'Yard find' '91 318is

[fresh_TD]

Looking good!

[mike.bmw]

Wow! Really impressive results with the paint correction. Doing the jambs as well as the hood/trunk seals gives good piece of mind that there's not any rot (or at least you can catch and treat it super early).

At one point you mentioned that a repaint might be in the future. Is that still in the cards after this? It really looks great in the photos.

I'm digging the stock ride height and no tint. I've played around with the idea of removing my tint and the aftermarket suspension, both of which were on the car when I bought it. 20 years ago I would've punched myself in the face for saying that.

[Eric Giles]

Wow! Really impressive results with the paint correction. Doing the jambs as well as the hood/trunk seals gives good piece of mind that there's not any rot (or at least you can catch and treat it super early).

At one point you mentioned that a repaint might be in the future. Is that still in the cards after this? It really looks great in the photos.

I'm digging the stock ride height and no tint. I've played around with the idea of removing my tint and the aftermarket suspension, both of which were on the car when I bought it. 20 years ago I would've punched myself in the face for saying that.

It does look great in the photos, but I didn't post pics of the bad areas...there's that baseball sized dent directly over the C-pillar on the roof, and a small one on the top area of the passenger door. That one can be PDR'd, but the one on the roof I doubt can be. There just isn't any way to access it without removing the glass and the headliner...not trivial tasks on an E30. The driver's side has been resprayed years ago, and there are a couple of areas where the clearcoat is trying to peel at the edge.

I wish it didn't have those issues, but it's usually par for the course on a car almost three decades old. So yeah, if I keep the car long term I imagine it will get a full respray at some point. However, my '87 325 that's been sitting disassembled for the past 8 years will get it's respray first. All dents have been taken care of with body filler, and three coats of Evercoat polyester filler primer have been applied. I just need to block sand it, spray it with 2K primer, then block and wet sand. Once again, that's a conversation I need to leave for another thread...I am really excited about that project.

I am definitely leaving the stock springs on, but I need to replace the shocks and struts. I installed Bilstein Tourings on the previously mentioned '87 325 8 years ago, and they have maybe 3k miles on them. Since the 325 will be getting H&R sport springs and appropriate struts/shocks, I am going to swap the Bilstein Tourings to the 318is.

I am torn on tint...I don't like the look of it on an older car like an E30, but i need the UV and interior protection that it provides. I would rather it be protected, so I may get something like a 50% tint applied at some point.

[Eric Giles]

Had to post this picture I took this morning of the hood...Got to love single stage paint sometimes.



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[Court M3]

Nice, and really glad you are keeping this one stock!

[Eric Giles]

I decided to take a chance on the replica iS front lip spoilers that you see on eBay for $40. I installed it using new factory clips. I am very pleased with how well it's fits, and you can't beat it for only $40.


I purchased mine from this seller on eBay, but I imagine they all come from the same supplier:

http://m.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E30-3-Series-84-92-OE-Style-PP-Bumper-IS-Lower-Valance-Front-Lip-Spoiler-/400642795424?txnId=610127814027

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[mike.bmw]

The front lip looks great. I actually prefer how the black IS lips look on these cars as it balances out the black rocker sections and black rear lower valence. Fitment on that piece looks really good!

[mike.bmw]

Updates? Please? :D

[Eric Giles]

Updates? Please? :D

I wish I had some updates, but unfortunately haven't had much time to spend on the 318is lately. It mostly just sits and hardly gets driven. I did replace some exhaust hangers recently, so now the tailpipe sits even in the cutout and doesn't hit the valence anymore.

I still haven't started on the major maintenance, but as I always say...I plan to start on it soon!

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[Butler]

Love a yard find story!

[Dj Buttchug]

keep it clean and stock. truly a great find op.

[Eric Giles]

So a small update on a somewhat large maintenance job. I finally got some time this past weekend to replace some items: water pump, thermostat, oil filter housing gasket and o-ring, coolant temp sender and sensor, plastic coolant tube, and took care of the 'mess under the intake'.

I hadn't originally planned to remove the factory vacuum and coolant hoses under the intake, but after getting it all apart and realizing I hadn't ordered enough replacement hoses, I decided to go with the simpler procedure.

And in the end I'm very glad that I did. That is such and overly complicated system that BMW installed, with many failure points in the design. Some spare lines from AutoZone and I had everything reconnected the simple way.

The car had a significant oil leak for no telling how long, so as you can see in the picture it made a huge mess in the bottom side of the engine, as well as parts of the chassis. I cleaned it up the best I could (after picture not taken), but additional cleaning will come later.

The TPS has an issue, and a new one is arriving tomorrow. Once that is in, then it will be on to refurbing the driveshaft, and installing some Bilstein Tourings. It never ends.

[mike.bmw]

Nice update! That's a familiar sight! While it's all apart you should get a set of refreshed Bosch 4 pintle (mustang) injectors. Even without a chip they really smoothed out my engine.

[Eric Giles]

Nice update! That's a familiar sight! While it's all apart you should get a set of refreshed Bosch 4 pintle (mustang) injectors. Even without a chip they really smoothed out my engine.

I had forgotten about that...thanks for reminding me about those upgrades. They most likely come later on.

I had purchased new NGK plugs a while back, and installed them yesterday. The old ones were quite worn, and the engine runs noticeably better now.

The new TPS came in yesterday, but it did not fix my issue. It did bring to light the fact that my throttle cable was pulling the plate just slightly open, not allowing it to idle properly. I adjusted the throttle cable tension, so all of that is resolved.

I now get codes 1221 and 1222 after driving, so a new O2 sensor is on the way for installation this weekend. I am hoping that fixes the weird cold start issue that I have, which I will now explain. When you first start the engine when cold, it starts and idles fine. Then after about 1 minute of running fine, it will start a rough idle and try to stall. I can 'fix' the problem by stabbing the accelerator multiple times and letting it rev to 3-4k RPM. After 15-25 seconds, it will stop running rough and will idle and drive fine again. It will not do it again until a few hours later on another cold start.

I figured the TPS would be the final fix, as I was getting the code for a bad TPS, but that wasn't it. The ICV seems to be working properly, and I fully cleaned it when I had everything apart. The coolant temp sensor is new, so that's not the problem. I will keep my fingers crossed that the O2 sensor is the culprit.

[mike.bmw]

I now get codes 1221 and 1222 after driving, so a new O2 sensor is on the way for installation this weekend. I am hoping that fixes the weird cold start issue that I have, which I will now explain. When you first start the engine when cold, it starts and idles fine. Then after about 1 minute of running fine, it will start a rough idle and try to stall. I can 'fix' the problem by stabbing the accelerator multiple times and letting it rev to 3-4k RPM. After 15-25 seconds, it will stop running rough and will idle and drive fine again. It will not do it again until a few hours later on another cold start.

That's too funny. Mine behaves the almost EXACTLY same way (but I have a 1271 code (ignition coil 1) stored without a CEL on the cluster). I usually don't even notice it because I'm already in 2nd gear driving down the street. If I happen to stop within the first couple minutes the idle is a little wonky, but after I start driving again and it's completely fine with a steady idle and responsive throttle for the remainder of the day. I've swapped coils, swapped DMEs, new plugs/wires, new sensors (save for the O2 sensor), and tested the resistance on the majority of sensors on the car.

Please let me know if the O2 replacement fixes the issue!