Lachssilber 1989 E30 M325i

[Sammo 2544]

Three Tech Twos

[Sammo 2544]

Had a chance to buy my 5 original weaves back today from the guy I sold them to so jumped on it.

Will give them a DIY refurb and be nice to have the two sets of wheels to change up the look and feel from time to time.

[Palazzo 477]

I thought that was you. Good to have the original option.

[E... 55]

17 hours ago, Sammo said:

Had a chance to buy my 5 original weaves back today from the guy I sold them to so jumped on it.

Will give them a DIY refurb and be nice to have the two sets of wheels to change up the look and feel from time to time.

Great buy Sam, was eyeing these up too! hahah

 

[Sammo 2544]

Straight through the WOF today - my first such success with the E30! 

Still a large to-do list however;  I'm not sure being mildly pedantic + 35 year old 400,000km car go hand in hand but I'll give it a go!

[Sammo 2544]

Another day, another Tech 2 party  😂

Good little meet up and lunch at Hallertau Clevedon then I kicked on to Kaiaua to stretch the legs.

Car really is running great and always relishes being pushed a bit.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Sammo

[Sammo 2544]

Few little wins:

While changing out my non-existent accelerator linkage bushings (great, quick, cheap, noticeable change) I thought I would have a look at my clutch pedal which had been a bit noisy and 'off' the past week.

Turns out one of the two bolts holding my newish master cylinder had wriggled loose - simple fix and firmed the pedal right up. The real benfit however it has totally solved my 'other' issue of 'clutch judder' in 1st / reverse changing certain gears - I thought I was in for a new clutch / flywheel etc!

Love it when a seemingly big issue is solved with something so simple - car is now shifting smooth as ever.

Also sourced a new flasher relay for faulty indicators for $45 (Hella - looks same as what came out of it) after finding out at BMW North Shore no BMW parts were in the country and would be $230 plus GST to import ex Germany.

Did get to see @Breaker 750i at BMW getting a wash though

Got quite a few jobs to do over the Xmas break while the wife is overseas - want it tip-top for summer spankings before it goes under the knife in April / May:

• Engine mounts
• Tranny mounts and fresh redline MTL
• Exhaust hanger / poly bushes for my aftermarket end links
• Oil & filter
• Refinish interior plastics with matte soft touch clear
• Paint correction and headlight refurbishment
• New Osram headlight and spotlight bulbs
• See if I can fix partially functional blower motor and resistor / washer jets before throwing parts at it
• 9mm spring pad front driver side to perfect ride height
• Full Cluster refurbishment (if my parts arrive on time...)

 

 

[Breaker 980]

28 minutes ago, Sammo said::

 

Did get to see @Breaker 750i at BMW getting a wash though

 

 

Wish it was just a wash, has a steering fault. Dividing element and relay that assists the power steering system that needs replacing, ex Germany of cause. So it’ll be there a while, thank goodness for warranties 😕. $2k 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Breaker

[m325i 709]

1 hour ago, Sammo said:

before it goes under the knife in April / May:

What does that mean? 

[Sammo 2544]

5 minutes ago, m325i said:

What does that mean? 

Will get the sunroof rust and a few other little bits of rust & panel work done which will necessitate partial respray, quite possibly a full respray pending cost differential.

Definately no rocket bunny kit

[Eagle 1662]

1 hour ago, Sammo said:

While changing out my non-existent accelerator linkage bushings (great, quick, cheap, noticeable change) I thought I would have a look at my clutch pedal which had been a bit noisy and 'off' the past week.

Turns out one of the two bolts holding my newish master cylinder had wriggled loose - simple fix and firmed the pedal right up. The real benfit however it has totally solved my 'other' issue of 'clutch judder' in 1st / reverse changing certain gears - I thought I was in for a new clutch / flywheel etc!

Sounds like someone didn't do them up properly.

[Sammo 2544]

Changed out my engine mounts and transmission mounts yesterday (with OEM rubber) and all seemed to go well but on my test drive had a strong vibration at low rpm.

 

Got under car again and saw the exhaust bracket bolts where it connects to trans were loose (presumably from me jacking up the tranny to change the mounts) - this only helped but didn’t solve the problem though…

 

Still have a mild vibration right under my drivers seat at around 1.25k and 2k rpm (it goes away if clutch is depressed).

I re-checked the nuts and believe I installed the transmission mounts correctly - only thing is I used different top nuts to what was on beforehand (I used a flange nut with washer as the ones that were on it were some kind of one piece design and partially rounded.

 

I did not torque the top nuts as I could only fit a little 13mm wrench on them so just tightened as much as I could.

 

Any thoughts? I assume as it goes away with the clutch disengaged it indicates it’s driveline related, most likely something I did wrong installing the new mounts... the DIY I followed was similar to the engine mount process - i.e. jack up slowly until you can carefully remove and replace mounts - wondering if I should have removed the brace instead to minimise lifting the tranmission?

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Sammo

[Eagle 1662]

Did you have any vibrations before hand? What are brand are the mounts? Ive had new OEM engine mounts cause vibrations that weren't there previously, so its possible. 

Is transmission crossmember parallel and not at a poor angle? Should sit so the driveshaft looks straight from the transmission to the rear looking at it from the bottom. I dont remember what the E30 crossmember looks like but there is usually some adjustment. 

I guess its possible you upset the flex disc depending on how you jacked it, if its old it may of stretched\cracked. I usually jack up the transmission from the rear just in front of the cross member with some wood, just so its just touching, undo the bolts then it lower it down to get access. 

Transmission nuts are 43-48nm according to E30 Bentley, wouldn't be easy the do that with a standard ring spanner under the car. 

Maybe a bit of a pita if you re-install the old mounts, maybe one set at a time and re-test, at least it will eliminate the new stuff (once all the other checks are done)

[Sammo 2544]

On 1/4/2023 at 4:18 PM, Eagle said:

Did you have any vibrations before hand? What are brand are the mounts? Ive had new OEM engine mounts cause vibrations that weren't there previously, so its possible. 

Is transmission crossmember parallel and not at a poor angle? Should sit so the driveshaft looks straight from the transmission to the rear looking at it from the bottom. I dont remember what the E30 crossmember looks like but there is usually some adjustment. 

I guess its possible you upset the flex disc depending on how you jacked it, if its old it may of stretched\cracked. I usually jack up the transmission from the rear just in front of the cross member with some wood, just so its just touching, undo the bolts then it lower it down to get access. 

Transmission nuts are 43-48nm according to E30 Bentley, wouldn't be easy the do that with a standard ring spanner under the car. 

Maybe a bit of a pita if you re-install the old mounts, maybe one set at a time and re-test, at least it will eliminate the new stuff (once all the other checks are done)

Thanks man - summoned up the energy to try again today and you were correct on two counts:

I had slightly misaligned the cross member (took off one side to squeeze in the new mount) and noticed a quirk (defect?) with the new mounts:

On the side where it mounts to the cross member the metal base was clearly convex (pictures show it below but quite obvious IRL) meaning it wouldn’t sit flush on the cross member and would also try to spin on its base when I tried torquing the lower nuts.

Put the old mounts back in and while I can still detect a slight vibration at 1250 and 2000, this is only in neutral with the clutch out and car stationary - it goes away as soon as the clutch is depressed and is not detectable at all while driving.

I suspect it may be an existing minor clutch component vibration which was made more obvious with the new mounts and my poor install effort.

I did find / create another side issue though - replaced my rear exhaust hanger bushing (rubber figure 8 thing) and think I’ve created a little exhaust leak wrestling with the exhaust to get the rubber on 😑 I assume an exhaust leak looks like this:

Edited January 6, 2023 by Sammo

[Eagle 1662]

Least you know where you at now

13 minutes ago, Sammo said:

 

 

Damage from jacking without wood etc block?. Yeah it appears to be. You could probably hear, feel or smell it but could also spray bottle some water to confirm.

[Sammo 2544]

2 minutes ago, Eagle said:

Least you know where you at now

Damage from jacking without wood etc block?. Yeah it appears to be. You could probably hear, feel or smell it but could also spray bottle some water to confirm.

Correct again! Can also detect a tiny rasp / buzz at 3k that was not there previously.

One step forward, two steps back haha 

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Could be a good excuse to change back to the original 325i exhaust system twin pipes, but would be $$$s.

Easy fix with a bit of a grind out and a blob of weld.

[Sammo 2544]

1 hour ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Could be a good excuse to change back to the original 325i exhaust system twin pipes, but would be $$$s.

Easy fix with a bit of a grind out and a blob of weld.

Aside from a bit of drone under low load at 1500-2000 (rarely experienced due to gearing) I’m very happy with the current sound.

This is the only part where it goes to a single pipe - presumably adapted to fit the one in two out Remus muffler.

[Cement 871]

Have a welder at home if you want to fix the leak @Sammo, I think we are in the same sort of area.

[Sammo 2544]

20 hours ago, Cement said:

Have a welder at home if you want to fix the leak @Sammo, I think we are in the same sort of area.

That would be amazing thank you!

[Sammo 2544]

A big thank you to @Cement for sorting the exhaust leak for me today and taking me for a quick blat in the mighty (edition 1 of 1?) VQ37 E46 💪🏽

One less thing on the to-do list!

Edited January 14, 2023 by Sammo

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

Awesome! This is what Bimmersport is all about, Bimmer people helping other Bimmer people.

[Sammo 2544]

Took car in to get my clutch / driveline vibration looked at properly - has been bothering me a bit for a while and seems to be getting worse (or me becoming more OCD about it). Was assuming a clutch related issue as its mostly through the pedal and goes away as soon as pedal is depressed.

Shop reckons it is actually the gearbox -  an input shaft bearing? (think thats what they said - there has also been a light rattle at idle in neutral with the clutch out).

Still there overnight (safely inside) awaiting the view of an expert who rebuilds a lot of these boxes...

Does not sound like a cheap issue 🙁

At least the interior is nice!

[E28E30 335]

The interior is UBER nice

[Sammo 2544]

Car is really misbehaving at the moment!

Gearbox / clutch vibration getting worse and worse so am booking it in March to get the box removed and taken to Kayne Barrie for assessment / rebuild - possibly be in for a new clutch as well…

Ancient alarm / immobiliser has always had a few quirks but has really started playing up recently and keeps arming itself while the engine is running - booked to get it removed and replaced this week.

Also have an intermittent rattle under the car I though was a loose heat shield but is still persisting at cold idle…

Speaking of idle, car is intermittently a little grumpy on cold start (smells very rich and a bit stuttery until warm like it’s an old carbed car) - not sure if it will help but I do have a coolant temp sensor to install (the one that tells the ECU the temp) and might get valves adjusted too (workshop reckon a few sounded noisy and wasn’t running quite right).

Will be tarting her up for the Brit and Euro show in Pakuranga on Sunday so at least she will look pretty.

Trying to remember what I spent my money on before 😂