Tell me if this makes sense.

[blocke]

My 250k mile e30 is my daily driver. At this point, its got an unknown something wrong with it, causing it to randomly break down and strand me without warning. It has happened twice in the past 2 weeks, most recently in the middle of stop and go traffic on I-5 during AM rush hour. I'm working 60-70 hour work weeks, so no time to really investigate. And I cannot afford risking my job because I've been stranded.

I would like to do either a complete engine rebuild, or m50 swap..but have neither the time required at the moment,a place to perform the work, nor the funds to complete either in a reasonable amount of time. As this car is my daily, and I don't have a backup, any work I do must be complete within enough time to get me to work the next day.

I've come up on a hell of a deal for an MK2 GTI. I'm thinking of buying the GTI, and driving that till I can dedicate the time and funds to rebuild the E30 engine and make it reliable enough for DD duty again, at which point I could easily sell the GTI and get my money back out of it, prob make money.

Wife thinks that I should spend the money finding and fixing whatever is wrong with the E30 now. But to me, that's only a band-aid fix.

So is it insane to spend $1000 on another daily to drive for now, while I save to rebuild or swap my E30? To me its just like using a rental car, only I can sell it when I'm done with it.

[DeM3n]

No, it makes no sense to do a double post.

BTW, you've got a good wife if she's telling you to fix the E30. GTI? pssssh.

[blocke]

Yeah I dunno whats up with double post. I didn't do that.

[pureaudio]

I'd have someone do an inspection on your E30, it could be something simple that you can pay the shop to do. If it isn't, buy another DD. With a budget of $1000, though, you could just be buying another heap of problems. If you absolutely need reliable transportation, I wouldn't be messing around with old euro cars...get a newer, reliable vehicle.

[F34R]

A job is a hard thing to come by, if the E30 is risking it and causing you to be late a lot. I would buy the GTI and call it a day. You can always get another M20 or go for the 24v sense you would have a car to take you to work and back. It would give you all the time you want to get it done. Plus a total m50 swap would change out most of every people you would run into with your bitching m20.

You could check out all grounds and shit while it is out also.

I would get GTI and do an M50. Work on it over time when you have spare.

[Kershaw]

So is it insane to spend $1000 on another daily to drive for now, while I save to rebuild or swap my E30?

no its not.

[pharow]

Get the gti...keep ur job. wrk on the e30 in spare time.

[Roysneon]

A job is a hard thing to come by, if the E30 is risking it and causing you to be late a lot.

He said something that made sense, I had to make note of it.

A MKII VW might not be any better than your e30 though, especially if you don't have time to work on one old/older euro car, let alone two.

So to me, a daily in better shape makes sense, that daily being a MKII dub, not necessarily, but I could be very wrong.

[blocke]

**Update**
I ended up getting lucky and have found the source of my phantom issues. Big relief. Now the E30 runs like a champ again, and no need to spend money on another daily. I think the stress of the few minor issues with my car, compounded with the stress of work, made it seems like my car was worse off than it was. After spending an entire Saturday sorting things out, I think my E30 has regained my confidence.
Thanks for the input everyone.

[pharow]

good job in finding the problem. wht was the it?

[blocke]

good job in finding the problem. wht was the it?

It was actually a number of things. I disassembled my TPS, it looked good inside, no broken sotter joints. Re-installed and adjusted per Bentley.

Also found a short inside of the MAF harness plug. It was covered by the rubber boot, and at the actual pin in the plug. Got that sorted out.

Also found a crack in a plug wire (while pulling the plugs with motor running, that felt real good). Plug wire was arching to the exhaust gasket.

So I suspect that the main culprit was the intermittent connection on the MAF, messing with the DME. And although my TPS checked out visually, stomp test did not work prior to me taking it out. After I re-installed it, stomp test was working again. And I'm ordering the ignition super kit from Pelican, and will throw it on next weekend.

So all is well now. I'm happy to have my E30 back.