Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Today I fitted the headlights onto the car, still need to adjust the aim tho (done by a family friend who has worked his whole life in a workshopgarage but now retired)


    New connector housings as well, I also replaced all the bulbs.






    Pulled the wiring loom for the electric motors thourgh the firewall, just need to finish the wiring at the connector for the switch (forgot to bring it with me to the workshop)
    I plan on taking power from the Home connector of the accessory connector under the dash, there is 12V supplied when the ignition is on.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Originally posted by e30m3s54turbo View Post
    The lights look great.
    I like the electric headlight adjuster. Now I need to dig them out of storage.
    Thanks! Still need to fit them and figure out the wiring tho.
    Probably will clean the area where they fit as well.

    Leave a comment:


  • e30m3s54turbo
    replied
    The lights look great.
    I like the electric headlight adjuster. Now I need to dig them out of storage.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Update on the headlights.
    I managed to clean the interior of the reflector housings by using glass cleaner, some rice grains and lots of rinsing with water + final rinsing with demineralized water.
    Since the weather was pretty good, I let them sit two days straight in the sun to get them fully dry. Hopefully they don't fog up, but I guess we'll find out once they are back in the car.

    I had to order two new (used) plastic end caps where the lamps connect to the harness. the original caps were stuck and I had to break them to get them off..
    However, the new caps I got, the foam gasket was pretty worn I removed the seals of my old caps and used those. I 3D printed a small ring (0,6mm thick) to get some more pressure on the seals to get them so seal a little bit better
    You can't seem to buy these seals separately for BMW

    Top caps got replaced, bottom ones are original


    Difference between both seals. I'm using the right one.


    And fully assembled. There is still some pitting on the faces of the lenses. I didn't bother to get them sanded down as that would have made this whole process a lot longer.




    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Originally posted by e30m3s54turbo View Post
    I like your touring. One day I like to own one.
    I was able to get new vacuum lines years ago. I put them in my Alpina project.
    I have electric ones that were modified for e30 in Germany. I think the motors are e36.
    Thank you! I do love the look of the Touring as well.
    Yes, there are a couple of retrofits. E36, the Ford Fiesta system and also E34 if I'm not mistaken.

    Leave a comment:


  • e30m3s54turbo
    replied
    I like your touring. One day I like to own one.
    I was able to get new vacuum lines years ago. I put them in my Alpina project.
    I have electric ones that were modified for e30 in Germany. I think the motors are e36.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Originally posted by eternal24k View Post
    headlight housings look great! Now i kind of wish i painted mine when I had them all apart.
    Thanks! Yeah, it might have been a little "overkill" since no one will ever see them. however can't hurt right :)

    Originally posted by e30m3s54turbo View Post
    I like the electric headlight aim switch. I’m interested how it works out for you.
    This switch and electric system was already installed into the car. I know it still worked when I got the car, however I never used it after that.
    And since the normal adjusting mechanism was completely seized I'm not sure it if would still have worked.

    Leave a comment:


  • e30m3s54turbo
    replied
    I like the electric headlight aim switch. I’m interested how it works out for you.

    Leave a comment:


  • eternal24k
    replied
    headlight housings look great! Now i kind of wish i painted mine when I had them all apart.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    The 3-pin connector I ordered arrived this week. I already made the wiring loom for the front of car to connect both aim adjust motors.
    I'm still figuring out what's the best way to connect the 12V to the system. I'm sure I can take some ground from under the dash.
    DIY articles regarding this retrofit tell you to take power from the light switch but I'm not a big fan of cutting in the original loom of the car. I still haven't had any luck finding the plug for the accessory connector under the dash..


    In the meantime I painted the light housings after letting the primer cure for a couple days.
    I had the shop where I bought the paint make 0,5L as that was the minimum amount I could get anyway. Still have tons of paint left. Looks like I'll have to restore some more headlights in the future ;)




    The paint has since then dried, I removed the masking tape and applied the same quartz coating (like on the aluminium parts of my engine bay) onto the aluminium parts of the housings.


    I also found a listing in Germany of a guy selling NOS ZKW front turn signal lenses. On the Touring there is one that's a little dull. I remove both lenses to clean out the housing and the reflectors, they were a little dirty but nothing mayor.
    While I was busy with the turn signals, I also decided to sandblast and repaint the little screw that mounts the side turn markers on the front fenders.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    I've gone ahead and remodel the original Ford Fiesta bracket that got modified to fit the original switch mounting location/face.
    The previous owner had removed some sections from the bracket to clear the fixing point for the cover.






    I had to tweak the length a little to get the button to protrude just the right amount


    I had a hard time removing the plastic caps of the high beams. The upper part is made from aluminium which got corroded quite a bit, making the removal of those caps near impossible.
    (Luckily I never had a bulb go bad on me otherwise I wouldn't even have been able to replace it haha!)


    I decided to print a little cap that fits very snug into the opening of the lamp to keep most of the blasting media out of the housing, the glass got covered with a thick tape.


    Today after work hours, I sandblasted the housings. For the projectors, I made a small plate that fit's in the the projector housings lip. I used this for sandblasting as well so I didn't have to fiddle with the tape.
    Currently letting the anti rust primer (Corroles) dry. I might give them a second coat before painting them in color.


    I also ordered a 3pin connector for the wiring loom. This way I can disconnect the right motor if I ever need to.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Originally posted by Glaede View Post
    You need to send me that STL!
    We are already in contact on instagram :-)

    @uberkaro is my username
    Send me a message with your email if you want it

    Leave a comment:


  • Glaede
    replied
    You need to send me that STL!
    We are already in contact on instagram :-)

    @uberkaro is my username

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Got some more things done on the 325iX.
    I was still having the same issue with the idle not being constant. It eventually got worse with the car just stalling unless revving a little bit.
    Using some kind of trouble shooting guide from BMW, I checked the wiring at the ECU and everything checked out fine.

    I then tried to replace the ICV and AFM from my uncles iX to mine, but that didn't solve it neither. Talking with a friend about my problem, he suggested to check the compression when cold.
    Today I finally had some time and I got 10-11bar on all cylinders. I too got some new sparkplugs (the old one were still fine) and I did notice the new pump being a little loud, so I decided to replace the fuel filter, because why not it's cheap anyway.
    Well, it's idling great now..

    I also got started on removing the headlights, bought all new hardware, new wiring plug housings, some new wiring to make the loom a little nicer for the aim assist motors. (in Germany it was mandatory to have headlight aim assist in the 90s)
    Since the original hydraulic stuff starts leaking after a while, it got converted to an electric system (from a Ford Fiesta) I found out it's a pretty popular mod in Germany after googling a little bit.

    Electric motor and the SWRA motor, it's pretty cramped at the left front corner with the ABS pump as well


    Headlight rings still look great




    The adjusters are completely seized and the plastic end caps just crumbled away..


    Couple pictures of the wiring, I'm going to redo the little white bracket for the switch as well since. The previous owner used the Ford Fiesta stuff to mount the switch


    The power is taken from the park/city lights. I'm still contemplating if I will go the same route or take some power from under the dash some where, maybe the C302 accessory connector.?
    Although I can't seem to find the correct pins/plug to use with this connector


    I also got some paint that matches the original color pretty good, since there is some rust on the front the housings/reflectors


    And finally, I got around to the mounting of the SWRA iX reservoir.
    The original BMW retrofit guide tells you use the little plastic nut (if your car had a metal stud from factory) OR drill a hole for a M8 bolt. I was able to source some studs from a friend that converted his E36 to full race car.
    But in the meantime, I printed a little pin. The plastic nut/clip is a press fit onto this pin, it's pretty solid + printed in ABS so should do well with the engine bay temps.


    Last edited by D.Martijn; 05-14-2022, 07:53 AM.

    Leave a comment:


  • D.Martijn
    replied
    Last time that we made a short drive, I took my camera with me and snapped a couple of pictures of my friends and my car.
    They asked if I'd wanted to take a couple more so we decided to make a little drive and hit up a couple of spots while it's blossom season.

    Only a couple of all the pictures I took;




















    Leave a comment:

Working...
X