** Acme [Akagi] bought a pink estate car - E30 325i project log! **
- Thread starter Akagi
- Start date
I left mine in place until I'd confirmed the car started with the new one, and then cut the old one out after. Since the old one was dead-dead.
I paid £60 for a Hella vs £250~ for genuine.
Supposedly Hella are "OEM"
The new one looked quite different to the old, much smaller form factor.
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Took the old girl out for a spin, first time since replacing the sensor (I know I know...) and it behaved just fine.
I am wondering if my fuelly oil is something to do with the faulty CPS, I guess I'll figure that out in time. I know erroneous readings from that sensor can cause fuelling issues on modern cars, and I know the sensor has likely been finnicky for the whole time I've owned the car (occasional long cranks etc etc), just not sure if that logic applies to the comparatively primitive motronic injection.
I should probably read into how motronic works one of these days...
All the dash and cluster lights are dead though. I'm going to check the fuses, its possible I dislodged something when I was poking around before, seems like too much of a coincidence otherwise... If not, then it will probably be the dimmer switch in the headlight switch.
Old cars don't like sitting! You have to use them!
I am wondering if my fuelly oil is something to do with the faulty CPS, I guess I'll figure that out in time. I know erroneous readings from that sensor can cause fuelling issues on modern cars, and I know the sensor has likely been finnicky for the whole time I've owned the car (occasional long cranks etc etc), just not sure if that logic applies to the comparatively primitive motronic injection.
I should probably read into how motronic works one of these days...
All the dash and cluster lights are dead though. I'm going to check the fuses, its possible I dislodged something when I was poking around before, seems like too much of a coincidence otherwise... If not, then it will probably be the dimmer switch in the headlight switch.
Old cars don't like sitting! You have to use them!
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I haven't watched it, but I know Alex and Taylor bought Tourings.
It was actually a friend of mine who sold them to them!
Really loving the new exhaust now, it sounds like a proper old school BMW again. The old exhaust sounded a lot more aggressive and deep, but this one is nicely tuned, and you can hear all the other noises that were drowned out before. The slight intake noise, the lifters ticking, the slight whine from the driveline. It has made it really quite pleasant to run about in.
I use 10W40 semi synth. Shell Helix HX7 to be precise, but the specific oil I use is just because I bought a lot of it a long time ago.
Oil pan gasket isn't too bad as long as you have an engine support bar that can lift as well. Just have to loosen a bunch of stuff and yank it up a little bit, and there is enough room to slide the oil pan out.
I did mine in my first year or two of ownership.
Replacing E30 M20 Oil Pan Gasket without dropping the Subframe | Valvecover Seal Replacement
How to Replace BMW E30 M20 Oil Pan Gasket without dropping the Subframe? How to Replace M20B27 Valve Cover gasket? This process applies to all 84-91 325 / 32...
www.youtube.com
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The old gal is definitely burning a little oil now, I can smell it.
It has always given me a slight whiff from time to time, but never lost any.
Now I can smell it pretty much every drive, but it still isn't really losing any, so it is only very slight.
I'm not sure if the engine is actually burning it in combustion, (it has got over 200,000 miles on the stock bottom end and I have driven it pretty hard for the last 7 years of its life, so it wouldn't shock me!), or if its the rear main seal leaking and getting on the exhaust and burning off, that has been leaking for years. I would have changed it, but it has always been my plan to do it when I eventually do the clutch.
It is probably a combination.
I intend to just ignore it unless it becomes an issue.
It has also started to become hard to re-start when it has been run from cold to hot and then turned off, not always but some of the time. It has done that occasionally since I owned it, up until recently it was probably only 4 or 5 times in my ownership and would start after a couple of attempts. But now it has done it 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks...
Sadly I don't think I can ignore that problem! So I will have to investigate.
It has always given me a slight whiff from time to time, but never lost any.
Now I can smell it pretty much every drive, but it still isn't really losing any, so it is only very slight.
I'm not sure if the engine is actually burning it in combustion, (it has got over 200,000 miles on the stock bottom end and I have driven it pretty hard for the last 7 years of its life, so it wouldn't shock me!), or if its the rear main seal leaking and getting on the exhaust and burning off, that has been leaking for years. I would have changed it, but it has always been my plan to do it when I eventually do the clutch.
It is probably a combination.
I intend to just ignore it unless it becomes an issue.
It has also started to become hard to re-start when it has been run from cold to hot and then turned off, not always but some of the time. It has done that occasionally since I owned it, up until recently it was probably only 4 or 5 times in my ownership and would start after a couple of attempts. But now it has done it 3 or 4 times in the past couple of weeks...
Sadly I don't think I can ignore that problem! So I will have to investigate.
No cat fortunately. Too old.
There's no cam sensor on these, and I already replaced the crank position sensor recently after the old one failed.
From some reading it sounds like it might be some fuel return valve or something. The forums all say "they do that sir" whenever anyone has asked.
Although I think I also have a sticky injector so I doubt that is helping. I need to remember to send my spare set off to be refurbished so that I can swap them over.
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Been having stumbling issues under load, I was sure it was ignition because my cables were pretty old and I had seen them arc on the exhaust heatshield in the past, so I bit the bullet and bought replacements which were £120~ for the set...
Fitted them and went for a 20 mile drive, no stumbling! Fixed, I thought! And then on the way home it started to happen again. I gave the plugs, dizzy cap and rotor arm a quick check and clean up, but I'm fairly sure its actually a fuel issue and I've been barking up the wrong tree.
I have a spare fuel pump so I'm going to swap them over, and fit a new fuel filter while I'm there, see if that sorts it.
e; also ticked over 208,000 miles on the test drive today.
Fitted them and went for a 20 mile drive, no stumbling! Fixed, I thought! And then on the way home it started to happen again. I gave the plugs, dizzy cap and rotor arm a quick check and clean up, but I'm fairly sure its actually a fuel issue and I've been barking up the wrong tree.
I have a spare fuel pump so I'm going to swap them over, and fit a new fuel filter while I'm there, see if that sorts it.
e; also ticked over 208,000 miles on the test drive today.
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Needed to make an emergency 200 mile drive to visit family and I was still having the stumbling issue which is fine when pootling about locally but not so much for a motorway jaunt.
So I packed up the car, and fitted a new fuel filter and fuel pump, and hit the road.
Old fuel filter and new fuel pump here, look I can't be trusted to document things logically...
The new fuel pump (a cheap Intermotor £46 one from eBay) is an absolute tonne quieter than the 30+ year old genuine pump it replaced.
Unfortunately the drive was still pretty touch and go with the engine breaking up badly right where I needed it to not do that, at crusing RPM, but I made it there.
When there I changed the spark plugs for a new set, the old ones looked OK but they were due changing at 6 years / at least 10,000 miles old.
My key also snapped in the door lock, which was ideal as I was hundreds of miles from home and didn't have a spare key...
So I had to wait for a relative to bring me my spare key all that way, which they duly did, and I got 4 new keys cut...
While I waited, I was driving this, which is easily the worst car I've ever driven. CVT transmissions can rot in hell, they are absolutely disobedient. I was immensely relieved to get back into my E30 after a few days of driving it, it was like getting out of a toy car which vaguely does what you tell it to (but not really), and getting into a proper car.
One of my rear window winders also snapped clean in half, which I found quite impressive given it is made of metal with reinforcing ribs on the back...
So I have now replaced it with one from a BMW 2002. Mismatched window winders add horsepower so I hear.
Stumbling issue was still there after changing the plugs, so I put a bottle of Forte petrol injector cleaner in the tank, and it fixed the problem almost straight away...
So lets see, I fitted new ignition ignition leads (which are expensive on an E30...), changed cap and rotor arm, fitted a set of new NGK spark plugs, a new fuel pump, and a new fuel filter, and in the end all I needed to do was tip some magical injector cleaning soup in the tank... Well... At least I shouldn't have to worry about all the other bits for a few years now I guess...
Oh and a nice bright yellow man on a motorbike pointed a hairdryer at me before this trip, and when I got home I had some lovely photos waiting!
So I packed up the car, and fitted a new fuel filter and fuel pump, and hit the road.
Old fuel filter and new fuel pump here, look I can't be trusted to document things logically...
The new fuel pump (a cheap Intermotor £46 one from eBay) is an absolute tonne quieter than the 30+ year old genuine pump it replaced.
Unfortunately the drive was still pretty touch and go with the engine breaking up badly right where I needed it to not do that, at crusing RPM, but I made it there.
When there I changed the spark plugs for a new set, the old ones looked OK but they were due changing at 6 years / at least 10,000 miles old.
My key also snapped in the door lock, which was ideal as I was hundreds of miles from home and didn't have a spare key...
So I had to wait for a relative to bring me my spare key all that way, which they duly did, and I got 4 new keys cut...
While I waited, I was driving this, which is easily the worst car I've ever driven. CVT transmissions can rot in hell, they are absolutely disobedient. I was immensely relieved to get back into my E30 after a few days of driving it, it was like getting out of a toy car which vaguely does what you tell it to (but not really), and getting into a proper car.
One of my rear window winders also snapped clean in half, which I found quite impressive given it is made of metal with reinforcing ribs on the back...
So I have now replaced it with one from a BMW 2002. Mismatched window winders add horsepower so I hear.
Stumbling issue was still there after changing the plugs, so I put a bottle of Forte petrol injector cleaner in the tank, and it fixed the problem almost straight away...
So lets see, I fitted new ignition ignition leads (which are expensive on an E30...), changed cap and rotor arm, fitted a set of new NGK spark plugs, a new fuel pump, and a new fuel filter, and in the end all I needed to do was tip some magical injector cleaning soup in the tank... Well... At least I shouldn't have to worry about all the other bits for a few years now I guess...
Oh and a nice bright yellow man on a motorbike pointed a hairdryer at me before this trip, and when I got home I had some lovely photos waiting!
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