Is this a good deal? '87 325is w/ issues

[mbonder]

You sure? All the fog lights work fine right now.

Anyways, here's a vid of the startup
https://youtu.be/fbrghvGWM84

Unless I missed something in those pictures, you don't appear to have any fog lights. The wires hanging on the left with the sensor are the ambient temp sensor, the wires on the right are for the fog light on the driver's side, although the plug has been ripped off.

That exhaust looks to be much smaller pipe than it should be and what a hack job on the welding.

You probably have a vacuum leak causing the off idle issue.

Anyway, you've got a basket case, good luck! First thing you should do is get yourself a Bentley Manual so you can get right to correcting some of your problems, first thing I'd do is rip out that exhaust and find a stock replacement as well as get a new oil cap and trace all of the vacuum lines for leaks.

[ELVA164]

I'd guess temperature sensor.

[UlrichFennec]

You sure? All the fog lights work fine right now.

Anyways, here's a vid of the startup
https://youtu.be/fbrghvGWM84

Try tracing the wire back to it's source and look for some electrical diagrams. It's hard to figure out where it goes if it's just a picture of a frayed wire, so all we can do is guess.

[ELVA164]

...Is that a vented valve cover cap? Man, you should take a close look at this whole car.

[Ghetto_325is]

Looks like they're for the fog light.

You sure? All the fog lights work fine right now.

Anyways, here's a vid of the startup

https://youtu.be/fbrghvGWM84

[UlrichFennec]

Looks like they're for the fog light.

[Ghetto_325is]

Welp I found out why the exhaust was so loud. Looked under the car... and it's straight-piped from the headers. Only thing there is pipe and the original muffler.

Anyways, here's some pics of the dirty thing

http://imgur.com/a/0F7tq

Tried to post each pic individually but they were wayyy too big.

Anyone know what those wires are in the 4th pic?

Those amazing welds tho :/

[itsonlygeorge]

Blunttech has BMW coolant which I'd recommend using. also buy redline manual transmission lube and redline diff fluid if you can afford to. I'd recommend doing a full coolant flush as well before replacing the coolant when doing the timing belt and water pump.


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[UlrichFennec]

Take the car to a shop and have the engine smoke tested for intake vacuum leaks; it's the only way to find all of them. You'll save yourself a lot of time and effort by starting there.

Can confirm. A Smoke test will save you plenty of trouble and head scratching. You can get vacuum leaks in all sorts of places, not just vacuum lines. Injector o-rings, the bitch tube and your intake manifold gasket can be culprits.

[ELVA164]

You should remove those injectors; they're too big for no reason. Swap to M50 units. Take the car to a shop and have the engine smoke tested for intake vacuum leaks; it's the only way to find all of them. You'll save yourself a lot of time and effort by starting there.

[Ghetto_325is]

Aight so I'm 99% sure there's a leak somewhere. I'm not sure if this is causing it, but I can hear a faint high-pitch whistle coming from the engine, kinda like a hissing sound.

Also the car does run a bit rich, the seller said this is because of the 19LB injectors it's running.

[ELVA164]

Ok, ran into some interesting problems.
1. Whenever I give the car some revs, it kinda bogs down a bit, then revs up like normal. This makes starting from 1st gear kinda annoying, and I'm stalling a lot. It's almost like the car is hesitating then going like normal.
2. Anytime I turn right, I get this knocking sound from the back, no clue what it is. Whenever I turn left, I get this almost like grinding sound.

But dang this car is so much faster than the Miata.

The hesitation is at least partially due to the ECU. You could put one from a later model in which will improve throttle response, but power and mileage will go down. I decided to live with the hesitation.

Second problem could be the clutches in the diff depending on the actual sound. You should start by changing all fluids anyway, so do some searching about which are best. All fluids includes coolant and hydraulic fluid.

[doorman]

Shifter rebuild is about $150 give or take for all the parts.

Rear bushings/wheel bearings/half shafts (if needed) should all be done at the same time.

We have an e39 and an e90.......e30 is the most fun to drive!

[itsonlygeorge]

Is this a good deal? '87 325is w/ issues

1. Check for vacuum leaks, replace the spark plugs spark plug wires distributor rotor and And basically do a tuneup on the engine. Also before you really drive around I would do a timing belt water pump immediately otherwise get ready to buy new engine.

2. look at your bushings in the rear on the trailing arms and subframe

3. check your wheel bearings all round sounds like the only to be done


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[Ghetto_325is]

Ok, ran into some interesting problems.
1. Whenever I give the car some revs, it kinda bogs down a bit, then revs up like normal. This makes starting from 1st gear kinda annoying, and I'm stalling a lot. It's almost like the car is hesitating then going like normal.
2. Anytime I turn right, I get this knocking sound from the back, no clue what it is. Whenever I turn left, I get this almost like grinding sound.

But dang this car is so much faster than the Miata.