Your reach is long.

And now a story.

I've been a member here just long enough, and received enough good advice and assistance from you folks to have become infected by your fondness for the E21. I originally only bought the car because it was the least crap vehicle I could get for the money. I never envisaged feeling any emotional attachment to it, but somehow it won me over, to the extent where I even gave it a nice new engine which it seemed to be very happy with.

I thought things were going quite well (apart from a dead temp guage, everything was running smooth as you like), but I am a man, and I am weak. I've got the wandering eye, and my eye wandered over to a Toyota Celica GT-4 (Alltrac to my American friends) advertised on the local auction site for a very cheap price. Not believing for a second that I would win it, I put a nice low bid in.
Several days and zero auction movement later, I owned what turned out to be a very tatty '90s Japanese sports coupe, complete with blown head-gasket. I've since started the bewildering and frustrating process of dismantling it for repair.

AS SOON as I started the E21 began running like a one-legged dog. Unwilling to start, missing, running rough, hunting idle, mystery water consumption and then yesterday, the handbrake imploded noisily. All my mechanical and financial efforts now have to be directed towards pacifying the BMW.

The timing just seems too coincidental. It's as if some mysterious force was punishing me for my faithlessness... But the legion wouldn't know anything about that now would they..?

i do, it happens everytime i put to much time/money into my truck, my 320 breaks and wants MORE time and money than the truck took. it happens when i work on my mazda too... but it doesn't happen when i work on my 2002... there is some weird strange force that breaks e21's when one works on anything but a BMW...

Once you own an E21, you're married to it (dont let my fiance find out :shifty ). If you cheat on her, she will bite back.

^totally

It never fails...my E21 is the same way as 320 Bimmers. Every time I do something to my jeep or my Dodge...It lashes back at me by acting funny when I want to take it for a leisurely spin out the back roads, It just never ceases to amaze me, but its worth it! haha


Kyle

true story, you can't cheat on your e21 without consequence.

dang, i have to put a 2 and 4 wheel drive transfer case in our jeep instead of a 4x4 only one but now i'm scared of hte car breaking on me.

Hmmm. The Celica was a mistake, it doesn't mean anything. I'm just going to fix it and flick it. The E21 must know this, but it's still giving me grief.

So how do I win it back? A bunch of 12 red rose-joints and a bottle of high quality semi-synthetic, followed by a nice candlelit drive through the countryside?

its all about when it decides to forgive you. so just start putting money and time into it. and stop when it runs perfect for you again.

Does the car in question go by the name "Christine?" If so, dude you are sooooooo dead. She's just getting warmed up. It wouldn't have been as bad if yu kept it all in the family and bought German. Jap, tho??? oh man are yu screwed. Get holy water and pray.

....maybe THAT is why the e21 start spitting manifold bolts out at me. I put new tires on another set of wheels onto the M3. Damn it!! Now I'm REALLY screwed since M3 was already doing crap like this to me before I ever got this e21. :(

BTW, I love the AllTrac's. At least the first ones WE got here State side (only I think) based on the last Celica with pop-up headlights. Basically early '90s car. Nice compact, 4banger turbo AWD. :buttrock

just start putting money and time into it. and stop when it runs perfect for you again.

Ahh... time and money. The only two things I've got less of than patience. I guess it's going to be a rocky couple of months.

BTW, I love the AllTrac's. At least the first ones WE got here State side (only I think) based on the last Celica with pop-up headlights. Basically early '90s car. Nice compact, 4banger turbo AWD.

That's the one, the ST185. Toyota used it as the basis for their most successful rally car ever. Sadly the road versions were quite heavy and prone to understeer. More of a GT than a sports coupe. Still, the engines are strong and the potential is there...

A little addendum to this thread...

I got the head off the Toyota engine and discovered this:

http://40xhzq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p41j989lPP29MWrfDRm3vdrJtJT_bFcnjnYkWkcIJD5WzlnY kar3SjRqI2NP9JgSTbxK2Uo1wqkijTt9dOtpaPg/GT4%20Dereliction%20001%20%28scaled%29.jpg

As soon as I saw that I knew it was going to be a long time before the Celica was running again and that the E21 would therefore be accompanying me on my upcoming sojourn in the South Island.

Almost instantly, the BMW started behaving like its old self. Starting alright, holding an idle, pulling cleanly from cold. I did nothing to it. Not a thing (apart from top-up the water again). It just started running right. Odd.
It's getting a bit of love anyway. I should pick it up from the mechanics tomorrow, complete with working temp guage.

...my 323 is a whore. A dirty talking, screaming, whore. She pushes and I push back harder. What was it Mick Jagger said in Beast of Burden? "All your bitchin'... just suck it up. Throw it all at me, well I just shrug it off..." Parking break dead? Bitch, grab a brick. Ping and knock? You'll get a NEW ENGINE before I open you up for a diagnostic... She wants a bath? She can lick herself clean.... She wants...

Oh my God... She's right behind me, isn't she? I'll be right there baby! What is it? What d'ya need? I swear I wasn't gonna take the motorcycle for a ride. You're all I need. Daddy loves you....

...my 323 is a whore. A dirty talking, screaming, whore. She pushes and I push back harder. What was it Mick Jagger said in Beast of Burden? "All your bitchin'... just suck it up. Throw it all at me, well I just shrug it off..." Parking break dead? Bitch, grab a brick. Ping and knock? You'll get a NEW ENGINE before I open you up for a diagnostic... She wants a bath? She can lick herself clean.... She wants...

Oh my God... She's right behind me, isn't she? I'll be right there baby! What is it? What d'ya need? I swear I wasn't gonna take the motorcycle for a ride. You're all I need. Daddy loves you....

LOL!

OT, Joel, you need to finsih your thread about the b-fest trip!!

i started looking at skylines...next morning, the E21 decided to shit another ign switch...then once i got it going, backfired and popped an injector out. i think i might take a mates car next time i go car shopping:(