My Retro Resto - E30 325i Cab
- Thread starter InvaderGIR
- Start date
Caporegime
****ing hell!!! - I thought you'd buried it under a sheet & forgot about it!!
I await update with renewed interest!!
I await update with renewed interest!!
Soldato
Rob, tell them about the wire that caused us so much hassle 
Caporegime
Grats!
Associate
Awesome, I managed to miss all the previous updates somehow
Well done on the MOT
Well done on the MOT
Rob, tell them about the wire that caused us so much hassle
FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU
Awesome, I managed to miss all the previous updates somehow
Well done on the MOT
It's nowhere near as good as your threads or restos, much more just a case of getting it apart and then working and road legal.
I'll do some updates in a week or so, once I have proper internet, currently just tethering my phone so can't really post properly. I'll detail the wire -westy- was on about in an update certainly, along with various other things that have gone on.
I've driven it about 170mi so far to move house and it has been faultless to be honest, cruises nicely and is pretty good to drive around town too. It does however drink fuel but the car is only going to get used at weekends (despite being my only car now) so it doesn't really phase me. One annoying thing is that at a nice motorway cruise (75) it runs at 2800-3000rpm and it just so happens that the exhaust drones/resonates at that rpm range. Good fun though, need to rack up more miles before I can really comment on it though, also need some warmer sunny days for roof down fun.
Soldato
FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU
It's nowhere near as good as your threads or restos, much more just a case of getting it apart and then working and road legal.
I'll do some updates in a week or so, once I have proper internet, currently just tethering my phone so can't really post properly. I'll detail the wire -westy- was on about in an update certainly, along with various other things that have gone on.
I've driven it about 170mi so far to move house and it has been faultless to be honest, cruises nicely and is pretty good to drive around town too. It does however drink fuel but the car is only going to get used at weekends (despite being my only car now) so it doesn't really phase me. One annoying thing is that at a nice motorway cruise (75) it runs at 2800-3000rpm and it just so happens that the exhaust drones/resonates at that rpm range. Good fun though, need to rack up more miles before I can really comment on it though, also need some warmer sunny days for roof down fun.
YAY roof down buddies
Soldato
Well done. 
Update Fourteen - xx/11/2012-xx/02/2013
So last proper update I'd left it at saying I needed to fit a big pile of brake parts so I figure I shall carry on from there. I do have various pictures and will try to include them but this will be a big update with mostly text.
So, now that I had the engine in and running the car could go but looking at the braking system, it wouldn't stop. I stripped off all of the braking components, callipers, discs, pads, shoes and flexi/rubber lines.
Once I had the callipers off I inspected them, inside the pistons they looked a little tatty but over all they looked fine. I tested all four with an airline on the fluid feed and they all pushed out fine. I wound them back in and again, all nice and smooth. I was worried that I would need to get replacements, especially after phoning around various suppliers and being told I was looking at £100+ for each calliper (that was on an exchange basis too).
I also removed some scummy solid lines. One of the lines wouldn't come off from the flexi, so out with the cutting disc...
I recall with that one, I had to cut the bracket that holds it to the car because the access is a right pain when you have the beam in place and so the nipple ended up rounding. As I was replacing the flexi with braided and had loads of spare solid left I didn't really care, cut the old crap out, put new stuff in!.
Yummehh!
Ooooohhh
Shiny
Fresh lines
As you can see in the last couple of pics, I did remove the rear beam. I did this between removing the brake lines and refitting them due to access. The beam isn't too difficult to remove, if you have fresh bushes and a 4 post ramp/lift. As I had old bushes and no ramp/lift the task of removing the beam became quite horrible.
The easy bits were removing the diff from the prop, the half shafts from the diff and the diff itself from the beam. With that out of the way I wanted to remove the .trailing arms before getting the beam off. Unfortunately due to the design of the car and where the filler neck is for the fuel tank, I couldn't remove the driver side trailing arm. The beam is secured to the car via two long bolts through the chassis at either end. The bolts go through bushes that locate themselves in the chassis.
Manky bush
Once I had the bolts out it should just have been a simple case of tapping the beam and it dropping out. Due to the bushes being old and knackered though it stuck fast. I had to use heat, drills and all sorts to free them. Kept at it though and ended up with the below (also removed the trailing arms in the pic).
Free beam
This then gave me a problem, I couldn't remove the old knackered bushes and fit my fresh new ones because you ideally need a press. I phoned a couple of local garages, some places were too busy others didn't have the right size press, one place though suggested I try an agricultural mechanic just down the road from them. Rocked up, got the old bushes burnt out with Oxy which took all of 2mins per side, and then they fitted the fresh new ones which again took a couple of mins only.
I realised once I got home that I should have taken the trailing arms with me too, to get them to burn out the bushes. However I found a canister of gas, a blow lamp attachment and my trusty ginger chinned sidekick (-westy-) buried in the back of the garage. Together we made short work of the old trailing arm bushes and pushed the fresh new ones in easily with a bench vice.
FIRE
With all of the bushes replaced I reassembled the rear beam (with trailing arms) and refitted it to the car, not too difficult a task really although it is awkward as the trailing arms are bulky and try to drag the beam at odd angles. The diff goes back on easily too, although I had some problems initially as the prop seemed too short. Turns out that there is a length adjuster and I'd managed to knock the prop shorted. Slackened off the adjuster, knocked it back out in length and all went back together nicely.
Prop adjustment / Centre bearing.
Refitting is the reverse of removal....
One of the nice things about the setup of the E30 (not really paid much attention to other RWD cars) is that the half shafts can be unbolted to remove from the diff, so you don't need to drain the fluid or anything messy, just undo the bolts and the shafts drop off from the diff. Refitting is them also a nice clean job, line up, bolts in, done.
I happened upon an issue when putting the trailing arms back on...
Coil
One of my suspension coils had snapped on the passenger side. Oddly, it wasn't noticeable when the car was on all four wheels. I fitted a replacement from the spares car (unfortunately the spares car only had one) and will sort out getting a full suspension refresh at a later date, probably with a small drop to allow the wheels to fill the arches a bit better instead of it looking like a 4x4.
I don't have any pictures of the following bit.
With the beam sorted I then fitted the new brake pads, discs and shoes.
I had some problems with filling and bleeding the braking system initially which took -westy- and I a while to notice...there were a couple of joins I'd not done up fully so we sent a good couple litres of fluid all over the garage floor, with them done up properly we were able to bleed the full system easily enough though.
The rear braking setup on BMWs is an odd one for a lot of people but in my opinion, whilst being a pain to set up right, it is really good. To ensure that the parking brake and stopping brakes don't both foul up, the rears have both discs and drums. It is quite simple really, the rear discs have a very wide hub area which allows that to act as a drum for the parking brake only and the disc area for stopping only.
Installing all new components can be a bit tricky as you need to assemble the parking brake shoes and their mechanisms before you can fit the disc or calliper. If you're new to the setup of drums then this can be a daunting task but in reality it really isn't an issue at all, it is quite simple.
Adjusting the parking brake though isn't the most fun of tasks. To do it you need to fit the wheel using 3 out of 4 bolts and follow this guide:
That'll allow the brake to pass the MOT easily...I however initially didn't follow that guide and had a rather slack parking brake (more on that later).
With the running gear now sorted (as far as I could tell) I decided to tackle interior problems. One of the big problems I had inside the car is that the electrics were, well, not working right. The wiring behind the dash was a mess and most of the dash bulbs didn't work.
This image from a previous update shows just how bad the wiring was:
Messy!
Most of that mess was in fact the stereo wiring which someone had really badly spliced using chocolate blocks and made a horrific mess. I stripped out the old loom for the stereo, grabbed the loom from the touring (which was clean and tidy, with an ISO connector) and again with the help of -westy-, a soldering iron and a hairdryer (his, he had it in the boot of the MX5...who'd have thought it?!) the loom got spliced together and so I had a nicely soldered, heat shrink and fresh stereo loom. I got a Sony > ISO loom and was able to refit the stereo that came with the car.
Untidy stereo wiring
In an effort to tidy up the wiring I removed a few wires that seemed to not go anywhere or do anything, as you would. After this I was then doing something in the engine bay and test fired the car, everything worked fine apart from there was no spark. I got loads of help from E30Zone about the issue, tested everything with spares and scratched my head loads. Couldn't work it out.
-westy- came round to help on something else with the car and I figured I'd put the car into the same state as before, ie, I'd refit one of the wires I'd removed. Once I did that and -westy- turned the key it fired up instantly and sat there idling without a care in the world. It turned out that one of wires I'd removed does do something.
The car was originally specced with an alarm system which was a little key code unit where the clock now sits in the centre console. The car was then fitted with an aftermarket immobiliser unit at some stage in its life and what was a common thing for the installers to do back then was remove the old alarm control unit, splice a couple of wires that usually run to the unit and fit the new system to disable the car differently.
One of the wires I'd unknowingly removed was this spliced wire, it looked completely standard and wasn't until closer inspection that we discovered the splice and rewrap of the wire. I coiled this offending cable up, cable tied it and securely fixed it behind the dash so it won't be in the way or cause problems again.
Green plug of doom
With that issue behind me, it was then a case of sorting out all of the dash bulbs and ensuring everything behind the dash was connected up properly, swapped all of the bulbs for new ones and tested them to be working. I also refitted the slightly worse for wear interior (and it is still fitted) because a new complete cab interior isn't cheap and I was in a bid to get the car back on the road before the end of Feb. I did freshen it up with some new parts though, like a new leather gear gaiter and a leather handbrake gaiter to replace the horrible concertina plastic one. I didn't at this point fit the driver seat as it was still in need of leather feed, cleaned, fed and fitted it a short while later though.
Erect brake
Glow
I ordered a gasket for the exhaust main > downpipe connection and found it to not fit, after a couple more orders and with the help of BMW I then had some spare incorrect ones and a correct BMW branded item. There are a couple of different designs of downpipe and unfortunately most sellers assume they are both the same.
No fit.
Too small.
I was unsure of the state of the head gasket and thought it could potentially cause some issues if it was really old and decrepit so I pulled the head off, replaced the gasket, bolts and the rocker cover gasket too. The head bolts were original non stretch hex head bolts, they should have been changed (via a recall) to Torx head stretch bolts in the past so it is a good thing that I did change this little lot over. It is known for the hex heads to snap off the bolts and play pinball around the inside of rocker area, so, change is good.
The car was pretty much sorted and ready for and MOT by this point, so I did the most sensible thing and gave the front grills a nice clean up.
Old kidney grill
Fresh grill
With chrome
Head light surrounds too
I cleaned up the old grills and sprayed them with plastidip as I'd heard good things about it. I didn't do the best job of it really but they are much nicer than they were and they should avoid being destroyed by road grime and the sun now. I can also easily peel it off and respray whenever I like, much easier than normal painting. They are a matt black finish and do make the car look much better than the faded grey they were when I got the car.
MOT TIME.
********.
Fails 001 and 004 were simple.
001 - The connection between the braided line and the solid line wasn't done up quite tight enough, cranked it up a little more and it is sorted.
004 - Adjusted the parking brake properly as per the above quote and it works fine.
Fails 002 and 003 weren't so easy though.
002 - I had hoped this was just a feed/return fuel line or at worst, the filler neck pipe. It turned out to be the stub out from the tank for the filler neck and it was rusted all around the stub which meant I had to fit a replacement tank. I did initially try to use the tank from the spares car but unfortunately that had taken a massive smack at some point so I figured it would be best to source a new one. A replacement tank wasn't too expensive (under £100) and fitted up fine.
003 - This I was stumped on as the E30 325i does not have the ability to adjust revs, timing etc. everything is controlled via the ECU and sensors. A common fault that messes with the revs is that the ECU temp sensor has failed so the car never knows when it is warm and over fuels all of the time. I replaced this but still had an idle of ~1200rpm and over fuelling. Next step was to clean the Idle Control Valve, Air Flow Meter and the Throttle Position Switch. The ICV and AFM were mostly clean and tidy anyway but I made them better. The TPS seemed clean but when I tested it with a multimeter it showed that something had failed as there was no resistance at all. I tested the one from the blown engine and it was working correctly so swapped it over, tested the car and it was idling at ~800rpm and wasn't over fuelling.
Had the car retested:
Unfortunately I didn't get a brake results sheet so don't know how well the parking brake works but having used the car, it appears to be fine. The tester said that initially it didn't pass emissions but he did some tweaks and it passed (3.15% instead of 6.78%, under 3.50% which is what matters). I suspect he just revved the engine for a bit then stuck the probe in afterwards. The car certainly isn't smoky or anything at all now so I can only assume when it went in for the test it wasn't fully heated up.
After the test I got the alignment done as it was driving badly, very much transformed the car despite it just being an ATS Euromaster place and not a full GEO WIM place.
Since the MOT I've driven it ~200mi and I'm loving it. The noise is excellent and it drives better than I had thought it would. There are some issues that still need attention, like the springs, rear wheel arches and interior but I'll tackle those at a later date when I can be bothered, for now it is road legal and drives etc. fine.
I have noticed though that the exhaust resonates are ~2800rpm which with normal town driving, or spirited lane driving isn't really an issue. When on the motorway though it is a bit annoying as 5th at a sensible cruising speed is 2800rpm (about 70mph) which means it resonates/drones on long runs, dropping a little bit of speed does stop it though so it isn't a huge problem.
It also does drink fuel, I put in ~50L (63L tank) from totally dry/empty (new tank remember) and it is about to turn the light on, so I'm currently looking at ~18mpg.
Oh the ironing
Practical
So last proper update I'd left it at saying I needed to fit a big pile of brake parts so I figure I shall carry on from there. I do have various pictures and will try to include them but this will be a big update with mostly text.
So, now that I had the engine in and running the car could go but looking at the braking system, it wouldn't stop. I stripped off all of the braking components, callipers, discs, pads, shoes and flexi/rubber lines.
Once I had the callipers off I inspected them, inside the pistons they looked a little tatty but over all they looked fine. I tested all four with an airline on the fluid feed and they all pushed out fine. I wound them back in and again, all nice and smooth. I was worried that I would need to get replacements, especially after phoning around various suppliers and being told I was looking at £100+ for each calliper (that was on an exchange basis too).
I also removed some scummy solid lines. One of the lines wouldn't come off from the flexi, so out with the cutting disc...
I recall with that one, I had to cut the bracket that holds it to the car because the access is a right pain when you have the beam in place and so the nipple ended up rounding. As I was replacing the flexi with braided and had loads of spare solid left I didn't really care, cut the old crap out, put new stuff in!.
Yummehh!
Ooooohhh
Shiny
Fresh lines
As you can see in the last couple of pics, I did remove the rear beam. I did this between removing the brake lines and refitting them due to access. The beam isn't too difficult to remove, if you have fresh bushes and a 4 post ramp/lift. As I had old bushes and no ramp/lift the task of removing the beam became quite horrible.
The easy bits were removing the diff from the prop, the half shafts from the diff and the diff itself from the beam. With that out of the way I wanted to remove the .trailing arms before getting the beam off. Unfortunately due to the design of the car and where the filler neck is for the fuel tank, I couldn't remove the driver side trailing arm. The beam is secured to the car via two long bolts through the chassis at either end. The bolts go through bushes that locate themselves in the chassis.
Manky bush
Once I had the bolts out it should just have been a simple case of tapping the beam and it dropping out. Due to the bushes being old and knackered though it stuck fast. I had to use heat, drills and all sorts to free them. Kept at it though and ended up with the below (also removed the trailing arms in the pic).
Free beam
This then gave me a problem, I couldn't remove the old knackered bushes and fit my fresh new ones because you ideally need a press. I phoned a couple of local garages, some places were too busy others didn't have the right size press, one place though suggested I try an agricultural mechanic just down the road from them. Rocked up, got the old bushes burnt out with Oxy which took all of 2mins per side, and then they fitted the fresh new ones which again took a couple of mins only.
I realised once I got home that I should have taken the trailing arms with me too, to get them to burn out the bushes. However I found a canister of gas, a blow lamp attachment and my trusty ginger chinned sidekick (-westy-) buried in the back of the garage. Together we made short work of the old trailing arm bushes and pushed the fresh new ones in easily with a bench vice.
FIRE
With all of the bushes replaced I reassembled the rear beam (with trailing arms) and refitted it to the car, not too difficult a task really although it is awkward as the trailing arms are bulky and try to drag the beam at odd angles. The diff goes back on easily too, although I had some problems initially as the prop seemed too short. Turns out that there is a length adjuster and I'd managed to knock the prop shorted. Slackened off the adjuster, knocked it back out in length and all went back together nicely.
Prop adjustment / Centre bearing.
Refitting is the reverse of removal....
One of the nice things about the setup of the E30 (not really paid much attention to other RWD cars) is that the half shafts can be unbolted to remove from the diff, so you don't need to drain the fluid or anything messy, just undo the bolts and the shafts drop off from the diff. Refitting is them also a nice clean job, line up, bolts in, done.
I happened upon an issue when putting the trailing arms back on...
Coil
One of my suspension coils had snapped on the passenger side. Oddly, it wasn't noticeable when the car was on all four wheels. I fitted a replacement from the spares car (unfortunately the spares car only had one) and will sort out getting a full suspension refresh at a later date, probably with a small drop to allow the wheels to fill the arches a bit better instead of it looking like a 4x4.
I don't have any pictures of the following bit.
With the beam sorted I then fitted the new brake pads, discs and shoes.
I had some problems with filling and bleeding the braking system initially which took -westy- and I a while to notice...there were a couple of joins I'd not done up fully so we sent a good couple litres of fluid all over the garage floor, with them done up properly we were able to bleed the full system easily enough though.
The rear braking setup on BMWs is an odd one for a lot of people but in my opinion, whilst being a pain to set up right, it is really good. To ensure that the parking brake and stopping brakes don't both foul up, the rears have both discs and drums. It is quite simple really, the rear discs have a very wide hub area which allows that to act as a drum for the parking brake only and the disc area for stopping only.
Installing all new components can be a bit tricky as you need to assemble the parking brake shoes and their mechanisms before you can fit the disc or calliper. If you're new to the setup of drums then this can be a daunting task but in reality it really isn't an issue at all, it is quite simple.
Adjusting the parking brake though isn't the most fun of tasks. To do it you need to fit the wheel using 3 out of 4 bolts and follow this guide:
That'll allow the brake to pass the MOT easily...I however initially didn't follow that guide and had a rather slack parking brake (more on that later).
With the running gear now sorted (as far as I could tell) I decided to tackle interior problems. One of the big problems I had inside the car is that the electrics were, well, not working right. The wiring behind the dash was a mess and most of the dash bulbs didn't work.
This image from a previous update shows just how bad the wiring was:
Messy!
Most of that mess was in fact the stereo wiring which someone had really badly spliced using chocolate blocks and made a horrific mess. I stripped out the old loom for the stereo, grabbed the loom from the touring (which was clean and tidy, with an ISO connector) and again with the help of -westy-, a soldering iron and a hairdryer (his, he had it in the boot of the MX5...who'd have thought it?!) the loom got spliced together and so I had a nicely soldered, heat shrink and fresh stereo loom. I got a Sony > ISO loom and was able to refit the stereo that came with the car.
Untidy stereo wiring
In an effort to tidy up the wiring I removed a few wires that seemed to not go anywhere or do anything, as you would. After this I was then doing something in the engine bay and test fired the car, everything worked fine apart from there was no spark. I got loads of help from E30Zone about the issue, tested everything with spares and scratched my head loads. Couldn't work it out.
-westy- came round to help on something else with the car and I figured I'd put the car into the same state as before, ie, I'd refit one of the wires I'd removed. Once I did that and -westy- turned the key it fired up instantly and sat there idling without a care in the world. It turned out that one of wires I'd removed does do something.
The car was originally specced with an alarm system which was a little key code unit where the clock now sits in the centre console. The car was then fitted with an aftermarket immobiliser unit at some stage in its life and what was a common thing for the installers to do back then was remove the old alarm control unit, splice a couple of wires that usually run to the unit and fit the new system to disable the car differently.
One of the wires I'd unknowingly removed was this spliced wire, it looked completely standard and wasn't until closer inspection that we discovered the splice and rewrap of the wire. I coiled this offending cable up, cable tied it and securely fixed it behind the dash so it won't be in the way or cause problems again.
Green plug of doom
With that issue behind me, it was then a case of sorting out all of the dash bulbs and ensuring everything behind the dash was connected up properly, swapped all of the bulbs for new ones and tested them to be working. I also refitted the slightly worse for wear interior (and it is still fitted) because a new complete cab interior isn't cheap and I was in a bid to get the car back on the road before the end of Feb. I did freshen it up with some new parts though, like a new leather gear gaiter and a leather handbrake gaiter to replace the horrible concertina plastic one. I didn't at this point fit the driver seat as it was still in need of leather feed, cleaned, fed and fitted it a short while later though.
Erect brake
Glow
I ordered a gasket for the exhaust main > downpipe connection and found it to not fit, after a couple more orders and with the help of BMW I then had some spare incorrect ones and a correct BMW branded item. There are a couple of different designs of downpipe and unfortunately most sellers assume they are both the same.
No fit.
Too small.
I was unsure of the state of the head gasket and thought it could potentially cause some issues if it was really old and decrepit so I pulled the head off, replaced the gasket, bolts and the rocker cover gasket too. The head bolts were original non stretch hex head bolts, they should have been changed (via a recall) to Torx head stretch bolts in the past so it is a good thing that I did change this little lot over. It is known for the hex heads to snap off the bolts and play pinball around the inside of rocker area, so, change is good.
The car was pretty much sorted and ready for and MOT by this point, so I did the most sensible thing and gave the front grills a nice clean up.
Old kidney grill
Fresh grill
With chrome
Head light surrounds too
I cleaned up the old grills and sprayed them with plastidip as I'd heard good things about it. I didn't do the best job of it really but they are much nicer than they were and they should avoid being destroyed by road grime and the sun now. I can also easily peel it off and respray whenever I like, much easier than normal painting. They are a matt black finish and do make the car look much better than the faded grey they were when I got the car.
MOT TIME.
********.
Fails 001 and 004 were simple.
001 - The connection between the braided line and the solid line wasn't done up quite tight enough, cranked it up a little more and it is sorted.
004 - Adjusted the parking brake properly as per the above quote and it works fine.
Fails 002 and 003 weren't so easy though.
002 - I had hoped this was just a feed/return fuel line or at worst, the filler neck pipe. It turned out to be the stub out from the tank for the filler neck and it was rusted all around the stub which meant I had to fit a replacement tank. I did initially try to use the tank from the spares car but unfortunately that had taken a massive smack at some point so I figured it would be best to source a new one. A replacement tank wasn't too expensive (under £100) and fitted up fine.
003 - This I was stumped on as the E30 325i does not have the ability to adjust revs, timing etc. everything is controlled via the ECU and sensors. A common fault that messes with the revs is that the ECU temp sensor has failed so the car never knows when it is warm and over fuels all of the time. I replaced this but still had an idle of ~1200rpm and over fuelling. Next step was to clean the Idle Control Valve, Air Flow Meter and the Throttle Position Switch. The ICV and AFM were mostly clean and tidy anyway but I made them better. The TPS seemed clean but when I tested it with a multimeter it showed that something had failed as there was no resistance at all. I tested the one from the blown engine and it was working correctly so swapped it over, tested the car and it was idling at ~800rpm and wasn't over fuelling.
Had the car retested:
Unfortunately I didn't get a brake results sheet so don't know how well the parking brake works but having used the car, it appears to be fine. The tester said that initially it didn't pass emissions but he did some tweaks and it passed (3.15% instead of 6.78%, under 3.50% which is what matters). I suspect he just revved the engine for a bit then stuck the probe in afterwards. The car certainly isn't smoky or anything at all now so I can only assume when it went in for the test it wasn't fully heated up.
After the test I got the alignment done as it was driving badly, very much transformed the car despite it just being an ATS Euromaster place and not a full GEO WIM place.
Since the MOT I've driven it ~200mi and I'm loving it. The noise is excellent and it drives better than I had thought it would. There are some issues that still need attention, like the springs, rear wheel arches and interior but I'll tackle those at a later date when I can be bothered, for now it is road legal and drives etc. fine.
I have noticed though that the exhaust resonates are ~2800rpm which with normal town driving, or spirited lane driving isn't really an issue. When on the motorway though it is a bit annoying as 5th at a sensible cruising speed is 2800rpm (about 70mph) which means it resonates/drones on long runs, dropping a little bit of speed does stop it though so it isn't a huge problem.
It also does drink fuel, I put in ~50L (63L tank) from totally dry/empty (new tank remember) and it is about to turn the light on, so I'm currently looking at ~18mpg.
Oh the ironing
Practical
Last edited:
I need to get some videos of the car's exhaust note soon, might go for a spirited drive tomorrow, only I don't really know the area (Bristol) so I'm unsure where to take it for some short blasts for the exhaust. I say short blasts, I want to be able to drive somewhere, park up, fit the camera, drive a mile or two, remove camera (go back and recover camera 
).
It does need a clean and unfortunately I don't have my cleaning gear with me here, I also have some minor seal issues with the roof so it lets in a little bit of water, ideally I'd get a roof cover but they aren't cheap and with the cost of moving this month I'm a bit stuck.
). It does need a clean and unfortunately I don't have my cleaning gear with me here, I also have some minor seal issues with the roof so it lets in a little bit of water, ideally I'd get a roof cover but they aren't cheap and with the cost of moving this month I'm a bit stuck.
Soldato
Looks great, I absolutely love e30s and really miss mine. Before you quit on the e30 interior, have a look at liquidleather.com. I did my e39 seats:
Before:
After:
I know my seats weren't quite as bad as yours (and you may have to look at getting the bolster that's ripped retrimmed) but it should work out a lot cheaper than a replacement interior. I did them 6 months ago and haven't cleaned or conditioned them since and they're still in great condition.
Before:
After:
I know my seats weren't quite as bad as yours (and you may have to look at getting the bolster that's ripped retrimmed) but it should work out a lot cheaper than a replacement interior. I did them 6 months ago and haven't cleaned or conditioned them since and they're still in great condition.
Well you should be inside the casino then, not looking for me being a noisy chav.
I'm not sure if I'll take it out today, I think I left the camera mount in Devon anyway.
The seats have come up much better than they were just by using the Mer cleaner/feed that I bought in Halfords of all places. The rip in the top of the rear bench and the hole in the driver's bolster are not easy fixes though. If I got just the busted parts retrimmed then I'd have ~25year age difference which would show, even with using a better product like liquid leather.
It's also worth noting that the seats mechanisms don't work as intended. They have gas springs (like you have on the boot of a car) for the angle adjustments (back, base, etc) which are all totally stuffed so there is no spring loaded action on them. The parts from BMW are ~£90 each and the seats have 4, so 8x£90 =
A full tidy set is £500+ so that'd be my best option really, but as they function (mostly) fine and aren't torn to shreds so will do for now.
Soldato
Fair enough, thought it was worth letting you know as I was fairly amazed at how the seats came up after being incredibly sceptical.The seats have come up much better than they were just by using the Mer cleaner/feed that I bought in Halfords of all places. The rip in the top of the rear bench and the hole in the driver's bolster are not easy fixes though. If I got just the busted parts retrimmed then I'd have ~25year age difference which would show, even with using a better product like liquid leather.
It's also worth noting that the seats mechanisms don't work as intended. They have gas springs (like you have on the boot of a car) for the angle adjustments (back, base, etc) which are all totally stuffed so there is no spring loaded action on them. The parts from BMW are ~£90 each and the seats have 4, so 8x£90 =
A full tidy set is £500+ so that'd be my best option really, but as they function (mostly) fine and aren't torn to shreds so will do for now.
So I had some problems with throttle response and idle recently which gave me an erratic idle, kangarooing when opening the throttle and just made the car feel really horrible. I knew the throttle position sensor was potentially not working correctly so I replaced it and now it has a smooth and clean idle and the throttle response is instant, utterly brilliant to drive now and I'm really liking the car.
To test the TPS I took it out for a spin/explore today around the Bristol area, went looking for a lake I'd seen on gmaps, didn't go to the right place but found a place to take pics and make a quick video. Also blasted it through the revs and gears on various lanes and covered areas (window down, through the revs...such a noise ).
Anyway, some pics from today of my boat by the lake:
I'm hoping to get some proper exhaust note videos next weekend.
To test the TPS I took it out for a spin/explore today around the Bristol area, went looking for a lake I'd seen on gmaps, didn't go to the right place but found a place to take pics and make a quick video. Also blasted it through the revs and gears on various lanes and covered areas (window down, through the revs...such a noise
).Anyway, some pics from today of my boat by the lake:
I'm hoping to get some proper exhaust note videos next weekend.
Soldato
Great update. Your face as you changed into second gear, looked like you was thinking "MY MACHINE IT'S ALIVE, POWAHHHHHH."
Going into second it was more a case of "whups that's the rears spinning up, better not go sideways".
I made sure not to full bore launch in first as that would have spun them up, didn't think it'd spin up when changing from 1st to 2nd at ~6k. The road was damp (not soaking wet or anything, just damp) and my tyres are some cheap old things, obviously ditchfinders for sure. I just have to make sure I'm sensible with the throttle really until I change them especially so in the wet and I'll have to just not sure it if there is snow or ice about before I change them.Earlier this week I took it out for a short drive to Tesco on a damp evening, on the way back there is a T junction with traffic lights. I was at the base of the T at the front of the lights, turning right. I pulled away sensibly in first, and as the road is wide once you turn right I thought I'd give it a bit of throttle once straightened up, one rear spun up and sent me sideways at ~20mph, dab of oppo and it was sorted. Didn't expect it and it really shows how poor the tyres on the back are, probably should change them sooner rather than later.
E: I'm hoping it is dry in Devon next weekend so I can do some full bore exhaust note videos (well, a full as I can without spinning them up). I plan on doing a video or two like I did with my E36, pure exhaust note...
The noise the E30 makes is just awesome and unfortunately isn't really picked up properly on the video I did yesterday but then the camera was just sat on the dash with the window open, not exactly close to the exhaust.
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