E30 Zone

Hello all,

this is my first post, but I've already used a lot of the excellent resources on here in my search for a 325i sport. It's an excellent site and I'm sure I'll be calling on you all lots more through the coming months!

I bought this 325 last Sunday: http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C35950?pt=pf

Any opinions on it? I found it was in good condition when I had a look (a few small spots of rust, but an entirely standard car that felt fairly un-abused), and instantly fell in love with the engine when I had a test drive, so I bought it (for less than the asking price!).

First things first, the lack of service history means I've got to do the timing belt to put my mind at rest. Looking through the post here my plan is to do the following all at once: timing belt + tensioner + spring + pin, water pump + gasket, distributor rotor arm, spark plugs, oil drain change + filter, fuel filter, aux belt and tappet adjustment. Is any of that overkill, or is there anything else you'd suggest?

Front brakes also need doing (rears were just done). Can anyone suggest manufacturers of pads and discs that offer something in between 'budget' and high-end? I don't need massive performance, but I'm always nervous of very cheap parts.

Also, final thing. My morning's been very mixed. It's nice and damp in Brighton today, and my commute to work gave me my first experience of getting the tail out (this is my first RWD car!) which was BU-RRRILIANT!
However I also discovered that the flat part of the passenger footwell was damp. Just took a pic under the car and found this http://a4.vox.com/6a00e398d23e79000300e398e10b540005-pi

I'm guessing here, but I think that's not good
I'm gonna get the passenger seat and carpet out this weekend and investigate. Any advice on where else to look/check and how to fix would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Finn

if thats the area in behind the front wheel in the footwell it should have a rectangular metal plate welded over it from the factory, these catch water and mud from the front wheels and often rot out,

its not a big problem and often these areas are welded on old e30s but iot has to be done properley with all the rot cut out to good metal and welded to a good standard, if you had holes higher up in the bulkhead these are a bastard to repair and pretty much terminal unless you have the skills and time to repair

its a sweet looking sport mate, nice one

Welcome to the zone.

Great looking car you have there. Firstly as you mentioned I would have a full service carried out and get all the necessary bits changed for piece of mind. As for the parts - don't skimp. I would have genuine if you are able to do so.

Best of luck with the car.

I cant really tell from that pic where it is, but it looks like your "jacking point" has been badly repaired Not an expensive nor difficult place to get repaired tbh.

As for the brakes, I have mintex pads on mine and I'm very happy with them. The car stops very well.

Other places to check=
Remove boot lining as you may well find some nasties there and check the drivers footwell. Underneath fusebox and battery tray.

Welcome to the zone,looks a fair car you have bought.Your planned engine work is not overkill,just what a caring owner should do.Be carefull as you re-fill the cooling system to aviod airlocks. I use standard vented front discs with Greenstuff pads,so far on the 316 touring they have lasted 25,000 miles over 3 years and are about half worn.On the 2.7 they have been on around 2 years and a similar milage but are about two thirds worn.You will get as many recommendations as there are pads...

use genuine bmw pads and discs not that much and better than most of the alternatives looks like a nice car ech1's are the best sports.

It is a bit worrying that you have only noticed that hole AFTER you have bought the car ! I think it is a fair assumption that the MOT is a bit dodgy as that rust IS a fail !
Before you spend any money get the car properly checked, if it's rotten better to know now than after you have spent loads on it.

pacerpete wrote:It is a bit worrying that you have only noticed that hole AFTER you have bought the car ! I think it is a fair assumption that the MOT is a bit dodgy as that rust IS a fail !
Before you spend any money get the car properly checked, if it's rotten better to know now than after you have spent loads on it.

+1. It is a tech1 after all! I can almost guarantee that the filler neck will have rotted through the rear drivers inner arch. Be prepared to find more!

how much is the work listed at the start of the post likely to cost for reference as im looking at E30s to buy very soon...?

Also can anyone recommend a good garage to go to for E30s in the Midlands/East Midlands/ Sheffield area?

Cheers

tommtb wrote:how much is the work listed at the start of the post likely to cost for reference as im looking at E30s to buy very soon...?

Also can anyone recommend a good garage to go to for E30s in the Midlands/East Midlands/ Sheffield area?

Cheers

I'm gonna do the belts, brakes and fluids myself, but I think I'm looking at about £300 for BMW parts or ~£200 for 3rd party bits. I'm going to get the bits later so if it's vastly different I'll get back to you

Welcome to the zone fella.

Keep up the work.

Looks great. Did not know 325i sports came with keep fit window winders.

Welcome to the zone mate! Nice looking car... your in the best place for good advice! Best of luck

BTW, nice car! I have a twin

Tech1's are great fun! If your interested I have a magazine article reviewing the tech 325i sport when it was new in 1987 I could post up?!

Sorry to go slightly off topic, but oakey have you had a respray??

hubble wrote:Sorry to go slightly off topic, but oakey have you had a respray??

New car

Have a look:
http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... &start=275

Very nice indeed dave - Looking good and most importantly straight

SMART

oakey wrote:BTW, nice car! I have a twin

Tech1's are great fun! If your interested I have a magazine article reviewing the tech 325i sport when it was new in 1987 I could post up?!

I'd be interested in any E30 article from the 80's. Could you post that please?

I'll start another thread in e30 chat. I posted it years ago but I cant find it

Great looking car, I bought an exact model about 6 years ago and hav'nt looked back. Over the last year i've converted mine into a C2 2.7 including all the mechanical and cosmetic bits. The zone is a great place to get info and sensible advice. Hope to see you at one of the meets as the mtec1, D reg, and dolphin grey crew is growing

Thanks for the advice and compliments guys - they do look ace in Dolphin Grey don't they?!

Had a little investigation into the possible causes of the damp passenger footwell last night. The 'elephant trunk' was full of cack (seemed like someone had tried to push a Weetabix through it!). I got that off and cleared it out and then spent about 15mins trying to put it back on while swearing quite a lot

Any newbies like me may find this useful if you're having similar difficulties: http://e30.bmwdiy.info/passenger-water-leak/index.html

Hopefully that was the only cause of the damp, and now I can just get the seat and carpets out and deal with any rust!! I'll try and get some pictures up of what I do over the weekend so you can keep up to date with my progress.

Anyone know why my pictures hosted on Vox come up as links not embedded pics?

Mtech327 wrote:Great looking car, I bought an exact model about 6 years ago and hav'nt looked back. Over the last year i've converted mine into a C2 2.7 including all the mechanical and cosmetic bits. The zone is a great place to get info and sensible advice. Hope to see you at one of the meets as the mtec1, D reg, and dolphin grey crew is growing

Where have you been hiding this then?! I've been living in and arround the Croydon area in various places for the last 10 years but never seen your car? Any pics? Funnily enough i'm in the process of converting my sport to C2 2.7 spec which im quite close to cosmeticly, just need to complete a rebuild of my genuine C2 2.7 engine, fit an new front spolier and its there.
Do you get to any of the meets? Would be good to compare notes.

There are some pics if you look on the latest westerham meet pics, mines the one between the e28 and oakeys sport. The car has become a bit of a garage queen of late. I try and go to some but don't know of that many, give us a bell when your going to one and i'll try and come along

Welcome to the zone freynolds! A bit of advice on searching for rust, if the car has a sun roof it is stongly recomended to inspect inside the roof skin and sun roof tray where the sun roof slides into. Do this by putting the sun roof in the tilt position and with a torch, from inside the car, look into the roof towards the rear of the car and inspect inside. The problem here is that the two drain holes in the rear corners can become blocked and hold water in this area and along with this are being unpainted (pimer is porous to water) can rot out very easily and be tricky to repair properly. Roof skins are now NLA from BMW but the tray part with the drain holes that the sun roof panel slides into is still availible along with the sunroof panel its self.
One other important area is inside the lugage compartent. The best way to do this is to remove every last peice of trim, battery and battery tray and inspect every last inch of metal.
These two areas are the trickiest areas to repair properly but are doable. Other areas of importance to inspect which are hidden by the sport body kit are the sills behind the side skirts and the rear panel behind the rear bumper skirt/valence.
Good luck with it all and dont mean to scare monger but these are important areas to inspect before throwing any considerable amounts of money at an E30.

Mtech327 wrote:There are some pics if you look on the latest westerham meet pics, mines the one between the e28 and oakeys sport. The car has become a bit of a garage queen of late. I try and go to some but don't know of that many, give us a bell when your going to one and i'll try and come along

Ah yes i see the one between Jamies 528i and Daves tech1 sport, looks nice.
Will be going to the next Guildford meet if you fancy that? Dave (Oakey) usually gets to Guildford as well and occasioaly Cliffybabe (Neil with the bling convertible.

Last weekend was the first go at getting the 325 back to a decent state. I'm not a quick worker when it comes to cars, so you'll have to bear with me - I'm aiming at having her in a pretty nice state by the time she takes me to Le Mans in June.

So she got new front discs and pads to get rid of the alarming brake judder. In the worry about potentially catastrophic rust I thought I'd save my pennies this time round and just got cheap while I check the car's worth putting the cash towards - so I'm currently rocking Delphi Lockhead discs and pads. I imagine - given the price - that they won't take much abuse, but they're bedded in now and stop well enough. So that was priorirty number one sorted - front brake judder eliminated

She also needed a new front tyre. Again, just went cheap... matched the other side too. Runway Enduro 916 in 205/55/ZR15. This made more difference than I imagined - the steering's lighter and more 'positive' and huge difference in tread before was obviously causing it to pull and wander to one side a little. All sorted now. Alignment feels straight enough, even if steering wheel's not straight when the car is

The timing belt and all associated work's on hold at the mo as my work rate means I'll need a WHOLE day to get through all those bits and pieces. I also need to buy a few more parts first. I found that it was done ~40,000miles ago (could be more recent, but there's a gap in the service history) so I'm happy enough as long as I don't let it slip more than another ~300miles before doing it.

Finally, and the biggy: the rust! It doesn't seem too bad. She's not destined for the scrap heap, but she's not a minter (yet!) either. I got the seats and carpets out and found that both footwells are rotten through. I think this must be the plate that is welded behind the front arches on the floor that jibowski mentioned in this thread. It's a square a bit smaller than a CD case on the furthest corner of the flat floor section. Here's your pics: http://a2.vox.com/6a00e398d23e79000300f48ce21e3a0003-pi
http://a4.vox.com/6a00e398d23e79000300e398e3a8640004-pi

Can someone please give me some advice on fixing this. I want to do it myself (with the help of a friend that can weld but hasn't done this kinda thing before). What's the correct process? Chop out rotten metal, clean and treat good edges, weld in replacement piece of metal, then paint/rust protect??? How thick is the floor metal in this area as standard? All help greatly appreciated...

Bumping for rust advice!

doing the same myself, just cut the crap out, weld in new metal, then protect it with primer and paint, job done.

What material do I need for the job? Is it just generic sheet mild steel that is then painted etc to protect from rust?

How thick should the footwell metal be?

Cheers

Try starting a new thread in the technicle section about the welding mate. You're more likely to get help.

I think it would be a good idea to have a welding section mods? Lets face it, it will be useful to nearly all of us at one point

Nice mate.

Tech 1 Sports are really starting to look great and more 'classic' than the facelift stuff when they are clean and original like yours.