Sorry i haven't introduced myself.

[ravennexus]

Hello there folks. i'm mike. bought myself a 1987 325i SE this summer from an old guy's family, he owned it from new. good price, lots of documented history, only 96k on it with all mots from 3 years past new.

1987 325i Se automatic (sports)
LSD
Rear sunblind
AC (not cold at the moment)
electric everything inc sunroof and central locking with just the rear drivers side door being intermittent. also the OBC needs new bulb and the temp sensor doesn't appear to read right
original floor mats
bottletop alloys.

all it needed for MOT was a new front exhaust hanger (£9.40) and a brake pipe giving a little clean.








So far i've done a simple oil change (got a major service kit off ebay for £24) so replaced the plugs and filters too. looking into new oil for the LSD but it needs very high spec which is £40 for 5L at my local oil wholesale place (only needs 1.7L.) sorrted out valve clearances, checked and topped up auto fluild and released off a slightly sticky front caliper.

drives great. not sure what to do with it now. would like to clean up the light rust over the winter then after that i'm open.

so my mind was mulling over the stock snorkel in the BMW airbox. it ends very very close to the side of the airbox so i cut a section out of it.



but i was still mulling about it as i didn't like the cutness not being smooooth.....

then i remembered i had an old 740 turbo (motronic) air flow meter.

so today went out and took the inlet off the volvo AFM and fitted it into the stock BMW airbox,




i like the BMW airbox as it has a big cold air feed from the Grill (short tracked, with nice radius at the inlet part) but the volvo part does have a very common 70mm dia for mounting cone filters.

Picked up an amber light alpine MP3 player from UK ebay for £62 and fitted that with the speakers i removed from my 240, alpine sps-130A in the front stock locations (some trimming required) and JBL GTO 6x9's in the back shelf (also trimming needed)

since then i've fitted a new thermostat as the cold weather reveiled mine to opening to soon and i found some new old stock koni sports (gas pressure) on ebay for silly money (£38shipped) and slapped them in

[ajm-e30]

welcome mate, car looks good, what plans u got for it then??

[320Touring]

man that car is proper executive spec

good work and glad to see you taking care of her

welcome!

[ravennexus]

well Newer headlights are my next thing,

old ones look orginal and are all foggy inside. so some smiley's will be bought and installed ASAP.

[Theo]

Very nice spec, and a really clean original example....but that said those beige houndstooth comfort seats are wrong-uns!! Get some beige leather sport seats and it well be a much more pleasant environment inside!

Other than that the only other thing that would help would be some replacement bonnet insulation and possible some body coloured wing mirrors?

[cass1_5503]

very clean looking motor that interior is abit ghastly tho lol

[ravennexus]

i'm actually partial to the interior, it's very clean and tidy and unusually the drivers seat as little to no wear on it.

[pnd]

like the car a manual conversion and i bet it would fly. oh and get those mud flaps off and check for rust.

[ravennexus]

that is something i would like to do. the Auto's ok but it had caught me out once with kick down to 1st around a bend in the wet.

but it shifts fine and goes ok, 2nd gear runs out just after 80mph. i thought a 3.91 or 4.1 diff would be nice if i kept the auto. doesn't have to be LSD (would make some money back selling that)

[drifty325i]

Looks really nice fella, i think the interior kinda looks retro cool lol. mmmmm chrome goodness

[jonb]

thats really nice! look after it. dont ruin it with stupid wheels, and terra springs.

just think, that first owner in 1987 must have felt great driving that thing around.

[ravennexus]

Wheel wise all I'm after is some BBS cross's for the right money but i tend to watch eBay and wait patiently (how i got the car actually)

I would like some Koni inserts for the front struts so that they match the back but lowering springs are not on my list. bad suspension geometry from lowering (ie reduced neg camber on bumps due to bad control arm geometry) can often outweigh the benefits of the lower center of gravity. Biggger ARB's would be nice but they can wait also.

our old colt is off the drive tomorrow so i can start cleaning up the areas of concern before they become terminal. just some on the ends of sills, rear arches where the mudflaps are (there often such a bad idea) and a 1.5x0.5" hole where the battery would be in the engine bay which looks to of been caused by mud build up in the corner there.

[bmwe30mtech]

Thats great. Dont do what Theo says and put in leather etc, it will totally ruin the special things about your car.

Leave it totally standard, not many like that one arround now.

Keep it nice

[ravennexus]

Well the lights will be on there way to me soon. decent price and wires and plugs included for installing in my pre-facelifted car.

lights

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... &rd=1&rd=1

[dobbie82]

Well the lights will be on there way to me soon. decent price and wires and plugs included for installing in my pre-facelifted car.

lights

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... &rd=1&rd=1

will be with you asap!

didnt know you were a zoner, and a fellow north walian!

[ravennexus]

haha small world.

[ravennexus]

lights arrived today at quarter to three, had to alter a bit of wiring but had them done my 4pm.

Pre-facelift lights use a common ground for the sidelight and dipped beam while the smiley's use separate ones, main beam just plugs in. so to get them working i had to cut the 3 wire plug off my car loom and join 2 ground wires to the exsisting ground wire off that plug. after that just joined it all up and screwed them in. might need to adjust them but will find out tonight.




to get it done quickly i have lost my headlight wipe system so might look at that later on or just sell it to some yank. all i need now is a drivers side foglight

[bmwe30mtech]

Looks nice but i think you should have kept it origional .

[ravennexus]

Being able to see counter acts such issues. everything else will be left as it is.

PS and at least they match.

I saw an Black 89 at work the other day. pretty shabby, one smiley and one 88 non-smiley projector.

[bmwe30mtech]

Don't get me wrong they look really nicely done, and sounds like you have changed the wireing correctly.

Very retro car