e30 maintenance

[tim96]

hi, i am fairly new to e30 only had mine a few months. Dont know when the fuel filter, oil filter or the cam belt (you cant read the sticker for the cam belt change but it must have been done at some stage) were last changed. the car is a 1990 and has just over 120 thousand on the clock. How often should i change the fuel and oil filters?

[elsabor67]

Hi, welcome to the beautiful world of E30's. The biggest question I have to be able to help you better is what E30 do you have (i.e., 318, 325, etc)? It would give a better idea what are the necessary things to do.

M20 6cyl engines have a timing belt which is recommended to be changed every 50-60,000 miles. I would suggest to you, if you haev a 6cyl to change that NOW so you have peace of mind. For preventitive maintenance, check all teh filters and replace the needed ones. Oil/oil filter changes I used to do them every 4 Months or 4000 miles.

Also, invest in a bentley's manual. That was the best thing I had if I ever had any questions, to include the forums.

Good luck.

[tim96]

i have a 320 i. There is a sticker which looks like it indicates the timing belt has been changed but you cant read where the kms and date were recorded is there a way to check the timing belt?
How do you check the filters? or should i just replace them all and i know there is a fuel filter in the engine bay near the fuse box but it also looks like there might be another one underneath the car around the area of the rear left passengers footspace (the car is right hand drive by the way).
Overall my car is in the following condition, very tidy overall no dash cracks and no seat rips only little very slight paint fade around corners of bonnet etc.
1) rust, I removed the rust from under the rear boot seal. There is a little bit of rust under the bonnet weather strip about 1 cm worth and what looks like light surface rust against the firewall edges and behind the battery tray although it hasnt eaten into the metal. there is also very slight rust starting by the chrome trim on the roof in that little gutter bit.
2) There are various and sometimes random knocking noises could be suspension related althogh i just got a new warrent. There is a sort of clunk noise when i release the gas pedal sounds not sure what that is but sound isnt coming from engine bay.
3) I have a bit of fluid which likes to drip out of the trans cooler and also the seal where the drive shaft comes out above where the gearbox mounts are this fluid likes to end up on the hot catalyic converter aghh!
3) I have had a bit of voltage trouble with strobing lights and flickering i cleaned up the battery contacts and ground contacts on the sump etc and havnt noticed the problem since although coming home just before i noticed a slightly different problem where evrery 5 or so seconds i heard this sort of electrical sound hard to describe and the voltage would drop for about a second then return to normal
4) i have a coolant leak. the heatercore leaks and i am not confident the valve shuts off all the time either as i tried to stop using the heater core by setting the temp to cold although i put my hand on the heater core and it was warm however came home just before and the core felt cold. I am going to bypass untill i get some spear parts just to make sure my coolant isnt also escaping somewhere else e.g head gasket.
5) i want to make some sort of dead pedal or anything really to stop that carpet covered mould getting dirty.
6) Starting issues not sure what to think with this a couple of times when trying to start it it has taken about 5 or 6 seconds untill the engine has fired and a couple of other times i have turned the key the engine has given like a half turn then stopped i kept the key held down then it would eventualy fire after maybe about 4 - 7 seconds.
7) Is this normal my car seems gutless in terms of accelration going up hills. doing 50 at the bottom of the hill then the speedo gradualy drops to 40 and if i push the accelerator more all that happens is the km.l gauge drops right down and i dont gain any speed.