Thinking about an (a specific) e30 for my dad...

[Vivek]

Just got back from driving this car. I think it was very nice overall. It seemed very strong, the owner said that the gauges (speedo and tach) were a little mis calibrated, so it said it idled at ~1200 and the speedo was a bit over the 0 mark at a stop, when it's normally below it. He said it actually idles at 800-900 and the tach is a little off. Is this common/possible?

It seemed like a pretty good car other than that and an iffy paint job (it was dark but it definitely wasn't the greatest).

I didn't know whether to put this in technical or general, but it's not only about the tach so I posted in general.

Thanks guys :)

Oh BTW it had a super sprint exhaust so it wasn't easy at a all to tell the actual engine speed. I may get it tested to check the actual engine speed at idle.

[Farbin Kaiber]

Smells fishy to me.

[freeride53]

uh SMELLS LIKE FISH

[warmseth]

All caps is always a bad sign. And $7500 is a lot of coin.

[MattAvino]

Vlad jr.

[ak-]

Fish sticks to me.

[Vivek]

Yeah all caps was kinda annoying, but he's a pretty reasonable and mature guy. 7k is a lot, but he says he got an offer for 6.8 and basically turned it down (he's "thinking about" it). I think he'd take 7 grand though. It is a nice car and it seems like it will be really reliable. I'll have to talk to my dad about it but the idle thing is really the only issue and it may not even be an issue.

[Farbin Kaiber]

He just resealed the engine top to bottom, my bet is a vac leak somewhere, if that's the case, what else did he do wrong? Enjoy your can of worms if you buy it.

[Vivek]

He just resealed the engine top to bottom, my bet is a vac leak somewhere, if that's the case, what else did he do wrong? Enjoy your can of worms if you buy it.

That's what i'm worried about. He says he's 100% confident in the work and to go ahead and have a shop check it out, which we may do. For all i know, he could be telling the truth (which I really want to believe), and my only tip off is that the speedometer at rest is higher than any other e30 i've seen (it's at probably 2-3 MPH, the one on my e30 is like -5). If it doesn't check out okay (vacuum leak or otherwise), it's just another nice car that's slightly overpriced.

What do you guys think of that logic?

[Farbin Kaiber]

For that much coin, I'd either save another $2,000 or bargin down that really nice e30 going for $9,500.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=229208

[Vivek]

How do I know that guy didn't cut any corners? I'll talk to my dad about that one but I like the car you linked (saw it for sale when it was first posted)...at least the body and paint is better, but from the pics that's all i can really see.


Basically, i can get an e46 in almost as good condition as the e30 above for like 10k, and then it's just...where do you draw the line? I don't get why everyone thinks the car is fishy. Is a miscalibrated tach completely unheard of? If i can verify that it idles at 800 would you guys have a different opinion on the car?

[Court M3]

Never heard of a miscalibrated tach. there is a vacumn somewhere causing that higher than normal idle.

[CrusherCurtis]

It looks nice, not for that kind of money though. I would not pay that kind of money for something with bottle caps and a shitty paint job. However whether we like to admit or not a well maintained 5 speed coupe is a $7k dollar car at this point (or at least per ebay).

[Vivek]

It looks nice, not for that kind of money though. I would not pay that kind of money for something with bottle caps and a shitty paint job. However whether we like to admit or not a well maintained 5 speed coupe is a $7k dollar car at this point (or at least per ebay).

Finally, someone on my side. The paint honestly isn't terrible. I didn't see it in the daylight so I really couldn't tell much. It was decent. Better than most e30's for sure. It's not something my dad really values so it's less of a factor. I feel like maybe there is just something wrong with the cluster based on the speedo.

To me, there's no proof that this car isn't built amazingly and we may just be making a big deal out of something my dad and the owner never even thought about.

[Farbin Kaiber]

You do know he said that in a mocking way, right?