Starting a thread on my recently purchased E30 Touring.
VIN # - WBAAG61000EA59201 - Production date - 1990-10-16
- Slick-top
- ABS
- Air Conditioning
- Central locking
- On-Board-Computer
Bought the car on Vancouver Island. Drove it through Canada to Toronto and after a month and a half finally got my car to its new home in Chicago.
Pictures
20180913105153_IMG_1057 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912152240_IMG_0996 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912150458_IMG_0962 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912150336_IMG_0958 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180911210538_IMG_0807 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180911202458_IMG_0747 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
Plans
More or less keep it as OEM as possible. Want to do all the small nitpicky interior things after getting it sorted after 6,000kms. Then euro smileys, and get working OBC. Then simply enjoy it. Maybe IS front lip, maybe suspension, maybe exhaust, hopefully wheels.
Anything I do, even maintenance wise, will use this thread to keep track!
Story
Bought this car from a forum member all the way on Vancouver Island on September 11th. We spent a couple of weeks exchanging emails, texts,
calls so I could somehow convince him I was a serious buyer and not kicking tires. Now the main challenge is that I am located all the way in Chicago
so I was essentially buying the car from across the continent, in another country.
After convincing my parents to let me try to purse this, me and the seller agreed on some terms where I sent half the price we agreed on for him to
hold the car for me until I got there. Fast forward to September 10th, me and my stepdad drove to Toronto where we met up with one of his friends
who would be coming with us. September 11th we flew from Toronto to Comox Valley. The seller, Jan, picked us up and we went to the car. Test
drove it and absolutely loved it. We took care of the Bill of Sale, insurance (got 7 days of essentially temp plates to drive it to Toronto), and I bought
a 4.10 diff from his friend for essentially a steal . Left Comox shortly after and our 5,000km drive back to Toronto began.
We drove through Vancouver Island's scenic route, recommended by Jan, to the Trans-Canada Hwy Ferry to West Vancouver. It was my first time
ever on a ferry which was pretty cool. Took us just under 2 hours to reach Horseshoe Bay, at which point we headed to downtown Vancouver to check
it out.
We got to Vancouver, where we stopped in front of Science World, and took some pictures. Drove through Central where our friend wanted to stop to
get some things and I snapped some quick pictures. We drove back North but went off to Stanley Park. Really beautiful thing how there is a forest
preserve on an island in essentially the center of the city. Took some more pictures and we walked a bit along the Seawall. Went back and drove
around to Brockton Point Lighthouse for MORE pictures and after just relaxing for a bit we were on our way again. Our next stop was to be Whistler
, BC, along Highway 99 which was again recommended by Jan. Originally planning the tripped the addition to the route changed the whole "get the
car back asap" to "while we're there we might as well visit x."
We took drove North to Whistler where we called our first day. Slept in a really cool apartment like hotel room at First Tracks Lodge. I had
accidentally brought swim trunks and as it turned out the hotel had a outdoor heated pool. I just soaked in the pool still thinking over just how I got
myself here. I still really couldn't believe I had convinced my parents for this and I was so giddy that my first car was something as cool as a touring.
But I digress.
Next day we went to check out the actual Ski Village (I guess thats what its called) of Whistler. Walked around, took some more pictures and left for
our next "destination," Jasper and then Banff National Park(s). Recommended as a must stop by one of our friends.
Leaving Whistler we went along highway 99 to highway 1. We drove along for a while, again the road and views were amazing. We did run into one
complication. Internet signal was trash, and originally we were going to use my phone, where I had downloaded the offline maps for basically all of
the lower half of Canada, but my GPS just didn't want to play ball. So instead I tapped the address into my stepdad's phone and went on our way.
Back to the complication. We lost internet connection and the map disappeared, and we ended up going North on highway 97, instead of going onto
highway 1. The road changed a bit and we were like "alright, shit we fucked up somewhere, we gotta ask someone what highway we're one." Now
this being basically the back country of British Columbia there wasn't much of anyone to ask. We continued to drive along till we passed some
driveway along the highway. Our friend got out to see if there was anyone to ask. Looking from the road it seemed no one was home, but just as we
were about to hop back in and try to find someone else a pickup pulled in and the man graciously offered us help. Told us we went the wrong way and
gave us directions on how to get to Kamloops. What to look for, where to turn, etc. We turned around and were on our way again. As soon as we got
internet I downloaded the same maps on both my stepdad's phone and our friend's phone.
After this nothing much happened besides seeing the Trans Canadian train with its glass top or whatever. Drove along highway 5 which at some point
I decided to reserve a hotel room for us to sleep in when we get around Jasper. Now before Jasper there weren't many hotels as much as lodges, and
in the town of Jasper it was wayyyy to expensive for me so I saved us a room in Hinton, on the west side of Jasper. This is a key point for later. We
entered Jasper when it was pretty late. Around maybe 10 minutes from crossing the gate we noticed something fairly troubling. Snow. The car has a
open diff, no TC, and I am super super super paranoid about rust. Only thing in our favor, and what eventually saved us, was that Jan had gotten me
a pair of brand new all season tires as part of the deal. Our speed had been cut as we tried to keep the car and ourselves in one piece. Snow got
worse but we drove through Jasper (nothing much to see in the dark of night really) and got to Hinton with no hiccups. Pulling into the hotel, around
10pm, we noticed that they had a sign that they were full. Now luckily I had saved us a room earlier, but otherwise we wouldn't have had anywhere
to sleep as most everybody was stopping for the sake of not driving through the snow so late at night. Anyway we ordered some pizza from a place
called Gus' which was delicious and we called it a day.
We woke up the next day, and stuck with the pizza for breakfast as the breakfast in the hotel was not particularly good. Or at least my stepdad and
his friend did. I on the other hand headed straight out to the car to clean off the snow, and get it warmed up. Honestly, I was worried it wasn't going
to start. A day or two earlier it was at sea level at a very Chicago-like temp, but now it had been running for a few days climbing mountains, and the
morning in Hinton was freezing. No worries for this 28 year old car. Started up right away. Big thanks to Jan for having done so maintenance and kept
it mechanically perfect. I'll get into the car at the end. Anyway we headed back towards Jasper. Picked up a day pass for the parks and kept on
driving. Stopped along the way on highway 16 and snapped my FAVORITE picture of the trip. We saw some elk and took pictures as well. All before
Jasper. There was a shit ton of driving again and at one point I switched off to drive. Its important to note that road conditions were all over the
place. Some places it looked like it hadn't snowed, in others it was foggy with some slush, some it was raining, others snowing. I switched off to drive
at what really turned out to be a bad time. Not to bad, some slush in the road but had the tracks of other cars to stick on to keep the car on the
road. No biggie. Well shit as we got into a bit of a worse part of the road and the snow piles grew larger and the "driven" part of the road grew
narrower I started to get worried. We passed a van being pulled out of the ditch and then shit got pretty bad. Not snowing, but the road had maybe
1/2 of ice, with slush, and fresh snow to boot. All over the place. I did 40km/h with hazards on and more using inertia more than both the brake or
the gas. I was white knuckling the shit out of the wheel and got pushed more on edge by the RV behind us. This motherfucker thought that since he
was in an RV he could drive fast, but I watched him drift sideways scrapping the branches off the side of the road with his long ass. Learned to keep
his distance pretty quickly. I drove all the way to Moraine Lake, another "might as well" destination. Took some more pictures there. Not much of the
car but damn it was beautiful. Going to include a picture or two of there as well for the hell of it.
We drove through Calgary next, didn't really want to stop. No offense to anyone from Calgary but it seemed boring with not much to see,
compounded that we wanted to get as far as possible today we just drove by. Continued along highway 1 to Swift Current, where we called our third
day done!
After Swift Current we were determined to get to Toronto ASAP. I had school Monday so we needed a buffer day after driving for my stepdad to rest
up before we head back to Chicago. Here the days get blurred. Essentially after Swift Current we drove to Winnipeg. Didn't really stop to explore, but
we did stop to eat. We ate at The Keg, which was delicious. I forgot to add this in earlier but I'm a self-proclaimed burger connoisseur, so along our
route I tried burgers wherever I could. Vancouver, Whistler, Winnipeg, even tried a salmon burger on the ferry. But that is besides the point. We ate,
and were on our final push.
For the last literal 32 hours of our adventure the car has been off for a mere 2 1/2 hours at most. 8 hours to Winnipeg, where we spent around half
an hour to an hour eating and relaxing. And another 22 hours with a small break earlier on for us to sleep till we reached Toronto. We ended up
leaving the car with our friend for a couple of weeks as we needed the next day to get straight to Chicago. Didn't want to deal with import time,
possible problems and whatever so we hid it under a car cover.
Eventually, I was able to get some temporary plates and my stepdad and mom were on their way to visit our friends again anyway so yea. Now
import was fairly easy besides that the first guy helping out kept insisting that the car was not exempt from EPA or the FMVSS. His shift happened to
end right after the import began so someone more competent took car of the rest. Not here's were it gets kind of sad. After over 5,000 kms without
issue. The. Starter. Dies. Between. The. Borders. My stepdad didn't know what to do and called me while I was in class. Spent my math class in the
hallway explaining to him how to explain to the initial border agent the 25, and 21 year rules. I skimmed through the forums and seemed there
wasn't much it could be. Called up Jan out of panic, the absolute lifesaver ran me through what it could be before diagnosing the starter. My stepdad
ended up asking a trucker to help him push start it so he didn't have to get it towed. Import done, now he couldn't really stop the car, and to top it off
the gauge cluster seemed to have fucked off. Only part working was the speedometer, no gas gauge, temp, or most importantly fuel gauge. So for
the rest of the 5-6h trip it ran nonstop and he would stop to fill up as he would usually.
Here is a quick rundown of dates. August 18th I contacted Jan asking if the car was available. August 23rd I paid my 1/2 to have him
hold the car till I got there. September 11th we had flown from Toronto to Comox, and I had bought the car. September 16th the car
was parked in the back of our friend's driveway under a car cover. Fast forward to October 3rd my stepdad pulled into our driveway in
Chicago with my gorgeous (Objectively. Don't agree? Fight me) car.
Thank you for reading so far if you did. Honestly a once in a lifetime experience that I got to share with one of my closest friends (stepdad) and close
family friend. So thankful for my parents both trusting me by letting me go through this and not trying to be controlling over the money I had
literally saved for years. Loved this and would do it again.
VIN # - WBAAG61000EA59201 - Production date - 1990-10-16
- Slick-top
- ABS
- Air Conditioning
- Central locking
- On-Board-Computer
Bought the car on Vancouver Island. Drove it through Canada to Toronto and after a month and a half finally got my car to its new home in Chicago.
Pictures
20180913105153_IMG_1057 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912152240_IMG_0996 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912150458_IMG_0962 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180912150336_IMG_0958 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180911210538_IMG_0807 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
20180911202458_IMG_0747 by MuDuRkKiO, on Flickr
Plans
More or less keep it as OEM as possible. Want to do all the small nitpicky interior things after getting it sorted after 6,000kms. Then euro smileys, and get working OBC. Then simply enjoy it. Maybe IS front lip, maybe suspension, maybe exhaust, hopefully wheels.
Anything I do, even maintenance wise, will use this thread to keep track!
Story
Bought this car from a forum member all the way on Vancouver Island on September 11th. We spent a couple of weeks exchanging emails, texts,
calls so I could somehow convince him I was a serious buyer and not kicking tires. Now the main challenge is that I am located all the way in Chicago
so I was essentially buying the car from across the continent, in another country.
After convincing my parents to let me try to purse this, me and the seller agreed on some terms where I sent half the price we agreed on for him to
hold the car for me until I got there. Fast forward to September 10th, me and my stepdad drove to Toronto where we met up with one of his friends
who would be coming with us. September 11th we flew from Toronto to Comox Valley. The seller, Jan, picked us up and we went to the car. Test
drove it and absolutely loved it. We took care of the Bill of Sale, insurance (got 7 days of essentially temp plates to drive it to Toronto), and I bought
a 4.10 diff from his friend for essentially a steal . Left Comox shortly after and our 5,000km drive back to Toronto began.
We drove through Vancouver Island's scenic route, recommended by Jan, to the Trans-Canada Hwy Ferry to West Vancouver. It was my first time
ever on a ferry which was pretty cool. Took us just under 2 hours to reach Horseshoe Bay, at which point we headed to downtown Vancouver to check
it out.
We got to Vancouver, where we stopped in front of Science World, and took some pictures. Drove through Central where our friend wanted to stop to
get some things and I snapped some quick pictures. We drove back North but went off to Stanley Park. Really beautiful thing how there is a forest
preserve on an island in essentially the center of the city. Took some more pictures and we walked a bit along the Seawall. Went back and drove
around to Brockton Point Lighthouse for MORE pictures and after just relaxing for a bit we were on our way again. Our next stop was to be Whistler
, BC, along Highway 99 which was again recommended by Jan. Originally planning the tripped the addition to the route changed the whole "get the
car back asap" to "while we're there we might as well visit x."
We took drove North to Whistler where we called our first day. Slept in a really cool apartment like hotel room at First Tracks Lodge. I had
accidentally brought swim trunks and as it turned out the hotel had a outdoor heated pool. I just soaked in the pool still thinking over just how I got
myself here. I still really couldn't believe I had convinced my parents for this and I was so giddy that my first car was something as cool as a touring.
But I digress.
Next day we went to check out the actual Ski Village (I guess thats what its called) of Whistler. Walked around, took some more pictures and left for
our next "destination," Jasper and then Banff National Park(s). Recommended as a must stop by one of our friends.
Leaving Whistler we went along highway 99 to highway 1. We drove along for a while, again the road and views were amazing. We did run into one
complication. Internet signal was trash, and originally we were going to use my phone, where I had downloaded the offline maps for basically all of
the lower half of Canada, but my GPS just didn't want to play ball. So instead I tapped the address into my stepdad's phone and went on our way.
Back to the complication. We lost internet connection and the map disappeared, and we ended up going North on highway 97, instead of going onto
highway 1. The road changed a bit and we were like "alright, shit we fucked up somewhere, we gotta ask someone what highway we're one." Now
this being basically the back country of British Columbia there wasn't much of anyone to ask. We continued to drive along till we passed some
driveway along the highway. Our friend got out to see if there was anyone to ask. Looking from the road it seemed no one was home, but just as we
were about to hop back in and try to find someone else a pickup pulled in and the man graciously offered us help. Told us we went the wrong way and
gave us directions on how to get to Kamloops. What to look for, where to turn, etc. We turned around and were on our way again. As soon as we got
internet I downloaded the same maps on both my stepdad's phone and our friend's phone.
After this nothing much happened besides seeing the Trans Canadian train with its glass top or whatever. Drove along highway 5 which at some point
I decided to reserve a hotel room for us to sleep in when we get around Jasper. Now before Jasper there weren't many hotels as much as lodges, and
in the town of Jasper it was wayyyy to expensive for me so I saved us a room in Hinton, on the west side of Jasper. This is a key point for later. We
entered Jasper when it was pretty late. Around maybe 10 minutes from crossing the gate we noticed something fairly troubling. Snow. The car has a
open diff, no TC, and I am super super super paranoid about rust. Only thing in our favor, and what eventually saved us, was that Jan had gotten me
a pair of brand new all season tires as part of the deal. Our speed had been cut as we tried to keep the car and ourselves in one piece. Snow got
worse but we drove through Jasper (nothing much to see in the dark of night really) and got to Hinton with no hiccups. Pulling into the hotel, around
10pm, we noticed that they had a sign that they were full. Now luckily I had saved us a room earlier, but otherwise we wouldn't have had anywhere
to sleep as most everybody was stopping for the sake of not driving through the snow so late at night. Anyway we ordered some pizza from a place
called Gus' which was delicious and we called it a day.
We woke up the next day, and stuck with the pizza for breakfast as the breakfast in the hotel was not particularly good. Or at least my stepdad and
his friend did. I on the other hand headed straight out to the car to clean off the snow, and get it warmed up. Honestly, I was worried it wasn't going
to start. A day or two earlier it was at sea level at a very Chicago-like temp, but now it had been running for a few days climbing mountains, and the
morning in Hinton was freezing. No worries for this 28 year old car. Started up right away. Big thanks to Jan for having done so maintenance and kept
it mechanically perfect. I'll get into the car at the end. Anyway we headed back towards Jasper. Picked up a day pass for the parks and kept on
driving. Stopped along the way on highway 16 and snapped my FAVORITE picture of the trip. We saw some elk and took pictures as well. All before
Jasper. There was a shit ton of driving again and at one point I switched off to drive. Its important to note that road conditions were all over the
place. Some places it looked like it hadn't snowed, in others it was foggy with some slush, some it was raining, others snowing. I switched off to drive
at what really turned out to be a bad time. Not to bad, some slush in the road but had the tracks of other cars to stick on to keep the car on the
road. No biggie. Well shit as we got into a bit of a worse part of the road and the snow piles grew larger and the "driven" part of the road grew
narrower I started to get worried. We passed a van being pulled out of the ditch and then shit got pretty bad. Not snowing, but the road had maybe
1/2 of ice, with slush, and fresh snow to boot. All over the place. I did 40km/h with hazards on and more using inertia more than both the brake or
the gas. I was white knuckling the shit out of the wheel and got pushed more on edge by the RV behind us. This motherfucker thought that since he
was in an RV he could drive fast, but I watched him drift sideways scrapping the branches off the side of the road with his long ass. Learned to keep
his distance pretty quickly. I drove all the way to Moraine Lake, another "might as well" destination. Took some more pictures there. Not much of the
car but damn it was beautiful. Going to include a picture or two of there as well for the hell of it.
We drove through Calgary next, didn't really want to stop. No offense to anyone from Calgary but it seemed boring with not much to see,
compounded that we wanted to get as far as possible today we just drove by. Continued along highway 1 to Swift Current, where we called our third
day done!
After Swift Current we were determined to get to Toronto ASAP. I had school Monday so we needed a buffer day after driving for my stepdad to rest
up before we head back to Chicago. Here the days get blurred. Essentially after Swift Current we drove to Winnipeg. Didn't really stop to explore, but
we did stop to eat. We ate at The Keg, which was delicious. I forgot to add this in earlier but I'm a self-proclaimed burger connoisseur, so along our
route I tried burgers wherever I could. Vancouver, Whistler, Winnipeg, even tried a salmon burger on the ferry. But that is besides the point. We ate,
and were on our final push.
For the last literal 32 hours of our adventure the car has been off for a mere 2 1/2 hours at most. 8 hours to Winnipeg, where we spent around half
an hour to an hour eating and relaxing. And another 22 hours with a small break earlier on for us to sleep till we reached Toronto. We ended up
leaving the car with our friend for a couple of weeks as we needed the next day to get straight to Chicago. Didn't want to deal with import time,
possible problems and whatever so we hid it under a car cover.
Eventually, I was able to get some temporary plates and my stepdad and mom were on their way to visit our friends again anyway so yea. Now
import was fairly easy besides that the first guy helping out kept insisting that the car was not exempt from EPA or the FMVSS. His shift happened to
end right after the import began so someone more competent took car of the rest. Not here's were it gets kind of sad. After over 5,000 kms without
issue. The. Starter. Dies. Between. The. Borders. My stepdad didn't know what to do and called me while I was in class. Spent my math class in the
hallway explaining to him how to explain to the initial border agent the 25, and 21 year rules. I skimmed through the forums and seemed there
wasn't much it could be. Called up Jan out of panic, the absolute lifesaver ran me through what it could be before diagnosing the starter. My stepdad
ended up asking a trucker to help him push start it so he didn't have to get it towed. Import done, now he couldn't really stop the car, and to top it off
the gauge cluster seemed to have fucked off. Only part working was the speedometer, no gas gauge, temp, or most importantly fuel gauge. So for
the rest of the 5-6h trip it ran nonstop and he would stop to fill up as he would usually.
Here is a quick rundown of dates. August 18th I contacted Jan asking if the car was available. August 23rd I paid my 1/2 to have him
hold the car till I got there. September 11th we had flown from Toronto to Comox, and I had bought the car. September 16th the car
was parked in the back of our friend's driveway under a car cover. Fast forward to October 3rd my stepdad pulled into our driveway in
Chicago with my gorgeous (Objectively. Don't agree? Fight me) car.
Thank you for reading so far if you did. Honestly a once in a lifetime experience that I got to share with one of my closest friends (stepdad) and close
family friend. So thankful for my parents both trusting me by letting me go through this and not trying to be controlling over the money I had
literally saved for years. Loved this and would do it again.
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