New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[D.Martijn]

A couple of friend and I are organizing a classic car drive event in the Summer.
Last Sunday we checked the roadbook that was made, great driving roads, and there are some fast sections as well :)

I took my camera with me to take a couple of pictures.. Enjoy..
Friends 325i Touring




Original Mtech 1 325i, stroked to 2.7l






And the iX Touring ofc!

[D.Martijn]

This weekend I made some time to get the rear exhaust fitted on to the Touring.
Rubber hangers were included with the exhaust but the old one still looked fine so I'll keep them as spares.

The old exhaust was a little tires, there are a couple of holes near the bracket for the rubber hanger as well as the little plate that keeps the tubes together is paper thin.
Brand listed on the exhaust is Ferroz, ever heard of it though







And a little update on the workshop, we fitted new LED lights as well as all the electrical wiring. We still need to finish painting the wall on the right but happy with how it turned out thus far.

[D.Martijn]

Man, thats quite a garage... The frustrating this is that as big as it is you will eventually feel like you need more space! Always works out that way

Oh yeah, for sure!

[2mAn]

Man, thats quite a garage... The frustrating this is that as big as it is you will eventually feel like you need more space! Always works out that way

[D.Martijn]

would love to see more on the garage!

Thanks, I'll take some when everything is in it's final place

That's quite the space! All those Mk 1 Golfs are cool - is that a 2002 touring on the rotisserie at the back of the shop?

Thanks! a 1.1 Golf, and two GTI's (all small lights)
And yes, that is a 2002 Touring my brother and I are restoring, quite a bit of work on it though :)

[mjweimer]

That's quite the space! All those Mk 1 Golfs are cool - is that a 2002 touring on the rotisserie at the back of the shop?

[paynemw]

would love to see more on the garage!

[D.Martijn]

Thanks econti !

I haven't done much on my E30. Last time I drove it I noticed it sounded like I had an exhaust leak. I thought it was coming from the gaskets between the cat and rear section.
But upon further inspection, it was rusted through at the seam where the bracket for the hanger is welded onto the tubes. I could repair it but it's has a few other rust spots as well.
I decided to go with a new one. I found a shop that was still selling an ERNST exhaust, since it looked to be a pretty much exact like the genuine BMW exhaust.
After ordering it and waiting, I got a message their supplier could no longer deliver this exhaust..

So I decided to have a look on Ebay, and found this one.. 90€! Looks pretty good. I did want to keep the original style angled exhaust tips and this one was spot on!








And a little update on the new workshop. We're still busy on arrangeing everything, it's taking quite some time now.
We also decided we wanted to paint the walls, as they are quite rough and loose quite a bit of dust when touched.

We plan on parking the cars like this, having still a doorway to the rear section of the shop where the real workspace is.
Also the gate was fitted


Then it was time to move everything from the old space to the new one, luckily we had already removed everything from the storage deck and put into boxes.






After a few of these hauls... it's empty!


In the rear of the new space there was a big I beam, we had a friend of mine remove it. So we could finally get the storage deck in it's new place




And current situation. It's already loaded with all the spare parts. The move it self was pretty good to get everything organized
We now divided the storage racks into sections, old parts, parts that need to be refurbished and parts that are new/restored.


We still need to mount the new light rails and finish painting the walls. But we are getting closer on having everything in it's final place :)

[econti]

Cool new garage space, lots of potential

[D.Martijn]

Not a whole lot has happend over the last couple of months. I've been busy with repairing some rust on our BMW 2002 Touring.
And we also got the notice that we have to leave the workshop by the end of this month. (we now rented this space) The lot is bought by the company that is our neighbor.
So it's been a little hectic trying to find a new space and also packing everything up for moving day.

Luckily we managed to find a work space, we will no longer rent and decided to buy. It's a 10min drive from our home, the current place was maybe 1min of driving so not too bad.
The new shop is 175m2 instead of 115m2 so a lot more room then before since we started running out of space a little..

The gate/garage door wasn't placed yet when we first visited the space, since then there is a door fitted (where there is a door opening now)
We will still have to do the electricity and lighting by ourselves but that's not a big deal as we can decide where to put lights and power plugs


It's a little bit narrower (roughly 80cm) but a whole lot longer obviously.


So stay tuned on some updates regarding this place :) We might finally get a 2 pole car lift as well
______

I decided to wait on removing the new steering rack after we are moved into the new place. So I can fit the old guide bushings and hopefully that with solve the hard to turn rack. As I no adjusted the preload nut just finger tight..
However I did join a meet and drive a few weeks ago with a couple of friends

[econti]

Yes it may be the preload of the rack, simple to adjust until it feels nice

[D.Martijn]

I guess it's time for an update after driving the car a few time of the last couple of months.
Overall, the steering feeling is great, nice and short compared to the original steering rack ratio.

The only thing that's not completely dailed yet is the steering just off center, going in a straight line the steering is nice and straight, doesn't track at all.
but coming out of a shallow turn, it seems like I need to overreact the steering wheel to keep is straight again. Not sure how it's best described.
It's like the steering rack is a little sticky in the center, having to actively find the center again to go straight, resulting in making constant small adjustments left to right.

I told a good friend of mine that also tracks a fully prepared E36 and he suggested adding a little toe in, it definitely helped the steering feel but it's still there.

I'm not sure if it's the plastic bushings/guides that are still a bit tight/need to get broken in (I remember having to tap the steering axle in with a rubber mallet).
There is also a big round plug on the front of the rack, with a spring behind it, maybe this is causing all of the friction. Since googling a little more I found a ZF manual describing the adjustment of this pressure.
So I'll have to give this a try and see if that fixes it.

When I'm able to get this sorted, the swap is very successful and a nice option to get a short ratio steering rack into an iX although quite a bit of custom work is involved.

[D.Martijn]

awesome man! you've been doing some cool stuff these days. Did the M3 sway never work out properly? what was the limitation?

have you had a chance to drive the car with the new rack in yet?

Thanks! I decided not to use it, I still have it though. It's probably better to get a stiffer rear bar in stead of the front.
As I don't drive it daily (so only when dry) it's has plenty of grip as is.

I haven't really driven it, just a couple rounds around the block and to the alignment. Hopefully this weekend!

[jeenyus]

awesome man! you've been doing some cool stuff these days. Did the M3 sway never work out properly? what was the limitation?

have you had a chance to drive the car with the new rack in yet?

[D.Martijn]

So you was taking out that oil pump cover and used some power tool to prime it??
Thanks for that info, need to do to this mine ix tomorrow.

To that clutch bleeding, why not try nest time reverse bleeding. Use some syringe to push fluid backwards, i have been using this method in mine fluid clutch system in supemoto.

(sorry for the late reply)
Yes correct. when you remove the aluminium plug, you will find a small gear. Remove that as well, using a 6mm socket and a couple extensions, you're able to rotate the oilpump with a drill.
I think iX is counter clockwise, regular E30 clockwise (best to look this up as I might have switched them)