M52 E30 PAS Pump Install, Redneck E30 Headlamp Adjustment, Coilover Covers Fitted & MOT Pass | 058

M52 E30 PAS Pump Install, Redneck E30 Headlamp Adjustment, Coilover Covers Fitted & MOT Pass | 058

In this video, I finally get the M52 swap E30 build MOT ready, and spoiler alert, it passed!

Here's what I used in this video:
Cheap E36 M52 PAS Pump: https://ebay.us/mE8VAA
Mannol Dexron III PAS Fluid: https://ebay.us/UNNEVW
Coilover Covers (40cm): https://ebay.us/ragqjr

On the buildup to the MOT test, I rounded off a couple of other jobs that needed doing on the car which I will detail a bit more now.

Firstly, the E30 project has had an entirely new steering system, a fully refurbished Z3 1.9 steering rack and brand new custom made BM Conversions power steering lines. The only part which isn't new is the PAS pump.

From the short test drives I've done so far, I noticed that when manoeuvring the car the power steering pump was still making unpleasant grinding noises, especially near to full lock. On top of this, I've flushed the system once already and its done barely a few miles on the fresh fluid, but it already looks brown.

I decided to stop messing around with that and just replace the pump. I picked up this nice cheap new pump on ebay hoping it would do the job, and it seems great quality. I removed the old power steering pump and got the new one in stalled with another fluid flush using Mannol Dexron III ATF fluid, which is BMW's recommended fill for the power steering system.

After giving it a good bleed up by steering the wheels back and forth and letting rh car run, I was pleased to have checked another problem off the list.

With that done, I turned my attention to probably a more pressing matter considering the MOT, that was the headlamp level.

Annoyingly the adjusters for the E30 headlights are all seized or broken, as I'd recently discovered. As a bit of a DIY fix for that I opted to fit some chunky shims betweeen the bottom mounts of the headlight and the core support, to effectively raise the level instead of messing with the fragile adjusters. I ended up with around 5mm of shim on all the bottom mounts, and from a test drive I realised I'd gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, and now the headlamp aim was massively high.

It's hard to say you'd blind anyone with the candle-strength E30 headlights, but the MOT in the UK requires the headlamp aim to be correct or there abouts. I showed how I'd fit the shims in to do this in the footage, and I ended up removing one of the shims having marked on the wall where the level landed. I ended up with around 3mm of shim, and with a bit of a fiddle on the adjusters too, they were much better.

With an MOT booked for the day after, and the weather forecast rain, I decided to take the advice of commenters on my previous video and fit some protective covers to my HSD Monopro coilovers. I'd hate for them to get filthy and start to seize from the literal first drive of the car. I picked up an awesome set of Coilover Covers on ebay, made to measure and fitted them on all four corners.

They were quite easy to fit, and I get the feeling they will pay back over years, protecting my coilovers from road grime.

With the E30 build back on its feet, I left the MOT in the capable hands of the old man, he took it down to a local place we've used a few times and they initially failed it on headlamp aim, but after a live tweak thanks to dad, they gave the E30 a pass and it's officially an on-the-road car!

To celebrate we took it out for a good run and got a chance to really open the car up and let it breathe which was awesome fun. It turns out to be a very exciting car to drive and you can't help but laugh as it encourages you to press on, but it's very busy and very harsh as it stands so there's more work to do in finding that right compromise between savage race car and road trip cruiser.

Stay tuned for more of my thoughts following some seat time in the car.

For more helpful how-to guides and restorations: https://www.spannerrash.com/

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