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Is an old car ever done? Nope.

So May 30, 2012, I took the misses and my kids for a drive. We filled the car up and drove another 25 kilometers before we where home. In the garage I smelled a strong petrol stench around the car. Strange, because we drove far enough fort he fillerneck tob e empty. Last winter I replaced the fuellines underneath the car, but not around the tank. So I knew where to look.

The little expansiontank behind the filleropening is mounted in a bracket, but that bracket rotted away, s the expansio tank was kept in place only by the two hoses. To bad, but I will repair it.



The old hoses are all hardened or porous, so needed to be replaced.





The hoses on the tank, the fillerneck and expansiontank I replaced. Only two hoses need to be replaced in the future. 1: the hose that runs over the tank, because to do so the tank needs tob e lowered; 2. The hose between the fillerneck and the tank, because to do so, the tank needs tob e nearly empty. I hop #1 will last me some years and #2 will come in the near future, I think, mayby, eventually.









I took of the side panels in the car, I found almost a complete dog in hair… If I wanted, it would stuff a complete pillow…. Also greased up the window mechanism.

Inside the boot a rotten bracket caused this:



And underneath:



Fabricated a new bracket, most likely not tob e an exact BMW copy, but it will do.



The back side has another bracket.



Welded it all up!



And primered



And colour. The paint used is metallic, the rest in the boot not, but it wil be covered by the carpet.



Tomorrow I will put antistonechip over it.





I took the rear bumper off to clean i tand clear out the rust. That gives me the space to attent to the dent below the bumper.





This is how it turned out.

And all put back together.





Fitted new hoses



And all fitted. Here you see a bracket where a hole used to be.



And from below.



And some pics from the rear bumper. Lots of rust, more than I bargained for…





Cleared it all out and painted it 3 times.



The old rubber strip I replaced for a new one i got from the seller of the car. He never mouted it, so I did now!







The “new one” was stored in a garage fors ome years and that gave some battle scars. But all in all it’s much better that the old one.

wondering what is that blower lookalike thing in/behind the back seat for?
i know a Prius has it for cooling the batteries behind it

always fighting the rust devil in Koos his topics

Jep, thats my battery cooler!!!

No. It is the window heater, since a cabrio doesn't have a heated window. My hardtop has it, but the softtop not.

On Saturday Jun 09, 2012, I discovered some leakage. A new leak on the gearbox, after a extensive repair and something that looks like coolant. So I opened up the front, again. It turnes out that the plastic coverplates under the engine are screwed on with different kind opf screws and bolts. A strange mix. I had also one screw missing. That was not how i delivered it tot he garage for repairs on the gearbox!!

Well, I didn’t find any coolant, everything was dry and fresh, but I had a leak somewhere.What I found was that the hose on the filerreservoir from the powersteering is mounted with the wrong size clamp. To big. I could just pull it of with clamp and all. So I replaced that thing. But the ATF in the reservoir wasn’t nice and clear and red but very dirty.. Next winter I will get that sorted.

My gearbox leaked also. I couldn’t find a leak, but I tigthened all the nuts and bolts some more.

The doorbrake (or what’s it called, the doorstopper?) on the leftside didn’t work propperly. I saw that damage tot he door already was done, so to prevent more damage I took it apart.




The spring is broken. That was the rattling noise in the door I heard sometimes in the faster corners



But look what I found more inside that door...



Seems to be a rotten windowframe





Of course richt below that on the outside:



This is the damage due to a broken doorstopper.

It’s now midsummer, august 21, 2012. Every no wand then I take the cabrio for a spin. I recently replace no less than three times the same coolant hose, because the coolfan scrapes over it. It looks like movement in my brand new waterpump from BMW…
Today i took my wife ands kids for a drive.



But on the way home we had a stop and I saw this:



Looks like this time the fan had hit the radiator.





Som y very new radiator is shot.



And this is what the engine bay looks like, after such an ordeal:

The next week I bought and placed:
- New original radiator
- new waterpump
- new visco
- new fan on the visco
- 10 liters coolant

The 325iA cabrio runs like new!!!!

In November 2012 I stored her for the winter

February 2013:

So, I left the car stored in November. After some 3 months I had a look and guess what?
No less than 4 (!!) leaks.
- Some gear oil
- Some engine oil
- Some coolant
- Some ATF from the power steering
-


Gearbox, the bolts aren’t tightend right, so leaks are between the oilpan and the seal.

The engine oil is dripping from the plug, so maybe a new seal?

Coolant seems to come from a hose? I just changed the Radiator for a new one in September.

The filter on the power steering has a leak on the hoses, maybe some new hoses?

Anyway, I’m not happy at all with this bullshït.

All in all i had to do some work, to solve this all. To prevent the fan from hitting my rad over and over I repalced my enginemounts an gearbox rubbers. I also orderd the cups for the engine mounts.



The old rubbers are dated 1984 and 1985, so they are first assembly. No wonder they were shot. But as it turned out, my 6 months old rad is also killed by the fanblade. The previous owner has encountered this problem also.
In the last couple of months I replaced: Waterpump (two in 6 months), Visco, fanblade, radiator (two in 6 months), and still the problem exists. I haven’t tried it with the new rubbers but I will create something to prevent that fan from hitting the rad again.



Leaking hose on the new termostathouse



Ruined radiator, look close to see the smear on the edge from that fanblade.

New radiator (again), enginemount stoppers, new filter/seal fort he gearbox and a big piece of steel netting that I will use to protect the radiator.



Engine mount without stopper



With stoppercup





And then the leak on the filter of the powersteering. I just changed the filter and the hoses.



Once this was red ATF…