So after a frustrating month of ownership, I'd run out of talent and a couple of very E30-experienced friends were scratching their heads at it too.... and some great input from you guys on here (thank you, thank you) I had kind of narrowed it down to something electrical related to the fuel delivery.
So I called out an auto electrician and a really nice Bulgarian guy came and started working through everything i had done so far, just double-checking everything... and he started scratching his head too!! But then he got his cable-chasing tool out - the one that beeps as it is following the current through leads and looms - and was querying old immobilisers. As far as I knew there was not an immobiliser fitted so we discounted that after another ten minutes. But then the beeping stopped just under the fuel pump relay location... and he found a tiny break in one of the connecting leads. Small enough that if is was nudged then it did make a connection, but big enough to stop the power... so he fixed it and the car jumped into life!!
I paid and thanked the guy and I left the car running for about 20 minutes and it sounds much younger than its' 157K miles. It had a bit of hesitation when first under throttle but I thought this may settle down once the car is used and driven once again. It wasn't raining so I put the roof down and went for a first drive, why not?!
It's an awesome little car, the brakes are non-existent compared to my E46's but a few pumps and they work - they are now on the list for me to look at. But the car goes great, really responsive and so smooth through all the gears so I hit the motorway and took it gently up to about 70MPH and it feels great, solid, runs straight and I got a few thumbs up from passing traffic!!
I'm now 3 days in to it driving and I look it work last night, and it starts and stops and does what an E30 should do - while looking awesome too.
Some takeaways from new ownership and driving:
1 The throttle hesitation is still there, a little bit of a lumpy idle but once passed that it is smooth and lovely
2 The drivers rear tyre scrubs a little under load or on cornering to the left
3 The heater doesn't come hot and the blower doesn't work
4 The right indicator (when turning right I mean) doesn't self cancel
5 Need to looks at the brakes
6 I have a slight scraping/sliding noise I can hear from the rear (i think) so this maybe connected to the brake issue - but the noise doesn't change when the brake is depressed, and the handbrake works fine and isn't binding
7 One of the speakers doesn't work
And I'm sure more will be added but this is all there is so far. I'm really pleased with it and very happy with my purchase. I wasn't happy when the owner said he couldn't start it on the morning I arrived to look at it and I took a punt on it as the rest of the car looked so good.... but i've uncovered a load of his lies and/or bullsh1t but hey - we've all done that when selling a car.
Anyway, here's a couple of pictures. I'll be back with updates soon on my progress but for the time being it is being used as my daily... and I'm loving being back in an E30
Thanks again for all of your input and advice, guys, it's really appreciated.
Rich
PS The wet patches under the car on a couple of pictures are not from a loss of fluids, I promise!!
