Ruby's Thread

[Levy3Poop]

Bummer about the lip! I actually just reinstalled my lip and splitter today. Now I'm worried about ripping it off lol. The BMW lips have gotten much more expensive over the years. Ebay has them for around $50 but I'm not sure how good they are.

Here are some general guidelines on how to bleed the cooling system (for future use). Basically just jack the car up in the front, set heat to full blast and crack open the bleed screw while making sure coolant is topped off. It can be a bitch to get all the air out.
https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...62&postcount=5

Yeah, I've heard the eBay lips are pretty bad. If you look at the product pics, they're totally straight instead of curved for the front valance lol. I'm gonna get an OEM lip after I sell me Ellipsoids for sure.

So when you're pouring new coolant in, you fill it past the cold line to bleed the air?

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[Codym42]

Yeah, I've heard the eBay lips are pretty bad. If you look at the product pics, they're totally straight instead of curved for the front valance lol. I'm gonna get an OEM lip after I sell me Ellipsoids for sure.

So when you're pouring new coolant in, you fill it past the cold line to bleed the air?

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I usually keep it filled just above the cold line.

[Levy3Poop]

I usually keep it filled just above the cold line.

That's what I thought, but I was confused because people kepts saying "fill it up" lol. Thanks for the clarification

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[Codym42]

That's what I thought, but I was confused because people kepts saying "fill it up" lol. Thanks for the clarification

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No problem. Yeah, if you fill it all the way, you're more likely to have the coolant fountain when you rev the engine lol

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[Levy3Poop]

I got the Euro smileys a while back, and I finally got around to wiring the city lights up!
This is kind of a simple write up, but if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.
Electricity is a black magic voodoo bullshit type concept to me, so if I can do this, anyone can.

My goal with the city lights was to have them illuminate with the running lights (AKA front turn signals, but not blink like them)

First step is to remove the side markers, and just tuck this little guy into the hole on the inside of the bumper so you can freely remove the bumper without the side marker light holding you up.

One option for wiring up the city lights, if you intend to do euro trim (or just run black side markers like myself), is to just snip the bulb connector off, and wire the positive and negative wires from the side marker up to the city lights.
I thought about this after I had already completed one, and this would have been much simpler than identifying the running light and making a new ground cable for the city lights, but fuck it, right?



Second step is to remove these two big sons of bitch T55 bolts on the bottom of the front bumper.
They're both right in line with the inside of the air scoop for the brakes, so they should be super easy to find.



Next step is to not get any wires crossed, so doodle out your wire order in the connector.

You don't have to take the connectors out of the housing, but the guide on YT I watched did, so "monkey see monkey do" for the first side.

Get a test light from AutoZone (Lowes doesn't have them. You'll look like an idiot asking for one in there. Personal experience.), and ground it to...something. I used the front strut brace base that's on top of the shock tower.

With a ground test light, pull out the light switch one click (or turn your hazards on if you want the city lights to blink), and stick the test light into the connectors. The one that stays solid is the running light, and the connector that makes the test light blink as if it were your turn signal is....That's right! It's your turn signal!

Be sure to note which one is which because you'll forget.

Side note: I tried ordering a new connector because these ones outdate me by a year, and I got the wrong ones. Not sure they make these same connectors that group the wires together anymore. Oh well.



My driver side running light was the yellow/blue wire. The wire colors were different on the passenger side, so you'll have to do the test light thing again, but it's easy enough.



Well the pigtails I ordered from a buddy on instagram fell apart after I plugged them in for a test fit and pulled them back out.
The grey connector just fuckin' fell apart and everything.
I ain't mad though. It's my fault for not asking if a 25+ year old plastic connector was brittle lol.



Make lemonade, I say! I ordered some brand new 90° connectors and 90° cables to serve as my positive and ground.
Everything hooked up is all brand new, so I don't have to worry about crumbling them if I need to take my headlights out lol.
Words of wisdom: Don't put the cables in the connector coupler just yet and click it shut, securing them in place.
I did that, plugged them in, wired them up, and my positive and negatives were switched.
Just plug the wires into the spot where they'll go, without the grey connector coupler. That way you can change sides easy.



Here's what I'm talking about with test fitting the cables without the grey connector coupler.
Just put them in, mark one to be your ground/negative with some tape, and figure out which side is which.




Anyways, my running light on the passenger side was the...purple and white cable...I think. Idk man there's a lot of dirt in there lol.



I marked which side is which on the coupler just so I didn't mix it up, and for future use if I have to ever fix anything.



This was with the old pigtails, but you can see i Just used some butt connectors, which I later wrapped with electrical tape.
I totally forgot to use the shrink wrap I bought JUST FOR THIS, but oh well.
If one of them goes out, I'll know water got in my super tight tape job somewhere.



I ran the ground cable on both sides up under the fender, along with the OEM wiring harness, to ground it on the hinge mechanism (or whatever this is).
Like I said, electricity is devil magic to me, and the YouTube guy who made the guide grounded them here, so it works.



Test! They both work!
HELL YES THEY BOTH WORK!!!
And yes, I'm not running OEM orange bulbs.
I like the OEM orange look, but RGB LEDs are more fun in my opinion!



Here's the driver side with the light cover back on.
It doesn't even look like an amateur like me was hacking around in there!



And the passenger side. You can see the negative cable underneath the hood strut, but that's it.



And here it is!
OEM Orange look on top (which I can even make more reddish for a darker orange)
Green in the middle, just to be funky and weird.
And red on the bottom for lookin' mean!
Also, it's illegal to drive with red/blue lights (although these have a mode to just flash red and blue lmao) in most areas.
In my area, you can have red and blue flashing if you're just parked though.
So that's just for funsies.



And here's a gif of the RGB shitshow in full swing!

https://giphy.com/gifs/20NM2P0ss1UD78nKwp/html5

I know RBG LEDs aren't everyone's cup of tea. My wife was sure to let me know she thinks they tacky...which yeah I guess they are, but they're still fun!

If you have any questions about how I wired anything up or anything just hit me up!

[jeenyus]

I think I would like them if they just decided on one color. Your wife nailed it.

[Levy3Poop]

I think I would like them if they just decided on one color. Your wife nailed it.

They don't flash all the time, and I have them set to orange all the time. I included the pics and gif with different colors just to show what they look like. It's more of an "if I want to change colors, I have the option" deal

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[jeenyus]

ah ok. well if they stay orange then that's cool.

[spiDmang]

If you ever need to bleed the M42 again, do this:

-Remove top hose from the Radiator (do not detach it from the engine side)
-using that hose, fill the cooling system until coolant begins to spill out. (this method fills the cooling passages in the engine prior to any other area of the cooling system.)
-carefully reconnect that hose to the radiator.
-begin filling expansion tank and bleeding process
-while the car is running, massage the upper and lower hoses to help get coolant moving thru the motor. This essentially helps push coolant to the thermostat and speeds up the process).

This also works for 24V swaps when using M42 radiators/ M20 radiators, since they dont have an external bleed screw on the thermostat housing.

[Levy3Poop]

If you ever need to bleed the M42 again, do this:

-Remove top hose from the Radiator (do not detach it from the engine side)
-using that hose, fill the cooling system until coolant begins to spill out. (this method fills the cooling passages in the engine prior to any other area of the cooling system.)
-carefully reconnect that hose to the radiator.
-begin filling expansion tank and bleeding process
-while the car is running, massage the upper and lower hoses to help get coolant moving thru the motor. This essentially helps push coolant to the thermostat and speeds up the process).

This also works for 24V swaps when using M42 radiators/ M20 radiators, since they dont have an external bleed screw on the thermostat housing.

Thanks for the tip there. I filled it up that way, but not until it spilled from the hose, so I'll try that next time before taking it to a radiator shop. Maybe it'll save me $60 to use on new shift/ebrake boots!

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[Mwishlist]

If you ever need to bleed the M42 again, do this:

-Remove top hose from the Radiator (do not detach it from the engine side)
-using that hose, fill the cooling system until coolant begins to spill out. (this method fills the cooling passages in the engine prior to any other area of the cooling system.)
-carefully reconnect that hose to the radiator.
-begin filling expansion tank and bleeding process
-while the car is running, massage the upper and lower hoses to help get coolant moving thru the motor. This essentially helps push coolant to the thermostat and speeds up the process).

This also works for 24V swaps when using M42 radiators/ M20 radiators, since they dont have an external bleed screw on the thermostat housing.

This is gold here. Totally fixed the air pockets in my 24v swap using this method.

[Levy3Poop]

Ever since I bought Ruby, the driver side mirror has been broken. The crack has always bugged me just a tiny bit, but I never really wanted to spend the $30 to replace the glass that most websites want, so I dealt with it.

Also, this picture was taken after cleaning it. It's always been this dirty and THAT part did drive me nuts.



Jeff, one of the ATX E30 guys, had a wide-view mirror that looked really nice.
I googled it, and found they were only $10 from ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wing-Mirror-Glass-Wide-Angle-For-BMW-E30-1982-1994-Strong-TAPE-Left-Side-B001/152580710126?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

I ordered it without thinking twice, but one of the guys in the /r/e30 discord server said if it didn't have the back mounting assembly it would be a pain in the ass.



The mirror came with some of these mighty hook adhesive strips on the back to just stick it to the old mirror.
I guess that's why it was only $10 lol
Either way, it couldn't be worse than a broken mirror. And so what if the glass is an extra millimeter aft. Fine by me.



You'll want to hold onto the mirror with one hand by putting your thumb on the glass, and your fingers on the other side.
To get the old glass out, just pop a flat head screwdriver in this hole with the blade of the screwdriver perpendicular to the mirror glass.
Feel around for some little grooves, and once your screwdriver is in the grooves, you'll want to move the handle away from the car so it's at an angle, and push up and towards the car.
It should make a small popping sound when it's loose.
After the pop, push on the top half of the glass to make the bottom half peek out past the edge of the assembly to grab and remove it.



This is the circular mechanism that holds the mirror on, and these are the grooves you're trying to get in.
You can see you're just trying to rotate the white circular piece by sticking the screwdriver into the grooves and pushing.




Clean up the old mirror to make a better mating surface for the adhesive strips, and stick it on.



You can see that it's not the exact size/shape of the OEM mirror, but for $10, I'm totally satisfied with the fit.
Since the mirror is sitting inside the housing anyways, I doubt anyone will ever notice at all.
Unless you're reading this and decide to be a prick next time you see me.



Here's the outside top corner.
"It's not just good, it's good enough!" seems to be the whole philosophy behind the production here XD



And here it is all installed!
It's so nice to have a good, clean, WIDE mirror!



Overall, I think it will be fine. Even if it gets too hot and the adhesives give out and I lose the wide mirror, i still have the old one underneath.
Hopefully that doesn't happen though lol

Edit: Shit, they also sell the mirror with the back plate. I didn't even see that! If this falls off, I'll be ordering the mirror with the back plate next time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wing-Mirror-Glass-Wide-Angle-For-BMW-E30-1982-1994-BP-TAPE-Left-Side-B001-/152580709223

[ncsubowen]

What's up with the line on the outside there?

[Levy3Poop]

What's up with the line on the outside there?

During my drive today, I was wondering that as well. My friend with these mirrors also has the line on his.

My theory is that it's a line to mark when cars in the mirror are within hitting distance if you were to just merge without looking except in the mirror. The view is wider than I thought. You can see cars in the mirror pretty much right up until their front bumper is passing the rear wheels.

[Levy3Poop]

I locked my keys in my car last week, which was fun. Thankfully one of my neighbors is a roadside assistance home boy and popped my lock for free.

Unfortunately for me, when he actuated the door handle with his big metal reachey stick, he broke my handle partially. No sweat though! Pelican parts had a good price on a 3rd party handle, so it was only $16 after shipping!

Here's the broken handle, looking all depressed.
All you have to do is take the door card off, unscrew these two screws, rotate the handle inside the door to position it vertically, with the front side up, and then slide it back off the actuator rod.
The door handle actuator/connection rod is bent in a tight 180° angle to hold it in place on the handle.



Here you can see how the old handle broke.
The bottom corner just snapped and let the little metal piece come out of the guide hole.




The new handle didn't come with the screw retention clips, so I just put them on the new handle



Also, for what it's worth, I had to fold down the rear half of the plastic door panel protector, and cut out the hole that's right of the door handle hole.
I guess I didn't have to cut the hole out, but it made it easier to hold onto the old handle while removing it.




Super easy fix, and it was still cheaper than calling a pop a lock guy that's not your neighbor!

Hopefully soon I'll be making some real money after I pass my multi engine flight instructor check ride, so I can start doing some more awesome mods and not just maintenance and little upgrades.