Messages

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General Topics / 4 Doors?

« on: May 20, 2010, 02:50:54 PM »

Be patient, they are out there, when I was looking I found 2 of them fairly local that were completely stock & never abused...& both were under $2K. Every 318is 2-door I found was modified and/or almost twice as expensive.

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Engine + Driveline / Engine Rattle, Idle Problems & Loss Of Power

« on: May 20, 2010, 02:38:01 PM »

No, the power loss is consistant across the rev band...it runs basically the same as when it's cold, only with much less power. Throughout all of this, no CEL has ever come one, & it passed the CA smog inspection last month the way it is. One of things I was thinking was possibly a clogged cat, & as it warmed up everything expanded in there restricting exhaust flow. I guess that still could be the problem, but I'm thinking it would not have passed the smog test if that were the case. My exhaust system is pretty ugly looking & needs replacement, as funds permit here in the near future I am planning to replace everything from the header flange-back, including a new high-flow cat. Maybe that will cure the power loss :confused:

Before buying this car, I drove another one, & from what I remember that one built more & more power as the revs climbed, all the way to redline. Mine feels much stronger than that car at lower revs (2500-5000) when it's cold but has always fallen pretty flat above 5K RPM. What's normal? A strong midrange but flat on top, or weak bottom end but pulling harder & harder all the way to redline (like most Hondas or Mazda Rotaries)?

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Engine + Driveline / Engine Rattle, Idle Problems & Loss Of Power

« on: May 19, 2010, 11:19:22 PM »

Hey guys, well I did some searching, but really didn't get a straight answer to my issues. If this has been covered many times in the past, my apologies in advance.

So here is the story....I've had my slick-top LSD 91 318i for a few months now & overall I really like it. It has been a great DD that is light on it's feet, gets good MPG, & has room for my kids. My only complaints is the typical M42 lack of horsepower (makes my bone-stock 94 Miata feel FAST ) & the following issues. The first issue is a loud rattling coming from the engine when it's cold. It comes & goes depending on RPM for about 5 minutes, then goes away when things warm up. There are less-loud rattles that happen all the time as well, but when it's cold it's LOUD. My first thought is timing chain...I've read up on all the issues these engines can have, but about a month ago I pulled my valve cover to inspect the chain, & from the top the chain & cam gears look fantastic (see pic). I also did the lower pan bolt inspection...no guide debris (or bolts) in the pan. Is this noise I'm hearing possibly the tensioner? Obviously I should take off the front cover & inspect it, but since the chain looked so good I don't want to go through the work if it's not neccessary.

My next issue is an intermittant surging idle & poor driveability. When the car is cold, it runs fantastic with good power & a steady idle (except the loud rattle listed above). After it warms up a bit it loses quite a bit of power & sometimes has a surging idle. It runs very smooth during this...it's not dropping a cylinder or anything...& it never dies when the idle is surging (goes from about 500-1200 RPM). It drives just like normal but feels like it's down about 20+ HP, like either the timing is off or like it's breathing through a straw.

Is the surging idle issue caused by the ICV or TPS? Could that also cause the power loss? The idle issue is fairly random, but the power loss happens every time I drive the car, so I'm thinking the issues are not linked. I replaced pretty much EVERY rubber hose under the intake a month ago or so, so many of the OEM ones were cracked & brittle I thought sure it would fix the issues I've been having...but no luck :confused:

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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General Topics / When should the timing chain be replaced?

« on: March 19, 2010, 06:42:05 PM »

So, by looking at the above pictures of my upper gears, you would say my chain set-up is OK? I got everything back together today, & although it is now running better than ever (it had lots of cracked vacuum hoses), it has this very loud rattle/vibration that I swear is coming from somewhere in the front of the engine (the car has always seemed to have this noise since I bought it). It is really bad at idle when the car is cold, & seems to quiet down a bit once things warm up, but I still can hear it at varying RPM & throttle inputs. I took a long screwdriver & touched the end to the front case so I could listen to it to try & pinpoint where the noise is coming from, & it sure seems to be coming from there. When it's rattling, it's almost like the sound is coming from somewhere near the center of the engine, on the driver side. Do these engines have a balance shaft? If so I wonder if it is something to do with that since my chain has no tell-tail signs of being bad. The car runs really good, just worried about this noise & don't want it to break & leave me stranded somewhere. Any ideas?

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General Topics / When should the timing chain be replaced?

« on: March 18, 2010, 11:18:03 PM »

Hey everyone, so today I went through just about everything under the hood, looking for potential faults...including pulling the lower pan to check the bolts, as well as pulling the valve cover to take a look at the top of the timing chain. As I have mentioned earlier, I've only had the car about a month, & the previous owner only had it a year & never did anything with the timing chain and/or pan bolts.

Started by pulling the lower pan...great news as it all looks great in there. All the bolts were present & torqued properly, there was no timing chain/guide debris, & the lower pan had a fairly new gasket indicating someone was in there not long ago.

Then went to the top of the engine, the car has been running in-consistent lately...sometimes with an oscillating idle, sometimes sluggish performance. Started looking through some of the vacuum hoses under the intake manifold...pretty much ALL of them were cracked and/or damaged. I also notice the intake boot that goes from the MAF to the TB was actually cracked all the way through (can't believe it ran!). Picked up all but one of the pieces needed to replace everything, can wait to see how it runs once I get it all back together!

Lastly I pulled the valve cover to take a look at the top of the chain. Other than looking at the teeth, I am not sure there is any way to tell if the chain and/or guides need replacement from looking at it from the top, but here is a couple pictures of the cam gears & chain....




As you can see, the gears are definitely not pointed or apparently worn. In fact, to my un-trained eye, everything looks very good, almost like it has all been replaced at some point. It doesn't look like the gears have 168K on them to me, but I don't have another M42 around to compare with. What do you guys think? The upper guide looks great as well, the chain feels tight, & there was no debris in the pan. However, I obviously can't see the lower guides from up top, is it possible they are still hammered? Thanks in advance everyone!

6

General Topics / How many left

« on: March 10, 2010, 12:39:01 PM »

I watch Craig's List pretty regularly here in the Bay Area, & I can tell you for every one 318i/is I see for sale there are at least 10 89-91 325s for sale. It would be very interesting to see the break-down on how many E30s were produced in each model, & even better to break the 318 models down by options (since there were so few available). I always wonder how many 91 318i 4-doors there are out there with factory LSD & no sunroof, like mine

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General Topics / When should the timing chain be replaced?

« on: March 10, 2010, 12:26:51 PM »

My car is pretty new to me but has 168K on it. I can hear some rattling/vibration noises at times, especially when the car is cold....most likely the chain and/or guides? Other than noise, is there any way to tell if the guides & chain are in need of replacement without completely pulling apart the front of the engine?

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General Topics / New E30 318i Owner =)

« on: February 24, 2010, 11:27:21 AM »

No worries on the hi-jack, I love reading up on all this stuff...soaking it up like a sponge! My car has 167K on it & I paid $1500, I got lucky though in that the previous owner put all new shocks/bushings/control arms/cooling system in it within the last year. I was thinking yesterday, what more could I have got with that money? The answer was pretty much nothing....maybe a Corolla, Prizm, or some hacked up Civic/Integra :confused: My Brother needed a cheap commuter last year & ended up spending $2K on a Toyota Paseo lol. For less than that I got a very fun to drive BMW that also happens to get great gas mileage!

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General Topics / New E30 318i Owner =)

« on: February 24, 2010, 12:29:43 AM »

Sounds like mine is identical to av8drvr's, 117K original on the clock.

info revision: leather was not available for either the 318i or 318is as DesktopDave said, and the photos I've seen were apparently pleather. sorry. options were: alarm system, fog lights, LSD, special colors, and sunroof. the bottle caps were not available as an option, and steelies were standard with optional wheel covers. YES- the 14" basket weaves-"Sport wheels" were an available option with your choice of black, white, gold, or silver centers. another wheel option was the very rarely opted 15" "Starspoke" Style 10 alloy that came wrapped in Pirelli P-600 tires. power antenna was standard. according to my original documentation the '91 318is was fitted with a transmission that had shorter gearing in 1-3 with identical gears 4-5, hence the same MPG's and top speed. I read some info on the web indicating that this gearbox was borrowed from the Euro 518i.

ratios as stated in my original documentation:

318i         318is
3.84         3.72
2.20         2.02
1.39         1.32
1.00         1.00
0.81         0.81

race2win: I'd be happy to purchase your foglight package should you decide to delete it!

I see those same ratios in my owner's manual, but in my book the first column does not have a particular model above it, & the 2nd column has 318i above it. Here is a picture of it, is it different than your book?

You mention the 318is having shorter gearing, but aren't the 1st 3 gears in the left column shorter? The 2nd-3rd spacing is closer on the right column, but otherwise I read it like the 1st column has overall shorter gearing (bigger numbers) in the 1st 3 gears. I wonder if that 1st column is for the 6-cylinder cars, it would make sense due to their 3.73 rear diff ratio?

I don't suppose you mind sharing where you got the info about the wheels do you? Now that I know my car has the limited slip, I am really thinking hard about stock class autocrossing it. In stock classes, we can run any size tire that fits on a stock sized rim. The bigger the rim, the more tire we can get on the ground. The extra 1/2" of the basket weaves will go a long way in helping get my 225/50-14 Hoosier A6s on the ground. I have never heard about a 15" wheel being available on the 318s, I think that must have been a dealer-installed option since the door jamb sticker & owner's manual only list 14" tire sizes. What was the width of that 15" wheel?

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General Topics / New E30 318i Owner =)

« on: February 23, 2010, 08:18:43 PM »

Hey guys, just jacked up my car & found out it does in fact have the 4.10 LSD diff!!  I think this means that the 91 318i was the only 4-door E30 to ever get a limited slip differential in the US. So, the only options my car appears to have are the fog lights (which I am going to delete) & LSD with no sunroof. Sounds like the perfect stock-class autocrosser to me Although, SCCA classifies the car in G Stock right alongside the 318is, I don't think it would be very competitive in that class. But, I may just take the Hoosier A6s off my Miata & try it out at one of the next events..... :cool:  

I remember when these cars were new in the early 90s being very fast in autocrossing. Originally the 318is was in E Stock I believe, & the 318i was in H Stock. But then the 4-doors were dominating HS, running pretty much the same times as the 2-door was 2 classes up, so they combined them together & they have been that way ever since. Hmmm, might be worth a letter to SCCA for a class change proposal .

So, still trying to determine if the 14x6.5s were an option, I know where I can get a set cheap. Oh yeah, one more thing, does anyone know if these cars had a power antenna originally? My car has a manual one that you pull up by hand. Thanks again guys for the welcome, been driving the car a couple days now & really like it =)

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General Topics / New E30 318i Owner =)

« on: February 23, 2010, 02:00:33 PM »

Thanks so much guys for the warm welcome! Yeah, I'm pretty sure this car did not originally come with those bottle-caps, but were added at some point. The spare is a steelie, so I am guessing that is what was on the car originally. I have'nt checked the diff yet (raining right now) but I will later to see if I am lucky & it has an original LSD.

howdy, I'm relatively new here also. Used to be a 2002 guy that recently picked up a 318i 4d in brilliant red from the original owner. I've also done some research, some of which I did in the owner's manual that came with my car! The LSD was an option for the 318i, and leather, as was a sunroof. The "bottlecap" alloy wheels you've got were an option (mine didn't come with those). What our cars couldn't have were the 318is' sport seats. There are some other minor options such as the panel above the rear view mirror, an upgraded clock/trip computer in the dash, map lights in the r/v mirror, etc. If you're serious about autocrossing this car, another apparently little known fact is that in '91 the 318is had a close ratio gearbox, different from the one in our cars.. a swap I'd consider myself if I came across a low milage one. Anyway, welcome!

Where did you get this information about the different gearbox ratios? My car also came with the original owner's manual, but reading the gearbox ratio section is somewhat confusing. It lists 2 columns for manual tranmission ratios, one of the columns has "318i" above it & the other column has nothing (as if ALL other manual tranmission '91 3-Series models had the same tranmission). However, the ratios listed under 318i (3.72, 2.02, 1.32, 1.00, .81) are the same exact ratios all 3 major car magazines listed in their road tests of the 318is 2-door. Can anybody else confirm if the 4-door does in fact have a different gearbox & what exact ratios are?

At this point, from what I can tell, the 4-door is mechanically identical to the 2-door. Both cars had the same available options (sunroof, fog lights, cloth or vinyl, security system, metallic paint & LSD), but only the 2-door was available with the sport seats, spoilers, & the small interior differences Ryann mentioned above. The only thing I am still trying to confirm is if the 14x6.5" basket-weave alloys were available on the 4-door, or if they were exclusive to the 2-door....anyone know for sure?

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General Topics / New E30 318i Owner =)

« on: February 22, 2010, 11:59:18 PM »

Hello everyone, I'm a noob here, I just picked up a non-sunroof 91 318i E30 4-door this weekend. I have owned various BMWs in the past, including an E30 325is, E39 540i, & an E34 M5, but never an M42 powered car. After driving a few different BMW models (another E30 325is & a couple E28 5-Series), I just loved the way the 318i felt. Sure, it isn't the most powerful thing, but it has so much liveliness to make up for it. Anyway, I have been reading up on these cars & it's 2-door big brother 318is, trying to learn what I can. The only magazine articles I can find only pertain to the 318is, so I am curious how the available options differ between the 2 cars. From what I can tell, the only options on the 318is were a sunroof, metallic paint, security system & a limited slip differential. Were these the same options that were available on the 4-door 318i? I think I read somewhere that the 4-door had a couple more options that the 2-door had standard, such as fog lights, but can't remember for sure. Does anyone know for sure if the limited slip diff & 14x6.5" alloys were optional on the 4-door? I may try to set it up for stock class autocross for a while, if those 2 items were available on the car when new it would definitely help the car go faster Does anyone have any idea how many (or few) 4-door 318s came without sunroofs? I thought all 4-door E30s of this vintage had them, I was VERY surprised to see this car didn't!

Well, for now this will be my daily driver, I spend a fair amount of time on the freeway so the 30MPG sounds great to me. I already have a top notch R-Package Miata for autocrossing, but depending on how light it's possible to get the 318, I may consider trying to beat the mighty 89 Civic Si's in street touring some day For now, time for some general maintenance, a new set of tires & a solid cleaning. Here is a picture from right after bringing it home, thanks for looking!