91 318 Nostalgia

[GunMetalGrey]

Boris3 said:

Congrats! This sounded like a good deal in the CL ad with all the work that had been done and the price point. Hope the issue is just the temp sensor.

There was a handful of things that were not mentioned in the ad, such as the drivers door lock being replaced with a bolt, the passenger door lower hinge being broken, and the interior passenger door handle being broken. Not deal breakers, but a bit lame to find after driving 3 hours. 
I ended up paying him $500 less than his asking price, so I feel like I got a decent deal!

[GunMetalGrey]

HipMF said:

http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/pts/5904523775.html

Ha, first you tell me to leave it, and now you send me links to things like that!

[straight6pwr]

$1,300 for an s52 with a lot of mileage and a rod knock?!

[Jdesign]

Nice find. That sounds way more exciting to drive than the mazda.

[i_love_cars]

sounds like it was a legit deal. I saw the listing and secretly wished I was in the market for a streetable E30 as the history and price seemed pretty good

[KaiserRolls]

i_love_cars said:

sounds like it was a legit deal. I saw the listing and secretly wished I was in the market for a streetable E30 as the history and price seemed pretty good 

Buy more bmws

[GunMetalGrey]

I brought this home on Saturday. List of things I have done so far. 

Took part of the tan sport seat apart to find out what's broken.
Tried to take out the rear bumper bolts (one came out...)

Yup

[GunMetalGrey]

Stiiiilll haven't touched this. 

I did notice that the PO put a "new" radiator and bleed screw in it. The radiator appears to have been from a car with some cooling system issues. The expansion tank is bulged out quite far, even with the cap off. 
His "new bleed screw" was some sort of torx head fastener from some interior area. No wonder it is sucking air into the cooling system.

Some people I tell ya

[wasnt m3]

It's amazing what people will do to "save" on a sub two dollar part.

[GunMetalGrey]

I finally started digging into the mechanical side of this thing since buying it. I had been working on getting things painted and just cleaned up in general on it. 
Did all trim in black, replaced rear bumper trim, painted the mirrors and grills black, fixed the drivers seat so I could have one interior color, and other things like that. 

First thing I did was evacuate the transmission of it's far too thick oil. The car didn't like shifting and I can tell why, someone used the same oil for the diff as the trans. 

I put the car up in the air to get started underneath it and found some stuff. The underside of this thing is staggeringly clean, and the worst areas actually show in the pictures below, which is primarily just a bit of surface rust. 

Someone must have decided steering couplings were dumb.

The amount of road grime underneath this thing is amazing. I will probably drop 20lbs just by scraping it all off! 

Do these motor mounts look collapsed? Drivers side looks collapsed for sure. 
 

Someone decided to just cut the reverse switch wires and leave them dangle instead of doing anything else with them...

The subframe and rear trailing arm bushings are clearly in need of replacement. 

The most peculiar one of them all. I wanted to check the diff to see if it was an LSD or open, and had the rear of the car in the air. I spun one wheel forward and watched to see what the other side did. It did nothing. I went to the other side and spun it and I got the same result. So either this thing has a broken open diff (seems odd) or an EXTREMELY worn out LSD. More digging on that later!

[jc43089]

Put it in gear so the driveshaft doesn't spin, then spin a wheel.  Either a wheel and the driveshaft turns or if the driveshaft is held both wheels will spin.

[GunMetalGrey]

jc43089 said:

Put it in gear so the driveshaft doesn't spin, then spin a wheel.  Either a wheel and the driveshaft turns or if the driveshaft is held both wheels will spin.

I've never needed to do that before, and if you have a diff on the workbench it will still spin all inputs/outputs without any being held. 

I will for curiosity though.

[Jdesign]

It always seems like a good weekend of fixing all the little stuff is the most rewarding. Those motor mounts are certainly shot, how are the trans mounts?

[straight6pwr]

GunMetalGrey said:

The most peculiar one of them all. I wanted to check the diff to see if it was an LSD or open, and had the rear of the car in the air. I spun one wheel forward and watched to see what the other side did. It did nothing. I went to the other side and spun it and I got the same result. So either this thing has a broken open diff (seems odd) or an EXTREMELY worn out LSD. More digging on that later!

well its an open now, in either scenario.

i am also curious as to why...i found that scenario all over the internet, but no one seems to have an answer for whats going on.

[HipMF]

The driveshaft apparently has less static friction than the opposing wheel, despite being geared up... My guess would be that the brakes (or parking brake) is dragging slightly. CV joints full of mud/tar? Can't really think of any other logical reasons... CV joint joint friction might make sense, since the suspension is at full droop, whereas the driveshaft is in a straight(ish) line.

[jc43089]

Yea it just depends where there is more friction.  While we are on the discussion of differentials, I have an open and an LSD for my e36, the open spins very easily but the LSD is much stiffer to turn.  Is this an indicator that something is wrong or is that just how and LSD is?  I have never had one before.  I haven't used it in my car yet but it came from a crashed m3 with low miles so I assumed it was ok.

[Earl]

The fluids could be different viscosities.

[m42b32]

jc43089 said:

Yea it just depends where there is more friction.  While we are on the discussion of differentials, I have an open and an LSD for my e36, the open spins very easily but the LSD is much stiffer to turn.  Is this an indicator that something is wrong or is that just how and LSD is?  I have never had one before.  I haven't used it in my car yet but it came from a crashed m3 with low miles so I assumed it was ok.

The 4.10 LSD I have for my e30 is also very stiff to turn by hand, I figured that was normal since it spins smoothly, haven't had the back cover off yet to inspect. No idea on mileage and condition though as I got it with my M3 suspension.

[jc43089]

Good to know.  They are much more different in resistance to turning than fluid would cause.  More like 2 hands to turn the input shaft on the LSD while the open turns easily with one hand.

[Jdesign]

There are so many variables that could cause different feel and resistance. Most clutch types will have wear in the clutches and or different fluid viscosity that two of the exact same 4.10's could feel completely different.