Ahmedsinc

Scanned the car yesterday, 18 (Exhaust camshaft sensor) has gone but 227 & 228 are both still present. Replaced intake boots, CCV - dipstick (original one didn't appear to have split but was so soft a tiny bit of pressure between index & thumb was enough to flatten the hose & it didn't return to shape!) and breather port on the valve cover - CCV. Didn't like the idea of replacing the valve cover line with another plastic item so used some spare hose I had been keeping in the shed. I can see why it's recommended to remove the intake manifold completely when doing these jobs, there's really bugger all clearance in there, made worse when you have dinner plate sized hands! Will take it for a run this afternoon once I've finished chasing leaks, with a bit of luck it'll be the last I see of this little guy!

Righto. Had a good look at the hatch window seal last night after the latest round of vertical flooding had stopped. Inside edge of seal nice and dry. Whew! Rear screen washer hose appears good too. Headlining, pillar and carpets all dry. Took spare tyre out & noticed a patch of water roughly the size of an old 50c coin. Main weather seal was wet along the bottom plane where the door meets the lock hoop. Peeled the seal back and removed the plastic tail light blanking plate to discover about 4 - 5 tablespoons of silt! Both sides of car. My theory is, the water cannot run past the mud so has built up and has breached behind where the seal straddles the bodywork. Has then run down the lip to the bottom of the hatch opening, where there are two 10mm holes in one layer of the panelwork. From there it found its way to the lowest point and waited til I discovered it last weekend. It was getting late by the time I got all the goo cleaned out, will be investigating the tail light seals and towbar bolt entry points this arvo. All the weather seals appear to be in great shape, no perishing or rips. Manipulated them to check for any damage while shining the led work light so pretty confident I'd have spotted any faults if there were any. Fingers crossed that this is the culprit!

No more beersies for you, mate!

'Scuse my ignorance, but whats with the blue light? Self-destruct initiation switch???

Given it's a 27 year old car it sounds like its doing pretty well, all things considered. Were I in your shoes I'd be looking to the M52B28. Thoroughly documented conversion process, and will yield far superior results to the M20. Sure, hot cams and a 2.7 stroker kit will get you close to M52 numbers, but at a much higher cost. I'd rather an M10 E30 than a M42 E36 any day! If it passes the rot test it'll be a great platform to start from. Good luck, whichever way you leap!

Seems to be a common issue on sedans, along with door vapour seals. Didn't see much suggesting its a problem on tourings too but it wouldn't be a major surprise if it's the culprit. Hoping it's not hatch or window seals at fault, those ones can be a real headache to pinpoint!

Ended up working a double shift tonight so no chance to rescan. Will be looking to replace all the intake plumbing with new items when time and budget allows, main priority is preventing a repeat of the fault codes. For the meantime I'm gleaning parts from the project M54, not ideal but hopefully they'll last long enough for the savings acc to look a bit healthier! Vanos hasn't been done afaik, again I'll pilfer the vanos from engine #2 and do the seals on that unit to minimise vehicle downtime. The obc fuel figures are from the weekend, franklin to silverdale, across to coatesville then home, 85% at highway speeds but virtually never under 80ks. Bout 250km all up. Was up as high as 15/100 after replacing dashboard bulbs, fairly sure it's running thirstier than it should. Given it's basically 2 tonnes of steel it's cheaper to run than I planned, but it'd be nice if it ran a bit cheaper too! Every cent counts when saving for a house

Wow, quite a list of likely suspects then. Looks like it's going to be busy weekend, thanks Glenn

Emissions light sprang to life on wifeys 2001 530i on Sunday afternoon. Finally got the chance to scan with INPA tonight and the DME had 3 fault codes stored, 18, 227 & 228. 18 is a dodgy exhaust camshaft sensor, swapped it for the one on my project engine downstairs as it won't be needed when (if) it finally gets done. 227 and 228 are a little more interesting. Lambda Control Tolerance Bank 1 & 2, Frequency 5 & 6 respectively, Log Count 40. Both also note Deviation Rich. Noted as Sporadic Errors in fault memory. My suspicions (and Google results) lead me to a leak somewhere in the intake, post MAF. Quite a few threads also point to the cam sensor triggering these codes as a flow on effect due to timing being out. Idle is smooth, and no oil smoke from exhaust to indicate CCV blockage, though I haven't checked for vacuum under the oil cap. Motor seems to run quite happily, though fuel consumption is around 10.2 -10.4 l/100. Most reports suggest it should be averaging more like 9.3l / 100. Hopefully the car will get a decent run tomorrow so I can re-scan and see if the codes reappear, but as food for thought are there any common places on the M54 that develop vacuum leaks? DISA valve and dipstick return line seem to be common ones, but after looking at the M54 on the engine stand here's a mess of plumbing down there! Any hints?

Not as yet. When I had the floor panels and spare out on Sunday afternoon there was about 1 1/2 inches of water at the deepest point. Just enough to moisten the edge of the sound deadening foam that lines the SLS compressor cover. Didn't notice any dampness in the carpets, but I didn't spend very long in there, had just enough time to pull the bungs out & give it a wipe down with a towel. We had quite a bit of rain here last week, hopefully the forecast for tonight and the next couple of days turns out to be less severe than predicted! Google hasn't really turned up much, most threads (the few I found, anyway) link water ingress to a leaking rear washer hose. One or two mention water ingress around chassis rail bolt holes when a towbar has been fitted. Ours has one that was done by the PO at Pitstop, will have to remove the rear bumper and check out what has or hasn't been done back there. I do know the trailer plug was installed with what looks like the clip-on style jumpers instead of the proper BMW kit so it really wouldn't surprise me if they didn't use any sealer when bolting the drawbar on Tiny little rust stains on the paint in the tyre well too, I'd say its been happening for a while. One thread pointed to the seals around the roof antenna leaking as well, not sure that's the issue here as all the fabric work is dry AFAIK. Planning to have a good look around on the weekend, as well as replacing the intake plumbing in the hope of finding the vacuum leak thats throwing the Lambda probe fault codes. Much fun to be had!!

What REALLY sucks is I reinstalled the final trim pieces on Friday morning Best guess so far is a body seal has started to let go somewhere, in the past I've usually found wet carpet or panels but not this time. Sigh!

Discovered an alarming amount of water in the spare tyre well of wifeys 530i wagon yesterday. Not enough to dampen the SLS compressor etc but still enough to give me the $hits. Had as good a look around as I could, couldn't spot any sings of water ingress behind the audio or around the battery compartment. Anybody else come across this before? I see there's a large number of threads around concerning tail light gasket failure on sedans, but bugger all on wagons. Seals appear to be in good condition by my eye (no expert though), trim panels and carpet all dry as well. Google isn't turning up much on this one, any pointers will be helpful! Ta

If its been scanned by a BMW tech & comes back as a battery problem I'd follow his advice. ~$300 is a cheap fix versus a full transmission overhaul

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/49867-e36-manual-conversion/

Parts, parts and more parts!! I feel sorry for the poor ba$tards that had to go in and clean the mess up once it made port!

Out of curiosity, what ratio is in there currently? I used a 3.15 (added LS center later) on my manual conversion. As the M50B25 isn't an overly torquey motor I wish I'd gone with the 3.46 instead. Doesn't make that much difference to the revs at 60mph and just shortens up the acceleration nicely. Food for thought anyway

I'm not overly clued up in this area but is there a possibility it could be chassis misalignment? Has the car ever been pranged to your knowledge? Pretty unusual, bad luck!!

All bits still up for grabs, can add E39 PDC sensors too. Somebody help me clear out my shed!

Original post updated

Can't make out which wheel they are c/o photo angles. Anyone care to enlighten me? 18s look a bit rollerskate on the E30 for my tastes, but I am older than I used to be! Needs V8

First time I've seen a holesaw used as a bush tool. Ace!

That's the Whangarei wreck, right? Looks pretty gruesome from the auctioneers photos!

Yup, have been using the OBC unlock you posted - legend!! Does make me wonder what else it can do though............ Will take it out for a sedate tour around the block tomorrow, eyes simultaneously glued to the road and the LCD Cheers for your help guys, most appreciated

It gets better...... vinyl!!

In a Commodore? Holy Crap Post link please!!