With the cluster sorted, the next job was to replace the wiper motor, which had the common intermittent mode fault.
I managed to order a brand-new genuine BMW/Bosch one from BM Mini Parts for £90, which was good value for money, imo.
And I'm glad I did, because as you will see later, I doubt my original motor was worth refurbing...
Here's the new motor in all its glory:
Ok, so the first thing that needs to come out is the passenger side air vent. It's a fragile thing and very easy to break, especially because it's very old. I would suggest spraying some WD40 around the edges of it when removing/fitting, as it helps.
What you need to do is push down from the top edge of it, while simultaneously trying to pull the top out. It won't come out all at once, so I managed to pull out the right-hand side top first and then worked towards the left to clear all the clips.
In the picture below, you can see that there are 3 flexible metal clips at the bottom, which allow the vent to be pushed up/down, and there are 4 plastic tabs at the top, which hold the top bit.
Assuming your wipers are in the normal parked position, after you have removed the air vent you are going to see something like this:
As you can see, the nut that's holding the linkage to the motor is not easily accessible, so what you need to do is turn the ignition "ON", run the wipers and switch the ignition "OFF", when they get to the vertical position, meaning half-way through the cycle.
Now the linkage will look like this, allowing you to remove the nut:
However,
BEFORE you remove the nut, make sure to mark the linkage position, so you'll be able to put it back exactly as it was once you are finished. I simply scored a line with a screwdriver along the small linkage arm and the bracket of the motor.
It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you make an indicator for yourself to know how to put it all back in the original position.
Get the 10mm nut out (careful, there's a small washer as well) and just push the linkage to a side. Unfortunately, in my case, it wasn't just the matter of removing the nut and praying off the linkage, because the arm was really stuck to the motor. After spraying tons of WD40 on it and some fighting with a flat screwdriver and a hammer, it finally came loose. Mind you, I butchered the wiper motor cover a bit in the process, which you will see later.
Now the next thing we need to do is to slightly pull out the sound deadening/insulation panel on the firewall, because it's hiding one of the nuts that holds the wiper motor bracket.
First, get the 2 screws removed that hold this plug to the panel. And then remove two bolts (I think 7mm) that hold the right hand side of the panel. You can see one bolt in the picture below, just right off the plug - the other one is just below the plug, slightly towards the left.
You will have to remove the bonnet rubber seal in the middle to allow the panel to come out. Keep in mind, the insulation material is attached to this metal panel. When you lift the bonnet seal from the top, you'll be able to see the edge of this panel and pull it out. There's no need to touch the insulation/sound deadening material whatsoever.
Once you are done, you'll see the nut for the bracket that wasn't accessible before. The clearance is very limited there, but I don't see a point of removing the whole panel, because you can simply pull it out slightly to get the motor in and out.
Now we are ready to remove the bracket, but first disconnect the wiper motor. Here's how you do it. The motor bracket has a small part sticking out from its side, which serves like a meeting point for both plugs. The wiper plug clips onto this piece and then the other plug attaches from the bottom. They are just push in/pull out, nothing special. Remember, how they are plugged for the future.
You'll notice there's a plastic cover on the left-hand side of the bracket, so once you have removed all the nuts, just lift up the bracket and get this piece out, as it sits under the same nuts.
The next part is probably the hardest...
I've read that people remove the bracket together with the motor, but for me it was easier to remove the 3 bolts that hold the motor to the bracket and get the motor out with its cover, leaving the bracket inside.
Keep in mind, you'll have to de-attach the motor's plug from the bracket - try to remember how it goes through, making re-fitting easier.
The motor won't come out from the air vent hole, so you'll need to get it out by pushing the sound deadening panel away, which creates a gap just about big enough for the motor to squeeze through.
So here's the state of mine:
And this is the cover that I "modified" slightly, when I was trying to remove the linkage arm from the motor in the beginning. I decided to re-use, because getting a replacement in the middle of Christmas wasn't an option...
That's it really. Once you have managed to get the motor out, most of the work is done and now you "should know" how to put the new one back. Clean the old cover nicely, snap it onto the new motor and squeeze it through the gap you've created earlier.
Once you've got the motor inside, you'll need to re-attach it to the bracket, while trying to keep the cover on, which can be quite tricky. Also remember to route the plug through the small hole on the bracket and clip it onto the metal holder.
With the motor and the bracket reunited, you can put everything back in its place, remembering to re-fit the plastic cover first that you removed in the beginning, which goes under the bracket. Tighten the nuts and re-connect the plug.
Put the linkage arm on the motor, aligning it with the marks that you hopefully made before removing it and re-fit the washer with the nut. Note, it's a wave washer, not a regular one, so I decided to replace it with a new one, just in case.
Wave washer part number >
07119932099
Hex nut >
07119905543
Yes, I'm so sad that I ordered a genuine washer and a hex nut from BMW
Finally, put the sound deadening panel back in, re-attach the plug and re-fit the bonnet seal.
However, before you get too excited, we have one more thing to do - aligning the linkage with the motor cycle. This won't be an issue, if you're refurbishing your old motor, because its cycle will be "in the middle", matching your linkage. So meaning, as long as you re-align the linkage arm correctly, then as soon as you turn the ignition on, your wipers will return to the park position and you'll be done.
The difference with the new motor, is the fact that it comes in the "parked" position, meaning if you run the wipers after fitting a new motor, they will park in the vertical position, because that's the position they were in, when we have removed the original motor.
There are a few ways to get this corrected.
You could remove the linkage arm and try to "guess" the mid cycle of the motor by running the wipers and then switching the ignition off after about half a second later. Then re-attach the arm and check where the wipers park...As you can probably tell, this will take a good while and it's not the best way to do it.
Alternatively, you could adjust the linkage manually by hand, but I had no clue to do that and didn't want to make matters worse, so I found my own method.
After fitting the new motor, I realized that my wipers were parking vertically, so after a couple of failed attempt to guess the mid cycle, I gave up and did this.
I run the wipers and switched the ignition OFF when they got to the normal parked position, but keep in mind the cycle wasn't finished yet. Then by looking at the position of the linkage arm, I realized that with a short spanner, I would be able to get the nut out, because it looked like this:
So I got myself this bad boy and managed to remove the nut and the washer. Lifted off the linkage, turned the ignition ON and let the motor finish its cycle, and then re-fitted the arm and tightened the nut.
Now the wipers park exactly where they should and all the modes work just perfect, including the intermittent. As a final touch, you could stop the wipers in the vertical position again, just to get good clearance and tighten that nut properly with a ratchet/spanner this time.
Oh yeah, re-fit the air vent...
Can't describe how pleased I was with myself after doing all this
Such a small thing, but makes a world of difference in the rain, considering the fact that I drove 2+ years with the intermittent mode problem.
Well, another E30 thing sorted
Have to give credit to this guide that I used myself >
http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... per_faults
The next job I'm planning to do is to sort out the rust on the sill panels, where I will also be putting new metal brackets that connect the sills with the subframe bolts. Got some new parts from BMW, so will post an update with pictures soon.
Thanks for all your help guys
