Hi everyone, new member & first time E30 owner saying hi and introducing my ride. I'm from Vancouver BC and decided I wanted an E30 in October '14. I started saving in January and searching in March, after months of checking CL daily I still had no car when the perfect car popped up, I replied to the ad within an hour of it being posted and what do you know I wasn't fast enough! I missed out on 3 cars inside of 2 weeks in similar fashion. It got to the point that I was refreshing classifieds hourly for about a week before things lined up near the end of May and I found the right car. PO was a great guy very honest and was a pleasure to do business with, as were all the other owners with whom I corresponded, love the community and happy to finally be a part of it.
I figured I'd start a thread here instead to post my progress as I plan on doing a bit of work on my car this summer.
1991 318is, 285k km Diamond Schwartz Black, PPO took really good care of it and PO was pretty good as well he says he only put 7k on it over 1-2years of ownership -I am the 4th owner.
Rear suspension was refreshed with the following: Bilstein rear shocks, new shock mounts, rear sway bar bushings and end links, trailing arm bushings, rear sub-frame mounts, new shifter bushings and thermostat.
My current plans for the car are just to refresh it to begin, including:
Functional
-Replace the valve cover gasket, its leaking oil
-All 4 Brake rotors, they have a pretty good lip on them, about 3-4mm, I don't feel any vibrations when braking can this wait? I'd prefer to upgrade not just replace so I'd like to research upgrades a bit first
-Intake boot behind the radiator has a large crack/tear in the rubber, its the one before the AFM
-The exhaust might have a small hole in it but this can probably wait for a while, no?
-Drivers door lock, likes to hold on to my key and never let go
Interior
-Power mirrors switch needs to be replaced, any input results in either mirror turning up/right
-Shifter knob needs to be replaced just old and ratty looking
-Sunroof crank is missing the knob
-Driver seats has some wear
-Computer/clock display doesn't work maybe the whole unit
Exterior
-Front roundel needs to be replaced
-Have to find a front lip
-Motorized antenna is busted, I'd like to replace it with a non motorized option
-Gas filler door spring is loose
-Hood needs at least a buff and the whole car could use a polish, rear spoiler has a lot of shallow cracks
-Small chip in the windshield
-Two quarter sized rust spots on the rear bumper
Since I've gotten the car:
Found a spoiler for cheap on Craigslist: same color, $40 and just 15 minutes away can't go wrong.
I don't think the old one had any paint left on it:
New lip spoiler it doesn't even look like the same one, much better!
Oil change last week, the dealer recommended 15w40, and online sources said the same. It seems heavy to me, but I don't pretend to know much about these things as I'm still learning. What do you guys think?
The MFC wasn't working when I got the car and I wasn't sure why, turned out to just be loose bulbs. It wasn't too bad to get out of the car but opening the unit was tricky, I wedged in two small flatheads to hold down the clips while I wiggled the halves apart, luckily I managed not to crack the plastic. The bulbs were quite stubborn to remove so I'm not sure how they become loose, bent the tabs a bit and reinserted them, although I suspect one of them may have come out of place again as the display seems dim in the days since taking these pics.
Fixed:
Most of this car is still original, including all the glass, radio and refrigerant in the AC. As such plastic trim pieces have faded so I'm polishing those up one at a time. I removed 2/3rds of the grill, washed and scrubbed them with a toothbrush and dish soap, then applied 2 coats of wipe-new, the first being more generous than the second, allowed an hour to cure and then applied the second much lighter coat to even things out. The second coat made the difference.
Over the next few weeks I want to polish the remainder of the trim, finish detailing the interior -I spent 4 hours outdoors yesterday in the middle of the heatwave vacuuming, scrubbing and doing the windows but it's quite filthy inside especially the ashtrays and under the seats, mostly invisible on the black interior. Even after removing the passenger seat to make going in and out easier (the bottom side of which was so nasty I wanted to puke, all sorts of crud all over the rails because of the grease most of which I wiped away) there's still lots to go. Engine bay also desperately needs a clean up.
By the end of the summer I'd like to have replaced the valve cover gasket (can anyone recommend a good tutorial with pictures for the E30 m42 and not the E36?) Change dif and tranny oil, possibly coolant as well. Track down a set of bumpers, front & rear -the current bumpers are painted with an anti-rock chip paint and both have their rough spots, not to mention the front is missing the lip. Replace the badges and antenna as its jammed and glued in place (I'm thinking one of the the 318ti). Also need to replace the driverside door lock, on numerous occasions I've spent 5+ minutes fighting and wiggling back/forth up/down in/out after the lock jammed with the key stuck inside. Worst part is when the driver side lock jams, all others do as well. So I've stopped locking the car at the drivers door opting for the trunk or passenger side instead, whats a good place to order this part?.
Over the next six months I'd like to lower the front end by an inch but not more than 2. I read somewhere that later E30s were higher on the back end, is this true, why is it this way? I'm also thinking of spacers behind all 4 rims (currently on 14in baskets) thoughts/advice on going about this are appreciated.
Thanks for looking
-Jay
I figured I'd start a thread here instead to post my progress as I plan on doing a bit of work on my car this summer.
1991 318is, 285k km Diamond Schwartz Black, PPO took really good care of it and PO was pretty good as well he says he only put 7k on it over 1-2years of ownership -I am the 4th owner.
Rear suspension was refreshed with the following: Bilstein rear shocks, new shock mounts, rear sway bar bushings and end links, trailing arm bushings, rear sub-frame mounts, new shifter bushings and thermostat.
My current plans for the car are just to refresh it to begin, including:
Functional
-Replace the valve cover gasket, its leaking oil
-All 4 Brake rotors, they have a pretty good lip on them, about 3-4mm, I don't feel any vibrations when braking can this wait? I'd prefer to upgrade not just replace so I'd like to research upgrades a bit first
-Intake boot behind the radiator has a large crack/tear in the rubber, its the one before the AFM
-The exhaust might have a small hole in it but this can probably wait for a while, no?
-Drivers door lock, likes to hold on to my key and never let go
Interior
-Power mirrors switch needs to be replaced, any input results in either mirror turning up/right
-Shifter knob needs to be replaced just old and ratty looking
-Sunroof crank is missing the knob
-Driver seats has some wear
-Computer/clock display doesn't work maybe the whole unit
Exterior
-Front roundel needs to be replaced
-Have to find a front lip
-Motorized antenna is busted, I'd like to replace it with a non motorized option
-Gas filler door spring is loose
-Hood needs at least a buff and the whole car could use a polish, rear spoiler has a lot of shallow cracks
-Small chip in the windshield
-Two quarter sized rust spots on the rear bumper
Since I've gotten the car:
Found a spoiler for cheap on Craigslist: same color, $40 and just 15 minutes away can't go wrong.
I don't think the old one had any paint left on it:
New lip spoiler it doesn't even look like the same one, much better!
Oil change last week, the dealer recommended 15w40, and online sources said the same. It seems heavy to me, but I don't pretend to know much about these things as I'm still learning. What do you guys think?
The MFC wasn't working when I got the car and I wasn't sure why, turned out to just be loose bulbs. It wasn't too bad to get out of the car but opening the unit was tricky, I wedged in two small flatheads to hold down the clips while I wiggled the halves apart, luckily I managed not to crack the plastic. The bulbs were quite stubborn to remove so I'm not sure how they become loose, bent the tabs a bit and reinserted them, although I suspect one of them may have come out of place again as the display seems dim in the days since taking these pics.
Fixed:
Most of this car is still original, including all the glass, radio and refrigerant in the AC. As such plastic trim pieces have faded so I'm polishing those up one at a time. I removed 2/3rds of the grill, washed and scrubbed them with a toothbrush and dish soap, then applied 2 coats of wipe-new, the first being more generous than the second, allowed an hour to cure and then applied the second much lighter coat to even things out. The second coat made the difference.
Over the next few weeks I want to polish the remainder of the trim, finish detailing the interior -I spent 4 hours outdoors yesterday in the middle of the heatwave vacuuming, scrubbing and doing the windows but it's quite filthy inside especially the ashtrays and under the seats, mostly invisible on the black interior. Even after removing the passenger seat to make going in and out easier (the bottom side of which was so nasty I wanted to puke, all sorts of crud all over the rails because of the grease most of which I wiped away) there's still lots to go. Engine bay also desperately needs a clean up.
By the end of the summer I'd like to have replaced the valve cover gasket (can anyone recommend a good tutorial with pictures for the E30 m42 and not the E36?) Change dif and tranny oil, possibly coolant as well. Track down a set of bumpers, front & rear -the current bumpers are painted with an anti-rock chip paint and both have their rough spots, not to mention the front is missing the lip. Replace the badges and antenna as its jammed and glued in place (I'm thinking one of the the 318ti). Also need to replace the driverside door lock, on numerous occasions I've spent 5+ minutes fighting and wiggling back/forth up/down in/out after the lock jammed with the key stuck inside. Worst part is when the driver side lock jams, all others do as well. So I've stopped locking the car at the drivers door opting for the trunk or passenger side instead, whats a good place to order this part?.
Over the next six months I'd like to lower the front end by an inch but not more than 2. I read somewhere that later E30s were higher on the back end, is this true, why is it this way? I'm also thinking of spacers behind all 4 rims (currently on 14in baskets) thoughts/advice on going about this are appreciated.
Thanks for looking
-Jay
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