** Acme [Akagi] bought a pink estate car - E30 325i project log! **

No change with this really, fitted a new tail light seal which has cured my leak into the boot pocket finally, part was £19 from BMW. For a little rubber gasket thing. Dear me...

Also listed about £2K worth of rare options and spares for sale, because I have decided that I would just be fitting them for the sake of it, and I'd rather have the spare cash.

Cruise control kit, on board computer kit, map light mirror, etc.
 
No no lights in the front.
And nah I probably won't fit any of it. I have time to change my mind though
 
Getting her back soon having had a rear panel repair section welded in, new rear subframe bushes, rear disks, pads, handbrake shoes, brake hoses, brake lines, my E30 M3 LSD being fitted, Z3M diff bush, new LSD oil, the exhaust front to mid section re-made, and an oil and filter service.

Bought some AVO R2 Monotube race coilovers, GAZ Billet front top mounts and pillowball rear top mounts. Combined with the front strut brace, E36 M3 front eccentric bushes, and a few other bits it already has, it should be a handling weapon.

Now waiting for my new wheels to be finished and I'll get them wrapped in some new rubber one profile shorter than the stock baloon tyres.

After that that just leaves the big re-spray/bodywork job which won't happen until somewhen later next year at the earliest.
 
I need to get my 3 door 320i se sorted this coming year. Got to replace water pump etc and do a bit of welding here there and everywhere. I love driving E30's, can't see it being finished until 2021 however!

This thread is good inspiration tho, well done for keeping at it Acme! Yours will be worth a bit when the last lot of work is done won't it?
 
The_Dark_Side said:
I'd recommend you have the lsd lockup redone to Alpina spec. It really makes quite a difference .
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It was re-built about 10,000 miles before I got it and the lockup torque is all above factory spec. I'm sure it will be fine as is! If I ever have it re-built again (doubtful) I'll get it upgraded though. :)

godinman said:
I need to get my 3 door 320i se sorted this coming year. Got to replace water pump etc and do a bit of welding here there and everywhere. I love driving E30's, can't see it being finished until 2021 however!

This thread is good inspiration tho, well done for keeping at it Acme! Yours will be worth a bit when the last lot of work is done won't it?
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Best of luck! Yours will probably be finished before mine. This is taking a very long time because I don't have the funds to get it all done in one go. I will be worth a bit, but not masses, owing to the fact that it is a Touring and on 200K miles. Even though that is still low mileage for the year.
 
MOT passed, couple of small things I didn't notice or forgot about so we sorted those during the test and it passed with no advisories. (I forgot to clamp the battery down properly, there was a numberplate light out, and the headlight aim was too low)

The new rear subframe bushes (the main bushes where the rear subframe mounts to the chassis) have made a huge difference to how it feels to drive. I can tell the tracking is a bit out of whack now, but I'll wait until I've fitted the coilovers before getting that sorted.

With the exhaust leak up front fixed, the new, diff in, and a service, it seems to go better than ever now.

Yes it still has an ABS fault but the light didn't come on during the test as it only comes on at over 10MPH...


Not bad for 30 years old and 200,000 on the clock if I do day so myself.

Now it just needs tidying up as it's still a right scruff.
 
Vita said:
So the abs light turns off when the car is turned off?
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Yea it only comes on once the speedo move off the stop. So if you move it around at sub 10MPH it wont illuminate.

Gotta remember its a very old car, there is no fault code storage or anything like that. :)

It is either a wheel sensor, a crusty ABS ring, the ABS relay, or the ABS ECU. I need to take a multi-meter to all of the wheel sensor plugs to check that they behave as expected when the wheel is spun, if they do then I'll replace the relay and the ABS ECU. If that doesn't sort it then I'll probably just remove the bulb and embrace non ABS life. Similar to how I removed the brake pad wear sensor bulb... :p
 
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BMW is still going fine, which is nice. Unfortunately I am still getting significant water ingress in the boot even after replacing the tail light seals and having a small rust hole around the boot edge repaired, so I am going to replace the rubber tailgate seal next because it is incredibly flat and I suspect that is the source of my problems.

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A door close sensor has stopped working and thinks the door is always open, I suspect its a wiring issue because the sensor is incredibly simple and appears to operate fine, so that is annoying and has been added to the to-do list.

The headlight wash/wipe system also decided to come to life, and not in a good way, the headlight washer pump was constantly running, as were the wiper motors... For now I've just removed the intensive wash module which has cured the problem, I suspect it was because of corroded pins because one of them was completely blue with corrosion, but I'll leave it out for now because the wiper mechanisms have always been seized anyway.

Module seems fine internally. No bulging capacitors etc and it all looks fresh.

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Went out for a drive the other day and took a rubbish picture of it parked in a puddle.

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Today I'm going to fiddle with the exhaust because it has come off of one of its hangers, and I'm going to adjust the handbrake, and the belt tension on the power steering belt. Might give it a quick wash and buff if the sun comes out as well.
 
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