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Re: Recommendations on a $3500-$4500 BMW

Henri,
Sorry to hear about your E30 maladies.
FWIW, at 200+K miles my '89 325i had way fewer repairs than your car did at
100K miles. Based on that and E30 maintenance experiences posted on this an
the E30 digest, I would suggest that you've had way more than your share of
problems with your car and your experience is atypical.
Generally speaking, E30s are very durable and bullet-proof cars as long as
they have had all of their schedule maintenance performed religiously, the
most critical of those being the 50K mile or 4 year timing belt change.
Other than that, the only non-wear items I had to replace over the last
200K miles were the ICV and the DME. Both were a major pain in the ass to
track down as sources of intermittent drivability problems. Once replaced
at around 130K miles with used parts both have behaved.
In the last 200K miles, the major ($100+) wear and tear replacements were
restricted to the following list going from the front to the back of the
car. Anyone buying a 150+K E30 should look for documentation confirming
that the following items have already been swapped:
- - new Bilstein HD struts (at 100K miles)
- - front control arms and bushings (100K and 200K miles)
- - steering tie rods (at 150K)
- - AC conversion to R134a  at around 150K miles ($250 in parts in labor;
kept the original compressor/condenser/evaporator and all the lines).
- - front and rear wheel bearings (all went around 150K miles)
- - new OEM muffler (around 130K miles)

That's it folks. The engine, transmission and other major pieces are still
OE.
 At less than $1K/year in depreciation my E30 has been the slowest
depreciating car I have owned. Add to that less than $1K/year in regular
and performance oriented maintenance (my E36 annual tire budget is higher
than that!) and an E30 easily takes the cake as the most affordable, fun
BMW daily driver.

YMMV,
alex f
'89 325i
'95 M3

P.S.: Avoid the ZF4HP22 automatic transmissions like wild fire. They _will_
consume 2-3 years worth of maintenance budget between 100-150K miles




|---------+--------------------------->
|         |           Henri Baccouche |
|         |           <henrib@mediaone|
|         |           .net>           |
|         |           Sent by:        |
|         |           owner-bmw@digest|
|         |           .net            |
|         |                           |
|         |                           |
|         |           12/25/01 04:34  |
|         |           PM              |
|         |           Please respond  |
|         |           to henrib       |
|         |                           |
|---------+--------------------------->
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  |        To:      "[email protected]" <[email protected]>                                               |
  |        cc:                                                                                                    |
  |        Subject: Re: Recommendations on a $3500-$4500 BMW                                                      |
  >---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|




A 12-15 year old  E30 is no bargain unless you are
a life long mechanic. These cars have major wear cycles at 100K and at
150K miles. Ask me how I know........

If it's important for the car to be 95-100% correct, then a 3500-4500
dollar E30 with 100k will likely be a black hole for money.

100K
complete front suspension rebuild w/struts
new steering rack
new rear wheel bearings
new injectors
new ICV
new ICV ECU
new radiator
new in tank-fuel pump
new SI board
# 5 and #6 cylinder burning  oil because the cylinders wearing slightly
oval......very common on the ETA.
new temp sender
new wiring harness ignition
new fan clutch
new alternator brushes
new thermostat housing

150K
new driveshaft
front wheel bearings
new O2 sensor
new intrument cluster contact board
new starter (this was a bitch to install.......)
new AC temp control block under dash.  (ditto......)
new catalytic converter
Automatic trans probably on its last legs.....(~$1350 for a ZF rebuilt)

I would only recommend such cars to people who *enjoy* wrenching
as a hobby........

Henri

Henri




Thomas Stork wrote:

> I would look for a moderate mileage eta engine E30 (325, 325e or 325es)
or E28 (528e) from the mid-late 80s.  Neither is a particularly sporty
drive, but they'll
> accelerate better than a 318 from the same period, they've quite
rugged--with engines that are designed to be long-lasting and get good gas
mileage--and
> because they aren't highly sought-after by sporty enthusiasts, they sell
*cheap*.  Parts are easily available and fairly cheap (by BMW standards).
You should be
> able to get a very nice example of either with mileage in the low 100Ks
for comfortably under $3,000 (probably closer to $2,000), and she could use
the money
> saved to repair any minor things that turn up (and minor things always
turn up on old cars).
>
> There aren't many serious problems with these engines--the timing belt
needs to be replaced every 45-50K (it's a ticking time bomb if it hasn't
been done), and this
> and the water pump should be about $400.  Air conditioning on all BMWs
from the period is not great--the components don't last all that long, in
my (unfortunate)
> experience. But with some extra money to spend, this could be fixed as
well.
>
> Good luck!
> - Tom Stork
> BMW CCA #131072
> '85 635CSi,
> '86 325es
> '81 320i
> '73 Bavaria 3.0l
>
> >My sister-in-law needs a reliable used car and has her sights set on a
BMW.
> >She doesn't have a lot of money to spend. I'm thinking that a '88-'90
325i
> >would be about right for her. What do you guys think? This is what I'd
like
> >to know?

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