When changing the AC evaporator on a BMW E30, there’s definitely a right and a wrong way to do it. The glovebox is attached to the car by a brass-colored piano bracket. If you remove the black screws, you’re going to spend a lot of time realigning the glovebox when reinstalling. Instead, if you...
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There is only one correct way to test an E30 AFM, and that’s by using an oscilloscope. The most common mode of failure is the wearing of the carbon strip within the AFM. In simple terms, the AFM is one big variable resistor. It takes a +5V supply, and the carbon strip provides variable...
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If you decide to paint your wheels instead of powdercoating (which you should): Is powdercoating bad for rims? Yes, and illegal in Germany. So is using heat to bend them back. There is an nth amount of silvers to choose from, and there is no real right or wrong, but everyone needs somewhere to...
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Counter to popular narrative on E30 forums (based on self perpetuating hearsay), there are variant code differences between manual and auto E30 ECU’s and M1.3 didn’t always post date M1.1 ECU’s. The bad news is that no tuner has a fully disassembled dump of the ECU source code. Most just take the post compiled...
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The grommet for the pre-1988 E30 is NLA, but its nothing a bit of TPU (95a or softer) can’t solve by 3D printed. Step file: E30BatteryVentBoxGrommet
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There are no aftermarkets to the now years backlogged E30 front hub bearing dust caps. There are two options: 1. Try to save the ones currently on your car for reuse by using a specialized dust cap tool to minimize damage during removal: Snap on GCP10, also available from many many other makers in...
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One of the more frustrating parts about doing a front wheel bearing on an E30 is when the inner race separates from the rest of the hub. Normally this requires cutting a slot into the inner race or playing with thermal expansion and contraction to get it off. The tool to make this situation...
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E30 Cowcatcher foglights are NLA and fairly difficult to find forsale, so for those that have ones that are intact, here are the protection film measurements that you can use:
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If you ever wondered how the E30 VIN number decodes, below are the instructions directly from BMW. What you wont find anywhere else is the 11th digit manufacturing plant information for cars old enough to start with a number instead of a letter. Here it is: Dingolfing – 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9, B, D Munich – 8,...
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Here’s how to diagnose a bad wheel bearing by checking for side-to-side play, which can help isolate the issue from other suspension components like tie rods, control arms or strut mounts. Diagnose a Bad Wheel Bearing: Inspect for Play: Check the wheel for side-to-side play by rocking it at the 3 and 9 o’clock...
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