Ok guys, so my name's Chris and I'm a car addict.
Recently I just picked up a pretty molested alpine white 3 1994 325i. The car appeared to be in beautiful shape when i bought it with a few fixes apparently needed. After three weeks of owning it I'm starting to get a little nervous about it.
Here's some details. (pics soon to follow)
I got the car about three weeks ago with some known issues at the time. It had 179k.
I've put about 2000 miles on it, 1000 of spirited driving, as the car was used on the track fairly often.
The car is relatively rust free with a little bit of paint chipping and surface rust. (barely any)
Leaking valve cover gasket.
Broken hood system
poor headlight wiring
bad upstream o2 sensor Miscelaneous interior pieces missing. (center console, headliner sagging, rear-view mirror missing, etc.)
The interior is a 8/10 in sand color. All leather is tight and of original color, with no cracks or tears or blemishes anywhere. I don't know how this is possible for a car this old, but hey I'm not complaining.
The cars modifications are as follows...
headers, cat delete, (xpipe) and muffler. brand unknown.
Some intake thing that seems to be carbon fiber material at the filter
e3 spark plugs
bilstein struts, h&R springs
spacers, and 5x130 adapters with hollow body 18in. Porsche twists wearing hankook ventus evo212 k120s all around. All are brand new.
Polyurethane control arm bushings, upgraded control arms.
Bosch french headlights
also came with some refinished stock wheels and some projector headlights (with no ballasts)
Picked her up for the tune of $1850, i have plans to restore her to her original state while dailying and eventually build her into a heavily modified street/track car with rollcages and racing seats and all that fun stuff.
the bad...
The valve covers look previously (very poorly replaced) with some sort of gasket material seeping out the side (as well as oil too ofcourse)
As i started to go through the car in depth i started to notice a trend of general (for lack of better words) silliness. Messy wiring considering the headlights and engine bay, random little things the previous owner i guess attempted but never finished, and apparently "has no idea" or recollection of doing. I got the impression he was lying to me about alot of the car. Carfax told me the rest, as did common sense and basic mechanical understanding.
SO.
Since i've gotten the car, i've deleted the factory hood latching system and replaced it with some $10 autozone hoodpins till i can get my hands on something nicer, fixed the headlight wiring, replaced the spark plugs, (which were fried) oh yeah did i mention the valve cover has a bolt head broken off? So far, it hadn't been anything too serious so far, no leaks besides the VCGs, nothing BIG.
Until recently when i went to go replace the o2 sensor. I found that the PO had an o2 sensor installed where the headers collect, but the wire is gone. It's just gone. No sign of what could have happened to it. I'm assuming it was melted off by the heat of the headers. Which would be fine, but the weird thing is, now that i have a new o2 sensor, i can't find the port for the plug anywhere!
So today (around 5:30AM after work with a coworker) I went under the car with him and we did a diligent search, no upstream plug anywhere!
It gets weirder.. we thought about just simulating the o2 sensor, directly from the wiring of the ECU but the f*cking box is nowhere to be found! (its not in the engine bay where it's supposed to be)
So here I am thinking about what to do with this car, given it's trend of general "silliness" and what I'm scared I might uncover if I keep pressing on.
Otherwise, the car as far as I can tell, is in pristine condition for it's year and mileage, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to own it and plan on doing all that i can to push forward with it, and possibly even build it into a full blown track/street car. Because you know, a quick car is totally necessary on the streets.
Basically, i guess the point of this thread is to document the build process of this car, and get some help from people who have more experience with these cars, because I've fallen in love them, and how they drive, and would love to learn more about them. PLUS, I'll be damned if i drive something else. I plan on picking up a daily soon also (either an e30 or a honda) so i can work on this little princess without having to stress her out all the time.
Pictures soon to come, many pictures.
A big thank you in advance to anybody who can relate, share funny stories, provide helpful tips, or laugh at my pain.
Currently, the million dollar question right now is WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MY UPSTREAM O2 SENSOR PLUG DAMMIT?!
VCGs are next, along with painting the valve cover. I think.
Recently I just picked up a pretty molested alpine white 3 1994 325i. The car appeared to be in beautiful shape when i bought it with a few fixes apparently needed. After three weeks of owning it I'm starting to get a little nervous about it.
Here's some details. (pics soon to follow)
I got the car about three weeks ago with some known issues at the time. It had 179k.
I've put about 2000 miles on it, 1000 of spirited driving, as the car was used on the track fairly often.
The car is relatively rust free with a little bit of paint chipping and surface rust. (barely any)
Leaking valve cover gasket.
Broken hood system
poor headlight wiring
bad upstream o2 sensor Miscelaneous interior pieces missing. (center console, headliner sagging, rear-view mirror missing, etc.)
The interior is a 8/10 in sand color. All leather is tight and of original color, with no cracks or tears or blemishes anywhere. I don't know how this is possible for a car this old, but hey I'm not complaining.
The cars modifications are as follows...
headers, cat delete, (xpipe) and muffler. brand unknown.
Some intake thing that seems to be carbon fiber material at the filter
e3 spark plugs
bilstein struts, h&R springs
spacers, and 5x130 adapters with hollow body 18in. Porsche twists wearing hankook ventus evo212 k120s all around. All are brand new.
Polyurethane control arm bushings, upgraded control arms.
Bosch french headlights
also came with some refinished stock wheels and some projector headlights (with no ballasts)
Picked her up for the tune of $1850, i have plans to restore her to her original state while dailying and eventually build her into a heavily modified street/track car with rollcages and racing seats and all that fun stuff.
the bad...
The valve covers look previously (very poorly replaced) with some sort of gasket material seeping out the side (as well as oil too ofcourse)
As i started to go through the car in depth i started to notice a trend of general (for lack of better words) silliness. Messy wiring considering the headlights and engine bay, random little things the previous owner i guess attempted but never finished, and apparently "has no idea" or recollection of doing. I got the impression he was lying to me about alot of the car. Carfax told me the rest, as did common sense and basic mechanical understanding.
SO.
Since i've gotten the car, i've deleted the factory hood latching system and replaced it with some $10 autozone hoodpins till i can get my hands on something nicer, fixed the headlight wiring, replaced the spark plugs, (which were fried) oh yeah did i mention the valve cover has a bolt head broken off? So far, it hadn't been anything too serious so far, no leaks besides the VCGs, nothing BIG.
Until recently when i went to go replace the o2 sensor. I found that the PO had an o2 sensor installed where the headers collect, but the wire is gone. It's just gone. No sign of what could have happened to it. I'm assuming it was melted off by the heat of the headers. Which would be fine, but the weird thing is, now that i have a new o2 sensor, i can't find the port for the plug anywhere!
So today (around 5:30AM after work with a coworker) I went under the car with him and we did a diligent search, no upstream plug anywhere!
It gets weirder.. we thought about just simulating the o2 sensor, directly from the wiring of the ECU but the f*cking box is nowhere to be found! (its not in the engine bay where it's supposed to be)
So here I am thinking about what to do with this car, given it's trend of general "silliness" and what I'm scared I might uncover if I keep pressing on.
Otherwise, the car as far as I can tell, is in pristine condition for it's year and mileage, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to own it and plan on doing all that i can to push forward with it, and possibly even build it into a full blown track/street car. Because you know, a quick car is totally necessary on the streets.
Basically, i guess the point of this thread is to document the build process of this car, and get some help from people who have more experience with these cars, because I've fallen in love them, and how they drive, and would love to learn more about them. PLUS, I'll be damned if i drive something else. I plan on picking up a daily soon also (either an e30 or a honda) so i can work on this little princess without having to stress her out all the time.
Pictures soon to come, many pictures.
A big thank you in advance to anybody who can relate, share funny stories, provide helpful tips, or laugh at my pain.
Currently, the million dollar question right now is WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MY UPSTREAM O2 SENSOR PLUG DAMMIT?!
VCGs are next, along with painting the valve cover. I think.
My first BMW
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