beanieguy

Central locking on my car works. The drivers door lock works. Its just when you turn the key for the drivers door nothing happens. The link from tumble to lock is shattered (or someone took it out and never replaced it). Found a '87 e30 at pick-a-part and got the link from that but it doesnt work with the pre-facelift models. Thanks.

thanks. sorry i didnt contact you before hand, i had run out of credit on my phone. its just want i need and has fixed my problem! cheers!

My rubber boot seal leaks and it creates a nasty puddle of water in the left well, i was wondering where i can buy one or if i should go 2nd hand, and what kind of prices will i be looking at?

Lol yeh. Completely blown! I cant believe i didnt see it before! I had 3 people look at it including myself (my mechanical mate and Creaver didnt look at it) and we didnt see it! Ive got a book, that said fuse 12 was the problem. When my mechanical mate was trying to unplug the ignition fuse (by using the same book) he couldnt get the right fuse either. So i think the book is obviously wrong about my car... I feel like such a dooshe. So thats one problem down, THANKS!!!! Now ive just got this engine problem...

My mechanical mate and Creaver both believe buying a new engine would be a bad idea because we dont have the proper facilities nor the time to install it. However we all agreed its a excellent deal.... Anyone got any ideas or will my mate have to tear apart my engine and try and fix it?

For my electrical problems, fuel light works, fuel gage works. However, my interior reading lights dont, my clock dont (its still stuck on the time i stalled ), radio dont work, rev counter doesn't work and the petrol millage thingy. (When i was checking, the right lamp actually lite up for a breif second) I checked the fuses but they all appeared fine and i was able to get a second opinion who confirmed. Guess ill be taking it to the auto electricians someday and begging him to fix it. I tried looking at the wiring behind the radio but i couldn't get the trim off and didn't want to risk braking it. The wiring was done pretty solid with connectors and tape so i doubt its the cause of the problem. Its just rather puzzling for me. Car stalls and suddenly half my electronics arn't working. My radio! I was pretty stoked it was the same brand as my original. The trim wont come off and the reason i want the speakers re-wired is because of bmws manual balance. Both rear and both front speakers are wired together then run to the balance. So adjusting it only changes the front and back volume. Not very useful.

Thanks for the fast reply guys and thanks for the welcome! For the brakes, i've heard the e30's have bad brakes but apparently mine are REALLY bad and i know they've gotten worse since we first bleed them. Rather scary when i was trying to ease on the brakes and nothing was happening as i approached a crossing with drunken teens shuffling across it... I've been collecting opinions around where i work (as a lot of the guys here are ex-mechanics but are too busy to look at my car), the common being my master cylinder is buggered and to check for leaks. A new possibility is the slave cylinders on the wheels are leaking? I've also been told to adjust the handbrake (which i think is also pretty poor). Currently have drums on the back, mechanical mate thinks i should replace them with discs because he doesn't like drums (personal prefence kinda thing). What do you guys think? Its frowned upon by the guys at work. Engine sounds like a sweet deal, just need to wait and see what my mechanical mate thinks. Only problem is we don't have any space to work on my car and have to do it outside. Since its been raining lately, what with the storms and all (lost my aerial in the first storm ) and so we hardly get the chance to do any work on it. Only last weekend were we able to check the compression and adjust the tappets? They now sound a lot better in Creaver's opinion. I was speaking to an auto electrician last night about car alarms and rewiring my speakers. He said 300 for a car alarm (would have been 100 dollars cheaper if it was a jap) and he refuses to rewire the speakers because its too much of a problem on bmw's. So I fear the idea of taking my car to a mechanic and the outrageous prices he'll give me. So I'm trying to keep work on the car free or cheap. And no, i don't need the radio on for the restricted however i just installed my brand spanking new radio and it was working fine. Its just a little concerning now that its dead but it died with the rev counter which makes me think its related. I checked the fuses last night but i'm absolutely useless and didn't really know what i was looking for. I checked and saw nothing wrong in the fuse box. We're thinking it might be a loose power wire somewhere. Im gonna have to try get my mechanical mate to look at it tonight. Another problem i have is the front driver's door can't be locked or unlocked by key. Central locking works, so i have to unlock my car by boot or the passenger door. When i put the key in the lock and turn it i feel no resistance. My mechanical mate and i had a tu tu at pick-a-part on some bmw car doors and we think one of the coat-hanger-like wires has unhooked itself from the lock. We haven't had a look yet, it's on the 2 do list. It's not a high priority on the list seeing how my engine appears to be dying and it's got brakes that give Creaver heart attacks. But thanks again! I really do enjoy my car (but then its the only car I've ever driven, lol) and its why I'd rather go the hard way and spend money on fixing it rather than my sarcastic colleagues way of $2 dollar petrol and a lighter.

Hi I've got a '86 320i , which is also my first car I'm learning to drive in, with a long list of problems... and i need help! Its a manual, 6 cylinder e30. First problems when i brought the car earlier in the year were, *Engine idle hunts *Spongy brakes Bleed the brakes, which made a improvement. Found a lot of oil and grit in the intake manifold. Second problem *Oil light came on. Stick said empty but it only took 1L to fill it right up again. *Brakes felt spongy again. Did an oil change. Oil sensor believed to be faulty. Brakes bleed again, no improvement if not worse. We took apart the master cylinder and everything appeared to be fine. No leaks around master cylinder. It just feels like theres air in the brakes. Third problems *Oil light came back on. Oil disappearing, no leak under car. *Rattle coming from front of car. Sounds like a cv joint but cant be as the sound is coming from the front, not back. Believed to be wheel bearing. Its louder at slower speeds. Cant hear it at faster speeds. Wont happen until i turn left, and it will stay there (even when going straight again) until stopped. A lot of oil found in intake manifold. Compression test showed piston 4 or 5 is low. Believed to be burning oil as well. (Starting to see white smoke) Fourth problem Recently installed a radio on Saturday, works fine and looks awesome. Unsure if petrol light works, so I've been running my car on E until the light would come on. While doing hill starts on Tuesday night, the car stalled. When i turned it back on, the rev counter wasn't working and for a brief second the petrol light came on (first time I've seen it. Its a bright orange! ) Then last night, i tried showing my friend my radio but that wasn't working either. Hopefully ive covered everything, I think that's it. *Oil disappearing. *Oil in manifold *Low compression in 4th or 5th cylinder *Oil being burnt *Brakes spongy *Rev counter and radio (and probably a few other gages and maybe the petrol light) aren't working. Ive got two mates helping me with this car. Ones mechanical and has been the one changing the oil and bleeding the brakes. The other being Creaver who's teaching me to drive. Umm... think thats it. Im not a car guy and I need help please! Im planning on getting my restricted on the 25th and want some of my problems fixed by then, such as the rev counter + radio and spongy brakes. Thanks...