1991 BMW E30 318IS

Just spent the last week down in cornwall visiting my mum and her partner Mark.

I'm very lucky to be able to spend time driving and being driven around in their old BM's especially the M3, which is just awesome although I doubt I'll ever get to drive it.

Anyway as i've said before the brakes on the 318 were warped and slowing down from 70 with a steering wheel wobbling like a fat bird on a tightrope did not fill me with much confidence.
So finally Me and mark got down to changing the discs and pads. Mark is a walking talking BMW wiki page so he did most of it.

The old discs and pads weren't in terrible condition, but I had to get rid of the chatter through the steering wheel




We did an oil change too




This trip was also my first chance to see and drive the new edition to the fleet (the deathtrap)!! Although having driven it I think that name will be changed soon.








We also popped into Rally Prep for a bit and they have some seriously cool cars there.

well you all know who's car this is


He has had the carbon airbox fitted and spent plenty of money on it, never seen such a nice example of an M3.


Henry Catchpole's Mk2 escort.

Had just passed it's MOT when we saw it.





So as far as the 318Is is concerned, it still needs new springs, a quicker steering rack, the water pump sounds like its on the way out and one of the exhaust hangers has started rattling away.

Nice one Mark, cheers.

I'm getting it cleaned up tomorrow so I can take it down to the Walton Bridge meet on Sunday.
I'm going to see if any of those guys want to travel up to RRG together

I only took a few photos on Sunday and as usual they are mostly of my car.

Hi Jim, great thread, your looks really good, love the M3 tho

Just a quick update on the car as I've not updated my thread in a few weeks.

The car spent a couple of days down in Cornwall at Avers Racers as they are run by family friend.
As mentioned before the water pump bearings sounded like they were wearing away, so that has now been replaced and I can no longer hear the very off putting tick tick spat spat sound that would accompany me whilst driving
A full service was carried out including changing the plugs and oil.
I also had a few electronic problems, such as losing the radio, clock and rev counter, which have now been resolved.

The most important change to the car recently is the addition of new springs, a 40mm drop at both ends have really transformed the driving experience, so much more settled in the corners and body roll has been greatly reduced. It looks a lot better for it too.
In my opinion the rear of an e30 has always been to high.
Having to get used to driving over speed humps a lot slower now too!

Next up is getting a quicker steering rack fitted, the Z3's appears to be the one that is the easiest fit and will reduce the amount of turns by a fair bit.

Then I'll be looking at fitting some Compomotive TH's. They really suit e30's and give them more of a DTM look.
Just need to figure out what colour.



So you have you decided to keep yours, or are you having trouble with finding a buyer?

Good to hear that you've decided to keep the 318.
After looking into it a bit more I've found out that the Z3 rack is little more expensive to buy than the e46 as they are less common and the difference in the rack isn't that great.
e30 is 4 turns lock to lock, the e46 is 3 turns and the Z3 rack is 2.7 turns. So I'll be happy with either one.

I'm planning on running the Compos throughout the summer with a decent set of grippy tyres, and keeping the original wheels for the winter. The Compos are fairly pricey, so i may upgrade to the 15's and stick summer tyres on them instead. My plan has always been to keep looking as original as possible and only make changes that improve the drive and aren't too visible and for that to continue the 15 inch BBS RZ 15's are the way to go.

I think the LSD is the option to go for from your list, will really improve the drive .

dampers are still stock and the springs are H&R sport springs

Their website says it 6.85kg per wheel.

found a couple of photos of a 318is on another guys project.

what do you think? do I go for these or go for the 15 inch version BMW/BBS wheels that are already on it.