New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[brokecollegekid]

This looks exactly like the touring that's in the BMW museum. Keep up the good work, it looks great.

[D.Martijn]

This looks exactly like the touring that's in the BMW museum. Keep up the good work, it looks great.

Yes, previous owner told me this also

I'm wondering if they would trade..? ;)

[D.Martijn]

Not really an update on my 325iX Touring but on the one of my uncle.

He got one a few days after I got my 325iX Touring.
It has 245k kms, macao blue, tan interior.
We already replaced fluids, the timing belt and adjusted the valves a while ago.

Previous weekends we tackled the brakes. (Yes, weekends.. we had a hard time removing all 4 little hex bolts that hold on the rotors)

We decided to resurface his rear rotors just like ours and bought new Brembo rotors for the front.

New handbrake cable, shoes and springs


Rotor fitted and new brake pads with some cupper grease. You can also see the new rear shock pictured on the left.


New front rotors, guide pins and brake shoes


And the 2 iX Tourings together :up: (His was pretty dusty from sitting in our workshop..)

[Roadrunner]

Beautiful touring you have there! I love how it looks in Lazurblau. It's cool that your uncle also has an iX touring so you can help each other out. Macao blue must be a pretty unique colour for an E30 touring - I heard that it only came on Evo M3s. Great job with all the work on both of the tourings!

[D.Martijn]

Beautiful touring you have there! I love how it looks in Lazurblau. It's cool that your uncle also has an iX touring so you can help each other out. Macao blue must be a pretty unique colour for an E30 touring - I heard that it only came on Evo M3s. Great job with all the work on both of the tourings!

Thank you! I love the Lazurblau, looks so great on a touring!
Yes, it's been awesome so far having 2 iX tourings in the family.
Still need to remove and replace his transfer case though..

[D.Martijn]

More stuff to do on the iX Touring!

Today I noticed that my drivers side carpet met was damp. After removing it, the moulded carpet was soaking wet! At first I thought it might be water coming in from the front wheel well since te previous owner welded a patch in there and it has been raining quite a bit over the few days but it looked pretty dry from under the car.

So I started inspecting the sides of the floor carpet and noticed a few drips of water on the side of the middle/lower console. After removing the lower steering wheel cover, I noticed the heater core valve being wet..


Looks like I'll have to tear down my interior so I'll be able to dry the carpet and replace the valve.

Not sure if I should order a brand new one for 180€ or try to repair it? any comments on this?

Also tried soaking up most of the water/coolant with some paper towels

[crash n' burn]

Pull the carpet back and put a towel in under there. The sound deadening/insulation is going to hold onto most of the water; gotta get it dry.

[Shock(/\)ave]

After removing the lower steering wheel cover, I noticed the heater core valve being wet..

That looks familiar.

Looks like I'll have to tear down my interior so I'll be able to dry the carpet and replace the valve.

Your car has air conditioning, so the removal and replacement of your heater core (which you should replace along with the valve repair if you still have the original in place) will be a much easier process than it was for us in Roadrunner's former touring (the steering column blocks removal of the heater core on cars without air conditioning).

Not sure if I should order a brand new one for 180€ or try to repair it? any comments on this?

I successfully repaired the valve in Roadrunner's touring, and I'd highly recommend you give it a try before you replace the part.

Also tried soaking up most of the water/coolant with some paper towels

Your carpet is very likely soaked to the point where you'll find pools of coolant under it.

Roadrunner will respond with more detail on the valve rebuild process. :)

[D.Martijn]

Pull the carpet back and put a towel in under there. The sound deadening/insulation is going to hold onto most of the water; gotta get it dry.

Do you mean the black padding under the carpet or the foam/thicker material that is moulded on the carpet itself?

If the first, I'll probably strip it completely and see if there is any rust lurking beneath. I plan on removing the whole carpet anyway while I'm there. It will make cleaning and drying much easier.

That looks familiar.

Your car has air conditioning, so the removal and replacement of your heater core (which you should replace along with the valve repair if you still have the original in place) will be a much easier process than it was for us in Roadrunner's former touring (the steering column blocks removal of the heater core on cars without air conditioning).

Yes it has. Did not know that difference between an AC and non AC car.
I assume it's still the original heater core. I should have a look in the receipts of the previous owner but I doubt it.

Did you also remove the carpet completely? Did you have to cut it or were you able to remove it as is?

*edit*
When you replaced the heater core, did you go for one from BMW of an aftermarket one?
Looks like Hella/BEHR still produces heater cores for the E30 but there seem to be 2 types.. (different dimensions..)

I successfully repaired the valve in Roadrunner's touring, and I'd highly recommend you give it a try before you replace the part.

Roadrunner will respond with more detail on the valve rebuild process. :)

Ok, thank you!

Your carpet is very likely soaked to the point where you'll find pools of coolant under it.

Yes, when I pushed my fingers along the carpet I could collect a big amount of coolant.

[Roadrunner]

So I started inspecting the sides of the floor carpet and noticed a few drips of water on the side of the middle/lower console. After removing the lower steering wheel cover, I noticed the heater core valve being wet..

Oh no... :( I had the same problem in the 320i touring I used to own. That was actually the main reason I got into this hobby in the first place - I was tired of having no heat for a couple of winters in a row and wanted to learn how to fix it.

Looks like I'll have to tear down my interior so I'll be able to dry the carpet and replace the valve.

Not sure if I should order a brand new one for 180€ or try to repair it? any comments on this?

It's worth trying to rebuild your heater valve to see if you can spare yourself the expense of buying a new one. You can see how we dealt with the heater valve in this post on my old thread: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4676692&postcount=54

Yes it has. Did not know that difference between an AC and non AC car.

The standard E30 heater cores seem to be in all E30s that had factory-installed air conditioning and aluminum inlet pipes (like yours). It should be fairly straight forward to replace, and you can follow the steps in the Bentley manual or most online DIYs like this one: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=98782

The other type seems to be found only in E30s that did not come with AC and have plastic inlet pipes (like mine had), and is much more of a pain to deal with. For some reason, they designed it so that the heater core is too long to be pulled out without hitting the steering column.

Did you also remove the carpet completely? Did you have to cut it or were you able to remove it as is?

Yep, we removed the carpet completely - there was no way to properly clean it up and assess the damage underneath otherwise. This DIY helped me figure out all of the steps involved with removing the carpet: http://e30performance.info/viewtopic.php?t=1627DIY

You'll need to remove the front seats, seat belt mounts, centre console, shift boot and knob, e-brake handle and cover, kick panels, clutch stop, and gas pedal / gas pedal stop, then pull the sides of the carpet out from underneath the trim pieces. Unless you decide to remove the dashboard first, you'll need to cut the carpet out, which is the option we ended up going with. If you cut the carpet out carefully as close as possible to the heater box, you'll never be able to tell once your interior is put back together.

In my case, the coolant had completely saturated the sound deadening tar to the point where it was peeling off and more coolant was trapped underneath. I ended up removing all of the sound deadening and replacing it with Dynamat. Also, be prepared to find some rust to deal with.

When you replaced the heater core, did you go for one from BMW of an aftermarket one?
Looks like Hella/BEHR still produces heater cores for the E30 but there seem to be 2 types.. (different dimensions..)

We got a new BEHR heater core from BMW. Well, it wasn't exactly "new" - it was packed with newspapers from the '90s - but close enough. ;)

[D.Martijn]

Oh no... :( I had the same problem in the 320i touring I used to own. That was actually the main reason I got into this hobby in the first place - I was tired of having no heat for a couple of winters in a row and wanted to learn how to fix it.

Yes, just went through your thread of the 320i Touring. Luckily it isn't as cold over here :)

It's worth trying to rebuild your heater valve to see if you can spare yourself the expense of buying a new one. You can see how we dealt with the heater valve in this post on my old thread: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showpost.php?p=4676692&postcount=54

Did you replace/Are there any orings inside of the valve itself?
I plan on replacing the 3 orings that seal the tubes.

Yep, we removed the carpet completely - there was no way to properly clean it up and assess the damage underneath otherwise. This DIY helped me figure out all of the steps involved with removing the carpet: http://e30performance.info/viewtopic.php?t=1627DIY

You'll need to remove the front seats, seat belt mounts, centre console, shift boot and knob, e-brake handle and cover, kick panels, clutch stop, and gas pedal / gas pedal stop, then pull the sides of the carpet out from underneath the trim pieces. Unless you decide to remove the dashboard first, you'll need to cut the carpet out, which is the option we ended up going with. If you cut the carpet out carefully as close as possible to the heater box, you'll never be able to tell once your interior is put back together.

In my case, the coolant had completely saturated the sound deadening tar to the point where it was peeling off and more coolant was trapped underneath. I ended up removing all of the sound deadening and replacing it with Dynamat. Also, be prepared to find some rust to deal with.

Yes, I've already stumbled on that DIY. I'll start tearing into this next week :up:
Thanks for the info

We got a new BEHR heater core from BMW. Well, it wasn't exactly "new" - it was packed with newspapers from the '90s - but close enough. ;)

[/QUOTE]

That's what they call old stock! :p

[Roadrunner]

Did you replace/Are there any orings inside of the valve itself?
I plan on replacing the 3 orings that seal the tubes.

There was one washer inside the heater valve. I don't remember what size it was, but we found a similar sized one at the hardware store to replace it. Here's what the heater valve looked like disassembled:

[D.Martijn]

Got started on removing the broken heater valve.
Had to move the 2002 all the way back and push my uncles Dauphine more forward so I could get the E30 in our workshop


Started with removing both the front and back seats.


Removed the rivets of the valve. The rubber sleeve/gasket was completely torn, I guess there isn't a replacement for these? Looks like I'll have to buy a new one (180€ :( )



As I don't want to cut my carpet that is in perfect condition, I'm going to remove the dash.
There were some parts that I needed to replace anyway (little lamps etc..)
Started with the control unit above the center console


I already got the dash out, still need to loosen the bolts/nuts of the heater box so I can wiggle the carpet from underneath of it

[Bahn360Photo]

i was in europe recently and saw few of these sexy things, i wish it was easier to bring one to US

[D.Martijn]

i was in europe recently and saw few of these sexy things, i wish it was easier to bring one to US

Cool! Yeah, pretty expensive I assume?