Terroth

How much did your rust panel and paint cost? Got a similar sized piece in the exact same spot but on the other side, gotten to the point that it was leaking into the boot.

Hmm not really after them all but out of curiosity, at what price?

Hey would you split the front springs from the shocks?

Any proper ways of inspecting? They are only 3 - 4 years old at most, and visual inspection they appear fine, shocks seem to compress / rebound fine.

TLDR: What springs are stiffer than King / Have less suspension travel? So currently i'm running Koni Yellows and King Spring Lows all round, same as the E30 race series guys as it was the intention of the previous owner. Not mine though, i live 1500KM too far away for that. My problem is the car squats like absolute crazy in the rear, the height is fine, could be tad bit lower but its nice for daily driving. The issue i have is that as soon as you load the suspension up, whether it be some hefty acceleration, going up a a steep street or driveway, or letting the fat boys sit in the back, it sags on its absolute ass, bit of a laugh really. I've attached photos of the daily grind out the driveway with no one in the car, first photo is in the garage, relatively flat surface, second is how much it squats in the rear pulling out the driveway (It gets this bad under heavy acceleration too). I haven't quite got any other photos to reference to in terms of other suspension setups, but I'm positive that this amount of squat is excessive for a lowered spring, stock maybe. My issue, as you can probably tell from the photos is that it rubs when under that much load, not on the fender lip, but the actual fender skin inside. (In before get some proper fitting wheels and tyres). So, to my question. Does anyone have recommendations to stiffer setups other than Kings? I've read that if it weren't for Jamex claiming the title they'd be one of the poorer / shittier choice? I'm aware of some of the other options such as H/R, Vogtland, and Dobi but would like some second opinions on what other people are running in their E30? Cheers

Rebuilt my drivers door lock, finicky little thing but not that difficult to do at all

Bedding in OEM / OEM+ brake pads, really necessary or nah? Been failed on soft brakes and unequal rear braking (100 / 140, 26% difference). Replacing pads all round, cleaned up the guide pins, caliper pistons didn't seem stuck and pushed back in fine, also rebleeding the system. Anymore suggestions for making sure i dont fail the recheck on brakes?

It doesn't exactly fit nicely. I have one, although not installed, and on the facelift rear window atleast it doesn't sit flush and isn't quite long enough leaving about a 1-2cm gap either side, which you can fill in with black sealant i suppose, but if you dont and stand by the passenger doors you can see through the gap between the spoiler / rear glass. I haven't really had a good crack at installing it though, maybe another day. Found mine in pick-a-part for 30 bucks btw, so don't buy into those folks selling them for 100+ on bmw parts pages, also tried wreckers on trademe and got told 40 bucks but didn't want to deal with shipping, so they are out there.

I believe if you are part of Euro Nation New Zealand on facebook they get a 10 - 20% discount at FM7 Window Tinting in CHCH, might be worth having a look. Few classes available but not quite sure haven't done it myself. Not sure how it works, maybe just mention the group or something.

One issue to the next for me. I have a video of a particularly loud and strange noise coming directly from the oil pan / bottom of the block on my M20B25, but it is loudest around the Oil Pan when under the car. It occurs after 1.5k RPM specifically, and am unsure for how much further up the RPM Range. I've got the car booked into Eurorec next week for a checkup on some particularly annoying sounds including this one, but I'd like to go into this with some more information as to what the f**k is going on. You'll hear it kick in at 0.4 Seconds into the video and drop out at 13 when closing the throttle. Fresh oil change using 5W-40 Penrite just 3 days ago. https://vid.me/tmxd Cheers for any help.

Are you able to jack the car up and then trace it back up? Could be the back of the valve cover leaking or oil sump as it goes all the way back to the transmission. Maybe compare it in color to your engine oil and gearbox oil? Gearbox should be reddish, but depending on age could be a darker brown, the filler plug is on the side and depending on the gearbox should be a 17mm male hex socket, stick a finger in there and compare the colors. Both the seals on the transmission are in the rear so if it was the transmission it would be by the driveshaft or the side / mid section were the filler and drain plugs are.

The car has no AC so that means the only possible bearings would be alternator or power steering correct? I just put the engine in the car, a B20 to B25 swap so all the belts are brand new from Pelican, but reused my same alternator / power steering pump from the old engine which hasn't run for about 6 months. Water pump is brand new too.

Crank pulley bolt is still there, think it'd take quite an effort to break that. I'll have to warm the engine up till the noise appears again and then see if i can quickly snap off the belts to check.

Seem to be going one issue to the next here... After some driving and warming the engine up (Questionable as the temp sensor doesn't seem to want to go much further past blue) I've noticed what seems to be a grinding or scraping sound around 3000-4000 and beyond RPM, its occuring within the engine bay, particularly the front section around the Fan or Belts. No loss of power or anything. It has nothing to do with speed, as when i stopped and gave it REV's it continued to appear. As part of service for this engine i did replace Alternator belt, Power Steering belt, timing belt and its tensioner, waterpump etc. Not entirely sure on whats causing it, perhaps one of the pulleys is giving out? I've read it may be some bearings that have gotten dirt in them or are on their way out, but I;ve little knowledge regarding any bearings so if someone could explain that it would be great. Perhaps the waterpump isn't getting lubricated enough as I am currently only running it on water, no coolant due to plans on flushing it this weekend. As far as i know, it doesn't seem too serious, and if it were occuring within the engine I'm sure it would be causing driving / power issues, which it is not.

I think if the booster fails it means a lot more leg muscle work, so the pedal would be firm, IE when you switch the car off and press the brakes a few times they firm up because the booster is no longer there to aid it. There may be the chance that i pressed the brakes when moving in and out the car during the swap and over pressurised the system, but I too don't know the braking system that well as i've never previously had issues. I'll start with the simple solutions and have to move my way up perhaps. Thanks for the help though Andy. If anyone else has more information and can chime in that would be greatly appreciated .

Yes exactly the same except using the L shaped ICV instead of the T shaped one. I even swapped out the hoses leading into the Throttle body and resealed them back in. The system is receiving air pressure from the intake as when i removed the old one way valve to replace it I got a nice woosh of air blasted out at me. The only reason i'd be thinking the brake booster / servo or the Master Cylinder is due to the storage time that the car had. It was taken off the road in August and has been on jack stands since November till last Thursday. So the brakes haven't been used for a long time and perhaps air or moisture has gotten into the system.

Unfortunately replacing the boot and the one way valve didn't change anything. Obviously the next step would be to bleed the brakes and flush the fluid and check the lines for bulging or leaking, which i will try and do when i can get the time again. What i cant seem to find online is the tell-tale signs of either a bad master cylinder or Break booster? I'm assuming if the brake booster is bad, the pedal would instead be super f**king difficult to press down, and when i pump the brakes with the car off they firm up and the pedal then softens / goes down a bit when the car is started, which i believe is normal for the booster? But what about the master? Are there any tests that could be done to eliminate these as issues as i go along? Cheers

Cheers Andy, the Rubber boot that was supplied with the engine seems to be off of a pre-facelift m20 Engine, and has the same fitting as yours for the ICV, but not the junction to go into the brake booster line. I was informed on another forum that potentially the one way valve is broken on the brake booster hose fitted to the M20B25 engine. I'm suspecting this might be the case too as when i bought the engine the brake booster hoses were disconnected from the throttle body and I had to use a gasket sealer to reconnect them. It was my first drive of the car today, so i'm not desperate to use the old boot, as it would need a bucketload of curse words to get on (Its the same size as the throttle body, not larger like it should be like the B25 specific one, so it'd take a lot of convincing to get on haha). But I may give it a shot tomorrow arvo. I was also told that the blanking plug should be of no issue if it was sealed properly, but i'd like to rule it out and try the correct boot anyway, so I'll see if i can source one locally before hitting up the guys in Auckland. Seeing as my brakes were perfectly fine on the car beforehand, and i still have access to my old brake booster lines, ill think about trying to pull them from the B20 throttle body and seal them into the B25 throttle body and hook it up to the brake booster again and try that.

After a recent engine swap from an M20B20 to an M20B25, without touching the braking system at all my brakes have become extremely soft. So soft that they don't engage until the pedal is literally at the floor. At first i thought somehow there must be air in the system, but after having a good look at the different intakes on the motors it appears i may have found the issue, but I'm still unsure and have no way of currently testing it. Basically The original rubber intake boot from my M20B20 connected to the lines running into the master cylinder or break servo or whatever via a junction in the rubber boot. Like this (Note, this rubber boot doesn't fit over the throttle body so i cant just use it instead) Yet... On the new rubber boot that came with the M20B25 the brake vacuum line is blanked off with a bolt and some crappy gasket around it, and has not junction to that hose like the M20B20 one does. Like so Is this likely my issue? The brakes are perhaps not getting air pressure from the intake? Any help would be appreciated, as these brakes are far too soft and spongy to even consider driving around normally with.

Here are some photos The first is of my old 320i Intake with just the intake rubber pipe removed you can easily identify the head # The second photo is of the 325i Inside the car with all the piping, its a lot harder to see but if you crane your neck and look through that gap around the brake booster / intake piping you can see the head # Just below that clip on the pipe you can see the '8', you can see the rest of it if you pop your head in there Alternatively, you can plug your ECU ID number into google and see what it comes up as. E30zone i think has a list as well as some other websites of what ECU belongs to what setup. Its not definitive though as you can run a 320i ecu on a 325, it'll just throttle its performance.

There should be a number printed on the head under the intake I believe, for. B25 it should be 885, for a 320i it should be 731 I think. The swap should also have a larger radiator and an oiler cooler, although both of those could be removed for just oil filter and the 320i radiator. I just completed this swap so I can give you pictures if necessary.

What are peoples opinions on the 325i Oil cooler? Asking as i have not installed it and instead opted to use the screw on from my older 320 Engine. The reason is mostly due to it seeming to be slightly damaged around the housing / filter. As the old filter did this Yes, it was on that damm tight that it bent the screwdriver a good 45Degrees and tore part of the filter. No way in hell was a filter strap or hand with rubber grips getting that thing off. And since only hand tightening the new filter on and running the engine a few times, it appears to be in the same order, I can't for the life of me get it off with just my hands again. It appears to be leaking slightly where the filter screws on, and the filter is going on at a slight angle, IE its rubber is being squished against the housing but rather unevenly, which may be leading to the leak / being impossible to take off. But the main question here is more to do with whether people think with daily driving and the occassional weekend hard driving around the country etc, it is necessary to even run the oil cooler, especially with todays oils. I've googled around and the E30zone wiki seems to state its redundant, while forum goers will vow it helps keep the oil cool and is there for a bloody good reason. Thoughts? *As a side note, I do intend to return to running an oil cooler, but I'd rather be running one in good condition.

Cleaned it all up and it appears to be running fine, tiny bit of burnt oil initially but its been idling for 30+ minutes and hasn't been burning anymore, but I'll keep an eye on it to see if any wet patches come up. As for cooling, have bled it successfully, actually might be running a bit too cool, sits outside blue just before the first marker, so might have to have a look at the thermostat. Cheers for the help though, seems to be running well now. Just have to wait for the shifter parts to arrive, disappointing having it running and not being able to drive it.

The headers seem to be their usual orangy brown color, although there are 1 or 2, some darker spots on the bottom, but having a feel that just seem to be patches of dirt rather than oil. Ill give them a good clean tomorrow and give it another crack to properly locate the source of the smoke.

The temperature was definitely an air lock, I just refilled it from each hose going into the thermostat and bled it, its not completely bled at this point but is currently running just a smidge past halfway. Ill go at it again tomorrow when it has cooled down again and i can top it up inbetween bleeding it. I hadn't compensated for the fact that the block was completely drained before i refilled the coolant and only refilled it from the overflow, so there was likely a large f**king pocket of air in there that was giving me hell. As for the burning oil, I'm still at a loss, I will take pictures of it tomorrow in daylight when it'll be easier to see whats going on. But from what i can tell, there is definitely no oil leaking from the valve gasket, although its difficult I can't really see it leaking from the back of the gasket either. I can't see any oil leaking from the filter / oil cooler inlet / outlet either, although I may need to see it tomorrow in a better light. The engine had been sitting for over 6 months, although it started up rather quickly, with a few sputters and spits and began idling smooth as a whistle, sounded great apart from your typical M20 tick. The oil, after now doing the coolant and running the engine for over 15 minutes doesn't appear to be forming plumes of smoke, but I can smell / see the odd amount still popping up. Perhaps because the engine has sat for so long is why there was some oil burning? Surely if the headgasket was on its way out the oil in the car would be turning milky, and perhaps even seeping out the side between the block and the head, but would that not be rather noticeable?