FIRST E30!! '91 325i

[mike.bmw]

Nice E30! Looks like this one will be well taken care of.

[Mpolito3355]

NOTE:
My glove box is closed shut and wont open my friend accidentally closed it because he didn't know the mechanism was broken no big deal, the owners manual was the only thing of any importance in there. If anyone has any idea how to get it out besides drilling out the screws then let me know haha.

Just an idea !!!

and i like to idea of using this as a progress tracker keep up good work !!!

[bmWes]

hey all! Another update!
So I was home for a couple days and got the chance to change the coolant level sensor and the glove box. I was going to change the thermostat but I figured I would replace that while I'm down there for the timing belt anyways.

So the coolant level sensor is probably the easiest fix on the e30. All it is, is a plastic nut that screws onto the coolant reservoir. The only thing you need to make sure of is that you have a new gasket. just disconnect the connector, unscrew the old one and screw in the new one. the bobber of my old one was completely detached from the sensor so I had to fish it out of the reservoir tank. Started the car up and the coolant level light was off!

The next was the glove box which was easy in theory, but aligning the screws was a bitch. other than that it is really self explanatory. The only tip I have is that you get the right length screws, if you get screws that are too long, the glove box will not open because the latch will hit the screws before it unlocks the mechanism. I would say 3/4 inch length or less of a screw would work.

That's it for this week!
by the end of the summer my goal is to get a new steering wheel (the momo prototipo feels like sex. Hand stitched Italian leather ;D), new spark plug wires, new timing belt and water pump, replace thermostat, and steel braided break cables.
After that I wil bring it up to college and start with the bigger mods:D

Until next time!

[bmWes]

So went home again to do some work on the 30. Finally named her and I think I'm going to stick to the name Klara. So went home this past weekend and installed:
1) steel braided brake lines
2) fixed the a/c vents
3) installed the battery
link to pictures at the bottom

1) so to install the steel braided brake lines, you need a couple wrenches (I forget exactly which size) but the most important thing that you need is a flare wrench or even better yet my buddy let me borrow a pair of vice grips that were hinged to fit the sides of the nut. I first lifted the entire car. They say that you should start furthest from the master cylinder and work towards it but I was flushing all of my dot 3 fluid for dot 4 so it didn't really matter. After the car is lifted we took the wheels off and began locating the brake lines. On some websites I found steel braided brake cable sets that came with 4 lines and some that came with 6. The websites said that both of the kits fit a 91' 325i so I decided to go with the 6 as I didn't want to be short 2 cables in case there were 6 (which there are which I found out after 3 minutes of looking). There are 4 leading to each caliper and then there are two that are shoved up under the rear subframe that I didn't get to this time around. but I will when I either upgrade my rear subframe or swap my diff. One tip for removing the brake lines is to unscrew the side connecting to the hard metal lines first and then you can basically unscrew the side that leads to the caliper (save yourself half of the wrenching time). Then its as easy as screwing the new lines on all four calipers. We then flushed the system and bled it with the bleeder valves on each caliper. Essentially what you're doing is flushing out all of the air in your system so your brakes work properly. You will need a set of helping hands for this as someone needs to be pumping the brakes and the other needs to be at the bleeder valves checking for bubbles. then close the valves, make sure everything is tight, put the wheels back on and drop the car.
Some tips for replacing brake lines
1) have a buddy to help with the bleeding and flushing process it will make the final step a whole lot easier
2) make sure you use the right wrench for the nuts connecting to the hard lines
3) if you are using a pressure bleeder use 10-12 psi 15 is too high
4) DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK THAT YOU TIGHTEN EVERYTHING BACK UP, brakes are important xD
5) rinse the wheelwells and ground really well with water before you put the wheels back on, you don't want brake fluid sitting around

2) A/C vents
my ac vents were drooping so I just bought some #10 nylon washers from lowes, popped the vents out, placed the washers in and now they feel new again :D

3) battery install
Okay so this is for anyone who is interested in the odyssey PC680 battery, its a really small dry cell and weighs 15lbs (as opposed to 40-50)but it has the cranking amps and capacity for the e30. I was thinking of the best way to do this while still having it look good and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. I bought 3 L brackets and some #10 nuts, bolts, and washers from home depot along with a can of black truck bedliner spray paint for <$10. The lead cables on the car were pretty short for this small battery so I could only really place it in one spot. I dry fitted it, measured where the L brackets would go and drilled the holes into the battery tray. Then I spray painted the tray and the brackets black. After it dried I screwed the brackets on, put the tray back in the car, and placed the battery. Fit snug! Pretty proud of it because it looks nice, was cheap, and does the job well. For anyone looking to buy this battery! It comes with adapters but not the ones that we need. you have to buy the stud terminal adapters separate.

That's all for now. I'm going to buy the timing belt kit next and change thermostat while I'm at that

[chadthestampede]

That first line of your intro brought back some hard nostalgic feels.

No kidding. My first e30 was a red '91 325i that I bought in CA while I was in college.

OP, that's a nice looking car. I'm of the opinion that everyone should own at least one red 2 door e30 in their lifetime. I had way too much fun with mine.

[2mAn]

Do the water pump and thermostat when you do the t-belt

Car looks good, enjoy it!

[bmWes]

Do the water pump and thermostat when you do the t-belt, trust me

Car looks good, enjoy it!

I was going to.

[bmWes]

No kidding. My first e30 was a red '91 325i that I bought in CA while I was in college.

OP, that's a nice looking car. I'm of the opinion that everyone should own at least one red 2 door e30 in their lifetime. I had way too much fun with mine.

I love it more each and every day