Long trip ahead....any ideas?

[zeit00]

It looks like next month me and my girl (and my girlfriend:D ) will be making a very long trip next month. Bascially we will start in Atlanta and go to New York, Niagra, Montreal, and take the long way back.

My question is:

What parts, tools, supplies, music, entertainment should I take. I don't want to be stranded far from home.

Thanks for the help.

Oh yea... 1988 325is

[SC87325is]

Take the inland route-77 to 81, to avoid Washington, baltimore and New Jersey-it is a much easeier drive.

Mainly: check belts, hoses, thermostat, Brake pads, condition of muffler (ha one break on a trip once, the trip home was not fun),change coolant and all oils (A week or two head of time to make sure something doesn't get screwed up, or don't do it.)
Bring: Extra belts, a can or two of oil, a bottle of pre mixed coolant.
A set of ratchets makes a good addition to the in car tool box. Also a hammer, and something to cut with.

On a trip like this the most likely thing to happen is a wear item will wear out. Luckily these can be checked fairly easily beforehand.

Bring entertaining books and magazines, even rereading old favorites can help the miles slip by. Bring an atlas (naturally) and pre plan alternate routes. IF you're a club member, get the "friends of BMW" book, it has good contact info if you are stranded somewhere.

Get a milkshake at Friendly's, and make sure you remaind the Toronto fans that the (Fellow southern league) Canes beat them in the cup semifinals.

[Bav///Man]

make sure you have something to hold drinks! What a PITA!

[aychseven]

yes, the lack of cupholders is something to ponder.


make sure you remaind the Toronto fans that the (Fellow southern league) Canes beat them in the cup semifinals
and also *wink, nudge* the folks in toronto about loosing CuJo to the wings! (had to put that in there, being from detroit and huge wings fan)

[zeit00]

Actually I think that the biggest problem I am going to face is the cupholders. I have been trying my best to get the car to a decent running order. All fluids, relays, fuses have been changed. 4 wheel alignment and balancing. Going to be cleaning the muck from the radiator and all of the drainage holes. Right now its running better than when I got it!

So does anyone recommend a cupholder that doesn't look like it came from pepboys or JC whitney. (not that they are bad, just not in my car!)

I am also going to be removing the glovebox and putting in a laptop on a slide out tray. This will be hooked into the stereo system. So I will have about 10 Gigs of MP3s, DVD movies, GPS, and play Audio CDs. =)

Thanks for the help guys!!

[Canatro]

the only cup holders i've seen for our e30's come out of an aftermarket armrest. you cn get the armrest at bmp.com or the dealership. i'm sure there are other websites too.

[JasonJ75]

Every long trip I've taken (Cali -> Utah) and (Utah -> DC) has resulted in a blown hose. Hose expands due to heat and gets nicked by the fan. Look under your hood and you'll see which hose I'm talking about. Eventually it wears out and all hell breaks loose...Don't know why my car does this, but I just dumped my fan in lieu of a Spal, so no more problems...

[Canatro]

what is this spal you speak of?

[JasonJ75]

Originally posted by Canatro
what is this spal you speak of?

I removed the belt driven/clutch fan and replaced it with this:

[JasonJ75]

Another pic...Its slightly off-set so the water pump doesn't come in contact with the back of the fan.

[Canatro]

damn, what exactly have you done there. looks very clean.

[zeit00]

That looks really good! I had a BMW mechanic zip tie the hose to the motor hook thingy already. He told me that the hose would hit the fan quite often.

[JasonJ75]

Originally posted by Canatro
damn, what exactly have you done there. looks very clean.

A bunch of things...:)

1 - Replaced 91/99 Aux fan switch w/ an 81/88 from a 95 E36
2 - Removed fan clutch
3 - Pulled the aux fan and removed the resistor that causes it to run at slow speeds
4 - Wired the low speed wire coming off of the temp switch to the aux. fan
5 - Wire the high speed wire coming off of the temp switch to the spal(Shared ground w/ the aux. fan)
6 - Mount spal w/ two brackets using the A/C condensor bolts
7 - Remove spacers that sit behind the two bolts which hold the radiator in place (space)
8 - Clipped the high/low wires coming off of the temp switch and reversed them
9 - Replaced low speed fan fuse w/ a 30a fuse

How it all works....

From what I can tell there are three switches that could potentially turn on a fan. 1 - A/C 2/3 - Temp Switch

I turn on the A/C...The aux. fan kicks on high as the A/C switch provides power through the "low speed" wire....(I've actually noticed an increase in A/C performance).

The car hits 81degrees, the spal kicks on high.

The car hits 88degrees and if by chance the A/C is off, the aux. fan will kick on high. If the A/C is on, nothing changes, both fans run on high. If those two can't cool the car, nothing short of a dip in the Ocean will...And since they are on independent circuits, one could blow and I'd still be ok.

[JasonJ75]

Originally posted by zeit00
That looks really good! I had a BMW mechanic zip tie the hose to the motor hook thingy already. He told me that the hose would hit the fan quite often.

Smart guy...My first hose was zippied, but I don't think tight enough, and also its possible the zip failed. Second hose I didn't bother zipping it...Which lead to my third hose...:mad:...Which still seems to be working fine.

[Canatro]

jason375,
that is unbeleivable what you did. did you do the work yourself?
do you feel any difference in these operations from the stock setup? i mean, zeit00 just ziptied the hose and that works fine. seems like a much cheaper fix. i mean does the cars' cooling system really need to be adjusted?

[zeit00]

My hose was zip tied to not hit the fan. He changed to an electric fan to free up some HP with the old Mechanical fan. (Well maybe he didn't...But it helps!) It also gets rid of another failure point...The belt. Plus being electrical you could hook up a switch to operate it when you wanted to! Plus he can post pics of it and make us all jealous. :)

[Canatro]

i'm freakin droolin ova hea.

[JasonJ75]

Originally posted by zeit00
My hose was zip tied to not hit the fan. He changed to an electric fan to free up some HP with the old Mechanical fan. (Well maybe he didn't...But it helps!) It also gets rid of another failure point...The belt. Plus being electrical you could hook up a switch to operate it when you wanted to! Plus he can post pics of it and make us all jealous. :)

lol...:)

Yes, I did all the work myself...Is easily a Saturday afternoon job. Took me longer because I was trying to figure out how all the wiring worked.

My original motivation in pulling the fan was because the fan clutch seized and was driving the fan full tilt at any temp. Figured, why buy a new clutch when I can buy a spal for a little more and gain some HP in the process.... The difference? It’s hard to say because I disconnected the power steering at about the same time. Somewhat difficult in parking lots(still spouse driveable), but much better feel on the road. The combination of the two makes things quite noticeable. Difference is about equal to what it feels like to run with the A/C on then off..

[MrAdventure]

Make sure you have PLENTY of tread depth in your tires. Make sure they don't leak.

Also, since you're checking everything else, make sure you have all you need to change to the spare (it is good, and holding air, right?) .

On the way back from the Z3 Homecoming this past week, one of the cars had a MAJOR blowout - he wore his tires down to the cords on both of the rears, and one of them just exploded. The tire needed to be replaced.. This happened in the middle of NC, on this past Sunday. There was nothing we could do for him and his wife except put on the donut, and make sure they made it to a local hotel.

Being that the next day was Labor Day, I was sure they were screwed, and they pretty much were. I heard they drove to Winston Salem, and were lucky to find that the BMW dealer was open for service!

They pretty much had to lose en entire day getting this done. It's not something I'd want to do, believe me!

[Bav///Man]

here's the cupholder that I want http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/images/empty.jpg

it holds a poland spring bottle! :eek: http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/images/1liter.jpg

here's the url of that site http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/mainpage.html

check this thread out for more info
http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43268&highlight=cup%2A

it doesn't say it fits an E30 model, but I don't see why not!

[Bry]

Dave, I think the only problem with that cupholder would be connecting it. They show it clips on to the carpeting, which I don't know how that would work on the E30's.

[Bav///Man]

Originally posted by Bry
Dave, I think the only problem with that cupholder would be connecting it. They show it clips on to the carpeting, which I don't know how that would work on the E30's.

Clips in the carpeting? Didn't see it in the installation (http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/installation.html). I hope not cuz I really want one of these!

[Bry]

Okay, nevermind. I thought the clip slipped downward behind the carpet. That looks like a pretty good cupholder that can be taken out very quickly if need be.

[Ryan Stewart]

Mine is zipped too. Wasnt but after like 5 minutes of seeing it in the engine bay my wheels were turning "It couldn't hurt, could it?".

Also, factory/modified cupholer; a cupholder that you can take off and toss in the glovebox at will:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/325e/cupholder.jpg

[Ryan Stewart]

Oh, and can you do a tech writeup on part #s and instructions on how to retrofit that fan? :)

[Creo]

hehe that would be cool of him