1988 IX price/market check

[brads2002]

Guys, help me figure out if this is something i want to do. Found an IX locally with a bad motor.

Few years gave IX car to brother in law. He never did anything with it so I have a car with a good motor. I would need to pull it which I can do.

Whats an 88 going for these days? Pretty nice car, new paint, a little rust below the battery box. Rest of car is decently clean. Would sell with a set of snows and all seasons. My motor has 180K on it, bad motor car reads 189K.

Is 5K a reasonable expectation for a sorted 5 speed car?

The guy selling the one with a bad motor wants $2500, I would need to get him down to make this work. Only one car on ebay and i haven't been following the market lately.

Thanks

[anabolice30]

Well if you wanna keep the awd you're gonna need another ix motor or know someone who can fabricate. Not worth it imo.

[Kevinl]

isn't the oil pan different not the whole engine

[fight4life28]

ix Motors are different then normal m20's out of 325i. Sounds like you gave your bother a ix back in the day and he still has it and your looking for another ix shell to put in?

[brads2002]

Yeah exactly. I already have an IX motor. Have any been selling lately? I didnt see any here or elsewhere. A couple scattered autoboxes on CL. The car i gave to my brother in law was rusted bad but ran strong.

[AWDBOB]

Just purchased an '88 iX last month (see build thread) for $3100, rust free Washington car, dealer records, etc. Needed a window motor and a few other odds and ends.

I think you could see $5K out of a well sorted 5sp car, especially an '88 since they're fully optioned. Would be a walk in the park if you threw plastic bumpers on and did the timing belt service on the new motor. Price would heavily suffer if the VC is bad, though.

[flyboyx]

well, you are in new hampshire, right? that likely means the car has rust. second, how is the paint? i could look on craigslist in your area but i'm too lazy.

unless the car you are looking at is completely rust free, and has great paint/interior i guarantee you it isn't worth anywhere near 2500 bucks with a bad engine. probably more like 6-900.

yes, as posted above, an ix engine is different than one from a rwd car. the dipstick is on a different position and the oil pump and its mount area are different.

you will want to check the xfer case on this one and the one your brother in law has. you can do this without running the car by lifting up one of the FRONT wheels and attempting to spin it by hand. if you feel slop in the driveline but can't otherwise turn the wheel by hand-you have a good transfer case. if you can turn the wheel with little resistance, your xfer cases are shot.

the likelyhood that you will even have one good transfer case is probably less than 50%

[brads2002]

Thanks, http://nh.craigslist.org/cto/4679038859.html here is the ad. Looks better in pictures then in person. The missing drivers seat is a roach. I would do timing belt and the other car is red so could switch the bumps too. There isn't much rust. Just the battery box and the door seams are starting to show lightly. Would have to redo the see too.

The seller is uninformed as how much a parts car is worth. He has aspirations of restoring but doesn't know anything about cars. Its sitting on dirt under a tree. I made what i thought a generous offer of $1250.

The needs more work is blown motor. Its not running on all and pouring blue smoke.

I think my case is good as i had run redline in it and lengthened the splines. The test you describe sounds like it would test the diff? Thanks for the test instructions.

Someone email him an offer of $750 as a parts car so i can keep 2 out of the junkyard!

[flyboyx]

the pix actually look really good. driver's seat looks about like it should for a car this age. you can go find a good used matching passenger seat and transfer the bolsters and the leather over to this driver. it will look like new.

the front dif on e30 ix's are open. the rear is a viscous limited slip diff. this is why you have to lift only one front wheel off the groud. the test i outlined above is indeed for the transfer case. if you want to test the rear diff, just lift one side of the car off the ground and spin a rear wheel. most old ix's have been towed on two wheels at some point in their lifetimes. this will fuck up a tc in probably 3 to 5 miles.

at the price he is asking, the car doesn't seem to make economic sense. a junk yard will give the guy like 300 bucks. he is perhaps a forum member since the car has the wire cup holder. all of us fucks are too cheap to pay shit for anything but when we go to sell, everything we own is worth a mint and a half.

if you go to look at it again, do a compression check on the cylinders as well as the tc check i outlined above. also, check the boots on the front axles. if they are split, consider the axle to be shot. i certainly wouldn't pay any more for this car than you already offered. maybe i would suggest being polite but check in with him every week or two and let him know you are still interested if it hasn't sold.

i don't have time to email this guy back and forth but if i had his phone number, i would call him for you and give him an education about its value.

[brads2002]

That makes sense on the TC case, it transfers the power to the front driveshaft which accordingly shouldn't turn the transfer case as other wheels are locked.

What is not shown on the drivers seat is the upper bolster is almost completely foam. Good tip on the repair. That would work.

Compression check was done and a cylinder was very low. Its def got a bad HG or ring. The boots on the front were both good but the lower engine is covered in oil.

In addition the mentioned problems the ABS light is on, brake lining light, oil level sensor is bad (on but full of oil) and coolant light. Had to be jumped with a jump box (maybe killed ABS relay), and the PS pump was groaning. This not a car for the feint of heart. I am glad I wasn't out of line with my offer. If i didn't have the other car around which i also want to get moved along as it is taking up a storage space i would have run.

If you are serious about calling him that would be awesome 603-429-2683, Michael. If you want to ask about the condition and work the above issues into the convo it might really help. He wont wonder where you got his number. Apparently his son listed for him. When i emailed on the ad his son said call my dad here is his number.

Thanks a lot for the offer.

[anokES]

2500 is ridiculous. If it has rust in the battery box there's bound to be more hiding.

[brads2002]

Agreed...Hopefully the seller will come to his senses. I can picture it getting towed to the junkyard in 2 years after he is tired of dreaming about "restoration"

[flyboyx]

ok, so on my way home from working on one of my rentals, i called this guy today and talked to him for about 40 minutes. he sounded like a decent, honest guy. he obviously doesn't know anything about fixing cars. apparently he also has an 81 corvette also with a bad engine. i guess he decided he only has time for one basket case restoration he isn't able to fix himself.

he stated that a set of tires, two new axles and some electrical repair work to fix the mirrors cost him around 6000.00. he said the car has been repainted which kind of scares the shit out of me not knowing what might be under the body work. we talked about the compression check which he was vaguely familiar with. the guy said his "pseudo mechanic" friend checked it and said a couple of cylinders were low. i asked which ones and he said he did not know. i told him it sounded to me more like a cylinder (ring) problem more than a head gasket since it blows blue smoke out the tail pipe and has very low power.

so the bad news is that he is firm at 2400 bucks. he told me that he had one offer for 1250(i assume you) and another for 2k. i ended the conversation by thanking him for his time. i also told him that even though he seemed like a nice guy, i didn't feel it there was any way i could be in anywere close to the price he was asking. since he was a good guy, i didn't want to be an asshole by lowballing him over the phone.

i think you are going to have to have patience with this guy if you want the car for the price you offer.

[brads2002]

Thank you so much for calling him. I do agree, he is a nice guy and not trying to be dishonest. Sounds like you handled it very well. I cant believe he turned down a 2K offer.

I think you are on the right track with the rings. That was my guess too. I thought it could also be possilbe it was sucking oil in through the HG. It was only running on 5.

Yes he does have a vet as well. It was sitting outside with some tires around it. When I was leaving I jokingly said well at least you dont have to worry about that one rusting. He looked at me kind of funny. I than said you know as its fiberglass? The stare continued. I am pretty sure he had no idea what i was talking about.

It is good to know where he stands. It will allow me to take action on my brother law/my old car. We need to get it out of where it is and i am not going to hold my breath on this one.

Let me know if i can ever return the favor. I really do appreciate it.

[flyboyx]

he said the engine had at least 2 cylinders with low compression.