Your most hated BMW engineering

[Stanley Rockafella]

staked-in u-joints

[varg]

staked-in u-joints

Yeah, that's pretty dumb. I've never worked on another car with that particular flaw.

[Fsnow]

The amount of design flaws on the m42 and the fact that none of them were covered under warranty is pretty disappointing.
My wife would say the e30 altogether is the worst because it makes me want to spend all of our money.

[cypriotgeeza]

100% Has to be replacing a Auto pedal box to a manual one on a RHD car..

The rod that goes from the servo across the dash to the pedal box is a serious pain in the ass to manoeuvre in and out of the pedal box itself!

--Trying to get 25year+ handbrake cables out of both the Hub and the body!

--Changing the blue temp sensor on a M20 without a swan neck spanner :???:

[88BlackS-ETA]

The e30 was one of the easiest cars I've worked on, in all manners.

No wonder you kids are afraid of Audi's. ;-)

LOL, I agree with this..

E30:
-Rear subframe bolts

Audi
-Everything everywhere

VR6 Jetta
-Remove front end/engine/transmission for a timing chain job....

E30s are very easy to work on and I think I enjoy it a little to much.....

[Northern]

My only bitch is the lack of hot dip galvanizing on the body, and general lack of rust protection/ prevention.

I think E30's have aged pretty well in the rust department. Look at the average e36 vs the average e30. Front jackpoints are a load of shit though.

When you have to support the engine, and remove the subframe to replace a steering rack you can bitch.

Uhh, isn't that what you have to do on an E30? I know you can bend the mounting tabs, but that's a shitty way to do it,

i just unbolted the motor mounts and raised the engine up 2" with a lift. i didn't have to take anything else apart. that method was pretty easy.

I didn't do any of this, I had just enough room to wiggle it past the oil pan and tabs, then slide it down to align the holes/tabs. The steering knuckle splines on the other hand were a complete asshole.

[bmwman91]

I second all but one of varg's points about the M42 engine. Thankfully, all of that crap is gone and replaced with M44 parts or otherwise dealt with. The one I disagree with is studs instead of bolts for the valve cover. Sliding the aluminum valve cover on and off over threaded steel studs would probably end up getting some metal shavings in the valvetrain. BMW should have put helicoils or timeserts in there, and maybe used M8 bolts.

The "mess under the intake" stuff for throttle de-icing was needlessly complicated.

Adjustable cam sprockets seem sort of useless and they can make TDC alignment into more work than necessary.

I do give credit to BMW for the design of the M42's engine wire harness though. It is very easy to deal with and remove/replace. The big plastic box under the intake manifold which most sensors and stuff plug into was a great idea IMO.



My personal least-favorite things in the E30 are mainly related to the dashboard. The 2 fasteners that hold the HVAC panel on from the bottom are sort of a hassle, but even worse are the clips that they thread into because they tend to slide off of the HVAC panel when you are reinstalling it, so you really have to slide it into place and not let it move around until the screws are tight.

The little web of plastic below the AC buttons also pisses me off because it is always broken. I am probably going to shell out $300 for a brand new one and use ABS cement to reinforce it from the rear.

The metal clip in the middle-front of the dashboard that secures it to the firewall is also awful. When I swapped in my crack-free dash, it just wouldn't engage properly and now if I want to fix it I will need to either pull the dash, or yank the cluster and try to get the driver's side HVAC piping out (assuming I can get at the clip then).

I also hate the door sill clips. They always break, so I find that I have to remove the rear seat and slide them off instead. Shit's weak.




Beyond that stuff though, I have turned every nut and bolt on the car end engine least once and the E30 is super duper easy to work on overall. It beats the hell out of my wife's Civic...FWD engines are awful to work on and my medium-sized hands are still way too big. Actually, it is not just FWD cars, but just about all cars made after 1995 or 2000 since by then CAD was used for everything and they could really pack wires/hoses/mounts/belts/etc in super densely. My father's Audi's have been royal pains, DSM's aren't much fun to wrench on, and even my buddy's 1994 Miata looks like it might be a lot harder to deal with.

[Kershaw]

Omg. You dont have to remove any clips! Just pull up on the harness. It pops right off, takes 30 seconds. Thats how it was designed, you're not supposed to pry on the clips. :p

What. Are you serious? I've wasted so many hours undoing each little metal clip with a pick.

[nando]

Yeah its uncommon knowledge.. Everyone wants to do it the hard way. It is designed to pop off! :-)

[5Toes]

^ thats the type of thing you practice on junkyard car first ;)

[jeffnhiscars]

Not sure if it's mentioned but the right side knurled knob for the unr cluster trim piece ranks high on my list. Not only is it hit and miss to get it started even when the trim piece is not in place, but whose tiny hands were they thinking of when they designed that one.

[kingston]

After spending the last 2 days dicking with my Audi, I have nothing but love for BMW engineering!

[The München Monster]

How the sunroof crank gets unnecessarily hot even when the sun cant physically touch it