1988 BMW M3 Minor S14 Surgery (pics inside)

[E30M3]

Well, as a few of you know my M3 has been dead for a little while, well yesterday I had a few hours to try and sort the issue out. I checked the starter relay and that was ok.
So I moved on to other areas,

The starter/starter solenoid, I wedged my hand down there(yes with the battery disconnected) and tightened everything and cleaned up the contacts.
For good measure I smacked both with an extension and hammer.

Success!! it starts up fine.. great wonderful, I thought I was done... not quite says the M3.

I find out later that I needed to hit the Solenoid every time I wanted the car to start, originally I thought it was kinda funny, but believe me that got old quick..

So today I had an afternoon to pull the starter and solve this once and for all.

Heres some pics....




Who ever installed the starter before, It might even have been when it was born in Oct /87, was a monkey and over tightened the positive contact post and had fractured a part of the solenoid itself....

Well the Starter is now being rebuilt and given a new solenoid. In total thats going to cost about a $100, not bad considering the Stealership wanted $345 and two weeks to get it here.

Now I have some decisions to make, I have the Air plenum off as well as the AFM and pretty much everything on that side of the engine.

Should I go the whole way and rip off the Throttle Bodies and replace all the Gaskets and O-rings? This would include the fuel rail and the injector o-rings as well.

Also is there any point in getting them machined and polished?

I'm also looking at the butterflies and they look like they have some sort of build up on them, should I clean them off using a carb cleaner and a rag, maybe a toothbrush, or Q-tips?

On the other hand the runners and everything else I could see of the inside of the engine look very clean, shiny and smooth.

Atleast I hope all of this will help some of the issues I've been having with the car, and might even provide a time to do a few "upgrades"

[fastbmw]

Do it all! Carb cleaner and a rag will clean up the butterflies good.

[Spencer]

Why not go all the way since you're already in there.

Good idea to have it rebuilt rather than paying the stealership that much! Good savings.

[ClassicScot]

im so glad that my starter problem was just a relay and did not have to take **** apart... just do what seems necessary while its out.. makes it worth the trouble.

[woods]

Definitely clean up the throttle bodies. Also clean the runners. Mine had a little "lip" built up where the butterflies seal on the runner. I would replace all cheap consumables you can get to as well (vacuum hoses, fuel hoses, seals, o-rings, etc, etc).

This bit of R&R should crisp up the off idle throttle response considerably.

They are actually very dirty compared to mine when I took it apart - though that could be a matter of mileage...

[320iCar]

its always nice to see someone do their own work. my god why can't all cars have ITB's

[320Colin]

nicely done son, clean the piss outta everything... why not?

[DS Rook]

Clean them up well. Also pull your icv out now that you can get at it and clean it out as well.

[redhatpat]

Clean it all up now and replace all the rubber hoses and such. Unless you enjoyed taking it all apart?

[E30M3]

Ok guys, this is what I managed to get done today, before I had to go to school..

I cleaned up all the hoses, and replaced 3 of them, they were beginning to crack and dry up and I went through an cleaned all the butterflies and the throttlebodies. I got the starter back at 8am and installed that, Brighouse starter and alternator did the rebuild, theyre local and I heard some good stuff about them, and it was true these guys were top notch. I dropped it off at 4pm yesterday and it was done a 8am this morning.

What I'm waiting for are a ton of parts from BMW that I need to replace the Intake gaskets, and rebuild fuel rail. Most of the stuff is gaskets and o-rings. But I ordered a few extra acorn nuts and e8 torx heads, since everyones been commenting on how easy they are to strip.

I just got in after putting it all back togeather, as I needed the car and I didnt want it sitting around all opened up for 10days..or most likely a few weeks waiting for all the parts to arrive from Germany.

Anyways I took a few pics of the butterflies and the throttlebodies,





As you can see Its remarkably cleaner down there, plus I cleaned out the entire air plenum.

And as woods had mentioned there was a quite large ridge of built up grime and oil.

After all of this, I fired it up and instantly it was idling a lot smoother and exhibited a much better "off idle" throttle response.

I do however still have a cold engine chirping noise, from the forward intake gasket, so when these parts come in I will be hauling it all apart again to replace the rubber mounting blocks and the paper gaskets.

[Blackice]

Looks great !

S14

[pruple]

Oh dude, those do look good.

[320iCar]

brighouse electric is amazing. i go there for all my starter and alternator needs.

[smithwison4]

Its different in sense showing each and every thing step by step..