Dumbest mistake youve made with your e30?

[e30onBBSs]

Just had another one, pretty small but still really dumb.

After having my e30 on stands for a few weeks, I finally was ready to drop it back to the ground! I slide my jack under the front, raise it and grab the stands, then slooowly lower the jack. Once its all the way on the ground, I pull the jack as normal and the pole come off by itself. "uh". The lower control arm was just barely barely sitting on the jack, enough that there was a lot of weight on the jack, near the handle. After trying to maneuver it out with no success, I was like I need another jack... and promptly pulled my moms scissor jack out of her mazda and 2 minutes later I was on my way!

[steve68]

1988 325IS, 2nd owner got it in 93', I installed all these parts----RD springs, KYB's junk, but free, BBS wheels polished lips, UUC short shifter, actually, perfect car all books even had the original window stickers, ever thing worked, no stains, no tears, seats all good carpet good, no cracked dash, paint was good, had 2 dimples in the hood, someone jacked it up by the oil pan, had 270K on the car, couldn't sell it, so, I gave it to my dad, which he drives into the ground, sits at his house, tows it to Kauffman tire in Alpharetta and leaves it there, doesn't go back to get it, moves to FL, sells car for $300, man I wish I would have kept that car, don't listen to you wives about cars, keep them all!!!!

[rturbo 930]

Just had another one, pretty small but still really dumb.

After having my e30 on stands for a few weeks, I finally was ready to drop it back to the ground! I slide my jack under the front, raise it and grab the stands, then slooowly lower the jack. Once its all the way on the ground, I pull the jack as normal and the pole come off by itself. "uh". The lower control arm was just barely barely sitting on the jack, enough that there was a lot of weight on the jack, near the handle. After trying to maneuver it out with no success, I was like I need another jack... and promptly pulled my moms scissor jack out of her mazda and 2 minutes later I was on my way!

Ha. That reminds me, after I had disconnected a bunch of stuff, hoses, wires, etc, I then went to get the jack to get the front end in the air so I could pull the engine in my E30. Then I remembered... I need to put the front wheels on 2x4s to get the jack under the crossmember. Whoops! Easier to do that when the car runs. Low profile jack is on the shopping list.

[e30onBBSs]

Ha. That reminds me, after I had disconnected a bunch of stuff, hoses, wires, etc, I then went to get the jack to get the front end in the air so I could pull the engine in my E30. Then I remembered... I need to put the front wheels on 2x4s to get the jack under the crossmember. Whoops! Easier to do that when the car runs. Low profile jack is on the shopping list.

low profile is the way to go! Did you push it onto the 2x4's?

[Panici]

At the time, buying an '86 325e and finding out it was rusted through!
(Details: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=318526)
It ended up being a good (but PITA to move between houses after I took the front suspension out) parts car.



Snapped a crankshaft pulley using a pulley-puller, when a big hammer would have taken the old one off no problem.





Procrastinated getting some Lexol Vinylex and a car cover for the winter. My previously crack-free, original dash, now has a nice crack right in the center of the cluster :(




Not checking out the car in more detail when buying. I could have negotiated the price down quite a bit with all the stuff that ended up being wrong.

[joewhy2k]

Doing a break job and not torquing down the passenger side caliper all the way. Weeks later my lady was driving it and massive grinding ensued. Bolt fell out but find fortunately she was very close to a friends house when it happened. No damage but freaked is both out. After troubleshooting for 3 hours took it to the shop and they fixed the issue within 20 minutes and asked me who did the brake job last. I had to admit it was me and felt like the biggest idiot.

[joewhy2k]

Also doing a timing chain job etc. couldn't figure out why my thermostat wouldn't fit the housing and come to find out I was installing it the wrong way the entire time.

[rturbo 930]

low profile is the way to go! Did you push it onto the 2x4's?

Nope, jacked it up a bit somehow, don't remember how, just enough to slide the 2x4s under the wheels. Pushing a car by hand up on 2x4s would be pretty hard to do.

[15Michaeljoseph]

vinylex is good shit


--Mike

[red2.4srt]

Sprayed off all the pollen on my car last week, took the Absorber chamois to it and it was leaving hazing and streaks, so I washed it good and chamois'd it off and it was doing the same thing. Looked in my tote of car wash supplies and saw my upside down Meguires Hot Shine tire gel container and it all made sense... Chamois sucked up all the tire gel through the hole in the bottom of the plastic tube and then I proceeded to rub it onto the car not once, but twice.


3 hours and a bottle of Windex later, all the tire shine is off... Valuable lesson learned!

[clarkson]

Imported my m3 from arizona to Australia 2 years ago, spent 1 year converting it to rhd and getting it engineered and registered, and now I move to North America. Only got to drive it for less than six months...

Now the saving starts again to buy one here.

[rex]

not measuring the height of my e30 + roof rack + bike before driving into apartment complex garage ....

[MPLFoster]

not measuring the height of my e30 + roof rack + bike before driving into apartment complex garage ....

ouch.

did that with my honda once. had an audience too. was real cool.

[stonea]

Definitely not the dumbest thing I've done, but today I was trying to pull of my ZHP knob to install my new shift boot and when it finally let go I hit my self right in the mouth and busted my lip open.

[zcenterb]

+1 to the fuel shotgun to the face...
+1 to mixing up gas lines on my swap and spending a months backtracking through wiring and parts etc...

One pretty dumb thing I've done was taking out my driveshaft and going to put it on the shelf and ramming it into a gas tank which then fell behind a ladder which fell on to my quarter panel....