Stupid things that PO's did to your car

[BMC227]

The guy that owned my old e28 claims he "rebuilt" the engine and gear box etc.

As i was driving home i felt a sudden vigration, so i pull over and and revved the car and the vibration was still there (can't be the tailshaft mount or guibo) so i continued to drive. Next thing i hear is a loud clunk, i continued to drive because i didn't really care about the engine nor the running gear. I got to the workshop, lifted the car and noticed the gearbox had come off the block, pressure plate was as loose as shit, loose pressure plate ripped a piece of the bell housing and so on. I then went to remove the engine, every single bolt on this was car was loose! i mean every single bolt was finger tight! that was a win for me since i had to remove all of it. I finally removed the "rebuilt" engine to see the internals and it had standard second hand rubbish in there lol. The tool had painted everything gold, used a permanent marker to outline a few thing etc etc! he's lucky i only paid $1000 for the car or else he'd be dead.

[scottinAZ]

hopefully all those lost tools are just cheapos and not Mac/Snapon pricy stuff. Ill dig for hours before I say a tool is lost. they cost too much

my 1/4" snap on semideep is under there. I will own the truck till it goes to the junkyard, so it isnt lost, just in alternate storage...... the others are cheapies after I lost the snap on

[scottinAZ]

The guy that owned my old e28 claims he "rebuilt" the engine and gear box etc.

As i was driving home i felt a sudden vigration, so i pull over and and revved the car and the vibration was still there (can't be the tailshaft mount or guibo) so i continued to drive. Next thing i hear is a loud clunk, i continued to drive because i didn't really care about the engine nor the running gear. I got to the workshop, lifted the car and noticed the gearbox had come off the block, pressure plate was as loose as shit, loose pressure plate ripped a piece of the bell housing and so on. I then went to remove the engine, every single bolt on this was car was loose! i mean every single bolt was finger tight! that was a win for me since i had to remove all of it. I finally removed the "rebuilt" engine to see the internals and it had standard second hand rubbish in there lol. The tool had painted everything gold, used a permanent marker to outline a few thing etc etc! he's lucky i only paid $1000 for the car or else he'd be dead.

I believe the proper term for that kind of owner is "fuckwit"

[bricel24]

One of the first things I had to repair when I first got my E30 was the wiper motor arm. Some time ago during the car's life, the little arm connected to the wiper motor popped off the ball joint and got bent. Instead of spending $14 to replace the arm, the PO nailed a piece of wood underneath the damaged arm to hold it in place.

Wish I took a pic. Replacing the arm (ended up replacing the motor too) was not the most fun either.

[Suspence]

Ugh.

Put on 7 inch wide wheels on 15 inch JDM rims with spacers and NO extended lugs. LOL

Had everything painted blue including the shadowlining.

Put in NRG racing seats. ( the cheap ones )

Put a Dinan chip for an I motor when I had an ETA.

Took the AC out :(

[priapism]

Ripped out all the Premium Sound wiring and rewired like this:

[Tico Frank]

the p.o. TAPED the fuggin for sale sign to the plastic window of my vert

[Kershaw]

so?

[CabbE30]

No pads on my brakes were gouging the rotors when I bought it.
Super low on coolant and ps-fluid. Oil definitely needed a change.

[Tico Frank]

so?

Well if that is a reference to my post then heres what happened. After the car sat for months with no one buying then the glue on the tape became permanent to the Plastic window as I cant really get it off. It would have been super easy for him to tape the for sale sign to the glass windows.

[idanity]

its not the worst ive seen (especially on this page) but

the po of my red e30 was good with maintenence, but a fucking retard with records...


he wrote in black marker, all the maintenence he did in his few years he owned it..
.thank fucking goodness the car died on him, and he left if abandoned for years before selling it off...

he even wrote, in fucking permanent ink, in the fucking paint, his oil changes...
not in a book, not on paper, not on the fucking oil filter itself (which i do), but on the car itself....

also wrote the gap on each spark plug, etc, really dumbshit stuff...
to add...green coolant, and after i found, he had no idea what a t.belt was, i just towed the car away..
.not allowing him to even (attempt ) to start it...happened to be changed in 1997, and i did it 1st thing...
so. hmmm 14 years on a t.b. and the dead battery saved the engine...woot..

btw..this car purrs now.
i haven't done anything but swap out every hose and belt (hundreds) change all fluids,
and i need to change out the shocks, and suspension next...still a work in progress..
.but getting closer.


in pix..you can (barely) see writing on both strut towers, the firewall, by the radiator, etc...

[e30boarder]

I cant remember them all but the one that stood out the most was the control arm job the PO did. Right where the CA meets the wheel hub, he decided it didn't need the nut so he banged on the threaded stud with a hammer (I'm assuming it was a hammer) and tried to bend the stud so the CA wouldn't fall out of the wheel hub... It didn't bend. The threads were all F-ed up. It was a quality job... can't really complain though. I picked up the car for 500.

[matthugie]

I found a piece of zip tie in my valve train when I went to do my first valve adjustment. No idea how it got there or what happened to the rest of it, but the engine ran fine and when the headgasket was done the internals showed no sign of it having been in there.

[e30boarder]

I think idanity takes the cake... leaving notes all inside the engine bay... wow

[ButtJuice]

Hot-glue gunned the torn intake boot
Drilled holes in the interior floor to instal e36 comfort seats
Destroyed the radiator with stop-leak
Ran yards of wiring to hook up shitty speakers
Lamin-x high beams (looked like he drew on it with a sharpie)
Cut the stock springs
Smells like he pissed on the carpet


I'm pretty sure my car has had the shit driven out of it.. After the engine refurb I discovered 3rd gear didn't work.

This is going to be a long project, but will be well worth it in the end.