Like the title says, how often does your e21 frustrate you? The WUR is dead on my car and I stripped one of the allen bolts while I was taking it out. It's kinda frustrating with the repeated starting issues I've been having lately. After I retired the 2002 from daily driving I was hoping the 320i would be a lot more reliable, of course I guess you can't expect perfection from a 25 year old car. Its still frustrating, however when she doesn't start and I have repairs to do, as that money takes away from the 2002. Bmw = breaks my wallet.

sorry to hear that! both my bimmers are the greatest! no problems what so ever! i think it all depends on how the car is treated and maintained IMO.

so, no frustration, just love!
best of luck,
rick

During my whole time owning my car, I would try to fix something (and since things are old) stuff would end up breaking. Tried to fix one thing, gas line broke, tried to take the carpet out and clean it, trim broke... ect ect. I think I got so frustrated because I had to turn around and drive it THAT day or the next, which made me need to rush. But now that I have a DD and the 320i still, I can work on it with little frustration.

yes having a second car is a great investment when you own an e21. if my car starts pissing me off, i garage it for a while and i drive the explorer until i get the problem fixed. especially if its raining or snowing i try to keep her inside.

I was fustrated when my car was at the shop sitting there with the side cropped off. I mean, the door, rocker, quarter and fender was off on once side.
After it was painted and never finished I took it back.

So..I am not fustrated with it anymore.
I have other cars, and this is my great project, that will be finished someday.

Mine frustrates the hell out of my at times.

There are days when i want to roll it off a cliff set it on fire and pee all over it.


...this is my great project, that will be finished someday.

With a LARGE emphasis on some day.

With a LARGE emphasis on some day.

how did i know someone was going to say that?

What irritates me is trying to hook up these fog lights!!! Argh! Went at it today and screwed up more than I made work. Fried the wires to the headlight switch because I was trying to run it all off the low beam relay. Thought I fried my ignition system and fuel pump systems as well, but I split the wiring harness and just pulled the melted wires out and jiggled the bad wire near the throttle area and got it to fire up. So no headlights now and no fog lights either!

starting my car has lately been the problem, but i guess that what u can sometimes get from an engine swap...... quickly can any1 tell me if the alternator gets wet will that affect its charging??? i got it wet wen i flushed out the cooling system.... prob a stupid question but i just want to confirm

I'm done being frustrated... or being frustrated at being frustrated. I suppose if I stay frustrated, then I won't get upset... :confused

I mean... if I'm already frustrated, then I can't get pissed off anymore... because I already am pissed... :rolleyes

I should just STFU.

how did i know someone was going to say that?

cause truth is teh funnay.

lol. Found out the WUR was crap and one of my lines was giving vaccum leaks. Just replaced those and she seems to be running ok. Sometimes though, these cars can really give headaches. At least it doesnt leak water in the rain like the 2002...

well, given that i have a cracked head, no carby (well, bits of it) its auto, has rooted struts, is full of rust, bent frame and funky smelling carpet you would think i hate it every day!
But i dont, only my wallet hates it :(

My car has been pretty reliable. I have been left stranded 2 or 3 times by it, but it was only due to fuses and my fuel pump relay. So I have yet to really do any major repairs. I'm still learning, and I know now to always check the stupid crap first.

However I drove through a big puddle last night, and it was a bad idea, because now it won't start. (My starter was going anyways though.) I thought it might need to dry out some more, so I let it sit longer. Then it started without a hitch. I drove it a bit, and got home. Tried to start it again, and nothing. Got it going one more time, and now it's completely dead. I hear the starter making noise, but it won't crank.

the better question may be when is my e21 NOT frustrating me. right now my clutch wont work because of a leak (in the slave cylender i believe) other than that it has its little problems that just irritate me... no fog lamps, cd player skips REALLy BAD (but im getting a diffent one that can be hooked to an ipod) and broken sunroof... other than that its great!

My doesnt run at the current moment.

When it begins to run I expect initial bugs to appear but nothing frustrating as I'm doing a body-over restoration including custom wiring harness and etc.

Are you asking over a time period of a day "24hrs" Or over a weeks time "7 days"? :confused Remember I have two to keep me going. :help

Looking at doing brakes again along with wheel bearings, my driving habbits will not be brought up! :eek: Not even thinking about doing the wiring yet - just continue to do the tach by ear method for now.

As long as it runs and stops!!

It depends on how well you know your own E21. My new one I just got is a mother f**ker. The guages don't read right, rust issues, difficult window cranks, jacked up audio system, "made in mexico" battery, mismatched tint, body roll galore, 3 headlights don't work, signals click too fast, brakes go almost to the floor, throttle knocks after 3500RPMS, etc etc etc...

But my pride and joy, SKY, is a dream come true. Such a blast to drive!!!:alright

So far the Baur hasn't been a frustration at all, I have to work on the radiator issue since it's not large enoug for the hopped up motor...

THe 320i has had it's moments, I had the WUR issue, but fixed it since I have 2 motors in my garage to scap parts from...right now it's leaking gas from the rotted lines in the tank area....but it starts without being plugged in at -2 F so far so I can't complain about it being unrelable...it just gets crappy gas milage....

I must admit my E-36 318i is like driving a limo after I've been driving around in the 320i for a few weeks...it's wide and comfy compared to the 320i...

every day that I see it sitting there frustrates me.
Jake

Tried to start it again, and nothing. Got it going one more time, and now it's completely dead. I hear the starter making noise, but it won't crank.
hit the starter with a hammer.


My car has been a huge frustration since I've had it. Everything on the car has broken at one time or another and it seems to have been an uphill battle to get where I am today. I could write a book of all the things that have gone wrong, everything I know about E21's is because I've had to fix it at least once and sometimes twice.

Here's the frustration highlights: When I bought the car, motor, suspension, interior, exhaust and brakes were all junk. I spent about 3 years rebuilding everything and then wrecked it in the rain with liability only insurance.

My doner car was too expensive and full of rust. Then the body was in the body shop for over a year and a half.

When building my current car I had bent rear stub axles on my junkyard euro trailing arms and ended up doing my rear wheel bearings twice and had to replace the stub axles and rotors again. My rear calipers still squeek every now and then even after greasing them.

The front subframe came unbolted cause I forgot to use locktite.

I spent a summer diagnosing a hard warm start and crappy cold running (learned a lot about tuning K-jet in the process).

The car has left me stranded with a bad fuel pump and broken ignition switch.

Even with all new gaskets I still have water issues in my trunk and the windsheild leaks. I'll have to correct both of those next summer.

This year after the turbo my turbo came unbolted on the highway after a day of autocrossing, despite using stainless serrated lock washers and all stainless hardware. It happened again 2 weeks later, I ended up having to make locking tabs to keep the thing bolted on. Other than that it's treated me very well this year.

The list goes on.

The front subframe came unbolted cause I forgot to use locktite.

sweet mary mother of god. That's my worst fear.

I torqued them to spec and they vibrated loose.

The front 2 bolts were gone, the back 2 were loose. It took me a couple days to figure out what was going on. There was a very disturbing, deep vibration under your butt any time you'd get on the throttle and the nose of the car would lift or when you hit a bump. I about had a heart attack when I found the cause. Moral of the story: USE LOCTITE

I think the most frustrating thing for me with the 2 e21's I've had is the wiring. I sometimes think it makes British Lucas wiring look good. My original 79 323I had a complete meltdown under the dash, pretty much a small fire. Never did figure out what that was from - car didn't even have an aftermarket radio at the time. My current 320/6 has it's own issues. Fixed the ground (had the temp and gas gauge jumping all over the place) then the brake lights went down (easy fix, bad break light switch). Had a bad headlight relay. I guess I'm a being a little critical of a 35 year old car, but the wiring still drives me nuts - just complicated enough to be annoying.

Hard to comment for me. I cant imagine having a car this old as a daily driver. My current E21 has really frustrated me because its taken me 12 months to finally get it on the water from Europe. The guy I bought the car from couldnt even get it to the port without it constantly having some sort of problem, so Im expecting a lot of work once it gets here. Of course its an original alpina, so it should be worth the work and wait.

Wow, I didn't realize you were importing an Alpina. Got any pics?

I have some pictures, but I was waiting until I get the car, before I post them. I have all the parts waiting for it once it gets here, except a new carpet set of course:mad (you can see the interior in my carpet thread, the second picture is the interior of it). The car is original, but it was repainted so the guy took off the decko kit, the rear spoiler, and all the badges, plus he put some expensive 3 piece wheels, with giant tires on it, so the car looks bad right now. I'll definitely make a post of the restoration process, once I get the car. Scheduled to hit the shores of Brunswick Ga, 12/12.:redspot