki, latest one here: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Audi_A2_Conversion
Feel free to add an E39 conversion page and link it to the main page (at the bottom)
It's nice to have all info in one spot

This thread will be about having the Touring on the road. If I would start with a sedan E39 conversion that would get it's own thread. The work done on the other E39's in this thread is just to get the Touring on the road in a kind of "bolt on" fashion after having everything working on a "test" E39. I'm doing it like this since the Touring still serves as our second daily

And yes, I'll update the wiki as I go along! The wiki has huge potential and I would be happy to contribute my share by making it more comprehensive.

Project update 1:

I started tinkering with Arduino Due and CAN. I followed the instructions here: https://openinverter.org/wiki/CAN_bus_with_Arduino_Due

Additional notes for getting it working. (As a Complete Arduino DUE and CAN newbie.) Will update the wiki with these also:

- The port closer to the DC power connector is the "programming port" and the second is the "Native USB Port".
- In Arduino software Choose The right port from Tools -> Port, for getting the Blink example working.
- The DUE I got had a "Blink" Running it already, so I tested changing the example code from 1000 ms to 2000 ms and I saw the difference -> It works!
- Got first an error uploading the GVRET but got it working by installing the listed ZIP libraries again with corrected names in and out the zip. Remove the "-master" from the zip libraries and also from folder inside the zip file. They seem like they are also case sensitive.
- If you install wrong libraries (with a wrong name etc), delete their folders from the arduino folder. In my case C:\Users\Username\Documents\Arduino\libraries
- Savvycan connected to the DUE!
- Got a CAN capture from the ISA shunt. Test setup with a basic 12 V headlight:

- I tested my ISA shunt with it's stock settings. I guess the values are in hexadesimal. For example savvycan data for ID 0x521 (current) is "00 0F 00 00 08 06" = 0x00000806 = 2054 [mA] This at least corresponds to my lab PSU value when I dimmed the light.
https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/num ... cimal.html

So now I have a device (that needs to be placed in a casing with proper wiring) for CAN sniffing and proved that my ISA shunt (IVT-S-1K-U3-I-CAN1-12/24) works.

Project update 2:

I mentioned my project on a local chat group and as a result I'm getting a one E39 more This one is almost for free as it is already stripped from ICE parts. I'll have a good shell for 3D scanning and starting the design process from it.

I'll do first a basic model of the car for showing the ideas (battery locations etc) to local authorities. This is to make sure that I have a project that will pass the conversion inspection.

First questions:

My main doubt at the moment is about the ID.3 62 kWh 108 S (full voltage 450 V) battery configuration and getting it working with other HV components.
- The "easy" and also the sad way would be to leave one 6,9 kWh module out. The 108 S pack is just a consequence of VAG's modular battery design and the smaller 55 kWh 96 S uses the same battery modules. (55 kWh: 8 modules, 62 kWh: 9 modules). This could affect the usage of SimpBMS unless the BMS slaves would also be nicely modular and work without one module. The range should still be enough for me, but less is less.
- Best way would be getting all the HV components supporting 450V, but I understand that almost all (reverse engineered ones) are limited to somewhere around 420 V ?
- The minimal but also maybe risky way achieving the full 62 kWh would be to find a at least 430 V supporting charger which would result in about 80% SOC home charging. The other components could maybe be used through the buck-boost converter of the GS450h inverter.

Any suggestions how I should proceed with the battery and other HV components?

[tom91]

- The "easy" and also the sad way would be to leave one 6,9 kWh module out. \(55 kWh: 8 modules, 62 kWh: 9 modules). This could affect the usage of SimpBMS unless the BMS slaves would also be nicely modular and work without one module. The range should still be enough for me, but less is less.

Good news, the VW MEB platform uses slave ecus that monitor 4 modules or 1 module. This means omitting one module and thus 1 slave ecu this would work fine with the SimpBMS. Currently only waiting on capability to request temperatures.

[johu]

If you plan on using the buck boost converter you might as well use it both ways. Just run it at a fixed dutycycle of, say, 85%. Then 450V becomes 380V, 350V (assumed empty voltage) becomes 298V. Since the converter is bidirectional it converts up the other way around.