MkX

Got it.. Davy. Did I mention that this is an extra cluster I got. Today I spoke with one of my friend who is specializing on iPhone repairs. He has equipments it seems & asked my to bring the circuit board in a free time. Gathering missing pieces. Got this windscreen washer pump. Previous one wasn't working.

@esdeez were you in E34 .. I have faded memory looking at another beemer or a merc at NTB. @Alfisti there must be many shots of this car roaming around the net I guess This pic shows some possible corrosion in the cluster. What you think guys. should try to bypass this area with some wires or try to solder these lines again? Anyway I will check the both ends for continuity with a multimeter before any attempt.

I have to agree with this. First select "N" apply hand brake and shift to "P". Yesterday I put my 121 directly to "P" and stopped the engine. Today morning the gear changing knob was very stiff. Car was in not in leveled ground. Once I start the engine and released the gear position car moved 1,2cm back even with hand brake on. All that that time the weight was on the gear box.

Thanks OH for the old pics. The cluster panel taken out and cleaned. The circuit board has little damge in the bottom. And some corrosion is there. Need to check if the current still passes through those lines. If not my plan is to solder a small copper wire to bypass the corroded area. Don't know if it will work. But wanna try and see. http://www.flickr.com/photos/citizen1/12436827694/

Thanks SN.. Yep it was well driven indeed. And I didn't bothered too much about not having any service records, because the Gentlemen who owned it wanted space to park his new Alfa and Defender. And he quoted a reasonable price, exactly what I had in my mind too. After a quick word he reduced one hundred thousand for the remaining work.

Actually the "i" has fallen off. Its 316i with EFI engine. Water pump will be taking off this saturday.Then only I can figure out it need total replacement or not. What are the OEM brands for these engine parts? These are available in ebay as well. Edit : @simplelife, yes took it to pinnacle coule of times

Yes its 89 , 316i .. so I assume it got M40 engine.

If question 1,2,3 really bothers you, stick with your 110. However If you wants an upgrade anyway need to figure out whether you wants a SUV or a Car. I've never driven any of these cars mentioned here. So my gut feeling is all are equally good cars with their own characteristics. Generally ES8 engine will easy to rev up than the Nissan. But I have no clue in comparison to Ti My Road. However Nissan cars even FB15 has reputation for comfy ride for it's class. But then again Toyota Carina is supposed to be their topnotch product among their affordable sedans for common man. Parts and maintenance will be equally similar IMO. All depends on what you gonna buy and how you gonna treat it after wards. If I were you I'll go for Carina Ti My Road among the 3. If you want to be more adventurous get a Carina GT or ES3-RS. Life is too short to stick with the same car unless its some thing you inherited from your great grand father or your father. Finding a well maintained car is the key for long list of possible repairs. Good luck.

Paint is similar to Navy blue. Its a solid paint, it shines really but needs a a respray. Haven't thought about paint yet. Needs sort out engine issues and cluster panel. Here its coming after quick ride to Nuwara-Eliya. You can see the fuel door is open. The fuel door lock operates with the central locking system. If I don't lock the doors It will kept open. Here you can see how much it's lowered. However there is small height difference in left and right hand sides. Here is the additional cluster I got, all meters removed contacts cleaned. Need to solder the all contacts before put things together. Also planning to order odo meter gear set from ebay.

Some of you may know this already.. bring her home Edit : not allowing embedded link for flicker photos.

Until I update few pics in the evening thought of updating the story so far. I went on searching E30s for about 4, 5 months. Checked almost every advertised E30. Search went from Maharagama to Matale and Mount Lv to Ambilipitiya. Finally I got this which had least amount of body work. Paint is still original in some places so it’s faded with the time. However I came across another car which had sunroof, all disk brakes, ABS and roof mounted engine check control panel. However car was very badly treated. It needed full wiring done, newly painted with very lowest quality of work and petrol pump is nearing its end of the life, cracked dash, etc. Owner quoted 1M for the car. IMO it would take another 0.5M to bring it back to good condition. So I had to move. Then this car came out of the blue. This car in other hand had no body corrosion, just a bit under the battery. However it does not carrying any service history. The owner claimed it was personally maintained and not been to any reputed places last so many years. My biggest moment was when I took my father on shopping. He is been always criticizing my choices and these are exact words came “Meka shok car eka.. tika tika hadala ganna” and those words came from a person who gone through left hand to right hand drive conversion in his VW beetle and who had to push his Bug Fiat in his Honeymoon trip with newly wedded bride. Enough the story.. coming back to the car, its mainly in stock condition except for wheels which are original “MB Racing” wheels, K&N air filter and lowered suspension. Car handles really well in bends in the Kandy – Colombo road. My first drive took only 2.5 hrs without pushing the car too much, because it negotiates with those bends really well. However I might move back to original springs because Its too low for my road near the home. And I hear a noice coming from left side front wheel, a noice that tyre or something rubbing. Most probably the tyre rubs the wheel arch.

It’s been a while I was thinking of getting a BMW E36. But finally I end up getting an E30. The car has not been abused, but it has accumulated work over the period that needs attention. My intention is to gather up all missing bits and pieces together and build the car back to its original glory. This might not be a big project comparing to some ground up projects and restores. But all help and suggestions are welcome. Here are the things I will have to attend immediately. Complete restore of the instrument cluster. Meters worked for few days after me getting the car, except for the Odometer. However stopped working due to a shudder while I was reversing the car. Coolant leak occurred last week. It’s coming from the water pump. Will be taking it out at the local garage. AC fan seems working even at “0” position. And the AC switch is broken so it’s in the on position all the time. There are small works remaining in rest of the car. For example broken winders, shaky door looks, some interior parts, and a good paint job.

Thanks for the replies guys. I have to go and check it on weekend. Anyway I am planning to do a complete rebuild of the car. Will update another thread if things go according to the plan. As of now, need to sort out the cluster panel and this coolant leak. Its too early to predict how far I can go.

Guys I am in the process of sorting out issues in my newly purchased E30 316i. I didn't ran the car much. But last night I noticed there is a coolant leak some where in side the engine. (I hope it's not the blown up gasket). I could hear the pressure leaking noice. However what I want to know is that, how does the cooling system works in E30. Because I don't see any overflow/reserviour tank in the system. The pressure cap is located in righ hand side of the radiator and there is no coolant reservoir.

There is a high chance this could be a photoshop edit. If you closely observe the Dog you can see the metal bars don't go over the body of it. Dog's whole body is visible.

I think you need to check your coolant lines again. Press rubber hoses and see how the elasticity. If they are hard and if you can feel dry or burnt feeling in your fingers (kara wela) they might have tiny leaks. If you have your coolant level drops in every few hundreads of KMs meaning that your radiator running on low pressure/high temp. This will sure cause a leak/crack in top tank or leak in the seal betweek top tank and radiator core. My suggestion is to closely check hoses and replace if you suspect they are leaky.

I do that when in feel I'm not in a level ground and want to relax my legs.

Better to apply parking brake than sorry..

If it's impossible to find, the photoshop idea is not very bad thing to do, provided that it's done by an expert. I've heard about the story of a person who lives in Galagedara, Kandy. He was doing replica decals for Japanese vehicles and quality was so good that some Japanese manufactures start getting them from him. Don't know how far it's true. But I've seen the place.

Thanks I shall pay a visit then.

Guys does anyone know a place where I can see BBS RS alloys in SL? Even used one in good condition? And what is the specs I should look for if I'm going for new alloys in my E30.

congrats .. nice car.