My buddy Josh1254 and I rolled up to Santa Ana to look at a 1995 540i/6 listed on craigslist. They were asking $1,200 and had next to no details listed in the advertisement. In fact, it was mostly in Spanish and I speak very little Spanish.
When we go there, were surprised about the condition of the car. At least the body work. Aside from dings here and there and couple pieces of cracked bumper trim, the car was very serviceable. Until we took it on the highway for a test drive and it had death shake at 55 that cleared up around 75-80. Looking at the rims, it was concluded that the non-hubcentric 18"s were likely causing the problem. Plus, it has 225K on the ticker.
Using this as leverage, I was able to hand him $900 bucks and get a clean title.
The engine is throwing a 1213 code and will have to have the oil pump bolts put back in. I am guessing that's what makes it sound so rattly, see:
I will do new chain guides and valve cover gaskets (oil covering the bottom of the engine and transmission) and hoses. Speaking of hoses, the upper radiator hose started to split once we made it about half way back to Oceanside. No one carried the hose in stock so we had to use the hose repair take stuff. Its designed to just be a patch. Sure enough, as soon as we pulled it in my drive way, I hear a pop and the patch let go. Fortunately, he kept an eye on the temp gauge and never let it get too hot.
Anyway, here are a couple more pictures. Going to have a crap load of work to do to it before it's really road worthy. I'll eventually start a build thread in the normal spot. For some reason, I like the R3V community so even though I don't have an e30 anymore, I'm gonna stick it out.
When we go there, were surprised about the condition of the car. At least the body work. Aside from dings here and there and couple pieces of cracked bumper trim, the car was very serviceable. Until we took it on the highway for a test drive and it had death shake at 55 that cleared up around 75-80. Looking at the rims, it was concluded that the non-hubcentric 18"s were likely causing the problem. Plus, it has 225K on the ticker.
Using this as leverage, I was able to hand him $900 bucks and get a clean title.
The engine is throwing a 1213 code and will have to have the oil pump bolts put back in. I am guessing that's what makes it sound so rattly, see:
I will do new chain guides and valve cover gaskets (oil covering the bottom of the engine and transmission) and hoses. Speaking of hoses, the upper radiator hose started to split once we made it about half way back to Oceanside. No one carried the hose in stock so we had to use the hose repair take stuff. Its designed to just be a patch. Sure enough, as soon as we pulled it in my drive way, I hear a pop and the patch let go. Fortunately, he kept an eye on the temp gauge and never let it get too hot.
Anyway, here are a couple more pictures. Going to have a crap load of work to do to it before it's really road worthy. I'll eventually start a build thread in the normal spot. For some reason, I like the R3V community so even though I don't have an e30 anymore, I'm gonna stick it out.
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