BMW commitment to Classic Group parts

[djjerme]

Is no problem. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vincenze]

BMW 'classic'. Yeah, that's some guy in a shed somewhere, sourcing as much as he can in deepest Eastern Europe,
then passing it on to 'corporate' at a healthy profit. Quality control? Never heard of that!

For example, Bosch doesn't make headlights for the E30 anymore.
Now, its lighting division is owned by Magneti Marelli and the plant is in Czechia.

The quality of the new headlights should be better than of 30-year-old ones.
AL makes lights for the latest BMWs, and it has quality control.

[ZEKTI]

3d- printed a set of pistons. what could go wrong?

Hopefully that's sarcasm, as the technology is already here for that.

[roguetoaster]

Hopefully that's sarcasm, as the technology is already here for that.

Toby is the poster bot, I mean boy, for /s.

[digger]

Hopefully that's sarcasm, as the technology is already here for that.

its not for the Povo's though

[Vincenze]

Hopefully that's sarcasm, as the technology is already here for that.

Most likely, you'll create a 3D model and CNC machine it in China.
There are websites that will quote you the price when you load a model.
Try https://www.3dhubs.com

If you order only 1 piston, it will cost around $500.
If you order 100 pistons, each may cost $50.

[89_325i]

Most likely, you'll create a 3D model and CNC machine it in China.
There are websites that will quote you the price when you load a model.
Try https://www.3dhubs.com

If you order only 1 piston, it will cost around $500.
If you order 100 pistons, each may cost $50.

Biggest issue with machining something like a piston is that the material may not be correct and will the quality be there? I would want to see a sample piston from a company like 3dhubs before going too crazy with it. And you'd need to verify the material somehow. I know from experience that vendors for VW will try to skirt the material and quality requirements., and it takes the materials lab in Wolfsburg to keep them honest.

For machining other less critical items I would have no issue using a service like this. I designed some stuff last year and 3dhubs had a decent price. But then I found a guy local who ran a CNC and he did it on the side for me.

[Vincenze]

Biggest issue with machining something like a piston is that the material may not be correct and will the quality be there? I would want to see a sample piston from a company like 3dhubs before going too crazy with it. And you'd need to verify the material somehow. I know from experience that vendors for VW will try to skirt the material and quality requirements., and it takes the materials lab in Wolfsburg to keep them honest.

The material cost is not very significant, I guess.

These guys have to make a few fixtures to hold the piston billet while CNC machining.
That's why production of just 1 item is much more expensive compared to hundreds and thousands.

[digger]

most aftermarket pistons that are not cast are made by forging which is a semi finished blank that ends up machined. Billet pistons from the usual suspects like Mahle MS are like 50% more $$$ than forged ones because of machining and material cost. In that video they forgot to do a few things with the piston and it ended up looking like a fairly normal modern piston, its amazing what wows the masses in the YT comments section...lol

regarding 3D printing the issue will be the available alloys, there is Aluminium and there is Aluminium. No doubt in time it will be a more viable option that is also accessible to mere morals. You still need to finish machine with very specific ovality, barrel shape, honed pin bores for good oil retention and highly finished ring lands so unless you are doing things with the design that you cant with traditional then its a waste. probably more beneficial to diesel where cooling is a problem so fancy channels or ultra high rpm engines where existing design strength to weight is an issue

its like the Papadakis racing 3D printed inlet and exhaust manifolds that ended up being replaced with typical billet and/or fabricated parts. the tech exist but is fairly immature as are the designs to best utilise the tech

[2mAn]

https://youtu.be/ux7mS0lakxM

[roguetoaster]

"Whenever we run out of NOS parts our colleagues in the parts department would try and find a manufacturer that would reproduce parts like this..."

[nando]

I've thought about this "NLA" problem for a long time but I don't have any solutions. I did make some good decisions (buying a brand new ix transfercase for $800 seems insanely cheap today, even though it was still a lot years ago), but I made a lot of bad ones too - mostly throwing out parts I didn't think I'd need again, or selling things cheap that are basically unobtanium today (I probably only made $30 on my Mtech-1 wheel after shipping costs!).

So for the last several years, I've mostly hoarded E30 parts, even ones that seemed worthless at the time, and started buying what I could afford while it was still available and/or cheap. It's not great for the garage space, and it's become difficult to find what I do have on hand, but at least I won't be up shit creek without a paddle when that stuff goes NLA forever.

For example, Bosch doesn't make headlights for the E30 anymore.
Now, its lighting division is owned by Magneti Marelli and the plant is in Czechia.

The quality of the new headlights should be better than of 30-year-old ones.
AL makes lights for the latest BMWs, and it has quality control.

Maybe. But the lighting in my 2012 BMW X3 is noticeably worse than the lighting in my 2006 BMW 330i, and that was already 9 years ago... In the endless march of progress, I don't think quality often wins. I don't doubt that manufacturing an E30 light assembly *could* be better in 2021 than it was 30 years ago, but I really doubt that it actually would be given the small market and tooling costs.

As far as keeping up newer cars like we're doing with E30s - yeah, it's not going to happen. My 330i is basically a perfect car, and even though it's been extremely reliable, there is just so much plastic shit and dumb crap that will be impossible to fix or replace at any price. Eventually all cars get old and stuff just wears out - built well or not. And the new cars are only getting worse.

[ZeKahr]

As far as keeping up newer cars like we're doing with E30s - yeah, it's not going to happen. My 330i is basically a perfect car, and even though it's been extremely reliable, there is just so much plastic shit and dumb crap that will be impossible to fix or replace at any price. Eventually all cars get old and stuff just wears out - built well or not. And the new cars are only getting worse.

You can still keep up newer cars like you can an E30 when they get to the same age as our E30s, you’ll just have to make do with a “rebuild” rather than a “restoration” and will have to make peace with the fact that you won’t be able to have all the pieces in the car when its 40 years old. Even the E30 has quite a lot of unnecessary extra parts, lots of plastic pieces, and outdated (in terms of how it functions), overly complex gizmos (at least on the higher trim levels) for a car that appears simple on the surface. A lot of these pieces on the E30 either made sense when they were in the automotive mainstream in the 80s and 90s (but are now outdated thanks to the introduction better built, simpler technology) or were put in solely to create good first impression of a “luxury car” for the first owner.

[nando]

Do you own a newer BMW? I'm not sure what unnecessary features on an E30 you're talking about that are useless now - except maybe if your car came with a phone module or something. The irony is basically all of the "extra" stuff on my E30 still works just fine. While newer cars literally have stuff that is either completely obsolete (idrive, navigation with outdated maps, etc) or completely broken after 10 years (basically, everything electronic, and some things mechanical). You might be able to keep it running, but I hope you like error lights and things that are just plain broken.

[ZeKahr]

Do you own a newer BMW? I'm not sure what unnecessary features on an E30 you're talking about that are useless now - except maybe if your car came with a phone module or something. The irony is basically all of the "extra" stuff on my E30 still works just fine. While newer cars literally have stuff that is either completely obsolete (idrive, navigation with outdated maps, etc) or completely broken after 10 years (basically, everything electronic, and some things mechanical). You might be able to keep it running, but I hope you like error lights and things that are just plain broken.

We've got an E46 in the family as well bud - a 2005 325i. You are correct that there are lots of stupid little things that break on these cars and the E46 will throw a lot of dumb error lights. I gave up trying to kill the dash lights on mine. That said, the interior is still in really decent cosmetic shape despite being 16 years old plastic. Mine doesn't have iDrive or navigation though so I don't have to deal with that. Personally after owning 3 different BMWs, I've given up with the idea of trying to keep my BMW perfect and just want to keep it nice enough to be a useable daily.

Some examples of features that are useless in the E30 (at least in my eyes) are:
- the digital/analog clock on the lower trims. Back when the E30 was new it made sense to have one in the car because it saved you from buying a wristwatch to check time while driving (heh). These days I can just check the time on my iPhone. I just consider the clock a cool looking piece to have in the interior.
- the power antenna and AM/FM functionality on the radio. I never listen to music on radio and just play everything through YouTube on my phone.
- the cassette deck in the radio. Not useless, but overly complex - the complexity also makes it prone to breaking. I can't find one resource online on how to fully repair these old cassette decks.
- the car phone (mine came with the antenna for it but I got rid of that - thought it looked a little odd)
- the service interval indicator. IMO this was really only intended for the first buyer (who was probably a car noob) back when the cars were new. These days, E30s are enthusiast owned and enthusiasts tend to stick to specific maintenance schedules without the help of the SI system.

The rest of the features are still useful to this day.