Unofficialbmw.com

[85-325e]

Doing a bunch of stuff on my E30 this weekend...

The car is in my garage up on 4 stands...

Last time I took my marathon drive from Colorado to New York and back, I had flickering in my OBC display, and then, every once in a while, the OBC would die, the cruise control would stop, and the instruments would all go to 0. A rap on the front of the cluster brought it back whenever it happened. I figure that a solder joint someplace in there was bad, or loose, so last night I pulled the cluster, completely dismantled it, and reflowed every solder joint I could find... the main board and the speedo board all had joints and I reflowed them all. Reinstalled that last night... hopefuilly, everything will be fine when I have the car all back together. We'll see...

I need to replace the gas tank, and have the new one here... I've had it for approximately 2 years, but never got around to doing this job. So, I've pulled off the muffler, and the heat shields, and got the driveshaft out. Wasn't easy... the d/s fought all the way, but willpower won over!

While I'm in there, I've had a leak from the selector rod seal on the tranny for a while. I wasn't sure what seal was leaking, but from the looks of the oil that was around, it was from up there. I had ordered some parts from Pelican on Thursday, and got them Friday. And, I had ordered that selector rod seal.

Sure enough... once everything was down, I could see that the entire area was oily. But to get to it, I had to pull off the vibration damper and flange from the back of the tranny. I actually had to modify the only puller I had here to get the fingers to fit into the open areas on the damper/flange. Finally it came off. Luckily, I had the proper socket for the large nut that holds the flange in, as well as a few extra locking rings in my parts box.

Right now, I'm having fits trying to get the old seal out. What a pain in the butt! It just won't budge.

Once that's done and the new seal is in, I move on to the tank. The rear seat is already out of the car, and the cover plate has been removed. Everything underneath is exposed and ready. The new tank has been undercoated, more than a year ago, so it's ready too. The only thing that isn't ready right now is me lol.

Got to go and do a few things and then I'll come back and solve this seal thing. I remember doing this with the tranny out of the car 9 years ago, and I recall even then this little seal was a pain in the butt. now I'm doing it with the tranny still up in the car.

More later...
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[m78]

wow. ambition knows no bounds.

You may want to replace the batteries in your cluster, to prevent fluttery gauges.

Also, if you're going to all the trouble of replacing the fuel tank, you may want to drop in a new fuel pump/sender as well, along with the fuel filter, WYUT (while you're under there).
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Lachssilber Metallic 203 1988 325i sedan with 200,xxx miles

Top Speed 220 km/h

(OO=00=OO)

[85-325e]

OK, so here's an update. I'm still struggling with this stupid selector shaft seal. I tried a small steel screwdriver, and didn't get it to budge. Then I modified the screwdriver to be thinner and with a longer reach inside the seal. It might have moved the seal 1/4 of a mm, but in the end, that screwdriver got totally mangled too. Then I took a regular seal puller, and ground it down to make a mini-puller. but the thing didn't have enough strength and the hook bent. So that didn't work either. Then I gave up, sore and frustrated.

Dale was kind enough to answer a call for help, and his suggestions are pretty much what I asked him about as solutions.

This part of it sucks. I'm SO ready to put the car back together and cruise of into the sunset, but this one lousy piece of rubber and thin metal is driving my nuts, instead of away!

M, I did the batteries a few years ago. I don't have the fuel filter, but I'll get one sent to me as I'll be screwing with this stupid seal for most of the day I think.

More again later...
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

OK, so the little sucker is out... finally.

An old friend came over to visit early this morning, and I didn't get out there unitl a few minutes ago.

One piece of Dale's advice that was dead-on... First, he admitted that those stupid little seals are a "bugger" as he put it. Second, he said "Time to take a break, get a good nights sleep, and work on this again in the morning." Funny, I didn't get his email until the morning anyway, and I was just too frustrated to tinker with it more last night anyway.

Yesterday, I sprayed some PB Blaster on it to see if it would loosen it up.

So, I got under the car as a lark, figuring that I'd spend the whole day at this, and of course, couldn't budge it again. I had planned on imploding the seal from the sides, to see if that would release some of the tension. So I took a punch, and ground it down to a fine but not piercing point and got under the car. I placed the tip where I wanted it, and gave it a gentle rap with the ball peen hammer.

The PBBlaster must have worked overnight somewhat...

Well, it didn't deform. Instead, it went 1mm further IN. But you know, that little movement was enough to free it, and with my mangled little screwdriver tip, which I straightened out, I tried from both sides for about 1 minute, and it started to move. One more push and it popped right off!

I didn't do ANY damage to the housing, and I doubt, from looking at the seal, that I did much if any real damage to the shaft!

Here's a shot of the little bastard finally out. Now, have to seat a new seal (I only have one so I better not screw it up), and then to the tank. With any luck, by the end of the afternoon, the tank will be in. I'll have to wait on the filter, but the fuel lines are fairly new, and there'll be some brand new ones in there after this is all over, so I'll worry about the filter later on when I can get one here.

More later... Yippee!


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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

OK, next step... I got the seal back on and well "seated," so to speak. I've got the shifter mechanisms back in and took the opportunity to grease everything with white lithium grease so the shifter's operation is very smooth. All of those parts were replaced about 3 years ago, and they're all like new.

The flange/damper is back on, all but the locking ring. I hate those things. I've never had good luck with them, and I've replaced a lot of them. Last time I bought parts a few years ago, I got a bunch of those cause I know I'll always blow a few. So far, I've messed up two of them. Luckily, I have 5 or 6 more. There should be a separate section in Bentley about these stupid things!

Anyway, taking a break, will put that ring on next, and then tackle the tank and gas lines. Cosmo will be back together today or tomorrow...

More later !
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Well, I finally got the tank drained and out yesterday afternoon. Then, while I was covered with grease and gas, some friends came over with their fathers and invited me to go out an eat. I don't go out often, and decided it was a nice invite and a good rest from the car, so I went. When I actually got back, it was dark and raining, and just a little too late, so I shelved things until today. The new tank is ready to go in... I transferred the heat shield hangers before they came.

I also swept under the car... the biggest hindreance to rolling around under the car is one or two tiny pebbles, which will stop a creeper in it's tracks! Luckily, I've been very careful with the car over the past few years, and working underneath it is a pleasure. There's almost no dirt or dust on the underside of the car, and stuff hasn't been dropping down into my face etc.

I didn't take many pics as I was working, but there are a few. I'll try to post them all later this afternoon or evening...
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked, but I made good progress anyway, and may still go down there and work some more tonight. It started to rain and I had just gotten back from getting some big fuel line for the top run, and I didn't feel like doing anything in there for a while.

In the meantime during the day, I dismantled all of the parts around the pump. Dale wrote me and said uneqivicolly (sp?), no cracks in any of the lines, period.

Sure enough, there were some small cracks here and there, and rather than take any chances, I decided to replace them all. I have the absorber there, I think like everyone else, and in addition, I have a round damper there as well that I believe was only in 325e cars. That round thing was pretty rusted, so I cleaned off any really loose rust chips with a chisel, and then buffed it all down, coated it with some naval jelly to kill the rust, primed and painted it. This part is NLA and I doubt one from a junk yard would be any better. In the end, it worked out nicely and is protected for many years to come. This how it looked, front and back, and with the goop on. I don't have a pic of the finished product but will take one when it's all together.







I also cleaned everything down there and got some replacement hose clamps.

One thing I noticed about the replacement tank... there were several reinforcement pieces on the original tank that the replacement didn't come with. I tapped those off the old tank and transferred them to the new tank. There were about 5 of them... one of them was a shield above the driveshaft, and the other 5 were reinforcements for the mounting holes. One of the new tank's holes was already reinforced, the one in the middle across from the d/s shield, so one of them wasn't needed.

Looking a tthe fuel pump installed, something didn't look right. One of the terminals looked funny. So I removed the pump and started to look for a new one. This one is working fine, but there was that corrosion on the terminal. When I saw the price of a new Bosch, I decided to fix the one I had !

The rusted teminal is on the left. You can see how the rust has expanded the housing over which the rubber boot seal goes. That, by the way, was back and not on the terminal where it belonged! You can see how the one on the left has exploded compared to the one on the right:



I cleaned out all of the rust, got as many of the particles out as possible, and mixed up some PC-11 waterproof epoxy paste. I packed the area with the paste, and tied it all up with two small and one large zip ties, all cranked down as hard as I could get them, and added a tight rubber band. I put it aside for two hours to cure.



PC-11 has a working time of 30 minutes, and then it has to cure. It cures for service overnight, but in this case, since there's no real stress on it, Im considering it cured enough to reassemble. I cut off all of the zip ties and polished the terminals with my Dremel. I also polished the wire contact clips so they're nice and shiny too. I'll probably buy a new pump in a year or two, but until then, especially in light of the fact that I rarely drive it in the rain anymore, it'll hold until then.

Here's the end of the pump, cleaned up, with the repaired termiinal block. The rubber boot will fit nicely over that now, and the repair is definitely waterproof.



I also painted the clamp for the fuel pump, which was a tad rusted.

I discovered that there's supposed to be a cylindrical plastic cover over the pump, which I can't remember ever having (see other thread), and am wondering if I should wait to buy one and install it before putting this all back together.

Maybe I'll put it all back together tonight...
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[robert1700]

I know the 88+ have a plastic cover there, but no outer fuel pump. My 87 had a outer fuel pump but no cover.
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1987 325i Convertible
51,000+ miles
Sold to a friend car is now destroyed, such a same.

[85-325e]

Thanks Robert... No matter what, this pump will not have the specified cover!

I got the tank in tonight. Still have to make some of the connections under the seat, but the tank is up and all the gas lines under the car with regards to the tank have been replaced. I really struggled with the tank and the connections... last time I took the tank out, I didn't touch this spiderweb of lines. This time, I had to replacde them. What a bear. I did it out of sequence, unknowingly, and some of the things under the car were really difficult to hook up after the tank was in... but it's in.

Tomorrow morning, I'll check the oil level in the tranny while everything is out of the way, finish the tank hookups inside the car, install the drive shaft, the heat sheilds, the cat and muffler, and I should be ready to rock. The tough stuff is over though, and everything else is pretty routine.

Cosmo's almost back on the road again!
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Tanks finished. Driveshaft's in... Little break. Shoulders are killing me from the creeper. Think I'll have to get another one next time...
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Heat shields are in, I've started the car and it's running (good thing in the tank world).

Last thing is to install the cat & muffler, then the steering wheel...

Off to the races !
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[robert1700]

congrats, sounds like a huge job. Since you went this far should you have done the rear subframe mounts?
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1987 325i Convertible
51,000+ miles
Sold to a friend car is now destroyed, such a same.

[85-325e]

No Robert, not this time... didn't need to do them.

In 2004-2005, I took everything under the car, from the tranny back, reconditioned everything, changed ALL of the rubber under the car (hoses, spring pads, bumpers, subframe bushings, new links, and several other rubber parts like the gas filler tube surround etc.). I even replaced the front window gaskets. So none of that was needed at all.

Well, I'm done! Just took the car for a test drive and to fill up the tank. Everything I hoped would be cured is cured:

Reflowing all of the cluster and speedo solder joints fixed everything. The SI lights are now working properly, the OBC isn't flickering even the slighest bit, all guages are working fine (with the exception of the fuel guage, which is working, but I think it should be reading higher right now, but maybe I didn't top the tank off enough to drive the needle all the way up). Still, it's a HUGE improvement.

The gas tank is perfect. It was a bear to do this time for some reason, but with the new tank, the OBC readings of the fuel in the tank are perfectly correct, and the gas is moving corectly from side to side, so the OBC isn't erratic on the litres of fuel left (it used to go up turning hard one way, and down the other!).

The shifter is shifting more smoothly now that everything is greased and tight.

I'm prety sure the tranny is fine... I'll check to see how that little bastard seal is doing later in the week.

Everything was an improvement. Thank you to Dale for coming to my aid for several questions.

This was a large job. I really don't love being under the car and come out of these work periods sore. This time, I didn't screw up my hands at all, and underneath the car, it was very clean, so no junk or dust/pebbles were falling in my face. But, my shoulders are wrecked from that stupid creeper!

Still, I'm glad I got all of this done. The cluster thing has been bothering me for several years, and the fuel tank was here for almost two years anyway. I'm still tempted to try to get the other tank apart and see how badly the slosh I did 7 years ago gummed things up, like the baffles, but I may just say "screw it" and toss the tank out.

Going to dinner at a friend's house. Taking Cosmo and my doggie!

Can't believe I'm finally done! Wahoo!!!
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Damn! When I got home last night, I was talking to my Dad, and somehow, my mind went to the repairs I had just done. As I went through the closing up end of the project in my mind, I realized that I forgotten to tighten the collar nut on the driveshaft joint. Damn, damn, damn!

So today, after an early meeting this morning, I have to put the car back up on stands, remove the muffler and the heat shields (this time I don't have to remove the cat), tighten that sucker, and put the shields and muffler back on. What a pain in the butt!

However, I drove it last night and it was smooth as silk so while I hate to have to raise the car again, it won't take me that long and it'll give me another quick chance to check everything out under there.
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...

[85-325e]

Round 2... Car is up on stands... Will now remove the muffler and the heat shields, tighten that collar nut, reassemble, and take it for a nice drive.
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Cosmo - 1985 BMW 325e, Single Owner, 265,000+ ORIGINAL miles and still going strong! But now on the East Coast and the salt air corrosion is eating my beautiful car alive...