New World Datsuns...

Well here is my new daily. I found the car on Auto Trader. Test drove it, looked it over, did some research, bought it. Its a 2002 BMW 325iT. Sadly its an automatic, but at least its smooth. Car has 124k miles. Bought at Kuni BMW new here in Beaverton, Carfax shows a life in Portland, being serviced at Rasmussen BMW a few times. The car was actually made on my birthday in 2001.

Anyways, after driving it for a couple of days, I love the car. Everything about it, the way it accelerates, the way you can hear the intake, how the center console and dash surround you, the placement of everything. Its a lovely car to drive. I have sat in many cars and only a few have ever felt right just from sitting in it, and this is one of them. And its a wagon to boot!

It has a decent amount of options, Power everything with Memory seats/mirrors. One touch up/down windows/sunroof. Climate control, steering wheel controls. HIDs and Projectors. Real leather seats, heated too. The passenger mirror tilts down in reverse. Crappy Harmon Kardon sound system (really prefer the sound system in the Saturn, or even my sister 01 Jetta), Ill pass a more final judgement when I get bluetooth hooked up.

The car is just nice to drive. My mom is a little jelly. Im just happy to have an inline 6 motor.

Anyways, some work needs to be done.
First off, car needs to go through DEQ, one problem, its not ready. They replaced the thermostat, cleared the codes, and now the Evap and Second Air are still in "not ready" modes. And they way to pass those is to cold start the car and let idle for 3+ minutes, then take it for a drive, but there are other odd requirements. I do not believe there is anything wrong, just the system is not ready (seems common on the internet). Not like the Jetta, where I had a nice loop to take on and it would set the car to ready every time.

Once that is solved, and in no specific order:
Bluetooth for the stock radio.
Figure out why the front windows are slow to go up (I think I know why, and its easy to fix)
Replace the LCA bushings with Poly (the oem rubber design fails way too early)
Start ordering everything to overhaul the cooling system.
And of course other things, as I cant leave anything stock...

And pics:

Ok I rescind what I said about the stereo. Its the radio which sounds like crap, the CDs sound pretty decent, so Bluetooth should sound good too.

Nice looking ride Jacob

Well I pulled the door panel off the drivers door. Removed the window regulator. Yep, one of the clips for the window was broken. Its a clip that attaches to the wire of the window reg. The fix, 2 zipties, on either side of clip, to the wire. Then 2 more on the other clip for same measure. Now my window is fixed.

Just need to do this to the other 3 windows, but first is the front passenger as it is obviously broken (super slow up).

I love Euro wagons.

Nice score.



How's the cooling system hanging up? Water pump? Coolant tank?

Nothing wrong currently.

Its just known that when the waterpump fails, it removes all of the coolant from the car in a matter of seconds.

The expansion tanks split with age, and leaks coolant.

The radiators fail in the 130k-150k range, Im not there yet... so gonna worry about that another day.

Hoses, replace because you are in there.

Belt tensioners and random pulleys die from age, need to replace those.

Its all preventative maintenance. Im thinking of doing it 2 stages, Stage one, everything that gets wet. Stage 2, everything that stays dry. Radiator whenevers it starts leaking (it just slowly leaks apparently when it fails).

The thermostat was just replaced.

So some more reading. Evap will only go to ready state if the previous drive cycle was fine, and it only runs the test every other cold start essentially. Also the gas tank has to be between 1/4 and 3/4 full. Tonight I had a full tank. Now I have just under 3/4 full. Went and took the car on my favorite drive track, and flogged it. Then I shut the car off. Restarted it and put on a few more miles with "nice" driving to have a nice drive cycle on it before the morning. The hope is that I will pick up at least the Evap test tomorrow, and then I can pass DEQ monday.

Also rain-Xed the front and rear windshields.

Also, this car is fun. Sport mode really takes off, and the shift points are actually sporty (unlike the performance button in the saturn...). The butt dyno says my car is faster than my friends 07 impreza (no turbo), but stats say I only have 11hp over him, but inline 6 and rwd vs flat 4 and awd. In cornering the car is confident, though I am not, at least not yet. I know for a fact a few of the corners tonight I have taken faster in both the 510 and the Saturn. But hey, the brakes are great, they really stop, or at least better than any car I have had the opportunity to brake from 60 to 15 in.

Just holding off buying anything until emissions is passed.

Pretty effing klassy! The formula is just about perfect -- Inline/RWD/wagon.

DRIVEN » Sun Nov 09, 2014 7:50 am wrote:Pretty effing klassy! The formula is just about perfect -- Inline/RWD/wagon.

^ That.


Cool car, for sure.

DRIVEN » Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:50 am wrote:Pretty effing klassy! The formula is just about perfect -- Inline/RWD/wagon.

flatcat19 wrote:

DRIVEN » Sun Nov 09, 2014 7:50 am wrote:Pretty effing klassy! The formula is just about perfect -- Inline/RWD/wagon.

^ That.


Cool car, for sure.

This ^ and That ^^^ x3 .

Sexy sexy !
I like ! congrats Jacob ... good looker if nothing else .
Looks comfy to + fro anywhere.
I personally like the "wood" simulated inlay(?) look.
Color is getting closer to my folks rig. (good one).
Always have liked BMW's straight 6's.


I just leave my car in "sport" mode as well (makes a difference) .
The last bottle of white lithium I picked up for my sunroof I was not satisfied with (CRC brand) funny since I typically like CRC stuff.

I so like BMW's over Mercs. The Bimmers I've driven are far and away more refined than almost any other car I've been in. Damn nice looking car Jacob. Good score for sure.

The stupid car just wont make Evap or the Air pump go to ready. Thinking Im going to build an Air Pump simulator, and just give the ECU what it wants.

Then hopefully, DEQ will be fine with Evap not ready... Might also go stop by my german mechanic and see what he says.

He should have a scanner that will get the car to do an EVAP selftest. I played that game on a Saturn yesterday that was the twin to yours. Faulty tank pressure sensor was preventing full selftest. Once that was remedied, found a leaky gas cap. Not sure whats up with the airpump though. It should run on cold startup, correct?

From what I have read, this car runs the test on Shut down, engine off, key off.

LEAK DIAGNOSIS TEST PRECONDITIONS
The ECM only initiates a leak diagnosis test every second time the criteria are met. The criteria
is as follows:
• Engine OFF with ignition switched OFF.
• Engine Control Module still in active state or what is known as "follow up mode" (Main
Relay energized, control module and DME components online for extended period after
key off).
• Prior to Engine/Ignition switch OFF condition, vehicle must have been driven for a minimum
of 20 minutes.
• Prior to minimum 20 minute drive, the vehicle must have been OFF for a minimum of 5 hours.
• Fuel Tank Capacity must be between 15 and 85% (safe approximation between 1/4 - 3/4 of a tank).
• Ambient Air Temperature between -7C & 35C (20F & 95F )
• Altitude < 2500m (8,202 feet).
• Battery Voltage between 11.5 and 14.5 Volts

That said, I have now done that number of times. The car has over 300 miles since I picked it up.

The second air is weird too, as it seems common to hang up, but its also supposed to be ready on the first cold start.

Stopped by Radio shack, picked up a few resistors, a voltage regulator, and a DPDT Relay.

Basically, use the power from the Secondary air pump, power the relay and voltage regulator. From the Voltage Reg (now at ~5V), run it through some resistors arranged in a voltage divider setup to make it about .2V, error on the side of slightly more (I have read .21V might be better, but both work).

How it works, when off, the front O2 sensors feed their signal to the ECU through the Normally Closed positions of the Relay. When in cold start mode, and Air pump is on, Relay switches, blocking the O2 sensors from talking to the ECU, and feeds the ECU with .2V (which is about what it wants when air pump is running). As soon as the car deems its fine to turn off the air pump (never longer than 2 minutes 10 seconds), relay turns off, ECU gets proper 02 signal.

All of that for an emissions readiness check, for something that runs only on cold starts, for only a minute.

If it works, Im just going to delete the AIr Pump.

Remember when you started looking for cars and you made that statement about not wanting a project?

Also, bought a cable, so that I can talk to all the modules of the car. BMW apparently has a bajillion internal codes it can throw without ever surfacing as a CEL or being picked up by a normal OBDII scanner.

This isnt a project, this is stupid emissions testing, it would pass with a simple tail pipe check.

Stupid BMW and Volvo air pump(s) ... ah the Radio Shack solution.
Same reason I deleted mine = crap

image by 71240z, on Flickr

My pump still spun quiet and worked well before bypassing.

My V70 I've noticed will/can throw codes without it ever being a CEL as well at times (when you think it would).
DEQ told me they have a hell of a time "communicating" with Volvo computers in general.. mine specifically (some of the readiness codes including evap weren't ready = pass)
I give no craps as long as it's running well , and mileage is up.

Good work !

I wanna do it when I get off work so it might be ready in the morning, but damn its cold.