Toughest job in an e30?

[willybustaE30]

i could replace my tranny on the ground within and hour.

now that sounds like to much work.
having a lift makes it way easier.
you prolly do it in a few mins at the rate.

[einstein57]

frankenstein motors always sound like a good idea till you start breaking things. I'm all out of spare trannies so i don't really drive it anymore. Thats why i'm only going to do a 2.8 stroker instead of a s52. I'm sure my diff will thank me.

[Jean]

Umm, so far rear trailing arms/bushings. Not looking forward to subframe bushings... rest has been easy so far.

[JoeyJoeJ0]

Dash. What a bitch.

[george graves]

e30 part out. Oh, the parting out isn't hard, it's the selling on R3v....cheap bastards

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

oil pan

[craig4ie]

About a year ago the plastic coolant hose that runs into the block under the intake manifold of my m42 blew. That was a giant PITA to get right. I made sure to replace as much as possible so I wouldn't have to go in there again.

[LivingLegend06]

So far the hardest thing I've done is my ground control install and at the same time new control arms and tie rod ends, but that was pretty easy even with modifying the strut tubes. Having the right tools makes all the difference (pipe cutter FTW, I got the cleanest and straightest cut on my strut tubes.) The only difficult thing was getting the control arms out of the damn CABs.

Ill be doing a diff swap in the next few weeks and I'm glad to hear that a few people are mentioning it in the "toughest jobs" thread. Anyone have a ballpark time estimate for a first timer doing it on jackstands? Ill finally have bently by then too.

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

this is my rifle, there are many just like it. yada yada yada. jarhead

just so you know.....full metal jacket popularized the slogan TWO decades ago

[Julien]

rear subframe was a pita (took me 1 week) and installing a/c was fairly hard as well (entire dash had to be removed).


Julien

[Vlad_318iS]

starter.

that was a pain in the ass.

especially what pissed me off was reading the instructions. they show it as being simple. "just unscrew this and this bolt." ... "Yeah I freaking know that, but try to get in there and do it."

...oh, how much easier it is to work on jap. cars. especially the integra.

I still love my e30.

[Gus]

RHD pedal box after 13 hours doing someone ELSEs manual swap

resumed the next day and it took me half an hour, but man, that thing is fiddly!

[Garageaholic]

why? drop it out of the car, and the bushings are pretty easy to press out. and urethane slides right in.

haha, ooooh nando. novice.

After aluminum and steel have been pressed together for 20 years, it's nearly impossible to separate that aluminum bushing from the steel bolt. I worked on each bushing for at least 45 minutes with an air hammer and FINALLY got it out. Big big job. I will never underestimate subframe bushings on a 20 year old car again.

[87-325ic]

i would have to say that using a small, under-powered air compressor and an angle grinder to cut out and replace my extremely rusted out battery box was that most PITA thing ive done so far.

i'd rather swap heads again.


but then i havent touched the rear bushings or anything yet...

[FredK]

Haha! A month or so ago, I was commiserating with Mike325 about cars from the Northeast, and he mentioned, there should be two sets of repair instructions--one for cars from the salt belt, and one for cars that aren't.

The salt belt instructions would estimate jobs taking around 4-6 times longer, and the first instruction would be, soak in penetrant overnight. The second would be, start making a list of choice swears / strings of expletives, so that you're ready to let loose when something doesn't come out.