Weiß Beater: a budget iX build

[unloadedak]

I thought I was done with E30s for a while when I sold my last 2 projects within the last month and bought an e46m..






But I found this car on craigslist yesterday.

It was posted with the most basic ad and had no pictures. Shot the guy an email, received pics, and immediately went on an hour drive to the middle of nowhere Nebraska to check it out.

• One owner car
• 169k
• Automatic
• Tan comfort interior
• 26 years of service records
• Fairly clean
• Late model :(
• $800 :)

He sold it because of a coolant leak. I saw the throttle body covered in gunky coolant mess and realized that has to be THE leak or one of the leaks. I have not seen the issue yet but will be tearing into it this weekend to give it a good shakedown and see what the true problem is. I'm hoping it's a hose or simple gasket and not a cracked cylinder head.

The plan for this car is to get it running, driving, reliable and that's about all. It's purpose is to save my M3 when streets are nasty and to drive me around when I'm working on the M3. It might get some cosmetic loving here and there but nothing crazy besides required maintenance.

Here are some of the pics he sent me and then two of it I took tonight.

[iwantspeed]

awesome purchase

[litu]

Cool, now you have best e30...

[bostonvert]

Very cool car, nice survivor

800 would get me a completely rotted out 316i...., soo jealous!

[AWDBOB]

That thing is straight and clean as hell! What a deal.

[Kershaw]

Very cool. I feel like the r3v IX ranks have been growing.

[kid325e]

Very nice pick up! 800.00 is a steal. Let us know where you find the coolant leaking from. I think you'll come to love the four door ix for the practicality you bought it for! Will be a perfect fit.

[unloadedak]

thanks guys! it's actually not my first iX; it's basically a twin of my daily from 12/2011 to 12/2012.
That one was a 91, manual, black/cardinal interior, and awesome when i was done with it. (link to fs thread here)




I just had some time to mess around with this one and do a quick coolant diagnostic.

• It comes up to the 3/4 tick when idling for 20+ minutes
• If I rev it up to 1500ish it will drop below the tick
• If it sits at idle it will go above the tick; i didn't let it sit too long to see how far it went
• The expansion tank was barely even warm
• I didn't see any puddles on the ground or any leakage besides the expansion tank draining behind the drivers tire

I am thinking it's just due for a good ol coolant system refresh.

• timing belt
• water pump
• tstat
• maybe radiator

but for now, here are some new pics, a dead mouse, and a walk around video

[rzerob]

My last IX had a coolant leak as well. It wound up being a loose coolant hose clamp. I got that one for $1200. But it needed a transmission too. 24v IX when you do a 5 speed swap?

[IronFreak]

Already invest to much time into this pile by starting a thread.

[unloadedak]

My last IX had a coolant leak as well. It wound up being a loose coolant hose clamp. I got that one for $1200. But it needed a transmission too. 24v IX when you do a 5 speed swap?

I would love a 24v iX but this thing is just a backup car that'll do 1-2k miles a year.. Maybe later down the road on a euro iX shell :twisted:

Already invest to much time into this pile by starting a thread.

threads are great resources for when you sell a car. i consider it an investment. go weld something.

[unloadedak]

I didn’t waste any time getting dirty with this thing. I did quite a bit of work on it in the last week.

• Timing belt
• Water pump
• 80deg thermostat
• Radiator
• Coolant hoses
• V-belts
• Cam seals
• Rubber fuel lines
• Brown temp sensor
• Throttle body heater bypass
• Valve adjustment/cover
• Plugs
• Air filter
• Quick interior detail while waiting for UPS guy
• Pads/Rotors
• 195/60-15 General Altimax Arctics
• Trash bagged/duct tape wrapped front inner axle boots :)

I think that’s all.. It was very hard for me to not go nuts and replace everything in sight or paint the covers; I’m typically very anal about the while you’re in there stuff. The axle boots are temporary hehe, I’ll send the axles in for rebuilds once winter is over. If the car survives through winter it'll be getting some more serious lovin; this whole session was to get it ready for snow and that's about all. I’ll just post a bunch of pictures of the exciting week I had with this car...






















































Took it on a test drive and everything went pretty smooth, the car needs a bit of love here and there (RSMs & rear bushings) but it’s overall very solid. I seem to have mended the cooling system issues and the car just overall runs much better than it did before. It does have a weird squeal/rattle in the low 1k rpms; I think I put the alternator belt on too tight and killed the bearings :( going to get a new alternator tomorrow morning and give it a shot.


To do;

• Alternator
• TC/diff fluids
• Seafoam & change oil again
• Possibly tidy up the exterior a bit
• I really want to put a black sport interior in it but the tan comfort is so minty
• Hope nothing breaks

[kingston]

Can't wait to buy this from you in the Spring :)

[Kershaw]

I'm curious how long those plastic bag and duct tape cv boots last. At least you're not lowered. I made myself a cv boot changing jig that cuts my time and frustration down 80%. Makes it a 15-30 minute per side job. I can take pics of it if you're interested.

[jeenyus]

Looking good! Glad to see SO many IX's recently. They are really fun cars.