Your most hated BMW engineering

[Kershaw]

Oh man. Why did you even have to say that. -_- I hate my e30 right now.

[AwakenNoMore]

I think I would have to say my least favorite thing so far is the exhaust manifold bolts (to cat) and the clutch slave having the bleeder on the bottom. Thanks to this forum and searching, the bitch tube, bitch clip and even my manual swap where really easy.
Then again I had to remove the entire twin turbo assembly from my RX-7, twice, with the engine still in. That makes pretty much everything I've done with the E30 so far relatively uneventful.

[101]

My votes are for:

- starter bolts on an automatic transmission car.

- replacing the short metal brake lines above the rear subframe.

[varg]

E30s are easy to work on and relatively short on flaws compared to other German cars. For me, the list of flaws I can come up with relates to the M42. BMW made more design mistakes on the M42 than they did on the entire car.

-180 degree thrust bearing, insufficient, wears fast, crank walks
-timing chain idler sprocket, casting sometimes just snaps off if the idler bearings don't fail first, rectified by using a guide in the M44
-valve cover bolts, they should have studs, and they should not have used such tiny, shallow threads in aluminum
-profile gasket. The engine should have been designed in a way that eliminated this stupid thing entirely, see: M50, or just about any 16V DOHC I4 ever made
-the oil pressure relief valve which later needed to be updated
-the cheap-asses didn't put thread locker on the upper oil pan bolts, which then back out a little bit, allowing a critical oil passage to eat its gasket
-timing case design itself is very leak prone
Oh, and they used 7mm exhaust studs. Why? There is no reason 8mm wouldn't have fit, and they're a lot easier to get.

The only thing that really bugs me about the E30 itself is why they didn't use anti-seize when installing the aluminum subframe bushing dowel in the steel mounting boss. Whoever was responsible for this design choice must have been sleeping in class when galvanic corrosion came up. Sure, the steel mounting boss is cathodic relative to the aluminum dowel, so the steel doesn't corrode, but the assembly corrodes itself together and when the soft, corroded aluminum breaks off in the chassis you're in for some real fun.

No wonder you kids are afraid of Audis. ;-)

Good lord, seeing some of the things that Audi does makes me think they put drugs in the coffee in the engineering department.

[nando]

I've probably had an E30 too long because none of it really bothers me. I never found the "bitch clip" or "tube of death" to be especially difficult. The rear wheel bearings are realistically one of the most difficult jobs but that's just due to age more than the design.

You want stupid? on the E90 you have to remove the front wheel to replace a headlight. WTF is this, a 1980s Chrysler?

[Exodus_2pt0]

Not as bad as old Accords. New rotors? No problem, just have a slide hammer and new bearing ready.

[nando]

Or the timing belt on the mid '90s civics. you have to take off the front wheel to get at the bolts and they're fucking tight. then you have to undo the engine mount, which is more than likely seized, to get the new belt on because it wraps around the engine mount arm.

[Wschnitz]

Im with nando on the rear wheel bearings, fuck that, cutting shit, smashing shit, etc. At least for hard to do annoying as fuck etc.

On the poor design part? Im gonna go with rear subframe in its entirety. Belongs in the 1920s.

[nando]

I don't think they had anything like that in the 1920s - usually it was a solid axle and leaf springs, if you were lucky to have springs at all..

[bostonvert]

Removing the starter on an M20, you know that one bolt...

The interior of my e36, it's a vert but so hard to pop things back in to place after having to remove it. Also the sagging glovebox, my door panels that keep getting loose, the inside door handles

EWS module reset after removing a non-factory alarm system was a huge pain in the ass

[Oly_Schmidt]

E36 - Heater blower. 10" dia. fan that is accessed thru a 9" access hole, AFTER you lower the front subframe.

[johnr617]

how has no one complained about the wiper arm linkages? i had to remove the dash and hvac unit to remove it and replace it.

[4tDX]

Good lord, seeing some of the things that Audi does makes me think they put drugs in the coffee in the engineering department.

Haha, that would explain a lot. I owned a b7 for a while and it was like nothing on that car was meant to be worked on when it was in the actual car. A seemly simple task on any other car, on an Audi, would require you remove an infinite number of other components and trim. And the armrest. God, I've been able to block that out in my memory for over a year... The armrest in the B6/B7 (and other models), is the dumbest most annoying fucking design ever! :hitler:

And about the location of the oil filter, no one should complain about the e30 oil filter till they change the oil on an Audi.

One good thing about Audi/VW is these babies!


The e30 has by far been the easiest car I've ever worked on. As for BMWs, the thermostat and water pump location on the N5x motors is in the most difficult to work on position they could have come up with.

Somewhat unrelated, but door water barriers. I was working on my mom's Mercury and it had stamped metal door water barriers. Coolest and easiest fucking thing to work on as it relates to doors on any car! Why is this not a thing on any other car?!?!

[Kershaw]

Weight and cost.

[nando]

how has no one complained about the wiper arm linkages? i had to remove the dash and hvac unit to remove it and replace it.

I thought the wiper linkage was easy. I did it through the cowl opening, it took maybe half an hour once I had the intake manifold removed. I replaced the blower motor and fixed the flaps on the HVAC unit while I was in there. the linkage wasn't anywhere near as difficult as I thought it would be. I was like, that's it?