Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[straight6pwr]

its decided then, e30 shoot at the museum. what night? i have nothing going on, you know quarantine and all.

[m42b32]

m42b32 said:

I did accidentally re-set some of the DTC suppression so I get a check engine light again, so I'll have to go back and re-do that. 

Turns out they were just old codes that somehow made it through the flash. They must be stored somewhere else. Cleared and never came back!

[m42b32]

157.8k

Had a few moments to work on the car over the weekend, so I finally wired in a pair of early e36 window switches and pigtails. Got them wired in and both the switches are bad. Nice!

One switch only works sometimes, the other only goes down. The behavior follows the switches when swapped so my wiring is good at least. I took them apart and they look a little corroded. Going to try and clean the contacts and re-solder any joints. If that fails I'll just have to get some new ones.

[jc43089]

m42b32 said:

157.8k

Had a few moments to work on the car over the weekend, so I finally wired in a pair of early e36 window switches and pigtails. Got them wired in and both the switches are bad. Nice!

One switch only works sometimes, the other only goes down. The behavior follows the switches when swapped so my wiring is good at least. I took them apart and they look a little corroded. Going to try and clean the contacts and re-solder any joints. If that fails I'll just have to get some new ones.  

Try cleaning the contacts up, I have had intermittent e30 window switches and cleaning fixed them.  The full current goes through the switch and the arcing pits the contacts.

[Jdesign]

jc43089 said:

Try cleaning the contacts up, I have had intermittent e30 window switches and cleaning fixed them.  The full current goes through the switch and the arcing pits the contacts.

Same, You should be able to just clean them to revive them

[m42b32]

Windows go up, windows go down

Cleaning the contacts worked great. I was able to get a thin strip of sandpaper between each contact in the switch to clean up any pitting and corrosion then sprayed them down with CRC contact cleaner to remove any oils/debris. Each direction went from many ohms (one was almost 200) to under 3 when closed. One of the contacts looks like it had actually gotten hot at some point so there was definitely a ton of resistance there.

it turns out the write-up I followed for the wiring was wrong and my switches are backwards lol. That's what I get for not checking the pinout. After daily driving e36's for a number of years it felt wrong immediately, so I'll flip it around eventually.

[B C]

E36 window switches are rated #4 in Cosmopolitan magazine's "Top 10 E30 mods that will drive him wild!, #6 will shock you!"

[gilber33]

m42b32 said:

 One of the contacts looks like it had actually gotten hot at some point so there was definitely a ton of resistance there.

I cleaned up my window switches this winter and I had the same thing. A couple of the contacts were black. Not sure what would have caused that, but it was a little unsettling seeing that when I took them apart.

[m42b32]

B C said:

E36 window switches are rated #4 in Cosmopolitan magazine's "Top 10 E30 mods that will drive him wild!, #6 will shock you!"  

I can confirm, very satisfying

[m42b32]

157.9k

Battery wouldn't hold a charge. Replaced and back in action!

[m42b32]

158.4k

4/27/1991 - 10/08/2020

[B C]

I got to take a ride in this car today. The acceleration was very good. No need for any more power than this in an E30!

[KaiserRolls]

Time for a plush dash mat

[Rekpoint]

F

[m42b32]

KaiserRolls said:

Time for a plush dash mat

This one should work well

[m42b32]

158.5k

Drove it across a truck scale near my house for fun last night. Subtracting my weight it came in at 2,720lbs with a full tank of gas. Stock 318is curb weight is ~2600, so I was initially a bit bummed I'd added 130lbs with the swap... But, when you consider I had a trunk full of stuff and a roof bike rack setup on it at the moment, that's actually not too bad!

[B C]

Mine was 2,720 with the M20 and automatic. Thats not much weight gain at all for the power increase

[KaiserRolls]

B C said:

Mine was 2,720 with the M20 and automatic. Thats not much weight gain at all for the power increase

I should eventually corner balance it and figure out total weight

[m42b32]

I'd be curious to see how it compares!

[m42b32]

158.7k

Well, it's officially this car's 30th birthday yesterday. For the last few months I was certain it was built 4/27/1991 and I got it out for a great drive in the nice weather to celebrate the occasion. Well, I looked it up this evening and it turns out it was the 26th, lol. Oh well, its the thought that counts.