Dont know how many people this will interest, but I'm bored and I know a couple of people have E30's on here. Well after SORN'ing the Clio for winter (well more than likely forever) I was on the lookout for a winter daily to get me about, and move car parts around. A mate was selling an E30 estate, that had been converted to LPG a year ago. Although it was only a 316i, it was alright to use as a runabout. Decided to buy it as the price was cheap..
The downsides were it had done 200k miles, was quite slow when fully loaded, and had the all the common E30 gripes - cracked dashboard, sagging roofliner, faded paint and a rusty tailgate. I purchased it without the 14" BBS wheels, and stuck with the 14" Steels inc pimp trims..
In the first week I tidied it up a bit, checked over the LPG system and just drove it as intended. I had the headlights apart and smoked the reflectors in the dipped beam, then fitted Xenons to the projectors. It still needed the main beam 'smoked trick' doing, but I never got round to it.
After only 10 days of ownership I spotted another E30 Touring for sale on another forum. It was a 318i Lux, with 15" BBS, Sunroof, 3 years newer, only 120k miles, Tax until April, MOT until Feb and full BMW service history.
The price was rediculous (Can anyone guess?) so within an hour of the ad being posted I went to look at it - when I arrived I spotted it had a tow bar too which was another bonus. The rooflining was mint, the dashboard didnt have a single crack and the tailgate had no rust. Took it for a spin round the block and paid a deposit on it straight away..
I decided I wanted to remove the LPG system from the Red 316i so it could be put onto the newer better condition 318. It was a lot easier than I expected, and after a bit of research I ended up doing it all in a couple of hours (Tank, Line, Loom + ECU, Vapouriser, etc). Another mate was interested in buying the 316i as a standard petrol to use as a daily too, so we agreed on a price without the LPG and the money changed hands.
I swapped the insurance to the 318i (Which was acctually cheaper, go figure?) and went to collect it around a week ago. It drove faultlessly on the way back, a lot tighter and more solid than the other. At the end of the day its a ~16 year old car thats done 120k miles, but it drove like 10k old clio it was that solid, lol. After having a proper read of the service history its been done on the dot every time since it was purchased, along with a cambelt/waterpump change at 109k in 2009, ideal. For the price I paid it was an absolute bargin, so so much car for the money.
The majority of the LPG system had been removed from the 316i already as mentioned above, all that was left was the modified inlets. The plan was to swap the inlets from the 318i to the 316i and visa versa, as luckily they are the same. The difference is the LPG ones have a vaccum take off for the map sensor, and four tapped fittings for the LPG injectors. We spent an evening swapping the inlets and got both cars running fine on petrol, job done.
I have still got to fit the remaining parts of the LPG system to the 318i, but the weather has been crap this week so not got round to it - Il fill this thread with the details of the system as I fit it, as no doubt someone will want a read.
It seems most tourings that are four cylinder have a reverse rake going on with the suspension height as standard, probably because the engine is so light. This was the first thing that needed to be sorted as I hated how high it was. After a 60mm drop on the front it looked a lot better. Also smoked the front and side tango indicators.
I only purchased the 318i as it was so cheap and had a lot more things with it than the 316i, but after finding out it had a tow bar too I decided it could be a good car to keep even after the winter, depending on how much weight it will tow when I test it sometime soon - even moreso with it running on LPG.
The Clio is most probably never going back on the road, as I have access to a trailer and will just take it to trackdays on that. The 318i only had 115bhp and 119lb/ft when it was new, so I will need to see what sort of weight it can pull. If it struggles, I guess a 325 engine could be on the cards at some point :boring:
Weirdly the Touring is £600-700 cheaper to insure than the same model/engine in a coupe/saloon, but Im quite glad as its ideal for me as I want to be able to put engines and all sorts of sh*t in the back. The first job was last weekend getting the whole front running gear from a 172 in the back, along with the rear beam and tons of other stuff. Needless to say it was weighed down a bit..
There were a couple of bad points on the 318i, that were not apparent when first buying it. One was the front seats were worn quite a lot, which is a very common thing. I had agreed to swap the front seats with the better condition ones from the Red 316i before making the deal when selling it. Ive since swapped those for a tidier looking interior. Also fitted an iPod headunit, decent mats, debadged the back and cleaned it out - ideal.
The other main thing was the front brakes which I spotted when the front was lowered - the pads were OK but the lips on the disc were huge! I had a look round the internet and managed to win some brand new Brembo Disks + Genuine BMW pads for £26 on eBay - never used from an unfinished project. They would have cost over £100 easily elsewhere, so another little bargin.
A couple of other small niggles like the glovebox handle gets stuck, the rear wiper does not latch on, the rear washer does not work etc. All little bits ive been sourcing parts for and will no doubt be sorted soon..
The first thing I wanted to do was respray the entire front grille in satin black, as parts were becoming faded with age. Removed the lot the other night...
Then got painting..
Which will hopefully look a lot better. I need to split apart and smoke the headlights again at some point as I much prefer them like I did on the Red 316i, another small job to do sometime. I also painted the black bits below the doors (sills), and the black border round the bottom of the rear bumper with some decent chassis paint, which tidied it up no end.
After some rain earlier in the week I went out in the car to see how it would take a bit of sideways action - to which I was pleasntly suprised being a pretty heavy car and only a 1.8 8v. Although, after the bit of fun I ended up getting the brake pad level warning light, the ABS warning light up on the dashboard, and a squeeking rear disc/pad, lol. I assumed the brake pad warning was due to the fronts - so checked it out and it turns out someone had tried to bodge it with some wire, which was soon fixed
I thought the ABS might be related to the back, so I had the wheels off and checked over the brakes which were pretty worn too. I decided to just order some new rear disks and pads, so all the brakes on the car will be new when I get round to fitting them - one less thing to worry about
Anyway, I will update the thread when I re-fit the rest of the LPG, as it might interest someone, along with any other bits. I know quite a few on here who have had E30's in the past, so is there much more to watch out for? As I said earlier, it drives better than a new Clio even on 120k IMO, but I suppose thats BMW build quality
Hopefully once I've sorted the niggles and consumables it will do the job for a long while to come, along with towing next year :star: More soon!
The downsides were it had done 200k miles, was quite slow when fully loaded, and had the all the common E30 gripes - cracked dashboard, sagging roofliner, faded paint and a rusty tailgate. I purchased it without the 14" BBS wheels, and stuck with the 14" Steels inc pimp trims..
In the first week I tidied it up a bit, checked over the LPG system and just drove it as intended. I had the headlights apart and smoked the reflectors in the dipped beam, then fitted Xenons to the projectors. It still needed the main beam 'smoked trick' doing, but I never got round to it.
After only 10 days of ownership I spotted another E30 Touring for sale on another forum. It was a 318i Lux, with 15" BBS, Sunroof, 3 years newer, only 120k miles, Tax until April, MOT until Feb and full BMW service history.
The price was rediculous (Can anyone guess?) so within an hour of the ad being posted I went to look at it - when I arrived I spotted it had a tow bar too which was another bonus. The rooflining was mint, the dashboard didnt have a single crack and the tailgate had no rust. Took it for a spin round the block and paid a deposit on it straight away..
I decided I wanted to remove the LPG system from the Red 316i so it could be put onto the newer better condition 318. It was a lot easier than I expected, and after a bit of research I ended up doing it all in a couple of hours (Tank, Line, Loom + ECU, Vapouriser, etc). Another mate was interested in buying the 316i as a standard petrol to use as a daily too, so we agreed on a price without the LPG and the money changed hands.
I swapped the insurance to the 318i (Which was acctually cheaper, go figure?) and went to collect it around a week ago. It drove faultlessly on the way back, a lot tighter and more solid than the other. At the end of the day its a ~16 year old car thats done 120k miles, but it drove like 10k old clio it was that solid, lol. After having a proper read of the service history its been done on the dot every time since it was purchased, along with a cambelt/waterpump change at 109k in 2009, ideal. For the price I paid it was an absolute bargin, so so much car for the money.
The majority of the LPG system had been removed from the 316i already as mentioned above, all that was left was the modified inlets. The plan was to swap the inlets from the 318i to the 316i and visa versa, as luckily they are the same. The difference is the LPG ones have a vaccum take off for the map sensor, and four tapped fittings for the LPG injectors. We spent an evening swapping the inlets and got both cars running fine on petrol, job done.
I have still got to fit the remaining parts of the LPG system to the 318i, but the weather has been crap this week so not got round to it - Il fill this thread with the details of the system as I fit it, as no doubt someone will want a read.
It seems most tourings that are four cylinder have a reverse rake going on with the suspension height as standard, probably because the engine is so light. This was the first thing that needed to be sorted as I hated how high it was. After a 60mm drop on the front it looked a lot better. Also smoked the front and side tango indicators.
I only purchased the 318i as it was so cheap and had a lot more things with it than the 316i, but after finding out it had a tow bar too I decided it could be a good car to keep even after the winter, depending on how much weight it will tow when I test it sometime soon - even moreso with it running on LPG.
The Clio is most probably never going back on the road, as I have access to a trailer and will just take it to trackdays on that. The 318i only had 115bhp and 119lb/ft when it was new, so I will need to see what sort of weight it can pull. If it struggles, I guess a 325 engine could be on the cards at some point :boring:
Weirdly the Touring is £600-700 cheaper to insure than the same model/engine in a coupe/saloon, but Im quite glad as its ideal for me as I want to be able to put engines and all sorts of sh*t in the back. The first job was last weekend getting the whole front running gear from a 172 in the back, along with the rear beam and tons of other stuff. Needless to say it was weighed down a bit..
There were a couple of bad points on the 318i, that were not apparent when first buying it. One was the front seats were worn quite a lot, which is a very common thing. I had agreed to swap the front seats with the better condition ones from the Red 316i before making the deal when selling it. Ive since swapped those for a tidier looking interior. Also fitted an iPod headunit, decent mats, debadged the back and cleaned it out - ideal.
The other main thing was the front brakes which I spotted when the front was lowered - the pads were OK but the lips on the disc were huge! I had a look round the internet and managed to win some brand new Brembo Disks + Genuine BMW pads for £26 on eBay - never used from an unfinished project. They would have cost over £100 easily elsewhere, so another little bargin.
A couple of other small niggles like the glovebox handle gets stuck, the rear wiper does not latch on, the rear washer does not work etc. All little bits ive been sourcing parts for and will no doubt be sorted soon..
The first thing I wanted to do was respray the entire front grille in satin black, as parts were becoming faded with age. Removed the lot the other night...
Then got painting..
Which will hopefully look a lot better. I need to split apart and smoke the headlights again at some point as I much prefer them like I did on the Red 316i, another small job to do sometime. I also painted the black bits below the doors (sills), and the black border round the bottom of the rear bumper with some decent chassis paint, which tidied it up no end.
After some rain earlier in the week I went out in the car to see how it would take a bit of sideways action - to which I was pleasntly suprised being a pretty heavy car and only a 1.8 8v. Although, after the bit of fun I ended up getting the brake pad level warning light, the ABS warning light up on the dashboard, and a squeeking rear disc/pad, lol. I assumed the brake pad warning was due to the fronts - so checked it out and it turns out someone had tried to bodge it with some wire, which was soon fixed
I thought the ABS might be related to the back, so I had the wheels off and checked over the brakes which were pretty worn too. I decided to just order some new rear disks and pads, so all the brakes on the car will be new when I get round to fitting them - one less thing to worry about
Anyway, I will update the thread when I re-fit the rest of the LPG, as it might interest someone, along with any other bits. I know quite a few on here who have had E30's in the past, so is there much more to watch out for? As I said earlier, it drives better than a new Clio even on 120k IMO, but I suppose thats BMW build quality
Hopefully once I've sorted the niggles and consumables it will do the job for a long while to come, along with towing next year :star: More soon!
