New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

[Navarone]

Got a couple small projects worked on today.

New odometer gears. Thanks Garagistic!


Checked on the way home, GPS said 6.8 miles, trip said 6.5 and odo did about 6.8 (odo has no tenths so dunno really) My tires are ~3.14 inches larger circumference so maybe that makes up for it.


Also got a dome light and that weird plastic piece it mounts too from a nice lady in Hawaii who just asked me to pay shipping. Sadly it broke too during shipping.


I also got my bike rack mounted, it's a Hollywood F4 heavy duty and it's adjustable to fit hatchbacks or trunks. It didn't fit right on the e30 so I had to drill new holes and make it fit. I don't have pics mounted because it was dark when I finished.

You can move the bracket and two bolts in "D" to the two holes in "G" position so that you can mount it on a trunk but I needed an extra few inches to make the angle of the bars more level and to clear the trunk, so I drilled an extra hole above "G" so that the bolts "D" went through where "G" and "H" are. Fits pretty well, pics to come.


I also installed the rear defrost switch as the antenna switch and it works but the lights don't light up yet. Inside the switch the battery powers the antenna relay and the light, and that draws more than the max of 200ma that the radio instructions say not to exceed. I'll need to make a small relay circuit that will take the radio output, current limited, to trigger a small relay that will then use battery power to tell the antenna and lights to come on or dim just like the normal switch. I'll have pics of that next time, but it's just an extra switch in the dash. Looks almost factory except for not having an emblem on it, but neither does the power window breaker.

[Navarone]

Yay for electrons!

Got a relay, (GASP $10 bosch!) specs said coil resistance of 82ohms, so 12v / 82ohms = 146ma. Win! (radio actually outputs 10v on remote power line, donno why...) So I got the circuit built in this first pic, this way it tuns on just like the defroster (defogger) switch. Which means it only works with the key in the run position... bleh, that's not gonna cut it. As you can see, I used the plug from the fader (with one pin moved, and another removed) to build a pigtail so that it ran everything in parallel with the defroster switch, except the output on pin 6, which went to the relay which was triggered by the radio. Those pins soldered onto the pigtail aren't thick enough for the factory plug, they were some leftover .187 header pins I had lying around, so I had to thicken them with solder to get them to stay in. I'll be buying new ones or maybe I think I'll take apart the speaker fader and wire that up to the pigtail so that it's factory BMW male pins mating with factory BMW female sockets. That means taking the dash apart again, but then the wires will be safer.



Rebuilt it with the constant 12v from the radio (factory red/green) powering the switch through the relay and the the output on pin 6 to the antenna, works like a charm! Now radio triggers relay that switches on constant 12v to new switch on pin 4. Here's mocked up, it's a tight fit and had to take the gauges out again to get access to move wires around. I could do it in my sleep!



All mounted in and working. So proud! And I only blew one fuse, number 21 for the constant 12v on the factory rd/gn wire. There's a nice burn mark on the case of the stereo!



I'll be installing the amp and sub soon, or maybe just the amp and some larger speakers in the rear deck. At that time I'll make a dedicated constant 12v with fuse to power the stereo. The rd/gn line is on a 7.5 amp fuse and holds fine with the volume up, but I don't want to blow out the clock and dash etc again, that's annoying.

[Navarone]

So I was driving around the last few days noticing some clunks and my exhaust seemed a little crooked, today I noticed the exhaust was hanging way low, so I go to check it out and the hose clamp and bailing wire broke!



So I tied it up with the leftover bailing wire and made it back to the shop and added all new bailing wire. Beautiful, isn't it? I have new rubber hanger double Ds and donuts in the mail. Is that bracket complete? It doesn't look like the donut will hold onto anything.



Also, is this stock muffler with ansa sport tips, or an entire ansa sport muffler? Is ansa a good brand? It's pretty quiet, only real noise seems to be the exhaust leak.



Very important question. Where do I find 85 318i M10 oil pan gasket upper and lower kits made of that paper fiber composite material, not cork rubber?

Thanks -Kevin

[Benjamin_Button]

Looks like your bracket snapped from corrosion.

[2mAn]

Send Blunt a message about the parts you're looking for.

[Navarone]

Looks like your bracket snapped from corrosion.

Yeah you're right, I just bought one from pelican parts and it's got an extra tab that the donut hangs on.

Send Blunt a message about the parts you're looking for.

Ok thanks.

[golde30]

Ansa was the first catback exhaust I bought for my e30 back in '01. It rusted out within 2years and was replaced by IE stainless catback.

[Navarone]

More broken stuff.

Where the heck can I get these from, I can't find them anywhere!

[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

I started the day wanting to install my subwoofer, boy was that a mistake!! I pull the battery out just to poke around and look for a place to pass the amp power and I see the full extent of the rust. It's through the battery tray and through the shock tower. Gross.

Yay for rust and shit breaking.


He's fish hookin it!


Scraped most of the rust off and sprayed with with some rustoleum. Still need to see how screwed it is underneath.


After all that I got sidetracked again with the access panel to the HVAC fan, I need to fix the resistors since the fan only works on 4. I take it out, use a fiber file to clean the contact on the little thermal switch, foamy foam and wash the thing, then spray it down with contact cleaner. Reinstalled it and it works like a charm!

While exploring where to run the amp power I recall SE1 saying the door sill trim is held on with these annoying little clips that usually break when you touch em, like everything else on this car. Well I was able to pull the trim off, no broken plugs, but they're all still stuck in the door sill. Yuck. So I start trying to pop em out, using screw drivers, di cutters, vice grips, these things ARE NOT made to be removed. So I broke about three of them out shit flying off in a comedic fashion hitting me WAY TOO CLOSE to the eye balls, and poked around more and there isn't even a place made to run the wire!! So I put it all back together and called it a day. Luckily I just bought some of those green clips that hold the door cards on, they're a great fit for the door sill trim, just gotta cut off a little bit to fit them in the slot on the trim, they hold well!

I didn't get any more pics or anything fun to share, but next time I should have the sub installed and the water pump maybe done. Still no oil pan gaskets, priorities right?! But blunt is getting back to me about fiber gaskets. Yay!


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[Navarone]

New member, my first E30, from the Bay Area. NEW QUESTIONS EVERY DAY!

Yeah well that was loads of fun!!


Generic description.


So THAT'S where that socket landed.


But look what my buddy found for me!


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[Navarone]

Amidoingitrite?

I fixed the shifter with some stuff I found around the shop at work. A 3/4 white pinball rubber, (couldn't find black) an arcade token, I think it is actually for the machine that dispenses golf balls at a driving range, black paint pen and some super glue. I have a new shift boot waiting for me at home in the mailbox.




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[bradthreee]

Did those M3 bushing fix the vibration you were having between 45-60mph?

[Navarone]

I haven't put them in yet, waiting on cash for tires.


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[Navarone]

Got the new shift boot in the mail, just in time for a date, I even cleaned all the smegma off of everything. Don't know if she was impressed.




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[KIRIEIW]

Got the new shift boot in the mail, just in time for a date, I even cleaned all the smegma off of everything. Don't know if she was impressed.

[ATTACH]86715[/ATTACH]


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I cleaned my car completely inside and out for a date one time, and this is back when I had the e46... Yup, not impressed, or maybe just to dumb to notice.