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And of course, the bitch let me down. The misses and I were away for a few days, cruising in Germany. On the way home, I noticed some strange behaviour, revs going up and down, shocks while driving, but that went away. On the Autobahn suddenly it revved up, and loss of power. So I stopped at a parking, checked the oil in the gearbox, nothing wrong. Then, as we wanted to get her home, I shifted in to R but nothing happened. In D it went, but we needed to get out of the parkingspot first. Once pushed out, we could drive, but not faster than 120km/h, at a high rpm. Managed to get the last 200 km's done and got the car home. It seems to be the regular 4hp22 thing, worn clutchpacks. So after a few weeks of searching for a gearbox, I counted my money and took the car to the ZF specialist. I wanted to get it to ZF in Germany, but they just do the gearbox, and I wanted the crancshaftbearing on the gearbox end done also. So to the ZF/BMW specialist.

They took the complete box apart. All worn parts will be new, O rings, gaskest, clutchpaks, torque convertor, the works.

A steel O ring was broken into pieces, was laying in the oilpan, the frictionmaterial on the clutchpacks was gone. Burned away. In 1988 ZF had a update for the 4HP22. before 1988 the boxes couldn't
handle revving in N of P. that would blow out the seals and Orings because the pressure could not get out. The solution is to drill a hole and replace two steel rings for plastic ones. So that will be done aswell.

and now pictures!



new torque convertor



Old O rings and a stack of old gaskets



Burned frictionplate vs a new one.



Some loose parts



and a bearing that was damaged an damaged the house it was placed in, so that needed replacing. Bummer.



Wearmarks on the inside.



The brain and end piece still needed cleaning.



the brain will be taken apart also.



all new gaskets. Those white rings are the replacement for the steel ones, due to that rev problem in N or P.

A week later I collected it and it drives like it should. First tim in my possesion that I drove faster than 170km/h! We took it for the 5 country eiffel meet and drive in september 2016. Drove like a charm!

this is some insane work and effort

Thanks Bruno! I really love this cabriolet. It is easy and fun to drive.

So this topic is also a few years behind. Time to catch up. In Spring 2017 I ordered:
- bobine (Bosch)
- Sump breatherhose (Febi)
- visco (Beru)
- oilfilter (BMW)
- Valvecovergasket

In stock:
- 5 liter 15w40 (Castrol gtx)
- Sparkplugcables (Beru)
- Oilpluggasket (Weetikveel)

Appointment made:
- overhaul originial steeringrack (Hydroline trade)

In short, spring 2017 would be a busy one. November 2016 this e30 325iA cabriolet became 30 years old, by the way.

Stage 1 Done. It was an oilchange, with filter, check valve clearance (which was good) replacing the valvecover gasket and fitting a new visco.

Stage 2 is on the way, new set sparkplug cables, distributorcap and rotor. So all that will be new.

Stage 3, the steeringrack, is a bit of a struggle. The original one I removed 18 months ago, because it was leaking at one of the pressurelines. So I replaced it wit a newer version, but that one is not perfect either. So I wanted to overhaul the original one and fit that back on the car.

I delivered the original one at Hydroline Trade in Veenendaal. Within 30 minutes it was completely taken apart, so I could take the bare shell, to get a helicoil fitted. But the house had not enough meat left on the bone to fit that helicoil.

The best solution was to obtain the same model rack as my original one. I found one in Germany, went over to a dirty, chainsmoking German bird-dogger with a brandnew 750Li and an older 760Li. Had a shed packed with BMW parts, some e30 but mostly e46 and e9x.

That part I took als to Rini, who will build one good rack from two bad ones. Stage 3 should be finished next week.

Than my unforseen work: A rather annoying vibration in the drive train. I had the car checked an this is what they found:
- 1 missing bolt in one of the calipers at the rear (Was a shock! It was there last winter….
- 1 wheel with missing weight, so all 4 balanced
- Vibration in the box or diff. Diff had very dirty oil, however just 1 year old. I suspect the diff is wearing down. Always something…

The 325iA cabrio is pretty well in use. It is summer 2018 now. Next winter will be one of larger maintenance, we have a severe oilleak at the front crackshaftseal. Timingbelt is also long over due. But for now, I just replaced the floormats.



Used the old mounting points.



And a quick wash

So in september 2018, right before we went on the Eifel trip, my gearbox broke down again. So I had to go to the Eifel with my 323i and took the e30 to the shop again. This is on the way home.





Than I could finally start on the much needed repairs.





The radiateur protection I fabricated a few years ago works like charm.



Taken apart gives a clear view at the problem:







To get the cranckshaft bolt out I broke a spanner...



So I took a bar of steel and welded a 22mm socket on it.





Engine blocked with an other bar of steel





A better view on the leak:





And the cover off. Got another one from the shelf, saved me a lot of cleaning.

Painted the covers with Aluminiumpaint









Changed the camshaft seal:



New seals for the cranckcase.

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And put everything back, cranckbolt with 435 Nm.





So when taking it all apart, I came across the alternator, which had a squeaky bearing. Can’t leave it like that, so I checked the number. Had exactly the same on the shelf, but of course that was bad also.



So had that one overhauled.





And fitted.





Putting it all together



Some fresh parts I had laying around

Painted the covers with Aluminiumpaint









Changed the camshaft seal:



New seals for the cranckcase.

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And put everything back, cranckbolt with 435 Nm.





So when taking it all apart, I came across the alternator, which had a squeaky bearing. Can’t leave it like that, so I checked the number. Had exactly the same on the shelf, but of course that was bad also.



So had that one overhauled.





And fitted.





Putting it all together



Some fresh parts I had laying around

The radiator returnline is made of hard plastic did not survive the adventure. If you buy a very expensive new one at BMW you’ll get a 50 cents rubber hose. So I solved it otherwise. Got me a new reservoir while they are still in stock.









And changed the heather hoses aswell.

Fast forward to Juni 2019. There are still some things to take care of. The most important one is fitting type 1 grilles. The type 1 is all in 1 piece, where the type 2 has a hole. Got a new strip of foam also.



When I took the car for repairs on the box in september 2018, it died on me with about 25% fuel in the tank. Did not think much of that, just got fuel and drove on. But I found out that the pump in the tank has gone. My type of e30 325i has two pumps, one in the tank and one onderneath the car. First one pumps the fuel up to a certain level, the second one sucks it towards the engine. The second one alone is not strong enough to get the tank empty by itselve. From about 25% empty it starts to fail.

A replacement unit at BMW costs about 400 euro. That won’t fit in my brain, so I got a 60 euro universal one.



Old one off



New one on. Needs some adjustment.

Then I cleaned the front wings on the inside. Dinitrol all the way for rust protection.





Remaining points:
- Solving wrong tankreading, due to changing the SIboard it things we have a 60l tank. But the gauge and tank are 55l. Due summer 2019
- Overhaul diff. Due winter ‘19/’20
- New set Goodyear Efficient Grip’s. Planning winter ‘19/’20

Wow thanks once again for the updates, some impressive work done not only on the E21, but on your E30 as well!