Snagged myself a low KM (175K KM or 110K Miles) 1994 BMW 325is. New project and I have some small plans. Mostly to drive this beast. I flew to pick it up over 1000KMs. It has zero rust, runs strong. It has new brakes, new cooling (not aluminum sadly) system, most bushing replaced, no frame damage or cracking of the strut/shock towers. The interior is 70-80 cleaned up and the headboard is not sagging which is a plus. Minor accident 10 years ago with $1000 repair, so likely a bumper or something. Newer tires, new battery and fresh oil. Steering is tight and straight as an arrow. The only thing I’m not happy with is the ride height. It’s on new Raceland (yeah I know) coilovers, which ride ok but they are set too low for me so that will be adjusted or possibly replaced with Koni SA and Eibachs.
I snagged a few parts from Spyke aka Sharpie’s builder and I’m hoping to make it a nice summer driver.
Things I’m planning:
Maintenance first
Frame bracing
Clay bar, seal and wax
LSD 3.38 if I can
S50 Cams
Intake (maybe) or dry drop in filter
Exhaust (quietest/low drone I can find)
Turner/Conforti Chip
OEM X Brace
Solid strut tower bars (front and rear)
Manual transmission swap
I have now:
Underdrive Pulleys coming
Hub and steering wheel coming
Black Grills coming
Style 66 Rims (need tires) Staggered
Racing Dynamic RGS 17x8 (on the car)
Good start I’m sure but I’m always looking for some recommendations on exhaust or intake or other essential mods or maintenance I’m missing.
Pics up soon!
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Last edited by groff77; 11-26-2018 at 09:46 AM.
Last edited by groff77; 11-26-2018 at 09:45 AM.
Looks good, have fun with it!
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Thanks! It was a long drive through bad bad weather but I got it home safe and sound.
Now to go over it from front to back and see what I should be working on. I’ll pay close attention to bushings, support bearing and guibo.
I did notice the ABS sensors need to be replaced, Ill probably order 4 new ones and do that. They are probably all on the way out at some point. (The ACS-T and ABS light popped)
I did notice the valve cover gasket is seeping a little (seems to a BMW trait). Might have to do that at some point. It’s not dripping, the car has zero leaks as it sits right now.
The thermostat is sticking, it was replaced somewhat recently and tested fine but 600 miles into the trip it went from dead centre to nearly full cold. Checked it over at the gas station and all the coolant was good and level and the rad was solid and no leaks or anything. The fan was good and I could see the housing was a newer aluminum one with nothing leaking.
I’ll have to pull the glove box and vents out and re attach them properly as one unit and then put it back. Just a cosmetic/OCD thing
I’m looking for a set of e36 or e46 sport seats at my local part puller. Depending on color I’ll likely pull door cards and rear interior as well. For me this is lower on the totem pole till maintenance is done.
I’ll have to look into a speaker refresh at some point, Bavauto seems to be a solid choice. Any opinions on that? I have the C33 deck with CD changer, I’m also looking at some sort of Bluetooth/Music streaming attachment, any recommendations?
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Nice score.
Hope you keep the two-tone, non-m bumper look.
I think today I’ll be doing or at least attempting to do some minor fixes to the glove box, because of the standard sag issue.
I have been looking at removing the fan clutch and adding in the 80 degree thermostat and the 80/88 fan switch. I have read quite a few threads on here and other forums that say this is a no negatives mod. I will place the order for the parts and source the water wetter and I’ll wait for my pulleys to show up before I do any of that work. Seems smart to do it all at once.
Should I get the upper and lower silicone rad hoses as well? Is there a benefit other then appearance for that upgrade? I just don’t want to waste money on purely cosmetic stuff at the beginning of my build.
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Water wetter is not really needed, I don't use it.
If you don't know how oil your Vanos seals are then it might be a good idea to do them when doing the VCG.
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I yanked the glove box and vents. I’ll be seeing what I can do to make them fit as best as possible together. I’ll probably have to epoxy the tabs to get a good clean fit. I did notice that the middle of the glove box sags a little regardless on mine so I’m not sure what to do there. Any ideas?
I have done some research into best methods of re-dying the leather seats. I had found a few good DIY threads and videos on methods. Some are spraying, some are dabbing. I’m not sure what the best method is. I don’t have any holes but the bolsters need some love. My colour is Hell Grau or 0595 or light grey. I think I might do the laundry soap and water with a trimmed paint brush to clean it all and then foam pad and dab dye it once it warms up here.
I hear that water is really all you need to condition the leather but I’m not sure, what’s the consensus here?
Well, got a few parts in thanks to Gregg (aka Sharpie’s owner).
They will be going on the car in short order. I was also fortunate enough to snag the Dinan eprom for both transmission and DME for a steal. So I pulled the DME and TCU and got them ready for install.
Also... I will eventually need to do the starter motor. It’s whining a bit and I would rather have it done before failure. Is it easier to hit it from underneath or from the top?
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Nice start. I'm following your thread as you have the same goals I do for my 95 325I sedan.
Well I have done some planning, I had a shoulder surgery so I’m kind of in limbo till that heals up enough to get back to work on it.
Going to clean out the throttle body, clean out the MAF, and check/replace spark plugs (no platinum for this guy) and change the fuel filter. This forum is a wealth of knowledge with those small tasks and they are relatively inexpensive but have impact.
I did get the glove box back together, found a few bent tabs that I lightly heated up and bent back into spot. It started to fit better but I’ll likely epoxy them in place and zip tie till dry before putting it back in the dash as one piece. I took some Q-tips and cleaned out the vents (they were gross as shit) so it had to happen.
I ordered a BMW horn button for my MOMO competition black steering wheel and some new screws.
I sourced out the Z3 drink tray and put that in, because any cup holder is better than nothing although BMW shit the bed on drink holders in these cars.
I’m contemplating ordering a fan delete kit or just sourcing the parts locally. The issue is Duty , brokerage and Taxes that I pay if I get stuff shipped in from the US, not to mention the exchange. It all seems “decently priced” till you factor that in and then it’s barely a deal. Anyone sell the kits in Canada?
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There is this, unless you didn't want to go that direction.
Well I think that setup is just about as terrible as the one I got already. Those might better if the bottom was cut off and the spring loaded plastic removed. Originally it was the one I was looking for. I don’t think there are any really good options for our cars.
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So I have a little look and I think my exhaust might be going. I want to find out a good alternative. I would prefer a stainless option but quiet/no drone is the only way I’ll go.
What’s a good option?
OEM, which exhaust will be a direct fit for my 325is obd1?
Aftermarket, I like Borla, usually they are pretty quiet.
Suggestions?
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Well good day today, got the Dinan chips(TCU and DME) that I got for a steal, installed today. Started up right away no issues at all. While I was in the DME enclosure, I cleaned out and vacuumed the enclosure. No point in doing work if you don’t leave the area in better shape then when you found it.
Took out the OBC to try and fix the pixels and any buttons that are not working. Either that or blank it off because who cares lol. Maybe upgrade to the 18 button, we shall see.
Good news, I ordered my fan delete kit with new aluminum housing and also an OBD1 non ASC-T boot. So looks like I’ll be deleting traction control shortly. Really decent price too.
Oh and I snagged a sweet set of Depo glass headlights, no broken tabs and 3M and to my surprise, they came with HID ballasts and bulbs for free... yes they work and how am I so lucky.
This will be a nice project if I can just get some time outside of the sling to do some work.
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Well I got some work done on the front end. I got the grills in and the headlights in (they are tight as a mofo).
Little preview till I can do the before and after. It’s winter here so I don’t wanna drive it. Of course I cleaned up all painted areas before reinstalling everything. I cleaned up the “new” grills and the “new headlights” before installing.
I found while installing these items a connector in the front passenger engine compartment area that was “capped” and not connected to anything. Can anyone identify this connector?
Shows BMW 61 13 1 378 418
Ooh and also installed the “fixed” glove box. It’s a little better, what do you think?
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If you are going to restore the seats I recommend Leathique . Have done two cars and the stuff is awesome . Ready to do my third car now.
I use an airbrush I got from harbor freight amazing results ! Easy just takes some time .
Nice car u have !
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This car is AWESOME !!!
I have used it to change from brown to Dove Gray on my 99 vert. .
Worked perfect with two spray coats . Could not tell it was changed.
Crack filler works quite well .
Just stay away from the stitches with the 1000 grit sandpaper .
Durability- after 3 years still held up when I sold the car .
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This car is AWESOME !!!
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Please don’t go out of your way to test anything, I just wanted to know if it would stick to the back of the seats and the dash. It’s not live or die, I can run a hybrid interior. Hell people do it all the time with aftermarket seats and stuff.
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Anyone know what this connector is for? It’s on the passenger side by the headlight.
I looked up the number but nothing is really clear.
61 13 1 378 418
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Well it’s warm right now so I did some more work on the car, got the Pioneer DEH-5120BT installed, it matches the internal lighting well so I’m happy plus the sound is much better. I really wanted to keep it stock but there simply was no real good option for Bluetooth and improving the sound for this price.
I started to take apart the sunroof to do some repair to the tilt arm brackets. It seems like an easy repair but it requires some finesse. Cheap fix though, parts cost me under $20 shipped for a kit.
I ordered in the fan delete kit (thermostat, aluminum t stat housing and fan switch and the asc-t delete boot/elbow. I went the OEM boot and got it for $20 shipped so I couldn’t say no. I’m planning on doing the electric pusher fan mod as well but I did double check the Aux fan and it seems to be in decent shape.
Fixed up my sticking good latch. Turns out the mechanism needed a major clean. So I spent a good 20 mins at that. Seems to work a bit better now.
Looks like VCG needs to be replaced and I guess VANOS oil line might as well get done. Since I’m in that area, I’ll delete the fan, install the underdrive pulleys, change the vcg, replace the VANOS oil line, flush the coolant system, delete the asc-t and clean the MAF while I’m there. Anything else I should look at while in there?
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