mark247

Kinda true but very over the top.

I've decided to sell the E30 so i can get back on two wheels and save some money on petrol. It is on trademe but i thought i may as well advertise it here as well. I am open to offers! It has done 208,000km and the engine is still running great. Trademe link is http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=138473245 - Cam belt done at 197,000km - I rewired the engine bay so it can take the Motronic 1.3 ECU which means i could chip the engine. Also Motronic 1.3 had a much improved idle compared to the 1.0 which I took out. ( Took no short cuts with job, looks very professional ) - I converted this car to manual with a brand new performance clutch ( still very town friendly ) and it has just recently got a brand new clutch master cyl. The BMW mechanic i go to commented on the conversion and said it was very well done. I did not wire up the reverse lights because they are not needed for a WOF - easy to do. - Body is in very good condition for age, the paint is not perfect but it is straight and has next to no rust. Above average condition. - The car has a rare Pfeba Bodykit ( front back and sides ) which is in good condition. Looks awesome! - The interior is very neat, the seats are not ripped, there is the usual crack in the dash but other than that it is in top condition. - I can not fault the engine in this car, these engines are bullet proof and it burns no oil ( drips every now and then but does not need topping up between oil changes. ) The engine rev's well and with the Jim Conforti chip i installed. It rev's very smoothly through the entire rev range. - The M stripe decals and badges are factory original, they are not some cheap stickers. ( I have replaced the rear badge tho ) - Very good tread on the front and approximately 70% on the back. - Just recently had front outter ball joint replaced. - Has new warrent, and 2 months reg left. - Comes with spray can mixed with car colour for minor touch ups - There are a number of minor inperfections. The diff drips every now that then ( worn axle seals, not expensive ) and the gearbox rear seal causes it to drip every once in a while as well. Both do not require the diff or gearbox to be removed.

Pagid is the make for the genuine oem brake pads. They are ment to be a good street pad, but and are a simular price to the Hawks HPS. I take back saying stock pads were crap. I thought they were just cheap pads, my mistake!

Sorry if it seemed i was having a go at you before, was not intended. I did do research. From what I read on e30tech, r3vlimited, and bimmerforums the Hawk pads are a vast improvement over stock. I didn't just make that up. The only experience I have had with stock pads is minor brake fade when braking hard, but i have read a lot on forums and found a lot of people have found a vast improvement with Hawk's in the States so I am going to go with them if they are to be cheaper and better. Quite possibly, i read it, i didnt do it. Maybe a few laps is an exageration, one track day burnt them out. Oh ok, i just guessed $120 because i know genuine bmw is expensiveish.

Lol hell no. NZ is overpriced on anything decent. I am not going to Repco and paying $70 for a heap of crap pads or $120 at a dealer for some below average pads that will burn out in a few laps at a track day. I got Hawk HPS pads for the front which are WAY better than stock. The stock pads for e30s are shite!!! For the rear i got Raybestas PG Plus which are good but not as good as Hawks. I did a a lot of research on e30tech and they said the Hawk HP plus pads were awesome, but they need to be hot and they screech like no tomorrow and dust like hell to, but they stop awesomely. the Hawk HPS is more a street / track pad where there performance when cold is better. Since i posted this i found out they will fit. I did some research and the only difference between the girling and ATE calipers is the sliding pin, meaning the pads are identical. So im not going to return them. I got spark plugs here as well, just NGK's which actually are ment to be quite good in the m20 engine. They were $2 each.

Simple question: Do ATE and Girling have the same brake pads on a E30 325i? The reason i ask this is because i just bought both front and rear pads for my car in the United States ( im here on holiday ) and my car is a German made NZ new and i have no idea what brake set up i have. My car is a 1986 ( actually made in september 85 ) and i asked for pads for a 1987 ( earliest 325i's to come to the USA ) at Pep Boys ( Kinda like BNT auto stores just bigger ), they said they would fit my car but from what i have read this evening there are two makes of calipers. I dont want to go home with the wrong pads so your help would be much appreciated! Mark

Beside your handbrake you will have a switch with "S" and "E" and "1-2-3" on it if it's got sport mode. I dont think 320is came out with it so i think you are all good.

E30 manual conversions are cheaper, i got everything for mine for $400. That was gearbox, driveshaft, pedal box, piping, gear linkages, clutch, everything. But i went and got a brand new clutch set up for it which cost more. You can pay more as well, up to $700 is a going price. Any higher than that and you are getting ripped, in my opinion.

What gearbox do you have? There are two different automatic gearboxs for the e30 325i, the normal one, and the one with sport mode. If you have a normal gearbox, that most other gearboxs will fit. But if you have the gearbox with sport mode ( they are a stronger box ) then you will need to get another box that had sport mode, or sport mode wont work anymore. The gearboxs with sport mode had there own gearbox ECU as well. Also, if you get one that has sport mode, and your original one didnt, then you will be stuck in limp mode. I have a Automatic gearbox out of my 325i which has sport mode, which you can have for $150 but you will need to pick it up before friday if you do want it ( going overseas ) So yea, pays to find out what gearbox you have before you go buying the wrong one. Good luck, Mark

Well i found a place who could burn my chip for me, and i got it done, cost me $20 tho. I put it in and i could notice the difference, the car was running really well. I took a plug out to check to see if the car was running lean or rich and it wasnt doing either, but i think it must of been pinging a bit because there was a slight metallic look on the plugs ( well i think my mate and i thought there was ). That chip does make the car running at 40 degree advance so yea, just to be safe i have taken the chip out again and will wait until i can get the car on the dyno with all the sensors hooked up, so i know the chip is totally safe. I'm pretty sure it is safe, and that the spark plug was normal ( we're not professionals when it comes to reading spark plugs ) so until i find out for sure, im going to stick with the normal ecu chip. Better safe then sorry though aye...

Haha i dont think ill be putting it on the dyno. It is ment to add 10hp to a 325i and 5hp to a 320i, so if that 10hp is correct I think ill feel the difference. Also it's ment to add a bit of torque, but i cant recall how much. What I'll do is slam my foot to the floor to remind me how powerful ( or unpowerful ) my car is now before i put the chip in, and then ill install it and do the same thing after. haha.

Yea I'm going to go ask a few places tomorrow. I will let you know if it works and I will share the .bin file if it's all good.

Hey guys, My mate and I are wanting to chip our ECU's in our e30's. We found the .bin file for a JC Chip on the internet so we already have something to base our chip off, we also have a Motronic ECU editor so we can fiddle around. I have just ordered a chip from Jaycar so i dont have to wipe over my original. All i need is a Eprom burner. So does anyone in the Hamilton / Tauranga area have a burner? Or even Auckland... We'll pay with alcohol or maybe a bit of cash. It needs to be compatiple with 27C256 chips. So, anyone got one?? Thanks a lot. Mark

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You aint seen nothing yet Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Taking Care of Business Bloody mean as songs.

With rust like that you really need to sand it back to actually find out the full extent of it. Check the boot for rust, open up the runroof so the back is lifted up a look up into sunroof from inside the car, also open it up and look in the railing with the sunroof fully open as well looking in from the outside. Check the firewall for rust. I would also be having a good look under the car, personally id be pulling up the carpet and peaking under ( but you need to take the seats out and the side plastics under the door for that. "Had a full panel and paint last year." Errrr, i think thats more than a years worth of rust in the roof aye.

oh yea have a few spare fuses ( i think 7.5amp ) for when you try to sort out tricking it to thinking its in part so you can start it, we blew a few haha.

I would also recommend getting some torx sockets, although the normal sockets to fit, if they are really tight, you will end up rounding the bolt off. This happened to one of the bolts on mine when i did the conversion, and we had to drop the whole subframe to be able to get a grinder in to take the head off the bolt. It really isnt worth the trouble. Just get some torx sockets!

oh and remember it's "tiptronic not auto." This guy knows his stuff! ( note sarcasm )

Oh, and also, do your service lights work? Working means you can actually reset them and turn them off. Because if you can turn them off with the tool in the diagnostic plug then your batteries arent dead. If they are always on and you cant reset them, that means your batteries are fried. Usually what happens is the batteries get old and leak, and the acid leaks onto the board and that kill the gauges....

Let us know if the batteries fix the temp gauge, I will be interested if they do.

You will need a soldering iron to do put the batteries in. Also, i dont think the batteries have anything to do with the temp gauge so i doubt that will fix all your problems. Worth a try tho if ya got some free time. If you buy a second hand cluster you will probably find the batteries in it are still all good anyway.

Make sure you match your cluster with the one you are getting, there are two makes, VDO and Moto Meter. And also between them there are slightly different types with different lights for cars with ABS and fog lights and stuff like that. Best thing to do is go to a wrecker and look through a heap ( like i did ) and find one that is exactly the same as yours, make it look a lot neater.

It will most likely be that the cluster board has stuffed out. My original cluster stuffed out, it had dead batteries so my service lights couldnt reset, and my temp gauge was always not working, or showing over heatings, or just flying around the place. I fiddled with it for ages trying to get it going but it would always just stop working again. Best thing to do would be go to a wreckers and get another gauge cluster, i got mine for $10, and shoved it in myself which takes about 30 minutes if ya dont know what ya doing and like 10 if you have done it before. If the actual speedo isnt broken, swap it around in the new cluster so you can keep your original odometer reading. Then it should be all fixed.

i paid $3900 for my prefacelift and it was an auto, which simular kms. ( 2 door tho ) This is cheap!

certainly unique