Need Help! Yearly Maintenance costs?

[win]

I am looking to spend between $4,000 and $5,000 on an e30 325i manual transmission here in Los Angeles.

My concerns are yearly maintenance and cost of service. My parents have put me off of the idea saying that a nearly 30-year-old car will cost a fortune every time anything goes wrong. My research has been to the contrary citing in extensive OEM parts availability and a large enthusiast base. (Not to mention dependable reliability)

So my questions to the you experts is this:
-Will a well checked out 150k+, $5,000 e30 be astronomical to keep on the road? I need reliable transport everyday. (I’m not concerned with cosmetics or little things going wrong as long as when I turn the key it can get me from A to B)
-Will it be a lot more to maintain than the late 90's NB Miatas i'm also considering?

I really appreciate the help! I was told r3v is the place to ask.

[ttrousdell]

I drove an e30 with 135-140k miles on it the whole 4 years I was in college. I kept up with maintenance and only once did I need a tow(blown clutch slave). As far as reliability they are great.

My advice to you is be sure to get one that has had regular documented service. Bad things happen when owners neglect crucial maintenance like changing timing belts. Also get to know the car. I saved tons of money because I was able to do little repairs to keep it running top.

[george graves]

You really should learn to work on cars if you're going to own an e30. So many things will cost you way more then they should if you rely on taking it to a shop each time something needed fixing.

Also, spending $5000 on an e30 doesn't mean you'll find a reliable one. As ttrousdell suggested, finding a car that someone has been replacing things as they need be is great, but those cars are a needle in a haystack. Most $5000 e30's are some guy that threw some wheels and ebay springs on his e30, and now thinks it's worth that much, yet hasn't done a timing belt.

In short - and e30 will be as reliable as you want it to be - for most of use that means keeping a few spare parts in the trunk, and a bag of tools.

[Das Delfin]

In order to own one of these cars you HAVE to be able to DIY it. I wouldn't trust my car to a mechanic because it's too old for any of them to really be good at it. Sure, you have your specialty mechs, but are you really going to pay 100/hr for them to do something you could easily do yourself??

Here's how it should work:

1 - RESEARCH. You've already recognized the e30 community as one of the best ones as far as DIY maintenance. This is key in keeping your car on the road for cheap

2 - Find a car for a good price and price out work that needs to be done. Ie you should pay around 2k if the suspension is original, interior needs to be redone, the car has engine issues etc. If you come across a sorted e30, the best plan of action is throw that shit in the trash and buy an original example you can modify yourself. This gets you a clean slate where you don't have to deal with the learning curve of dealing with others' mistakes.

3 - Buy a tool kit and do some preventative maintenance, including timing belt/water pump etc. Do the brakes. Do the suspension. Everything on the car should be a learning experience for you. If you're not into DIY then get a different car. You should know by now that this bmw is about doing it yourself and telling the mechanic to fuck off.


I've upgraded and replaced about a hundred things on my car. In the past two and a half years, the alternator and clutch slave cylinder have failed. The alt was $60 from autozone and the slave cylinder was $35 from an enthusiast website. These were the only two things vital to daily drive my car. Much better than any other car I've owned.

[estoguy]

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=342683

I posted this awhile back. This is based on heavy (up to 50K km per year) DD driving. Most of my maintenance has been DIY, including timing belts, water pump, brakes, front bearings, complete rear bushing refresh, rear inner brake lines, differential seals, and routine stuff like oil changes, spark plugs, valve clearance checks, etc.

[McGyver]

It all depends on your personal situation.

Do you have the mechanical ability (or desire AND inclination) to do your own work, and/or can you afford to pay someone to fix it for you? For example, I have an invoice for a timing belt replacement at $99/hr for labor (most places are $120ish now). This person paid $409.69 to have it done WITHOUT a new water pump. Or you can spend $100 for the timing belt kit, water pump, and coolant to do it yourself. The point is that the cost of taking it to a shop for every repair will quickly exceed the value of the car, are you ok with that?

Parts are plentiful and cheap if you buy them online, but a shop will charge you at least twice as much for the same part because they are warrantying the part and their time to take it out and replace it for free if the part fails. Parts cost isn't bad at all if you're doing your own labor.

E30s get decent gas mileage, about 23mpg for a 325i and 29mpg for a 318i. How much do you intend to drive, can you afford the cost of fuel when it goes back up to $4/gallon?

A lowered e30 will eat through suspension components like crazy.

If you buy a car that's been modified, are you confident that the seller has done the work correctly? Are you comfortable with having to figure out how the seller modified it before you are able to fix it?

You're going to have to fix things from time to time, but new cars come with monthly payments. Can you be responsible and put $200 that you would spend on car payments in a savings account each month for when shit breaks?

That being said, they're great cars and are pretty cheap to own. The only time's I've been stranded are when I either half-assed a repair or ignored something I knew needed to be fixed.

[audiquattrot]

After visiting LA, I don't think i'd ever own an E30 out there. I'm not sure how much of a pain in the ass smog is there, but from the sounds of it getting a car inspected there is a bitch! Not to mention the amount of traffic & ridiculous gas prices out there. I drive in NYC every day, and LA def takes the cake w/ both traffic and gas prices!

[Jon325i]

I'm not sure how much of a pain in the ass smog is there, but from the sounds of it getting a car inspected there is a bitch!

It is a pain in the ass if the car hasn't been maintained properly and has a lot of hard use. If the motor is strong, just the basic stuff needs to be looked after with the following parts in good condition/working order....

Spark plugs
Cap & rotor
O2 sensor
No vacuum leaks
And (at least in Calif) a CARB approved catalyst that still functions

A fresh oil change and keeping good fuel in the tank before the smog test helps too.

My last E30 had over 200k on the clock when I did the last smog. It passed with a good margin to spare over the maximum allowable pollutants they measure for.


Jon

[e30onBBSs]

As others have said, it will be expensive as hell if you don't DIY it. Besides parts and time, you are also going to need a decent chunk of change for tools. Tools like torque wrenches can easily break $100 for example. So initially the cost will be unrealistically high, because that $40 part might require you to get a deep socket set or a puller or whatever it may be.

Another important aspect is finding a car with a clean body. You probably know this, but the body is the one part you can't replace unless you have access to a parts shell, welder, sawzall etc, and lots of skill. So make sure the car you are getting isn't just going to rust out, and that it will not lose a lot of it's value just because it's rusty.

But no, it shouldn't cost you an absurd amount of money to keep an e30 running. Worst comes to worst you toss in a new engine for like $400.

[McGyver]

As others have said, it will be expensive as hell if you don't DIY it. Besides parts and time, you are also going to need a decent chunk of change for tools.

Another important aspect is finding a car with a clean body.

This is the absolute truth. Even weekend mechanic quality tools (craftsman, kobalt, advance/autozone brand) are fucking expensive. You'll need to start with a modest set and then buy more tools as you need them for specific jobs.

Also, I can't agree more about a clean car. I've seen people pick up cars, get them running and nice, then look under their carpet and find out they have a rust everywhere and the car is just trash. And paint, unless you can afford to have the car painted, you're going to be stuck with the paint looking pretty much the same as the day you buy it. It's easy to get the mechanical stuff working in a clean shell, it's $$$$ to get the cosmetics fixed in a mechanically solid car. Food for thought.

[estoguy]

This is the absolute truth. Even weekend mechanic quality tools (craftsman, kobalt, advance/autozone brand) are fucking expensive. You'll need to start with a modest set and then buy more tools as you need them for specific jobs.

Look for deals when places have tools on sale. I was lucky that my dad had left me a decent set of starter tools, and I've been slowly been adding to my collection.

I just picked up an 18 piece set of ratcheting box wrenches for $65 up here at Canadian Tire, metric and SAE.

I was still pretty green at working on a car when I got my E30, but I've learned a lot and can't believe how much money I've saved.

[TriniBoy]

I'm new to the E30 game, so a few weeks ago I was pretty much asking the same kinda questions you are right now.

Everything said in these responses so far are all the things I have heard... and it's as much as you are going to hear.

The key thing if you are green wrencher as I am, is to research read everything you can get your hands on, youtube is your friend, and ask questions (as you are). R3v is an amazing place to absorb knowledge (maybe one day I'll start to give back)

Also if you go for an E30, start small with something simple, like an oil change. It builds confidence and will start the wrenching snowball!

In the end, I obvs sucked it up and went for it, I always loved E30s but never had the pride of owning one, and it's the best thing I've done in a long time.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your decision.

[GillesBigCowboy]

I had to get my 318is towed today, but I kind of brought it on... my tach started working so i thought I better find out what mph redline for first and second is for driving tachless... I was r3vving her so hard, and going back through this traffic circle over and over, and just working her through the circle, and listening to the glorious exhaust sound.
Then she didnt want to turn, and temp was rising and I pull over in a park and all the belts are shredded except ac, but who has working ac?
Get the towing option on your insurance.

[Kevinl]

After replacing almost everything on the car it now only costs me $100-200 a year I do everything myself

I wouldnt own a e30 if I couldn't fix most things myself

[nando]

Get the bentley manual. Its not perfect, but if you're new to e30s it's a great place to start.

The E30 can definitely be very cheap to maintain - if you aren't paying labor, parts costs are more than reasonable, and almost everything is still available.