E30 318i M40: Camshaft and valve condition

I whipped the rocker cover off to check if there was a dropped valve or broken spring that might be contributing to the poorly idle, but no such defect found. In fact, this has to be one of the cleanest top ends I have ever seen. Nice!

F10: Rear Shock Absorber / Strut / Spring Replacement [GUIDE]

*Front strut-assembly replacement guide here - https://www.beemerlab.org/2017/09/f10-530d-front-shock-strut-spring-top.html*

Time to do the rear struts and springs on the 530d F10 this week as one damper has been leaking and while doing my tyres last week I noticed the spring has now broken at the bottom so this is now an urgent job. I picked up a pair of used complete struts (spring, damper and top-mount) from eBay for just £100. They are from another 530d and claim to be from a low mileage car. Well, they look a lot lower mileage than the ones I'm taking off lets put it that way and appear to be in pretty good condition. I get a lot of stick for constantly using second-hand genuine parts, but I still prefer this to buying new spurious parts where I can and have never had an issue!

GUIDE:

* This is not a difficult or time-consuming job, but will require a bit of brute force. *

1. First the rear seats need to come out. Lift the seat squab up at the front and detach it from the push-studs, press the seat-belt receivers through the recesses and lift the squab out. Next lift the seat-back upwards until it is free of the hooks at the top and lift that out, being careful of the door-sill paintwork and sliding it through the seat-belts. [You could always unbolt the seat-belts at the base using a T45-Torx socket to make this easier, but it's not essential].

2. The parcel-shelf now needs to come down in order to access the strut-top mount bolts in the shock-turrets. Remove the C-pillar trims by prizing out the plastic caps labelled 'Airbag' from the trim and removing the screw using a T25-Torx socket. Now carefully pull away the C-pillar trims and put to one side. Remove the five push-pin clips from the front edge of the parcel-shelf by levering the button in the centre upwards and pulling the plastic pin out. The studs can now be levered out. The parcel-shelf is now free to pull forwards and can be rested where the seat-back would be. [Remove the wiring-connectors to the speakers, but these should pop out by themselves anyway].

3. Lift the car and remove the corresponding wheel. [There is no need to be getting under the car for this job, so a jack and axle-stand is fine].

4a. The track-strut (pictured) needs to be moved out of the way to access the bottom strut bolt so first remove the plastic clips holding the E-brake wire-harness to the track-strut by levering them open at the bottom with a flathead-screwdriver and separating them from the strut. The wire-harness can be moved out of the way.

4b. Remove the bolt holding the inner end of the track-strut using an 18mm wrench. Pull the track-strut down and rotate it so it is pointing out of the wheel-arch. You now have plenty of room to get at the bottom strut bolt and lift the shock out.

5. Remove the bolt holding the bottom of the strut to the hub using a 21mm wrench.

6. Lift the triangle flap in the foam underneath where the parcel-shelf was to expose the studs to the strut-top mount and remove the three nuts using a 13mm wrench.

7. Wiggle the bottom of the strut free from the hub and the entire strut assembly is now free to be removed. It should be able to be lowered through the remaining suspension parts and to the rear of the car until it is free to be removed.

** IF YOU ARE CHANGING THE SPRING / TOP-MOUNT OR SWAPPING THESE ONTO A NEW STRUT THEN DO THIS NOW** [See this post for guide].

8. Make sure the new strut has the top-mount in line with the old one you removed by lying them next to each other and checking the bottom bolt-eyelet and triangle marking on the top-mount match up. [The triangle marking on the top-mount should face towards the back of the car with the bolt-eyelet facing the centre, or with the triangle marking facing you the bolt-eyelet should be pointing to the right for O/S (right-side) and left for N/S (left-side)].

9. Lift the new strut back up through the suspension and line it up into the strut-turret. [Triangle marking on top-mount facing rear of car] and screw the three 13mm nuts back on a few threads.

10. Lever the hub downwards until it meets the bolt-eyelet at the bottom of the strut meets its recess on the hub and screw the 21mm bolt back in about half-way.

11. Fully tighten the three 13mm nuts on the strut-top mount.

12. Fully tighten the 21mm bolt through the bottom of the strut.

13. Replace the track-strut / wheel as a reversal of steps 3 and 4.

14. If you are doing both sides then repeat steps 3 - 13 for the opposite side.

15. Replace the parcel-shelf, trim and rear seat as a reversal of steps 1 and 2.

F10 530d: Front Shock Strut / Spring / Top-mount Replacement [GUIDE]

*Rear Strut-assembly Replacement Guide here - https://www.beemerlab.org/2020/12/f10-rear-shock-absorber-strut-spring.html*

My front shocks were certainly past their prime up front and over the last few months have really started to bottom out on certain speed bumps. I was also told one of the front top-mounts was starting to go on the last MOT and would probably be an issue next time round, so it was time to give the F10 a mini front-suspension overhaul.

I got hold of a pair of complete front struts taken from a 45k-mile car (I am told, but they are very clean) for just £240. All the parts new and spurious (including my through-work discount) would have been nigh on £400 and lots more from BMW. The used items are of course genuine, so quite a lot of money saved and the struts have turned out to be pretty good so it was a chance worth taking.


The guide I used is by hamanncheese on 5post.com and is pretty spot on, so props to him - I will reference his photos and try to elaborate a little on his instructions. [Original guide here: http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=628336].


REMOVE / REPLACE STRUT:

1. Lift the car and remove the corresponding wheel.

2. Remove the nut holding the top of the anti-roll bar link to the shock-strut using an 18mm wrench. [The nut should come off without twisting the ball-joint, but you may need to insert a T40-Torx socket into the end of the stop it turning with the nut.] [If the stud is difficult to remove from the shock-strut, then using a second jack to lift the hub and prying the anti-roll bar downwards will certainly help.]

Pic courtesy: hamanncheese

3. Remove the lower strut bolt using an 18mm (bolt-head) and 21mm (nut) wrench.

Pic courtesy: hamanncheese

4. Remove the 3 bolts holding the top-mount to the shock-turret using a 13mm wrench.

Pic courtesy: hamanncheese

5. Push the hub down and lift the shock-strut until it clears the bottom-arm and can be removed. [Lift it over the bottom-arm towards the rear of the car. There is plenty of room to manoeuvre it out of the wheel well.] [As hamanncheese says, this step is easier with a helping hand, but can be done solo without much difficulty.]

6. Insert the new strut using the same technique as Step 5.

7. Refit the lower strut bolt first and screw the nut on a few turns. [A screwdriver or other long tool may be necessary to align the strut to the lower-arm.]

8. Refit the 3 top-mount bolts and tighten.

9. Fully tighten the lower strut-bolt.

10. Refit the anti-roll bar link to the strut.


ALIGN TOP MOUNTS:

If the top-mount holes do not line up with the shock-turret, [i.e. if they have been removed / replaced and not fitted in the correct alignment], then they will need rotating to the correct position. Spring-compressors are required.

1. Place the strut on its side with the ring-bracket resting on the floor [as in pic]. This is so it can be lined up against the one it is replacing.

2. Compress the spring on both sides, being careful to mount the spring-compressors so they do not foul the strut resting on the ring-bracket [as in below pic].

3. Loosen off the top mount nut using a deep 18mm socket, leaving it on a few threads.

4. Rotate the lower spring-pan by tapping it round using the notches [in pic]. A hammer and blunt chisel or large flat-head screwdriver will do nicely.

5. Re-tighten the top mount nut and de-compress the spring.


REPLACE SPRING / TOP-MOUNT:

1. Compress the spring on both sides using spring-compressors.

2. Remove the top-mount nut using a deep 18mm socket. [Stand to the side when the nut is fully removed as, even with the springs compressed, the top-mount may still come off with some force.]

*If you are only replacing the top-mount then skip Step 3.*

3. If you are replacing the spring, remove the old one from the strut and remove the spring compressors. Compress the new spring, place it over the strut and seat it in the lower spring-pan.

4. Fit the new top-mount, ensuring the spring is located in the upper spring-pan, replace the 18mm top-nut and fully tighten.

5. Remove the spring-compressors.

E21 316: M10 Distributor/Ignition Timing: Strobe Light Ahoy!

So my adventures into re-timing the spark-plugs continue with the purchase of a Gunson Xenon timing strobe-light! I went for the cheapest kit in Halfords, but it was still a slight pain at £45, considering it's in addition to a new dizzy-cap and rotor-arm, set of spark-plugs, compression-test kit, gasket-set, oil, coolant and a 30mm socket to turn the engine from the crank, but as I just can't seem to get the old M10 engine running happily I guess it's just as vital and at least we can use it to time in our old MGA engine this summer (hopefully).

Before I start to moan again about the intricacies of re-timing the distributor I should say that I know there is no need to remove it in order to get the cylinder-head off and the dizzy should really be left in place to save all this trouble, but the diaphragm on mine was blocking one of the head-bolts so that wasn't an option for me.

The timing light works by flashing every time your 1st-cylinder spark-plug fires. There is a timing-mark on the spinning crank-pulley or flywheel that passes a stationary mark on the block at the exact point the 1st spark-plug should be firing. When the flashing light from plug 1 is aimed at the spinning pulley it shows the timing-mark in a fixed position in relation to the stationary mark and allows you to gauge how how many degrees before or after the correct point the spark is. Clever stuff.

On the BMW M10 engine, there are two timing-marks on the flywheel, one for top dead-centre [TDC] and another, called Z, that corresponds to the right point before TDC that the 1st spark-plug should be firing. The marks are visible with the flashing light through a small oblong hole at the back of the crankcase. It's easy enough to find the hole, but seeing into it with the timing-light is a challenge in itself, let alone trying to adjust it or move the dizzy-cap and I ended up having to stand over it with my feet on the strut-tops to steady myself enough without leaning in from the side and crushing the wheel arches. There is another TDC timing-mark on the rearmost rim of the front crank-pulley, which is a lot easier to see with the timing-strobe from the n/s of the engine-bay, but the mark is tiny so when you do find it it's best to file a larger notch across the whole pulley - mine had this done already and it makes things a lot clearer.

It's best to first time your engine to Z on the flywheel, at 2200rpm, using 0 degrees of advance on the timing-light gun - just shine it into the oblong hole and rotate the distributor-cap until the large pointer is lined up with the silver ball, not the TDC line. Now check the front crank-pulley for reference by shining the light at it with 0 degrees advance. The groove for TDC should appear around 25 degrees before the stud on the engine-block. Rotate the dial on the timing gun slowly to 25 degrees and the groove should move in line with the pin. Simples.

Ignition timing isn't too much of a fine art, so as long as the rotor-arm contact is roughly on point no.1 on the dizzy with the engine at top dead-centre then it should fire right up and not need much adjustment to find Z. Mine was still making the god awful noise after repeatedly timing to Z, but this turned out to be a badly positioned exhaust-manifold gasket [in this post] so, obviously, check everything else isn't amiss before starting to mess with ignition timing.