Just started my E30 journey and have a few questions...

Post Tue May 01, 2012 9:16 am

Hi guys,

have taken the plunge and bought an E30 at last,

its on an 88 F plate and have a few questions/queries to sort out.

1. Central locking: I've got no idea if the car had central locking, but looking through some posts on here I had a nose around the driver's footwell and there's no relay module, but the wiring is present. Is there any other ancillary components located elsewhere for the central locking?

2. Airbox: The wiring to the air box has a circular multiplug and a two pin rectangular connector, the latter of which is hanging loose. What is this for and should it be connected to something?

Apologies for my ignorance if these questions have been covered, but I'm struggling to search for answers!

Thanks in advance,

Sham

Post Tue May 01, 2012 9:22 am

What engine is it mate and welcome to the e30 zone

Post Tue May 01, 2012 9:31 am

Hi,

D'oh might help if I told you what it was!

It's a 318i

Thanks

Post Tue May 01, 2012 9:34 am

Welcome to the zone, congrats on the purchase!

1) BMW liked putting all the wiring for everything in even if it wasn't specced on the car, made it nice and easy for the dealers to option fit items, also makes it nice and easy for owners to option fit items!

2) purge valve for the evaporative carbon canister, these weren't fitted to a lot of cars, was an emmisions requirement elsewhere, ignore the connector, it's another part of the wiring for everything, fitted or not

Post Tue May 01, 2012 10:19 am

Jos, thanks for your help.

So am I right in assuming that I would should I want to retro-fit C/L I could do so and the wiring would be in place? I would need actuators and the like for the doors of course!

Post Tue May 01, 2012 10:27 am

Don't really agree with the above post that BMW 'fitted wiring for everything'! There's quite a bit of 'spare' wiring on low specced cars, but most 'extras' come with auxiliary looms that need to be retro fitted.
The central locking loom is combined with the electric windows loom, and is entirely separate from the body loom. A version of this loom without the windows wiring was also used on cars with manual windows.
An E30 of the age that yours is, would have had central locking as standard, but of course, as with anything on an E30, it could have been deleted on the original spec. sheet.
Chances are that the locking ECU has been removed, which means you have probably broken my cardinal rule for buying an E30: Never buy a car from an idiot or a penniless loser.
First thing to check to start the process of returning your locking to working order is to connect a 12 volt 21 watt bulb between the red/black and brown wires at the locking ECU plug and confirm that it lights at full brightness.
Connector on the AFM loom branch is as already said. There's also a small pipe in the area coming from the throttle body and going nowhere. The end of this pipe must be sealed off.

Post Tue May 01, 2012 10:35 am

"Never buy a car from an idiot or a penniless loser." OUCH

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at those things, and will probably be back with my begging bowl for more pointers!

Thanks ever so much for the help, forums like this are invaluable resources!

Post Tue May 01, 2012 2:01 pm

Thanks for clearing that up Brian, I was slightly exaggerating as I knew it would get a response correcting me. I was placeholding until you responded

So many of these threads with simple questions that have been answered lots of times get viewed and then left unanswered, it's a bit like an auction, takes a couple of low bids to get it going.

Post Tue May 01, 2012 2:31 pm

I think what Brianmoooore means is, there are a lot of E30s out there that are owned by folk of limited skills and money and perform various bodges on their cars to repair them and or sell them on.

Unfortunately some of these bodges only become apparent after a while and then you have to go around undoing and correctly repairing them yourself.

E30s are relativity well thought out cars in the way they are built and are quite easy to work on, change out parts, maintain ect. More importantly the folk on here know them like the backs of their hands and are always willing to help. You will get the odd sarky answer every now and then mind.!

Get yourself a Bently manual and familiarize yourself with the WIKI, bags of info in there.!

Post Tue May 01, 2012 2:57 pm

mcbonio, I've been poring over the WIKI, there's sooooo much stuff on there, already bookmarked the wiper motor cleaning as something to do when we have an hour of dry weather in this 'drought' Bently manual? Where would I get this?

I've bought the car as an ongoing project really, repairing and improving as I go. So stuff like this, as you say will become more apparent as I go along, it's only with the assistance of knowledgeable folk such as yourselves that there's so many of these motors still going strong!