BMW E30 – See this page too!!!

Some BMW E30 info. I make no claims for accuracy of anything here, although I try to get it right.. Use at your own risk. I’ve simply put down some things that I’ve run into as I attempt to keep my E30 running and as I recall it being.

I’ve dealt with a fair number of repairs on the 325e.(1984-1987 vintage)

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Brakes – The rear disk brakes have an iron bracket that the caliper and pads sit in and bolt to.  That iron bracket is attached with two bolts that use a 17mm socket. You need an allen wrench (3/8″ socket style) to undo the bolts that attach the rear disk break calipers to the iron bracket.

Front wheel bearings - When these are dying it gets noisier and noisier and you can’t even really tell that it’s coming from the front. I remember actually thinking that the rear end gear box might be the source (which was in fact fine, although no way at all to prove that BTW). You will need a regular shallow wall deepwell socket 33 mm (the thickwall air impact sockets are too thick to fit) for the nut that holds the bearing in place.

Water pump - this is a pain in the butt to change. I did avoid removing the radiator and used my super thin 32mm wrench to remove the fan clutch. You also end up removing the spark plug wires and distributor cap and its rotor button (maybe a good time to replace those, depending on their condition). And the bonus prize for horrible engineering goes to BMW for making it were a tensioner spring is sandwiched between the water pump and the tensioner idler pulley which has the lovely rubber timing belt on it. So, unless you want to undo that idler pulley and redo your timing belt, you have to practically stand on your head and rotate the new water pump (with tacky high temp rtv for gasket) into place whilst compressing that pulley tensioner spring so as to be able to line up the mounting bolts for the water pump. It usually takes a few tries and cut knuckles (and choice words) to get this accomplished. (Prolly still better than undoing the timing belt and daring to get the engine out of time.)  Three 13 mm bolts mount the pump itself to the engine.

Changed the water pump again about May 15, 2009.  Usually they start leaking from the “weep” hole.  This one did not leak at all.  It took several different spells of seizing up.  The first fan belt was old, but on the second broken belt and more frequent belt squeal,,, it was the pump!  It is still running a  lil hot sporadically.  That is because the fan clutch is also old and turning a lil slow sometimes.  Note I had changed the thermostat and o-ring on this round of issues too.

Rubber timing belt – Do NOT neglect this one… I got to buy another motor from a salvage yard in learning this lesson.

Also, there is a newer version of the idler tensioner pulley than was originally with the E30 and new belts take that into account. See a BMW dealer parts department for details on the correct version of the belt and pulley that go together.

Motor – This motor is an “interference” type motor…Sounds harmless enough…it means that if the timing belt breaks….you will experience “interference”….ie. The pistons and the valves and inner workings smash into each other at high speeds and bend valves and such. (think buying another motor)

Fan clutch – This attached to the front of the water pump (and behind the radiator) and you have to remove it when you change the water pump. You need a super thin 32 mm open ended wrench to get it out without taking out radiator and other front end parts. My superthin wrench was a regular one turned down on large grinder by a mechanic friend to which I am greatly thankful. BMW will gladly sell you a special tool that is basically the same thing.

When the fan clutch fails, either it would make the fan spin slower and cause overheating or spin full speed of the pulley make the car seem restrained and hard to get moving /accelerating. In that case it makes a noticably loud turbo fan kinda sound. In its normal state it has a thick oil? inside and the fan spins a percentage of the full pulley speed depending on temperature. (That’s my best understanding of that one. I did change it in the loud turbo sound situation.) About $100 at Autozone.

*** Just replaced this for maybe the second or third time on 10/5/09.  It’s still about $100 via Pep Boys special order.

Low pressure tank fuel pump – “Transfer pump” located (twists into top of gas tank) under a four screw plate that is under the back seat on passenger side. Rear seat pulls forward and up ( i think) Basically the bottom of the rear seat snaps into place over two bumps under it. The transfer pump has the fuel gauge sensor go down through the center of it attached with 4 nuts (i think). There is a rubber gasket that needs to be replaced on the fuel level sensor and the pump also. The first time I changed the transfer pump there was at least one factory attached hose clamp that i had to break and then put a regular hose clamp in its place. The factory ones aren’t re-useable.

High pressure main fuel pump - located down under the car right in front of the rear driver’s side wheel. This one takes the dribble of fuel and puts it under high pressure to shoot it on up the fuel rail for the injectors. I learned the hard way to be sure hose connections are tight lest the output side spray gas on you (could cause all kinda bad situations)

Fuel Filter – This is located in a horrible and hard to get to location underneath the car near the driver’s side firewall.

belts and hoses

alternator (the lovely geared bracket, and MAKE SURE you have a good ground or you will turn your alt belt to spaghetti!!)   Also, 19 mm socket to walk the alternator along the toothed bracket after you use a 13 mm socket to loosen the lock nut for it.   Same two sockets for the power steering pump and the AC compressor.

heater core – o yeah,,,the 4″ fan means you have the “aluminum inlet” style heater core btw. “inlet” refers to the aluminum tube that goes through the firewall. This version has a double flanged connection to the heater control valve.

The heater core for the “aluminum inlet” and “Plastic inlet” are made of the same materials…mostly aluminum with some plastic at the flange connections to the heater control valve.

The “Aluminum inlet” version that most have has a side-by-side dual flange (for in and out of the heater core) that means that the heater control valve connection is physically very close the other outlet tube flange.

They use a hex head 8mm fine thread bolt.

Heater Control Valve – This has the “aluminum inlet tube on it that goes through the firewall to one of the two heater hoses in the engine compartment. On the other side of the valve is a dual/double flange that attaches tot he heater core.
My valve was ok and I didn’t have to replace it. When you turn the heat setting to red, I had plenty of heat (and heater core leaks) and when you turn the setting to blue the valve cut off radiator coolant and thus the heater core eventually stopped leaking. Sooo, when I replaced the core, everything was fine.

Idle air stabilizer valve – o yeah,,,,that’s a cool $328 for the part (or $119.00 at Autozone..I’ve actually had decent luck with their parts btw…). A ten minute switchout and is needed when the E30 starts making a spaz of the rpm’s going up and down over and over again.

This expenditure can supposedly be put off a while by spraying the inside of the valve with WD-40 to clean it up.

Let’s see how long that is good for…starting 3/10/07.

Hmmm, WD-40 not seeming to help the up/down revving…soooo nerve racking too.

(New info here…The weather started to warm back up and so far a week of stable idling with neither of these parts replaced yet..only the WD-40 that didnt seem to help…at least initially…more to come on this…both parts on hand now though)

(4/8/07 Still haven’t replaced any parts yet after try the WD-40 clean-out. So far so good. One brief up/down rev session, then ok again and a few rough idles, but for the most part, still ok.)

On 5/7/2007, i went ahead with replacing the Air stabilizer valve. It was no longer “possessed with up/down idle since the WD-40 cleaning. However it was one of a few things I changed to address some amount of rough idle and increasingly sluggish acceleration. Other things I did included: replacing the oil pressure switch that had failed in the recent heat, and the fuel filter that was nasty inside with some grayish stuff oozing. It will remain to see what if all of those are the issue or not.

*** 5/04/2009  The blessed air stabilizer valve is acting up again (but 2 years later).  First the spazing up and down rpms and then just unable to hold idle… just stalls when in neutral.  A couple of observations this time around.  I had the old valve in a bag in the trunk.  I switched back to it and got another 3 or 4 days runtime.  Also, the troubles began after the first hot days (high 80’s) and it occurred to me that this valve sits right on top of the hotter engine.  I am thinking of running longer hoses and putting the new valve off to the side.  It seems like the excess heat is at least part of the demise of this valve.   Although the oil mist getting inside it may play a role as well. More to come on this one.

More… It would run, but spazzing rpm’s up and down and just barely holding idol again.  Also, running quite rough.

You can take the stabilzer valve and some test leads and hook it to 12V dc and it should close.  My questionable valves did close.  Hmmm

But, I noticed (that at some point) I had failed to put one of the two 10mm x1.0 nuts back on that hold the air filter housing snug in place.  With only one nut, the housing was flexing around just enough to compromise the rubber “L” vacuum part that connects to that air filter housing.

After putting both 10 mm nuts back on to fully secure the air filter housing, the idle seems to be calm and perhaps not the idle air stabilizer valve this time.

What I think happens is… a new stabilizer valve can compensate better for hairline leaks in that rubber “L”. More to come if this changes. ***

OR this one could be…

Throttle position switch (about $65, ordered at Autozone)

If memory serves me, I think this was largely the cause of a up/down idling issue several years back. Now I get to relive the troubleshooting of this one.

Air Temperature Sensor – This one of a few thigs that can cause rough idle and sluggish acceleration (especially when the car is cold/colder it seems) This sensor is located down low (on the driver’s side) in the cutout air duct in the plastic just under the front bumper. The wiring on this sensor is long and tends to fall down and hang close to the ground where it eventually catches on something and is ripped off or damaged. This one has two wires.
Coolant Temperature Sensor – This has either a bare narrow single tab (wire) or a single tab encased in hard plastic for a special plastic plug and springloaded retaining wire like other connectors in the engine area. There is an ohm range (with respect to frame ground) for the temperatures. This feeds the dash temp gauge (and the computer also?) This sensor is located on the metal piece where three coolant hoses come together right behind the radiator and fan. This sensor sits really close to the fuel rail for the fuel injectors too.

Air flow mass sensor – Boy, it will barely run,,,and likely run extremely rich if this is messed up. Until I figured out to change this, I changed oil and spark plugs like 2 times in 3 weeks because it was sending so much fuel in the mixture.

I bought the car,,,barely running,,,with this situation after the previous owner’s son took it through a bit of water….and messed up a lot of the sensors…

*** My other E30 has been running a lil rough and in particular has the classic herky jerky take off. I swapped out the air filter housing (which has the air flow mass sensor) and that made about a 70% improvement. This E30 still has the air temp sensor messed up so that may be part as well, but replacing the air flow mass sensor did help.

inside door latch pull - Replaced this twice. Cheap horrible plastic…You’d really like to see a luxury car company like BMW NOT SKIMP on this stuff.

swapping computers out - This was a case of the car stalling after running 10 or 20 or more minutes and usually as I took the car out of gear and began to brake as I approached a stop light. Then it died and wont restart…only turning over and over, but no restart.

Then, magically you could sit there…usually on the side of the road somewhere about 20 minutes and magically it would restart again til it decided to stall again.

Went through phases of carrying and trying extra fuel pump relays. (There are basically 2 different relays, 1 is fuel pump) but that wasn’t the issue.

At any rate, something inside the computer (about 9″x9″x2″ and mounted inside the glove box) was getting too warm I suppose. Some speculated that there is a bad solder joint on that board, but I had no luck finding anything to repair except to swap out the old computer with a salvage yard one after they ordered it in.

Glove box latch - Changed 2 of these so far. Needed a pair of 90 degree needle nose pliers to get back in to actuate what was left of that latch inside the closed glove box.

Driver’s door hold open – Yep, those break. then you have to hold your door manually open til you replace it.

Tie Rod End – Wasn’t too bad to do as I recall. Was careful to have the new one adjusted to the same number of threads as the old one so the alignment was close, then took the car to get the front end aligned.  I’ve seen two versions of the nut/threaded stud that attaches it to the wheel assembly.  One was a M10×1.00 and the other was an M10×1.25   Both use a 17 mm socket.  In at least one case I had to use a small vice-grip to hold on to the stud (near the base underneath the rubber boot where there aren’t threads) in order tighten/loosen the nut completely.

Power Steering Rack – O fun. Living that right now. Was hoping it was a hose or clamp, but not looking like it. Wire tied in place a lil plastic bottle with a cutout to catch the hemorrhaging power steering fluid. Got a salvage yard tracking down an old power steering rack for about $150 (new will be about $300). Yeah, I know what you are thinking,,,sure hope that other old one isn’t leaking too..haha. More to come on this one. Uggg.

(This job is a HUGE pain in the butt!!! ) Don’t do this unless you have at least 3 days – at least one of which will be spent BEATING the old steering rack apart from the bottom metal knuckle of the universal joint because the rack turner is splined into that knuckle

Car safely on two jack stands because I was under there and it’s potentially dangerous.

Chiseled back the bent washer and used a water pipe wrench to unloosen the round knob on the driver side tie rod end to lay it out of the way. That was the only way I could get access to the 13mm nut and bolt that go through that horrible lower steering knuckle.

Same deal for passenger side tie rod end to get it out of the way.

I undid the two 17mm (in my case) bolt and nuts that hold the rack to the thick metal tabs. I carefully bent the tabs down (about 70 degrees) with a heavy slip joint pliers, just enough to get the rack down (it’s still hanging on for dear life to that lower steering knuckle) Now you can finally get to the two banjo bolts on the steering rack to unloosen them (my fluid was pretty much already drained – careful to catch fluid if not)

I removed most of the crap (air filter housing, the big rubber “L” that it attaches to it and the power steering fluid reservoir and air reclaim canister so I could have at least some access to the lower steering knuckle from overhead . Once you get that 13mm nut and bold out of the lower steering knuckle, you can separate the crevasse in the knuckle a tiny bit to help removal. Then i could put my tie rod separator to start separating the rack turner from that horrible knuckle. I beat that separator and the WD-40 and so for…then rest….then more beating – think hours…Finally I got them apart. – Then I rested.

Starting the re-install now. I used two sets of heavy wire ties to help hold the used/new rack in place while i bent the heavy tabs back up. I didn’t bend them up all at once BECAUSE you have to try to get the rack turner splined back into that horrible steering knuckle…think hours…

I put 3 hose clamps head to tail and used them to go through the lower steering knuckle and around the steering rack to help press the knuckle back on that turner. It helped some.

Bent the passenger side tab level then got its bolt in but not too tight.

Then started working the drivers side tab more and more level then bolt in but not too tight

Had leaks on one of the banjos bolts (22mm) on the rack. The original banjo connection is a 30 degree bent stub of metal that you put a 1/2″ hose on. I used a vice to carefully reduce that angle closer to 15 degrees and route it toward the front of the car. Now with the two hoses going in opposite directions, they didn’t compete for the scarce space as bad, AND i got a nicer seal and fit with the banjo bolt and hose.

No leaks.

Re-snugged the 13mm nut and bolt on the lower steering knuckle.

Reattached tie rod ends and reinstalled all the crap that I had moved to get access.

Update…The passenger side of the used/new steering rack that I installed has a slight drip. Also, the new hose on the 22mm banjo bolt has a tiny drip where the hose clamp is. I think that hose clamp can be re-snugged a lil on that hose and fix that one. The old age leak on the passenger side is not good. ie. I get to practice this change-out again sometime soon down the road. Weeks? Months or a few years? Dunno…

More to come…

Oil Pressure Switch – The old one could be removed with a deep-well 24 mm socket. The replacement one via Autozone PS-158 for about $8 needed a 22 mm deep-well socket. it had apparently failed in the recent heat and just before I changed some pretty dirty oil.

Windshield wiper arm assembly – I don’t think it’s actually possible to get this out without minor damage to 4″ blower fan’s plastic ductwork shrouding for the AC fan. There are basically several metal tubes that are hinged and as the wiper motor rotates a cycle, they make the wipers sweep over and back to rest position. Eventually one of the hinge pins fails and one tube arm goes away from the assembly and gets hung and won’t let the wipers sweep back and forth.

(In the interim of locating another wiper arm assembly at a salvage yard, I did what a friend recommended and got some Rain-X. It basically makes all rain bead-up really quick and run off in the wind/gravity so that the wipers are less needed. I don’t recommend this but I got through a few days of minimal rain.)

To get that assembly out requires the removal of the about 3 ft long metal plate at the top of the firewall, most of which is on the drivers side. Some is under rubber and metal flexible strip and the rest are hex head screws (8mm as I recall). You have to unstrap the two plastic hold-in straps that hold the 4″ blower motor in place to remove it. One strap cracked and broke and part of the plastic ductwork shrouding cracked too (Hey it’s 20 years old). Then you also have to take out the driver’s side metal grill just below the the driver’s side windshield wiper to finally get that beast out and another in.

My fan blower was never reliably very quiet after that surgery. Nor did the air blow very hard because you need a pretty tight alignment of the duct shrouding around that fan and it’s hard to do after that surgery. Go luck on that one.

Accelerator Cable – This has gone out on me twice.  I was smart the second time and had a spare cable and sheath assembly in the trunk.  The stranded cable eventually after rubbing back and forth in that sheath starts to fray and eventually pulls apart.  There is a hook on one end and a nylon over metal threaded connection at the cable ends and the containing sheath has a obnoxious black plastic square piece with self-locking tabs.   That plastic piece is really hard to get to so that you can compress those self-locking tabs on the dead cable.  You need really thin jaw, long nose needle nose pliers.   It’s really cramped down by the accelerator pedal too so getting to it to see anything basically means standing on your head…..o and it usually breaks on the side of a busy highway.  Keep a spare for this cable in the trunk.  Elsewise you get to try to rig something to curl the two broken cable end if you can even get to them… I was lucky the first time got it to hold as i barely pushed to accelerator all the way home, stopping to re-hook the frayed ends like 4 times.  I was lucky there was even something to hook.   Keep a spare for this cable in the trunk or tow it home.

Manual Transmission – Slave Cylinder – (May 21, 2009) When the clutch pedal will push in and not spring back to the normal position, this (and/or low brake fluid) is a likely cause.  About $40 at Autozone.   You have to get under the car just behind the front driver’s side wheel (jacked up and supported securely of course)  Two 13 mm nuts hold the slave cylinder on the  threaded studs on the manual transmission.  It requires a 11 mm  “line” wrench is needed to remove and re-attach the hydraulic fitting.  All I had was  7/16, which is close enough to do lite turning of that fitting but not tight fit enough to break it loose.  To break it loose (and for the final re-snugging),  I used a snuggly clamped pair of vise grips.

There is a process of bleeding the system.  I defer to the Bentley book for that kinda stuff.   I had done this about ten years ago.   When I had changed it out and tried to bleed the air out of the lines, the pedal would still go to the floor and stay.  I went back to the Bentley book many times on this air bleeding process.  I ultimately had to unmount the slave cylinder again and with the brake fluid reservoir cap open, i manually pushed the slave cylinder rod back inside itself which forced the remaining air out and got the pedal to come up to normal “un-pushed” rest position.  I attached some (about 1/8″ ID clear tubing over the bleeder screw on the bottom of the slave cylinder.  Opening it requires a 7 mm socket.

After a day…   It was much better at first, but now the clutch pedal is starting to sag a lil again.   Normally, changing the slave cylinder and a good air bleeding will fix things….  but….

This time I fear that I will have to replace a very old (prolly original) master cylinder for the manual transmission as well…  more as this story unfolds….

Manual Transmission -  Master cylinder – Located on the driver’s floor board/firewall area inside  (more to come if i have to do this change out)

Manual Transmission – Gear Oil Refilling – Just a quick blurb on this one.  One of my E30’s began to have a noticeable level of noise coming from the manual transmission below me during the summertime.  The next thing (very bad) that happened was that it slipped out of gear by itself and then a few more times.  Long story short, the amount of gear oil had leaked and leaked enough to eventually take out a few gears in that car from the heat and lack of lubrication.

I won’t try to comment on seals, as I haven’t ever gotten into that enough to comment.  I did want to at least comment on where to refill the gear oil if you notice that it’s low, so you can refill it.  There is a plug (threaded 24mm X 1.5 I think) on the side of the manual transmission (17 mm socket) located just behind the front passenger tire (You have to get your hand up and around the exhaust manifold pipe in that area.).

Rear Shock Absorber – The threaded stud at the top of mine used an M10×1.00 nut which requires a 17mm socket.  That nut size might vary with shock manufacturer.  I don’t know.   The bottom of the shock has a bolt that requires a 19mm socket.

Back-up Lights Switch – Just replaced this (I think for the second time on 10/5/09)  For the manual transmission, it is on the passenger side (a few inches higher and closer the the front than the tranny oil fill plug).  That meant that I had to break out the big jack and jack stands and lift the car quite a bit higher than usual.  Jack stands, because I had to go quite a way underneath the car to get around the exhaust manifold.  It takes a 19mm closed end wrench to loosen and re-tighten the switch.  There are two slip-on power connections to the switch to unhook and re-attach.

*** This last time.. it wasn’t the switch… It was a broken wire somewhere.  Now I will have to drill a hole in the floor under the passenger seat and try to route two wires and then add 90 degree female spade terminal connectors.  Inside the car, I will have to route the wires between the carpet and the manual gear shift console to get to the existing wiring under the gear shift leather snap-on cover.

Parking Brake (Emergency Brake Cables – This has been a pretty huge pain so far (ongoing)  Both cables go from the rear disks (with mini-drums for the Parking Brake portion)  up to the manual brake lever behind the  manual gear shift.  They both failed (broke) just underneath the brake hand lever.  There is a 10mm self locking nut (has plastic insert) on the hand lever end of each cable.  There is a heavy coil shrouded portion of the cables that goes from approximately under the rear seat back down to the lower inside part of the rear wheel assembly area.

*** It was a huge royal pain (using de-rusting oil and a very small vise-grip) to eventually get the old heavy coil shrouded sheath unloosened from the permanent steel tube (cable guide) that runs from under the back seat to under the front seat area.  Those two items are only pushed together, but 25 years of water and rust have sealed them together.  Ugggh.

*** It was also a HUGE pain to get the two piece cam mechanism (that spreads the brake shoes causing braking) back together.  There are two “pins” which are used.  One is a only a tiny cylinder of metal and is pushed in the hole common to the new cable and the hole on the smaller cam piece.  The second “Pin” has two groves and pushes in the elbow joint of the small cam piece and the larger one.  That elbow joint needs to face the rear bumper of the car.  I had to rig a sticky mixture of heavy grease and dirt to make the small pin “sticky” enough to make it stay in the hole holding the new cable.  (otherwise it will keep coming out as you try to position that cam mechanism between the two parking brake shoes.  Also, you have to attach the small cam piece to the new cable and in the low groove of the rear-most brake shoe… and then add the larger cam and insert it’s grooved pin and then spread the lower portion of the shoes to get the cam mechanism between them.   You’ve done it right if the lower portions of the brake shoes aren’t too  far away from the iron post at the bottom where the shoes meet.  (i.e if the shoes are spread apart too far, you cant put the disk/drum back over top of the brake shoes.   Once the shoes are seated, then you can re-attach the lower horizontal spring that connects the lower part of the shoes and then re-adjust the star wheel at the top to set spread the shoes at the top to the right spacing and yet still have the disk/drum be able to go back over the shoes.  Then you have to finish adjusting the 10 mm nut that determines how far up you can pull the brake hand lever.  See the Bentley book for the details on this. I only gave enough detail here to give you a heads up on how much time this project might take.  I’m on my third try to get one of the two cables fully re-installed.  I obviously park with the car in gear, which is probably the best habit anyway.

Front Bucket Seats – There are three 17mm nuts and one 17mm bolt that attach the bucket seats to the car floor.  You have to slide the seat to the extreme forward or rear positions in order to get access to the mounting nuts/bolts.  Also, there are black rubber cone-like covers on the three 17mm nuts.

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