Hey guys, I've got an opportunity to purchase my neighbor's e30 because it took a shit on him for an unknown reason. It was his first car and was just really amped up on getting an e30.
I'm not entirely for sure what the deal is and how it came to be non op. But he told me his 'mechanic friend' was gonna be working on it on the cheap. He already had his car towed to his friend without me being able to really check it out and now his mechanic friend is saying that the engine is pretty much deteriorating due to age. The mechanic friend came to this conclusion because there's 'sand' in the coolant when it was drained it. My neighbor sent me the photos but I couldn't really tell anything from it other than.. the supposed coolant looked like black tea(?) instead of seeing green or blue or typical coolant colors. This is by a long shot but if the PO put in any type of anti-leak additive to the coolant, could that possibly be the 'sand' the mechanic friend is talking about? I read about other cars having sand from casting molds.. but.. idk about m20s.
My neighbor then told me that his mechanic friend wanted to just buy the e30 from him for $500. Jokingly, i mentioned that if he was going to sell it for that much, he might as well sell it to me (since i have euro bumpers just waiting for an early car to be installed on and I'm getting tired of dealing with my m42's random no crank issue despite having a new battery).
Going back to when this whole ordeal started:
From what i remember, my neighbor told me there was smoke under the hood while driving so he immediately parked it. While waiting for a tow truck, he looked under and there was a coolant puddle. I initially thought it was a timing belt snapping and then busting the head gasket because he disregarded my advice to do the timing belt (and other maintenance stuff) upon purchase. The timing belt snapping was just a guess but was later disproved by my neighbor when he told me he started it one time. Surprisingly, it idled and didn't blow any valves or cracked any pistons tops.
Fast forward to today, he's been texting me about the car asking how much i'd pay for it and he thinks he want's $1000 for it because he needs a car for school. I already told him that with e30s or cars in general, he'll never recover his money so he either invest in it or cut his losses.
tl;dr
Here's a couple of facts that i know of about the car:
I'm not entirely for sure what the deal is and how it came to be non op. But he told me his 'mechanic friend' was gonna be working on it on the cheap. He already had his car towed to his friend without me being able to really check it out and now his mechanic friend is saying that the engine is pretty much deteriorating due to age. The mechanic friend came to this conclusion because there's 'sand' in the coolant when it was drained it. My neighbor sent me the photos but I couldn't really tell anything from it other than.. the supposed coolant looked like black tea(?) instead of seeing green or blue or typical coolant colors. This is by a long shot but if the PO put in any type of anti-leak additive to the coolant, could that possibly be the 'sand' the mechanic friend is talking about? I read about other cars having sand from casting molds.. but.. idk about m20s.
My neighbor then told me that his mechanic friend wanted to just buy the e30 from him for $500. Jokingly, i mentioned that if he was going to sell it for that much, he might as well sell it to me (since i have euro bumpers just waiting for an early car to be installed on and I'm getting tired of dealing with my m42's random no crank issue despite having a new battery).
Going back to when this whole ordeal started:
From what i remember, my neighbor told me there was smoke under the hood while driving so he immediately parked it. While waiting for a tow truck, he looked under and there was a coolant puddle. I initially thought it was a timing belt snapping and then busting the head gasket because he disregarded my advice to do the timing belt (and other maintenance stuff) upon purchase. The timing belt snapping was just a guess but was later disproved by my neighbor when he told me he started it one time. Surprisingly, it idled and didn't blow any valves or cracked any pistons tops.
Fast forward to today, he's been texting me about the car asking how much i'd pay for it and he thinks he want's $1000 for it because he needs a car for school. I already told him that with e30s or cars in general, he'll never recover his money so he either invest in it or cut his losses.
tl;dr
Here's a couple of facts that i know of about the car:
- 290k m20 - i'm not really that familiar with m20s but isn't this the norm?
- AC is operational - and is actually cold
- Heat is ??? - which kind of makes me think that the heater core's clogged or the valve is shut which cause this whole white smoke under the hood mess
- Automatic - meh
- A+ Brilianrot
- Beige interior
- Stock everything.
- No rust.
- Clean title - forgot the year of the car but it's got DBs
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