E30 325e 3/1987

[e30Passion]

So.. bought the car about 3.5 years ago for about 3 grand. At time of purchase it had done only 74.000kms which is what? 45000miles. It was in very nice condition allthough it needed some TCL. The catch.. no documented servicehistory. Pay, take the car and get lost.

I'm very happy with the car to date but i just sometimes wish i had a manual. Not that the automatic gearbox is rubbish but hiel and toe in my daily FWD '94 Hyundai Excel is no fun at all!

Here some pics of the car when i just got it..

[Quaser]

WOW - that is a very very clean car

if you want more power, you can do a head swap for a 320i which will release more power then a 325i if done correctly. Manual conversions can also be done easily with factory parts.

[tonybtonyb]

A minter

[e30Passion]

WOW - that is a very very clean car

if you want more power, you can do a head swap for a 320i which will release more power then a 325i if done correctly. Manual conversions can also be done easily with factory parts.

I know about the conversions but I've chosen to keep it original. Manual conversion is still an option but i'll injoy the automatic for now.

A minter

For the price payed.. absolutely!

[e30Passion]

First up was changing the timingbelt. Sticker in enginebay said 1991 with 17.000kms The exhaust backbox was shot so that got changed with a new original Eberspeacher unit as well.




Wanted alloys so got meself 5 brandnew bottlecap.




The bottles were later changed for brandnew 15inch BBS crosspokes as i preferred them over the bottlecaps.. just.


Added Cruise control with acc/dec. function and a new throttle actuator cable. Cannot do without nowadays.






Found a new genuine armrest.


So comfortable! You cannot do without once used to it, especially with an automatic.


Also added genuine front seatcovers from the States to keep the front seats nice and clean which proved to be a good decision as the spotless seats would have now been ruined without! Bought of a seller called Eluka on ebay.com. Many colours available and there top quality!


Brandnew ''grandpa style'' mudflaps front & rear. Maybe not to everyones taste but a good way to keep the paint from beeing stone-chipped.








M-tech 1 wheel to replace the boring standard one.

[Rav335uk]

Wow, that looks like very clean for the year.

[e30Passion]

Then i did a suspenion overhaul because the car was lowered when i bought it which felt like riding a bike with no tires and caused problems with the many speedbumps in this place. I decided on a set of OEM Boge Turbo gas-struts with stock springs. The improvement was shocking to say the least!


Added a fire extinguisher.


New plastic chrome lining round front and rear windows. Horrible job without the proper tools!


Some matching rear headrests which took me ages to find. The keen eye spots the also added sunblind on the shelf.


I absolutely hated the looks of these.. couldn't stand them every time i got in.


So i installed some new chrome linings with inner rubber seal. 140 Euro's both sides... AUCH!


Very expensive indeed but these little things make all the difference.




A brandnew 15''BBS spare and fueltank.




Installed interior maplights with the original kabel running down the a-pillar to a connector behind the left speaker. Nice feature!

[e30Passion]

Unfortunately the front valance started to rust at this point




So that got binned.


Yes i know its f*ckin freezing!


Replaced rusty with a second hand one in perfect condition.




Also fitted a set of new foglights with new carriers.


Brandnew chrome bumper type Hella's. Just 50 euro's on Ebay.


Looks so much better!










Scored a brandnew rear bootspoiler to.




Kept it black for contrast.


A black numberplate surround was also added to give some more contrast. Yes its new




Here are the measurements for the spoiler. (51 71 1 945 710)


And installation discription.


And in the meantime the miles (kms in this case) kept piling up like it should

[Kedge]

Very nice looking car Those headlights were an absolute bargain!!!

[Cloggy Saint]

Is it an import? It's unusual to have 3 digits together on the kenteken on such an old car.

[e30Passion]

Then i got sick and tired of that stock radio and the terrible sound quality that came with it so i got something a bit more sophisticated. I had to have CD and it had to be a genuine BMW headunit as a modern christmas tree in the dash looks horrid IMO.
That presented a limited choice of 3 headunits as far as i know.
1. Electronic CD1
2. Electronic CD2
3. e36 CD43 which fits the SS wireloom's adapterkabelset.

I chose the cool looking Bavaria Electronic CD2 made by Blaupunkt for the 80's optional BMW Sound System.
Top unit in.. bottom one out!


Other stuff you need to install a BMW Sound System.
- SS Wireloom. (61121381719) Note the balance switch!


- Adapterkabelset (65128350192)
This kabelset deletes the balance switch to adjust volume front to rear as the CD2 has that incorperated in the volume knob by pulling it out.


- The original Blaupunkt quattrobooster amp. Comes with a mounting bracket that's NLA from BMW.


- Rear speaker cabinets. Not really necessary if you just turned 18 as you can put 6x9's in there but they do look good. Found mine in the USA.


- Tweeter speakerpots to put in the doors.


- The speakerset itself. You can either use the original Nokia setup or replace them for something modern like a set of Pioneer TS-E136C's.


For the rear cabinets i chose these (Pioneer TS-E135C) as there's no room under the parcelshelf for the crossover boxes. With this set it's incorperated in the kabel going from the woofer to the tweeter which solves that problem.








- In case of the Bavaria CD2 you're gonna need a bunch of these and you're pretty much there to complete the install of a Sound System.


Radio manuals still available from BMW.


Build the Pioneer tweets in de pots.

[bab-91]

ummpf. Brilliant looking car

[e30Passion]

Is it an import? It's unusual to have 3 digits together on the kenteken on such an old car.

Yes.. the guys i bought it from imported it from Germany.

[e30Passion]

Installing the SS wireloom is kind of self explanatory. The main loom will run along the driverside sill and split up into different branches that will self explain.

I started here pushing the big plug connection for the quattrobooster amp through the rubber to the trunk and working my way forward.




The branche (2 wires) going t'other side.




The front speaker mountings were modified because 1. Aftermarket speakers don't fit the original mountings properly and 2. To enhance the low frequency's also known as BASS .


The furry stuff is to prevent any possible resonance against the metalwork.


Here's the ''small'' difference.


Some square holes were made to house those plastic nuts, followed by some zinkpaint.


Then the wooden panel gets mounted on them followed by the woofer mounted a quarter turn on the wooden panel.


Ruined the panel by cutting it up and drilling 3 extra holes when there's normally just 1 screw holding the whole bloody thing. Not enough with these speakers.


Then it's the panel's turn using the 4 originally located holes which held the old original speaker. Now it's tightly holding the panel against the wood with some help from the bonnet latch and the doorseal. The current speaker is on the wood which in turn is tightly screwed to the metalwork. This way the whole thing is properly mounted and boy does it work. Bass is just as tight. Pretty amazing for a set of 13cm woofers. Looks better to


Same story t'other side. Behind the woofer there's some foam to stop wires getting sick and making unwanted noises.




Nobody will notice


During SS install with the interior naked i saw a good opportunity to install Central Locking i had collected.


Unfortunately it was not as easy as the SS install. The whole wireloom needed to come out as it did not support CL so no plug & play this time.


This is what was left of my car's wireloom that had no CL preparation.


All power window wires needed transferring to the second hand wireloom without PW which is not difficult compared to separating CL wires cause that runs through the whole car.




Tweeterpod wires were also added.


It's the kid next door with the Beemer again..


This is how it all gets mounted in the door.






Boy this was fun. Had to go to the junkyard 3 bloody times cause i shot the balls.


Great oppertunity also to install the wireloom for possible future heated seats.


Before final install i vacuum cleaned the carpet followed by some carpet foam.




Brushed off the doorcards and everything.


It desperately needed that!




That was that. Well worth the effort!

[bab-91]

Dismantling & Rebuilding the tweeters must have been a royal pain in the arse?

[oomz1975]

WOW, what a stunning car, I really like what your doing with it.

[e30Passion]

But then all of a sudden last year the unthinkable happened.. disaster struck! Man this hurt and i don't mean physically. I felt really bad for a few days. My fault though. Backed up a parking space and did't see that tiny little car coming (VW Touareq).




All risk insurance took care of it though thanks to taxation of the car a year prior at a Dutch meeting (value 8000). The hole 6 grand worth of damage (and 9 grand for the touareq) didn't cost a thing accept that my no claim was gone. For the car and it's originality it sure was a shame. Damage is never a good thing.

Here the car is waiting to be repaired by a proffessional damage-repair company.






New genuine bmw rear & quarterpanels, chrome bumper.. the lot.

[e30Passion]

In the meantime i found something on Ebay again..


NLA at BMW and brand spanking new. Just can't resist these things




Will have it painted semi-gloss black just like the rear spoiler

[e30Passion]

Damage repaired and boy was she lookin good!






New fender as rust had started on the old one.














Back in business!

[Nobby_N]

Great thread and what a lovely car you have there!

[Kedge]

Must have been horrible getting out the car to see that damage, good to see it got sorted though! Most over here would really have struggled to get an insurance company to fix that.

How do you keep finding these eBay bargains?!?!?!?

[e30Passion]

After that ordeal it was back to usual.. feeding the obsession by adding accessories








Decided to try and fix the automatic antenna as the telescope only extended half way.






Everything nice and clean ready for some fresh grease.






Shoots up like a rocket

[e30Passion]

Somewhere down the line i visited Germany for the 5 day Nature One festival. God i love that country. The roads are brilliant and everybody drives there cars like they stole them just before robbing a bank.












Also changed the batteries on the SI service board because the economy meter was dead.


Different e30 models come with different batteries.


My car has Sanyo CR14250SE batteries and a quick google search revealed they were still available at 8,50 a piece.


Soldered the new batteries in place. I say good to go for another few years.

[gooner1]

Liking that, a lot.

[Kedge]

And a new wireloom for future heated seats. Still have to take the seats out and dismantle them to put the heatmats in.

Can you give me the part number on that please (or the part number on the switch plugs), I've just bought a new loom but it doesn't have the correct plugs on it for the heated seat switches.

[e30Passion]

Dismantling & Rebuilding the tweeters must have been a royal pain in the arse?

Yes they were a fidle but worth the efford.

When you pulled back the old tweeter the outside ring (yellow) can be carefully pulled out cause it's gleud in place.




Then at the front, remove the grill and take out the access plastic with a circular saw on a drill. Or if you don't have one..


.. use a file like i did which is a royal pain in the ass for sure.


Shorten the tweeter holder.


And glue it in place on the ring so it fits perfectly.


Rear ones where a bit easier.


I think you will now probably never attempt it..

[e30Passion]

Great thread and what a lovely car you have there!

Thank you.. much appreciated!

Must have been horrible getting out the car to see that damage, good to see it got sorted though! Most over here would really have struggled to get an insurance company to fix that.

How do you keep finding these eBay bargains?!?!?!?

Can't remember.. fainted!

Searching for hours on every seperate Ebay. Thats means typing BMW E30 and scolling down the entire Ebay.co.uk/Ebay.de/.ie/.at/.ch/.it/.com

Good luck and have coffee handy

[gooner1]

[quote="Kedge"

How do you keep finding these eBay bargains?!?!?!?

Can't remember.. fainted!

Searching for hours on every seperate Ebay. Thats means typing BMW E30 and scolling down the entire Ebay.co.uk/Ebay.de/.ie/.at/.ch/.it/.com

Good luck and have coffee handy [/quote]


Have been doing that for a while, give me a shout if you happen to spot any Pine green seat material, please.

[e30Passion]

Can you give me the part number on that please (or the part number on the switch plugs), I've just bought a new loom but it doesn't have the correct plugs on it for the heated seat switches.

I believe it's number 5 which would be 61121381721
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=52&fg=65

Cheers.

[Kedge]

I believe it's number 5 which would be 61121381721
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?mod ... g=52&fg=65

Cheers.

Thanks for that, I'm thinking I might have ordered 61121380484, will have to check when I get home tomorrow!

[Duke137]

F U C K Me! What a car!

I have one of those tidy trays for a battery in the boot kit and they look amazing!

I tell you what I really like from your project/car was the bottletop wheels

[e30Passion]

Some new heated and electric adjustable mirrors.




The old ones were pitted and started to turn white.




Also did some small things like fuelpump brackets and that kind of stuff.


But then the big one could not be avoided any longer. Ever since i bought the car the engine has not been running 100% properly. It felt like running on 5 cilinders and the shudder was getting worse. I had the injectors ultrasonically cleaned but that unfortunatly didn't help.

Then i did a compression test and these where the results i was not happy with. There is something wrong inside the engine.


I love working on my BMW as a hobby but tackling this kind of stuff was maybe a bit to much. I have no technical background although i'm very interested. On the other side i had no money to let a garage do it for me so i bought the Bentley, Haynes, and a Dutch manual to study and do the job myself. I already had the 101 projects manual that tought me how to change the cambelt when i bought the car so taking the head off the engine couldn't be that more difficult.

Plus there was another problem. Throughout the years of ownership rust started to appear on the front carrier were the radiator hangs on to.




So i found a hobby garage for a ridiculous amount of money to get the job done and got to work.






Obviously somewhere in it's life this car has had frontal damage which was poorly repaired by the looks of it.


The front has definitely been replaced at some point.

[bab-91]

Dismantling & Rebuilding the tweeters must have been a royal pain in the arse?

Yes they were a fidle but worth the efford.

I think you will now probably never attempt it..

It does look fiddly. I'll give it a go, In the future. In for a penny in for a pound.


Could be ages, I have enough to be getting on with. Keep the updates coming. Great work & attention to detail!!!

[e30Passion]

You didn't expect that did you? I did, but not this bad. At this stage the paint flaking off and rust starting went really fast. I think its a case of not properly sanding, cleaning, priming and waxcoating after paint that is the reason for it to go this bad this fast. Whoever did the repairs obviously did not do a proper job.

I went along to take the engine apart.


Finally got the damn thing off.






With my limited knowlegde i thought the head looked great. Do note the buildup of carbon deposits on cylinder 6.


Tested suspect cylinder 6.


And sure enough.. Finally found the problem that was buggin me for nearly 4 years.


The exhaust valve was not shutting properly and leaking combustion past the valveseat.

[e30Passion]

Now there's 2 ways of doing this:
1. Keep everything stock, low-reving, economised, tuned down boring bullshit or..
2. Make it an exciting high reving 2.7 autobahn screamer like everybody else does who gets there hands on one of these. For some reason (probably money related) i chose the first I'll might regret it.

The super-eta 885 cilinderhead received a brand new genuine camshaft of Ebay for just a 180 quid which is more then half dealer price. Payed 15 quid a piece for the new genuine valves which turned out to be the wrong ones because the diameter of the valves were smaller.


These where the old rockers Got new ones from the dealer.




I attempted to try and save the front but it was gone to far.


I wasn't really prepared for this shit so without the proper tools i grabbed a hamer and screwdriver and went for it.










See ya mate


Thank god that's gone.