E30 Zone

Hi all, I know, most of you probably don't bother with AC living in a colder climate, but during this time of the year in this neck of the woods, it's almost a matter of survival. My Touring came with the original AC setup, which used R12, no longer available. The system was not holding any gas, but...

Thanks fellas, That's just what I needed, toby. Thanks! Brian, my driver's seat did just that, for some reason it's been broken and welded back together. Unfortunately it wasn't put together very carefully, so the backrest ended up being welded in such a way that it doesn't come forward as much as I...

Hello all, Both my front (leather) seats have burst stitching, and I'd like to get them fixed before it gets any worse. I was wondering if they're easy to remove (just need to remove the seat base itself, the backrest is fine) so I can get them done while I'm servicing the engine. Anyone done this? ...

I was right about the rear windows... I've now got the car inspected (the portuguese equivalent of the british MOT test), and I've just been out doing the school run for the first time in it. When I got home I tried them and the rear right one already opened, a bit sluggish at first but it's getting...

Silly question time again: I've been a bit puzzled by the two blue/green wires found under the steering column (LHD), it seems only one came from the relay itself, the other doesn't appear to have any connection to this circuit. Am I right? Both have single-pole connectors in roughly the same place....

Hehehe! Well, at least for the front ones I can tell you it's not needed. I've just gone into the garage as I was out in the garden and I tried swapping them over. And because the symptoms remained, I had a good look at the plug, and realised that one of the grounds had been popped into the wrong te...

I did suspect that the switches themselves could be playing up, but I ran out of time for playing with the stuff and didn't get round to trying a swap.

What do you recommend for a good cleanup of their internals?

Cheers, Eddie

Well, here's a (rather large) update: The window wiring was all messed up by the alarm setup. Every single switch on the console around the gearlever had one wire cut and spliced into the alarm, and every single connection was made in such a way that I wonder how much of a professional the (insert v...

Brian, I did the bypass and this got the switches lit, but only the back ones. I didn't notice the front ones getting lit up, so something is definitely amiss. Also, if I try pressing the buttons, nothing happens, and the rear ones (which did light up) dim quite visibly. One other thing I noticed is...

Yes, there's a blue/green wire coming out of the relay to a single connector, which is wired into a single blue/green wire, and that goes into the side panel, I assume it should be the one going into the circuit breaker. That one, when measured, gave 12V with the relay triggered, as it should, so ma...

Well, here's the deal: The relay is there, it's working, and there's 12V on the wire coming off it, measured at the single connector. Still no windows moving. The switches have flat pins on their connections, at least the ones I got out. Is there any possibility that the alarm has anything to do wit...

When I tried working the windows with the feed in place they seemed to dim a bit. I'll have a look round the switches and the relay, and get back to you. I did hear the relay clicking in when the door jamb switch gets triggered, as I got the trim panel off to get it repaired because it was loose. I ...

Hi Brian, Yes, it appears to be working as it should. I have, however, just noticed the flexible sleeve connecting the driver's door to the A-pillar has its rubber boot loose from the body, and there's a thin black wire in there that's cut. Don't know if there's a corresponding bit inside the sleeve...

Hi all, I've recently got myself another Touring to play with, and I'm going through it as it's been sitting for a couple of years. When I got it, the windows were working, but now they don't. I don't think I touched anything on this circuit, but there's no current getting to them. Here's the sympto...

Hi all,

I'm doing up the M20 in the Touring (off an 86 325is and converted to facelift wiring to fit the Tourer).

I'm now on the lookout for a timing belt and I find 127 and 128 tooth belts, which one should I go for? They all fit this engine according to manufacturer specs...

Cheers, Eddie

Hi there, Just did this myself, very straightforward job apart obviously from routing all the cables, but it's doable. The sensors that need replacing are the oil ones (both pressure and level) and you need to add the crank position sensor triggered by the notched pulley. The old sensors on the flyw...

Brian, you were spot-on.... IT LIVES! Just spluttered right into life after a few churns! I can't begin to tell you how chuffed I am... it wasn't my mistake, they were already put on that way and I only followed suit. Mark, Brian, thanks a million to both of you for guiding me through the rough bits...

You mean the regulator is meant to be on the output side of the fuel rail? Makes sense to me. I only connected them by the logical placement they had, but maybe whoever fitted the engine swapped them not knowing which way round they went.

Will try to swap them round in a few minutes.

Yep, double checked this twice.

BTW, I've just found three wires right by the TPS connector that were cut. I was just replacing the tape that was loose but when I got it out I found right besides the TPS wires an extra set of 3: one yellow, one brown, one black. Any idea what these are?

Ok so the update (man, the Zone is big, give it a few days and you walk through 4 pages finding where your topic's been blown to!): The spark plug is clean, no wetness at all. Confirmed this twice with a used plug. Engine turns over fine, cam timing is spot-on. When I gave it a couple of tries now w...

Brian, for me the problem is the plugs are brand spanking new, so I can't judge their wetness at all. They just smell of petrol, but I can't see it. I'm going to check their size compared to the Fiat ones I use on the twin-cam to see if one of those will fit, and try that if it does to see how wet i...

Hi again guys, Yes, I do have spark. I'd tested the coil and it was getting current, but just to make sure I got a mate to crank it while I checked a plug. Nice fat spark. I also checked the cam timing and it appears ok. The engine turns over easily so nothing's sticking either. Builds up oil pressu...

I didn't crank it for long, mind. But since the plugs are brand new (the kid who sold it to me had been scratching his head trying to make it run with the pre-facelift wiring in place, so he got new plugs), it's hard to see petrol on clean metal. Only small gas canisters I've got here are a small ca...

Well just tried it again. Thing is, because the plugs are new there's no deposits on them to actually make them look wet, but it did smell of petrol. Any ideas?

Hi Brian, Sorry for not making it clear. Yes, I meant the black/green wire that we talked about earlier. I read somewhere that during cranking over this terminal gets 12v+ so the unloader relays switch off while the starter is working. Mine is grounded directly to the engine, though. Yes, this is a ...

I read somewhere that the ground line that plugs into the starter is meant to de-energise as the starter is cranked (gets battery voltage so no potential drop across it), can this be the problem? I wired mine directly to the engine for a permanent ground. There is a terminal on the starter that I've...

Hi again Mark,

I double checked these, as they were something that could easily be swapped. You tagged them and I got them wired up correctly according to the labels.

I did just try them the other way round, but still the same... cranks over, but no joy.

Hi all, I finally got the engine loom worked out and put together on my '88 Tourer's pre-facelift 2,5 engine (out of an '86 325is). Using all the kit that Mark (town325i) kindly supplied me with, I replaced the whole loom, oil sensors, crank trigger, ecu, etc. Everything is now in place, but even th...

Hi all, I've been sorely tempted to retrofit chrome bumpers on my Tourer, ever since I came across a few such conversions on the web. Is this easily done? What does it involve? My bumpers are a bit dodgy anyways, and since the ease of sourcing bits for each version seems pretty much indifferent, I m...

Hi all, Just been browsing through a number of discussions here on Tech Help, and hit upon a discussion of injectors. My Tourer has an early 325 is engine, so IIRC it has low-impedance injectors. But I'm converting the engine loom to facelift spec to match the main loom, so will my injectors work wi...

Hi there, Just to let you know if you can't find help from anyone here (which I doubt), let me know exactly what you need as I have an early 325 engine which I'm currently converting to facelift spec to fit my Touring, and all early sensors not used on facelift engines are surplus to requirements. I...

Hi all, Now that all the large stuff is done, I've gone through the trouble of tracing all the wiring for my sound system (the Touring has the one with the tweeters on the back of the rearview mirrors and big speakers on the back). I got the fader control out of the circuit and wired the euro connec...

Brian, you're an ace! Earthed pin 15, and hey presto! I've got windows, I've got sunroof... no more dingy air to bear through while working on the dash! Now I can have it open to see if it loses that awful smell when the weather's nice (we were having 35 deg C days last week, but now we've been tast...

Well I've made a bit of progress. I forgot to mention that I'm between engine looms right now, as if you remember my Tourer had a pre-facelift engine and loom put into it but it never ran. Silly me, it had never ocurred to me before that big-consumption items like power windows would be run on a mor...

Hi again Brian, Many thanks for that clarification, I did suspect it would be something like that, unique to the Touring! I still need to figure out why that K9 is permanently on, though... I suspect something is definitely amiss underneath, or I misplaced some other relay, it could happen! Will hav...

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