My first e30, finally. Latest Update: The Restoration Begins

[Click]

I finally got one, I've had an eye out for prolly like two years now. Had to convince my parents into letting me get one. I've probably looked at like 10 e30s before this. Anways, she's a 89 coupe with grey/tan cloth interior and a 5MT. Odo stopped at 61k miles. Based on the condition of everything I would say its over 100k, but not over 160k. One owner up to a few months ago. Picked it up on Saturday. No service records. Interior is pretty mint (crack free dash yay!) and the engine bay is pretty clean. Really wanted to head to Gfest yesterday but didn't want to risk the timing belt. Has a little rust on the pass side of the rear valence, a little bit in the middle of the front valance where it looks like it was bottomed out and dinged a little bit, and a tad in drivers rear trunk seal corner.



First I plan on doing preventative maint stuff like timing belt+tensioner, all accessory belts, oil change, water pump, tstat, guilbo. (Anything else I should do, maybe a fuel filter?)


In rough order, the plans after that are:

Paint valve cover and intake, not sure on the color yet.
Shadowline the trim, maybe black out the kids
New roundels, euro grilles
Mtech 1 steering wheel, 3.73 or maybe a 4.10 LSD.
IS lip, mtech 1 spoiler
19lb injectors and markD chip
Wheels, want a set of ARC-8s but from what I understand they wont be available till fall. These have been tempting me.
Ellips
Lower it + skid plate
Paint
Turbo

I've already notice a few things wrong with the car, obc is f'ed, the handle on my seat doesn't fold my seat forward and move up, at like 80 mph I can hear a whirring noise from the back that goes away when I let off the gas (diff maybe?). A whirring/ticking noise thats tach Dependant. Some clunking from the rear. I noticed my ps fluid looks like gray oil, is that how its supposed to look? The engine oil is like 3/8" overfilled too.



PS fluid is on the right.



Other than that its a real nice driving car and I can't wait do start doing stuff to it. Need some make more $$$. More pics to come.

EDIT: Rest of the stock pics.

[brutus87]

Looks like a clean start!

[CHIF8008]

how much you pay?

[Bothfeetin]

looks very nice

[Click]

After taxes, title & registration etc it was about 4k. I've noticed one other thing, I noticed if I'm driving fairly fast, like 40, and downshift to second I've found that if I don't rev-match the gears grind, is this a trait of 260s or are the synchros going bad? Also my coolant gauge usually lives at the first white line after the blue, is that too cold or normal?

[Marcos]

Stop Leak?

That looks like "Stop Leak" but I could be wrong (In the PS Fluid). No I don't think it's supposed to be grey but it's a common thing to do as the rack often leaks after so many years. I bet your rack is soaked and grimy.

Cool car though, I would be a bit concerned about the gear grinding, you may be on to something with the syncros...

Otherwise, change every fluid known to man including the tranny fluid and dif, but maybe not the ps fluid, that may actually help the grindy'ness. and don't downshift so hard... ;)

[Marcos]

ps, Use high quality fluids, they are the only thing keeping your car alive.

[DREWHALL]

Typically the temp gauge sits in the middle, could be the sensor going bad.

Looks pretty clean. have fun with it!

[Vtec?lol]

that clunking in the rear means you need new sub frame bushings or somewhere in that area. Big job. The diff whine at high speeds means it's time to replace and fill it with new fluid. That tach Dependant noise could be the fan clutch, open the hood and r3v it at the TB. clean car.

[Click]

I had the car up on jack stands yesterday and inspected the car pretty well and gave it an oil change. I noticed the guibo is starting to crack, the diff bushing has a small crack in the rubber underneath the metal center, and the ground cable that goes from the oil pan to the frame has lost nearly all its insulation. The front pads are completely shot (one is like 2.5mm), Front rotors are 0.2-0.4 mm out of spec, rear brakes look like they were done recently. I figured on doing the csb since I got to do the guibo and ill change the oil in the trans and diff and puta new diff bushing in. How much oil to the diff and trans take, < 2 quarts or more?

[nightwing66]

The clunking is the your diff man, its going bad. Same thing happened to me. When im reving high in 1st my car kinda makes a whining noise, i think its just the tranny though(trannys fine btw). My gears are a little hard to shift at time, especially downshifting. Im pretty sure its your drive line needing attention. Go in there and change all the fluids and than make a observation. Also see if it was originally an auto car because if it was than someone may have something mixed up in the early year and later year models(driveshaft mainly). GL and nice find

[10Toes]

I had the car up on jack stands yesterday and inspected the car pretty well and gave it an oil change. I noticed the guibo is starting to crack, the diff bushing has a small crack in the rubber underneath the metal center, and the ground cable that goes from the oil pan to the frame has lost nearly all its insulation. The front pads are completely shot (one is like 2.5mm), Front rotors are 0.2-0.4 mm out of spec, rear brakes look like they were done recently. I figured on doing the csb since I got to do the guibo and ill change the oil in the trans and diff and puta new diff bushing in. How much oil to the diff and trans take, < 2 quarts or more?

Looks like a clean car. Good call on the CSB, every E30 I have seen has needed a fresh one installed. 2 quarts should be enough to fill the diff, you just fill it tell the fluid is level with the fill bolt.

[freeride53]

nice

[Click]

Edited the original post to put the rest of the pics in.

Grilles looked faded so they got a fresh coat of paint. Blacked out the kids as well.











Lookin bad ass now, minus that massive wheel to fender gap haha.

I had the car jacked up earlier this week and inspected it real well. Front brakes are toast. I ordered Hawk HPS pads and Brembo slotted rotors. Pads come tomorrow and the rotors are back ordered so they should come in a couple weeks.

[Holland]

Definitely taking the right steps, except for the black kidneys, but I think the car is in good hands.