My '87 E30 restoration project (aka make it safe to drive and slowly restore)

[Frosty352i]

ECS is total garbage!! lmao learning valuable lessons where and how to order parts. there coolant hose kit for E30, like 350 bux was missing most of the hoses i needed and a couple, wtf are these were in the box.

Anywho got the correct coolant hoses on order from RMeurpoean, had to order a new distributor cap and rotor, the contact points looked like garbage and the Distributor i discovered was cracked. not worthy of my sedan!!

all belts replaced, timing belt, water pump, new thermostat, a bit of rust management. Tonight i will reinstall my hood (wish me luck) and on my next day off, finishing my temporary brake line fix, and getting the car registered. Friday should be a day of cruising around

[Frosty352i]

installed new brake lines from the front to rear. ran into some trouble bleeding them. I tried to use a pressurized system and nothing came out around 15 psi. so i bailed on that idea and did the old school pedal two person job. This worked well (until it didnt). i got clear fresh fluid out the rear and got a lot of dark fluid out the front two calipers. BUTT eventually while trying to clear out the fluid of the front right caliper, the flow stopped right before it turned nice and clear.

More details, when i tried to use the pressure bleeder. i had the brake reservoir filled to the max line. all bleeders were closed and all brake lines installed. i Pressurized the system to about 15 PSI. waited 5 min to see if i had any leaks and the pressure held pretty good maybe dropping a pound in 5 min. so at 15 psi. i cracked up the right rear bleeder and nothing came out, no air burps, no noise, just nothing for 5 min. i closed the rear right and went to try the rear left, same thing nothing. so i called a friend to have him press the pedal while i crack it open and do the bleeding old school. at this point i removed the pressure system. and waited for my helper

when we started at the right rear i could hear the fluid coming once i had a helper using the pedal. and we bled out the rears till nice and clear and the fronts. well this is where the story gets a little interesting. the front right stopped bleeding all of a sudden. the fluid started to come out on the clear side but not clear enough for my liking or to call it fully flushed and then NADDA. the pedal got super hard to push. Went to the left front, and successfully bled till the liquid was fresh and clear. so 3 out of 4 calipers on the car i bled till the fluid got nice and clear, the front right stopped bleeding.

Any advice? Il thinking because i was able to get a lot of fluid out the front right (before it stopped bleeding) so im confident i got most of the air out, i feel its safe to drive and test the brakes. ill check for brake fade, sponginess, or any other abnormalities.

Also what gives!? why do you think the pressure system didnt work? should i have tried at 20 psi? Should i have started with an empty reservoir?

[AWDBOB]

I have not had luck pressure bleeding an E30. I put a hose on the bleeder, stick in bottle of brake fluid, open the bleeder I'm working on and pump away. One man, one mission

re: still having issues on the fronts via old school method, its very likely the ABS pump is holding you up, or a clogged bleeder.

Take the front bleeders all the way out and inspect/clean. I've had them clog halfway thru the bleeding process on more than one occasion.

[Frosty352i]

Took the car on its first drive to the gas station using all back roads. got it up to 40mph and motor and drive train felt amazing! but the brakes are inadequate and spongy. After filling up 10 gallons of gas i took it immediately home. back on 4 jack stands to try and bleed any air out after my fist voyage.

Tried using the pressure system and it work!! (3 outta 4 calipers) The rear two calipers i was able to bleed 150 ml of fluid out, the rear right had a lot of bubbles come out which was very exciting to see. When i got to the front right i got very little to nothing out. tried the front left, decent flow. so i decided to try and isolate where the lack of flow is coming from. i disconnected the bleeder screw. poked a small allen key into it and this was not plugged up. removed the flexy line and replaced with steel braided from the start of the hard line, no flow. traced this line to the ABS. disconnected from the ABS mod no flow. from this point i tried to see if the line was plugged here because it goes out the ABS and a hard 90 degrees down. when i poked my allen key into this spot, i noticed some coagulated rusty moosh come out with my allen key. my next plan of attack is to disconnect the hard line from the new steel braided line and blast the hard line from the ABS with brake parts cleaner. im hoping its plugged up here. BUT nothing poured out of the ABS so im thinking i might be plugged up at the master cylinder.

Plan of attack: i will flush out the line with brake parts cleaner from the ABS to the caliper but im thinking the issue is deep in the system due to ZERO flow out of the abs unit.

The car is so close to highway worthy. she drives like a dream but brakes like a model T, all engine brake little to no brake pedal

[Frosty352i]

no check engine light, just brake lining (which im not worried about) and an ABS light - maybe my ABS module is fucking me up. IDK

[AWDBOB]

The gold standard for ABS diag:

ABS Diagnostics

The ABS system on an E30 is pretty simple. It consists of a wheel speed sensor at each wheel, and ABS module & relay above the steering column, and the ABS unit in the engine bay. It has no connections to any other parts of the car.

If the ABS light comes on when the ignition is turned on and doesn’t go off when the engine starts the relay, module and unit are all suspect. There is a fusible link in the ABS relay that, if blown, will cause this. The fuse (a simple piece of wire) can be replaced, or better yet get a new relay. If that fails to solve the problem the ABS module or the ABS unit are the next suspects. The ABS unit contains relays that have been known to fail and can be replaced with OE parts. So you have two choices. replace the ABS module with a known good unit, or replace the relays or the entire ABS unit. I start with the ABS module.

If the light comes on with ignition, goes out with engine start, and comes back on once the car starts moving, one (or more) of the wheel speed sensors is bad or the ABS module is bad. A simple test of the speed sensors is to disconnect all but one and see if the light comes on while driving. Since the ABS system only gets speed data from the wheel speed sensors, a good sensor will cause the light to come on as the module doesn’t see data from the other sensors. Repeat this test with each of the other speed sensors. A bad one will cause the light not to come back on as the ABS module can’t tell that the car is moving. Replace that sensor(s) and see what happens. It is possible that one or more of the input channels in the ABS module are bad.

[Frosty352i]

The gold standard for ABS diag:

should this take priority over diagnosing the passenger front calipers lack of bleeding? could the ABS be the cause for the front left caliper not flowing?

[Frosty352i]

after reading a bunch of threads and websites. i think this guy is describing my issue pretty well. no fluid flow to the front right caliper. he says there are multiple filters that can get clogged up relatively easy in the ABS unit. dude calls out the front right with no flow. thats exactly what im experiencing

BMW E30 Cabriolet Best Mod Ever: How to Purge Your ABS

[Frosty352i]

This is looking pretty good right about now

https://ebay.us/m/OWiZOB

[Frosty352i]

Pulling the trigger, purchasing a new master cylinder and rebuilding my ABS. brakes are a sound investment

[AWDBOB]

Find a good used ABS pump if yours is bad, spec e30 guys usually have affordable known good spares (unless you're going to disassemble/repair your ABS pump yourself, in which case, carry on)

[Frosty352i]

Find a good used ABS pump if yours is bad, spec e30 guys usually have affordable known good spares (unless you're going to disassemble/repair your ABS pump yourself, in which case, carry on)

i dont trust myself to rebuild it. so im sending it to Jorden down in texas. his service seems hard to beat (a bit pricey but i believe he will be my best and most honest resource)

[Northern]

It does sound to me like the ABS unit is clogged with crud. I think Jordan's service is a good investment.