Alpine White Zender Kit E24 633CSI

[Jdesign]

So.... I acquired this car last year after it exchanged hands about 4-6 times before landing on my doorstep. The poor fella was in desperate need of TLC and an owner that would actually take the time to sort out his quirks. I dont know if I'm that owner, but I am certainly going to try to be (for now). And although I dont really have the room for him in my stable, I took him in with open arms.

With that said, the car also didnt have a title when I got it. The story is that it went to auction, and the highest bidder left it on the lot abandon and a towing company removed it and took over possession of the car. Here is where it was sold and jumped around title-less for a few years until yesterday that is, when I finally made the journey back through all of the previous owners to find out what I just explained. The towing company gave me all the necessary paperwork and after a simple trip to the DMV, I now legally own another car.

About the car itself. Its a 1984 633CSI E24 5 speed coupe. The car is fairly rare from what I have researched. Only 1173 manuals were sold here in america, and of that, the color combination is almost none existent. Alpine white exterior with Cherry red AKA"Ox Blood" interior. Pair that with the Zender kit and it seems like a pretty cool car. UNLESS you have to work on it.

So basically I am starting this thread more to help myself document the process of getting it running again and returning it into a nice factory condition. 

First day I saw it:

First day home:

[patsbimmer1]

Awesome!  That era Zender kit has intrigued me.  Good luck!

[Bassboy3313]

Very cool! I had a set of zender side skirts for my e21 at one point. Zender had some neat stuff back in the day. P.S. I hate you for your shop space. That is all.

[m42b32]

Awesome!! I love the RS's on it too. A manual e24 is one of my favorites

[Jdesign]

patsbimmer1 said:

Awesome!  That era Zender kit has intrigued me.  Good luck!

Yeah I really like it!

Bassboy3313 said:

Very cool! I had a set of zender side skirts for my e21 at one point. Zender had some neat stuff back in the day. P.S. I hate you for your shop space. That is all.

Feel free to stop out if you are ever in Madison!

m42b32 said:

Awesome!! I love the RS's on it too. A manual e24 is one of my favorites 

I dig the Rs's alot too, but part of the deal with getting the car was that I didnt get the Rs's

Anyways, Thanks all!! I spent a decent amount of time trying to fix the no start issue but these cars are really annoying to trouble shoot. I plan on posting all of the past work to try and catch up this thread. I did make progress and a new ignition switch is on its way as the old one was faulty in more than one way.

Now to hold back and not moddd ifff fiyyyyy 

[YoungCR]

Still wanna come over to help with this no start, hopefully the Bentley lead you in the right direction at least.

[Jdesign]

I need to take pictures of all the trouble shooting I had to go through up to this point, but I will try and get the verbage here since I have a moment.

Main list of Trouble shooting and issues

1. -Done- Rats chewed into the engine harness- I replaced all the wires that were broken and missing. Most of them led to injectors and the CPS sensor. I orinially was hoping this was the only reason it wasnt running. I was wrong 
2. -Done- Replace the battery
3. -Done- With the ignition on, I got lights and power, but the OBC didnt light up and the car was not cranking. I bypassed the started and it cranked over, but still no start.
4. -Done- With the ignition on, I got lights and power, but the OBC didnt light up meaing the immobilizer is triggered and the car wont start.. I looked and the control module for the OBC has a small tube fuse in it. I needed to find this and check the fuse. Found this and replaced the fuse as it was indeed blown.
5. -Done- With the ignition on, I got lights and power, now the OBC would light up but only show lines "----" I read somewhere that this is normal. But the car still wont crank with the key. I checked the ignition switch and it was indeed faulty. I new one has been ordered and is on the way.
6. -Done- For trouble shooting reasons, I also bypassed the Main relay and the Fuel pump relay
7. I have NO spark when its cranking. CPS sensor could be faulty, I need to test the resistance.
8. The smell of fuel is present when cranking and the pump is running. I need to make sure the injectors are firing though.
9. the ignition coil was tested and seems within spec. For piece of mind, this should be checked again.

Once the Ignition switch gets here I will install it and continue you trouble shooting, but that is as far as I got right now.

[straight6pwr]

e24 = one of the few cars that looks sexy as hell dumped to the floor with some oversized wheels.

cant wait to see where this goes.

[Jdesign]

straight6pwr said:

e24 = one of the few cars that looks sexy as hell dumped to the floor with some oversized wheels.

cant wait to see where this goes.

You stop that. I need to keep it stock.

[straight6pwr]

nevar!

[Jdesign]

Ugggghhhh

 

[Jdesign]

Ignition switch arrived and is the correct switch!!!! I have yet to gather time to install it and start trouble shooting again. Most of my focus has been on my E30. I will provide updates once the Install begins.

[Jdesign]

@e92boost Forced me to actually work on this yesterday by posting pictures of his E24 with the new wheels installed. I unfortunately did not get the chance to do anything that exciting though. I managed to get the ignition switch installed and continued down my check list to get the car running again. I tested and cleaned all the grounds, injectors, temp sensor, idle motor, and it turns out that both crank and reference sensors have failed in different ways. Another $200 and I will have two new sensors to install soon.

Here's what a failed ignition switch looks like compared to a new one: (note the small crack near the rotating assembly) 

[Daggerty]

Gross

[e92boost]

Jdesign said:

@e92boost Forced me to actually work on this yesterday by posting pictures of his E24 with the new wheels installed. I unfortunately did not get the chance to do anything that exciting though. I managed to get the ignition switch installed and continued down my check list to get the car running again. I tested and cleaned all the grounds, injectors, temp sensor, idle motor, and it turns out that both crank and reference sensors have failed in different ways. Another $200 and I will have two new sensors to install soon.

Here's what a failed ignition switch looks like compared to a new one: (note the small crack near the rotating assembly) 

Did you have any jumpy rpm problems when it did run?

[Jdesign]

e92boost said:

Did you have any jumpy rpm problems when it did run? 

No clue, It hasn't ran in years, and I am probably the first to actually get it to turn over on its own for quite some time LOL.

[e92boost]

Damn! That's awesome tho, gonna be such a great feeling starting it up.

[Jdesign]

e92boost said:

Damn! That's awesome tho, gonna be such a great feeling starting it up. 

Its probably going to be an awesome smoke show first time it starts up. LOL

[e92boost]

What's up with that zhp?

[Jdesign]

e92boost said:

What's up with that zhp? 

Its was a friends. I was storing it for him. Its on air and has a rebuilt set of Modena's going on it. It was at the Brewhaus last year with rear wheels that were way to wide for his liking and mine.