Auzeras

Pretty sound advice Olaf - basically no matter what car I have I'm happy to pay what needs paying to maintain it, that's just looking after things really. Some days I have my plans squared out and everything fine, other days I just feel sick of perpetually thinking of the cost I think. Body's straight and other than the head I'm pretty certain the rest of the engine is sound enough for a vehicle with 215k km's on it - plan to work through things over the new year once I get some time off work & as I start the uni year when I should have a few days off to get into it. Luckily my new job doesn't mean I have to drive and once I have the bike there won't be such a crush to get it back on the road within ~2 days I can answer the stop & go now - suspension needs a rebuild as do most of the steering components (eg they're coming up to needing replacement, not dangerously out!) It wallows like a pig and it's got an interesting stance... kinda sits on its ass with the front in the air, apparently normal for an E32. Would like to address that by bringing the ride hight down a tad and putting stiffer suspension in. Brakes are good, rotors rub ever so slightly so suspect a *very* slight warp on them - will machine them down once the workshop is open. Steering will improve once the suspension is fixed, when making a tight turns (this would be on the track, not in any situation in "normal" driving) it beds down in the rear and tends to throw the car out of whatever line you were trying to take - again, I put that down to it rolling around on the 225/60's on it, big spongy tyres with old suspension means it absorbs all the energy from the turn and unloads it back at you as you come out. TL/DR - I'm keeping the E32, beer flows free and I'll resume working on things again in the new year.

Yeah I'm happy to keep the e32 purely due to its age. Part of the worry is what will break next though. Why aren't cars easy to let go of!

Hahaha yeah I know - free and I'm saying it costs... well here's the story, NZ new E32 with two previous owners bought by a family member who had it serviced at the local euro shop. Loaned to another family member for two years.. over the period nothing is done on it and it's basically driven into the dirt. I got it with bald tyres, no WoF, no Reg. Family member knew I liked it and knew they'd get maybe $2k at a dealer and if I wanted one I'd buy it for at least $6k so decided it was better off just going to me to fix. So far I have identified what seems to be about 5ish years of missed maintenance. Head gasket was done about 5 years ago.. yet some time between then and now the oil spray bar banjo bolt worked out and the cam got chewed up along with the rockers - with that and the few other missed items I dunno if I 100% trust the PO's shop. Not to say they were bad, but I'm not convinced they were good. When I asked about the valve tap (from the cam & rockers being extremely worn) they said it was normal. If you hear it, it ain't normal! Here's a shortlist of what's to do: Head Rebuild Oil Pan Gasket & possibly Oil pump (requires engine to be lifted - weekend job) Repair all wiring looms from rodent damage (most fixed now though) Replace most wearable service parts (belts, FPR, ignition components) Replace a lot of gaskets (done Valve cover, intake manifold) Trans service - flush, gasket (yes it's leaking) & filter (already have one) All suspension and steering components need to be checked, assuming it all needs replacing because most of it looks shot. Timing chain & guides What's been done: New spark plugs Valve cover gasket DIY injector rebuild 4x new tyres Throttle body gaskets AFM adjusted Intake manifold gaskets There's actually a lot more that I forget about.. Personally I'd like to keep it, but i've priced it out to be approx $5k to put into it to get it going good with the $1k already spent on it and I'm not sure if I am wasting time/money making it good. Am I better saving my time and putting that money elsewhere. That and I don't have the time and money to do all the work at once. On top of that there's so much wrong with it I don't want to commit $800 to rebuilding the head only to find that the bottom end is a bit torn up due to all the metal particles that came off the cam got into the bearings etc PS - cheers for the offers of help - I'll bring a stack of beers and leave a note on here next time I'm working on the car, plenty of space at my place so bring a bimmer & tools to make the most of a days shared knowledge and yarns!

Thinking it might be time for the old bird to go, don't want to but it's getting a bit much work to do whilst working and studying. In fairly good shape, just needs a few big mechanical jobs which are putting the cost of maintaining close to the cost of what the car is worth (I got it for free but I'm looking at about $5k of work all up) so I'm thinking maybe I save the time & money - sell up and move on. What sort of BMW would be purchasable for a reasonable price - say under $10k, be fairly sound yet still provide room for projects? It doesn't have to be immaculate, I don't mind doing the odd big job. It's just the E32 needs a full head rebuild + pan gasket and assorted other missed maintenance stuff which is just too much to keep on top of, the other day I went around a corner (albeit with the back wheels sliding) and she ate her belts. I knew they were bad & had been lazy not replacing them.. nearly paid the price for that as I ended up facing a wall with no steering. Managed to save it but I digress, lots of little things to do that I don't keep on top of + the big jobs mean I think I should be looking for a new machine. My mate had a Z3 which was fun but they're so small there's just about nothing you can do on them. The E32 has soooo much potential for a project but it's too much effort at the moment. I was considering an E30.. but then thought what's the point? I might as well keep the E32 rather than spend more money to get a smaller version of the same thing. Any ideas? Was hoping to find something with a manual trans, or maybe a diesel but right now I'm just thinking. Alternative plan is I (finally) get my class 6, garage the bimmer for bad weather and just bike everywhere. I realise this is a very ambiguous question by the way!

*Buys copious amounts of laundry powder*

Carb cleaner melted grime off my engine better than brake clean - had average success with cheap canned degreaser. End of the day nothing beats lots of degreaser, toothbrushes & rags.

Brb, taking the wheels off and cleaning my car hahaha

At the moment one of my rages (that hasn't already been mentioned) are the rotten swine that scoot past the traffic queue in a turning lane, then merge back into the traffic down the road. Mostly happens in Wellington heading towards the terrace tunnel, they'll take the Willis st lane and cut across at the lights. Dangerous, annoying and only holds up the traffic more. For some reason it usually happens in moderate traffic, so there's still good flow. They maybe only save 20 secs at best, beats me why they do it. Sheer arrogance in my opinion. Yesterday a white Lexus did it and I'll be damned if I didn't consider putting 1.6 tonnes of German bumper against the side of their car. That's one thing I like about the e32, bumpers that bump. Those meaty plastic shields have had a few scrapes by dullards with no concept of spatial awareness over the years. Mostly car parks or someone attempting to cut across a few lanes in traffic. Grab $2-50 cash off the offending driver, light sand, plastic paint and she's as good as new Modern bumpers are sleek but if you use them they crumple and scratch.

Man, cleaning 26 years of road grime and 10 years of neglect off my 735 was satisfying but nowhere near as tidy as this. Jealous of that clean much! Is made easier by the fact the 330 is much newer but still, that's tidy. You can wrench on it without coming back looking like a coal miner. There was so much oil splash from the leaky oil pan on mine it was a wonder the USA hadn't tried to invade it!

Generally you wait till the OBD throws a code, no way to tell it's bad until it's bad as far as I know. The O2 sensor only provides correctional data to trim the mixture to perfection. It will (or should) run fine without one on older cars. Newer ones have so many efficiency improvements a bad O2 can throw things quite out of whack. Not enough to wreck anything, but you'll see a reduction in power. Cats get wrecked by unburned fuel, even without the O2 sensor you shouldn't be running that rich, you can replace as preventative but IMO I'd wait.

Blue plug goes to DME - Doesn't matter what colour the plastic on the actual sensor is (unless someone put the wrong one in, in which case, there's your problem). If you want to double check which one is which, warm the car up and pull each individually, one will cause the cluster temp to not show the other will do nothing to the cluster (car may run rougher until you plug it back in) Cheap as chips too, less than $20 a pop if I remember. I need to get a new one for mine too. To be confusing some engines have two twin wire sensors such as my M30, so going by single wire vs two wires isn't 100% reliable. Plug colour, or observing change at the cluster is guaranteed way to tell which is which. I don't have a spec sheet but it would require you to know the coolant temp as well so you knew if the reading was within tolerance.

You'd have to take quite a bit off to make any significant difference to the ratio, how much were you thinking? Normally you'd get it skimmed to take a few 1000ths off to ensure a perfect fit once it went back on. Some people swear you should always have it skimmed, others are fine with using their experience to judge how flat it is. Personally I'd rather pay $100 or so bucks to get it level after doing all the work rather than risk it and put it back together only for it to leak because it warped a bit.

You'd want to lap them first? Not sure if I'm talking smack, but as far as I know any valve work should ideally be accompanied by lapping to ensure a good seal. I'm guessing if you haven't lapped them, dropping different valves in will leave you with a less than perfect seal as the old valves will probably have a slightly different wear pattern or profile compared to the new ones. Correct me if I am wrong though.

Funny alphas should be mentioned. Just spent the night in Bruce Stewart's workshop. Some gorgeous cars there. I was busy getting maggot so not much car talk that night but he's done an amazing job on them. All pre 70s kit though. Absolutely gorgeous.

Certainly agree, I feel like I could tackle many modern cars, but it's a huge barrier to those who've no knowledge. Walked past the Holden dealership the other day and they had a bunch of new commodores in the lot with their hoods up, even with those big wide cars there wasn't a scrap of space and everything was covered by plastic shielding (torx screws the bloody tossers!) I thought getting the intake manifold of the E32 was bad, trying to find the manifold on a 2013 Commodore looked to be a challenge. Not to say new cars aren't or can't be fun, but I think a lot of the new blood so to speak are being actively put off by the unserviceable nature of modern cars. Most major engine work now is no longer performed, it's quicker and cheaper just to swap the engine. Especially in the smaller Asian cars, why bother tearing it down when you can just chuck another engine in for less than a grand?

Fixed it now. Which is good.

Checked there, they don't. It seems people aren't stupid enough to take it apart haha I've got one spring good, but can't figure the other. As of now if you throttle up it will not quite return to idle, made for an interesting trip around the block

Genius alert - Took the throttle body apart on my M30 so I didn't melt the plastic parts whilst curing the paint (repainted manifold black) - Problem is now I can't figure out how the damn thing goes back together. It's got two springs, one for the part the actually actuates the throttle plate and the other spring pulls against the part that is pulled by the throttle cable. Two parts are connected by a link rod. Anyone able to tell me which way the springs go, what they hook onto and which way they're twisted I've looked at a few pics but none have been mega helpful, anyone got a clue? Thanks!

Genius alert - Took the throttle body apart on my M30 so I didn't melt the plastic parts whilst curing the paint (repainted manifold black) - Problem is now I can't figure out how the damn thing goes back together. It's got two springs, one for the part the actually actuates the throttle plate and the other spring pulls against the part that is pulled by the throttle cable. Two parts are connected by a link rod. Anyone able to tell me which way the springs go, what they hook onto and which way they're twisted I've looked at a few pics but none have been mega helpful, anyone got a clue? Thanks!

Depends, but yeah most mid 2000+ not all, but anything after 2008 I feel wouldn't be all that fun to work on.

Well I just got on with rebuilding injectors and my intake manifold gaskets. It's been 4 hours of rain, cursing and bloodied knuckles. Things learned so far: - The last bolt, it's a royal pain - Just because it is sunny today doesn't mean tomorrow will be, clean the garage out and put the car in, instead of doing the job outside at the bottom of driveway. - You will need more parts than you bought - You need more tools - the exhaust will rust though and fall off your sisters car which you have borrowed whilst yours Is disabled meaning you're stuck in town for 3x hours waiting for a ramp truck because of course she doesn't have a tool box it and on Sunday the workshops are closed. - After doing it the the hard way someone will inform you of the easier way So after sitting on the side of a road, working in the rain because even if I cleared the garage out now I can't get the car up the hill, destroying my knuckles, nearly destroying my intake (nearly dropped it) and hours scraping old gasket crud off very hard to reach spaces..I'm happy!

I'd say modern cars have put a brake on the modding community. You can't really do much to a modern car that makes a difference without putting yourself back at least $500 Back in the day so to speak there were a lot of things you could really tinker with to coax a bit more street power out of the car. That and cars were cheaper and easier to work on. I'd go to a car meet but my car is 98% stock, so really not worth showing to be honest. I just go with my mate in his Mazda ute.

Quick query - Tomorrow I start rebuilding the intake/fuel preparation system on my M30 and I was wondering what people advised as far as using (or not using) a gasket sealant alongside the gasket material. My understanding of sealants is they lend no real hand to the sealing process, they just help hold the gasket in place whilst you stick it on, In which case just a smear of red permatex RTV should be fine on the manifold side? Not sure if I'll even need sealant as I should be able to just sit the gaskets on the manifold studs and bolt it back on. If I am wrong about sealants, and they are kinda important - what would you recommend for the intake?

I backed into an Alfa once, insurance agent asked what the damage to my vehicle was, told her I might have scratched the tow bar but it should buff out. She thought that was hilarious. Luckily I knew the owner and he was very decent about the whole situation. But yeah, that attitude is one I don't appreciate. Some people have more time than money, or prefer to take the hard road in fixing instead of replacing. Not to say having the cash and not wanting to get dirty is a problem, hell no if you've got the money why would you bother with workarounds? At the end of the day, unless the person is likely to destroy their car or injure themselves by doing a stupid DIY job they clearly are not able to do I would support all attempts. For my older car parts are hard and expensive to find in NZ (especially interior) the mechanical side isn't too bad. My first port of call is "what can I adapt, scavenge or make to replace" - I'm perfectly happy to try rebuild my AFM because if I screw it up I'll have to buy a new one anyway. If I fix it, problem solved, money saved, experience gained. If I had a million dollars of course I wouldn't think twice about just replacing it with a MAF upgrade or a brand new OEM AFM. Don't need to cut the springs on the 7, it's all ready sacked out from 26 years of use.. I should probably rebuild the suspension, front and rear

Not the best at looking am I, thanks!