New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[D.Martijn]

When driving the iX hard, after a while the brakes ten to squeak. I already figured out that it was coming from the rear. I decided to remove the rear calipers and carriers and gave them a good clean. There was some heavier rust pitting/build up on the surfaces where the pads slide on, I decided to grind them slightly with a fine roloc disc on the angle die grinder. Hopefully that'll solve the squeaking.

I also removed my sunroof to install the two new seals I got a while ago. My old ones were getting very worn at the ends. It's actually quite easy to remove the panel itself.
Turned out great although I don't have any pictures. I might try and readjust the rear of the panel some more since it's sitting a bit lower than before.

While fiddling with the sunroof I also swapped the aftermarket handle with one I made from two old original handles. On the aftermarket one, the handle has a tendency to droop down because the aluminium housing gets too wide when cranking the handle.

[D.Martijn]

nice! I think a black IS lip would look pretty great, although color matched might be better as your side skirts sit at almost the same height.

Thanks! Yeah still not sure what I'll do

[wworm]

nice! I think a black IS lip would look pretty great, although color matched might be better as your side skirts sit at almost the same height.

[D.Martijn]

When driving to work today, I noticed that the iX was getting close to the 250 000km mark.
I got a picture just before and one after :)

[D.Martijn]

Too bad you're in Belgium... I would be happy to take your old stock IX lip. Biggest mistake I made was getting rid of mine.

Well, I would keep my original lip anyway.

I think the IS lip looks amazing on wagons. Especially IX wagons with the fender flares! Both look great though, you can't go wrong with either.

Thanks! I'm leaning towards a black IS lip though.
Although the seller doesn't respond to my messages..

[mike.bmw]

I think the IS lip looks amazing on wagons. Especially IX wagons with the fender flares! Both look great though, you can't go wrong with either.

[jeenyus]

Too bad you're in Belgium... I would be happy to take your old stock IX lip. Biggest mistake I made was getting rid of mine.

[D.Martijn]

So... I've been thinking of getting an IS lip for my touring to just give the front end some more oomph :p
While my uncles Baur was sitting in my workshop, I decided to pop his off and put it on my Touring. His Baur is also Lazur blue.

Before shot with the regular (black lip)




And with the IS lip I took from my uncles E30 Baur.




So, what do you guy think? Should I get one? I already found an original one in black (plastic not paint). Or should I get one in Lazur?

[D.Martijn]

were those little plugs the ones located on the end of the cylinder head? kind of by the cam seal? I suspect mine are leaking too, or the cam seal is leaking... i cleaned it last night to figure out where it's coming from today.

Yes, that it correct. However they weren't leaking as far as I can tell but they turned very soft. Again, these were Febi plugs. You are better off getting them from BMW.

[jeenyus]

were those little plugs the ones located on the end of the cylinder head? kind of by the cam seal? I suspect mine are leaking too, or the cam seal is leaking... i cleaned it last night to figure out where it's coming from today.

[D.Martijn]

Today I also got my valves readjusted as some of them were getting rather loud.
While removing the old valve cover gasket I noticed the plugs I installed a while back got all swollen up. I guess that's an other part that is best bought from BMW. (These were Febi's) Luckily I had some genuine BMW plugs on hand.


As it was pretty hot outside, I opened up the doors of the workshop, it's nice having a light breeze when working on the E30 :)
Behind the E30 sits our 2002 Touring, me and my brother are restoring.

[D.Martijn]

What is that hex thing hose clamped into a coolant line on the top left of your photo?

Nice manifolds, btw. That is a substantial improvement.

In Germany it is/was very common on these cars, it's part of the kaltlaufregler.
It has something to do with emissions, it's supposed to let the car reach operating temperature faster.

Yeah, some heat resistance paint does them good :)

[kronus]

What is that hex thing hose clamped into a coolant line on the top left of your photo?

Nice manifolds, btw. That is a substantial improvement.

[D.Martijn]

Yesterday I finally got the 2 studs I've ordered for the exhaust manifold. I also got a new heatshield and some screws.



After fitting everything back on to the E30, it fired right up. I let it idle for a while to get it up to temp so I could start bleeding the coolant system. I decided to drive it out of the workshop and let it sit outside for a bit. Meanwhile I drove the Golf mk1 back into the workshop as I've been using it as my daily this week.

When heading back outside, I notice a very big puddle under my engine, I shut the car of, pushed it backwards and smelled the fluid.... fuel..
I looked under my car and fuel was still dripping out rather rapidly.

I looked in the engine compartment and saw there was a leak coming form under the brake servo/cylinder. I was able to read the part number from it and googled it. That's how I knew it was the charcoal canister. Some more googling let to a post about it leaking and it turns out the guy had switch the return line and evap line. After jacking up the car again, I had them switched around too..


After letting the fuel drip out a bit more, I started right back up and did not leak anymore.
I decided to drive to home and let it sit some more so the fuel can evaporate.

[D.Martijn]

I just noticed, where is your battery? I thought all tourings had them in the engine bay.

It's located in the trunk, if I recall correct all the ix's have them in the truck.