Unofficialbmw.com

[kyshadetreebmw]

So what was the resolution of the high idle when warm?

[dale]

The idle mixture in the AFM was too rich, leaned it out a bit and the idle came right down. Idling fine at 750rpm now.
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87 325 5spd eta

[Bimmerboy91]

could you swap the aluminum bumpers with plastic bumpers? i asked this question but it was about my cabrio.......
_________________
'91 325I Cabrio - its gone
'87 325/e- the driver

I GOTTA get me an "i" again

[dale]

The front one is an easy swap, just need the bumper, bumper shocks, and valance and all of it's parts.

The rear is harder, the later cars are longer between the bumper and the rear wheel arch due to the slight lowering of the wheel arch in '88-'92 E30s.
Cabrios may be different in this regard as they didn't change to the plastic bumpers until 1991.

You can do it if you know how to work with plastic and can cut a plastic
bumper shorter. There is an article on how to do this out on the net, but
not something I've ever tried.

Dale
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87 325 5spd eta

[dale]

The outside temp sensor was trashed on this car from dragging along the ground at some point, so my OBC read -22 all the time.

Looking through some parts cars, I found a newer style outside temp sensor
and it's wiring harness, so I installed that and it's working great!

I don't know what year the cut-over was, but I'm going to guess 1988 was the first year for the new style.
The OTS is located under the front bumper on the drivers side.

Early


Late:


This is where you'll find the connector, this style connector is the early 84-87 one.

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sold in 2016
87 325 5spd eta

[dale]

I've had an intermittant driveability issue with the eta off an on for a while now. I thought it was a bad AFM, but after some more research I found that the Bentley is wrong on its testing procedure.
You have to test the AFM under power, not just with an ohmmeter.
Leave the AFM installed, pop the black cover off, turn the key on to power the AFM, and measure the voltage in.
Left to right, Ground, Voltage In, Voltage Out, AirTempResistance
on an '84 eta, the voltage should vary from approx 0.15V to 8.5V.
At the 1/2way open point the voltage out should be about 1.5V, it's a logrithmic scale.
The later AFMs on Motronic 1.1 (325i) are linear scale, at 1/2way, the voltage out should be at 4.25V.

My meter tested out fine with this method.

After some inspection I found that I had crushed the wires to the O2 sensor when I jacked to motor up to get clearance to change the control arms.
As a temp fix I disconnected the O2 sensor and the car runs 100% better.

Went to my local Shucks, generic auto parts chain,
"how much for a bosch O2 sensor for an '84 325e? $141, and we don't have it in stock"
"how much for a bosch O2 sensor for an '87 Ford Mustang 5.0? $41 and it's right here on the shelf."
"sold!"
The only difference is the plug so I'll splice the old plug onto the new O2 sensor and be back in business.

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/all/engine/all_cheap_o2_sensor.html
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sold in 2016
87 325 5spd eta

[dale]

New O2 sensor went in tonight, piece of cake.

Tomorrow we'll see if the commute mileage improves.
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87 325 5spd eta

[dale]

Man, I'm _still_ working on this thing.

Tonight I installed different tail lights, the old ones were getting faded and cracked from years of CA sun.
While I had everything torn apart, I decided to the the "double brake light mod", see Ron Stygar's write-up on this.
Basically you use the Euro rear-fog spot as an extra light bulb for the brake lights, now 2 lights per side, 4 total, come on with the brake lights.
Since mine is a 1984, I don't have the 3rd brake light.

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/all/electrical/all_2nd_brake_light_upgrade.html




Then I pulled the front bumper and sanded down all the years of abuse it has seen and painted it black.
Next, drilled the front shocks and drained the oil to do the bumper tuck.
I've set the BBS spoiler in place but not attached it yet.

Also painted the door mouldings black and installed them. I purchased all new plastic mounting hardware for the door mouldings the other day at BMW Seattle. I hope this paint on the hard rubber lasts, if not, I'll be redoing this little project. Sure looks a lot better though.

I'll be swapping the front windshield and rear glass at some point this week so I pulled out the ugly rusted old locking strip. Looks a lot better without anything in there. I have a black locking strip I'll install after I get the new glass in place.
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sold in 2016
87 325 5spd eta

[dale]

Painted the front bumper black last night, and installed the BBS front spoiler that has been on this car since new I think.
When Wes did the body work, he also did plastic repair on the front spoiler and painted it, turned out nicely.

Also installed some new Roundels front and rear, looking better every day.







Also painted the door moulding black, got to finish the last piece when I pull the rear seat and side panels out again. Looks a lot better, but will it last?


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87 325 5spd eta

[vinleb]

I need an O2 sensor for my 1990 325i and the Description for the Bosch OEM is 4 wire heated and the description for the Bosch Mustang 5.0 Sensor is 3 wire heated. I guess its different for the 325i.

[dale]

Tonights project was to paint the rear bumper black, got that done and reinstalled. Tomorrow I'll do the bumper tuck on the rear.

Bought the Hella H4/H1 lights, with bulbs for $14(+20ish s/h) off of ebay:
http://stores.ebay.com/SOHi-Performance
Very well packed and standard UPS ground shipping.

Also installed the Hella H4 and H1 headlights, WOW, what a difference!


Only have the normal 55/60 H4 and 60w H1 bulbs in now, but I have other ones on the shelf I'll try soon. The hardest part about the installation was sanding down the trim rings around the headlights to repaint them.
Factory is a medium gray, I shot them black and they make the headlights stand out even more.

As soon as I hit the high beams the factory 7.5A fuses blew. Upgraded to 10Amp fuse and it's working fine.

Also, finally looked tonight and I have a 2.79 LSD diff in this car, no wonder it's so slow!
I ran a 3.73 in my previous eta for a while, and that was way too much.
I put a 3.25 into a 528e I had for a few months and it had decent performance, big improvement over stock, along with the chip, what a
change to that car.
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sold in 2016
87 325 5spd eta

[bearing01]

[bearing01]

Holy s Dale,
That black bumper looks good. I'm doing my color scheme all gold/black without chrome. I was thinking of leaving the bumpers chrome because I was afraid the painted bumper would look gheto.

How did you do it? Just sand, prime and paint? Did you use SEM or anything fancy?

[bearing01]

Dale,
could you lead us to more info on the Hela H1/H4 lights? Maybe some links? What's the difference and how much $$?

And a pic of the car with these lights in please.

[wazzu70]

IMO the diving boards tucked and painted black are a 100% improvement. Not as good as the euros (depending on your tastes) but the black definitely helps the bumpers not stand out as a big ugly hunks that don't fit the car.

Looks really good Dale!
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-Nick


1984 BMW 325e
1991 BMW 325i
1976 Honda CB400F Super Sport
"The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten"