One of the first things I did to my IX was replace the clutch. I think I blocked off the memory from my mind, but when you mentioned the starter bolt I remember it being awful. like 3 feet of extension and a wobble seems to be our solution.
Glad you got it wrapped up. Should have shred some weight on that flywheel, i regret not having done just a little bit.
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Great thread so far. Sometimes you need to take a couple steps backward to move a few forward. Looking forward to hearing more updates!Leave a comment:
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I was going to say ive seen more oil pan gasket failures on these old m20s then rear mains, but you found that out the hard way.
i like this thread so far, carry on!Leave a comment:
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I'm glad you asked! Although I would have explained either way :p
My father was out of town for a few weeks, allowing me use of his garage and car, so I had a rare chance to do stuff on my daily that didn't need to be done in a day or weekend.
With summer temps creeping up, it was time to finally install the fan clutch that's been living in my trunk for months. To compliment that I bought a timing belt, tensioner, spring, pin, lower-temp thermostat, and a set of silicone hoses for the coolant system. I've only put 17k miles on it in the last two years but couldn't recall if the PO said he did a Tbelt or not.
Per the instructions on some coolant flush I got, I jacked the front of the car up two feet and drained the coolant from the radiator and block. Then I noticed a dinner-plate-size pool of oil forming under the bell housing
I lowered the car and it leaked faster. Not knowing whether my apparent rear main failure had fouled the clutch disc, I decided to tackle it while I (mostly) had the time. This required repositioning the car to gain access:
(tl;dr - I jerry-rigged my exhaust) When I installed the cat-back exhaust two years ago, one of the captive flanges on the cat side was broken on one end next to the bolt hole. Short of cutting the flare off, getting a new flange (if that's even possible without finding one in a yard), re-flaring the pipe (probably both pipes, so they line up), and all that, I put a hose clamp around the flange and tightened it down. Seems solid to this day ;) Not wanting to disturb a delicate, precise connection, I removed the exhaust in one piece from the manifold. Anyone interested in a similar procedure will want to take the nut off the passenger side motor mount and jack that puppy up a few inches, to get the pipe off the manifold studs.
Driveshaft removal was a hassle due to my car having the little vibration dampener on the front. I've been planning to reassemble without it, unless someone has a reallllly good reason not to.
Edit: removed broken pic. Also put it back together without it, so it's not a part of the car anymore --> doesn't need to be pictured here.
The guibo will be getting an update:
At this point I discovered exactly why my shifter was looser than a... well, it was loose. The shifter arm bracket (rusty bit in top of pic) had no rubber left in it, leaving the console pin floating like a dick in a shirt sleeve.
On to transmission removal! Bentley doesn't say much about bell housing bolts apart from them being a variety of types/sizes. After getting all the easy ones out I discovered the starter needed removing. I suppose that revelation is so mundane that's why the manual didn't mention it at all - not in the slightest - s'far as I can tell.
Anyhow, I'm not a tremendous contortionist so I removed the air box, intake boot, and throttle body to facilitate removal of "the worst bolt on the e30" according to several sources, the top starter bolt. I was actually halfway through unbolting the intake manifold when I happened upon the bolt I was looking for
Home free! Not. Even with the starter off, I couldn't remove the trans. Understanding there should be no prying involved, I did more research and found a helpful pic of a removed trans with colored arrows indicating each bolt. There were two torx bolts still in the top. As stated, not a contortionist, so I dropped the front subframe, with the engine, about two inches to gain easy access. Easier said than done, but it worked out and the trans was free!
And filthy:
Good news is the infamous bitch clip is a lot easier after spending an exorbitant amount of time removing the transmission ;D
The other good news in all of this is the excuse to order a clutch kit which included all the seals for the trans, rear main, carrier gasket, throwout bearing, pilot bearing, clutch and pressure plates. I also ordered all new shifter bushings and one of those fancy selector rods with forks on either end to grab the linkage from both sides.
Y'all probably already know this trick, but if you wanna get a bearing (say, a pilot bearing) out of a blind hole but don't have a puller, just cram that hole with wet paper towels/TP/old homework, pound in the hole with an appropriate sized punch/dowel/wizard's staff, and repeat!
Some people use grease, which may work faster, but cleaning watery pulp out of your beard is easier than grease.
Got the ol' tranny and back of engine cleaned up, got the seals in, and started putting new shift bushings in. Replaced the rear main but neglected the carrier gasket 'cause it seemed fine and I was getting a little antsy to have my car back on the road after a bullshit week. Clutch set, flywheel torqued, transmission back in, and the subframe bolted back, I called it a day. My father was back and worked the jack while I handled the tranny. Finally some help! That was this past Sunday.
Monday I returned to a dinner-plate-size oil leak under the bell housing Really, it's what I get for attempting some lazy-ass shenanigans.
Dropped the subframe and pulled the trans in record time. Took the carrier off to discover its gasket and the oil pan gasket are both the original paper and NFG. Got a new oil pan gasket on the way. Also discovered there was a small piece of the old rear main rubber sandwiched between the new seal and the carrier, so I rectified what may have been another leak shortly down the line.
Had surgery Tuesday so I haven't been back except to put away some tools. Hoping to pull the oil pan one day this weekend. New gasket and some other odds and ends should arrive Monday.Leave a comment:
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Thanks! Yeah, I was pretty shocked it went for 200 miles like that. I had been driving the MKII Golf for 8 years straight and had no idea what a more powerful engine should feel like
Why?, it's already the beste blau, cirrusblau ;DLeave a comment:
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you need Steel Gray Metallic ''BMW 400, Stahlgrau Metallic''
and Ronal Turbo Wheels
8-)
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Looks like a good start. Welcome to the e30 community.
Pretty amazing it ran on 5 cylinders like that for so long. M20 are pretty tough.Leave a comment:
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Let Me Tell You About My e30
Welcome to my first thread! It's about slowly treating my girl right. Traditionally I've been a fix-it-when-I-have-to wrencher but have been inspired to treat her proper by many of the project threads here.
I adore guidance, please do not hesitate to point out if I've done something the hard way or, especially, horribly wrong. I might still insist on doing it the hard way.
Before the History, here's an ongoing list of things I'm looking to do to/for the car (no particular order):- Euro bumpers
- iS front spoiler - bought one, need to repaint and get/make brackets
- Paint at some point, same color
- Wheels (anyone selling 15x7 weaves?)
- Refurbish AFM (from BavRest) COMPLETED
- Suspension
- Timing belt COMPLETED
- Headgasket
- Replace stamped intermediate gear
- New driver's seat (or covers)
- Chip of some sort
- Injectors - know mine could use cleaned... or upgraded?
- Clean up the diff case (rustball)
- Adjust lock actuators (two doors unlock fully only intermittently - no pattern as to when they work vs not. not sure if adjustment is fix)
I HEARTILY welcome any and all advice on the above. Thanks in advance.
And a list of things I'd like to buy.
History: (tl;dr)
I bought my first, and only, e30 in January 2016 with 190k. I was looking for a new daily to replace my rotting MKII Golf and fell in love at first sight. The price was right too.
She ran, but quit at idle once warmed up. S'far as I know, she was bone stock with some character. I named her Beatrix 'cause I like alliteration.
She needed some immediate updates:
- pads and rotors all around
- front calipers
- control arms
- driver's sideview
- driver's inside door handle
- catback exhaust
- intake boot
- new CPS
- new trans and diff fluids
The steering wheel felt like sweaty, sticky skin, sloughing black schmutz off on my hands, so I treated myself to a freshly wrapped wheel from Czechia. It came with a shifter knob fo' free :pimp:
Having completed what felt like a massive overhaul
, I took to the road. The ride was smooth and a lot tighter than my worn-out MKII, but she didn't feel significantly more powerful with her almost double HP and 50% more cylinders.
A few weeks later I changed the oil and must've forgot to put the cap back on, turned out to be a lucky mistake. Looking into the fill hole, in hopes of plugging it up to avoid a tow, I noticed broken rocker arms up front. The condition of the breaks indicated they had been broken for some time. I'd been driving around on five cylinders for more than a couple hundred miles
After scrapping the idea of replacing the spark plug with a tiny muffler, I (with help from my mechanic father, mini-muffler dissenter) replaced the rocker arms, associated gaskets/seals, bitch tube, breather hose, and adjusted the valves. I was slated to visit my sister in Buffalo the next weekend, so I hastily put a few hundred miles on to make sure everything was alright. Beatrix made the trip without a hitch and I finally saw fuel economy in the 20's ;D
Since then she's gotten new ignition parts (all save the coil), rear wheel bearings, battery, tie rod ends, clutch slave cylinder, coolant bottle, fuel filter, and 17k+ miles.
That pretty much brings things up to speed, until this past week...
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