New owner, BMW 325iX Touring

[D.Martijn]

Today I got my M-tech 2 steering wheel installed. I had bought non airbag switches before buying the M-tech wheel. So I first removed those.

After removing the knee panel trim and lower steering wheel cover I was able to remove the plugs for the blinker- and windscreen wiper switches.


I then removed the locking pin of the airbag wheel, just by gripping it with a plier and pulling on it.


New switches installed, I did notice one of the plugs was different. Both has male connections. Not wanting to fuck up my original wiring harness I cut the plug of the switch off and soldered new plugs on.




I didn't have small heatshrink so some electrical tape will have to do for now.


Everything installed, glad I got other switches as there is quite the difference between the airbag and non airbag ones. It's not too big of a hassle to switch these out


Finally installed :)

[D.Martijn]

That NOS wheel is so cool, what an awesome find :up:

Thanks man! Although it's not 100% NOS as it has been used before, it's still in like new condition. :)
Got an email from my local dealer and they received the spacer. I will get it tomorrow and might even start fitting the wheel.

just read entire thread, good work, love the sheet metal patches and welding.

if you need shift boots let me know


awesome stuff

Thanks Matt! It takes quite a bit of patience forming all of those pieces :p

I'll look into it, I was looking into getting an other shift boot anyway.

Great job, keep at it. Great progress, I love reading these threads.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!

[Echo30V]

Great job, keep at it. Great progress, I love reading these threads.

[Matt-B]

just read entire thread, good work, love the sheet metal patches and welding.

if you need shift boots let me know


awesome stuff

[CorvallisBMW]

That NOS wheel is so cool, what an awesome find :up:

[D.Martijn]

This week I received my M tech 2 steering wheel. I think it's so cool that it still has it's original packaging. I ordered the specific spacer to mount the steering wheel at the dealer. Hopefully it'll get there soon so I can finally fit the steering wheel :)


I also had to take the E30 to it's yearly inspection. The guys at the inspection facility just love these old cars, they were very friendly. They were impressed, especially when they saw it was a ix. The Touring passed the inspection with zero remaks.

I also got my new used fog lights mounted, after a little bit of fiddling to get the old screws removed I had them mounted with new hardware as the original ones were quite rusty. While being there, I removed and tested my horns and it turns out only one is working. That's why the horns sounds so dumb/weak.


Finally, no more cracked but working fog lights!

[robinsonalex760]

hi nice to meet you :)

[D.Martijn]

Haven't done much on the E30 in a while.
I've changed the oil and oil filter after having done about 5600km/3500miles. When I worked on my central locking previously, I got the blinking SRS light after start up..
I searched quite a bit online but couldn't find a how to on resetting that pesky blinking light. That's until a member posted a thread here on how to reset it. After trying it the first time it was still on/blinking, luckily on the second try I was able to reset it.

The aftermarket sunroof handle started to sag too, turns out the metal is so cheap/weak that it bends open and the handle won't snap into the little holes so it just hangs down after operating the sunroof. By removing it and putting it in the bench vise I got it to snap back.

Still need to find some time to mount the ZKW foglights I got, the new sunroof seals and wiring harness for my driver side door.

At last I also got myself this 'thing'
370mm M tech 2 steering wheel with it's original box

[D.Martijn]

Been a while since I updated this thread.
Since those cheap Chinese fogs won't properly fit the opening, I decided to buy some nice used one for 95€ incl shipping from Germany. Currently waiting for them to arrive.

A week ago I noticed my central locking acting up, previously a little wiggle at the door connector would solve it. But this time it would not. I removed the rubber boot and noticed a cable was torn off. I soldered it back onto the connector but the central locking was still not working. I later found out that the torn wire was for the little tweaters so of course it didn't solve the central locking..

After driving the E30 for a week without being able to fully lock it up, I decided to look into it today. I found the wiring diagrams online and printed them off.
I started with measuring the power at the fuse, I got 12,5V so it was getting power.
I removed both door connectors and measured 12V at the wire going to the door, connected both door connectors and got 12V at the wire that comes from the door back to the car. (This is the well know loop that goes through the door, most people delete this loop and wire the wires together before the door connector)
I then measured at the central locking unit itself and also got 12V so it was definitely getting power.

I then removed the doorcard and started looking inside the door for defective wires.
Further I measured if the micro switch was still working, I disconnected it and connected my multimeter on the 2 connection pins, while also operating the door lock.
When closing the lock the multimeter beeped so the switch is still working as it should.

While removing the doorcard, I noticed that the previous owner spliced / reconnected almost every single wire from the door harness. Not sure why though..?


This is the door loop that supplies power to the central locking unit. I couldn't see where the other wire was going too..


This is the connector for the micro switch, by simply disconnecting it you can check if it still works.


While measuring all the wires, I removed the old tape, cleaned the glue up and reapplied new taped.



After going through the trouble shooting tables from BMW I still can't seem too figure out what is work. I might replace the wiring harness that the previous owner spliced with an used one that's still intact. Just to have a clean start when I try to figure it out next time.

However, I was able to lock and unlock my car a few times while trouble shooting, so I guess there is a bad connection somewhere in the system at the driver sides door.. Meanwhile I'm able to lock and unlock my car via the trunk lock. It's something at least :p

I printed this diagram on paper so I could write on it when figuring out what was what, what still works and where I got power.

[D.Martijn]

I noticed my idle being a bit rough when cold, sometimes even causing the engine to turn off. Today I cleaned the ICV valve with some carb cleaner and so far it improved a lot.

While being in the engine compartment, I re adjusted the valves. I ordered the little spring tool a while ago so it was the perfect time to test it out. It's pretty handy little tool, although pretty expensive for what it is.

[D.Martijn]

Also inspect the connections inside the fogs. There is very poor to non-existent isolation between the positive and negative inputs.

I ended up putting heatshrink around the internal leads.

I tried fitting them today but they were just way to big.
I even tried using the original seal is it's a bit thinner but they still wouldn't fit..

Guess I'll look for original ZKWs and return the cheap fogs.

[earthwormjim]

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.

Also inspect the connections inside the fogs. There is very poor to non-existent isolation between the positive and negative inputs.

I ended up putting heatshrink around the internal leads.

[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.

[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]

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.