New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[D.Martijn]

Got a new aftermarket handle for the sunroof as my old one suddenly broke off when I was fixing the rust on the touring. Being that a genuine BMW handle is somewhere around 120€ I went for the cheap ebay one :p

It arrived just in time as Sunday we're going to an event with a drive out so now I can use my sunroof again when it get hot.


Fitted. I did notice the little black nob is a bit different than the original one, it's made out some sort of rubber and a has different shape.

[MR E30 325is]

^^ There were two different types of sunroof cranks, with very subtle differences between the two. The spinny knob part being one of them.

[D.Martijn]

^^ There were two different types of sunroof cranks, with very subtle differences between the two. The spinny knob part being one of them.

I didn't know that there were 2 types of handles. Thanks for clearing that up. As far as I know only this on is available on ebay?

[D.Martijn]

I also got the ix cleaned up, I started with vacuuming the interior and cleaning the remaining dust of off the dash and interior trim pieces.
Then my brother and I gave it a wash, I was thinking of getting it claybarred but the paint was still very smooth. While I was using the revival on the black trim he started waxing.

Turned out great if I say so myself.

[squidmaster]

Beautiful!

Sent from my Robin using Tapatalk

[D.Martijn]

Today there was an BMW oldtimer event though is was mostly E30s :p
As far as I can tell I was the only ix, there were a few tourings though.



Parked next to this Z1, had never seen one before. Definitely a cool car.

[D.Martijn]

Not really an update but since the Photobucket fiasco all of my pictures were not loading anymore. I since then downloaded them all an transferred them to a Flickr account and changed every single link. Glad this build thread is done. Still have a few more to go on some other forums.

[D.Martijn]

I've noticed that whenever it's hot and I do a ton of braking my front brakes tend to squeal when lightly braking or driving very slowly. The brake pads and rotor are still in good condition so I decided to check the condition of the guide pins.
The drivers side still looked good after cleaning the old grease off. The passenger side, not so much. One of the rubber boots was torn and caused the pin to be rusted.


Luckily, when I replaced my uncles front brakes I kept his old hardware. So I swapped one guide pin and rubber boot and was all set. :)

[blinkx]

i love this thread. just read it from start to finish and you have done such a good job, always wanted a 325ix

ps thanks for fixing the photos

[D.Martijn]

i love this thread. just read it from start to finish and you have done such a good job, always wanted a 325ix

ps thanks for fixing the photos

Thanks, appreciate your comment.

Yeah, it took quite some time to get them all fixed :)

[D.Martijn]

As of lately I've had trouble with my brakes squealing again..
I took them all apart, cleaned all surfaces. coated the guide pins with a fresh coat of silicon grease (I had put copper grease on the guide pins, maybe that's why?) and put fresh copper grease on the back and sides of the brake pads.

While I was working on my brakes, I left the ignition switch on, turns out when I was ready to head back home my car wouldn't start.. Luckily my dad was home and came to the workshop with some starter cables.. :p

While waiting on him I also changed the drivers side speaker panel for another one I bought from a scrapyard. The previous owner had cut a section of the panel where the hood release cable it.

[D.Martijn]

Yesterday I decided to spray paint my wiper arms black again as they got quite faded and had a lot of stone chips on them.
I don't know why but I had a hard time painting these things. The paint wasn't drying that good. I stripped them back to metal and painted them at home instead of the workshop and it seemed to be a bit better.





While fitting the front wiper arms, I gave the engine a look over and noticed something laying on the left chassis rail. turns out it was my little flashlight I lost a few months ago when I was doing all of the rust repairs. I'm glad I got it back though
Can you spot it? :)


This morning I gave the E30 a wash and gave the black trim pieces a much deserved coat of revival. We then went of to Brussels where there was a meet at the Cinquantenaire park. There were quite a bit of BMWs, E30s, 6 series, 02 touring and even a turbo!
Cars lined up, my brother went with our Golf mk1 and a friend of ours with his Golf mk2 syncro




When we were heading home my brother took this picture.


Before we went to the meet, I filled the E30 all the way up as I wanted to calculate the consumption again as it has been a while I monitored it. Turns out I used 13.6l of petrol for 160kms (highway, city and some spirited driving). So that's 8,6l/100km or 27,3mpgs. Not bad if you ask me.

[D.Martijn]

Since one of my fog lights had a broken lens I started looking for some other ones.
I first wanted to get some OEM ones but after seeing the price of them, I decided I might get some used ones. I found some very nice lights for 150€ but decided it was still a bit too much as I plan on swapping the airbag steering wheel for a M tech 2. So the money I save on those fog lights can go towards the M tech wheel.

Thus, I decided to go for the Chinese Ebay ones for 35€ incl shipping.
Yesterday they arrived after a few weeks. They look alright although the seal is a bit small? I'll probably reuse the original ones.
Still need to fit them but haven't had time yet.


I also met up with a good friend and his 320i Touring. We had a great litte drive although it was raining. Typical Belgian weather..


Today I worked a bit on my uncles 325ix Touring. It was sitting a bit low in the rear so we decided to change out the springs with new ones. It's much better now.
While being there we removed the aftermarket trailer hook/hitch since it was not suiting the car, it was pretty bulky.
He was also missing one rear exhaust clamp because the hook on the chassis rail had broken off. I ground it fully down and welded on a new one while he cleaned up the exhaust and painted it. We then mounted the exhaust back with some new hardware. (Seems like the OEM brackets are getting expensive, we went with a HJS kit, it came with every bolt/nut, rubber needed. The brackets themselves were also nicely plated. would recommend if you are planning on replacing these.)
I also replaced the sparkplug wires with some new Bosch set because a few of the old ones were getting cracked.

[earthwormjim]

Watch out on those Chinese fogs, the connector was mirror imaged on one side There is no mirror imaged mating connector in existence. Looks like to make their tooling they just mirrored everything...

[D.Martijn]

Watch out on those Chinese fogs, the connector was mirror imaged on one side There is no mirror imaged mating connector in existence. Looks like to make their tooling they just mirrored everything...

I've had a quick look and you are right, however I think by cutting one of the square corners of from the connector on the fogs I should be able to connect them together.