Dumbest mistake youve made with your e30?

[zcenterb]

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.

Haha +1 on that too except it wasn't my face it was my girlfriend's sitting in the passenger seat... doghouse for awhile haha

[ThatOneEuroE30]

Hooking the fuel lines up backwards and trying to figure out the issue for close to a month, it was my first engine swap

Lmao yep same here with the m30 swap.

[Spitfi-r]

Resealed my g260 and put the input shaft cover plate on upsidedown with the vent hole down (didn't see the "uber" or "unten" marked on the plate). I then installed the trans on a freshly rebuilt motor with a new rear main seal.

When oil kept pouring out of the bell housing I pulled the trans and replaced the rear main seal 3 times before I figured out my mistake. What a time killer!!!

[Jurt]

I put cheap ebay stainless brakes line on, one burst and made for an interesting drive home...

[wilholl]

2-1/2 years ago I pulled the main relay and installed it on the e36 to get it running. Made a mental note that I need to put a main relay back in the e30 when I get back from Christmas vacation.
Get back from Christmas vacation and jump in the e30 to go to the store, it doesn't start.
Get mad and curse the fricken m20 and timing belts and other crap and proceed to let it sit in the driveway for 2-1/2years till last week.

Tear into the engine and find nothing wrong, put it back together and still no start. Troubleshoot, find no spark and injectors not working, sounds like ECU.
Decide to check the main relay and remove relay cover... Surprise!! the main relay is not there!

Find another spare relay in the garage and install it, starts and runs fine!!!

[marshallnoise]

2-1/2 years ago I pulled the main relay and installed it on the e36 to get it running. Made a mental note that I need to put a main relay back in the e30 when I get back from Christmas vacation.
Get back from Christmas vacation and jump in the e30 to go to the store, it doesn't start.
Get mad and curse the fricken m20 and timing belts and other crap and proceed to let it sit in the driveway for 2-1/2years till last week.

Tear into the engine and find nothing wrong, put it back together and still no start. Troubleshoot, find no spark and injectors not working, sounds like ECU.
Decide to check the main relay and remove relay cover... Surprise!! the main relay is not there!

Find another spare relay in the garage and install it, starts and runs fine!!!

That is a good one!

[e30onBBSs]

2-1/2 years ago I pulled the main relay and installed it on the e36 to get it running. Made a mental note that I need to put a main relay back in the e30 when I get back from Christmas vacation.
Get back from Christmas vacation and jump in the e30 to go to the store, it doesn't start.
Get mad and curse the fricken m20 and timing belts and other crap and proceed to let it sit in the driveway for 2-1/2years till last week.

Tear into the engine and find nothing wrong, put it back together and still no start. Troubleshoot, find no spark and injectors not working, sounds like ECU.
Decide to check the main relay and remove relay cover... Surprise!! the main relay is not there!

Find another spare relay in the garage and install it, starts and runs fine!!!

2.5 years!!!!!

[rturbo 930]

Alright, I take it back. I did do something stupid with my car. Last year, I didn't drive it because it had a rod knock, so it stayed in the garage the whole time. I wasn't thinking about it then, but the garage tends to be fairly damp. Now, there's a few bubbles starting on the lower corner of the door. The bottom of the rocker lips are covered in surface rust, and just now I noticed the paint on my inner fender lips is now peeling because of surface rust. Pulled a nice lil chunk of paint off my rear fender lip. When I bought my car, it was completely rust free. Ugh... At least I can fix it all pretty easily since it's just surface rust.

[e30onBBSs]

I got another one. Just updated my project thread about it too. So I didn't tighten the water pump bolts enough, fine. Tore it apart and tighten them all with a bigger ratchet. Both my torque wrenches don't cover 16 ft lbs they both start higher. So I tightened 2/3 and they felt very tight, and I know how delicate aluminum is so I left them be. Get to the third again, and it just didn't seem like it was getting tighter, so I cautiously kept going, and out of no where I heard the horrible sound of a bolt breaking. Okay fine I will go buy a stinking torque wrench that can do 16 ft lbs. get the wrench and a new bolt and come back and obviously need a new gasket, and I don't have one. For at least a couple months I haven't driven it and I am leaving for France and really wanted to drive it before then (sunday) but that's not going to happen. Big mistake of not getting the wrench!

[wilholl]

2.5 years!!!!!

I probably won't tell the story of pulling the original m20 and replacing it because the new water pump started making noise at 8k miles!!

[Das Delfin]

Not that I've done shit to my car, but every time I try to fix something on my car there's been a delay or fuck up that makes it take way long than it should.

Doing my suspension: the rear shocks and springs for some reason take all day, then the next day I try to do the fronts, only to discover I have to go to sears and buy an impact gun (which I end up returning) to undo the top bolt on the strut assembly. I'm too afraid to use my impact gun on the autozone spring compressors I rented, only to watch a youtube autozone video later that week of a guy using my exact same compressors with an impact gun. So I turn every single fucking turn by hand for no reason. I couldn't pick stuff up one-handed for a week after that.

Timing belt: get everything apart, making good time. Too good, in fact. Turns out, the guy who did the last TB job lost the tensioner spring! So I had to order one and have it shipped to my house before I could button everything up and finish the job. On top of that, no one could switch shifts with me at work because they were too busy with gay sex and taking it up the ass. And I'm parked in the street so the mailman doesn't deliver the mail because he can't wrinkle his dress by getting out of his little mail truck (it's so cute). So I had to wait a week before finishing everything. But not including the week downtime, it was a fairly easy job, no complaints.

Fuel rail: need I say more?

Front wheels: I need to pry these off with crow bar? Seriously?

Actually, the only thing that has always gone well is when I have to bleed the cooling system. But maybe that's because my previous car was near impossible to bleed correctly, and as such I've taken all precautions to make sure this car doesn't have the same problem. Ie, fill the expansion tank really really slowly and then use the upper rad hose to fill the rad separately from the motor. Doing this you won't see any air bubbles at all from the bleed screw. Works every time!

[Panici]

2-1/2 years ago I pulled the main relay and installed it on the e36 to get it running.
...
Find another spare relay in the garage and install it, starts and runs fine!!!

Damn!

Resealed my g260 and put the input shaft cover plate on upsidedown with the vent hole down (didn't see the "uber" or "unten" marked on the plate). I then installed the trans on a freshly rebuilt motor with a new rear main seal.

When oil kept pouring out of the bell housing I pulled the trans and replaced the rear main seal 3 times before I figured out my mistake. What a time killer!!!

Good thing I just read this! I'm doing a refresh on my g260 right now before I swap it for the auto.

Anything else I should watch for?

[Hawk]

Selling it after I hit a deer for $1500. I should have just fixed it and got happy. Grass is not always greener on the E24 side haha!

[e30onBBSs]

Not that I've done shit to my car, but every time I try to fix something on my car there's been a delay or fuck up that makes it take way long than it should.

this ^

Some of this crap must happen to everyone?

[long tall eta]

after a t-belt job it only took about a half gallon of coolent so i tore the whole thing down again to make sure i took the plastic fin guard off the water pump when i installed it. i did so i put it all back together only to find i didn't have the heater blasting while filling it up.