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

The friend who was going to help me sort out the rear arm bushes before the MOT had something come up, so it is going to have to wait.

I decided to just put it through an MOT and see what happens.


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Well, I wasn't expecting that...


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Hrm...




Thats better! It just needed a firm whack. :p


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Ahhhh... Honestly I think those bushes should have been at least advised, but what do I know...


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Pressure is off now!
 
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I'd learned a lesson about failure on bm trailing arm bushing, the arm moved about 1/2" in board because the old rubber failed - which the bush carrier allows on both sides.
rear wheel was no longer aligned, car lost rear grip coming out of a countryside roundabout as it happened I think, ended up on a lovely grass verge;
I was surprised there was no obvious scrubbing of the tyre 100miles later.
 
jpaul said:
I'd learned a lesson about failure on bm trailing arm bushing, the arm moved about 1/2" in board because the old rubber failed - which the bush carrier allows on both sides.
rear wheel was no longer aligned, car lost rear grip coming out of a countryside roundabout as it happened I think, ended up on a lovely grass verge;
I was surprised there was no obvious scrubbing of the tyre 100miles later.
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Thats interesting, thanks for sharing, and glad to hear your crash wasn't worse!

The alignment on the rear of the car is actually a bit out of whack, the camber on one side is 2 degrees less than the other. (the one with less camber is the "wrong" one)

But I had put it down to the rear arm being bent slightly and ignored it. Looking at the service history it has been this way since well before I owned it.

Looking at the state of those bushes, I wouldn't be shocked if they were already worn out a decade ago to be honest... :p
 
80's interior moment.

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Plus some eccentricities that make me happy. An E36 lux/M3 wood gearknob, in extremely aged/cracked condition (in-fact I had to repair it because some parts flaked off), and a custom gearstick gaiter with SPACE CORGIS on it!

Because obviously. :p

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This gearknob is actually one of the first things I bought for the car years ago, you can see it if you check the old photos in my original post! I took it off when it broke, but now its repaired and BACK BAYBEE!
 
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Went to go for a drive in the E30 today to take some photos with my new camera lens, and it wouldn't start. Cranking but no vroom!

Genuinely, THE first time EVER it has let me down in a way that means I can't actually use it, and to its credit, it happened on my driveway, after I had left it sitting for a week or three.

Anyway, I did some testing and probing around... Nothing too exciting, but have a couple of pictures:

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No spark and no fuel pump, but voltages are where they need to be, fuses and relays are good, fuel pump works when jumped.

Conclusion: 99% a crank position sensor. When that fails, the fuel and ignition circuits do not engage.

Ordered a new one, will be here when it gets here.
 
good stuff -

[Interesting the fuel pump gets nobbled - I had one on it's way out, warm restart was tough, but pump remained, took ages&pb-blaster to tease it out from block,
thought the plastic would fracture & there wasn't space to drill it if needed, stupid short lead too, so was really meant to disconnect coolant hoses to route it
In retrospect the tachometer occassionally seemed to get stuck at ~2000rpm which I think was a symptom, had I known. ]
 
jpaul said:
good stuff -

[Interesting the fuel pump gets nobbled - I had one on it's way out, warm restart was tough, but pump remained, took ages&pb-blaster to tease it out from block,
thought the plastic would fracture & there wasn't space to drill it if needed, stupid short lead too, so was really meant to disconnect coolant hoses to route it
In retrospect the tachometer occassionally seemed to get stuck at ~2000rpm which I think was a symptom, had I known. ]
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Yeah it's not routed properly. I cut the old one and pulled it out, and kind of snaked the new one under the coolant hoses and used a few cable ties to hold it away from the belts. It's not pretty but I'll be damned if I'm going to go through bleeding the sodding cooling system again just for that. :P
 
Acme said:
Yeah it's not routed properly. I cut the old one and pulled it out, and kind of snaked the new one under the coolant hoses and used a few cable ties to hold it away from the belts. It's not pretty but I'll be damned if I'm going to go through bleeding the sodding cooling system again just for that.
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lol bmw haven't changed.
I left the old one coiled up around the cooling hose, in case the new hella one from amazon £13 versus £70+ oem fried itself quickly - MOT guy must be curious.
MOT garage,moreover, remembers that the horn is re-wired onto the windscreen wash stalk, which itself, is on a new dash switch - wasn't paying 100's for a clock spring.
 
jpaul said:
lol bmw haven't changed.
I left the old one coiled up around the cooling hose, in case the new hella one from amazon £13 versus £70+ oem fried itself quickly - MOT guy must be curious.
MOT garage,moreover, remembers that the horn is re-wired onto the windscreen wash stalk, which itself, is on a new dash switch - wasn't paying 100's for a clock spring.
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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. :o

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! :p
 
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