Hot Chocolate Superleggera e30 Sperg Zone

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Tashan Dorrsett: Apr 10, 2015; by Deplorable exmarx

e30 thread? e30 thread!

I daily drive a 1988 325is with a ton of miles and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been giving me trouble lately re:bmw thread but I still love it. There's a good chance the next car I buy will be another e30.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 21:09

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 08:11

Tashan Dorrsett: Apr 10, 2015; by Deplorable exmarx

Anyone else going to the e30 picnic in Tacoma this weekend? My e30's been parked under a tree for the last month-and-a-half and I haven't fixed the paint damage from its latest parking lot incident but I'm probably going to show it anyway because hey it runs and drives again.

angryrobots posted:

Little low, and rough. It might hunt a couple times the first start up after the battery has been disconnected. The more it's driven, generally the better it idles.

FPR, that's no problem I can throw that at it. Injectors, what is going wrong with them maybe? Think they're not closing all the way?

Edit:I feel like running better with the AFM disconnected, means the fuel delivery is probably OK. I'm not familiar with the older e30 motronic, but I had to go deep into an issue with another car, and running better in alpha-n points pretty hard at a bad input.

Similar issue here, it starts off idling at 1100 when the cold start valve's kicked in, but once it cuts out it tends to hunt between 850 and 550rpm, eventually settling down at 550rpm. I've replaced just about everything on the fuel side of things, and personally I suspect my injectors need a cleaning/rebuild. No way to know if my AFM's been toyed with, but I've replaced or tested just about everything which could affect idle. Never hurts to have your injectors cleaned/rebuilt if you can deal with not having your e30 for a week. Unless you know 100% for sure the injectors are not the original ones that came on the car, and were replaced on the better half of the past two decades, don't try to clean them yourself. I guess my o2 sensor is bad and my ignition coil tests 1k ohms out of spec, but I don't really see either of those being culprits. Could be my broken impulse sensor though.

Tashan Dorrsett fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jun 23, 2015

# ¿ Jun 23, 2015 23:10

Tashan Dorrsett: Apr 10, 2015; by Deplorable exmarx

angryrobots posted:

So I need to test my tps to make sure it's sending idle position signal and look for vacuum leaks (like every other e30) and that's where I'm still at, haven't had a chance to screw with it.

TPS is easy. STOMP test if your ecu is new enough and if the STOMP test works so does your TPS. If your ECU is too old like mine (pre-november 1988) then you can manually open the throttle and listen for it to click on and off reliably when it's ever so slightly open. Also make sure your throttle cables are properly adjusted, too tight and it will not register the TPS and mask potential idle issues. The stomp test confirms the whole unit's working but listening for the click only confirms it's registering idle -> partial throttle and won't test WOT. To test WOT you need to pull the plug off it and use your multimeter (bentley manual tells you what it should read out to, can't remember) Usually an adjustment is all it needs, sometimes they get oil and crud inside and require cleaning, sometimes this gunk has been there long enough to weaken the springs or whatever inside and cleaning the contacts/gunk out isn't enough.

If you end up needing a TPS I have a spare good unit that's been cracked open and cleaned, all you'd really need to do is epoxy or melt the two halves of the case back together $free if you cover shipping, just don't ask for it unless you've cracked your unit open and know for sure it's bad so that if yours is good I can pass it along to the next guy in need. If you really feel bad about accepting car parts for free tack on a few bucks for weed or something. Keep in mind this tps has like 249,000 miles on it but it tests good.

Also I posted a complete-to-my-knowledge list of m20 (didn't read enough to know if yours is a m20 car) vacuum leak sources in the BMW thread a few pages back for Maggie. Don't listen to what the internet says about the crankcase breather hose, you can just pull the throttle body and let it dangle without unhooking the coolant hoses so you don't need to bleed your cooling system which turns it from a 30 minute job to a two second job. Everything else is pretty easy to get at to replace or spray with carb cleaner.

code:

Intake boot
Throttle body gasket
Throttle body fuel return line (little tiny hose behind the TPS that's easy to miss)
Throttle body metal fittings (!!!!!!!!!!!! JB WELD THESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
ICV hoses & connections
Brake booster, hoses, and connections
Crank case breather hose
Evaporative control hoses, valve, and expansion tank
Fuel pressure regulator & hose
Injector seals
Valve cover gaskets & bungs
Oil filler cap
Dip stick o-rings
Oil return tube o-rings
Pann gasket or oil level sensor gasket
lovely hose clamps (replace anything not-round and every single one of those bmw one-time clamps)

Maggie Fletcher posted:

I did not know this thread was here! Awesome. I'll be sure to post the MTech's progress as we go. Right now we're replacing a few things to make it road-ready and after that comes the trans swap.

My boyfriend mentioned this today. My MTech won't be ready before the weekend--we have to replace a few suspension parts and we can't even do the transmission conversion until next week sometime. So we're planning on going next year. By that time, the MTech should be really pristine.

Edit: also, apparently the BF was feeling left out being the only person in the family without a convertible so he bought a 91 e30 vert that is near-mint. The cosmetic condition is stunning--the leather is hard as a rock but not cracked so he's oiling and conditioning it to see if it'll go supple. If that works he's going to use it on what leather we can salvage from the MTech, which is not nearly as dried out. This one is a non-MTech but it was in such good condition, and a single-family car, that he had to buy it for $1100. It won't pass smog and it needs a new transmission but he can probably flip it pretty easily since the cosmetic condition is just shy of flawless.

So now, we have six cars between us. Five e30s and a classic race Mini. Two will be sold soonish, and the most recent convertible e30 will be flipped as soon as he gets the trans and smog issues sorted out.

Once I can get the MTech out of the garage, I'll post some pics.

You guys have very, very good taste in cars. I didn't think my car would be ready either, and to be honest it's in pretty poo poo shape after being parked under a tree for two months and hit by my neighbor, but hey it's a daily driver. I didn't think I was going to show it, but I don't think it's coincidence I got it running again just a mere few days before the picnic :v:

edit: by the way those household steam cleaner thingys for clothing work wonders on old leather, the cleaner it is the better it will respond to treatment & it's probably the least harmful way to clean leathers. It'll get even drier and stiffer after steaming, but you should be able to get it soft again. If it's not cracked and just stiff I guarantee it's not too far gone.

Oh yeah while I'm at it, if anyone needs coupe sport seat foam/skeletons/mechanical parts/bits and pieces I have spares of just about everything except the struts and seatbelt parts. Also have a few spare misc. restorable silver leather sections. $free to anyone in Washington or willing to cover shipping (probably not worth it, but sweet deal to anyone local who needs seat parts)

Since I'm offering up free stuff, if anyone has a ratty old shift boot that's even slightly better than my disintegrating torn up one I would be forever indebted because it's probably going to be a while before that one gets high enough on the cost-to-priority list for me to buy a new one. What can I say, the previous owner knew it was a driver's car -- the driver's bolster, shift knob, and shift boot were torn to hell and back while the back seat had never once felt the warmth of an rear end until I owned it.

Tashan Dorrsett fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Jun 24, 2015

# ¿ Jun 24, 2015 11:32

Tashan Dorrsett: Apr 10, 2015; by Deplorable exmarx

angryrobots posted:

My 87 325is (early 87 car) stomp tests just fine....

And I thought that about the stomp test generally verifying the tps operation, but my issue is intermittent, and it's an easy thing to check (if you have time, which I don't, so it sits).

It's had its ECU swapped at some point then, that came with a 153 from the factory which doesn't stomp. TPS is unlikely to cause intermittent issues but you can test by clicking it on/off a bunch of times and listening for if it misses a click either on throttle or on the way back down to idle. Don't worry about WOT, that wouldn't be affecting your idle. I wouldn't even look into other culprits until you've confirmed zero unmetered air.

You could also be getting intermittent/random poor quality spark from a bad ignition coil or distributor - all the cylinders will fire but one will randomly fire weaker, which can make the idle rough without outright misfiring. p common issue that's super easy to test.

Tashan Dorrsett fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jun 24, 2015

# ¿ Jun 24, 2015 23:17

Tashan Dorrsett: Apr 10, 2015; by Deplorable exmarx

HotCanadianChick posted:

The pacific northwest.

Probably the only place you can regularly.find rust free aw11's for like $1500

# ¿ Oct 14, 2015 17:56

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