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1990 E30 Touring

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    1990 E30 Touring

    Starting a thread on my recently purchased E30 Touring.
    VIN # - WBAAG61000EA59201 - Production date - 1990-10-16
    - Slick-top
    - ABS
    - Air Conditioning
    - Central locking
    - On-Board-Computer
    Bought the car on Vancouver Island. Drove it through Canada to Toronto and after a month and a half finally got my car to its new home in Chicago.


    Pictures
    20180913105153_IMG_1057 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
    20180912152240_IMG_0996 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
    20180912150458_IMG_0962 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
    20180912150336_IMG_0958 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
    20180911210538_IMG_0807 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
    20180911202458_IMG_0747 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr

    Plans

    More or less keep it as OEM as possible. Want to do all the small nitpicky interior things after getting it sorted after 6,000kms. Then euro smileys, and get working OBC. Then simply enjoy it. Maybe IS front lip, maybe suspension, maybe exhaust, hopefully wheels.
    Anything I do, even maintenance wise, will use this thread to keep track!


    Story

    Bought this car from a forum member all the way on Vancouver Island on September 11th. We spent a couple of weeks exchanging emails, texts,
    calls so I could somehow convince him I was a serious buyer and not kicking tires. Now the main challenge is that I am located all the way in Chicago
    so I was essentially buying the car from across the continent, in another country.
    After convincing my parents to let me try to purse this, me and the seller agreed on some terms where I sent half the price we agreed on for him to
    hold the car for me until I got there. Fast forward to September 10th, me and my stepdad drove to Toronto where we met up with one of his friends
    who would be coming with us. September 11th we flew from Toronto to Comox Valley. The seller, Jan, picked us up and we went to the car. Test
    drove it and absolutely loved it. We took care of the Bill of Sale, insurance (got 7 days of essentially temp plates to drive it to Toronto), and I bought
    a 4.10 diff from his friend for essentially a steal . Left Comox shortly after and our 5,000km drive back to Toronto began.
    We drove through Vancouver Island's scenic route, recommended by Jan, to the Trans-Canada Hwy Ferry to West Vancouver. It was my first time
    ever on a ferry which was pretty cool. Took us just under 2 hours to reach Horseshoe Bay, at which point we headed to downtown Vancouver to check
    it out.
    We got to Vancouver, where we stopped in front of Science World, and took some pictures. Drove through Central where our friend wanted to stop to
    get some things and I snapped some quick pictures. We drove back North but went off to Stanley Park. Really beautiful thing how there is a forest
    preserve on an island in essentially the center of the city. Took some more pictures and we walked a bit along the Seawall. Went back and drove
    around to Brockton Point Lighthouse for MORE pictures and after just relaxing for a bit we were on our way again. Our next stop was to be Whistler
    , BC, along Highway 99 which was again recommended by Jan. Originally planning the tripped the addition to the route changed the whole "get the
    car back asap" to "while we're there we might as well visit x."
    We took drove North to Whistler where we called our first day. Slept in a really cool apartment like hotel room at First Tracks Lodge. I had
    accidentally brought swim trunks and as it turned out the hotel had a outdoor heated pool. I just soaked in the pool still thinking over just how I got
    myself here. I still really couldn't believe I had convinced my parents for this and I was so giddy that my first car was something as cool as a touring.
    But I digress.
    Next day we went to check out the actual Ski Village (I guess thats what its called) of Whistler. Walked around, took some more pictures and left for
    our next "destination," Jasper and then Banff National Park(s). Recommended as a must stop by one of our friends.
    Leaving Whistler we went along highway 99 to highway 1. We drove along for a while, again the road and views were amazing. We did run into one
    complication. Internet signal was trash, and originally we were going to use my phone, where I had downloaded the offline maps for basically all of
    the lower half of Canada, but my GPS just didn't want to play ball. So instead I tapped the address into my stepdad's phone and went on our way.
    Back to the complication. We lost internet connection and the map disappeared, and we ended up going North on highway 97, instead of going onto
    highway 1. The road changed a bit and we were like "alright, shit we fucked up somewhere, we gotta ask someone what highway we're one." Now
    this being basically the back country of British Columbia there wasn't much of anyone to ask. We continued to drive along till we passed some
    driveway along the highway. Our friend got out to see if there was anyone to ask. Looking from the road it seemed no one was home, but just as we
    were about to hop back in and try to find someone else a pickup pulled in and the man graciously offered us help. Told us we went the wrong way and
    gave us directions on how to get to Kamloops. What to look for, where to turn, etc. We turned around and were on our way again. As soon as we got
    internet I downloaded the same maps on both my stepdad's phone and our friend's phone.
    After this nothing much happened besides seeing the Trans Canadian train with its glass top or whatever. Drove along highway 5 which at some point
    I decided to reserve a hotel room for us to sleep in when we get around Jasper. Now before Jasper there weren't many hotels as much as lodges, and
    in the town of Jasper it was wayyyy to expensive for me so I saved us a room in Hinton, on the west side of Jasper. This is a key point for later. We
    entered Jasper when it was pretty late. Around maybe 10 minutes from crossing the gate we noticed something fairly troubling. Snow. The car has a
    open diff, no TC, and I am super super super paranoid about rust. Only thing in our favor, and what eventually saved us, was that Jan had gotten me
    a pair of brand new all season tires as part of the deal. Our speed had been cut as we tried to keep the car and ourselves in one piece. Snow got
    worse but we drove through Jasper (nothing much to see in the dark of night really) and got to Hinton with no hiccups. Pulling into the hotel, around
    10pm, we noticed that they had a sign that they were full. Now luckily I had saved us a room earlier, but otherwise we wouldn't have had anywhere
    to sleep as most everybody was stopping for the sake of not driving through the snow so late at night. Anyway we ordered some pizza from a place
    called Gus' which was delicious and we called it a day.
    We woke up the next day, and stuck with the pizza for breakfast as the breakfast in the hotel was not particularly good. Or at least my stepdad and
    his friend did. I on the other hand headed straight out to the car to clean off the snow, and get it warmed up. Honestly, I was worried it wasn't going
    to start. A day or two earlier it was at sea level at a very Chicago-like temp, but now it had been running for a few days climbing mountains, and the
    morning in Hinton was freezing. No worries for this 28 year old car. Started up right away. Big thanks to Jan for having done so maintenance and kept
    it mechanically perfect. I'll get into the car at the end. Anyway we headed back towards Jasper. Picked up a day pass for the parks and kept on
    driving. Stopped along the way on highway 16 and snapped my FAVORITE picture of the trip. We saw some elk and took pictures as well. All before
    Jasper. There was a shit ton of driving again and at one point I switched off to drive. Its important to note that road conditions were all over the
    place. Some places it looked like it hadn't snowed, in others it was foggy with some slush, some it was raining, others snowing. I switched off to drive
    at what really turned out to be a bad time. Not to bad, some slush in the road but had the tracks of other cars to stick on to keep the car on the
    road. No biggie. Well shit as we got into a bit of a worse part of the road and the snow piles grew larger and the "driven" part of the road grew
    narrower I started to get worried. We passed a van being pulled out of the ditch and then shit got pretty bad. Not snowing, but the road had maybe
    1/2 of ice, with slush, and fresh snow to boot. All over the place. I did 40km/h with hazards on and more using inertia more than both the brake or
    the gas. I was white knuckling the shit out of the wheel and got pushed more on edge by the RV behind us. This motherfucker thought that since he
    was in an RV he could drive fast, but I watched him drift sideways scrapping the branches off the side of the road with his long ass. Learned to keep
    his distance pretty quickly. I drove all the way to Moraine Lake, another "might as well" destination. Took some more pictures there. Not much of the
    car but damn it was beautiful. Going to include a picture or two of there as well for the hell of it.
    We drove through Calgary next, didn't really want to stop. No offense to anyone from Calgary but it seemed boring with not much to see,
    compounded that we wanted to get as far as possible today we just drove by. Continued along highway 1 to Swift Current, where we called our third
    day done!
    After Swift Current we were determined to get to Toronto ASAP. I had school Monday so we needed a buffer day after driving for my stepdad to rest
    up before we head back to Chicago. Here the days get blurred. Essentially after Swift Current we drove to Winnipeg. Didn't really stop to explore, but
    we did stop to eat. We ate at The Keg, which was delicious. I forgot to add this in earlier but I'm a self-proclaimed burger connoisseur, so along our
    route I tried burgers wherever I could. Vancouver, Whistler, Winnipeg, even tried a salmon burger on the ferry. But that is besides the point. We ate,
    and were on our final push.
    For the last literal 32 hours of our adventure the car has been off for a mere 2 1/2 hours at most. 8 hours to Winnipeg, where we spent around half
    an hour to an hour eating and relaxing. And another 22 hours with a small break earlier on for us to sleep till we reached Toronto. We ended up
    leaving the car with our friend for a couple of weeks as we needed the next day to get straight to Chicago. Didn't want to deal with import time,
    possible problems and whatever so we hid it under a car cover.
    Eventually, I was able to get some temporary plates and my stepdad and mom were on their way to visit our friends again anyway so yea. Now
    import was fairly easy besides that the first guy helping out kept insisting that the car was not exempt from EPA or the FMVSS. His shift happened to
    end right after the import began so someone more competent took car of the rest. Not here's were it gets kind of sad. After over 5,000 kms without
    issue. The. Starter. Dies. Between. The. Borders. My stepdad didn't know what to do and called me while I was in class. Spent my math class in the
    hallway explaining to him how to explain to the initial border agent the 25, and 21 year rules. I skimmed through the forums and seemed there
    wasn't much it could be. Called up Jan out of panic, the absolute lifesaver ran me through what it could be before diagnosing the starter. My stepdad
    ended up asking a trucker to help him push start it so he didn't have to get it towed. Import done, now he couldn't really stop the car, and to top it off
    the gauge cluster seemed to have fucked off. Only part working was the speedometer, no gas gauge, temp, or most importantly fuel gauge. So for
    the rest of the 5-6h trip it ran nonstop and he would stop to fill up as he would usually.
    Here is a quick rundown of dates. August 18th I contacted Jan asking if the car was available. August 23rd I paid my 1/2 to have him
    hold the car till I got there. September 11th we had flown from Toronto to Comox, and I had bought the car. September 16th the car
    was parked in the back of our friend's driveway under a car cover. Fast forward to October 3rd my stepdad pulled into our driveway in
    Chicago with my gorgeous (Objectively. Don't agree? Fight me) car.
    Thank you for reading so far if you did. Honestly a once in a lifetime experience that I got to share with one of my closest friends (stepdad) and close
    family friend. So thankful for my parents both trusting me by letting me go through this and not trying to be controlling over the money I had
    literally saved for years. Loved this and would do it again.
    Last edited by MuDuRkKiO; 04-16-2019, 11:30 AM. Reason: Ya boy is learning to format better

    #2
    Car looks awesome! Welcome!

    Not gonna lie that first wall of txt is a little hard to read. Might wanna go back and format it a little better, just my 2 cents.

    Comment


      #3
      That pic with the icy mountains is stunning.

      Love tourings

      Comment


        #4
        I really appreciate the write up Petar. It was a pleasure to see the car go to such a young, yet educated enthusiast. I am sure you will keep that beautiful little wagon running strong.

        I will be updating my other E30 touring's page soon, but while my garage got back into Reno mode, I had to put the grey Touring onto the street infront of my house. Anyway.... someone backed into it. Again, updates will be coming shortly.

        Chat soon,

        Jan-

        Comment


          #5
          Hi there!

          That's really cool. I was actually considering to buy this car. If I remember correctly this is the one with auto and around 150k kms (around 93k miles).

          I ended up buying another one that I luckily found (very luckily since we only see 1-2 tourings a year listed on Craigslist during that time).

          It's great to see you bought the car and am taking good care of it.

          PS: How did you license the car to drive it back down to the US? I thought you need a Canadian driver's license to do so? I might be wrong though.

          Comment


            #6
            Sorry for the late replies. Thought I was going to get notifications or something but nope!


            Originally posted by ATL_E30 View Post
            Car looks awesome! Welcome!

            Not gonna lie that first wall of txt is a little hard to read. Might wanna go back and format it a little better, just my 2 cents.
            ----Sorry about that, I'll just move it to the bottom as not really sure about how to format too well.


            Originally posted by E30-TourZing View Post
            I really appreciate the write up Petar. It was a pleasure to see the car go to such a young, yet educated enthusiast. I am sure you will keep that beautiful little wagon running strong.

            I will be updating my other E30 touring's page soon, but while my garage got back into Reno mode, I had to put the grey Touring onto the street infront of my house. Anyway.... someone backed into it. Again, updates will be coming shortly.

            Chat soon,

            Jan-
            ----Oh my god no! So sorry to hear that. Did they at least fess up or did they just ditch? I'll be following your posts for the updates.

            If you just want to text me its totally cool. Really want to see what they did to the poor touring. :(

            Originally posted by rikaro View Post
            Hi there!

            That's really cool. I was actually considering to buy this car. If I remember correctly this is the one with auto and around 150k kms (around 93k miles).

            I ended up buying another one that I luckily found (very luckily since we only see 1-2 tourings a year listed on Craigslist during that time).

            It's great to see you bought the car and am taking good care of it.

            PS: How did you license the car to drive it back down to the US? I thought you need a Canadian driver's license to do so? I might be wrong though.
            ----We went with the seller to their insurance (Waypoint) and simply used my US address, paid the tax, and recieved temporary plates for the duration of the insurance. In our case 7 days. We drove it to Toronto where it stayed till we got temp plates from our state (IL). Simply drove it through, took care of the import, and mailed the documents to our DMV. Literally yesterday I finally got my plates and title and such.

            Comment


              #7
              Nice Touring!
              Simon
              Current Cars:
              -1999 996.1 911 4/98 3.8L 6-Speed, 21st Century Beetle

              Make R3V Great Again -2020

              Comment


                #8
                I used to own this car! Cool to see it show up here.

                I also used to live near Duffy Lake. That is my favourite road to drive.

                Comment


                  #9
                  That is a beautiful car, congratulations. I had a chance to check out the car when Jan had it and it was very nicely preserved.
                  The travel pics and story were great too.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by 2mAn View Post
                    Nice Touring!
                    Thank you!

                    Originally posted by iXguido View Post
                    I used to own this car! Cool to see it show up here.

                    I also used to live near Duffy Lake. That is my favourite road to drive.
                    Holy crap that is actually so cool. Small world (forum?). Would love to see if you have any pictures even before Jan's ownership.

                    Originally posted by Stvstr View Post
                    That is a beautiful car, congratulations. I had a chance to check out the car when Jan had it and it was very nicely preserved.
                    The travel pics and story were great too.
                    Thank you for the kind words! Jan did a insanely good job maintaining it both mechanically and aesthetically.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Just to keep a record on any maintenance/mods I end up doing to the car :D

                      Odometer reads ~320700, so the engine is at around probably 217,000km's (~134,800mi).
                      What was done,
                      • Engine Oil
                      • 4.10 LSD Installed
                      • Differential Oil
                      • Transmission Fluid
                      • Power Steering Fluid
                      • Brake Fluid
                      • Power Steering Hose Replaced
                      • Front Sway Bar End Links Replaced


                      Also glued up the rear speaker grille until I can source a new one.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        How do you like your 4.1 lsd on your 325i? I bought a 3.73 but my factory one from my touring is 3.91

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by rikaro View Post
                          How do you like your 4.1 lsd on your 325i? I bought a 3.73 but my factory one from my touring is 3.91
                          I love it. Just a bit faster plus lsd for the fun. I don't do much highway driving so its perfect for my use as I dont really need to worry about poorer gearing for higher speeds/rpms. Totally worth it imo!

                          Sent from my LG-H932 using Tapatalk

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Got a working 6BTN OBC and a 3D printed blank (plan to redo as I forgot to set proper infill). Small steps for now.

                            Sent from my LG-H932 using Tapatalk

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Been a while since my last post. I've done some small things, but mainly it my
                              first time ever working on a car.
                              Right after installing my 6BTN OBC, I decided to glue the carpet in the back
                              down to the cover for the spare. Really bothered me that, as it was peeling up,
                              the little strap to pull up the cover would fall through and not be able to do its
                              job.
                              [IMG]20190113_102721 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              My throttle cable bolt thing also worked itself out. Went over a particularly
                              shitty street, and when I went to leave a stop sign the pedal dropped to the
                              floor. This was the first time I've worked on something that is critical to the car
                              running. It took me around 40-50min to replace the entire throttle cable.
                              Disconnected some springs in the accelerator and was able to get the rubber
                              grommet that holds the hook in the mechanism in the foot well back on , which
                              was crazy pain in the ass. Some tiny piece of rubber, with me laying on the
                              foot sill trying to cram myself into the back to see what I was doing. I didn't take any pictures of this cuz I totally forgot. But hell of a difference compared
                              to the old one filled with gunk.

                              Also replaced the old worn hood badge.
                              [IMG]20190123_174656 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              One of the hooks for the cargo cover was broken, so I got a new one. But naturally when putting the cargo cover back on, I broke the things that hold it behind the seats. Thank fully I found a STL on thingiverse and 3D printed a replacement.
                              [IMG]20190226_201030 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              For the fun of it I took apart the rear. But decided half way I wanted to clean any hair and stuff that naturally collect, but it was clean as hell.
                              [IMG]20190227_225119 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              Probably the most dramatic thing that happened was when my shift selector rod broke. I don't bang gears so I have no idea how it broke. I don't have any close-up, but it was a really strange break through and through. I ordered a new part from FCPeuro, only to find that whilst the length (shifter to trans) was correct, the prong that attaches into the trans was actually too short. So I ordered the only other option on realOEM. This time, the prongs were in fact the correct length, but the horizontal length was too short. I think I needed to order the shift selector rod from the 4cyl as my car has the 240 trans. Meanwhile, a buddy let me learn using his stick welder, and after some practice I welded my broken rod together. Some grinding later and it seemed solid as hell. Just wish I took more pictures of my first proper weld.
                              [IMG]20190324_113206 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]
                              [IMG]20190414_223122 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              Finally after getting it up and running again I went for a test drive. It felt great, but my coolant light came on. My buddies helped me identify it was probably something with my heater, which I would have been able to diagnose much earlier if I had any idea exactly what I was doing. But thats how we learn. So to get the car back on the road as the weather here in Chicago is getting better, I setup a heater core bypass. Will be getting to the heater core and seeing whats broken today. Also want to rip up the carpet and make sure theres no coolant left.
                              [IMG]20190415_201758 by MuDuRkKiO[/IMG]

                              I'll get a bit more active on the forum as I do things to the car to avoid these massive posts.

                              Comment

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