BMW E30 revival - Parts and planning 16/04/26

[320touring]

This is the eponymous 320touring.

A vehicle purchased by myself on Valentine's day 2005. A faithful beater that took my arse round Eastern Europe in 2006 and on countless trips thereafter.

 

Since 2017 it has languished in a lockup.

Ostensibly awaiting simple rectification work to resolve a steering issue.

The issue was a failed rubber coupling in the link from the column to the rack. The replacement donut and various bolts can be seen here.

However, my lazy arse failed to achieve any of it, and a stream of cars passed through my hands as the years ticked away.

A couple of years back, @jaypee bought me a complete steering coupling, which I managed to get to the garage at the end of Sept 2025 (just before fucking off on holiday for 3 weeks).

Fast forward to today. Easter Monday. Stone rolling/arisen etc yada yada.. many thanks to @jaypee for his help!

First up, remove some of the detritus 

 

Had a look over the car - front drivers wheel was stuck - brake disc rusted so wouldn't turn

A wire wheel was applied, then the new toolkit was opened 

We popped the wheel on and had it spinning quickly.

 

Next up was the steering coupling. Simple in design, but somewhat of a faff in actuality.

Firstly, behold the gap

Marvel* at the condition of the rack retaining bolts..

A bit of time with a file got the bolts and nuts to function, but I'll order new ones up - as these are not great.

Lining everything up was a pain until we remembered that there was a trick to it.

1. Fit knuckle to rack end.

2. Fit passenger side rack retaining bolt

3. Pivot the rack, and for the top end of the coupling - drifting it into place with a hammer.

4. Tighten up the 2x 15mm rack bolts and the 2x 13mm knuckle bolts.

We didn't do them up too tight incase they need to come out.

So that was the original issue resolved!

[sutty2006]

Holy resurrections!!! Be great to see it out the garage! 

[320touring]

Next up was to re mount the engine - to get the rack out you need to take the drivers engine mount off, and loosen the passenger one to let the engine rise up so the rack can be slid out.

Some jacking and a gentle shove got the mount to seat on the runner and it was lowered back down.

Then the car itself sat on 4 wheels for the first time in 9 years..

Having achieved everything that I'd hoped, @jaypee and I decided to keep going.

 

Step 1. Apply the Air Flow Meter and get it mounted and connect to the loom.

Step 2. Wind the engine over with the king lead disconnected to build some oil pressure.

Step 3. Attach king lead and ready the starter tapper

 

That's it running on 9 years old fuel, didn't even pull a spark plug to check. Running on all 6.

😁😁😁😍😍😍😁😁😁😍😍😍😁😁😁

 

[320touring]

Fuck it, in for a penny, in for a pound...

It was charging,

and the brake pedal didn't go all the way to the floor..

So....

Awwwww YISSSSS!

 

[loserone]

Old fuel probably still all dinosaur based!

[Matty]

Love it. Big question is whats next?

[320touring]

4 minutes ago, Matty said:

Love it. Big question is whats next?

I'm gunna enjoy the fact I drove it for today.

Tomorrow likely start ordering up bits.

[Kiltox]

Fuck yeah. Even managed to keep its injectors attached to the engine 

Oh, right, yeah. 

[Tayne]

 

 

 

[hairnet]

flexiny says he loves you

jetwoash widnae go amiss ken??

 

[hairnet]

front left 

🤣

[inconsistant]

Lovely stuff! Peak BMW for me. Love the E30 and a 6 cylinder touring estate is shirley the pick of the bunch. 

[Dave_Q]

Man I sure wish I'd kept one of mine somewhere, it's not a club that's cheap to buy back into nowadays.

Anyways, love to see this.

[hairnet]

didnt sound too tappy

as long as its not too rusty itll be fine right?

gaun like fuck soon

[320touring]

Just now, hairnet said:

didnt sound too tappy

as long as its not too rusty itll be fine right?

gaun like fuck soon

Hope so!

[320touring]

1 hour ago, Kiltox said:

Fuck yeah. Even managed to keep its injectors attached to the engine 

Oh, right, yeah. 

To be fair, fuel pressure is only 2.5bar😂 

1 hour ago, Tayne said:

 

 

 

Fuck me, that wiznae yesterday...

26 minutes ago, inconsistant said:

Lovely stuff! Peak BMW for me. Love the E30 and a 6 cylinder touring estate is shirley the pick of the bunch. 

Felt FUCKING AMAZING to drive it again

5 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Man I sure wish I'd kept one of mine somewhere, it's not a club that's cheap to buy back into nowadays.

Anyways, love to see this.

Cheers man! It's quite the counterpoint to the Zoe...

[Dave_Q]

Sold this in 2010 for £500.

M50 2.5 conversion nearly completed but was at university and didn't have the time or money to finish it off.

[320touring]

Just now, Dave_Q said:

Sold this in 2010 for £500.

M50 2.5 conversion nearly completed but was at university and didn't have the time or money to finish it off.

Fuuuck

[Kiltox]

1 minute ago, Dave_Q said:

Sold this in 2010 for £500.

M50 2.5 conversion nearly completed but was at university and didn't have the time or money to finish it off.

Dishwasher Dave was born in the dark, moulded by it 

[320touring]

This morning I have mostly been on REALOEM harvesting part numbers 

Beats working for a living.. 

[vaughant]

20 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Sold this in 2010 for £500.

M50 2.5 conversion nearly completed but was at university and didn't have the time or money to finish it off.

Ah we've all been there kid. 

I remember breaking an rs turbo series 1 for spares because it needed a clutch or something ridiculous 🙄🙄🙄🙄.

Wasn't even THAT rusty 😬😬, deffo still moted.

Just thought I never actually owned an E30, still own an E36 and owned an E34 from that era.

I remember years ago the old girl came into a bit of money and took my sister to Florence. I was well excited as I think she said it worked out at £1500 each, more than enough for a nice 325i back in 1997.

She came home a week later and I think I was on some bullshit outward bound course with work, drooling over every 325i I saw going down the motorway. 

Imagine my surprise* when she told me she'd spent "my" share on a new carpet and bed I apparently wanted for my bedroom in her house, one of those hideous 4 poster things that I constantly hit my ankles on and it creaked everytime you moved. 

Never got my 325i 😭😭😭😭.

And as you said, big boy figures now for a nice one.

[Dave_Q]

2 minutes ago, vaughant said:

And as you said, big boy figures now for a nice one.

Big boy figures even for a fucked one, total basket cases seem to be anything from £1000 to £5000 depending on what they are (eg a genuine 325i sport or an Alpina at the top end)

[vaughant]

1 minute ago, Dave_Q said:

Big boy figures even for a fucked one, total basket cases seem to be anything from £1000 to £5000 depending on what they are (eg a genuine 325i sport or an Alpina at the top end)

Was a great time to be alive though. I bought an xr2 for £200 at the side of the road, tapped the core plug back in, put an arch on it and hit it moted..... Rest of it was properly clean, ran great as well. 

They're about £5-8k for a fucked one these days 😭😭😭.

[Schaefft]

A 6-cylinder E30 Touring has probably tripled in value in those 9 years. I still firmly believe that'll also be the case for E39s with decent engines so mine will very much stay here until the end of times.

[beko1987]

Awesome!

Is this the one you bought to shitefest_devils bridge? (don't remember the year anymore 😂 ) The one you were giving people rides in up and down the hill (driven sensibly of course...)

[320touring]

3 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Awesome!

Is this the one you bought to shitefest_devils bridge? (don't remember the year anymore 😂 ) The one you were giving people rides in up and down the hill (driven sensibly of course...)

Nope, that's the 335i😂

I own the 320i

@jaypee owns the 3161828i and we both own the 335i

[320touring]

First batch of parts ordered.

May take some time to do a strip down of the front end this weekend in anticipation of some new parts.. also want to check track rod ends and also rear brakes so I know what I need to order up.

Then the fun of trying to find OEM sized decent tyres begins

[320touring]

Having ordered a tranche of brake and suspension bits, it was over to the 320 today for some investigation with @jaypee.

To work on it we needed to pull it forward, as the big Halfords jack we have is too big to be used in the garage.

Assuming the position 

Wheel off and time for a look. Key things we are checking - brakes/arb drop links/track rod ends/bottom ball joints.

First up, brakes.

The caliper and carrier bracket came off fine (7mm hex for the caliper sliders, 19mm socket for the carrier bracket)

The piston on the caliper pushed back in fine, and the brake was operating cleanly.

The caliper carrier bracket cleaned up well, and was fitted back on.

This disc retaining screw however. Absolute bastard of a thing. It'll need drilled out.

However, the good news is that the disc seems pretty much new barring surface rust, so not urgently needing changed.

I do have discs and pads on the way though.

Then it was onto the arb drop link

Not looking too clever. 13mm nut and bolt holding it in, which, despite appearances, came undone ok.

The top 17mm nut was removed too.

I'm gunna say this is goosed

 

Last up was a check of the bottom ball joint and the track rod ends. Neither are damage/leaking grease.

But I did find the steering rack bellows had popped off.

Some deft screwdriver work and it was back on, but will need a new clip..

[320touring]

The passenger side has a fully working caliper and the discs/pads were in the same condition as the drivers side. Additionally, both wheel bearing seem fine.

However, the arb drop like was problematic. The 17mm nut starting to round off and the 13mm one actually appeared to be A 10mm bolt.. this will be addressed another day.

Again the ball joint and track rod ends seem ok with no damage to the covers.

However, we did find some major things that will need addressing.

First up, the fuel return line - below the white clip in centre of the picture.

Quite how this is not pissing fuel absolutely everywhere is a mystery to me. I'm going to have to either make one up or see if I can source one (and likely the feed line too) from a supplier.

Additional joy was to be found at the base of the foot well..

Aye that will need the sparkly stick...

 

By this time , it was starting to cloud over, so a hasty decision was taken to get the back up in the air to check the brakes.

The LSD seemed to be fine, no leaks or grumbling. 

The handbrake worked 😮

And the rear brakes worked.

So on balance pretty good news!

 

Now to see if I can source fuel lines.

 

Cheers to @jaypee for the help!

[Missy Charm]

On 06/04/2026 at 18:44, Dave_Q said:

Sold this in 2010 for £500.

M50 2.5 conversion nearly completed but was at university and didn't have the time or money to finish it off.

We've all made mistakes like that...

I had the later variant 318iS coupe, in black with a purple-accented interior and a five-speed 'box, on an M plate.  Part exchanged the thing for an S-reg Toyota Corolla hatchback as I'd decided two-door cars were rubbish and was sick of everyone else cutting me up and generally behaving abysmally because still era of 'bloody BMW drivers'...  

If only I'd known.