Adams 325i Diary

Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:01 pm

Adam, loving your 325i mate - good buy and good thread!

Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:06 pm

I sold an SE boot liner for a fiver to jonny323i last year, they con't do it for me I'm afraid.

Nice car this btw

Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:43 am

nice one cheers guys, steering wheel shud be here in the morning so will get that fitted

Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:30 am

Adams-Sideways wrote:nice one cheers guys, steering wheel shud be here in the morning so will get that fitted

Nice, nothing beats that feeling of the postie / courier turning up with your anticipated stuff!!!

Sat Apr 16, 2011 9:34 am

Adams-Sideways wrote:didnt know they rareish? i want a black one do they exist?

not that reare but saying that ive sold two on ebay in recent times...........both sold within 5 mins of being listed for over £30 plus post so there must be a demand for them

Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:18 pm

fair enough, did they come in black then?

Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:02 pm

Nice 325i man. I like that colour alot. You could always paint it black. A mate did his headlining black and it came out grand

Sat Apr 16, 2011 2:13 pm

No adam dont think they did, have never seen a black 1, can't be to hard to make it black though. What steering wheel you getting?

Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:30 pm

oh ok cheers mate yeh ive only seen grey ones too, mite take mine off not to keen on the bootliner to be honest ? not sure about it? Will see

Got this steering wheel coming tommorow i won it for £50 posted

snap on/Boss kit is already here so can fit it tommorow

Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:41 pm

steering wheel looks horrendous to be honest, aftermarket wheels dont look much good in an e30

like the color of the car but not the theme going on changing everything, kind of makes the car progressivly worse looking rather than better to me, nice oem stuff would be much better to go with the other nice features

Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:59 pm

fair enough mate, appreciate what your saying, let me just explain a few of the mods. im just not a fan of the old comfort seats i had so had to get the buckets at a bargain and whacked them in. The speakers i already had from an old project i know they look chavy or whatever but its all on budget. The steering wheel was a personal choice as i quite like it and i intend to take this car drifting somewhere along the line. I also hate the alloys they need to go as soon as i get some money. The tints are just to cover any orange lenses as i think they look shite? . . . . . apart from that everything is standard

Appreciate what your saying mate and watch this space maybe you will like where it ends up?

cheers

ad

Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:04 pm

its horses for courses and we all like different things ! and afterall its only bolt on, its a nice car and got nice features and looks solid, its sort of a shame to put bucket seats in and that wheel, have you ever tried a tech 2 wheel ? 370ml one is bang on the buck and immense to drive with, and being a nice bmw wheel in your bmw- looks and feels so much nicer , although a drifter track type e30 is different to a road fairing classic- which that car should be imo

Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:59 am

Definatly see where your coming from mate and will have a look at those steering wheels, but this car has rust and only cost me 500 notes, its not the kind of thing im gonna return to its former glory, what im going for is more of a mix, ill service it well and keep it solid and running. But i need a few race features if im gonna take it to the track. One day il get a nice cabby and do a proper oem resto on it but for now im gonna have to settle for my undesirable 4 door with my tiny student budget and carry on loving it as much as i do now which is a hell of a lot

Cheers

Ad

Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:34 am

yes mate hear what your saying, just have some fun with it then, if you dont sort body or paint- anythign you buy bolt on can always be changed/sold/swapped over to another car so you wont really loose out !

Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:57 pm

yeh thats kinda the plan really, want to learn from this car and enjoy it as my first e30 and then get a resto prject going on something thats a bit more desirable ie not a 4 door

Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:59 am

brought some service stuff today, oil, filter, 6 ngk spark plugs. also picked up some stp engine flush and a bottle of stp injector flush anyone know if these work wonders? hopefully should kick some life back in too the old girl

Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:09 am

Adams-Sideways wrote:brought some service stuff today, oil, filter, 6 ngk spark plugs. also picked up some stp engine flush and a bottle of stp injector flush anyone know if these work wonders? hopefully should kick some life back in too the old girl

Can't do no harm mate but it's never going to set any lap records. Your doing well with this car mate it will make a fine chariot with everything renewed

Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:41 am

yeh ive heard the injectors can get very tired on the high milers so cant do any harm

Just wanna get her back up to atleast standard ish powercos it really feels a bit tired and rattly at the moment

Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:00 pm

ive found the wynns injector cleaner stuff to be ok mate

maybe do a full service inc coolant flush and all filters in fuel filter and oil change, but maybe an injector refurb is needed ?

Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:14 pm

yeh, looking furthur at the engine bay today think im gonna need a few more bits some of the pipes are very corroded. Will get pics up soon.

Sat Apr 23, 2011 1:09 am

Rite well heres all the goodies i brought the other day . . .

fitted the spark plugs today and will flush oil and injectors tommorow

hopefully will start the ball rolling on getting this engine back up to power.

Saw this flat pipe behind the rad is corroded badly aswell so will order one up soon . . . .

Then the cat heard some dj fresh and went mad for it

. . . .

This next little bit isnt going to be to everyones taste but ive ditched the liner and sprayed the tool kit as i wasnt a fan of the liner and dont like anything grey so it went . . .

Liner is up for grabs for anyone that wants it so pm me

More to come tommorow . . .

Ad

Sat Apr 23, 2011 2:27 pm

Got the oil change done today flushed the engine. Sounded alot nicer after it was all done

Also scraped some crap of the fan guard/ Drip tray thing. . . Its defo seen some dirt after the last 20 odd years . . .

More soon

Ad

Sun Apr 24, 2011 3:41 pm

well all the service work is done now and feels 10x better to drive. Pulls harder, less rattles generally just a happier car

Gave it a good scrub up and took some pics in the sun, some old guy down the road came and told me it was a beautiful car, made my day! . . .

Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:45 pm

So just to check . . . The oil, filter, engine flush, spark plugs, injector cleaning is all done. What else should i replace in the bay to try and restore the original power? Engine is quite tappy/high mileage. Is a head rebuild a good idea or not worth it?

Let me know what your opinions are

Ad

Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:47 pm

valve clearances, get them checked/adjusted

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:18 pm

ok mate thanks, any good threads on that?

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:27 pm

Go to the wiki top of page and its in there somewhere mate, i followed that and done it to good effect.

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:32 pm

Cheers mate, what where you saying about other parts i should replace? dizzy etc, was this expensive/worth doing?

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:58 pm

Distrubuter cap, ht leads, rotar.. Not that expensive, i have yet to fit mine, aint had the time to do nothing, but my cousin replaced them on his 325i, he said it ran alot better and idled nicely. Hows it running now since the service? I also changed the blue temp sensor on mine, valve clearance and service and performance improved alot. Suppose you gota compare your performance to another 325i, seeing as its your 1st one you wouldnt know what to expect.

Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:04 pm

Yeh thats a good point, i need to go out in a car thats running sweet so i know what to try and aim for. Good point indeed. Would like to change as many parts as possible tho as its a very high miler

Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:43 pm

Theres someone on here from euro car parts giving some decent discount on items bought from him, have a look in bmw chat its there somewhere. If your gona buy big may aswell get some discount!

Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:26 pm

yeh good idea, another quick question whilst im getting things done, my steering rack has a split boot and is really creaky/old n rusty! are these cheap and do the e36 ones bolt straight in?

Thu Apr 28, 2011 8:54 pm

Pardon? Mate i know only the basics, anything beyond general servicing and minor stuff i break out in a sweat and get headaches.. But i think they do fit, people tend to go for the z3 rack but you gota find one first. Now wheres the asprin at!

Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:17 pm

lol ok mate, thanks anyway

Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:28 pm

Adams-Sideways wrote:yeh good idea, another quick question whilst im getting things done, my steering rack has a split boot and is really creaky/old n rusty! are these cheap and do the e36 ones bolt straight in?

A quick answer is yes, but you will have to either bend the steel pipes to fit (very difficult whilst scratching about under car) or get pipes made by DanThe for a quick fix. Dan's pipes are fookin top drawer aswell, well worth the money.

Also, I believe you need 15mm spacers to mount it and you'll need to either modify a linkage from half the E30 one and half the E36 or again talk to DanThe about a custom linkage.

If you buy Dan's bits and a rack and new track rod ends etc it does get a little expanesive mind

HTH