No, I ran a 320i from about the mid 80's to the mid 90s. I was a driving instructor though for the BMW CCA for about 15 years. I ran mostly at Lime Rock, Bridgehampton (:(), and Watkins Glenn.

Ha, I used to have a '77 320i that I bought in the mid 80's. I loved that car...well except for the overheating issue when I would run the air conditioning:(
I ran the Glenn in '06. Unfortunately, I got the car off the trailer and had a blown shock even before hitting the track. I said to heck with it and ran anyway! Needless to say, my lap times suffered but it was a blast. Nothing compares to Watkins Glenn and Road Atlanta!
I'm sure you probably watched Ray Korman race his 320 back in the day. He brought one of his gorgeous 320's to Road Atlanta around 2004/05. Those cars are so cool and he was pretty darn fast...not to mention his age!
Anyway, great to have you on the forum.

Thanks.

BMW NA brought a Turbo 320i to the Lime Rock Park Fall Vintage Festival a couple of weeks back. Was this Ray Kormans Car??? I'm not sure. But this beast had a turbocharged F2 motor with over 700 hp and weighed in at about 2200 lbs. Many years ago, our local BMW CCA chapter made a T-shirt of this car for a driver's school with a photo with 2 ft flames coming out of the exhaust. Unfortunately, it did not see the track that weekend. They did however run their CSL. Here's the 320:
http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/DSC_3451.jpg
And the CSL:
http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/DSC_3453.jpg

Last week, I did the valve cover gaskets, and then it was time to pay someone for some undercar work.

Just got the X5 back from the shop to change the motor mounts. What an ordeal for the shop. Turns out the passenger side engine support bracket was completely cracked off the mount. This same bracket holds the AC compressor. So the freon needed to be removed, and the AC compressor had to come out. In the process they found some other items that needed to be replaced, the transmission cooler thermostat was leaking, as was a plastic thing that joins up a bunch of coolant hoses.

But the car is SO much nicer to ride in now. The low frequency vibration at idle is gone, and much of the clunking over bumps is gone as well. We still have some minor suspension items to sort out, but progress is being made. I think, (I hope!) the majority of the fluid leaks are now gone as well.

One piece of advice is to not ignore the symptoms of bad motor mounts. I think ignoring those caused the previous owner to break that engine support, and that added several hours of labor to the repair. Fortunately, even though it's a big elaborate casting, it was only $83. Looking at the thing, and given BMW's normal pricing, I would have figured it would have cost 5X that amount. But this big casting tapers down to a fairly thin piece that carries all the load to the mount. This part really should have been more robust at that point, OR made of steel. Maybe the modest price is BMW's way of saying..."Yea, we know this should have never broken, we screwed up. So for a change, we're not going to rape you on the cost of this particular part."

Changed out the NAV screen today. Got the replacement screen from eBay seller eurotech.lcd, (same seller from Hong Kong that many here recommended, but now he's on eBay). I was one of his first eBay buyers. Follow a DIY video I found here. Easy, 45 min job. Hard to tell in the photos, but the new screen is perfect, (some bad reflections in the photo), and quite a bit brighter. And both photos are from my phone.

Before:

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps7d85de97.jpg


After:

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/q...ps54e67ce2.jpg

:thumbup:

Hey Skyline, your before screen looks like it used to show you the clouds in the area lol...congrats on a job well done...

LOL...except that they never moved! I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before your car's NAV can bring up a radar weather map, (or can they already do that????)

And thanks. Having two teens who over the years have broken their share of laptop, and iPhone/iPod touch screens, I am unfortunately very used to replacing LCD screens on other devices. This repair is harder than an iPhone, but easier than a laptop....but still pretty easy.

Those are not clouds on my NAV screen. Dang, no wonder I never get the weather right.

Now to order that same screen and replace mine.

This was the eBay auction:

LQ065T9BR51 for BMW E38, E39, E46, E53 X5 Navigation LCD Screen Display Monitor | eBay

I'm not sure why they didn't immediatly relist this; I know they are a source for these screens. Perhaps they are just testing the waters on eBay. I sent a message to the seller asking just that, and I'll post when I get a response.