bmpower

Well i can see this being an interesting one!! Does anyone in the hutt or wgtn area wanna have a look at my bastard child of a car to see what i should do?? Would anoption be getting rid of the viscous all together and going for an elec fan, and changin the rad to an aftermarket one of some description? Has anyone done this? and does anyone know of someone in the hutt or wgtn that would be able to do this and a rough cost for the exercise?

Funny i was thinking this the other day (engine looked fl, as you say with dizzy on camshaft) Yes i am a noob at all this! Would putting a fl rad into the car rectify this do you think? And is that a straight bolt in job or does it have to be custom fitted? Just out of interest, did any prefl cars have a fl motor from factory? Or has this been fitted after? chassis no is 0901527 and according to realoem.com its build date was july 1986. It is a kiwi new car too if that makes a difference?

Depending on the colour and how bad the stone-chipping is i would at least give brush-touching a go. I recently did mine, which had ALOT of chips. Go to your local paint shop get the right colour, a small thin paintbrush and go for it! Once it drys i polish the areas i touched up to smooth it over. I was going to paint my bonnet and bumper but it has come it really good, so will save that expense for next time round. If it is REALLY bad get a few quotes, go by word of mouth and take it to a paintshop to be painted (we did this with my mums e36 touring)

Here are some pics of engine bay - hope this helps!

I can definatly vouch for these, have had them in my car for around 6mths now! Definatly A-class! More power/torque etc. ...just gotta sort the rest of the exhaust system now!

Will take some pics now. Anywhere in particular i should take a pic of?

The car: 1986 prefl e30 325i manual sedan. m20b25. Here is the problem. I just replaced my viscous fan with a new oem one. The old one kept getting caught and jamming, and had eaten through the top pipe on the rad. I have just replaced the fan and the pipe with oem units in the last few weeks, thinking the problem was solved until today. I was driving along and the engine started to overheat. The fan had jammed again! Also it has it has started to eat through the top rad pipe again! Yes i have cable tied it back as far as poss. Anyone know why this keeps happening? And what to do to solve it? Thanks.

Thanks for that - will get the car up on friday as i'm not working and have a look underneath and see if everything is good or not!

What should i check for, just general breakdown of rubber?, adn how do i check the d/s bearing. Yes i am a noob!

Very possible - how do i check to see if i have play in the rack/steering? And more to the point if i do how do i solve this? Thanks.

Ok so i put the bottlecaps on tonight and took it for a drive. And low and behold most of the vibration is gone - however there is still a bit still there?! Also after putting the bottlecaps back on my steering wheel is now not straight when the car is driving straight? I know i can easily straighten the wheel however why would it do that from just changing the 17's back to 14's?? Thanks.

Yup they are ac schnitzer replica's, and have 3mm spacers on the front. However while this makes sense, when they were first put on i didn't have the vibration. I think i might put the 14" bottlecaps on and give it a spin and see if i get the vibration to rule this out. Thanks,

Tyres are 'ok', wouldn't say they were great though. the are slightly camber worn, but that is purely due to lowering the car -30mm, and having 17" wheels on it. I wouldn't have thought the tyre condition would make it vibrate in 1st gear though??? Or would it?

Yea i know what you mean, however whilst i would love to go with koni or bilstein there is a huge $$$ difference, and at the moment there are a few other prioritys to do first. In the future i will probably replace them with koni. I hadn't actually planned on doing them yet but they were tired and needed doing so went for it!

The car: Prefl 1986 e30 325i sedan manual. The problem: Under heavy acceleration in 1st gear i get a huge amount of vibration felt through the steering wheel, and seems to come from the front end somewhere. It only seems to happen in 1st and i can't feel it in other gears under heavy acceleration. I have recently changed the following, and i had the problem before any of this was done - it does seem slightely better with the new engine mounts however the problem is still there! Engine mounts (OEM) (old ones were completely seperated) Sway bar bushes (Nolathane) Viscous fan (OEM) Top radiator hose (OEM) Shocks (KYB all round) Strut bar fitted. Could anyone shed any light on possible sources of the problem? I still have to do my control arm bushes - and i haven't had a wheel alignment done yet, and won't until the control arms bushes are in. Thanks in advance! Kerry.

Update: Put new shocks all round. Car was running KYB, so repalced with the same. A big thanks to Paul @ Interpart for sorting these out for me! Riding extremely well now, old shocks were a bit tired!!

Just to add my 2c, i am also in this industry and it is hard enough for people to have trust in us without people attacking what we do. I don't attack what you do?! Yes we need to sell to make more money, and it is the same with any sales job. You get paid on performance. I have never forced anyone into a sale, and if you asked everyone of the people i have sold to they would all say they were happy with their purchase. Whether it was a $6k car or a $50k one. I'm the first to admit there are some idiots in this industry, but we aren't all like that. And at the end of the day most people buy from someone they like. We already have a bad enough name, why do you need to make it worse?! I have had alot of people break appointments with me, and it is annoying. Why is it not a big deal if you don't meet an appointment with a salesman, but it is if you break one with someone else? The company i work for will not take a vehicle of the yard unless there is a deposit - it happens too often that someone says they will buy it, then decides they don't want it - and in the meantime you had someone that would of bought it but couldn't because it was off the market, and when it goes back on they've bought somewhere else! Also we get a new WOF done once we have the deposit, because it is a commitment to buy the car. I for one would only buy from a dealer unless the car had a minimal value - you have the consumers guarantess act on your side etc and have comeback. Private is 'as is, where is' buyer beware. If you want commitment from a dealer, show some from your sude by putting a deposit down. If you don't like him, buy from someone else or another company. If i don't like someone i won't buy form them, simple. This is not a personal attack on 'fatjoe', just my 2c on the subject. I wish 'fatjoe' all the best with your purchase.

+1 for T1R's - just put them on my car and really impressed with them!! Have also used Dunlop direzza dz101's and sp sport maxx and was extremely impressed with both of those too. I haven't used nexen so have no opinion on them. Good luck!

I know you've said wgtn, but i've had dealings with these guys, and they did a good job. Premi-air in wakefield st in lower hutt (04-589 0655). Thats who re-routed my air con piping for me (was running too close to headers) They re-gas too. http://yellow.co.nz/companies/Air-Conditio...264584_261.html

+1 for H&R's from Kieth, Done the job on mine - they are only -30mm, but i still get the odd scrape over speed bumps!

Call Paul @ Interpart (in petone). He is also on bimmersport - i forget the name though. He should have something or be able to get it for you. Highly recommended.

Time for an update! So today i finally got round to spending a bit of time on the e30!! I'm not too much of a mechanic but i decided to brave the engine mounts and sway bar bushes! Was a bit of a learning curve for me, needed to go and buy a long 17mm socket for the top bolts for starters! After undoing the bottom, and then buying a new socket i tried to do the top - which didn't work (due to the bush bein completely f*ked) The metal plate on top had completley seperated from the rubber below meaning everytime i spun the socket the plate went round too - and after alot of 'kiwi inginuity' it still wouldn't budge. So out came the hacksaw and that was that. The second came off fine - whether this was due to undoing the top nut first i don't know! Have put some pics of the bushes below. After that i did the sway bar bushes - and again was a learning curve! For some reason i couldn't find an easy way but got there in the end! I used nolothane sway bar bushes and some jag urethane mounts i got off a bsport member. The only other prob i had was that while tightening the bottom nut on the second mount the bolt sheared in half without doin it up with any force - have no idea why! ...Luckily i had already bought x2 oem mounts so i have 1 of each in the car currently!

Few pics of the new wheels! Springs have now settled in so its slightly lower. So far i'm extremely impressed with the handling, am very impressed with the proxes T1R. Having said that i believe the improvment is largly due to going down to 17's, and back to 225's on the front, and now 245's on the rear. The car just seems to grip and grip!

Have drivin an e46 m3 smg, i was speechless after (having drivin a ferrari/lambo/porsche before) they are an amazing car - if it was the m3 i'd buy a manual end of! And whilst the m3 is an awesome car - and i've never drivin an m5 something tells me in the back of my mind go for the m5! There are less around, will prob hold more value because of that fact and yea the bonus of 4 doors. If its gonna come down to economy and whats cheaper to maintain or insure maybe an 'm' car is not the right car. Higher costs come with the territory. Buy from a dealer with a warranty and get the car checked over. Just my personal opinion and 2c. Good luck with your hunt!

Would the adaptor fit a prefl 325i? I assume it would being both m20's?