A Tale of 2 Sedans M42/S52

[eternal24k]

I swapped out the battery with a newer one from my other E30 to see if that changed anything. The (!), Parking Brake, and Battery Lights were dimly lit, if I pulled the E brake the Parking Brake light would be bright. The ABS light flickered a couple times and then came on steady when i turned on the headlights.

I do not even know what the green arrow light is as it's not the turn signals...

I haven't wired up the brake fluid reservoir, not sure if that's at play either, but it seems there's some connections I need to take a look at.


Link to swap tracker

[eternal24k]

:curse: Drove to work, ran great. Drove it home, and like ass as soon as I got on the interstate, felt like a cylinder was not firing. Got home and confirmed.

[eternal24k]

Little update. I swapped coils 6 and 2 and injectors 6 and 1, to my surprise the car still ran the two codes for cylinder 6.

After taking another look, I saw that the red/white wire on the injector harness for cylinder 6 had backed out, it must have been barely touching for the first 100 miles


Put it back together, and cylinder 5 did the same thing... so fixed the tabs on that wire and it fired right up and ran great.

But the car was not charging. I pulled the black wire/exciter off the alternator and the battery light did not come on in the dash, so that seemed to point to the alternator itself and not the dash circuit. Pulled the Valeo alternator and the brushes looked fine. Got a rebuilt Bosch on the way.

[Tisoc]

Since you’re running an e39 fuel rail, what did you do about the 3/2 valve?

[eternal24k]

Since you’re running an e39 fuel rail, what did you do about the 3/2 valve?

don't have a running losses valve

[eternal24k]

New alternator and no more codes, no more dash lights, car's running great.


I also started putting the interior back together, been driving with just a shift knob. One annoying thing was when I pulled to take the ZHP off (which took a crazy amount of force) the shifter pulled out of the carrier... I pushed it back in, and I shouldn't need worry as I never pull up on the shifter when driving, I still am bugged by it. I can see it from below the car, I may try punching the plastic carrier piece with a screw driver to rotate and lock in again...

I also got a harness cover on. Couldnt get the piece by the distribution block to fit, but I am happy with this:

[eternal24k]

Been awhile, I have been busy pecking away at random projects. First off, I swapped my X3 booster thinking it had a vacuum leak and was causing my lean O2 codes. I went ahead and swapped that one out for a new one and did so without removing the intake manifold (but still a PITA). Still dealing with lean codes, thinking of swapping the Bremi MAF with a VDO (wish I had tuned for 3.5” since the Bosch 3.5” MAF is cheaper than a 3” these days…)


I also went to get the S52 inspected and failed for the following:
• Brake lights sometimes staying on
o Had to adjust the new brake booster so the pdeal was further back and more reliably hitting the brake light switch, since I had to take the pedal out I decided to install AKG Delrin brake and oilite brass clutch bushings
o First I tightened the pedal assembly nut too much which caused the brake pedal not bind a bit, did I do something wrong with install? Loosening the nut fixed it, but trying to see if this is indicative of some other issue.



• No windshield wiper fluid
o Didn’t know this was going to be checked, but was a pain. I replaced the lines and check valve, still leaked, so I purchased new elbows and added clamps to the check valve (before it only had clamps on the elbows). But no more leak!

• Side markers
o I had no bulbs, so I went ahead and installed LEDs all around the car

I also found the fan was not kicking on when I thought it would. I pulled the FAE 82C switch and tested it, found it did not kick on until 90C…. Had a hard time finding a replacement, found 82C on ECS for the E30, ordered and received a Febi #01102 which was labelled 90-95, I tested the switch just in case, confirmed it was 95C.. Contacted Customer Service and informed them, also told them the part number I needed was Febi 03280 as I was able to find that on the Febi Bilstein site. To Their credit, they overnighted me a new switch, but sent another 95C marked #01102…. Refunded my money and I went with FCP (would have originally had I known the febi part number from the start).
Will always test switches before install!


While waiting on my switche(s) for the S52, I decided to give the M42 car some TLC, since I still have that and my gf wants to drive it more.





Chased a water leak, confirmed sunroof drains and rocker drains were clear, cleaned out the elephant trunk, and still have the slightest bit of water coming in passenger door along the sill. So I put a hose inside the seal to help thicken it and make a better seal, seems to have stopped all but a slight drop of water…

But this got me motivated, so I pulled the carpet out to assess and clean it up.

Found no rust which was great, I pulled out some of the old sound deadening material, installed new and more sound deadening, and dyed the carpets since the gray was stained and dingy looking…


And I went ahead and did all new fluids in the CRX, shifted great before but I suspected the trans fluid had never been changed and was sitting at 77k, some Honda trans fluid for only $6 a quart and it shifted even better…

[efficient]

carpet looks nice. what did you use?

[eternal24k]

carpet looks nice. what did you use?

thanks, first i used Hi-Tech Vinyl/Carpet spray on the rear deck, but found it was a little crusty. For the carpet i ended up using ColorBond Black Carpet paint, took two cans and it came out great. Not crusty and great adhesion.

[efficient]

looks sweet. those cans are pricey though.

[eternal24k]

looks sweet. those cans are pricey though.

yeah, and just too loud, had a few neighbors complain, I live on a few long steep roads and going 25mph up hill it's LOUD. Unfortunately It sounds like Syncro has since updated them but mine is going to need some custom work.

Been blowing my 30amp fuse for the fan, I pulled back everything I wired and found nothing going on, cannot figure it out as it doesn't seem to be consistent, but I may rewire everything for the fan from scratch since tapping into the high relay for the aux fan isn't working for me...


Otherwise, I have been working on the M42 318i, I pulled the leaky motor and refreshed the one from my M42 swap and put it in, hoping it will be solid. Went ahead and did new seals on the trans, filled with Pentosin ATF, swapped the water pump and bits from the other M42 and did the mess under the intake delete...







also refreshing some ROUGH foglights with new glass. The glass i got had no holes, so i decided to drill them out




Thinking of some LEDs for them, anyone with solid recommendations?

[eternal24k]

Things have been slow, did a lot of work on my E91 and been driving the M42 around to iron out. Planning on wrapping that one in dark green, hoping this fall.

I did finish up the fog lights with some LED headlights, figured I would try out the 3000k since blue would look off IMO. Don't mind the ghetto front plate, i had to pass inspection....

[jeenyus]

[spiDmang]

In regards to your throttle cable issue, you can run an M42 throttle cable. Fits perfectly

Nice car, btw. makes me miss my S52 E30

[jsta1109]

If you're running the stock aux fan from off to high speed without first starting low speed, you will pull more than 30amp (especially on an older fan) and blow fuses.