Mike's Alpine White 1991 318is

[D.Martijn]

While I'm not the biggest fan of perforated leaher steering wheel in an E30, to me it looks too modern for an E30, that wheel definitely looks nicely wrapped!

Now to find a matching shift knob

[mike.bmw]

Sport Steering Wheel Install - 4th time's a charm

Wow. A steering wheel finally worked out. After buying a leather airbag wheel that had major issues, and buying a nicely wrapped Mtech 2 wheel that had crash damage, and buying a vinyl airbag wheel that had sheered airbag wiring, I have installed a steering wheel that I like (and didn't have major issues)! Props to fresh_TD , the enabler, for sending me a link to this wheel.

Story time. Almost exactly a year ago this wheel was sold by Adrenaline Junkie to another R3V member that lives in North Carolina (not sure of their username). That R3V member never installed it and recently listed it for sale on FB Marketplace. fresh_TD saw it and shared it with me. It's a standard "sport wheel" from what I've gathered. It was available on E30s (mostly verts) and E28s. Whoever did the wrap did a great job. Thumb pads were added. I really like the mix of perforated leather, non-perforated leather, and the colored stitching. It's all very solid. Best of all this was CHEAP. Shipped to my door it was cheaper than what it would cost to have the wrap done by itself. Likely because it's just a "sport wheel". Regardless, it's 100 times better than the crappy airbag wheel that was in the car. I like it a lot.

Tech tip time. There are plenty of DIYs detailing how to install a non-airbag wheel in an airbag-equipped E30, so I won't go into all that. I will say that I have confirmed if you remove the lower knee pad under the steering wheel and disconnect the 3 connectors going to the orange box (the SRS module), you will not have a blinking SRS light. Also, this method prevents any faults from being stored in the SRS (because it's unplugged). If I reinstall the airbag wheel at some point I'll just need to reconnect the whole system before hooking up the battery again. Yes, there's an SRS reset procedure (referenced earlier in this thread in fact) that can also be used to clear the SRS fault codes.

Picture time.

DSC_0492 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0496 copy 1 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0499 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0508 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0503 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[jeenyus]

This is a beautiful picture. Love the angle. Love the car in the reflection. Thank you for sharing.

[mike.bmw]

Great pics Mike!.. I am a huge T6 fan. I may try M1 5w-40 Turbo Diesel Truck after T6 in the S52 ;>)

Thanks! T6 is magical. I've used it in my motorcycles, Subarus, Volvo 240, and now my 318is. Blackstone UOAs show it's a great oil with a wide range of applications.

[dmanb2b]

Great pics Mike!.. I am a huge T6 fan. I may try M1 5w-40 Turbo Diesel Truck after T6 in the S52 ;>)

[mike.bmw]

Those shot are very nice!
Cool that you can see the E30 in the windows again

Thanks! It's a very unique building. Lots of angles. When I went last week I wasn't aware this little traffic circle existed. I purposely caught myself taking the photo in the first one. :)

[D.Martijn]

Those shot are very nice!
Cool that you can see the E30 in the windows again

[mike.bmw]

More photos. I went back to a location from last week. I think this building is super cool.

DSC_0527 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0505 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0535 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[mike.bmw]

Blackstone Labs Used Oil Analysis

I got my Used Oil Analysis report from Blackstone Labs yesterday. Everything looks great. I only had 2500 miles on this oil which included 4 hours and 170 miles of track time. If you read the comments in the report, they wanted me to keep an eye on the copper levels. I responded to Blackstone's email with the report and told them about the track time. A Blackstone analyst responded with this:

The hard use you mentioned more than likely factored into the slightly high
copper level. But even with a bit of extra copper, this engine is still
wearing quite nicely and you'll be in good shape if copper is at least
stable from here. Nice report.

Best,
Joe Adams
Analyst
Blackstone Laboratories

Report:

BlackstoneLabsUOA-M42-200129 by mike.bevels, on Flickr

And to make this slightly less boring here are some photos from last weekend!

DSC_0498 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0549 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0561 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

DSC_0536 copy by mike.bevels, on Flickr

[D.Martijn]

Good to know. I'd go with oem replacements, but the last time I looked I couldn't find all the lines. There are other brands like ATE that sell rubber replacements, but I have read terrible reviews about those failing. So I figured a kit from Garagistic or another vendor might be my best option.

At the moment my only other necessary Vintage prep items are the brake lines and replacing my 7 year old battery. Of course I have a long list of unnecessary items too. ;)

I went with Bosch brake lines, in Belgium it's not allowed to use braided stainless steel lines by the technical inspection
So far I have no problems with them...

[mike.bmw]

Chase Bay's. Eliminate the divided rear lines to be a singular line. They are also not braided.

I will check those out, thanks for the suggestion!

[jeenyus]

These things won't fail ever and remove that unnecessary section of hard line nobody needs.

[mike.bmw]

I personally wouldn't run braided lines if I had to the option to run Chase Bay's teflon lines. Braided seem like they can get completely filled with crude from the road and deteriorate inward without you even knowing till it's too late.

Good to know. I'd go with oem replacements, but the last time I looked I couldn't find all the lines. There are other brands like ATE that sell rubber replacements, but I have read terrible reviews about those failing. So I figured a kit from Garagistic or another vendor might be my best option.

At the moment my only other necessary Vintage prep items are the brake lines and replacing my 7 year old battery. Of course I have a long list of unnecessary items too. ;)

[jeenyus]

Yeah, I am leaning towards replacing all 6 lines rubber lines (to include the hard-to-reach pair over the subframe) with a braided stainless kit. Not sure which kit yet though.

Chase Bay's. Eliminate the divided rear lines to be a singular line. They are also not braided.

[mike.bmw]

Yea, it does look very nice!

Are you planning on upgrading to braided stainless lines?

Yeah, I am leaning towards replacing all 6 lines rubber lines (to include the hard-to-reach pair over the subframe) with a braided stainless kit. Not sure which kit yet though.