bmwe21.net forums

In order to stop cluttering up the board with multiple posts (and keep on Jeroen's good side) I'll put all my ongoing jobs into one post.

Previous work:
323i first arrives in Perth


I got a new windscreen, but there's no photo because it looks just like the old one with the small crack in it!

Start with (what I thought) were the easy things: Fix the washer bottle

Turns out it's a pain in the rear, but I was lucky enough for Dad to grab a spare off his old wrecked 318i

Had some trouble with air in the coolant, but it wasn't anything major.


Checked the compression to make sure it wasnt a head gasket problem


Couldn't work out what this bracket was, but Jeroen reckons it's after market aircon, so that'll come off when I can get back into the garage (currently 40 degrees C!)


Scraped off some gunk...


... and did some degreasing


Whipped off the intake system...


...and dis-assembled


Gave everything a good clean



Still lots to do:
Paint airbox
Re-install intake system
Re-wire connections to cold start
New tyres
Control arms
Front wheel bearings

Thanks, good start, now let me move this to the 6 cyl section in the Owners Gallery ok? Keep us posted here!

Damn! I was trying so hard to be good!

Yeah, wherever you think is best.

Got some more hours on the car last night. I managed to get all the airbox and fuel distributor re-assembled after a good clean and coat of paint. It looks really nice. Shame it's all hidden away after being installed.


I got my washer bottle in. Hooked it up with a proper connector ansome shrink wrap around the wiring to make sure it is tidy. "Washer bottle" hardly sounds like something to get excited about, but considering the amount of work it took to get it here and into the car, I'm posting it up!


While the intake was out, I took the chance to do a little degreasing and to tidy up some dodgy wiring for the cold start injector. Little things, but at least it's progress.


I got the "mystery bracket" off and it came with a couple of pounds of grime! Glad to be rid of it (although in our Summer heat, having some aircon to install on to it would have been nice).


Once I had that gone, I did some more cleaning underneath. This thing is super, super dirty. The grime was so thick I found a mystery cable there! No idea what it's for as yet, so need some more investigating. It's not quite pristine under there,but the amount of grime and gunk is dramatically different.


I got everything back together and it's hard to tell the difference! I know there's hours of work under there, but you've got to look to notice. Oh well. At least it'll be clean for next time I have to fix something.


So the job list got a little shorter. Unfortunately, my fumble fingers have managed to disrupt something so that I'm only running on 5 cylinders, so I've added fixing that to the list of things to do. Plus I thought of some other stuff.

Paint airbox - done
Re-install intake system - done
Re-wire connections to cold start - done
Fix misfire
New tyres
Control arms
Front wheel bearings
Remove surface rust and paint under expansion tank/brake booster
Fix indicator self cancel
Flush and replace coolant
Stop exhaust rubbing on rear subframe
Fix rust spot under tail light
Bleed clutch slave cylinder

Makes quite a difference already! Just get yourself anoth box of spray cans of brake cleaner... defo also a lot more fun when you're working on the car again!

As for the missing cil, spark plug cables may be bad, also inspect plugs and ignition dizzy

Indicator self cancel, I've had that before, could be the indicator stalk being worn or the notch behind the steering wheel. Or perhaps an aftermarket steering wheel and boss?

Keep us posted... or well it's awfully quiet here sofar, well at least keep me posted then

Nice car you have there, it's always good to see another aussie car. Just hope I can find some motivation to work on mine. Jereon was right that is a bracket is for the air con I know because I removed mine as well. Although with the 46 degrees we had in adelaide the other day I don't know if that was such a good idea. Keep up the good work look forward to seeing more updates.

Nice progress .. another e21 that is treathed well

Nice looking e21 you have there Pete.

I notice in one of the pics you have Noltec adjustable strut tops. I'm running them in my e30 also. Watch for the urethane becoming brittle and crumbling around the top rose joint. Apparently these strut tops (and other urethane bushes by Noltec) were prone to it. It could have just been a bad batch though because I've had mine in for a couple of years now, and they've been fine.

Keep up the good work.

Nice work, The mistery cable you found is for the oilpressure sensor which is mounted over there.

Thanks for the comments.

I've had my strut top mounts on since 2007 and haven't noticed anything. It's been years since the car's been driven in "anger", so I'll check it out once I get it back on the road.

I worked out the mystery cable today. It looks like someone had some trouble with the oil pressure sensor, so I think you're pretty right (Peter V) except that the oil pressure sensor is still there and connected. After getting some more grime off, I found this hidden underneath. Looks like someone had to connect up a new wire for the oil pressure and was either a numpty or forgot some important aspects of wiring!


I got into pulling the drivers side of the engine bay down to get to the rust under there. It's all surface rust, so I can't see how the it can be a real problem for the inspector, but my mechanic told me it was a problem and it's probably good to fix it sooner rather than later.
I got the brake booster/master cylinder off rather easily. I say "easily" but that's in old BMW terms. It was a few hours of hard graft as everything was pretty crusty and there's those bolts through to the wheel arch I struggled to undo alone. I also had to shoot off to the shops to a new 11mm flare fitting spanner as mine seems to have walked off.


The exhaust manifolds were pretty similar. After all the trouble I had on the e12, I ws expecting misery, but they were all quite easy. A little concerning how "loose" they were too. Even more scary was the missing nut on number 6! I gave it a bit more of a clean (I think I'm getting a bit OCD about de-greasing) and it came out quite well.


I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, but I used the cordless leaf blower to get the excess water off. It's especially good at cleaning out the spark plug sockets. Love it!


Got the wire brush on to the rust and gave it a first go over. It's ready for some paint stripper to get down to the rest of the rust, then it's more wire brush action.

Nice progress again!

PeteK wrote:I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, but I used the cordless leaf blower to get the excess water off. It's especially good at cleaning out the spark plug sockets. Love it!

LOL and you can use it as a supercharger after you're finished

Back into the garage after a couple of weeks off entertaining guests.

Started by getting the radiator out, more to clear some space than for any real radiator problem. I've got some weird wiring that some previous owner installed to get the fan working and I think the root cause is the temperator switches.


The connector with the temperature switches in it is very corroded and I ended up putting a hole in it when I tried to wire brush the mess off! Probably needed a new one anyway.



I tested the switches by putting them in a pot of boiling water and cranking the stove up. One switched successfully, but the other didn't change. I know one is rated to 99 degrees, so maybe my boiling water was not quite hot enough. I might add a bunch of salt and try again later.



The aim of the day was to strip the paint off the driver's side of the engine bay, so I got into cleaning it up for the paint stripper. I'd already wire brushed what I could reach, but I still needed to get some body sealant off. I got a nasty surprise at the top corner of the engine bay. A large strip of rust around the corner of the engine bay. That'll need some work as soon as I get the rest of the paint stripped off.



I got the paint stripper on, but as I'ver never done it before, I went a bit cautious on the amount. In the end, I think I went a bit light.



I got a fair amount of paint off, but there's plenty of patches to get to yet. There seems to be a couple of layers of paint in some places. Probably a side effect of the bad front end repair it's obviously had.

Did the second go at paint stripper tonight. Still not quite 100%, but a lot better.

Second coat on.


After a scrape and clean up.


After some wire brushing and lots of sweating!


Corner is still pretty rusty, but I'm getting there.

PeteK wrote:The connector with the temperature switches in it is very corroded and I ended up putting a hole in it when I tried to wire brush the mess off! Probably needed a new one anyway.

Ouch! I believe these are NLA for ages already. Perhaps there are a few more people that want one and we can have a few made somehow!

Nice work