New e30 owner RI... 88 325ix

[ringmeister81]

Hello all, first post, new e30 owner from RI. I've been lurking and reading for a while now, and this forum has been a great help as I searched for my first e30. After months of tireless searching, I finally found what I was looking for... A 1988 325ix. I bought it last month, did a tuneup, and the car is running great.

The car came with a fairly detailed service history going back to 2004, but before that is anyone's guess. It has 201k, and timing belt was replaced last July. I recently bought a secondhand 173 ECU to replace the 153 that was in the car, hoping to smooth out idle a bit, and to my surprise, the 173 had an old Racing Dynamics chip in it. The guy who sold it to me had no idea. After installing the new ECU, car pulls noticeably harder and it idles great.

Glad to finally have an e30, and excited to see where the road takes me. Thanks for looking.

Here are a few pics...

[litu]

Awesome color......Red IX:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Sorry, I forgot this, welcome to theR3Vlimited foorum and

[spdracrm3]

very nice ,welcome to the E30 and IX world.....

[tak7]

I love big bumpered ix's, more pics please

[dougie30]

Hey I'm in westerly, nice to see another e30 owner in our little state.

Looks like a clean car, any rust?

And do you buy that ecu from a guy on Craig's list? Pretty sure I was gonna grab that today lol

[ringmeister81]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses... I haven't done much to the car except what I mentioned. I did run seafoam through the vacuum line, oil, and gas. Also cleaned up some wiring under the dash.. There are still some wires I'm not sure of.. One is hanging freely in the glovebox and looks like a plug of some sort. Any ideas?

As for rust, there is very little, if any. I have yet to find a spot. The PO did do some rust repair near the bottom of the doors, but its not too noticeable. There was a respray at some point, and a very bad job. Some clearcoat is peeling. I'll be doing paint at some point this winter. There was also hail damage, but not too bad.. That too will be addressed.

The rear diff or driveshaft is a bit noisy, and the throw out bearing is on its way out, but I can live with this for a little while. The car is otherwise very solid and I'm using it as my daily driver.

And yes, I did get the ECU off of Craigslist. Really cool guy, just looking to move onto a new project.

A few more pics... And I apologize for the quality, I'll take some good ones eventually.

[88e30ix]

Welcome and enjoy! You got the best color one! Now DROP IT! :)

[Ether1983]

Welcome I knew as well to the forum. She's a beauty I have one my self 88 2 dr red . I also live in RI.

[audiquattrot]

Nice congrats. Welcome

[Regnar75]

Facebook NE30 its a bunch of e30 owners in new england

[ringmeister81]

Thanks guys! Good to see some fellow Rhode Islanders on here! That Facebook group looks great, I just joined.

I'm looking to replace the headers with a better option, then cut out the cat and run straight pipes to the muffler, but I'm wondering if the ix will give me any surprises because its AWD. Anything I should be looking at in particular? Thanks.

[kid325e]

As far as muffler setups go, if it works on an iS, it should work on an iX. I can't say that to be true for ALL aftermarket setups but from what i've seen that's the case.

My roommate had straight pipes on his 88 IX from the downpipes back and it sounds GNARLY! A bit overkill for daily driving but was great to hear coming down the street.

Welcome to the E30 world and kudos for jumping right into an iX. They're great cars when you get them in good shape.

[pilotskillse30]

clean, love red IX's

[agent]

Welcome, nice looking car.

[lancelotti]

Nice car!!! Sold my IX a few years ago and sorry I did.