Stupid things that PO's did to your car

[Bender523]

well po's had their mitts on everything motor, trans, diff, bumpers, stand alone, turbo its all different from factory and it was 85% ghetto installed! Two years later I'm still working on making it less ghetto more track!

[HarukoE30]

Use extension cord wire as stereo wire for the speakers.

[JasonC]

Found some handy work with my drain plug for the oil pan...

When I first got the car I noticed that it looked like silicone was around the plug. Thought to myself, no big deal, maybe it leaked a little. Well yesterday I went and changed the oil. I looked at it once under the car and here it looked like liquid nail all around the plug. So I scrapped it off, and turned the plug about 1 turn and it came out. Here the PO broke the plug off in the pan and used whatever to hold the plug in... I was able to get the rest of the plug out thankfully.

[Quinthirty]

The PO couldn't tune the car. It was running rich, under power, and the RPM wouldn't go past 3k. ECU was for an M20B20 rather than an M20B25.

Check light was probably going off for no reason because of the wrong ECU, so he decided to take out the bulb to kill the Check Engine light.

Replaced cluster altogether w/ a non-ABS one because ABS light was probably always on. I discovered it when I tried to replace signal stalk which I thought was non-ABS. Discovered two extra wires, and a different set of terminals that were similar to ABS-enabled models. ABS is therefore de-activated because of this. What a dumbo---sacrificing safety over aesthetics.

Denso O2 sensor. Really?

Mitsubishi alternator. Really, really?

Mtech II steering wheel. Wow! But a remote attached to this beautiful wheel?

[poopin04]

So over the weekend I finally got around to changing my waterpump on my 1986 325E and all my other cooling hoses while I was at it since none of the holes looked like they belonged. While I was confirming all my hoses were in place and ready to go I noticed that I was missing some sort if T joined coolant hose which the PO had put together using a copper T. So I contacted Blunt and asked them if this was correct and he assured me the PO did something werid. As I got down to taking out the waterpump I noticed he only bolted 2 of the 3 bolts onto the waterpump, which would explain my random coolant leaks and "sealed it" with liquid gasket stuff. But the PO thought he had an eailer model ETA and put in place the wrong waterpump altogether and used random NAPA hoses.

After 5 hours of cuts and stuborn nuts & bolts I got eveyrthing up and running and completely stock.

[Animefrank]

Haha the e30 is the first European car and I wasn't expecting this and the headache to this day.

some local kid wanted $1500 and was making it into a drift car. I got it for $1k and believe I got ripped off still.

87 325is silver was its current color and was rattle can done.
Cluster was broken to shit the tabs to screw up top and bottom were destroyed. The glass cover was gone and you could tell that the owner fingered the tach or it became non repairable from flying around hitting everything. The only gauge working was odometer and gas unless entering less then half and you had to push it up.

All seats were destroyed. Driver side was a complete back ache having to hold the left side up by gripping the steering wheel. Back seats were cracked and foam all over.
Broken glass everywhere. My guess someone broke in the rear windshield and just let it sit through rainy days until it was fixed which destroyed the rear seats.

The dead battery made it difficult to fully locate any problems due to the engine dying. But there was a serious vacuum leak and foul gas smell.

He tried to convert the exhaust to come out the bottom end sides (like a old rat rod) and only did one side and had no muffler so that was too loud that I full blast on the radio was barely enough to hear over it.
The shifter was oddly positioned. It was messed with and was off by 180 so shifting was like in a up right corner motion and annoying.
Glovebox handle was broken. Tears in carpet. Really bad shadow line job and only one side was done... He forgot to mention the turn signals failed to work along with rear lights and brake lights never truly worked do to the switch at the pedal was broken off some how.

Told me he just replaced the motor mounts with new ones and new lower radiator hose. The head was rebuilt 20k miles ago and only the head....the car was in great shape rust wise and besides hood and fenders was smooth. So debated and went for it. Here is what I found.

Did a oil change and wow I have never seen oil that was so black and so think in my life. It was like he always topped it off...
Upon replacing the gauge and figuring out what wires he messed with for a his aftermarket tach notice the coolant sensor so took a look at it. The injector 1 had the coolant clip in it and the coolant had the injector clip. This explains the unnatural smell of gas all the time and how fast I burn through it...the vacuum leak and the super bad idle surges came from a broken brake booster nipple that he super glued and taped and covered with a thick hose clamp which I didn't notice at first..... Replaced alternator and battery to find out yea he changed the mounts with New ones but put them in wrong and the engine sat to the left to much. He had the bolt go through where the mount nipple was supposed to sit instead and forced the right into the lower hole and forced I mean he must have almost bent and torn that mount in half for it to get in...Replaced the exhaust with a barvain auto sport and I can finally hear again!!



Just a bunch of ignorant kids doing stupid things in cars lately and it's a headache but I'm slowly getting it there and loving it.

[rex]

While replacing tail light gaskets, I found that somebody decided not to use the nuts on about half of the bolts which hold the tail lights in. He didn't lose them, and he didn't take them out to save weight, because they were put onto other bolts in the taillights - like double stacked...

The alternator was somehow mounted without the lower bolt (the bolt that it pivots around when you rotate the toothed bracket thing) actually being through the place where its supposed to go, im having a hard time explaining but it was messed up

put a massive dose of thread locker on the steering wheel nut

the antenna mast had been ripped out, and the antenna grommet looked like it had been chewed on by a rabid animal, but the antenna motor was still there, although it looked to be rusted and ruined because water was basically allowed to go in the place where the antenna should have been ...

some strange, possibly jihad-related cassette tapes in the glove box and the owners manual for a 1994 7-series (i was so excited when i thought it had the real owners manual, only to be crushed with disappointment)

im sure i will find more as i continue to work

awesome thread, ive been laughing my ass off here

[totheredline]

My E30's PO's didnt do anything. key word, "anything". It sat under a a car cover for 5 years.

[Jamaican_Blitzkrieger]

For my '86 320i the PO converted the car to 2.7i and did the following crap

1) took out the original radiator for an eBay one, and ran an auxiliary fan with a switch. So you always had to monitor the temp gauge wen in traffic. Eventually the fuse blew and the fan stopped running.

2) for the Crappy radiator he used, he made a lower radiator bracket from 2x8 wood

3) converted the rear left hub to lug studs and I mean ONLY THE REAR LEFT

4) in order for the Crappy radiator to line up the hoses to the water pump, he relocated the water pump

5) eBay bucket seats that didn't even hold me in place. And the seat brackets were all doodoo welds and only three of the bolts could line up

6) put in late Fogs instead of using correct early model Fogs.

7) wired the Fogs to come on every time the lights are turned on and put a push to start system wired to the foglight button

8) eBay tails

[BMWManiac]

I bought my car sight unseen for $2500....when I finally picked it up, it was obvious that I could have flipped it for about $5k....it was that great of condition, no rust, he was the original owner...the car was immaculate!

When I finally got around to doing maintenance, I saw a big "glob" of jb weld on the oil pan (leaking of course) and it was painted black! He said he maintained it at the dealer, so maybe he wasn't aware, but it was pretty damn obvious from the front of the oil pan.

[purrfektrs]

Aftermarket alarm that liked to go off at random and piss the neighbors off. Hahahah

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[lukeADE335i]

I bought my car sight unseen for $2500....when I finally picked it up, it was obvious that I could have flipped it for about $5k....it was that great of condition, no rust, he was the original owner...the car was immaculate!

When I finally got around to doing maintenance, I saw a big "glob" of jb weld on the oil pan (leaking of course) and it was painted black! He said he maintained it at the dealer, so maybe he wasn't aware, but it was pretty damn obvious from the front of the oil pan.

Funny coincidence - I bought a similar car from the second owner who was a doctor with a folder of receipts 2 inches thick. All maintenance had been done at great expense to him either by the dealer or a "respected" indy BMW specialist who used to work at the dealer. Car immaculate. As I do my own maintenance, I went over the car thoroughly after I bought it - my sump was exactly the same - big lump of JB Weld to stop the crack leaking (but it had started again) & sump painted.

Maybe this is the BMW sanctioned method for fixing sump cracks

[CrazyJew89]

I've heard in a pinch RTV can do the job too.

[Vivek]

This is after it was fixed, but the Po cut a hole in the floor board under the driver seat to run his rear mounted radiator lines from the trunk!!!

.....wat. Does your car have a V16 or something?

[Sideways87]

.....wat. Does your car have a V16 or something?

No he had a m52 in it,But wanted to run a radiator in the trunk!!!

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