Dad's new S50 cabrio

[DocG]

The E30 is one of the most beautiful BMWs ever made...[I have an E90, but never drive it my mom uses that one...]

Youngens as we are, we are developing good taste when it comes to cars :D

Cheers to the older gen keeping these things alive, which will hopefully someday change hands to someone "young" so that they can appreciate German Engineering

[e30polak]

How many miles on the s50?

[nando]

Folks, read the following keeping in mind that I'm OLD - teenage kids, married forever, my back hurts, weekends spent driving to soccer practice etc. Also an E30 noob.

After doing the brakes, TB, water pump, fuel pump & some other stuff on my '89 cabrio, it became obvious that it would be a lot cheaper and easier to buy a cabrio modded like I wanted rather than mod what I already had.

So I flew in to Sacramento Friday and picked up a '92 cabrio with an S50, 5-lug, body kit (I know absolutely nothing about it - PO says it's an MTech but I'm sure the guys here will let me know yay or nay) and spankin' new canvas top for $7K:

dude, you scored - although the car has issues, there are two things E30 guys drool over: Mtech cabbies and S50 swaps. Mtech kits are a factory option from BMW - not aftermarket garbage. They're hit or miss on sedans, but they always look fantastic on cabbies!

My brother took the train up from Fresno and I picked him up. We drove down through the Mark Twain gold rush country along state highway 49 through a lot of twisties and I stayed at his house.

This morning, I drove through the Sierra foothills (more twisties) down into Visalia, where I noticed a nasty bubble on the sidewall of a rear tire. Since I-15 back to Las Vegas is a graveyard of vehicles and shredded/exploded tires, I wasn't about to limp it home.

Late Saturday afternoon, the Visalia WalMart tire guy informed me that:
1. WalMart doesn't carry any tires lower profile than 50.
2. They don't install non-stock sizes for the car.
3. They don't do tires on BMW's.
So 3 strikes & I'm out.

Luckily, I spotted a Mad Rimzzzz shop for gang bangers rollin' on 28's and they hooked me up with some nice Kumhos in the 225-45-17 that the car came with. The guys at the shop all liked the cabrio. I shmoozed up the manager and he didn't charge me anything for mount & balance - hey, every little bit helps.

About 10 minutes out of the tire shop, I'm testing out the new shoes on a cloverleaf. I'm at 90% of maximum adhesion and there's a BANG from the trunk then the car gets really unstable approaching the apex. From reading the forum, I'm guessing that's a blown rear shock mount, right? The whole rear end was floating around the rest of the drive home.

yeah, probably the RSM - a known weak point on all BMWs. you can upgrade to E46 M3 cabby mounts if all you're doing is street driving. Mine have held up well, but the amount of track/autox I want to do, I'm going to spring for some AGKmotorsports billet/urethane mounts. Shouldn't be too harsh, but they'll hold up a lot better!

After roughly 800 miles in 2 days, I really like the car, and I'm satisfied with the price/quality. It has a few rough edges:
-The suspension needs to come up at least an inch.

I hear you - I don't understand the appeal of dragging the car across speed bumps and parking entrances either. It doesn't even neccesarily make for better handling. There's lots of options for E30 suspension, fortunately :)

-Needs rear toe & camber tabs.

there are a couple options here too, as mentioned there is the IE weld in kit, which is probably the most effective - there are also eccentric bushings from places like AKG, which are a bit easier to instal but don't hold their position as well.

-The air filter was torn, so it's been sucking dirt into the engine for who knows how long. I fixed this for $25 at the first Kragen I came across. Unbelievable the PO spent all that time and money on the swap and left the air filter half torn off.

yeah, who knows - probaby the same reason he took out the headlight for that HUGE hp gain. ;)

-Clutch rattles like hell, at idle and at speed. Supposedly a new clutch per the PO, so what's that? My brother, who's a vintage musclecar guy, says it sounds like the throw-out bearing.

He's in the right ballpark - does it only do it at idle? it's possible the PO installed a lightweight flywheel. that will cause a rattle at idle no matter what you do. Otherwise, it could be the TOB, or an input shaft bearing. clutch rattles at idle are pretty common on these cars though, especially if they are modified (lightweight flywheel again). P-cars suffer the same issue. We gave it a clever nickname - the Getrag Rattle. ;)

-No fan shroud. However it didn't overheat at 107F outside with the A/C on, so not a panic.

Not a panic, but the E36 motors have weak cooling systems. I'd get that shroud on there, and make sure the rest of the cooling system is up to par. Most importantly, make sure the waterpump has a metal impeller, and not the cheap plastic version. They disintegrate and then bad things happen..

-Rear shock mounts F'ed up. Haven't looked yet.
-Idiotic huge speaker in the trunk using up all the suitcase space.
-No spare tire.
-Smoked tail lights. I hope I can trade one of you 19-year-old punks for a set of stock ones.
-Missing headlight. BIIIIIIG performance boost from the cold air, no doubt.

all minor problems, fortunately!

-Nasty sound on launch that I presume is the short shifter rubbing on the driveshaft damper.

Could be, but it could also be a bad flex disc. I'd check out the underside of the car before driving it too hard. If it's just rubbing the damper on the shift linkage, remove the damper - it really doesn't do much of anything, other than cause problems.

-3.25 diff not tall enough for me. I want the sucker to IDLE on the freeway. I have a 2.93LSD I'll try out to see how it works.
-Nasty road rash on the ugly wheels. I'll probably just try to sand/polish out the worst of it.

you could get some pretty sweet wheels instead. Could I humbly reccomend a set of E34 M5 wheels without covers? ;)

-The console gets hotter than hell when the top's down. I think the PO deleted the seal around the shifter that separates the cabin from the down unders. Also the carpet is torn up in that area, so there may be some missing heat shielding. With the top up, no heat at all. I think it has to do with the positive or negative pressure in the cabin compared with pressure under the floorpan.

could be, but my car gets hot there as well, and I have the rubber boot and insulation inside. Usually only when I've been running the car for a long time, or sitting in traffic.

[Javier h]

Car is freaking awesome

I found my car also in Sac. CL.

If I would seen this one, I would have picked it up.

225s? you mean 215s? You have no rubbing?

Stunning car and you are right. best to find a car already done otherwise you can be in the teens before you know.

[Aptyp]

SEXY, more pics please

[moatilliatta]

Looks like you have late model tails. Im up for trades :)

[Jesse30]

post more pics! sounds like an awesome car.

[elsabor67]

Great catch. Looks damn good, and don't worry about the age thing. My wife always reminds me about my age but she knows E30's is something I totally enjoy besides playing with the kids and helping her.

[parkerbink]

Looks great. I had the rear suspension issues you describe when the lower shock bold came off. Luckily I was a mile from home from Ixtapa and was able to just park it and get the bolt. Hope that's all you have to do.

More pictures please!

[Motorsports]

I think you came off for 7K. Remeber that every modified car is always going to need work. especially one that is 16yrs old. Now am demanding more pics.

[reelizmpro]

You flew from out of state to buy a car you knew absolutely nothing about? wow. Brave man. Looks like a nice car for the price though. Becareful though, some people care more about looks/mods than the condition of the car itself.

[oekundar]

more pictures?...definitely sounds like a great deal!

[E30 Cabrio]

More pics please.

[Stevie30]

Absolutely nothing wrong with having two Cabrios. Results; Twice the fun! Great purchase. More pics please.

[Raff]

Congrats on the new toy. I always find and excuse to drive my e30.