Refurbishment Service for E30 ABS Pumps

[Jordan]

Due to considerable interest I have decided to begin offering this as a service to the E30 community. All of our ABS pumps are at least 25+ years old at this point in time, and without exception every pump I have torn down so far has been full of rusty sludge clogging passages, needle orifices, sprung assemblies, solenoid valves and filter mesh screens. ABS and overall braking system performance is poor.

I will carefully disassemble your pump, clean the major components, completely break down sub assemblies and ultrasonically wash all elements of the pump.

Aluminum parts will be vapor honed to a lustrous finish comparable to fresh cast aluminum. Steel parts exposed to the atmosphere will be yellow zinc plated. All internal parts will be polished prior to assembly.

From what I have seen to date the seals inside the pump are made of extremely high quality material and they do not show any signs of hardness, flat spotting or squaring off. As many of them are made to suit and undoubtedly unavailable to replace each seal will be carefully ultrasonically cleaned, examined and replaced if needed with spares until a complete uncompromisingly perfect set is ready for rebuilding.

The complete pump will be reassembled, with the solenoids and motor bench tested before boxing and shipping ready for installation into your E30.

There are at least 3 different ABS pump variants used in E30's throughout the range of production. Early/late and M3 specific pumps. I have low inventory at the moment, I am seeking good condition cores, but for the time being I would prefer to rebuild customer provided pumps where possible.

The introductory price for this service is $695.

[nando]

Awesome! I saw that post and thought "man, that would make a great service". I don't know but I think ix pumps are the same? Unfortunately, I don't have a spare, but I could pull it out at the end of summer (ironically, I don't drive the ix in winter, since they started salting the fuck out of the roads a few years ago).

I had considered in the past upgrading my ABS to the MK60 from the E46 M3 (with a Motorsports calibration), but realistically, the stock ix on 1980's tires and pads already stopped from 60mph in under 100 feet.. so that's probably not worth the effort, but a "new" stock pump could be priceless.

[roznic]

Jordan,

That's awesome, I should have at least 3 pumps sitting. Do you have p/n or a way to id which pump is for which model?

[Jordan]

According to the ETK BMW PN 34 51 1 157 011 (pictured above) is the last revision, and supersedes to interchange with all E30 ABS pumps 316i-M3, including Z1's.

What is "correct" and "original" to the date of your vehicles production is going to vary a little bit, from what I can tell, strictly in cosmetics. The upper manifold plate design and the solenoids being sleeved with aluminum or not seems to be the immediately obvious differences.

I have four BMW PN 34 51 1 157 011 (Bosch PN 0 265 200 040) pumps to refurbish on hand now, with a early Bosch 0 265 200 013 (correct for 84/85 325/e cars, maybe others) on the way.

Ideally here I would like to run plating batches of 5-10 pumps of hardware at a time to reduce the per-pump plating cost, and then accept cores on a refundable deposit for ready to go units on hand unless someone very specifically wants their original unit sent in, refurbished and returned to them.

[Jordan]

I tore down three BMW PN 34 51 1 157 011 (Bosch PN 0 265 200 040) pumps yesterday for overhaul. Two from 1990 325i and one from 1991 318i, all pulled from a local salvage yard.

All three of the pumps looked just good used take offs, albeit physically dirty from being out in the elements. Each of them was fully plumbed in so the innards were not subject to the elements of course.




Only one of these pumsp was DECENT inside, but still had plenty of sludge.

Here is what the ABS pump rotor is supposed to look like, with clean shuttle valves that are able to move and operate:




Here is what the other two looked like




With this cam lobe and valving seized with corrosion (the DC motor still works and spins fine) no pressure can be built by the pump. in an ABS engagement scenario when the driver is standing on the brake pedal this motor spins, the cam lobe acting on the shuttle valves which are essentially small brake master cylinders, which generates the brake hydraulic pressure needed to actually pulse the brakes. ABS function is entirely defeated when this is the state of things...

With the ABS pump running to generate reserve hydraulic pressure while the driver stands on the brake pedal each of the 3 ABS soleniods can then be pulsed to selectively bleed/bypass brake fluid from that calipers pressure circuit allowing the wheel to unlock and roll slightly before engaging the caliper again. This is done very quickly of course and is what generates that gritty pulsation in the pedal when you're experiencing ABS operation.

Here are those same crusty, rusted shuttle valves next to the pressure relieve / bypass valves, the crowns caked with sludge rendering them unable to close properly.



Solenoid prefilters, completely obstructed. This reduces fluid volume that can pass, both during ABS function AND during normal brake system application.



The seats against which those solenoid bases sit, the filters is mushed into this sludge.



Bypass tube partially obstructed with jelly like sludge.



Since normal brake system operation is a bi directional flow (or the calipers could not release once you lifted off the pedal) there are post solenoid filters as well. One of these pumps took the cake for the worst I have seen to date.



Left side of the photo is the rear calipers solenoid, right side of the photo is the left front calipers solenoid.



le'barf... neither of these is good, but the right side is something just.. awful.

and one more, again the rear calipers solenoid from one of the other pumps.





Hopefully this gives everyone a good idea of what is lurking inside these pumps, regardless of outward appearances.

[fitswell]

I'd be very interested if you do a run.

In case you haven't done it already, reach out to 944 owners as well since they use a similar setup. Mercedes also used these units in the late 80's (forgot which models) as did some Corvettes. Main difference is the fitting locations.

[ForcedFirebird]

Wow, that's a great price point IMO. Good work.

[SOneThreeCoupe]

Wow, that's a great price point IMO. Good work.

Seconded. That's the price point and quality level of someone who's a true asset to the e30 community.

[LateFan]

Very interesting. We were just talking about whether anyone rebuilds these. Good description and photos.

Here's the pump on a mid-'86 ES. 0 265 200 013. 195,000 miles.

Our issue is random intermittent ABS function. The light will go on and it's shut down. The light will go off but no ABS. It shakes the pedal at a standstill at a stop sign on a bone dry day.

We cleaned the wheel sensors and the rings. We got voltage from the sensors when spun. We replaced the two relays - one on the pump and one under the dash. We changed the control unit / computer module under the dash with a "good used" unit - no change.

What next?

[Jordan]

I'd be very interested if you do a run.

In case you haven't done it already, reach out to 944 owners as well since they use a similar setup. Mercedes also used these units in the late 80's (forgot which models) as did some Corvettes. Main difference is the fitting locations.

944's, W124;s and W201's use nearly identical pumps, yes fitting location varies, but so do the PN's on the solenoids. I'm willing to bet more varies than meets the eyes as there are already a great deal of small differences between the 013 and 040 pumps in E30's (although the ETK shows the 040 to supercede all)

Wow, that's a great price point IMO. Good work.

Seconded. That's the price point and quality level of someone who's a true asset to the e30 community.

I'll try to stay at this price point through the end of the year, but I can assure you it will go up. The time involvement on the labor size is considerable to tear down, clean, inspect, discard worn components, and rebuild a good pump. I've torn down 8 units now and only 2 of them were 100% good for reuse. Something in each of the other 6 was non reusable to my standards so the pump serves as a partial donor. This is likely the cause issues with any kind of core exchange program but it is what it is.

Very interesting. We were just talking about whether anyone rebuilds these. Good description and photos.

Here's the pump on a mid-'86 ES. 0 265 200 013. 195,000 miles.

Our issue is random intermittent ABS function. The light will go on and it's shut down. The light will go off but no ABS. It shakes the pedal at a standstill at a stop sign on a bone dry day.

We cleaned the wheel sensors and the rings. We got voltage from the sensors when spun. We replaced the two relays - one on the pump and one under the dash. We changed the control unit / computer module under the dash with a "good used" unit - no change.

What next?]

I doubt your problem is with the pump itself, the ABS controller can't see much outside of the impedance of the coils that activate the solenoids and the relay action. Seized solenoids wouldn't be "visible" or obvious to the controller in any way. Nor does the pump have any means of sensing pressure in pump or elsewhere in the system like newer cars can. Its a fairly dumb setup.

Bad wheel speed sensors, followed by a blown fusible link in the relay under the dash are the only two common warning lamp failures I personally have seen.

[Jordan]

Will have 2x 013 pumps and 5x 040 pumps ready to ship, fully refurbished in 2 weeks or less.

All bodies and hardware have been prepared, bodies vapor honed, steel components are going to plating next week.

This means no pulling your pump and sending it in, I will be able to offer an exchange program so you can ship your core in after you're done swapping out!

[adrian0521]

I am interested in the service. Is there a way to run a functionality test of the ABS unit on my E30?

[roguetoaster]

Scanners that can interface with the diagnostic plug can at least cycle the ABS pump and maybe do other tests.

[adrian0521]

Thanks for the information. What scanner do you use? Are your referring to E30 ABS?? I have foxwell NT520 pro loaded with E30 software and the diagnostic plug adapter. I can communicate with DME but no luck communicating with ABS module. Any insight is appreciated.

[ForcedFirebird]

The ABS doesn't interface on the e30 diag plug. I imagine it would require a break-out-box to piggyback the stock connector:

.