New guy, just picked up my first E30!

[Derfernerf]

Hey guys, I just picked up my first E30 last night after falling in love with a friends turbo'd 318. Didn't go quite the same route, but my old car was running out of life and E30's are hard to find around here! Drove 75 miles one way to pick this thing up for $1100. It's an 86 325e. I know, I know. Its slow. We're just going to look past that for now.

I'm trying to sort out all the problems and getting running good. Now, the car came with a stack of reciepts/repair papers. TB and water pump was done about 10K ago, plugs and wires look good, the car sat for awhile (Based on these papers it only did about 10k miles between 2002-2008, and not many more after that)

So, heres a list of what I'm dealing with for now. I know, use the search. Have been for hours now!

-Rough idle - Cleaned ICV, getting a 1500 idle at cold start, then it drops and bounces between 1200-800. Hoses look in good shape (Not ruling them out though) next will be AFM check
- Drivers window wont roll down (Of all windows) - Tried a different switch that works, still nothing. I can hear something click in the door, so I'm thinking maybe its just seized?
- Drivers lock is stiff when turning towards the front of the car (unlock) - apparently this is a sign of the whole thing about to give out? Will try to spray some white lithium or WD40 inside of it to see if it helps
- Blown struts - Will replace soon, kinda self explanatory
- Sounds like a valve adjustment could be done as well


Made the 75 mile trip home just fine, once everything loosened up. The PO I got it from had it for a year and never even got around to putting insurance on it. So after that its just little things, interior is rough, but that isn't a big deal to me. Right now I'm just looking to get it running good to get me through the winter (As good as a 28 year old RWD car can...)

Hoping for a fun project with this one!

[Regnar75]

dont take apart the AFM. also. post pictures

[Ether-D]

(As good as a 28 year old RWD car can…)

At least it's a rwd car with 50/50 weight distribution. Welcome to r3v.

Your wandering idle could be a number of things. You'll figure it out eventually. Also, there's a dude with an ETA (325e) who goes to the Brodeo and hangs with the fastest.

[luis_5.7]

Mine was ruff idling and it was the cam position sensor

[htx_e30]

Nice. Welcome! I'm working out some small kinks with my 325i aswell! This forum has any kind of help for any question you could ever have.

[Derfernerf]

I'm not taking apart the AFM, from my understanding it can be checked with a multimeter. I've done like 8-10 hours of reading on rough idle, even before I bought the car, because I figured any e30 I bought would either have the problem when I got it, or later down the road. Just a matter of checking everything, starting with the free/cheap stuff first!

Probably going to be tinkering with it everyday this week after work, and I'm free all weekend so hoping to get everything sorted out then, give it a good interior clean and get her ready for the road (struts need to be replaced)

Heres a lame iPhone picture. She's not pretty but its a starting point. I went for a clean body over nice paint/wheels. Second picture is the stack of repair papers/reciepts I got. Pretty happy to see it was taken care of!

[Peterkaczynski]

welcome to r3v

[w140]

Welcome from Kalamazoo

[bulldog30]

what's the original color?

[E30 Wagen]

Cool, another Michigan e30. Welcome.

[Derfernerf]

Original color, I believe based on service records, is grey (Excuse my lack of OEM BMW colors)

Over the past week I've been trying to sort everything out. With just about no luck. I've got 3 lights on the OBC, Oil, coolant, and washer fluid. All of which are full. The oil is actually a tad over the top line (Bad I know, changing the oil soon). So, you think all 3 of those sensors are bad?

Other than the rough idle, the car drives fine, heats up like normal, temp stays right in the middle, heat blows hot.

Also bought Raceland coilovers this moring (Again, I know...) so the suspension should be freshened up soon. I'll be getting as much done on the car I can this weekend, trying to get all these lights to go off, and running as good as possible.

[Ether-D]

Well, if you don't mind a little riggery, you can just jumper the two wires together that go to the washer and coolant sensors to turn off the lights. You could probably find another oil level sensor at the pullapart. I like to have that one working for obvious reasons.

[Derfernerf]

Thats what I was thinking about doing. e30's around here arent easy to find, I'll probably just buy a new oil level sensor

For those of you who know the m20b27, the hose that comes out of the coolant tank right by the cap, should that be connected to anything, or is that just an overflow hose?

[Ether-D]

On the b25 that I believe goes to a small tit on the radiator.

[Derfernerf]

Okay, thinking about how the cooling system is a sealed system, pictured below is the overflow tank, and the one I circled is the one that has about a 12 inch hose connected to nothing