e30ftw

Bought my first E46 325i touring a few weeks ago. Previous owner had been chasing what he suspected was a "vacuum leak", causing a slight miss at cold start but otherwise drove well. I got under yesterday to do the fuel filter and trans mounts. Took the cover off the fuel filter and sre enough the vacuum line is perished at the regulator. Take the filter off, replace the fuel lines and vacuum line while I'm there and finish up. Had the old fuel filter on my bench with black fuel and sediment coming out of it and that's when I realized the date on it was the build date of the e46. 22 years / 160000kms later.. yikes!

They're just .. so.. ugly 🤨

Holy sh*t. I would not take that out of the house and be seen in it like that.

Well that explains the write off lol

Yeah it is spot welded in place. It's not simple for a home mechanic but for a panel shop who can drill out spot welds it is definitely easy.

Looks pretty minor in terms of damage for a frontal, that front radiator support is mostly sacrificial and will collapse and tear from the chassis. Quite an easy part to remove and replace. Looks like the bumper's and bumper shocks got missed or did their job and aren't affected, bumper and Mtech2 valance seem to be still sitting in the right space. Would be a shame to part that out, quite easily repairable with a new bonnet, valance, replace the radiator core support (still available new) and a few things crushed on the front of the motor like the radiator, distributor, waterpump etc. Even the fenders look unscathed only some minor damage to the right one.

Talk to Speedfactor, they will be able to assemble XYZ coilovers using E36 housings and E30 tops.

Definitely ping Andy, he take's his mufflers off his X5 until WOF time lol. Might be the perfect trade.

Not SMG, it's DCT. They are a blast to drive, even for the manual die hard.

😂😂😂 omg Please share details of said awards

I bought it for $7500 off I think who you had sold it too, on the weaves in 2012. Then yes, it was me who went to town on it but I should have kept it original tbh. I sold it mostly back to stock on the ACS wheels to a young fella in Auckland for $13.5k in 2017, who eventually wrote it off. I think someone brought it back from being wrecked and it's hiding in their shed. Wasn't a bad write off, front left was knocked in. Shame really.

^Brings back memories. An E30 Touring is more a novelty that eventually wears off.

The valve is open when you have it set to hot. That is when the valve is open and coolant is able to flow into the core and back to the engine so you are getting heat. Setting it to cold will close the valve and you won't be flowing coolant through the core so any air won't be bleeding out of that part of the system.

Yeah it's 12v. https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.php/Wiring_Diagrams Look at the A/C Temperature Control wiring if you want to do some wire tracing. I'm pretty sure the whole heater core loom connects via one big white connector to the chassis loom which you will see under the dash behind the brake booster somewhere.

There are also different temperature thermostats. Depends where you get it from, FCP has 71C and 80C. If you run a lower temp one, your temp gauge will only get to the first white mark, not the middle.