Buying an e30.

[Eazy_tom]

check the oil for water, let it idle for at least half an hour to see if it overheats.
E30s seem to love bad head gaskets and cracked cylinder heads.

I'll try, but I don't really see how I can without buying it first.
I'm going to look at it Monday morning so I will get back to you guys then,but until then anything else?

[Eazy_tom]

I'm going to take a look it at right now, I'll get back to you guys in an hour or so.

Alright guys I took a look at it today, not horrible.
It needs paint its a really flat red with some white fade in some spots.
It smokes quite a bit it definitely will not pass smog, but the guy might get it smogged for me.
There is a large dent infront of the rear wheel, under the rear window no sure if I will be able to bang it out.
It has diving boards which is a let down, but that will change eventually.

Drove it around for maybe ten minutes, and had it running for around 30, it runs and drives fine.

[txtorquemade]

I say if you plan on getting into e30's, buy it and part it out if it's really shady. At least then you will know how they go together and it will make working on your next one easier.....and you can prolly make more then the 400 you spent on it selling the parts and get your hands on a better one. Just my .02.......

yeah..and if its Schwarz... I got dibs on your hood and trunk lids bro...

edit:.. didnt read it was red...oh well, you can buff that right up ro Hellarot again sport. Get after it with some good cut polish and make it pretty again..and red.

Oh yeah.. timing belt needs to be first RR you do. DIY THAT and you will be on top of all you need to be as a noob.

Good luck..

(personally.. Id hold out for a early model iS....Oh..wait, I have one)

[Eazy_tom]

yeah..and if its Schwartz... I got dibs on your hood and trunk lids bro...

edit:.. didnt read it was red...oh well, you can buff that right up ro Hellarot again sport. Get after it with some good cut polish and make it pretty again..and red.

Oh yeah.. timing belt needs to be first RR you do. DIY THAT and you will be on top of all you need to be as a noob.

Good luck..

(personally.. Id hold out for a early model iS....Oh..wait, I have one)

It has a new timing belt, so no need to worry!
I'm buying this thing on Monday, I'll get some pics then.

[325ix]

Seems like a good learning experience. I'm doing the same learning about these cars

[Leaf]

Dude don't do it!! I'm telling you you'll regret it. If your looking to get into e30's then the best thing to do is watch these forums closely for a month or two and gather knowledge while looking for a very very nice condition one thats worth spending the money on. Don't just buy anything because it's all about how the PO's maintained and treated the car. I'd look for an 88+ i, iS, or iX. Get something with plastic bumpers, you may not care now, but once the addiction sets in you will :)
Good Luck and remember to be very very picky!

[Eazy_tom]

Dude don't do it!! I'm telling you you'll regret it. If your looking to get into e30's then the best thing to do is watch these forums closely for a month or two and gather knowledge while looking for a very very nice condition one thats worth spending the money on. Don't just buy anything because it's all about how the PO's maintained and treated the car. I'd look for an 88+ i, iS, or iX. Get something with plastic bumpers, you may not care now, but once the addiction sets in you will :)
Good Luck and remember to be very very picky!

Trust me I would like something with euro bumpers and such, but I don't have $2000+ to spend at one time. The car is rust free, and besides the dent on the fender the body work is clean. Trust me I will not get tired of having a project car, its like its going to be a daily driver. Me and a couple freinds have been talking about working on my accord for a while now, but its automatic. This was we will have a nice cheap 5speed to work on, and I have bee wanting an e30 for over a year now this is my chance.

[txtorquemade]

Dont listen to the negative suggestions. 400 car, you KNOW your getting something you will HAVE to work on. Isnt that the POINT?

Go for and post pics a soon as you pick it up. We will help you with getting it tuned up and running fine.

[Eazy_tom]

Dont listen to the negative suggestions. 400 car, you KNOW your getting something you will HAVE to work on. Isnt that the POINT?

Go for and post pics a soon as you pick it up. We will help you with getting it tuned up and running fine.

Exactly, thank you.

I'm going to look at it again and possibly buy it sometime this week.
I talked to the guy today and offered him some extra money if he could get it to pass smog. He said he would try, and he will call me back in a day or two.

[madformx5]

We know that this is a driving board car but this is the 25th post and you haven't even told us what year the car is yet. Is it an i, iS or an e, eS? 2 or 4 doors? 318 or 325? We do know that it is an autotragic but that's about it. Would be much easier to give advice if you would get the specifics of the car in your post. If it isn't an 88 converting a driving board car to the plastic is a pita and requires bodywork to look right. How bad is the interior, especially the dash. There are uncracked dashes out there but all e30 dashes will eventially crack. I bought a hundred dollar uncracked dash and installed it in my iS and two month later the sob cracked. My daily driver's dash is cracked too but it my DD so I don't care. Its pretty small still. New ones are still available but extremely expensive(over a thousand dollars at the cheapest dealer I could find). If anyone finds them cheaper let me know

Some of the auto to manual swaps I have seen on here are usually in the $500+ range which is more than you are paying for the car. You can buy an entire parts car for that or less and sell the extra parts to recoup your money. If you haven't already bought the car I might wait for a late (89-91) 5spd car. I have a driveable 1990 325iS in my driveway that I only paid 600 for. The deals are out there you just have to be patient enough to wait for the right car.

If you buy this car you are still going to have to put money into it. No $400 Bimmer is going to be a money free purchase. Getting the car right is easily going to cost you another thousand or fifteen hundred dollars by the time it finishes nickle and diming you to death and I promise its going to do that. Oh, and that total is if you do all the work yourself.

My 1990 4dr that I daily drive just got a puncture in the gas tank from a tire iron I didn't see in the road. I'm lucky because I have a parts car so I didn't have to buy a new tank but I will have hundreds of dollars wrapped up in parts that are broken or wore out and need to be replace while I have everything apart. I have to replace one of the exhaust donuts, the rubber deal that seals to the bodywork at the top of the filler neck, the filler hose that connects the filler tube to the gas tank, the center support bearing, the guibo, and the mount for the front half of the exhaust that bolt the exhaust to the tranny. That is just what I have found so far. I forgot about the tranny mounts. When I unbolded the mount from the tub it just fell out because both the mounts were broke. The car is almost 20yrs old and has over 190K on it so I wasn't supprised. Don't even get me started on all the stuff I have seen that doesn't pretain to changing the gas tank out.

The reason I am telling you this is I'm trying to get you to see that being patient, saving your money, and waiting for the right car will save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the end.

[ThaiRacer]

I say dont buy it, its a 400 dollar car but u'll spend close to 2grand fixing it converting it to 5speed. And with all that money u spent u could of have a plastic bumper car.

[Leaf]

We know that this is a driving board car but this is the 25th post and you haven't even told us what year the car is yet. Is it an i, iS or an e, eS? 2 or 4 doors? 318 or 325? We do know that it is an autotragic but that's about it. Would be much easier to give advice if you would get the specifics of the car in your post. If it isn't an 88 converting a driving board car to the plastic is a pita and requires bodywork to look right. How bad is the interior, especially the dash. There are uncracked dashes out there but all e30 dashes will eventially crack. I bought a hundred dollar uncracked dash and installed it in my iS and two month later the sob cracked. My daily driver's dash is cracked too but it my DD so I don't care. Its pretty small still. New ones are still available but extremely expensive(over a thousand dollars at the cheapest dealer I could find). If anyone finds them cheaper let me know

Some of the auto to manual swaps I have seen on here are usually in the $500+ range which is more than you are paying for the car. You can buy an entire parts car for that or less and sell the extra parts to recoup your money. If you haven't already bought the car I might wait for a late (89-91) 5spd car. I have a driveable 1990 325iS in my driveway that I only paid 600 for. The deals are out there you just have to be patient enough to wait for the right car.

If you buy this car you are still going to have to put money into it. No $400 Bimmer is going to be a money free purchase. Getting the car right is easily going to cost you another thousand or fifteen hundred dollars by the time it finishes nickle and diming you to death and I promise its going to do that. Oh, and that total is if you do all the work yourself.

My 1990 4dr that I daily drive just got a puncture in the gas tank from a tire iron I didn't see in the road. I'm lucky because I have a parts car so I didn't have to buy a new tank but I will have hundreds of dollars wrapped up in parts that are broken or wore out and need to be replace while I have everything apart. I have to replace one of the exhaust donuts, the rubber deal that seals to the bodywork at the top of the filler neck, the filler hose that connects the filler tube to the gas tank, the center support bearing, the guibo, and the mount for the front half of the exhaust that bolt the exhaust to the tranny. That is just what I have found so far. I forgot about the tranny mounts. When I unbolded the mount from the tub it just fell out because both the mounts were broke. The car is almost 20yrs old and has over 190K on it so I wasn't supprised. Don't even get me started on all the stuff I have seen that doesn't pretain to changing the gas tank out.

The reason I am telling you this is I'm trying to get you to see that being patient, saving your money, and waiting for the right car will save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the end.

This guy hit it on the fucking head. Read this if you haven't OP. Go and take some pictures for us before you decide to buy. We can give you a better estimate. Engine shots too.

[StereoInstaller1]

How is your garage? Do you have a decent set of tools? If you are planning on this being the daily driver, buy something else, or have some kind of backup plan.

Learning to work on cars is a huge undertaking. Wonderful life skills, but if you aren't equipped, don't buy a car to work on first...

[Eazy_tom]

We know that this is a driving board car but this is the 25th post and you haven't even told us what year the car is yet. Is it an i, iS or an e, eS? 2 or 4 doors? 318 or 325? We do know that it is an autotragic but that's about it. Would be much easier to give advice if you would get the specifics of the car in your post. If it isn't an 88 converting a driving board car to the plastic is a pita and requires bodywork to look right. How bad is the interior, especially the dash. There are uncracked dashes out there but all e30 dashes will eventially crack. I bought a hundred dollar uncracked dash and installed it in my iS and two month later the sob cracked. My daily driver's dash is cracked too but it my DD so I don't care. Its pretty small still. New ones are still available but extremely expensive(over a thousand dollars at the cheapest dealer I could find). If anyone finds them cheaper let me know

Some of the auto to manual swaps I have seen on here are usually in the $500+ range which is more than you are paying for the car. You can buy an entire parts car for that or less and sell the extra parts to recoup your money. If you haven't already bought the car I might wait for a late (89-91) 5spd car. I have a driveable 1990 325iS in my driveway that I only paid 600 for. The deals are out there you just have to be patient enough to wait for the right car.




If you buy this car you are still going to have to put money into it. No $400 Bimmer is going to be a money free purchase. Getting the car right is easily going to cost you another thousand or fifteen hundred dollars by the time it finishes nickle and diming you to death and I promise its going to do that. Oh, and that total is if you do all the work yourself.

My 1990 4dr that I daily drive just got a puncture in the gas tank from a tire iron I didn't see in the road. I'm lucky because I have a parts car so I didn't have to buy a new tank but I will have hundreds of dollars wrapped up in parts that are broken or wore out and need to be replace while I have everything apart. I have to replace one of the exhaust donuts, the rubber deal that seals to the bodywork at the top of the filler neck, the filler hose that connects the filler tube to the gas tank, the center support bearing, the guibo, and the mount for the front half of the exhaust that bolt the exhaust to the tranny. That is just what I have found so far. I forgot about the tranny mounts. When I unbolded the mount from the tub it just fell out because both the mounts were broke. The car is almost 20yrs old and has over 190K on it so I wasn't supprised. Don't even get me started on all the stuff I have seen that doesn't pretain to changing the gas tank out.

The reason I am telling you this is I'm trying to get you to see that being patient, saving your money, and waiting for the right car will save you a lot of time, money and heartache in the end.

I Edited the info into my first post a while ago, I guess I didn't notice that it didn't go through. The car is a red 1985 325e 5speed coupe with 190k and diving boards. The interior is not great, but I have seen worse dash is cracked but that seems to be a given these days. I have been looking for a cheap beater to work on for month now, this seems to be the one. I know it will end up cost me a lot over time, but I'm fine with that. I'm just not able to save up money for one big purchase. I'm fine ending up with a car I put $2000 to make it clean. Honestly even if I just buy it for a parts car it seems like a decent deal.

How is your garage? Do you have a decent set of tools? If you are planning on this being the daily driver, buy something else, or have some kind of backup plan.

Learning to work on cars is a huge undertaking. Wonderful life skills, but if you aren't equipped, don't buy a car to work on first...

Right now I don't have a ton of tools, but my friends dad down the street is a snap on dealer and has everything I need. I'm planning on buying a pretty decent set of tools once I sell some stuff around here. This won't be a daily driver for a while, I have another car to drive so I have plenty of time.

I'm trying to sell some stuff sometime soon so I will have around $1300 for whatever, problem is if I buy a car for that amount I have no money for tools of my own.

[NeoMishMoo]

If you can spare $400, then buy it. Everyone seems to want to give a big long life lecture on this purchase, but bottom line it is only $400. Buy this car, learn how to work on e30s (they are actually really easy to work on) and one day buy a later model e30 that is prettier and has more horses.

Ok fine, I can't help but give my life story lecture.

Got a 87 325e manual for next to nothing. Have had it for close to 8 years now, the engine eats and bleeds oil, car easily has over 300,000 miles on it. I knew nothing about cars when I bought this but I can do most the work on it now. It has been kind of a beater but I am finally fixing it up right (paint job and engine swap).

What I'm trying to say is to just buy the car and have fun. If it dies then you are out $400 dollars, but not even that because you'll have parts for your next e30.

Some things that haven't been mentioned:
1.Check to see if the odometer still works, it probably has more miles than what it says, the odometer gears on these cars turn to play-doh after awhile.

2. Instead of spending the money/time on bumper conversion just tuck the diving boards. Drill holes in the bumper shocks and push the bumpers in by ramming the car into a tree. (The results won't be show quality but if you really hate the diving boards this is an option).