Bronzit E30 - OBDII S52 shaved bay - weekend/autox toy - Journey

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Lolol casual work truck on bags. Everything’s a project!

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Well now that I've got the space and someone else who likes projects as much as I do, why not! :D

[Sh3rpak!ng]

So the car decided to spill all its coolant while I was back east visiting family. Into the driver footwell.... What looks like some sort of heater valve split its housing and slow leaked like half a gallon of coolant. Obviously I didn't notice this before I left I'm not sure which irritates me more, the ~$250 replacement part or that I'll probably have to pull the carpet to clean this all up properly.

Here's the part that split



And the mess it made





And this is how much coolant I sucked up out of the carpet....





So since the car will be out of commission for a few days I figured I might as well address some other issues while I'm at it. Those include the power steering reservoir, 25mm brake master (ordered one while I was away), and plugging the extra crank vent off the vanos that is doing nothing but leaking. These items ought to conclude the "mechanical to do list" that's been slowly getting shorter and shorter over the last few months.

[2mAn]

These items ought to conclude the "mechanical to do list" that's been slowly getting shorter and shorter over the last few months.

Famous last words!

jk Its a great feeling when you get to the point where its, "Hmmm what should I do now?" because you've knocked out pretty much all of the issues.

Mine is a long ways away from that. BTW Mark 2/3-2/4 on your calendar. Alfa Romeo Club of SoCal (AROSC) is having a track day at Big Willow. Im going, but not sure if Im actually going to race anything there.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Famous last words!

jk Its a great feeling when you get to the point where its, "Hmmm what should I do now?" because you've knocked out pretty much all of the issues.

Mine is a long ways away from that. BTW Mark 2/3-2/4 on your calendar. Alfa Romeo Club of SoCal (AROSC) is having a track day at Big Willow. Im going, but not sure if Im actually going to race anything there.

I know. I'm skeptical of myself for saying it at all. I feel like there is something else that I forgot... either way I'm getting really close. Definitely not at the "Hmmm what should I do now?" stage yet. That'll probably never happen. I still have a long list of "non critical projects" (painting trim black, polishing fender flares, replacing/refinishing all door/bumper trim, some sort of vinyl livery, roll cage + harnesses, new exhaust with center exit, supercharger :devil: )

As for the track day, pretty sure I won't be there. I really need to put my other e36 back together. And need to prioritize that over all else.

EDIT: already thought of another mechanical issue, the clutch actuation still isn't right. Gotta work on that too

[paynemw]

Turns out the ignition cylinder broke a little cast aluminum tab that pops a pin in/out the bottom which is what engages the ignition housing -> ignition switch to put the car in "run" and bump the starter. So I had to get a new ignition cylinder. I didn't want to hand over a kidney for a vin coded one so I just got a replacement with a new key for $50. Not bad, though now I join the club of E30 owners with different keys for the door locks and ignition

I'm having the same issue. There is a way to have a locksmith make you new disks or pins to make the "pinout" the same for all cylinders.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

I'm having the same issue. There is a way to have a locksmith make you new disks or pins to make the "pinout" the same for all cylinders.

I don't know. I didn't bother to go try to take the cylinder apart to see if it could be re-keyed to fit the existing keys. I am fairly certain that you can order a "coded" ignition lock from the dealer which should match your other keys (assuming they're original). But keep in mind that the brand new ignition cylinder may not work very well (or at all) with old worn keys, and then if you get new keys from the dealer to match, they may have trouble with the old worn locks in the doors....

If you haven't already replaced your other locks, it may be easiest to get a whole new lockset for the whole car. I wish I did that from the start.

If you come up with a solution let me know! I'd love to make the ignition cylinder match the original keys again since I rebuilt all the door locks and ordered a vin cut key from the dealer.

[paynemw]

If you come up with a solution let me know! I'd love to make the ignition cylinder match the original keys again since I rebuilt all the door locks and ordered a vin cut key from the dealer.

My godson's father is a professional locksmith and car guy. He's successfully "repinned" 2 of my cars and my house for me. What you (the locksmith) do is take the cylinder apart and find a few cylinders or discs that are close, then file them down with your worn key in the cylinder. That way you "repin" all of the cylinders using the worn key that you have. Then make copies off the worn key you're using. He sat there and explained it to me and showed me as he did the work. It was quite cool.

I was thinking about grabbing the whole kit from ECS Tuning but if you're trying to be economic like me, you snag all of the cylinders off parts cars then use those parts to make one nice set.

Time to find a friendly locksmith near you!

[Digitalwave]

The battle with your clutch actuation has to be frustrating, especially since it's not easy to tinker with!

[Sh3rpak!ng]

My godson's father is a professional locksmith and car guy. He's successfully "repinned" 2 of my cars and my house for me. What you (the locksmith) do is take the cylinder apart and find a few cylinders or discs that are close, then file them down with your worn key in the cylinder. That way you "repin" all of the cylinders using the worn key that you have. Then make copies off the worn key you're using. He sat there and explained it to me and showed me as he did the work. It was quite cool.

I was thinking about grabbing the whole kit from ECS Tuning but if you're trying to be economic like me, you snag all of the cylinders off parts cars then use those parts to make one nice set.

Time to find a friendly locksmith near you!

That's great info! Thanks for sharing. Kinda bummed I tossed the old cylinder already since it sounds like I might've used it for parts to make the new one match. Knowing this I'll make some effort to match the cylinder to the original keys.

The battle with your clutch actuation has to be frustrating, especially since it's not easy to tinker with!

Frustrating as hell. Especially since it's something you notice CONSTANTLY. It's not like I can ignore it. What's weird is that right after I reassembled everything the first couple of presses on the pedal felt really smooth and took way less effort than "normal". But it quickly went back to the way it was. Very stiff and inconsistent travel. I have a feeling the TOB isn't seating evenly and it's just been pressing like 2/3 of the fingers on the pressure plate. That would explain the uneven wear on the fingers of the PP, the really stiff pedal and the feeling like it doesn't completely disengage all the time. The clutchmasters tech was stumped when I spoke to him over the phone and wanted me to ship the unit back to them... I may do that still

[econti]

Locksmith reporting in.
The actual best way is to do a new key to the code which is stamped in your driver's door lock, and get the ignition done to that key.
You aren't dealing with old worn keys and it's the best result possible.
Not too difficult to do, we'd probably charge 50 ish to cut the key and rekey the ignition. That is Australia pricing though.

[paynemw]

Locksmith reporting in.
The actual best way is to do a new key to the code which is stamped in your driver's door lock, and get the ignition done to that key.
You aren't dealing with old worn keys and it's the best result possible.
Not too difficult to do, we'd probably charge 50 ish to cut the key and rekey the ignition. That is Australia pricing though.

I did get a friend discount and a "friend" backyard fix when I had my buddy help me out. We went the "hot rod" way on the 4Runner.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Locksmith reporting in.
The actual best way is to do a new key to the code which is stamped in your driver's door lock, and get the ignition done to that key.
You aren't dealing with old worn keys and it's the best result possible.
Not too difficult to do, we'd probably charge 50 ish to cut the key and rekey the ignition. That is Australia pricing though.

I've got new vin cut dealer keys already so it sounds like all I need to do is take the cylinder to a good locksmith?


Over the weekend I pulled out the "old" PS reservoir and lines. It was much less difficult than I thought it would be. All the mods I've done to make these systems and parts easy to disassemble are really paying off.





Also drained the coolant to get ready to replace the heater valve. Between draining the PS fluid and coolant, I only made like 2 drops on the ground. Yes i am proud of that.





PS out





Here are the other parts. They all come out in easy sections. Easily accessible bolts and connections. Took me less than an hour to drain the fluids, pull the fender, pull grill/headlight, pull the headlight back plate, remove the intake and pull the PS res and lines.





I sand blasted the door hinges at work and primed/painted them with SEM trim black as well. The paint that was on them had started flaking off.





Here's the offending heater valve. Not surprised that it split. 30 year old plastics that were riveted together. I popped it apart out of curiosity and the inside was totally filled with crud too. The replacement part is much beefier and is bolted together into an aluminum block.







After I got the coolant and PS back together I decided to take the car out to an early car show in Malibu on Sunday. Afterwards decided to hit some canyons with friends I met there. Made the first turn of PCH into the canyon, floored it in 1st and then got a BLAST of coolant up my windshield.... quickly pulled over and opened the hood





This happened... don't know what to think. It was an oem continental/rein hose probably a year or two old.





I pulled over before anything got hot. Luckily I knew I had a spare hose still in my garage in Topanga relatively close by. So I parked the car in the canyon and my friend drove me back to pick up the hose, then back to the car. Swapped the hose, filled with distilled water and drove it home without incident. It was quite an adventure morning.

Contemplating replacing both hoses with silicone again.

[dasmanschaft012]

Super strange failure, I'm sure it wasn't rubbing or anything.
Those hoses should last years and years and years... maybe you just got a dud.

[Sh3rpak!ng]

Super strange failure, I'm sure it wasn't rubbing or anything.
Those hoses should last years and years and years... maybe you just got a dud.

Yea, weird as hell. No rubbing. It split from the inside out. I went with the oem hose specifically because they last years could've been sitting on a shelf for a long time before I bought it

[kid8]

The same thing happened to my heater valve. Luckily I caught it before it dumped as much coolant as yours, no fun. Love all the little touches on your car, it's such an animal.