The noob picked up an e30

[Lof8]

I've been lurking the forums for a little while and finally found a good deal on a car I liked. It's an '87 325i 4 door. Black with red interior. You guys may have seen it for sale on bimmerforums. I test drove it and was pretty impressed. It runs strong and smooth. (even has good a/c)

The body is in real good shape but the seats are a little rough. Overall, its a good starting point. I've got some ie stage 3 springs and a short shifter on order. Hopefully, this can hold me over till the summer when I'd like to do an m50 or s50 swap. I'd like to do something about the bottle caps, too. Any cheap weaves around?

These are the pics from the for sale ad, I'll try to get some of my own soon.
Andy

[Lof8]

its a little hard to start sometimes when its been warmed up. I have to crank it over for a few more seconds than would be ideal. It also has a strange idle surge with the a/c on. With the a/c off it idles just fine. Any ideas on these?
thanks guys

[BDSax]

its a little hard to start sometimes when its been warmed up. I have to crank it over for a few more seconds than would be ideal. It also has a strange idle surge with the a/c on. With the a/c off it idles just fine. Any ideas on these?
thanks guys

its called an m20......... yank it out!

pretty nice find, now put plastic bumpers on it!

[Lof8]

I guess the m20s have these little quirks? I plan to eventually do some plastic bumpers, but I'm just going to tuck them for now and focus on things that make it fun to drive. I test drove that m50 car for sale in St. Pete and definately have a swap planned for the future of this car.

[mtechnik]

COngrats on your (first) E30 !.

Some good leather cleaner and conditioner should get ur seats all luvvy dubby.

[aproy]

fourdoors ftw.

[FlyE30Guy]

Good find looks nice and clean

[mtechnik]

Once you hit it up with a good detail job= she be lookin much betta'

[equate975]

You lookin for some black vinyl seats?

Good start though!

[Lof8]

not lookin too hard right now, but if you have some for the right price, I'll consider it.

[92 mtechnic cabrio]

its a little hard to start sometimes when its been warmed up. I have to crank it over for a few more seconds than would be ideal. It also has a strange idle surge with the a/c on. With the a/c off it idles just fine. Any ideas on these?
thanks guys

When it's warmed up, how long do you wait between turning it off and back on?

If you turn the car off and try to start it 10-20 mins after, the design of M20's fuel pump will cause a "burp" in the fuel line leaving air in the line.

[eighteight325is]

My car had that starting trait when I first bought it which I attributed to a couple of things. First, the previous owner hadn't had the car that long and was basically fixing it up to sell. He suspected the car might have been chipped but since it had the 153 ECU (which are a PITA to open up) he never bothered to check. So he had been putting 91 in the car and advised I do the same. I did. Then I opened the ECU, found no chip and started using regular octane and I noticed the issue with far less frequency. My working hypothesis here is that higher octane gas = less volatile at lower compression. Then I did a tune-up and eventually swapped in a 173 ECU and once in a great while the engine doesn't catch on the first couple of cranks fo the starter.

Also, the A/C systems in these cars do that. I've all but given up on mine as I need it a couple months out of the year but you may have some success in rebuilding the whole system and converting to modern refridgerants. It is expensive though.

The product you want to use on your interior is Leatherique. They make a whole line of cleaners, reconditioners and dyes. At least once a year I lock myself in my car in the sun and go to town on all of the leather while it is hot. It drinks the oils right in, floats all the dirt and grime to the surface and you can wipe it away and your seats will look and feel a lot better.