MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Hi folks, Firstly, apologies in advance, I do appear to have waffled on a bit Just getting a project thread going for my new purchase, won't be much happening for a while but I don't want to forget where I started! I bought this off a fellow RR member, spiny, after him losing motivation with fixing the car up after a "little" problem occurred sometime last summer. From what I've gathered, the cam belt was due to be replaced, but for one reason or another it always ended up being a "next week" job. I'm sure you can see where this is going... In the end, the belt didn't go completely but rather sheared in half down it's length, with the front half flinging off around the pulleys and the half that was left jumping a few teeth. Unfortunately it was enough to mash a few valves, and so for the past year and a bit spiny has been spending the odd weekend here and there dismantling the top half of the engine and repairing what was necessary. Now, after recently getting it all back together he was greeted with the lovely sight of coolant gushing from somewhere up front down the side of the block, an ever rising temperature gauge, and obviously an ever decreasing coolant reservoir. Which is where I step in. Spiny advertised the car on the Area 52 Facebook page last week, briefly explaining the situation and saying that he now wants to shift the car to someone else as he's had enough of it. After a few questions as to the spec of the car and so on, I was happy enough to take a drive down to his place and have a poke round the beast. He was selling it cheap, and even with the risk of a potential cracked head or maybe even the need for a new engine (very unlikely, but you never know!), I just couldn't say no. This wasn't as easy as just bringing it home though, as I'd first have to convince my Dad to let me keep another car at his house! There's sensible space for 4 cars (2 in the garage and 2 on the drive): he keeps his car in the garage along with my Mini, and seeing as I've also got the BX as my current daily it took a bit of persuading that I really need 3 cars at the age of 20 when I have no job and no source of income apart from the government (Student loans ). However, I knew I'd won when he made the comment, "I've always fancied a Beemer on the drive". I'm sure he wasn't envisaging a 24 year old car that's a bit broken, but it's still a BMW! So, a couple of days ago I paid for it and got the car transported to it's new residence at my Dads house. It's going to need a lot of niggly things fixing, but the main issue is of course the coolant leak, which could get pretty involved. It's a project though, and one I'm happy to spend time and a fair chunk of money on to make it right - these are appreciating classics in my opinion! Nothing much is going to happen with this until the Easter holidays and then summer holidays, as I'm currently in my third year of a four year uni course and won't be able to work on it whilst I'm away from home. Anyway, enough of the back story, and on to the car. It's fairly basic, spec wise, as these cars go, but it has had a few options ticked. It's got the standard cloth interior, front electric windows (keep fit rears), a 13 button on-board-computer (quite desirable, and unfortunately for me, quite broken as the LCD display has melted inside), an M sport steering wheel, and a few other things I've forgotten. It doesn't have a sun roof, which will make the job of re-upholstering the headlining much easier! Most importantly though, it's got the 2.5 straight 6 engine (M20B25) and a manual 'box - the only drivetrain I'd consider in one of these! It's going to need a fair bit of attention cosmetically, there are a few bubbles of rust and plenty of odd blemishes in the paint, along with a couple of smallish dents. The bonnet has also had a nice bit of artwork applied to it, which unfortunately isn't to my tastes so that'll be going! Overall though, it's a solid base and should be a bit of fun for me next summer whilst on my last long uni summer holiday! tl;dr - I bought a car. I only managed to take a couple of phone pics at the weekend, I was too excited playing with my new toy to be taking pictures of it If all goes well and I can get it fixed up properly, I'll use it as my daily from August and try my best to sell the BX. It'll cripple me in fuel costs, but I'll be doing less mileage next year and I reckon it'll be fun enough to be able to put up with 20-25mpg! As far as mods go, I'll keep my eye out for any interesting factory upgrades (leather seats, roller blind load cover, etc.) and I'd eventually I'd like to lower it a bit, fit the 17" Alpina copies I got with the car (result!), and fit a far more anti-social exhaust (this one has far too many mufflers for my liking...) so I can hear more of that wonderful engine. Expect a few updates here and there, but probably not much until the summer. The first thing I've got to do is find where all this coolant is gushing from...
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Last Edit: Dec 31, 2015 15:38:41 GMT by MrOtter
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Mark
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,818
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Good buy you've got yourself there fella. E30's are nice and simple to restore and maintain, plus the m20/2.5 is a very nice engine. The artwork on the bonnet is erm, interesting?
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BMW 320d (fridge on wheels)
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Thanks guys, yeah not sure of the motivation behind the bonnet artwork, maybe if spiny reads this some day he can tell us? I haven't had much of a chance to look at this yet, but I had a little play earlier for a few hours. It seems that the major gushing leak down the side of the block was just the top rad hose not on properly... bit lucky for me there! However, there is still a constant drip, which turns in to a stream when revved, coming from the front of the engine. It's hard to see, but I'm fairly certain it's coming from the water pump, so my next port of call will be to get that out and inspect it - I'll be sure to add a bit of sealant to the gasket when it goes back on as I've read the gasket by itself sometimes isn't enough and can cause a leak just like this. This could turn out to be a very cheap fix, fingers crossed. I've also had a change of mind on the wheels I want (eventually) after doing a bit of reading on E30 forums. I'm going to try and get some original BMW E30 15" BBS wheels, mainly because I think they look really cool for factory wheels, but also because I want to retain the handling these cars are known for - apparently fitting 17" (like the Alpina copies) make the ride a bit harsh and slightly compromise the handling. Plus, through a bit of research, I found out that my car came with the optional 15" BBS from the factory! Which explains the reason for the spare being a 15" BBS I'll try and take some more general pictures of the car tomorrow, give you all an idea of what sort of things I'm going to be sorting out over the next many months!
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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So then, more pictures and details. Overall it's in pretty good shape, there's a bit of rust, a dent on the front wing, and a scrape on the passenger rear arch. The tailgate is in pretty good shape - these are seemingly a major weak point on tourings. There is meant to be another bit of weather stripping running along the bottom of the window I believe, so if I get any funny water leaks I'll need to try and get a replacement. It's not perfect though, it's breaking out in to crows feet/bubbles in 3 or 4 places along the bottom edge of the window aperture, and there's this bubbly bit further down. I'm not sure if this is still the original dealer sticker, but I'd like to think it is (the keys have a Vines keyring on them), if so it looks in good shape for being 24 years old! The one on the BX was just a rectangle of white after 20 years. The front sections of the black plastic sill extensions are not fitted. One of them is missing, so I'll need to either find a replacement front section or maybe ditch the whole lot. The driver's door has this bit of rust at the bottom. Strangely enough it looks fine on the inside, it's purely the outer skin that's gone... I know this because I bought the car with the door card removed (I believe due to the PO fixing some sort of central locking/sticky lock issues) so I can take a look inside. That door card is currently living in the boot (along with an extra spare wheel that I have yet to find a home in the garage for). Unfortunately the little black plastic bit that screws on top of the lock mechanism at the top rear edge of the door is missing, so I'll need to find a replacement one of those. Shouldn't be too hard! The roof lining needs re-doing - these are almost always gone on an E30 touring nowadays. The glue holding the fabric to the headlining breaks down and the fabric ends up hanging down like a ships sail. The PO got as far as ripping out the old saggy fabric - I guess it's up to me to do the rest! I'll be taking the whole lot out and gluing some new fabric on. As you might have noticed from the inside pics, the car is a non-sunroof model, which will make the headlining removal/refurb a bit more simple! The car has the basic cloth "comfort" seats, with obligatory tearing in the drivers seat. If I keep the car long enough then I'll probably try and find a sports interior in cloth or leather (seats with a bit of bolstering to them, kind of like old Recaros). Hasn't done too many miles for it's age. Lowest mileage car I own in fact, despite it being the oldest. It's also the most technologically advanced, by far. I know there's meant to be a bit of cowling beneath the steering wheel here, but that's also missing in action. There are a couple of wires with bulbs on them hanging down from underneath too, no idea what they're for! No radio or speakers, but I can just take the head unit from the BX before I sell it, and get some cheap speakers off the interwebz to fill the holes in the BMW. I'll take the compact sub out of the BX too and find a home for it somewhere when the time comes. The desirable 13 button OBC has unfortunately melted its display - I would try and get another one, but they're quite expensive (£70-£80) and then who's to say that the replacement won't do the same thing in another couple of months? Nobody seems to think it's worth replacing the screens themselves (that's the only bit that goes to create the little lava lamp) but I'd be much happier doing that if at all possible. The heater blower doesn't work, and as such I have no idea whether the heater gets warm or not. The glovebox lid is hanging on one hinge/strap, so I'll need to bodge fix that before the stress overcomes the one strap that's still attached. Going to the front of the car - firstly, the headlights are odd. This is bugging the hell out of me even whilst the car's sitting on the drive doing nothing, so I'll have to find a replacement set of lights for the driver's side to match the passengers side. It's got clear front indicator lenses, which normally I don't like. However I think they quite suit white/silver/black cars so they'll probably stay. However the side repeaters are still orange, so that means I'll need to find some clear side repeaters too to match. The bonnet... not sure what to do with this. It would be a lot of effort to get rid of what's on there now, and I might do that to find that the paint is ruined underneath and that's the whole reason a bit of fun was had with painting in the first place. To be fair, there is lacquer peel on the edges so this probably is the case. There's also a nice dent in the middle somewhere, so what I'm going to try and do is keep an eye out for a Lachssilber E30 being broken somewhere and just replace the bonnet altogether. Whilst I'm at it I'll try and get a pair of wings and maybe the drivers door, as they've all been rattle canned to some extent, the drivers wing is dented and bent like a banana, and the drivers door is rusty (as shown above). That'll probably be expensive though (because BMW) so I don't know... Now we come to the engine, the big silky smooth 2.5 straight 6. It may not be that powerful compared to what some of you are used to, but it's all about perspective. The Mini had 56hp (that was with a lot of money spent to get it there from about 40hp), the BX has about 70hp. The BMW has 170hp. So you can imagine the grin on my face when I took it for a little spin up and down my road private test track. It makes one hell of an awesome noise too! Boy can I not wait to get this thing on the open road and have some fun. There is, of course, the issue with the coolant leak. I won't be looking at it for a while, but it can just about hold it's drink long enough for a little test drive. Leaves a bit of an evidence trail though... Oh yes, after the little drive I can also say that the brakes are spongier than a spongy thing soaked in sponge sauce and 90% of the clutch pedal travel is not needed. I'll see what it's like when I get it on the road properly, but it may need a new clutch before too long... I could go in to more detail with this, but I doubt anybody is that interested and I've been writing this post for far too long now! Thanks very much for reading if you made it this far. Cheers. Oh, and Merry Christmas.
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Last Edit: Dec 25, 2013 7:09:03 GMT by MrOtter
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Don't let that M20 overheat or run out of coolant - use top it up with blue coolant or a mix too - not just water. Be very careful running it at all until it's fixed. They can airlock and crack the head in a few minutes - without even registering that it is hot on the gauge. Get the heater blower fixed as well. You need to get hot air blowing to be sure that it is bled properly.
It'll be the water pump - I had a brand new one that curse word coolant out on fitting - or its gasket - make sure the remnants of any old gasket are completely scraped from the block mounting face. The other option that I've seen - more rarely - is the mild steel pipe running a toss the front of the engine. I've seen that corrode. Happy Christmas.
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Unless they have a heater valve like a ford or renault itll make no difference if the heater is set to hot or not, and whether theres air flowing makes not one bit of difference either.
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Dec 25, 2013 11:33:13 GMT
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They have a heater valve.
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Jan 16, 2014 20:46:50 GMT
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Thanks for the advice bavarianretro, I'd done my research and took precautions before trying to let it run for more than a few minutes and it seems to have survived! I just couldn't wait to take it for a little spin Next thing I'm going to do on the car is pull the water pump off and see what's up - hopefully I can just clean everything, put a bit of sealant on and get it back together good as new. I won't be attempting to run it before then, and I'll also make sure to fix the heater blower at the same time. In other news, I bought some wheels: Nothing special, but I like the way they look and I like that they're what the car came with from the factory (not in black though, obviously). With a set of new Nankangs on, I should have a good platform to learn how to drive a rear wheel drive car in wet weather.
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Had a bit of a poke around today, decided to try and deal with some of the rust on the tailgate now before it got any worse. I had a look at the couple of scabs I could see and noticed that the rust went behind the plastic number plate mounting panel, so thought I'd pull that off to reveal what laid beneath... Quite a few big scabs there, so for now I just wire wheeled the worst of it off and gave the bare metal areas a coat of kurust. I'll neaten it all up and give it a proper coat of paint some time. Then I grabbed a razor blade and got rid of the manky old sticker that was flaking off the rear window. I also went over that sprayed on yellow Atari logo with some T-cut - thankfully it was only sprayed on lightly so it was rubbed off within about a minute! Neatened up the back end a bit (minus the rust!). I then moved towards the front of the car and went about putting the door card back on. Thankfully all the popper clips were still in place and not broken, but unfortunately the screws for the door pull/arm rest were missing, along with the trim piece that goes around the door handle and the little black bit that screws over the door lock actuator thingy. Luckily I had some screws that were a perfect match to the ones that were supposed to be there (checked against the passenger side screws), so I got the door pull mounted back on fine. Now I just need to remember to source those other couple bits of trim. When I got the car, the passenger's side window switch only worked getting the window down - to get the window back up again you had to swap the switches with the driver's side. They were both hanging out of the centre console, so I took the passenger's switch out, pulled it apart and gave the insides a liberal soaking in contact cleaner, and it now works a treat. So then I popped the window switches back in place, along with the gear shift gaiter that was also previously loose. Then I removed another couple of old stickers from the front windscreen. So I'm slowly cleaning the car up, even if I still haven't looked at fixing the suspected water pump leak... I'll do that when it get's a bit warmer outside I think
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Last Edit: Feb 9, 2014 17:19:19 GMT by MrOtter
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When you're in there doing the water pump, unless you know it has been done very recently, do the timing belt and the tensioner too.
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Feb 10, 2014 11:14:16 GMT
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Excellent work going on here
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Feb 10, 2014 13:40:00 GMT
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love the wagons...Ive got an 07 and am intrigued by the evolution of these cars. Many items are still largely unchanged, while other features and styling has evolved quite a bit....
I wish I could have found a MT version of my car...but none were to be had...they are quite rare over here. Estates/Tourings are not imported in great numbers either....
I have heard that we no longer get MT versions of wagons for this upcoming model year....bummer....
anyway, keep plugging away on it...its a great project.
JP
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I know its spelled Norman Luxury Yacht, but its pronounced Throat Wobbler Mangrove!
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Feb 10, 2014 14:38:49 GMT
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Always loved e30's, the best shape of the 3 series line in my opinion!
Should be more than a giggle to drive compared to what you've driven and owned so far. Good luck with sorting the engine fault, hopefully it won't be anything too bad or expensive
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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bavarianretro, the timing belt and tensioner were changed about 6 months ago and have done about 1 mile! The guy I bought the car off of had just put it back together after a cambelt change/head re-furb after valves went smashu, but then after getting it back together there was coolant spewing everywhere and got fed up of fixing it, so he sold it to me. He didn't change the water pump whilst he was in there, so I'm hoping it's an old pump that gave up the ghost when a new, tight belt was put on; so I shall just be doing the pump, which I've now bought off ebay and will be fitting in a couple of weeks. JP, thanks for the encouragement, hope you're enjoying seeing a UK spec. car get worked on. I always find it interesting to read threads of equivalent cars from different countries, cool to see what differences there are and so on - always found it odd that they never sold E30 Tourings in the US! Cheers willowandmikey and clilliman, glad you're enjoying the thread. I'll be doing some work on this in a couple of weeks, I've been buying quite a few odds and sods for the car over the past couple of months, so I've got plenty to keep me busy! I only have one slightly related picture to add, of the back of my Dad's Celica full of a bargainous E30 grey sports leather interior...
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Apr 19, 2014 22:08:55 GMT
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I've been busy, so there are many updates to come! To summarise in advance, the back end/boot area is much tidier, and the engines coolant leak is fixed So then, the first thing I did when I got back home from uni was fit the load cover I bought off ebay sometime in the past couple of months. Not only was the cover missing from my car, but also two of the brackets that hold it in place (one front and one rear). No idea why only those two were missing! The load cover I bought came with all the brackets, so I just fitted the two I needed and now I have a couple spare. One of the missing brackets uses a little metal clip for a self tapper to grip in to, and I was quite amused to find the clip I needed sitting in the bottom of one of the storage bins. The good one below is off the bracket that was still present. Nice easy job to start me off! Whilst I was in the boot, I thought I'd give it a good clear out and a tidy up. It was filthy in there, so I spent a while picking out all the screws, nuts, bolts, clips, etc. that were floating around, and then gave it a good vacuum and stripped out some of the panels and carpet. I found that the left hand bin had about half an inch of water in it, which means I have a leak somewhere... The carpeted bits of the boot are/were all quite stained and mucky, so I started off the cleaning process by doing the two doors to the storage bins - I reckon they came up very nicely, better than I expected anyway! Guess that's German carpet for you... I've also cleaned these two bigger bits now, but this photo kind of shows how dirty they were before. Also a nice surprise finding that the spare wheel (which is one of the original 15" BBS's) has a Yokohama tyre fitted, with loads of tread left! Gave the right hand side of the car a going over with the pressure washer whilst I was washing the Celica, to get rid of all the mould and to see what it looks like under the dirt! Doesn't scrub up too badly really, and I'm yet to give it a proper wash. Next, I started on the slightly bigger job to replace the water pump and hopefully cure the coolant leak from the engine. First thing I had to do was sort the heater blower, so that I could tell whether I was getting hot coolant around the system properly to the heater matrix. The fan didn't work on any setting, so I thought it was best to take it out and give it a good clean up and hope it just needed a bit of freeing up after seizing itself. The fan is accessed through the engine bay, behind a panel on the firewall. After getting that panel off, you're faced with the fan sitting under it's covers. I'd already taken the covers off the side closest to the camera in the photo below, but you can see the covers on the far side. Much fiddling around and they unclip at the front and rear. Once the covers are off, you have to prise a fiddly little clip open, that clamps the fan down around its mid-section. The fan was very stiff to turn by hand, so I doused it in penetrating oil and rotated it a few times to loosen it up a bit. Once it was easier to turn, I lubricated the shaft with some thin oil, and then went about testing the electrical circuit in the car. I found that the fan now worked fine on maximum (setting 4 on the dial), but not on any other setting, which is a sign that the resistor pack has failed, which is this thing poking out in the photo below. The pack was also billowing smoke when I tried to use the fan on 1, 2 or 3, so it was pretty obvious that was the issue! It comes out from the interior of the car, so I swung the glovebox down, took off a couple of panels and could see the back of it under the dash. The resistor pack isn't needed to use the fan on maximum, so I took it out and decided to plonk it in a lid of vinegar for a few days whilst I carried on with the water pump change. It might do nothing, but if the thing doesn't work anyway then I've got nothing to lose! Hopefully the vinegar will eat away at the corrosion and maybe free up the electrical connections, seeing as it's just three coils of wire to change the resistance in the circuit. It's still in the vinegar now, so I don't know yet if it worked or not! Certainly looks cleaner though. Next thing I did after "fixing" the fan was to sort the non-functioning right hand side indicators, just because it popped in to my mind whilst I was thinking about electricity... The issue with the side repeater was quite easy to find, it was just hanging loose The front and rear were just slightly corroded connections, I just took the bulbs out, cleaned them up and put them back in; simples! Pretty cool easy twist release panels for the rear lights that have all the bulbs in them for easy maintenance. Also swapped out the front indicator lenses whilst I was there, looks better with orange now I think... To finish the second day, I pulled the radiator out and gave it a good flushing/backflushing/shake-about, numerous times, to clean it out. There's plenty of corrosion on the fins, with a decent chunk of them falling apart when I touched them. It's not ideal but it still holds water fine, so hopefully it's still got a bit of life left in it... i Pulled out the engine block drain plug and flushed the block whilst I had the hose out! Fiddly sod to get to, right behind the exhaust manifold. Making use of my new "Joey Can", not bad for £1 delivered from the bay! Doing this job gave me a chance to use my enormous new jack that I got as a birthday present, nice to be able to use axle stands on the highest setting for a change Also found it cool that I still have BMW branded jubilee clips on the coolant hoses So that was the first couple of days work, which were pretty successful. Next instalment coming soon...
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Last Edit: Apr 20, 2014 21:19:55 GMT by MrOtter
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Apr 20, 2014 21:58:29 GMT
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First thing the next morning I only had 15 mins spare before I was going out for a bit, so thought I'd give the boot another going over and tidy up, and pull out the plastic panel that lined the right hand side bin. Getting quite tidy in there now (minus my tools lying around of course). However, I did manage to drive a screwdriver through the bottom corner of the bin that was covered by the plastic liner... good thing I'm used to rusty cars by now What starts as a small hole usually ends up much worse. This case was no exception! Ahh, a familiar sight on my driveway... A mate was coming round to do some welding on his Mini in a couple of days time, so I left my newly formed water drain hole for now whilst I carried on with the water pump change. First thing I wanted to do was get the bonnet off, as I knew it would get bloody annoying having to crane over sideways to pull the front of the engine off. Was pretty straight forward with a hand from my old man, although pulling the washer lines out from the bottles was a bit fiddly. There we go, much better access now. So I got on with stripping bits off, and found that of the two drive belts, one looked almost new and the other looked pretty ancient. Quite odd seeing as the bad one had to be taken off to get at the good one? I bought a new belt to replace it which I fitted when it all went back together later. The bonnet rested on the roof of the Mini, and made for a nice table to store the engine parts! Everything gone, ready to get the pump off. Here is where I found the most likely cause for the leak. I'm not sure whether the pump was borked or not - it looked a bit crusty inside but it still seemed to do it's job. See if you can spot the other main problem in the photo below... Only two of the three mounting bolts were present, that hold the pump on to the block. The upper bolt was missing completely, which I'm sure wouldn't have been helping to keep coolant inside the engine! Luckily I had a bolt with the right size thread and pitch sitting in my tool box; problem was that it was 20-30mm to long. So, out came the hacksaw and file, and voila, a replacement bolt That was me finished for the day. Next morning I carried on my tradition of first doing something unrelated to the main task, which on this occasion was fitting the oil cooler grille that I'd bought, as the car was missing it's one. Here's the before: and the after: Only a small thing, but neatens things up a bit. Next I got on with scraping/cleaning the block ready for the new water pump. I fitted the pump with some silicone sealant between the pump and the gasket, and the block and the gasket, just to be safe. I've read that new pumps often leak on these engines, and I didn't fancy doing this job again for the sake of an extra few minutes now. No more engine pictures, but I got it all back together fine and there were no leaks when I fired it up! Bled the system through and it seems to sit around 1/2 way on the temp gauge, which might be a little high so I'll bleed it a couple more times in the near future and see how it goes with time. I'm very happy for now though, the engine runs up to temp and stays there, and most importantly the coolant stays inside the engine! When I put the bonnet back on, I cleaned up and lubed all the hinge points and runners, so it opens much more freely now. I didn't even realise that the bonnet was meant to spring forward by itself until I cleaned everything up! After I was done with the water pump change, I thought I'd throw on the spare BBS rim up front to see how it looked, seeing as I'll be fitting a set of these before the car goes on the road. The suspension is a 'tad' high, but the wheel looks good and fills out the wheel wells a lot better than the bottletops. So that's up to the end of the fourth day of work; the next day I did the welding on the rear bin, which I'll do another update for soon. Looking at these pics also reminds me that I need to take off that sticker on the indicator lense!
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Last Edit: Apr 20, 2014 22:03:19 GMT by MrOtter
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Apr 20, 2014 23:54:57 GMT
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Last Edit: Apr 20, 2014 23:55:13 GMT by MrOtter
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,227
Club RR Member Number: 160
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1989 BMW E30 325i TouringRich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Half way up the gauge is 'normal'. The only car I know that it's not 'normal' is my XG which is calibrated to sit just below half way between 2 dots on the gauge face. Which I find irritating.
Good work with the water pump fix, can't be too far off the road by now?
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MrOtter
West Midlands
"Your car is your story, so don't let someone else write the book." - Moog
Posts: 281
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Apr 21, 2014 19:23:23 GMT
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Half way up the gauge is 'normal'. The only car I know that it's not 'normal' is my XG which is calibrated to sit just below half way between 2 dots on the gauge face. Which I find irritating. Good work with the water pump fix, can't be too far off the road by now? Cheers Rich, thanks for the reassurance. In terms of MOT road-worthiness, I need to clear a couple of warning lights: the ABS (a duff sensor according to Phil), and the brake pad lining light. I noticed that the brake pad wires were each broken in two and hanging loose behind the caliper on one corner at least, so that won't be helping... apart from that I think it's MOTable, but I won't get it on the road until August 1st when my insurance ends for the year and I've gotten my 4 years no-claims. I'll need all the help I can get to make the insurance cheaper on this thing!
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