Malachtgrun 320i cabrio from Australia

[Tzantushka]

Well not much to report.
Happy to say I am driving the hell out of the car.
Road trips and weekends away this car is great.

Only major maintenance was getting the inner & outer CV boots changed. After 34+ years they were tired.
Thankfully I outsourced that to a workshop...

[martauto]

What a beautiful car .
And glad to hear you are driving the hell out of it too !!!

Mart.

[Tzantushka]

What a beautiful car .
And glad to hear you are driving the hell out of it too !!!

Thanks Mart - now it's summer and I'm officially on holidays - any excuse to take the E30.

Daily errands are much more fun, especially on a 25C // 77F deg sunny day

[Tzantushka]

Turning left into the hardware store driveway last weekend there was this almighty metallic THUNK noise.
Have had that noise before when the rear anti-roll bar (swaybar) came loose from the endlink / drop link on the LH side.
Sure enough, same problem.



Decided to put a stop to this once and for all.
- Jacked up the back of the car from the diff
- Removed the LH road wheel
- Pressed the swaybar link back on (with a clamp & socket + extension through the coil spring)







Then picked up a 12mm shaft ring to keep it on there (for our Australian readers = Bunnings)



Pressed that on with an 18mm socket & extension.
Perfect.



That should keep the sway bar link from popping off the the drop link / endlink.

[martauto]

Nice simple fix mate, well done !!

Mart.

[coopman]

I love Bunnings - I wouldn't go anywhere else for my shaft rings. It's sad that they cocked up so badly in the UK.

[Tzantushka]

Pleased to say not a lot going on with the E30 over the Australian winter.
Was having some false failures pop up on the check control display (brake / tail / number plate) when everything was working OK with the right bulbs.
Replaced the bulb check module that detects the rear light circuits and everything seems fine now.





Also adjusted & lubricated the rear window while the trim panel was off.

Apart from that, lots of day trips, touring and errands...
Warning - photo dump ahead...

[Tzantushka]

[martauto]

Hell thats looking great !!!
I wish our winters are that nice

Mart.

[Tzantushka]

Hell thats looking great !!!
I wish our winters are that nice

Yeah - but I only take the car out on the good days.
You don't see the shyte ones

[Tzantushka]

Also fixed the recurring cooling check control panel light.
Had nothing to do with the sensor or the panel.

The plug housing kept coming loose from the sensor - because of:



Crumbling rubber insulation around the connector buckets



Managed to fix that with a few wraps of insulation tape and then a sheath of 4:1 heat shrink tube.


​​​​​​​

Now the connector buckets are nice and snug in the plug housing and the plug stays put.

[martauto]

A very cool fix, glad you got it sorted mate.

Mart.

[Tzantushka]

A very cool fix, glad you got it sorted mate.

Thanks Mart - simple fix are often the best?

Meanwhile, in other activities - gave the carpets an out-of-car deep clean.
Has been on the list of things to do for a while, but needed a good run of warm weather to properly dry the carpet as the foam is moulded to the carpet.

Pressure washer, scrub & wet vacuum, plus repaired some of the flaking rubber backing & foam.





Floorpan was in remarkably good shape - also gave the floorpan a coating of Penetrol for protection in case of moisture ingress...





Stuck with the Duplicolor Medium beige used for door cards & kick panel...
Light coats in a cross-hatch pattern & agitate the carpet nap to retain the fluffiness.
Turned out darker than expected.



But still a marked improvement from the faded carpet.





Also a good opportunity to install the DAB antenna for the Bremen head unit.
And also run a new FM / AM antenna cable, as the OEM cable had been cut & poorly spliced from a previous life.
Was able to buy a complete cable with the Hirtschmann connector - so the reception is now 10x better.

For our Australian viewers can buy them here from Sound Labs

[martauto]

Lovely job and this will last for years as well !!

Mart.

[Tzantushka]

Lovely job and this will last for years as well !!

Yep, if it lasts another 30 years I am fine with that...

Oh, and also forgot to mention, after 3 and a bit years, was getting a few drips of oil on the floor. 
Turns out the rocker cover gasket was tired - tighten-up of the nuts didn't solve it  - so it was cover off, clean-up & new gasket / plugs.



Everything was pretty clean & tidy after the head was done in mid-2021.



Cleaned the mating surfaces of the head & rocker cover.
Gave the rubber plugs a thin smear of Permatex ultra black RTV and tightened the rocker cover nuts as per the Bentley manual.



After a few short runs to do errands, everything looks pretty tidy.
​​​​​​​Will check gain in a few weeks.

[Speedtouch]

Nice, but perhaps you should do something about that faded protection wax/lacquer on the intake manifold...

[Tzantushka]

Nice, but perhaps you should do something about that faded protection wax/lacquer on the intake manifold...

Ah yes, have often looked at that and thought I should do something about that.
But once you start, the rocker cover will need doing...
Then the strut towers (because it's there as well)...
And then the various brackets, bits & bobs in the engine bay...

I don't have the appetite to tackle those tasks - nor the $$$ for dry ice blasting, so I'm OK to leave it as original and call it 'patina'.

[Speedtouch]

Sure. You could always try a fine (brass) wire brush, and/or thinners, applied sparingly so as not to splash other items...

[Tzantushka]

Minor update - while you guys are enjoying the nice weather, we have the rain down here.
Which means the windscreen wipers are getting a work-out on our cold winter days.

I was experiencing slow & juddering wipers when using the single sweep & intermittent functions.
When things warmed up and after several sweeps the med & fast settings were OK.

I followed this excellent write-up in the Wiki,
https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.p ... per_faults

Here are some pics for inspiration.

Linkage was good, but the passenger side spindle (RHD) had seen better days...





Part Number 61611353754 (Damper ring)

Motor & splash shields out for cleaning & inspection...





Yep, inners were gunked with solidified grease from the worm gear...



Some paper towels, electrical contact cleaner & gentle scrub with a toothbrush - all clean.
Replaced the worm drive grease (just used high temp bearing grease I had handy) and a thin smear of dielectric grease on the face of the contact rotor...



Connector was also cleaned-up with the vinegar + salt and water + baking soda solutions (here)...





(Dielectric grease on the pins to help minimise corrosion)
Ready for installation!



Few things I learnt along the way:

• after disconnecting the linkage, loosened the 3 motor mounting bolts and THEN the bracket nuts - the bracket stayed in the cowl, triangular splash shield & wiper motor out through the blower access panel

• dielectric grease for the female connector as well

• I didn't follow the reassembly process & had the wiper arms swipe down toward the engine - make sure you install the linkage at the uppermost sweep position.

• good chance to clean out the cowl & elephant trunk drain (vacuum debris and then soap suds with paintbrush & compressed air