Can I get a tow? - E30 Log #2

Within a month of buying the E30, I had to get it towed home. A project car rite of passage.

I texted my brother a picture. No further context was required. “Already?” he said.

Yup. Within 4 weeks of owning the E30, I had to get it towed home. I was driving on the freeway in California and suddenly lost all power to the wheels. The engine was running fine, the clutch felt normal, there were no strange noises. But when I engaged the clutch and gave it throttle, no power to the wheels. I pulled over and called a tow truck.

When I looked under the car, the problem was obvious (though as an inexperienced mechanic I didn’t know exactly what the part was): that thing isn’t supposed to be hanging down like that.

I got the car into my garage and took a closer look. Oh, that’s the axle, and it disconnected from the differential. I was confused how that could have happened without any damage, so I continued to investigate and found that two of the screws that connect the axle to the diff were missing, three were unwound and not holding the axle in at all, and one was screwed in all the way on the axle side but had been bent and pulled out of the diff. It was probably hanging on for dear life after the other screws came out, and got bent from the torque of the diff.

I removed the old screws, replaced them with some new ones from Turner Motorsports (part #07119919620), added some threadlock, and reinstalled the axle. I’ve had no issues since then. Easy enough, and luckily a straight forward repair considering it was my first “incident”.

Thank you for reading! As always leave me a comment or send a DM if you’d like to know more about the E30 or have any other questions.