Price: $1600 OBO
Location: Inland Empire, CA
Year: 1986
Model: 325e
Transmission: Manual
Differential: 2.73 open
Mileage: 255,208 (odometer fixed a few miles after breaking)
Color: Cosmosblau Metallic
Mods: None
Up for sale is my 1986 325e. The car is bone stock. I'm selling it because I bought a 1987 325is. This car is in pretty clean condition, at least when I compare it to the one that I just bought. I want to take the cleaner parts (seats steering wheel etc) and swap them onto my new E30, but since this car as a whole is in good condition, I'd like to try and sell it outright for a decent price before trying to part it out.
Some info on this car. First off, it has no rust. When I was changing the steering rack boot, I bought a ball joint separator and was preparing to remove the tie rod, and it simply slipped out when I grabbed it with a few fingers. Water leaked into the trunk but I dried it out before it damaged the paint and caused any rust, however the jack got rusted at the bottom.
The shifter is in great shape. It's not sloppy like on my new E30.
Windows work well, wipers work, sunroof works, door brakes are in excellent condition. AC does not work (never bothered to diagnose it).
Instrument cluster is in great shape. All the gauges work and are accurate. When I took it out to replace the odometer gears, it still had the BMW zip ties on it.
Unfortunately towards the end of 2016 I was involved in a 3 car rear end collision (I was the forward most car). The two cars behind me were totaled, while mine had the rear bumper trim messed up, along with a cracked tail light and side indicator. It's minor damage that can be easily fixed by sourcing new parts, but the insurance company declared my car a total loss. The title was clean before this, now it's on paid non op status since I have a new E30 and am not driving this car much anymore. So I haven't gone through this situation before, but the title might have to be rebranded, the car inspected before registering, etc.
I looked at the CarFax and it spent most of its life in the Bay Area. It still has stickers on it for the Oakland Army Base back in the 90's, and other places around that area. It was driven some 250k miles, changed owners at some point, failed to pass smog in 2006, and then the car was pretty much abandoned for 10 years. Someone ended up with the car (Tiger Motorsports in LA). The guy there (Tigran) rebuilt the engine and changed the clutch, radiator, new radiator hoses, timing belt, water pump, and changed all the fluids. I bought the car in 2016. The biggest problems with the car when I got it were that the vacuum lines were hard and brittle, the fuel pumps were about to die, the fuel tank was rusted out, and the differential bearings howled extremely loud (though that didn't affect driveability). Since 2016 I've done the following to the car:
- New tires (Falkien Ziex 195/65 r14)
- Valve Adjustment (not sure if eccentrics are worn though)
- New Air Filter
- New Fuel Filter
- Oil changes
- New vacuum hose for valve cover
- New ICV bracket (it was missing)
- New vacuum hose for fuel pressure regulator
- New oxygen sensor
- New passenger steering rack boot
- Used 2.73 open differential from the junkyard (no more loud howling).
- New odometer gears, the originals broke very shortly after I started driving the car.
- New idle control valve (old one might still work with tweaking, I'll include it with the car).
- New rubber intake boot
- New fuel tank (silver aftermarket one)
- New rear exhaust gasket
- New rubber muffler hanger
- New transfer pump (Chevy Vega fuel pump)
- New main fuel pump (Bosch)
- New gasket for exhaust manifold to downpipe connection + new nuts because I was rounding the old ones out badly.
- New spark plug wires (Bremi)
- New distributor cap (Bosch)
- New ignition rotor (Bosch)
- New spark plugs (NGK (5077) ZGR5A)
- New fuel pressure regulator (Bosch)
- Reconditioned fuel injectors
- New fuel pump relay
- New O2 Sensor heater relay
- New Main relay
- New accelerator cable bushing (old one wore out and my accelerator cable unhooked from the pedal at a stop light...)
- Every fuel line in the rear of the car replaced with new lines when changing the fuel tank. The lines in the engine bay are somewhat older.
Known issues with the car:
- Dashboard has cracks. However once I saw the ravaged dashboard on my new E30, I'd like to swap the two.
- Clear coat is uniformly gone from the hood, roof, and trunk.
- Water leaks into the trunk if left out in the rain.
- AC doesn't work.
- Glovebox latch broke and I had to break the assembly to get it out.
- Pretty confident that all rubber suspension bushings will need to be replaced. Subframe bushings are especially shot.
- Battery drains over time, car will crank slower than normal if you let it sit for a couple of weeks.
- Driver seat is torn to hell.
- Rear right of the car was hit in a 3 car rear end collision. Bumper trim, side indicator, tail light damaged.
- Needs new catalytic converter (won't pass smog).
That should be all the issues, I'll update this if I remember one that I forgot about. It's been an extremely reliable car. The day I bought it, I drove it from Sun Valley to Riverside on a very hot day, and I hit a lot of traffic on the freeway(s) too. I've also driven it from LA to San Diego a few times and the only time I ended up on the side of the road was when my accelerator cable bushing let go, however I was still able to get home by wrapping a ratchet strap around the throttle body lever and pulling like a horse to go forward.
I'll also include whatever spare parts I have, which are:
- Original ICV
- Original differential
- Original spark plug wires
- Anything else I might have missed
Pictures:
I'd like to try selling the car in one piece before trying to part it out, so here I am. Asking $1600, flexible on price.
Location: Inland Empire, CA
Year: 1986
Model: 325e
Transmission: Manual
Differential: 2.73 open
Mileage: 255,208 (odometer fixed a few miles after breaking)
Color: Cosmosblau Metallic
Mods: None
Up for sale is my 1986 325e. The car is bone stock. I'm selling it because I bought a 1987 325is. This car is in pretty clean condition, at least when I compare it to the one that I just bought. I want to take the cleaner parts (seats steering wheel etc) and swap them onto my new E30, but since this car as a whole is in good condition, I'd like to try and sell it outright for a decent price before trying to part it out.
Some info on this car. First off, it has no rust. When I was changing the steering rack boot, I bought a ball joint separator and was preparing to remove the tie rod, and it simply slipped out when I grabbed it with a few fingers. Water leaked into the trunk but I dried it out before it damaged the paint and caused any rust, however the jack got rusted at the bottom.
The shifter is in great shape. It's not sloppy like on my new E30.
Windows work well, wipers work, sunroof works, door brakes are in excellent condition. AC does not work (never bothered to diagnose it).
Instrument cluster is in great shape. All the gauges work and are accurate. When I took it out to replace the odometer gears, it still had the BMW zip ties on it.
Unfortunately towards the end of 2016 I was involved in a 3 car rear end collision (I was the forward most car). The two cars behind me were totaled, while mine had the rear bumper trim messed up, along with a cracked tail light and side indicator. It's minor damage that can be easily fixed by sourcing new parts, but the insurance company declared my car a total loss. The title was clean before this, now it's on paid non op status since I have a new E30 and am not driving this car much anymore. So I haven't gone through this situation before, but the title might have to be rebranded, the car inspected before registering, etc.
I looked at the CarFax and it spent most of its life in the Bay Area. It still has stickers on it for the Oakland Army Base back in the 90's, and other places around that area. It was driven some 250k miles, changed owners at some point, failed to pass smog in 2006, and then the car was pretty much abandoned for 10 years. Someone ended up with the car (Tiger Motorsports in LA). The guy there (Tigran) rebuilt the engine and changed the clutch, radiator, new radiator hoses, timing belt, water pump, and changed all the fluids. I bought the car in 2016. The biggest problems with the car when I got it were that the vacuum lines were hard and brittle, the fuel pumps were about to die, the fuel tank was rusted out, and the differential bearings howled extremely loud (though that didn't affect driveability). Since 2016 I've done the following to the car:
- New tires (Falkien Ziex 195/65 r14)
- Valve Adjustment (not sure if eccentrics are worn though)
- New Air Filter
- New Fuel Filter
- Oil changes
- New vacuum hose for valve cover
- New ICV bracket (it was missing)
- New vacuum hose for fuel pressure regulator
- New oxygen sensor
- New passenger steering rack boot
- Used 2.73 open differential from the junkyard (no more loud howling).
- New odometer gears, the originals broke very shortly after I started driving the car.
- New idle control valve (old one might still work with tweaking, I'll include it with the car).
- New rubber intake boot
- New fuel tank (silver aftermarket one)
- New rear exhaust gasket
- New rubber muffler hanger
- New transfer pump (Chevy Vega fuel pump)
- New main fuel pump (Bosch)
- New gasket for exhaust manifold to downpipe connection + new nuts because I was rounding the old ones out badly.
- New spark plug wires (Bremi)
- New distributor cap (Bosch)
- New ignition rotor (Bosch)
- New spark plugs (NGK (5077) ZGR5A)
- New fuel pressure regulator (Bosch)
- Reconditioned fuel injectors
- New fuel pump relay
- New O2 Sensor heater relay
- New Main relay
- New accelerator cable bushing (old one wore out and my accelerator cable unhooked from the pedal at a stop light...)
- Every fuel line in the rear of the car replaced with new lines when changing the fuel tank. The lines in the engine bay are somewhat older.
Known issues with the car:
- Dashboard has cracks. However once I saw the ravaged dashboard on my new E30, I'd like to swap the two.
- Clear coat is uniformly gone from the hood, roof, and trunk.
- Water leaks into the trunk if left out in the rain.
- AC doesn't work.
- Glovebox latch broke and I had to break the assembly to get it out.
- Pretty confident that all rubber suspension bushings will need to be replaced. Subframe bushings are especially shot.
- Battery drains over time, car will crank slower than normal if you let it sit for a couple of weeks.
- Driver seat is torn to hell.
- Rear right of the car was hit in a 3 car rear end collision. Bumper trim, side indicator, tail light damaged.
- Needs new catalytic converter (won't pass smog).
That should be all the issues, I'll update this if I remember one that I forgot about. It's been an extremely reliable car. The day I bought it, I drove it from Sun Valley to Riverside on a very hot day, and I hit a lot of traffic on the freeway(s) too. I've also driven it from LA to San Diego a few times and the only time I ended up on the side of the road was when my accelerator cable bushing let go, however I was still able to get home by wrapping a ratchet strap around the throttle body lever and pulling like a horse to go forward.
I'll also include whatever spare parts I have, which are:
- Original ICV
- Original differential
- Original spark plug wires
- Anything else I might have missed
Pictures:
I'd like to try selling the car in one piece before trying to part it out, so here I am. Asking $1600, flexible on price.
Comment