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):
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:
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...
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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