e30 fixes for common problems
Figured I'd post up some of the things i've found out after owning 9 e30s (inspired by kellie's thread)
1. Steering wheel clunks while driving over a bump but control arms/tie rods are in good shape: Tighten the big nut on the steering colum inside the car close to the floor (airbag cars only)
2. Low speed resistor is bad on fan making the fan not kick on at 90 deg cel. Invert the top and bottom wires (check that you are swapping the wires marked t0 and t1 in the switch with a mirror) in the thermo switch in the radiator (this will make the fan come on at highspeed at 90 deg cel and stay there.) - this will not change anything for the a/c, though
3. Crapbox automatic having now power. E30 autos are not supposed to be that slow. Usually what happens is that the light footed owners never really pushed the car hard enough to clear any carbon deposits out of the motor. Buy 2 cans of seafoam, one in the fuel tank, one sucked in via a vac hose. If you don't use synthetic oil, stick some in the oil too.
4. Leaking Oil pan gasket. Do not drop your front subframe! Untighten your motor mounts and radiator and jack the motor up via the compressor bracket (use common sense)
5. Rear Wheel Bearings: Rent a slide hammer from advance auto or the likes. Take all the crap off that come off easy (caliper, rotor, wheel and VC) Use the slide hammer to hammer out the hub (making sure you use a fitting not to big as to just take out the hub) Once that is out take out the circlip holding the bearing in. Verify againt that you use a fitting just big enough to grab the bearing and not the trailing arm. Arm slide hammer, go to town for about 10 mintues, it'll come out. When reinstalling the bearing with the slide hammer compress it with two nuts on the shaft so it will not split open wilst hammering it in.
6.Ellipsoid headlights. Take the rear portion of the headlight off, remove the front portion from the black carrier. With needle nose pliers remove the adjustment screws (easy way is to pop one side out with the needle nose and than twist the other side out using the adjuster screw). Take the metal ring off the front, invert it, stick it in the over and put your lense side down on it.. cook for roughly 5-10 minutes not too hot. With a wide screwdriver or other flat device work the lense loose, don't pry too hard; if it doesn't come out easily, cook it moar.
7. Trunk not latching easily. There is a nut that will allow you to adjust the height at which the trunk catched on the trunk lide (right behind the emblem) Torque it once or twice, try it out, if it still doesn't catch try again.
8. Froozen power antenna. If your antenna motor works but the antenna is stuck, remove it from car get some PB plaster/wd40 inside the antenna and start twisting it... if it moves try opening it.. once it opens jerk it a few times fast (a la blunt) until the action is very easy on it (ie all the corrosion has come off) be gentle as to not bend the pole.
9. Radiator fan. 32mm wrench + hammer usually gets it loose.. If all else fails get some dot 3/4 and stick it on the nut overnight (protect the rest of the car and only put a tiny bit.
10. When replacing the timing belt on cars with no TDC markings(324td 318i/m40 etc): Mark the old belt to each pulley using tipex/whiteout. Remove belt, copy markings to new belt, instal it to the car and whatch it match up. (note the marking will only match up for that rotation, if your turn the motor over by hand they will not match up, but if done properly will be fine)
11. E30's without clearcoats rarely need new paint. I've always used meguiars three step wax (paint cleaner, polisher & wax) will make paint come back to life. Red cars are the easiest.. i've done it on a white car and it was also amazing.
12. Glovebox latch/front rear emblem. Replace them no other solution
13. When working on the driveshaft never ever remove the shaft from the car before dropping the center support bearing, it will break it.
14. Removing the diff. The diff is attached to the driveshaft via 4 17 mm nuts (iirc, or 19?) Instead of pyring like mad and giving yourself a hernia; assuming the rear of the car is raised lay under the car feet first with your thigh close to the wrench on the diff nut in question, hold the wrench with your hand so it stays on the nut but break it loose with your thigh (100lb feet for arms= challenging, for thigh = teh easy)
15. And a quick tip on body work, always put a peice of ply wood of damper between the hammer and the area affected, smaller hamer > bigger hammer.
16. if your rim is stuck to the car and will not come off by pulling on it, get on your back and kick the tire with your feet from side to side, usually works it loose in 3-4 tries.
17. grippy pads screetching like mad (especially ina cabrio?) glue the back of the pads to the caliper using the 99cents sylicon from the tire store (they call it brake quieter or something)
18. Removing the tranny on an m42 motor will make the motor tilt forward, jack it up by the oil pan (using a piece of 2x4 or something to protect the pan) and it will align with the tranny on reinstallation.
19. Easiest way to remove the top bolts of the tranny: from the top (under the car) using loooong extentions
20. If the P/O did not replace the hex bolts on the clutch pressure plate and they are fubar (or if you screw them up yourself) a big visegrip will take them out easily)
21. Distributor rotor on an m20. these 3 screws love to strip take vis grips to them and use a male hex and not a torx on reinstallation.
22. rear subframe bushings can be easy to take out if you can get the car high enough off the ground. Sawzall a chuck out of the circular RSFB so it looks like a pacman from below... freeze the new ones to help installation.
23. Always put a jack under a tie rod a ball joint when removing the nutts.
24. Cabrio owners: if your door windows catch the roof of the top put a small spacer (magenetic tape works or ?) between the top and the frame when the window is, this will allow your door's window the clearence to close.
25. Don't be cheap, replace all the god dam fluids in your e30 right when you get it, its good insurance (brake fluid, power steering, engine/tranny/diff oil, & coolant)
26. If you can't get your ball joints to seperate with a hammer (i like to hammer on the old nut while supporting the strut to give max impact) grease your pickle fork, it prevents breaking the boots 75% of the time.
27. Buy your belts at the stealer (especially t-belt) they are inexpensive and fit 500x better than advance auto parts crap and 10x better than bma stuff... Maybe because they are contitech made in the motherland vs contitech hecho in mexico? not sure.
28. Erratic Windsheild wipers (ie, you have to play around with the stalk to get them to work) I've found that the ground bolt that is attached to the stalk ground gets loose and creates a bad contact.. it is located directly behind the steering wheel (take wheel off and lower cover)
29. Erratic window switches.. Take them apart, clean them and solder a bud of solder to the contact point (usually you will see where the contact points have worn off) I rarely get this to work properly as i suck at soldering.
30. Speedometer not working or swaying between different speeds: Take the speedometer out of the cluster and "reflow" the circuits.. easiest way is to take a multimeter between each solder point and make sure there is a resistance (ohms) of 0.. don't measure across components though, as this will yeild a resistance. Add a bud of solder wherever there is a small crack/resistance.
31. E30 relays: the classic relay is very simple. The idea is that is has direct access to power wich it feeds to a device in the car (which is fused) via a a 12v current. Off the top of my head
pin 30 access to constant power
pin 87 out to component
pin 85 ground (from switch)
pin 86 12 volt feed (from switch)
either 85 or 86 can be the switch, just one of them has to be constant. I do need to double check the numbers though.
I guess i kinda went off track, but i hope it helps someone!
Julien
1. Steering wheel clunks while driving over a bump but control arms/tie rods are in good shape: Tighten the big nut on the steering colum inside the car close to the floor (airbag cars only)
2. Low speed resistor is bad on fan making the fan not kick on at 90 deg cel. Invert the top and bottom wires (check that you are swapping the wires marked t0 and t1 in the switch with a mirror) in the thermo switch in the radiator (this will make the fan come on at highspeed at 90 deg cel and stay there.) - this will not change anything for the a/c, though
3. Crapbox automatic having now power. E30 autos are not supposed to be that slow. Usually what happens is that the light footed owners never really pushed the car hard enough to clear any carbon deposits out of the motor. Buy 2 cans of seafoam, one in the fuel tank, one sucked in via a vac hose. If you don't use synthetic oil, stick some in the oil too.
4. Leaking Oil pan gasket. Do not drop your front subframe! Untighten your motor mounts and radiator and jack the motor up via the compressor bracket (use common sense)
5. Rear Wheel Bearings: Rent a slide hammer from advance auto or the likes. Take all the crap off that come off easy (caliper, rotor, wheel and VC) Use the slide hammer to hammer out the hub (making sure you use a fitting not to big as to just take out the hub) Once that is out take out the circlip holding the bearing in. Verify againt that you use a fitting just big enough to grab the bearing and not the trailing arm. Arm slide hammer, go to town for about 10 mintues, it'll come out. When reinstalling the bearing with the slide hammer compress it with two nuts on the shaft so it will not split open wilst hammering it in.
6.Ellipsoid headlights. Take the rear portion of the headlight off, remove the front portion from the black carrier. With needle nose pliers remove the adjustment screws (easy way is to pop one side out with the needle nose and than twist the other side out using the adjuster screw). Take the metal ring off the front, invert it, stick it in the over and put your lense side down on it.. cook for roughly 5-10 minutes not too hot. With a wide screwdriver or other flat device work the lense loose, don't pry too hard; if it doesn't come out easily, cook it moar.
7. Trunk not latching easily. There is a nut that will allow you to adjust the height at which the trunk catched on the trunk lide (right behind the emblem) Torque it once or twice, try it out, if it still doesn't catch try again.
8. Froozen power antenna. If your antenna motor works but the antenna is stuck, remove it from car get some PB plaster/wd40 inside the antenna and start twisting it... if it moves try opening it.. once it opens jerk it a few times fast (a la blunt) until the action is very easy on it (ie all the corrosion has come off) be gentle as to not bend the pole.
9. Radiator fan. 32mm wrench + hammer usually gets it loose.. If all else fails get some dot 3/4 and stick it on the nut overnight (protect the rest of the car and only put a tiny bit.
10. When replacing the timing belt on cars with no TDC markings(324td 318i/m40 etc): Mark the old belt to each pulley using tipex/whiteout. Remove belt, copy markings to new belt, instal it to the car and whatch it match up. (note the marking will only match up for that rotation, if your turn the motor over by hand they will not match up, but if done properly will be fine)
11. E30's without clearcoats rarely need new paint. I've always used meguiars three step wax (paint cleaner, polisher & wax) will make paint come back to life. Red cars are the easiest.. i've done it on a white car and it was also amazing.
12. Glovebox latch/front rear emblem. Replace them no other solution
13. When working on the driveshaft never ever remove the shaft from the car before dropping the center support bearing, it will break it.
14. Removing the diff. The diff is attached to the driveshaft via 4 17 mm nuts (iirc, or 19?) Instead of pyring like mad and giving yourself a hernia; assuming the rear of the car is raised lay under the car feet first with your thigh close to the wrench on the diff nut in question, hold the wrench with your hand so it stays on the nut but break it loose with your thigh (100lb feet for arms= challenging, for thigh = teh easy)
15. And a quick tip on body work, always put a peice of ply wood of damper between the hammer and the area affected, smaller hamer > bigger hammer.
16. if your rim is stuck to the car and will not come off by pulling on it, get on your back and kick the tire with your feet from side to side, usually works it loose in 3-4 tries.
17. grippy pads screetching like mad (especially ina cabrio?) glue the back of the pads to the caliper using the 99cents sylicon from the tire store (they call it brake quieter or something)
18. Removing the tranny on an m42 motor will make the motor tilt forward, jack it up by the oil pan (using a piece of 2x4 or something to protect the pan) and it will align with the tranny on reinstallation.
19. Easiest way to remove the top bolts of the tranny: from the top (under the car) using loooong extentions
20. If the P/O did not replace the hex bolts on the clutch pressure plate and they are fubar (or if you screw them up yourself) a big visegrip will take them out easily)
21. Distributor rotor on an m20. these 3 screws love to strip take vis grips to them and use a male hex and not a torx on reinstallation.
22. rear subframe bushings can be easy to take out if you can get the car high enough off the ground. Sawzall a chuck out of the circular RSFB so it looks like a pacman from below... freeze the new ones to help installation.
23. Always put a jack under a tie rod a ball joint when removing the nutts.
24. Cabrio owners: if your door windows catch the roof of the top put a small spacer (magenetic tape works or ?) between the top and the frame when the window is, this will allow your door's window the clearence to close.
25. Don't be cheap, replace all the god dam fluids in your e30 right when you get it, its good insurance (brake fluid, power steering, engine/tranny/diff oil, & coolant)
26. If you can't get your ball joints to seperate with a hammer (i like to hammer on the old nut while supporting the strut to give max impact) grease your pickle fork, it prevents breaking the boots 75% of the time.
27. Buy your belts at the stealer (especially t-belt) they are inexpensive and fit 500x better than advance auto parts crap and 10x better than bma stuff... Maybe because they are contitech made in the motherland vs contitech hecho in mexico? not sure.
28. Erratic Windsheild wipers (ie, you have to play around with the stalk to get them to work) I've found that the ground bolt that is attached to the stalk ground gets loose and creates a bad contact.. it is located directly behind the steering wheel (take wheel off and lower cover)
29. Erratic window switches.. Take them apart, clean them and solder a bud of solder to the contact point (usually you will see where the contact points have worn off) I rarely get this to work properly as i suck at soldering.
30. Speedometer not working or swaying between different speeds: Take the speedometer out of the cluster and "reflow" the circuits.. easiest way is to take a multimeter between each solder point and make sure there is a resistance (ohms) of 0.. don't measure across components though, as this will yeild a resistance. Add a bud of solder wherever there is a small crack/resistance.
31. E30 relays: the classic relay is very simple. The idea is that is has direct access to power wich it feeds to a device in the car (which is fused) via a a 12v current. Off the top of my head
pin 30 access to constant power
pin 87 out to component
pin 85 ground (from switch)
pin 86 12 volt feed (from switch)
either 85 or 86 can be the switch, just one of them has to be constant. I do need to double check the numbers though.
I guess i kinda went off track, but i hope it helps someone!
Julien
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