Hey all - new to the E30 club and it's been a bit of a rougher ride than expected these last three months.
Bought an 84 318 from a local seller who'd only had the car a few months. A college kid, she said her folks bought the coupe for her in the spring for local transportation but she found that she wasn't using it much. Car came with a few years of records, and though the SI panel is out, the records show the car has about 160K on the clock. It ran a little rough and rich when I got it but I figured for $1400, it'd be worth putting a few bucks into it. It's rust-free and quite clean after all.
I drove it for about six weeks before the lack of fuel system maintenance caught up with me when it stopped running in the driveway. Towed to the shop and learned that a failed ground wire was causing the fuel injectors to stay open. An adjustable valve was put together and the rough and occasionally high idle was remedied. Bill: $793 including some work to improve the muffler mounting.
Then the snow began to fall. Cold starting became really problematic and finally impossible so I had it towed once again. This visit uncovered fouled plugs, and no power going to the cold start jet. This fix was $386.
Brought it home but it was still starting hard so I dropped it back off and now I am told the injectors need to be replaced. I was quoted $200 each for injectors plus $300 labor. $1100 seemed pretty steep even without any real knowledge of these cars; sure enough, these injectors start at $40ish on Pelican.
Mechanic says he'll do the work with customer-sourced parts but won't warranty the work. Including his labor, the fix drops to about $500-600 but that's still a chunk of change. Not to mention my better half is a bit skeptical of these escalating costs. I figure a well-maintained 318 of this vintage is worth $3000ish, so I'm still ahead of that cost with the work I have done so far. But it will need new suspension sooner than later, and while I have the resources to do that work myself, how much more will I uncover before I get there?
What would you do?
Bought an 84 318 from a local seller who'd only had the car a few months. A college kid, she said her folks bought the coupe for her in the spring for local transportation but she found that she wasn't using it much. Car came with a few years of records, and though the SI panel is out, the records show the car has about 160K on the clock. It ran a little rough and rich when I got it but I figured for $1400, it'd be worth putting a few bucks into it. It's rust-free and quite clean after all.
I drove it for about six weeks before the lack of fuel system maintenance caught up with me when it stopped running in the driveway. Towed to the shop and learned that a failed ground wire was causing the fuel injectors to stay open. An adjustable valve was put together and the rough and occasionally high idle was remedied. Bill: $793 including some work to improve the muffler mounting.
Then the snow began to fall. Cold starting became really problematic and finally impossible so I had it towed once again. This visit uncovered fouled plugs, and no power going to the cold start jet. This fix was $386.
Brought it home but it was still starting hard so I dropped it back off and now I am told the injectors need to be replaced. I was quoted $200 each for injectors plus $300 labor. $1100 seemed pretty steep even without any real knowledge of these cars; sure enough, these injectors start at $40ish on Pelican.
Mechanic says he'll do the work with customer-sourced parts but won't warranty the work. Including his labor, the fix drops to about $500-600 but that's still a chunk of change. Not to mention my better half is a bit skeptical of these escalating costs. I figure a well-maintained 318 of this vintage is worth $3000ish, so I'm still ahead of that cost with the work I have done so far. But it will need new suspension sooner than later, and while I have the resources to do that work myself, how much more will I uncover before I get there?
What would you do?
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