Alpine e30 progress/build thread

[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.

[m42b32]

158.7k

I've been having some odd noises coming from the steering while turning the wheel towards full lock while parking, so I pulled the front struts to re-grease the strut mounts to see if that helps at all. While I was in there I removed the fixed camber plates and added e90 drop hats. I had always heard they were a direct drop in, but once the whole stack with the top mount and various washers were installed there wasn't full thread engagement on the top nut. I ground down the tapered washer piece on the top hat to reduce the thickness and end up with a flat mounting surface like the factory mount, but I forgot to take a picture. This is the part I'm referring to, I shaved it down by about half. It is a steel insert and still had more thickness left than the original e30 top hat so it should still be more than strong enough. 

With the added drop hats and removed fixed camber plates (add another 5mm or so to the front ride height), the stance is so much better. It could still be a bit lower all around, but for now this is perfect. All cleaned up for the picnic!

The z3 rack is now leaking quite a bit from both sides, so I am going to give rebuilding it (or a core if I can find one) a shot at some point in the near future. I found this thread: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2153710-DIY-How-to-rebuild-your-Z3-short-ratio-rack-and-pinion. And this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9drVXzCOuM) that are quite helpful. Seems like a tedious job but not impossible to do at home. Saving here for reference. 

I changed the oil a few weeks ago too.

[m42b32]

159k

It been below freezing and snowed once already here so I guess it's time to fold the mirrors until spring.

I had a pretty much trouble free year with the only problems that popped up being the battery going dead fairly quickly and a fuel leak at the fuel pressure regulator a few weeks ago. The leak stopped by just tightening the fitting, but I'll probably take it apart to re-seal properly before next season. I also swapped out the primered front lip for a cheap black one from ebay (you're welcome @straight6pwr). I'll admit it looks a heck of a lot better, though someday if/when I paint the car I will color match the primed one.

[straight6pwr]

oh thank god!  best holiday gift I could have gotten.

[m42b32]

159.5k

Finally got this car out for the summer last weekend and took a nice drive through the Holy Hill area. While enjoying my cruise I was reminded of how much I hate the current state of the audio system in this car. At some point prior to my ownership it had an Alpine head unit and some Sony rear speakers installed by a Best Buy. While the individual parts weren't necessarily bad, the install was clearly terrible because random speakers would come and go any time you hit a bump. Sometimes you'd have all 4, sometimes it would switch left and right, if you got really unlucky you'd have seemingly nothing till the next expansion gap. I had enough and ordered the Continental head unit to start rebuilding the stereo into something workable. 

Getting the old Alpine head unit out without the special tools was a little frustrating but I eventually succeeded with a pair of feeler gauges down each side in just the right spot. With the head unit out I found this messy pile of crap behind it:

The picture doesn't really capture it well but there were quite a few cut/loose wires, some random spliced in connectors that served no purpose, what looked to be an old ipod connection that was only half-way cut out, and a lot of electrical tape and crimp connectors. Since the factory connectors were long gone I just cut back everything until I was left with as much of the factory wiring that I could save. My car has the base 4-channel system with no amp so I soldered in the new head unit connectors using this diagram:

New head unit installed and working! Looks so much better than the old one and having bluetooth audio (once I figured out how to get it working) is a great upgrade. 

The annoying news was that I only had sound from 3 of the 4 speakers. The driver's rear wasn't doing anything, so I pulled out the speaker and found what was probably real source of my problems: 

It pulled out just like this, the connector had fallen right off with zero resistance. In fact, all of the connectors on both rear speakers were loose like that. I tightened up the connectors with a pliers and reattached them and what do you know, I have all 4 speakers working now! I'm not sure why it took me so long to dig into this but I'm pumped that it's working properly again.