ducatiss

I'm not sure if there is any point in by-passing the idle control valve. For one thing you will have to reconnect those water hoses which is a pain, and the other thing is that the car will never idle correctly. When the engine is cold, this allows more air to be drawn into the engine thereby compensating the idle speed. As your engine warms it progressively shuts off the air. What you will end up with is either an engine that idles correctly when cold and incorrectly (ie high) when warm, or vice versa depending on where you set your idle speed. My suggestion is to attempt cleaning and then check the unit by using hot water to see that it closes. If it doesnt, you will need to replace it. You will be unlikely to find an e30 jetronic one in the U.S. Price one in NZ or look for a good 2nd hand unit (quite difficult as most of them are stuffed by now though I was lucky with mine)

Not sure about the front but the rear wont.

No, with air flowing through your radiator as it does when you are driving, there is no need for the fan, and in most cases it will not engage. The best way to test is to park the car, idle your engine, and wait. When the temp guage starts to move past the half way (this will depend a little on your gauge and sender accuracy) the viscous clutch on your fan should engage. There are two (safe) ways to tell it has engaged. 1. if you rev the car a little you will fee a hot blast of air coming off the fan and you will actually hear the fan moving the air. 2. If you still dont think its working take a rolled up newspaper and try and stop the fan. If it comes to a stop fairly easily, the the clutch hasnt engaged. If it chops up the news paper, it has!! Dont just thrust the paper into the spinning blades either, just contact the tips of the blades gently. If it hasnt engaged between the 1/2 and 3/4 mark on the coolant guage, it is faulty. A good fan will also engage briefly when the car is cold for a few seconds and then go off again. To remove, get a large open ended 32mm spanner (just buy a cheap one from super cheap) turn clockwise (when viewed from the front of the car) as they use a left handed thread. Put the spanner on and give it a sharp clout with a hammer as you turn and it should come off easily. Replace with genuine BMW part. Fitting can be tricky as the threads can be a pain to take up again but take your time. You may need to remove the radiator shrouding to give you more room to work as well so do this before you start.

They sometimes do that, and a number of things can be the cause. Bad connection between the temp sender and the gauge are the no one cause - check both ends. To do the cluster end you will need to remove the cluster which is not as hard as it sounds. There are instructions somewhere on the forum. I can get mine out in about 10 min now lol. The thing with removing and working on the cluster is that nothing should require force to remove - if you are forcing something you are going to break it !! Check the nut on the back of the gauge (the one holding it to the cluster) it needs to be firm. So long as no-one has tampered with the gauge itself it should be ok. make sure terminals at sender end are clean and free from moisture. Dodgy Batteries in the cluster may also cause weird readings.

Have a look round all the hoses for tell tale white marks (dried coolant). Check your pressure cap is sealing properly also and that there is some pressure in the hoses when the system is hot. Check all clips securing hoses. After all that it could be a pin hole in the radiator. Good luck.

I had this woman wack her car door into the side of my work car. First time I thought it was an accident so I let it go (also because it was my work car and not my BMW). The this b...ch comes out of the shop and wack - does the same thing again. Rolled the window down and hurled abuse at her until I felt a little better - but like she just stared straight ahead like I wasn't even there lol.

Yes there is an easy repair for that - go get yourself a Pelle leather repair kit (got mine from Smith City but anywhere that sells leather furniture should have one). The kit comes with cleaner, dye (looks dark green dries black), ink remover, brush, and leather conditioner. I maintain my leather with the stuff and it's pretty good. Have attached an "after" pic of my own seat after using the product - never thought of taking before shots sorry.

I found my B&G 45 mm springs dropped my car by almost 60mm as well - not sure why - finally changed them to std Motorsport ones.

IMO if it doesn't pink and its running fine don't mess with it. Yes you can do it on the jetronic but coming from myself who has played around a little with the timing you wont really see a lot of gain at all running std pump octane petrols. If you insist on having a go, then increase it in small increments until it starts to pink on load (acceleration) then back it off until it doesnt. Take care that it is not pinking at higher speeds where wind and road noise will often mask it. Mark the point where you started as well so you have a reference point. If you have a timing light so much the better.

I don't think that common sense comes into it Ollie more's the pity. This govt would rather spend millions on preserving whales than road users.

Yes that is entirely possible, and there is no "perfect way around this" other than shooting the offender! It could be directed by the court that the offender must drive with a particular unit fitted, or drive a nominated vehicle that has one fitted. If caught driving mummy's car and it wasnt reported stolen, then confiscate it. There are probably hundreds of ways around any law, (thats what you pay good lawyers for) and I am personally not in favour of having my driving monitored. But that is not a reason to just do nothing.

Given the history of this and previous governments (especially this one) they tend to take the easiest and cheapest route (look at the mind numbing road safety ads vs the more effective road safety training) so I cant see the govt paying for these things to be fitted. The cost would also probably outweigh the cost of the road toll at least in the short term and govt's generally think "cost" and "short term". So the cost would be paid for by the motorist. I can't see that happening on a large scale, but perhaps being fitted to repeat offenders and ordered through the courts at sentencing. This might change as the cost of the technology drops. I'm not familiar with how this particular unit works but yes, it would be fairly easy to over-ride I would imagine by either by-passing the unit or tampering with the reception to the GPS unit. However these tamperings would also be easy enough to record in the unit (if the unit is capable) and retrieve by the authorities at later date. The easy way here for the govt would be to impose huge fines for those caught. There are already GPS tracking systems in use here for many of the trucking companies so that the trucks whereabouts can be seen at any time. It will also track their speed.

More info would be useful to help diagnose. EG does it occur on the motorway, all speeds, is it there all the time ect

Its almost impossible to tell you whether your injectors are normal or if there is something wrong without hearing them. I can hear mine ticking with the bonnet open but not with it closed. Are you sure all your valve clearances are correct?

yes most likely the temp sensor so replace that. Could also be the gauge or a faulty instrument cluster. I take it that the thermostat was the same temp rating as your old one?

BMW branded is probably safest but any good quality low phosphate Ethylene glycol based coolant such as Castrol anti freeze/anti boil mix should be fine. I would stay away from the cheaper mixtures sold at the warehouse. Buy it in full strength (rather than pre mixed if you can) and mix it 50:50 with water. If you want to get really technical you should use a soft or distilled water but most just use everyday tap water. Keep a bottle in your boot already mixed for any top-ups so you don't dilute the mix over time if you add water.

Make sure you always use proper coolant - it raises the boiling point, and protects against freezing, but most importantly, will protect against corrosion something that is very very important in a car with an alloy head. You will ruin your engine if you dont! The coolant will lose its effectiveness after a while so change it every 2 years.

Cheers guys - I haven't minded turning 40 anywhere as much as I did turning 30 lol "You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea." (P.S Buck)

It will (or should have) have an idle control valve located underneath the inlet manifold toward the firewall. On the pre-motronic they are activated by the engine coolant heating up a bi-metallic spring which then closes the valve restricting the extra air flow required during startup and cold idling. The ICV on the jetronics can fill with grunge - best replaced with a NEW one but you might get away with giving it a clean out if you can. From memory you can test them out by tipping hot watter down them and watch them close then gradually open as the unit cools down.

Timing if its too advanced can cause a real clatter on acceleration (even light acceleration will do it) However if yours is a motronic ecu that "shouldnt" be a problem. Is your engine "running on" when switched off? This can cause a clatter as you describe and the cause can range from timing to carbon buildup in the combustion chambers and also over heating. Your temp guage should not go above the half way mark when idling or driving. Suggest bleeding your cooling system asap. Instructions are somewhere on this forum. Dont let it run hot as you will end up cracking the head! The tappets can be a bit noisy on these engines. You wont cause immediate damage if they aren't too far out, but suggest you adjust these asap. You will need to find the instructions either from your manual or the forum somewhere. Suggest you only adjust when the engine is cold (ie left over night) and once adjusted, go over them all again and check the clearances. Others will be able to add to this info. Well done though for giving this a go - the best way to learn.

As an IT Consultant I can really relate to that lol

Are those tweeter pods that replace the little cover by the door mirror on the E30 available OEM from BMW - or are they an after market part? - Cheers

I'm a big fan of carbs myself but have to ask why bother? Its going to be a potentially expensive exercise. If you are looking for more performance then a cam and extractors are a must as the carbs are not going to do it on their own. There are manifolds available for triple weber or Dellorto setups - so here's a link to a pdf file that may be useful. I think the L-jetronic will lend themselves better than the motronic engines as you will not need to use the ECU at all. http://www.piercemanifolds.com/mangoletsi.pdf

I'm looking for an older early 1990's Alpine such as the 7390e or similar to buy. Must have a CD shuttle control function and either two or four pre-outs ie front/rear). Would anyone have one of these old beasts lying round in good working order?