What to check before buying a 91 318i w/275k?

[RudeBoy37]

Let me start by saying that I searched for some sort of pre purchase buyers guide but could not find one. If there is one let me apologize in advance for my sub-par searching skills.

So I'm looking to finally buy an E30 and one of the people I work with has a 91 318i that has 275,000 miles (according to the cluster). I was wondering what type of things I should check to make sure that I'm not going to be dumping a ton of money into it.

I don't know much about the car because he bought it a few months ago on a whim and hasn't driven it much (maybe 5 times). It does have a few problems that I know of like a bad headlight switch and right rear window motor, he has the parts just not the motivation to put them on. There is slight rust under the battery box, but its still pretty solid there. I've looked and haven't seen any other rust on the car.

Also, how reliable are the 318s? Its going to be my daily driver and I'll be driving 50 miles each way to work for the next 4 months. Think it will be ok, or should I pass on it?

I'm a VW mechanic for the next few months till I leave for boot camp, so I'm not too worried about repairing things. I just don't want to go broke fixing it.

Rich

[chadthestampede]

Just going to throw out there that it's probably not the greatest idea to buy a car with 275k to DD unless you plan on rebuilding the engine or swapping it. Unless you know how well it's been taken care of, but even then it's iffy.

Then again, if you know what you're doing then by all means go for it.

As far as maintenance I'd say water pump, thermostat...

well just check out m42club's buyer's guide:

http://www.m42club.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=9

[flyboyx]

since its a 91, it likely came with a motometer cluster. i haven't seen very many of these that the odometer gears didn't disintegrate. you might check to see if the odometer works. it already has too many miles, but it could have a heck of a lot more on it than you think.

[transatlantic0207]

how much are you paying for it?

[MR 325]

It's a very reliable motor. I just recently sold my 91 318i with the same exact mileage and it ran awesome!!