Hi all,
My story of E30s started in August, 2009. I got my driving license in May and I started looking for a car. It was meant to be a low budget purchase, and one day I typed ''BMW" in a used-car website just for fun. It was that time I realized E30s exist and I definitely need one. I wanted a 324d at first since I learnt to drive on a diesel car, but the ones for sale cost way too much. In the meantime I realized that a friend of mine studying in the US also had an E30 and on the last days of his hungarian visit we went looking for a car. Our search resulted in me buying a 1986 318i cosmosblau sedan with a good engine and neglected everything else.
I spent the next year repairing, rebuilding and upgrading.
Upgrades included:
- M-technik sway-bars (originally it didn't have rears)
- M-tech 1 steering wheel
- 40-40mm dropping kit (cheap but surprisigly good)
- strut tower brace
- 1.9 Z3 shifter
In the end it was a very fun car to drive but I started to feel power wasn't enough, and the outside of the chassis was still very ugly and I felt it wasn't worth it to continue this project.
I wanted more power, more potential and I have always been a fan of the theory of overlapping power strokes and one day I found this on a website:
It's a cirrusblau 01/1987 325e with Motronic 1.1 and 260 000 kilometres on the clock. It had a nice interior, nice exterior, quite clean engine compartment, power steering which the 318i didn't have, and a sunroof. The usual things like wobbly shifter of course, were present. This photo was taken later, it didn't have a red front panel.
I fitted my 318i with a clutch-stop which I loved and while trying to find the hole behind the clutch which would hold it in the new car, I stuck my finger through the chassis. Than my hand. :???: So we took out the seats and the carpet to find this:
This is the passenger side, the driver's side is about the same. When it's rainy, small lakes form at the front. The sunroof is also terribly rusty. The luggage compartment is practically made of rust but I was aware of that.
Driving it like this "wind noise" has a new meaning. :-D
We changed the timing belt and accessories. It had the factory distributor cap from 1987 and a rotor from 1993. I just hope the previous owners used to change oil more frequently... This was the time I fitted the red front panel since the original fell to pieces.
Currently it's chassis is being repaired, I'll get it back in a few days.
Remaining problems:
- almost all rubber parts are almost totally disintegrated. (guibo, shock towers, etc)
- runs very rich when warm, I get 18 mpg and it's very stinky. Temperature switch is faulty
- needs valve adjustment
- the part of the exhaust gasket is missing which is supposed to protect the spark plug wires
- all shocks are bad
- shifter bushings
- sunroof
- fuel level gauge doesn't work
- handbrake doesn't work
- rear defroster doesn't work.
- dash is cracked
My goal is to restore it and build a sporty DD that would still be able to handle some incredibly bad quality roads that we have here.
My story of E30s started in August, 2009. I got my driving license in May and I started looking for a car. It was meant to be a low budget purchase, and one day I typed ''BMW" in a used-car website just for fun. It was that time I realized E30s exist and I definitely need one. I wanted a 324d at first since I learnt to drive on a diesel car, but the ones for sale cost way too much. In the meantime I realized that a friend of mine studying in the US also had an E30 and on the last days of his hungarian visit we went looking for a car. Our search resulted in me buying a 1986 318i cosmosblau sedan with a good engine and neglected everything else.
I spent the next year repairing, rebuilding and upgrading.
Upgrades included:
- M-technik sway-bars (originally it didn't have rears)
- M-tech 1 steering wheel
- 40-40mm dropping kit (cheap but surprisigly good)
- strut tower brace
- 1.9 Z3 shifter
In the end it was a very fun car to drive but I started to feel power wasn't enough, and the outside of the chassis was still very ugly and I felt it wasn't worth it to continue this project.
I wanted more power, more potential and I have always been a fan of the theory of overlapping power strokes and one day I found this on a website:
It's a cirrusblau 01/1987 325e with Motronic 1.1 and 260 000 kilometres on the clock. It had a nice interior, nice exterior, quite clean engine compartment, power steering which the 318i didn't have, and a sunroof. The usual things like wobbly shifter of course, were present. This photo was taken later, it didn't have a red front panel.
I fitted my 318i with a clutch-stop which I loved and while trying to find the hole behind the clutch which would hold it in the new car, I stuck my finger through the chassis. Than my hand. :???: So we took out the seats and the carpet to find this:
This is the passenger side, the driver's side is about the same. When it's rainy, small lakes form at the front. The sunroof is also terribly rusty. The luggage compartment is practically made of rust but I was aware of that.
Driving it like this "wind noise" has a new meaning. :-D
We changed the timing belt and accessories. It had the factory distributor cap from 1987 and a rotor from 1993. I just hope the previous owners used to change oil more frequently... This was the time I fitted the red front panel since the original fell to pieces.
Currently it's chassis is being repaired, I'll get it back in a few days.
Remaining problems:
- almost all rubber parts are almost totally disintegrated. (guibo, shock towers, etc)
- runs very rich when warm, I get 18 mpg and it's very stinky. Temperature switch is faulty
- needs valve adjustment
- the part of the exhaust gasket is missing which is supposed to protect the spark plug wires
- all shocks are bad
- shifter bushings
- sunroof
- fuel level gauge doesn't work
- handbrake doesn't work
- rear defroster doesn't work.
- dash is cracked
My goal is to restore it and build a sporty DD that would still be able to handle some incredibly bad quality roads that we have here.
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