Canadian 318is

[finnmole]

I've enjoyed following your progress...the car is looking great!
Good choice switching the steering wheel to the old school look.

My car looks pretty similar, or will as I just got plastic bumpers sent to the painters... IOW a bumper swap is in progress.

Question though, any regrets on lowering the car?
I'm debating as I kind of like the feel of the stock suspension; definitely not like on rails around the corners but still feels nice.

[bignslow]

Ok thanks for the info. I was mostly hesitant out of fear of getting cut by glass dust particles.

[Powling]

How long did it take you to polish that glass? Did you use a sander or do it by hand? How did you deal with dust?

I have a set of glass lenses I need to polish but have been holding off.

I just followed this DIY in youtube and it was pretty easy. Hardest part was using tools (sanding disk pads) that were cheap and not that great. I used them attached to a typical home drill. Started with 240 grit and went up to 800, then 1200, 2000 and finally a 5000 just to be sure.

I would say each light took me roughly 30-45 min from start to finish. Dust wasn't really an issue for me, there wasn't that much coming off it through the process. Although make sure you stuff a wad of paper towel into the back bulb opening of the housing so that the dust doesn't make its way into the light from the inside.

[bignslow]

How long did it take you to polish that glass? Did you use a sander or do it by hand? How did you deal with dust?

I have a set of glass lenses I need to polish but have been holding off.

[Powling]

No updates since mid-November because, well, life has been very busy so I haven't had much time to work on the car while its its in the garage over the winter. In any case, small updates below.

About a month ago I ordered the VDO Continental head unit to replace the stock one the car still had. I was simply looking for something that I can play music off of my phone with and not have to rely on a bluetooth speaker anymore.

I ordered it off eBay from a seller in Latvia. All said and done it was less than $230 CDN shipped to my door and arrived in 2 weeks. Not bad!



And here is the unit its replacing.



Removing the stock head unit found that everything was in tact and never messed with since new. A nice find as I was expecting to see a nightmare back there.



This quickly became a "while I'm in there project", taking the whole control panel off to replace the worn out defrost button, switching the 13 button OBC for a euro clock, and replacing all of the burnt out backlighting bulbs in there too.



As you can see the bulbs were toast.



I also took apart the euro clock as it had a lot of dust and debris behind the acrylic clear cover. Replaced this bulb as well.



Flash forward and everything is in and installed. I still can't get my rear speakers to work but I fear this might be due to the speakers themselves and not the wiring. More trouble shooting for later on though.



Lights off an illuminated.



I also am in the middle of restoring the lenses on the Hella euro smilies I got late last summer. They are pitted and I noticed that they fog up in the wet / washing so I'll reseal them as well.

I had an extra set of Hella US ellipsoids so I did a test on them first before working on the smilies. Started off with 240 grit, then 540 grit, 800 grit, 1200 grit and finally 2000 grit followed by some Chemical Guys polish. The outcome was good for a first attempt so now I am confident on doing it to the smilies.

I'm also planning on cutting out and putting in crosshairs while I have the lenses off, before resealing them again.

Before



240 grit


800 grit


Final product. Still some pitting but with more time and patience it will come out great.

[Powling]

Nice round of updates! That valve cover and intake manifold turned out nicely.

How do you like the Falken Azenis 615Ks? I'm considering those for track season next year so I can keep the 14" basketweaves on the car.

I absolutely love the 615k's. I don't do any track days, just backroad twisties mostly and they are fantastic. I did notice they are significantly stiffer on the sidewall than a conventional non-performance tire, which made for a stiffer ride but its not a daily driven car so its easily managed.

I didn't like how I couldn't get them in 195/65/14 though, I had to settle or a 195/60/14 and it makes the tire look a tad small to be honest. But if you decide to size up to a 15 or 16 wheel, then there are more options for this tire in sidewall size.

[mike.bmw]

Nice round of updates! That valve cover and intake manifold turned out nicely.

How do you like the Falken Azenis 615Ks? I'm considering those for track season next year so I can keep the 14" basketweaves on the car.

[Powling]

Not much to update here recently, just been driving and enjoy the 318 all summer.

Here's a shot from one of my morning commute's when I took the E30 to work.





Shortly after my last update I changed out the tranny fluid, after realizing I had never done it since I took possession of the car 3 years ago. I'm glad I did it now though, the oil and fragments on the drain plug was a worrying sight to see.





But I cleaned it up, put new Redline fluid in and can feel the difference immediately afterwards. Smoother shifting for sure.



Met up for coffee with my buddy Jarred, who actually sold his E30 shortly after this and got a Z4 M coupe.



Went out to Berlin Klassik, its sort of the year ender Germain car show here in Ontario. More VW focused but still some good BMW's and Porsche's show up too.



Then it was time for our GTA Classic BMW's facebook group's season end cruise. I didn't get many photos, but we went on a loooong journey though Ontario's cottage country and ended up here. Some great winding roads and fall leaves.




Also made a new sticker for the Ontario E30's group we have going too.



Now its getting cold and snowy here in Ontario, so I'll go for one more cruise on my birthday this week and it will be put away until spring time. Hoping to be able to put more time into it over the winter with some more significant updates here too. Just need to figure out the heat situation for the garage and I'll be golden...

[DBShiznit]

Awesome thread. Sometimes I wish I had a 318 instead of a 325 just because of the handling. I don't like to use my brakes much lol

[Powling]

Been a while since I did a good update, but to be honest not a lot of drastic changes with the 318is this summer. Just been out and enjoying driving it.

I did pick up a set of Kosei K1's for a good deal from someone local, and I have full intentions to completely re-powdercoat them back to the original silver, but I'm not in a huge rush right now so they are sitting for a bit. I do however think that the guy told me the wrong offset for these though - currently they have a worn out set of 205 tires mounted but they rub on the front strut housings...even with a 5mm spacer, they slightly rub still. I'll have to properly measure the offset and calculate what the actual offset of these are before I decide to power coat them or go a different direction instead.



Earlier in the summer I got together with a few local friends and went for a good long cruise well into the evening. The white IX is Paul's ( aka Shock(/\)ave ) and its a Japanese market car that was imported to Canada. Definitely weird seeing an IX that has ZERO rust...

PS - I don't know what invisible person Paul was trying to pick a fight with but I guess they deserved it?






I also came across this VERY clean e39 M5 in my local town while walking my dog, only a 5 minute walk from my house. Talked to the owner for a bit and it turns out he had just bought it a week or two prior to that. He bought it from the original owner, it had never been winter driven from new, only had 70k km's and recently had a complete clutch replacement, all new brakes and all new tires before he picked it up. I wont reveal how much he paid for it, but it was eye wateringly cheap for such a clean example.




And August in Ontario means its time for TedFest! Definitely the best show to attended for any BMW fanatic in the area, and even some people coming up from the states. Always an amazing turn out of awesome cars and even better people. I totally forgot to snap pics of other stuff at the show, but I did get a few pics of my car there.






Finally, I picked up a great set of smilies from someone local and got them all mounted up and installed. Couldn't be happier with them! As luck would have it, I was waiting to wire my city lights because I wanted to install euro trim and delete the site marker anyways. Not even a week after installing the smilies, a brand new never used set of front euro trim came up for sale locally for a good price so I snagged them. Perfect timing.

Finished installing the city lights and euro trim tonight and it really finished the front of the car off well. Euro grilles, euro smilies, and euro bumper trim. Happy with it!

[cheffy30]

Plus with the 4.10 diff, I'm at 3000rpm at 100km/h on the highway...I couldn't stand the for a drive, literally across the country haha[/QUOTE]

you got me thinking. i have a 4.10 as well, same issues...i am driving to LA and back from seattle late summer...i think i'll swap in a 3.45 for the trip. that'll make sense.

[Powling]

Picked up a set of never mounted, but a few years old, Falken Azenis 615k's in 195/60/14 sizing and got them mounted up today. Haven't been able to test them out on the twisty backroads yet but they are definitely A LOT stiffer than the basic all seasons that were on my car before.

Desperately need some spacers to push everything out as well - not sure what mm to go with on from and back though, without needing to roll the fenders.

[Powling]

what a beauty! ... you gonna drive that whip to the picnic powling? let's go!

Unfortunately not - way too far of a drive for me, especially in busy season at work (event industry + summer = no days off).

Plus with the 4.10 diff, I'm at 3000rpm at 100km/h on the highway...I couldn't stand the for a drive, literally across the country haha

[cheffy30]

what a beauty! ... you gonna drive that whip to the picnic powling? let's go!

[Powling]

That looks great, I just did the same thing on my m42 but my gears were pointy so I did timing guides and chain and gear replacement.

I noticed you intake and exhaust cam gears are all the way advanced. Any idea why you have your gears so advanced? I think I read that advancing the intake shifts the power band down lower for better torque.

I am not sure to be totally honest. From everything I can tell, the gears and timing chain / guides have never been tampered with on this engine. So it either came from the factory set like that, or someone changed it without removing the valve cover.

Its something I am not educated in at all, and wouldn't have noticed it without you pointing it out to be honest!