Suspension, Timing Belt, Axle, Shifter...

While the original owner did a fantastic job of keeping up with the repairs and maintenance in a timely manner for this iX, it still needed some attention in both departments.

First, the front suspension had grown a bit mushy.  The control arms and bushings were fine, but the struts were no longer doing their job, as BMW intended.   The rears were fine, but from what I've read and experience, the Bilstein HD with stock springs were the way to go.  Plus I was getting an intermittent clunking up front when hitting uneven pavement patches.

The shifter bushings were very worn.  It shifted fine, but the 'spring back' to center position action was gone.

Also, it has been 8 years since the timing belt was replaced, even though it had only been 30k miles. I noticed the thermostat wasn't letting the car warm up adequately, probably stuck open.

So I scheduled an appointment at Paddock for them to help me with these issues, because why break tradition with where this car has been serviced with over the last 20 years.

Once they unbuttoned the front end suspenders, they realize the strut HOUSINGS were rusted as were the front springs.  The housings are rare and I supposedly got the last two available in the country, at $700/each.  Ouch!  Springs were about $90 each. and the rears were fine.  Control arms good.  Sway bar bushings fine.  Strut top bushings not fine.  Rear shock mounts needed replacing.  Bilstein HDs all around.  Stock ride height retained, which is optimum for snow conditions.  Also the front left axle needed to be rebuilt.  A rebuilt unit was sourced.  $180. 

Shifter not only needed new bushings but the rod that engages the coupling at the manual transmission housing was wallowed out and both items needed replacing. The coupling is available, rod not.  So Paddock welded material to thin rod and then lathed it down to perfect fitment into coupling.  

Exhaust had to be removed to get to that rod

Timing belt, thermostat, water pump, all hoses, all belts, cap, rotor, all replaced.

While it was there I had all the best wheels of my nine switched to the all season tires and the crappy wheels switched to the snow tires.

While the bill was large, the results were too.  This car now drives about as solid as a mostly stock 25 year old E30 really can.  The suspension choice of going with Bilstein HD in this model really does work exceptionally well.  Enough that I slide right out of the stock BMW comfort seats in a turn!

All buttoned up!

M Tech Time

My 1985 635CSi came from the factory with every option except heated seats.  This included the sport package, which included locking differential, sport seats and the M Tech Sport Steering wheel.  The BMW E30 generation could be ordered with this steering wheel.  I believe some time in 1985 the factory switched from coarse spline to fine spline steering shafts so for me to find one, I had to ensure I purchased a fine spline steering wheel for my 89.

Craigslist, Ebay, Bimmerforums, R3vlimited forum, are all great places to find used parts.  I found a very nice clean M Tech 385mm diameter, fine spline steering wheel from an individual on ebay.  $150 later and a few days for transport, it arrived.

I think it took 10 min to install?  Pop the emblem off, unscrew bolt on wheel, remove old four spoke vinyl wheel and replace it with three spoke leather covered steering wheel.

It just feels better in your hands.

A garage divided

This lil' iX has spent its entire life living in a garage and I cannot subject it to the great outdoors after 25 years.  The problem is that we only have a standard 2 car garage, but now we have 3 European cars and a 2 Japanese motorcycles that all want to share space in there.  One solution would be a rack, but I don't foresee us living in this house forever, and the added expense isn't exactly cheap.

I found an online garage planning website and started playing around and figured there might be some options here.  Using actual dimensions I came up with this scenario after playing around with a few.

Jen's Smart Car really makes this work, because it's so short.  The Porsche 911 isn't too long either, in fact all three cars are small so this should work.  When I got home I tried it out.

Another angle:

Time for new Tunes!

The car's interior was quite clean with minimal issues.  The biggest glaring issue was the single CD player installed probably 10+ years ago.

I knew that radio setup wasn't going to be acceptable long term.  New CD players from Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, etc have built in bluetooth and can control your iPhone/iPod for not much more than $150-200.  While there I should probably replace the speakers.  Turns out they were stock and not in bad shape, but obviously not as dynamic as a modern coaxial two way.

Focal 130 CA1 - Forgot to take pics

I went with the tried and true Focal coaxial speakers front and rear.

Stock speaker vs Focal 130CA1

For the head unit I went with one of the top line Kenwood Excelon Bluetooth CD head units, the KDC-X898.  It has some really nice features, front and rear USB connection and charge points for your phone or ipod as well as, bluetooth phone and streaming.

And it is quick with connecting to the phone via bluetooth.  It is nice to have a single CD for those times when you want to listen to an actual disc or book on CD.

First CD?

In between the head unit and the speakers, I also got a booster amp.  The Alpine KTP-445U is cheap at $150 and is a 45w x 4 tiny amp that fits behind the dash, plenty powerful for this small car.

The Kenwood head unit is also nice b/c it doesn't stick out too far and the illumination matches the BMW E30's dash lights.

Small Big Car

For an automobile that is as small as an E30 chassis BMW, it surely doesn't feel like a small car when running down the highway at 85 mph.  Maybe its the all steel chassis/suspension, maybe its the all wheel drive, maybe its just the old school German design, but this car is a stout bulldog.

I drove into work and parked next to my coworker Matt's mid 80s CRX, which we know is a tiny car.

It may be physically small, which makes it very easy to park, but it is one solid little machine.

Trunk Clean out and Full Detail Time

After my jaunt in the mountains it was time to clean the car.  I didn't just stop at the exterior.   I pulled everything out of the trunk and inventoried all the tools and accessories.

Everything existed:  Tow hook, jack, wheel chock, all hand tools, center cap tool, and even the original spare tire on the original 5th rim.

A tire from 1988.

I then proceeded to claybar the paint.  Then I took my Porter Cable random orbital polisher and polished the paint with intensive polish from Menzerna.  I followed that up with a Micro Polish from Menzerna.  And then topped all of that off with 100% Carnauba Wax from P21s.

Spring Snow - What a machine!

So I picked her up on Thursday, Emissions Tested and Registration on Friday, time to put her through her paces on Saturday.  A snow day in the mountains.

Straight away on Thursday, the front end was mushy and I knew this was something that would need to be taken care of.  But Doug asked me to make a list of to dos and he'd help me rectify.

Anyways, headed West out of Denver and ran through Golden Gate Canyon at an aggressive pace on the wet roads.  Light snow / rain mix listening to the radio enjoying the canyon roads.  This car really is point and shoot.  With only stock M20B25 power, the car isn't a handful.  This 2.5L inline 6 generates at the crank 169hp.  With 20% loss of power due to altitude, best case I'm at 135.2.  The motor has 158k miles on it, at this point so could be 130ish... at the wheels?  probably 105-110?  Good thing the car weighs less than 3,000lbs.  This car is probably one of the lighter AWD cars ever to be manufactured in street trim.

Golden Gate to Peak to Peak (119) to Boulder Canyon.  What a fun drive in the spring snow conditions.

Filled her up with Premium 91 octane and added the remaining Techron fuel cleaner.

She needs a bit of work but she's a solid Colorado BMW!

Emissions Testing and License Plates

In Colorado, we do not have any type of vehicle safety inspections.  We only have emissions testing and then you can pay for your license plates.  You can have bald tires, cracked windshield, malfunctioning brakes and no seat belts, as long as your car has a clean tailpipe.

Here the car sits on the 4 wheel rollers ready for the test.  With this E30 being so meticulously maintained I expected a full pass on the first try.  And after the first pass, she passed with flying colors at about 20% of allowable HC and CO2 limits.  $25.

I then headed over to the automobile registration and title transfer office and waited an hour.  The guy at the window looks at my title and snidely remarked, "$1,000?  seems legit..."  and proceeded to charge me $80 for sales tax plus license plates at another $90.   Relatively easy process that sucked up about 2 hours of my life.

Standard plates on, ready for duty in my life.  108 NQX