Hi everyone, new member checking in!
I have been following for some time, love the content.
It would be great if I could get some advice from you all as I own an F reg e30 320 convertible which I unfortunately blew the head gasket on.
At this point I decided to upgrade to a 325 engine and purchased one and the ECU for the same vehicle and took the car with the parts to a garage to get the work done. The guy managed to swap the engines and ecu but said he couldn't get a spark from the plugs.
I have been told it may be the immobiliser causing this issue so I was curious to find out if anyone has encountered this before or have any suggestions?
Any advice would be appreciated as, stay safe and well!
Ibz
New member intro
Moderator: martauto
Hi Ibz
welcome on-board.
That is a good looking convertible you have there.
regarding your engine swap problem, put a new post in the Technical section with details of the type of engine fitted.
Could be as simple as the alarm or a more complicated wiring issue. A photo of the replacement b25 engine bay would be of use to start with.
welcome on-board.
That is a good looking convertible you have there.
regarding your engine swap problem, put a new post in the Technical section with details of the type of engine fitted.
Could be as simple as the alarm or a more complicated wiring issue. A photo of the replacement b25 engine bay would be of use to start with.
- boiliebasher
- E30 Zone Regular

- Posts: 269
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 11:00 pm
Hi and welcome mate.
To be honest with you, the garage should have got it running. You paid for a service because you couldn't do it yourself and yet they didn't finish the job.
If the old 320 engine had spark and was running, albeit with a blown head gasket, there is no reason at all why they couldn't have gotten the 325i engine to run.
I personally would be going back to said garage and tell them to get it running. I think they're taking you for a ride personally and they've cocked up something in the conversion process.
It's far too easy just to say there's a immobiliser issue because they couldn't be bothered to get it to run.
To be honest with you, the garage should have got it running. You paid for a service because you couldn't do it yourself and yet they didn't finish the job.
If the old 320 engine had spark and was running, albeit with a blown head gasket, there is no reason at all why they couldn't have gotten the 325i engine to run.
I personally would be going back to said garage and tell them to get it running. I think they're taking you for a ride personally and they've cocked up something in the conversion process.
It's far too easy just to say there's a immobiliser issue because they couldn't be bothered to get it to run.
Good morning everyone,
In response to the comment regarding taking it back to the garage, this was around 3 years ago and the fact that he couldn't get it started made me not want to have him working on it any longer so I brought it back home as a project for me and my dad to work on.
Dad is pretty savvy with cars, myself not so much but I'm hoping to change that!
The idea is now we are all stuck at home to start working on trying to get it started and if for whatever reason we can't then I will take it to another garage (possibly specialist) and let them get it going but ideally I would love to be able to do it myself.
I'll post something in the technical thread as well and see how I get on.
Thanks
Ibz
In response to the comment regarding taking it back to the garage, this was around 3 years ago and the fact that he couldn't get it started made me not want to have him working on it any longer so I brought it back home as a project for me and my dad to work on.
Dad is pretty savvy with cars, myself not so much but I'm hoping to change that!
The idea is now we are all stuck at home to start working on trying to get it started and if for whatever reason we can't then I will take it to another garage (possibly specialist) and let them get it going but ideally I would love to be able to do it myself.
I'll post something in the technical thread as well and see how I get on.
Thanks
Ibz
There is likely nothing you can ask that has not been asked before, a bit of a search back through the forum can reveal many nuggets of info.
Good place to start though is always the Wiki here. This is good to have with you when troubleshooting
https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.p ... oubleshoot
Good place to start though is always the Wiki here. This is good to have with you when troubleshooting
https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.p ... oubleshoot
- Tzantushka
- E30 Zone Regular

- Posts: 464
- Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2018 4:18 am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
Welcome!
The car looks very neat with the Shadowline (black trim).
As the others have said, a 320 to 325 swap should be very straight forward.
Something has definitely gone awry.
The car looks very neat with the Shadowline (black trim).
As the others have said, a 320 to 325 swap should be very straight forward.
Something has definitely gone awry.
UPDATE
I have been speaking in another thread but thought I would also post here for you guys to see if you have any advice
So crank sensor has been changed but still no spark.
C101 - not all the pins line up, there wasn’t a pin 20 on the car loom but there is on the engine side. Also a brown wire has been cut
As for the fuel pump there isn’t any sound coming from it when I crank the engine and no power going to the 2 pin plug.
I have also attached picture of the ECU if this helps
Any ideas?
Thanks
Ibz
I have been speaking in another thread but thought I would also post here for you guys to see if you have any advice
So crank sensor has been changed but still no spark.
C101 - not all the pins line up, there wasn’t a pin 20 on the car loom but there is on the engine side. Also a brown wire has been cut
As for the fuel pump there isn’t any sound coming from it when I crank the engine and no power going to the 2 pin plug.
I have also attached picture of the ECU if this helps
Any ideas?
Thanks
Ibz



