Climate Case - #Project_91_318i

We had the climate case out to install the carpet, so I went through the case to see if anything was bad in it.



We found that the fresh-air flaps were broken. Previously repaired, the JB weld din't hold.



Also, it looks like the blower had broken at some time, and the squirrel cage melted a hole through the case.

The melted case dripped into the evaporator core and gooped it all up.

So when it was all said and done, the original case was wasted. Time to go to the wrecking yard and get a different one.





"New" Case - went to Bavarian Auto Recycling and got another complete climate case.

This case looked really good. It was complete, except for the cut wiring harness and control cables which were good on our case. I thought it would be a simple case of swapping everything over. The problem came when I tried to remove the wires that go to the blower and the resistor. I could not get them out of the case and had to cut and solder the old wiring to the new case's wiring.

This "new" case also had a recently replaced heater core and heater valve, which is a plus. But I had to put the aluminum tubes from our case on this, since the ends had started to corrode.






I also stepped up and bought new gaskets to seal the case back into the car. $50.00 for the 2 foam gaskets.

Also, when we swapped the carpet, we ripped the drain tubes. So we bought new ones ($27.00) A good move overall. We won't have to worry about it leaking back into the car.

The new case installed.

So with the case installed, I hope to put all the new hoses on the engine and see if this thing runs. We need to figure out if we are going to keep the used motor, rebuld it or swap something bigger into it. I would prefer to keep the 4cyl M42 engine for now. I think this would be best for a 16 year old to learn to drive with. We can always go bigger later. Plus the gas mileage will be better for now. My hope is the motor is good and it was just all the rotted hoses that were causing the problems.

I know we are kinda doing things in a weird order, but the car stunk so bad I wanted to get the interior out and swapped before the rain starts. We have all the interior now, so while I figure out the engine, the Boy can work on putting the interior back together.

We have 97 323i E36 4dr seats (Black Vinyl) and 88 325ix rear seats (Black Leather) with headrests and armrest. We have another dash (no cracks) and climate controls (no broken switches). Still need some different black door panels.

Oh and we have cleaned out the trunk and got different carpet. I'll post some pics later.

Replacing the Carpet - #Project_91_318i

So, with the interior gutted, today we spent time pulling the nasty dash and the climate case out to allow us to install the "new" (new to us) carpet in one piece. We could have cut around the climate case, but I did that on the last E30 and I didn't care for the fit/finish. Plus I'd like the change the heater core and make sure the blower works. There was some mods made to the climate wiring and we needed to replace the dash anyway. The heater case is 6 bolts once the dash is out.

Dash out

I think we will pull the airbag column and install a non-airbag one.

Nasty M42 motor. Supposedly it only has 40lbs of compression.

The old dash. Lots of cracks. Had a aftermarket cruise control glued into it. Cut harness. What a mess.

Climate case out. 6 bolts. Pretty easy once the dash is out!!

Carpet installed. Quite a challenge to get it up to the front, under the peddles and around the column. Glad it's done. Now to look at that climate case.....

Resetting E30 OBC

In order to reset the OBC you need a paper clip or a pen. Stick the paper clip in to the small hole next to the number one in the bottom right corner. Press the appropriate buttons along the bottom to change the time. 1000, 100, 10, 1

You need to press the 1000 button to go from am to pm.

Pressing the AVG MPG button will change from metric to US gal.

Press set-res when done.

FYI - if you light is out, there is a light bar on the left side of the unit. You will need to completely remove the OBC to change this. I believe it's about $35-45 for a new light bar.