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Update: checked my outer headlight housings, as expected they are not the originals (no integrated parking light)
Although in general I've been moving in the direction of replacing aftermarket with original whenever I can, I'm not sure I'll do that with the headlights.
I couldn't read the markings on the housings other than "Hella", but I'm guessing since they're not sealed beam and have 2 filaments they must be H4s, works for me.
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Found my old headlight harness, and sure enough, it has the green/white wire that my current one was missing. I swapped the wire into the current harness and Viola! the aux fan higher-speed works again.
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I put everything back together and took a test drive last night, and the fan still isn't coming on, slow or fast.
Everything seemed fine when I was testing with my voltmeter and jumper wire before putting it all back together.
Annoying.
Member
I got the fan working again, slow and fast, but it was noisier than I remembered, and the temp gauge still creeps up steadily when idling <mad face>.
Discovered the fan was rubbing slightly on the condenser, so I spent a while messing with it to give it a little more space, and it's STILL noisier than it used to be, and the temp gauge is STILL creeping up at idle.
This wasn't a problem at all for the first year or two I had the fan on there, so I'm thinking the real problem is, it's a cheap fan and probably has cheap bearings that are going out, causing both the noisier operation, and presumably not spinning fast enough anymore.
Bummer, I gotta take off the front bumper and valance to get the fan out in order to replace it. I still have a spare, guess I'll throw it back on. Thinking I should maybe invest in a better brand though.
Also, got it inspected today, and the inspector says he has a 4-gas analyzer that he'll let me come by and use when I'm interested ! (after I go and re-set the fuel pressures and check for vacuum leaks more definitively)
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Respect your tenacity and persistence with this build. I have followed your thread and have enjoyed reading the evolution of the car.
Member
Thanks!Originally Posted by Beam318ti
Yesterday I spent an hour or so removing the WUR and disassembling it so I could bang the adjusters back out, in preparation for re-setting the cold and hot fuel pressures. I think I went a little too far last time.
One thing I've never done on this car is replace the system pressure regulator o-rings..
I THINK I have new ones on hand but definitely won't be taking it apart until I actually confirm it. I want to make sure the system pressure is correct this time before actually messing with the control pressures.
I also printed up the relevant info for the WUR adjustment and put the pages in nice page-protector, because I keep having to waste time digging this info up whenever I do this job.
Incidentally, based on this diagram of the WUR, it does look to me like its essential to adjust the WARM control pressure before adjusting the COLD pressure. The factory manual is useless on this topic, because it just says to replace the part if it's out of spec. <mad face>
Reading the various instructions out there on the subject, they seem about evenly divided on the subject, some say cold first, some say hot first. I'm not likely to experiment enough to find out for sure!
-David
fuel_pressure_test2.jpg
system_pressure.jpg
WUR Pressure Adjust.jpg
Last edited by cgifool; 01-24-2022 at 03:52 PM.
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Today I reassembled my warm-up regulator (WUR) and put it back on the car, with the fuel pressure gauges installed.
First I checked the system pressure, and it's just fine, just above 65 psi.
Then I checked the control pressure (cold, at 55 degrees), and it was weirdly at like 2psi. I started tapping on the cold side adjuster, and nothing was happening, and woops I managed to go too far and push the little button right into the housing!
IMG_2237.jpg
So I took the WUR apart again and pushed the button back where it belonged, got it all hooked up again, and this time it was right in the ballpark. 10 psi or so.
I went to tap on the adjuster to raise it a little and again something really weird happened, the pressure went basically to 0 when I tapped the adjuster! I'm really confused why this happens.
I took the unit apart again just to make sure it all looked okay, and it did... After putting it back together and turning the pump on again, the pressure was just right.
I started the car up and let it run, and after a few minutes the idle got weirdly high, like 1400 rpm. Im assuming its because the control pressure was too low and it was running too rich maybe? Im also suspecting a vacuum leak somewhere, because when I pull off the vacuum hose for the WUR it doesn't seem to make much difference in idle speed.
Anyhow, once it warmed up, I adjusted the hot pressure to the proper setting, about 40 psi with the engine stopped, and 50 with it running. So I know the vacuum diaphragm is working properly as well.
Once the hot pressure was correct, the idle was back to normal as well.
I was out of time (and daylight) so I left the gauges on and will re-check everything tomorrow before I tighten everything up and take the gauges off, I'll get to see whether setting hot before hold is necessary or not (because I didn't this time).
Time for me to finally get my smoke tester working so I can give that a go before hooking it up to the gas analyzer.
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Well, it seems like I've proven that warm pressure should be adjusted before cold. Yesterday I had adjusted cold pressure just right, then warmed the car up and adjusted the hot pressure just right.
Today I went and checked the cold pressure again, and it was 25 psi higher than it was supposed to be. Hot pressure was still good.
After taking a test drive, the car was still fast idling even after the temp gauge was at the 1/2 mark. I previously had suspected a vacuum leak.
Well, this time I took a look and realized my AAV (aux air valve) plug had fallen off! The little wire clips on both AAV and cold start valve connectors are missing, so now it makes sense that the issue seemed to start suddenly after the last time I was in there and unplugged the cold start valve. DOH.
I plugged both back in again, started the car, and waited a few minutes. Sure enough, the idle gradually crept down from about 1300 to 900. Perfect !
My new fuel pressure adjustment procedure follows:
- install gauges
- check the cold pressure
- if cold pressure is too LOW, take apart the WUR and bang both adjuster outwards a bit.
- if cold pressure is too HIGH, just tap the cold adjuster in until its right.
- warm the car up fully and check hot pressure
- if hot pressure is too HIGH, take apart the WUR and bang out the hot adjuster outwards a bit
- it hot pressure is too LOW, tap the hot adjuster in until its right.
- let the car cool off completely/overnight.
- recheck cold pressure. My belief is that adjusting HOT pressure upwards also raises the COLD pressure, necessitating cold pressure readjustment.
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At long last, I finally got a new 14" Spal fan installed and the car is back together, minus the front bumper.
Nice to finally have it back on the road!
The temperature still rises higher with the two-stage fan setup than it used to when it was just high speed or off, I'm not really sure I'll keep it working this way.
Kinda thinking I may eventually get the original fan motor rebuilt and convert it all back to stock.
Last edited by cgifool; 04-01-2022 at 04:41 PM.
Member
Been driving the e21 to work every weekday for a couple weeks now, the car definitely seems to be happy to be back on the road again!
Yesterday and again today I turned the fuel adjustment just a hair leaner before the first start of the day to see how it responds.
One question for the forum- as much as I love the sound of the car, I would love a little less volume from the engine compartment on the highway, so I'm considering my options on that front.
The OEM sound deadening material on the firewall is mostly gone on the engine side of things, and entirely gone on the inside. On the inside I installed a layer of self-adhesive sound-deadening material as well as jute carpet padding. I tried to order the interior OEM material, but evidently it's no longer available.
I think the firewall side material is still available though, could I get away with mostly just removing the brake booster to install that? Or is it a bigger proposition?
Do I have any other options?
rust war conscript
Mine's a bit louder than I want, too, so I been thinkin.
Friend recently recommended Boom Mat from Design Engineering; looks like they have a full line of products including a spray that can take 300F which ... seems adequate? I imagine there are other brands that make similar sprays too. I might try something like that for my firewall because I'm really not into taking the engine out until I really *really* have to.
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I'll take a look at the spray, not really sure though it'll be very doable with the engine in place...
Got a few free parts from a local parts car... wiper motor, interval wiper module, the ridiculously expensive window strip trim covers from front and back window. plus a battery hold down & negative cable for a friend..
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After getting the fuel pressures all set a while back, I was able to lean out the fuel mixture screw a bit and the car still starts and runs well.
Taking the car on a few hundred mile road trip I noticed the mileage seemed better, so I did the math and it's gone from 18 to nearly 22 mpg !
Still runs a little bit rough for the first 15-30 seconds or so first thing in the morning, but that's more because my cold start injector was giving me issues so I just unplugged it and haven't gotten around to diagnosing the actual issue yet.
Member
Haven't done much in the last 3 months except drive the car to work every few weeks... Too hot!!!
Today though I finally got around to fixing an issue I've had for a year or two...
When I replaced my radio antenna with a new one from W&N, the new one wasn't quite identical at the top. There was a protrusion that interfered with the front edge of the drivers door, preventing me from opening the door more than halfway. Unfortunately the first time it happened, it chipped off some of the paint at the leading edge of the door. Fortunately not all the way to metal, but needs a touch-up.
I finally dismounted the antenna and sawed off the protrusion and reinstalled. Door opens all the way again!
antenna.jpg
Last edited by cgifool; 08-06-2022 at 04:26 PM.
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Glad you got that issue with the antenna sorted.
I've been looking for a new antenna for my car with no luck, seems they are out of stock everywhere. You must have got lucky and sourced one of the few remaining.
Member
I purchased BMW firewall insulation pad a while ago, it was a waste of money, expensive and arrived damaged. I would not recommend it, it is a wrong material which is very fragile and literally falls apart when flexed. It looks like a reproduction which was not well made at all. I don't see how it would work actually. I fell apart while I was moving it around.
As far as installing the firewall insulation on the engine side, unless you are using sticky version that can be cut around things, removal of the brake booster is required at the minimum. And it is on the M10 where there is some room. Ideally in order to install it, I'd pull the engine. That is the plan when I find something that does the pad that does not look obnoxious (shiny or with name written on it).
I am not aware of any OEM looking options but I have not researched it enough. I should as during hot weather, the floor behind the glovebox is like 150F...
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Here's one on ebay, the diagram looks like my original one did... (without the big flap I had to saw off). Who knows what the actual part looks like though.
https://www.ebay.com/p/13006812825
This one looks identical to the one I used, that required modification.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274475266841
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I got rid of the antenna all together and went with an universal electronic antenna-works just as good put it under the kick board, they cost from $8 to 9 bucks,, I went thru several oem antennas the wind kept braking them, they are not strong.
Randy
Member
Yeah I don't even listen to the radio in my car, so I keep the antenna down anyways. I mostly replaced it because the old one was jammed halfway up and was ugly.
Last winter/spring I started noticing an odd issue with my turn signals. During the first few minutes of driving, when I activate the turn signals, the flasher relay would click about twice as fast as normal. Later on, it would slow down and act normally, at least as far as I could tell from the driver's seat.
More recently, I noticed it getting going even faster, but only on the left side. When it's really fast, the indicator light in the console won't even flash.
I'm assuming it's a grounding issue or bad connection somewhere, rather than a bad bulb, since the problem is inconsistent. I haven't actually bothered to check anything yet, probably won't get to it until next month.
Also, my auto-cancel isn't working very often anymore either. Probably time to order a new switch, so I can get everything resolved at the same time.
Member
When one of my turn signals starts going faster than normal , its been the bulb not working.. Dont toss out the bulb as issue. I also clean the copper contact occasionally in the bulb socket that seems to help.
Randy
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Yes, I use that too throughout the car including the headlights. The bulb ends on a lot of them use soft lead which gets oxidized and dirty, a quick cleaning there works well too.
Randy
Member
Replaced the temp/time switch with a fine used one last weekend. Seems to be working. I guess the real test will be next time it sits for a week or more. Already started well when it’s only been a few days.
Washed the car today, noticed one of my h4 housings has a big hole in it from a rock hit, sad face.
Finally got around to figuring out why only one horn worked- turns out one of the grounds was bad. Fixed it.
just an hour or two later some a-hole stole the cover right off my car in the middle of the afternoon. Only a few months old. Such a pointless crime too, it won’t fit anything else and I’m sure it’ll just get thrown in a dumpster somewhere. Angry face.
got in the trans gasket set I ordered, finally planning to drop my spare trans off next week for rebuilding. Mines getting pretty noisy.
David
Member
I checked my oil, it was down to the lower line, so I added about a half quart.
I replaced the inner H1 headlight housings with shiny new ones (one was broken) and finally got around to figuring out why they didn't light up.
After extensive diagnosis it turns out the ground wire connecting outer and inner bulbs on one side was somehow not connecting internally (even though it looked fine).
This also explains why the horn on that side wasn't working.
When I cut and stripped the wire it was black on one end rather than copper colored.
I pulled the entire headlight harness out, replaced the dead section of wire, verified that the headlight and horn grounds now worked, and re-taped the whole thing with harness tape so it looks nice.
After snaking the harness back through the front end and plugging everything back in, I celebrated with a 30 minute test drive.
David
Member
My turn signals are still having an issue where they go hyperspeed when everything is cold. Gradually as the car warms up, they slow down, and eventually work very normally. This seems less a factor of how long the signals are on, but more just the ignition being on.
After swapping turn signal relays with a spare, checking all bulbs and their connections, and applying a smear of grease to each, and cleaning the flasher ground, there was essentially no change. The issue seems to be gradually getting worse in spite of my efforts.
My current suspicion is resistance in the power connection to the flasher, since all bulbs are working, and the symptoms are the same on both sides.
I did buy an electronic flasher unit (EL13) which supposedly adjusts automatically to changes in resistance, hoping to give that a try.
In other news, my wiper motor has been really slow and weak, so yesterday I removed it from the car and stripped it down. I cleaned out all the old grease and applied new grease in smaller quantities. I also gently cleaned the commutator. The brushes seem to have plenty of life remaining.
In hindsight I would not have removed either of the two adjustment screws, I just didn't realize I didn't have to.
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