The One That Didn't Get Away [100K Mile E30 325is]
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The F30 looks so good.
Is the electric steering as much of a buzzkill as the automotive journalists make it out to be?
Does the car seem near impossible to work on? Probably not so much with the 4cyl
I think the electric steering rack numbness feeling is overblown, but I'm not exactly an authority of steering feel. But when I drive it I never get the feeling that it feels numb or "off".
I haven't done really any mechanical maintenance on this car yet, but under the hood reminds me of my TJ wrangler that had a 4 cylinder. There's a mile between the front of the motor and the radiator. I would imagine basic maintenance is not a terrible experience to complete.
In terms of the front bumper and headlight install. Really wasn't anything difficult, good amount of room to maneuver if you pull the wheel well guards out. Only trouble point I had was unbolting the bottom of the headlights on one side. It uses a "nut" that is self contained. Square nut on one side that has an enclosure to prevent it from spinning, that sometimes fails and will just spin so you have to use a vice grip to pinch it.
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These mod's have really transformed the look of the car. It doesn't look like a basic ass commuter anymore!
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Drove the car to Elkhart Lake Saturday as a scouting run for the up coming season. Couldn’t be more excited for RA to be 100% back this year.
While I was on my way down, I was passing through Chilton and saw a woman waving me down just past the Kwik Trip. Wasn’t sure if it was a wave for the car or if I was doing something wrong, or something wrong with the car. Turned out it was the lady that I bought the car from. She texted me and we agreed to meet into New Holstein which is only 10 mins past Chilton.
She was thrilled with the condition of the car and loved that it was with someone who cared about. It was really nice to catch-up and show the status of the car. Also, the odds of seeing her in Chilton on a Saturday morning...
Looking into a getting a steam cleaner to do undercarriage and engine bag detailing. Dry ice blasting is the future, but I will settle for steam for the time being.
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Cool story!
explain the steam cleaned undercarriage? Is it particularly oily? Or are you about to park it over some mirrors at a car show?
Trans is pretty grimey, but it’s honestly just something that I’ve wanted to do and even more so want to do after being introduced to dry ice blasting. Just having things cleaned, and knowing that they are really cleaned, makes me feel better. It also makes things much more enjoyable to work on when they are clean.
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UUC Evo 3 SSK installed. Unfortunately, the DSSR could not be installed as the shift knuckle off the back of the trans was the wrong one, thought my car had the right one, but guess not. Poly bushings where the bitch clips inserts and Turner poly carrier bushing were also installed. Shifter feels super tight, notchy, directional. Was worried the throw was going to be too short for my liking, but this is the perfect amount for my driving style.
Only issues are that the shifter in neutral sits at maybe a 10-15 degree tilt towards the passenger side, not a huge deal, but a little annoying. Another thing, and maybe this is me only used to driving cars with factory shifters, is the 1-2 throw feels a little more difficult. If I had to rate the 1-2 throw, it would be maybe 4.5-5 out of 10 in terms of effort needed. Where as the others are more like a 3-3.5, compared to stock which I would say was like a 2-2.5. Only other thing, is that the ZHP weighted knob must not fit the profile of the shifter itself as it has maybe 5 degrees of rotational play in it. It doesn’t feel like it would come off, but it’s a little annoying that it rotates a little, and makes a little bit of clacking when going through the gears.
UUC did not include the six Allen head bolts that connect the collar to the carrier arm, so I bought some Phillips screws of the same pitch. They were a little longer than the ones that would have been included, so they had to be shimmed with some washers so the screws wouldn’t contact the ball the shifter pivots on. My only thought as to why the couple of things might be out of whack.
Overall, very pleased with it, even without the DSSR, it feels extremely tight and directional. For me, this car exceeds at the warm summer evening, back road, sunset country cruise with the radio(Bluetooth speaker in my case) playing some good tunes. Really hard to beat.
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Posted in the FB group chat, but was able to score two pretty rare items for a steal on eBay last week. They are in pretty good condition, the dead pedal has a little bit of the paint flaking. I’m not sure if these are painted or powder coated from the factory.
I don’t know what the proper way to “restore” these would be. Media blasting and then powder coated? Or would it be better to just leave them as is? The valve cover would be a really good candidate for dry ice cleaning.
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Posted in the FB group chat, but was able to score two pretty rare items for a steal on eBay last week. They are in pretty good condition, the dead pedal has a little bit of the paint flaking. I’m not sure if these are painted or powder coated from the factory.
I don’t know what the proper way to “restore” these would be. Media blasting and then powder coated? Or would it be better to just leave them as is? The valve cover would be a really good candidate for dry ice cleaning.
Sandblast, Powdercoat, Sand. And I would clear powercoat over the top.
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Cars been down since August of last year. Was leaking coolant into the drivers footwell. Believed to be heater core valve. Purchased the valve, heater core, and O rings that should be here end of this week. I don’t want to deal with draining coolant or any of that shit so I’m having the guys at Auto Clinic do it. I also don’t really have anywhere to do the repair at the moment.
I did take the interior apart to make it easier for them to do the repair. Now it’s exposed and ready for them to replace.
You can see where it appears to have been leaking based on the carpet. It might be the O rings that failed, but I’m just going to replace all of it.
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Exhaust removal can be a pain. Start spraying down assorted exhaust bolts/nuts now with penetrant of choice.
This and I would just plan on getting a full set of studs/nuts to replace them. It’s tedious but you’re likely to have a few of those nuts seized to the stud and will only come out as one.
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This and I would just plan on getting a full set of studs/nuts to replace them. It’s tedious but you’re likely to have a few of those nuts seized to the stud and will only come out as one.
Probably will just end of buying this.
https://www.iemotorsport.com/product/exhaust-hanger-kit-e30-m20/
I'll have to check, but it looks like the cat back came with 4 exhaust studs and nuts.
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Probably will just end of buying this.
https://www.iemotorsport.com/product/exhaust-hanger-kit-e30-m20/
I'll have to check, but it looks like the cat back came with 4 exhaust studs and nuts.
I’m lacking on sleep, sorry I was thinking about the exhaust manifolds when I wrote that. That IE kit has everything you’d need from the manifolds back.
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Interior back in the car. Almost ready to make its summer/fall residence in my garage. Which means the truck will be in the lot. Storage unit was nice to have both cars in covered storage, but saving ~$80 a month will also be nice. Car will stay in my parents storage for winter unit once they put their boat away for the season.
Carpet extraction, Leatherique, and exhaust are the first bits on the list to start the season off.
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I think I was able to trouble shoot, or at least narrow down the cause of my radio issue.
I pulled the deck out, and un hooked the speaker wires from the back of the deck, and then turned the radio on. According to the trouble shooting process outlined in this post, if you don't hear the bad sounds when the speakers are undone, then it's the deck. Which was the case for my test, no noise made when I undid the wires and turned the deck on, and turned it all the way up. As soon as I would touch one of the speaker wires to the deck, the sound would come back.
I wasn't able to recreate the second portion of his post where you plug a speaker into the back of the deck. I have a non powered speaker on my desk that I brought to the car and tried plugging the positive wire into the speaker output on the deck and grounding the negative wire on the radio chassis. Was not able to get a sound. But that could be because I didn't have a connector on the wire and was just sticking the bare wire in, or I wasn't grounding it properly.
Regardless, I think I have gotten to the point that I can make an assumption that there is an issue with the deck. I even tried the method of using electronics cleaner on the volume knob and the receptacle of the deck outlined in this post. But no luck.
My next choice is to now either go with the continental or find an OEM replacement. Leaning toward the Conti.
Looking on eBay, do these CM5908's really go for hundreds of dollars?
**I'm assuming this connection is for if it had a CD change in the back?
Reading another thread on R3V, apparently it's for a 5 or 7 series that used the same radio but had an LCD display.
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The conti unit is the best choice unless you want to shell out money for the “Blaupunkt” Bremen SQR 46 DAB. The Clarion FZ-102E has been discontinued which sucks because it just needed updates like modern Bluetooth.
I was gonna suggest contacting Car-Feteria in milwaukee but looks like they finally closed up shop. Maybe r3v or elsewhere might have suggestions for old school stereo shops that still repair OEM units.
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