Another Newbie

Greetings..

Recently got myself a F-plate 320i as a stand-in while my other cars/projects are in undrivable states.. I'm a total newbie to BMW's so y'all prolly be seeing a heap of questions at some point, but for now I'm just gonna say "hi"

It was a bit of a bargain as it's short on MOT, and un-documented, but the upcoming test will tell me how much a bargain it really is. It's still growing on me, there's a growing list of things to be sorted, first up a good service and t-cut (it's going pink on the plastic), then we'll see what it goes.

If anyone recognises the name, then you'll know what I also drive and where I'm from..

G

excellent... cheers Mike..

Well the beast has been in for it's MOT and failed nicely on it's power-steering -leaky leaky..

There was also a rusty hole on the inner wheel arch just under the fuse box which'll need attention - is this a common spot to go?

Apart from that, no more unlpeasant suprises, though I'm not sure how much fun changing a power-steering rack is going to be.. will find out soon enough..

G

Hi mate,

There are so many variables as to what makes them rot in different places, but this spot is not uncommon I believe, sounds like you got off fairly lightly... Good luck with the rack, be interested to hear how you get on.

Mark.

Well I got a rebuilt zf rack from GSF for 150quid and fitted it on friday afternoon. Jeez what a bee-hatch.. i've come to the conclusion that Haynes didn't have a bmw present when they wrote the book on it, "unbolt and withdraw the rack" yeah right..

What you've actually gotta do is lift the engine up, and bend the tabs on the subframe down to let it out past the sump.
Then putting it back together I snapped the banjo union on the pump, not what I'd planned, but manged to source a replacement on monday, and driving without power steering wasn't too much a chore.

kinda worried about the welding though, there doesn't seem to be much play in the wires to the fuse box, I'm not sure how much space they'll need to patch it.  I'm also gonna get em to do th jacking points, as they've all the structual integrity of flakey puff-pastry, and certainly no good for jacking on.

Apart from that, still getting used to it, other things I need to look at is the idle - very rough, and the suspension - not totally sure what's up, but gives a nasty vibrating knock on hard cornering, front shocks are pretty dead, so could be that.. any guesses? Got heaps more questions, but I'll put em in the technical forum..

SkyRocketeer wrote: kinda worried about the welding though, there doesn't seem to be much play in the wires to the fuse box, I'm not sure how much pace they'll need to patch it..

Yep...
you'll need someone with a squirty can of water... all good fun