325i Auto??

[Nygdup]

How are the auto's in an 89 325i? One for sale here locally and the price looks right, car looks clean. However, I've never driven an e30 that wasn't an m10 5spd.

Also, what's the cost going to be like if I decide to do a 5spd swap? How difficult is it to do?

[Spencer]

My 325i AUTO feels SLOW and its not fun to drive like a 5 speed e30. Feels like an old man car.

I might swap it... I don't know about the cost.

[nando]

5 speed swap isn't really that hard. I think it wold be around $1000, depending on what you replace and if you go with any special parts (lightweight flywheels, sport clutches, etc).

if the car is very clean and everything is working, then it would definitely be worth it. but if it's marginal and lots of stuff is broken I would just look for a 5 speed.

[FredK]

I drove around my engine swap donor car for a handful of miles before I pulled the M20/ZF 4HP22. It wasn't that bad. It kicked down fairly well, and pulled OK. I've also gotten a ride in an M20/G260 car, and it was pretty friggin nice.

A swap isn't that bad. Figure a nice full weekend, and even a fairly inexperienced mechanic can do the swap.

The pedal assembly needs to be swapped, master cylinder installed, master cylinder hard line, soft line, clutch fluid supply line, and slave cylinder installed, and after that it's the same as a clutch job. The radiator will have to have it's trans cooler lines plugged. You might want to upgrade to a limited slip diff at the same time.

[Turf1600]

I have a 90 325i auto as well as an 87 325is 5 speed. The auto isnt too bad - you can floor it - and then you can REALLY floor it to where it redlines before shifts. When I floor it hard, i can catch pretty decent rubber between shifts. I was pretty impressed the first time it happened. It's my girlfriends car - so i dont care. It's not quite as fun though.

[AlpineIS]

I love my auto! :roll: Actually, I would prefer a 5 speed as several of my friends have E30s with 5 speeds. I think the difference is night and day. On the plus side, the HP422 is real smooth and the shifts are barely noticeable. My auto has about 200k (or more) without any rebuilds and still shifts great. If the car is clean and the price is right buy it. You can drive it for the time being until you get tired of it and then swap.

[Nygdup]

Here's what I'm looking at. From the pictures, looks real clean and solid. Won't know for sure until I go look at it. (Not anyone from r3v, is it?)

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/car/275342841.html

[nando]

looks like it's been pretty well taken care of. I'd show up with like $2500 cash and see what he thinks.

[Jscotty]

I love sticks! What can I say.. but my 325i is an AUTOMATIC and I love it. If you floor it hard enough, the shifts between first and second and then second to third really jerk the car as if you are popping the clutch. The only thing that can be dissapointing sometimes is when I come off the line nailing it to the floor, the car pauses for a split second as if I woke the car up from a nap. I am still going to do the 5-speed swap so I can have more control of the car with the engine braking but its still plenty of fun to drive with the auto.. Plus I still satisfy my urge to "downshift" by going between 3 and D while weaving through traffic.

[nando]

the worst part of the automatic is the first 200 feet from a dead stop in first gear. it takes forever for the torque convertor's efficiency to increase to the point where the car will actually start to move.

otherwise, I just shifted it myself. the auto still doesn't like to let you redline if you leave it in D (I never drove in D, unless I was crusing), and I knew I was going to get rid of it anyway. I had to shift about a split second before the actual shift point though because of the lag time between moving the selector and the actual shift, but it worked well. downshifting wasn't so easy, it basically was a rev match to force it to shift down. but boy did I ever enjoy beating the shit out of that thing.. :D

[87' 325]

ugh! I hate the automatic tranny in the e30s......when you go from N to D the entire car jerks and is very annoying. The car in drive even with the brake depressed creeps every now and then from you foot coming off the brake alittle bit. I hate how automatics are always trying to go....its very annoying in my opinion. When I have my foot on the break that means stop! If you say why dont u put it into N then comes the annoying jerk I was talking about.

aka manual>auto everyday

no reason once so ever to have a auto in an e30. They arent any more comfortable....

they also have a way of slipping.

My dad just did his auto to manual swapnto his e30 becuase it was slipping so bad to the point where it almost got me into an accident! (trying to accelerate up a hill and the car would just slip and rev....well the road was 45 mph with dense traffic)

manual for the rest of my days.

[nando]

the only time I ever had a problem with my tranny slipping was on an especially hot day during an autox. I think it was my 3rd or 4th run, it was a course with a really long section that I ended up being topped out in 1st for, but it wasn't worth shifting into 2nd (because getting back to 1st is a nightmare). so I just bounced off the revlimiter through the whole section.. the next run my tranny was so overheated (torque convertors don't like continuous 6900rpms), the car would barely accelerate.

and then a month later I pulled it out and put in a 5 speed. ;)

[Nygdup]

I bought the car... SOOOO much nicer than my 84.

[rede30]

I bought the car... SOOOO much nicer than my 84.

Nice, i have owned two autos now and they arnt toooo bad, i did switch out the first auto and plan to do the new car during spring break. Have fun with it.

[Nick]

Glad you like it.
But like everyone says...go easy on that auto, or be prepared to replace it.