I've finally decided to sell :( my '87 325 coupe. I've been the sole owner for 9.5 years - it was my first car (as well as the car I learned to drive on). I'd continue to fix it and keep it, but my girlfriend and I are in need of a sedan with some more space for moving crap around. I'd like to see it go to a good home with someone who loves E30s as much as I have, and so I'm going to be as honest as I can with its flaws and quirks. Unfortunately, I lost my maintenance spreadsheet in a HD crash about two years ago, so most of the maintenance is from my memory. The car is currently located in Oak Park just west of Chicago. I'm asking $2400 cash only with the snow tires and steelies included. I'll entertain any reasonable cash offers below the price.
The odometer stopped in August of '07 at 149,273 miles. Since then (by my estimate according to my driving and tire wear) I've brought it up to about 200k. This has been my daily driver and never garaged, so while in decent (imho) condition, it does show the wear and tear of Chicago weather.
The good:
-Straight body except for passenger door and passenger front fender. I backed into a short unmarked pole in a parking lot in '07. The door and fender are both creased and have some paint scratched off, but no surface rust on the damage. I was told by a body guy that the door can be popped back out but the fender is definitely not salvageable. I decided to live with the small damage rather than a non-color matched fender and door.
-Paint is 8/10. Original paint, but it was the single-stage Zinnoberrot so no clearcoat to fail anywhere. I've buffed the paint as necessary, but there are the normal scratches and chips and a long keymark on the driver's side. I've always kept the car washed and waxed, which I hope shows through in the condition of the paint.
-Pioneer CD/radio with an FM modulator and 3.5mm jack and Blaupunkt speakers in the rear. The power for the FM modulator is wired in, but the wires occasionally slip out of the switch I installed in the coin tray.
-9/10 interior condition grey houndstooth cloth. Driver's seat has a few popped stitches in the bottom and doesn't fold forward (loose cable in the pull on the side) but the rest is almost completely unworn. There are a few cigarette burns from the PO in the carpet between the driver's door and seat but they're hard to notice. After purchase all of the fabric and carpet was pulled out of the car and steam cleaned, so no smoke smell has remained. I've never smoked in the car nor allowed anyone to. Dash has the obligatory crack in it right above the glovebox.
-Leather steering wheel, although the leather has worn through right around the 9 o'clock position.
-Good condition mechanically. Timing belt/water pump was last done 3 years ago. Never overheated, consistently runs between the 1/4 and 1/2 mark on the coolant temp in any weather from -10F to 110F. Suspension is still tight and steers into turns wonderfully with no dead space in the wheel. Clutch has zero slip and runs through all the gears just fine.
-Tires still have approx 40% tread life remaining. Sumitomo HTR H4s on the stock bottlecaps. Wheels are in good condition with some oxidizing on one of them and only a few small spots of curb rash. Spare is very slightly out of balance. You can run on it with a small vibration right around 50mph.
-Also have a set of 4 snow tires on steelies with plenty of tread depth remaining. They're currently in storage, if there's interest I can get pictures possibly this weekend.
-Good fuel economy - by GPS mileage estimates, I've been returning between 29 and 32 mpg on mainly highway driving
-New highbeams, low beams are Hella H4s.
The bad (descending order of severity):
-Rust. Chicago winters have taken their toll. There's only a few patches of actual cancer, but most of the underside of the car without undercoating has a nice coat of surface rust. The seals on the license plate lights failed and there's rust around them. Driver's door has cancer at the very bottom, some patches of rust on the rockers.
-As a consequence of rust, the exhaust cracked off a few days ago just in front of the catalytic converter and just in front of the muffler. The car is very loud (as you would imagine). The forward part of the exhaust is structurally fine and would be able to be welded fairly easily. The muffler itself as an Ansa OEM replacement but it's rotted out fairly badly and should be replaced. I don't have a jack at my new apartment, but I can try to take pictures of the exhaust problems if there's interest. The hangers are all structurally fine, it just needs a new exhaust system.
-Very small oil and PS leaks. A few drops every few days - I haven't even lost a quart of oil since the last oil change in March.
-The filler neck for the fuel tank has some rust. If filled over 3/4 of a tank, it will slowly leak fuel. A few drops an hour, just enough to make a wet spot. I keep the tank filled less than that.
-Trim was shadowlined with blackout tape. Most of the tape is still in good condition except for the driver's rear window. The tape comes off with a razor blade easily.
-No A/C. Car was converted to R-134a with new seals, but wouldn't hold a charge for more than one season so I stopped recharging it in '08. I have no clue if it will hold a charge right now.
-Both window regulators/motors died earlier this year. Popouts and sunroof function fine, though.
-Blower motor sometimes makes a growling/squeaking noise but functions fine. I'm not sure if it's a dead bearing inside the blower or whether the entire blower would need to be replaced to eliminate the noise.
-Surface rust in the footwell caused the plastic holder for the bottom of the throttle pedal to fail. Still functions fine, but the bottom flaps around a little bit.
-Currently needs new wiper blades, but I'll probably be replacing those this week myself.
-Front driver running light is wonky. Occasionally doesn't come on, then you'll go over a bump and it's back on. Turn signals at all four corners function fine, though.
-Rear passenger running light bulb is burned out. It's the second bulb in a year so there may be a bad ground or some moisture getting into it.
-Vinyl headliner is loose at the very front. Rest of the headliner is tacked on just fine.
-Rotors are toward the end of their life and could stand to be replaced. At least one is slightly warped or worn out of true, leading to a small shimmy in the wheel when braking from higher speeds. ABS sensor is also on the fritz, leading to the ABS coming on just as you come to a stop.
-Retaining tabs in both rear parking brake mounts failed, meaning there's no parking brake. The cables are still back there as I intended to put in new dust shields when the RWBs would eventually need to be done (there's no indication that they need to be right now, I was just planning ahead).
From my memory, an abbreviated maintenance history:
-New front/rear subframes were installed ~2005
-All rubber wear bits in the suspension replaced ~2002
-New hard brake lines in the rear ~2010
-New clutch MC in June '12
-Rebuilt caliper on front passenger side in 2010
-Rebuilt shifter linkage in '04 and short shift
I'll be happy to answer any questions as best as I can or provide any detailed shots of a problem area. On with the pics!
More:
The odometer stopped in August of '07 at 149,273 miles. Since then (by my estimate according to my driving and tire wear) I've brought it up to about 200k. This has been my daily driver and never garaged, so while in decent (imho) condition, it does show the wear and tear of Chicago weather.
The good:
-Straight body except for passenger door and passenger front fender. I backed into a short unmarked pole in a parking lot in '07. The door and fender are both creased and have some paint scratched off, but no surface rust on the damage. I was told by a body guy that the door can be popped back out but the fender is definitely not salvageable. I decided to live with the small damage rather than a non-color matched fender and door.
-Paint is 8/10. Original paint, but it was the single-stage Zinnoberrot so no clearcoat to fail anywhere. I've buffed the paint as necessary, but there are the normal scratches and chips and a long keymark on the driver's side. I've always kept the car washed and waxed, which I hope shows through in the condition of the paint.
-Pioneer CD/radio with an FM modulator and 3.5mm jack and Blaupunkt speakers in the rear. The power for the FM modulator is wired in, but the wires occasionally slip out of the switch I installed in the coin tray.
-9/10 interior condition grey houndstooth cloth. Driver's seat has a few popped stitches in the bottom and doesn't fold forward (loose cable in the pull on the side) but the rest is almost completely unworn. There are a few cigarette burns from the PO in the carpet between the driver's door and seat but they're hard to notice. After purchase all of the fabric and carpet was pulled out of the car and steam cleaned, so no smoke smell has remained. I've never smoked in the car nor allowed anyone to. Dash has the obligatory crack in it right above the glovebox.
-Leather steering wheel, although the leather has worn through right around the 9 o'clock position.
-Good condition mechanically. Timing belt/water pump was last done 3 years ago. Never overheated, consistently runs between the 1/4 and 1/2 mark on the coolant temp in any weather from -10F to 110F. Suspension is still tight and steers into turns wonderfully with no dead space in the wheel. Clutch has zero slip and runs through all the gears just fine.
-Tires still have approx 40% tread life remaining. Sumitomo HTR H4s on the stock bottlecaps. Wheels are in good condition with some oxidizing on one of them and only a few small spots of curb rash. Spare is very slightly out of balance. You can run on it with a small vibration right around 50mph.
-Also have a set of 4 snow tires on steelies with plenty of tread depth remaining. They're currently in storage, if there's interest I can get pictures possibly this weekend.
-Good fuel economy - by GPS mileage estimates, I've been returning between 29 and 32 mpg on mainly highway driving
-New highbeams, low beams are Hella H4s.
The bad (descending order of severity):
-Rust. Chicago winters have taken their toll. There's only a few patches of actual cancer, but most of the underside of the car without undercoating has a nice coat of surface rust. The seals on the license plate lights failed and there's rust around them. Driver's door has cancer at the very bottom, some patches of rust on the rockers.
-As a consequence of rust, the exhaust cracked off a few days ago just in front of the catalytic converter and just in front of the muffler. The car is very loud (as you would imagine). The forward part of the exhaust is structurally fine and would be able to be welded fairly easily. The muffler itself as an Ansa OEM replacement but it's rotted out fairly badly and should be replaced. I don't have a jack at my new apartment, but I can try to take pictures of the exhaust problems if there's interest. The hangers are all structurally fine, it just needs a new exhaust system.
-Very small oil and PS leaks. A few drops every few days - I haven't even lost a quart of oil since the last oil change in March.
-The filler neck for the fuel tank has some rust. If filled over 3/4 of a tank, it will slowly leak fuel. A few drops an hour, just enough to make a wet spot. I keep the tank filled less than that.
-Trim was shadowlined with blackout tape. Most of the tape is still in good condition except for the driver's rear window. The tape comes off with a razor blade easily.
-No A/C. Car was converted to R-134a with new seals, but wouldn't hold a charge for more than one season so I stopped recharging it in '08. I have no clue if it will hold a charge right now.
-Both window regulators/motors died earlier this year. Popouts and sunroof function fine, though.
-Blower motor sometimes makes a growling/squeaking noise but functions fine. I'm not sure if it's a dead bearing inside the blower or whether the entire blower would need to be replaced to eliminate the noise.
-Surface rust in the footwell caused the plastic holder for the bottom of the throttle pedal to fail. Still functions fine, but the bottom flaps around a little bit.
-Currently needs new wiper blades, but I'll probably be replacing those this week myself.
-Front driver running light is wonky. Occasionally doesn't come on, then you'll go over a bump and it's back on. Turn signals at all four corners function fine, though.
-Rear passenger running light bulb is burned out. It's the second bulb in a year so there may be a bad ground or some moisture getting into it.
-Vinyl headliner is loose at the very front. Rest of the headliner is tacked on just fine.
-Rotors are toward the end of their life and could stand to be replaced. At least one is slightly warped or worn out of true, leading to a small shimmy in the wheel when braking from higher speeds. ABS sensor is also on the fritz, leading to the ABS coming on just as you come to a stop.
-Retaining tabs in both rear parking brake mounts failed, meaning there's no parking brake. The cables are still back there as I intended to put in new dust shields when the RWBs would eventually need to be done (there's no indication that they need to be right now, I was just planning ahead).
From my memory, an abbreviated maintenance history:
-New front/rear subframes were installed ~2005
-All rubber wear bits in the suspension replaced ~2002
-New hard brake lines in the rear ~2010
-New clutch MC in June '12
-Rebuilt caliper on front passenger side in 2010
-Rebuilt shifter linkage in '04 and short shift
I'll be happy to answer any questions as best as I can or provide any detailed shots of a problem area. On with the pics!
More:
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