E30 325is purchase advice needed

[blueberryted]

While I was driving at a BMWCC driver's ed event, I asked one of the BMW lovers if they had any advice for me and my son regarding his first car. The uniform response was that an E30 325i/is with 5 speed is a great car for a young mechanic to practice on and to learn from. Son has spent some time working in a Porsche shop as an intern, and is about to go off to study mechanical engineering. Son is very hot to get a nice bimmer.

So we have located an 87 325is as follows:

190k miles, never tracked
3rd owner, owned 10 years
no rust, no crashes, no dents
head rebuilt with documentation
new waterpump/timing belt/thermostat
new BEHR radiator/new fan clutch/all new belts & hoses
replaced rear main oil seal, oil pan gasket replaced, totally dry engine
red line in tranny/new shifter bushings/output shaft seal replaced
new clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing
slotted rotors/stainless break lines
racing dynamics sway bars front and rear
ebach springs/bilstein shocks all around
new lower control arms with M3 bushings
new BBS wheels
M3 rear view mirror & cargo lights installed
documented religious oil changes
new BMW exhaust from the cat back

original paint is glossy, and the car interior is good, with leather seats and dash not cracked.

We are 700 miles from the owner, and have not seen the car up close. The pictures look great.

Could you experts give some advice:

1) price is $5500 firm. Is that too much?
2) would you get a ppi from a local dealer?
3) if yes to the ppi, what would you get? leak down?

We have no personal direct bimmer experience, but both of us are very excited about having a clean E30 to go nuts over. What do you all think?

Thanks for your input(s).

[winfred]

$5500 sounds like a lot of money for a mass produced 19 year old car, that said if it's as described it sounds like a nice car and may be worth it, taken care of 190k is nothing on that motor and the head is done (hopefully done right) ppi's may or may not be worth squat depending on who does it and the dealer is not going to know **** about a car that old unless you get real lucky and have access to a dealer with a crusty old guy that's been around long enough to remember e30s (unlikely) and indy's are a crap shoot if you don't know one that's got a good rep

[stx133]

where are you buying the car. the price is very geographical

Car sounds good but i understand that the E30 is mechanical injection. just be aware

[winfred]

huh? the 325i is semi sequential electronic port injected, the last cis car around here was the 83 320i

Car sounds good but i understand that the E30 is mechanical injection. just be aware

[blueberryted]

It seems like the question is whether a nice 325is with 190k on the car and engine is likely to go another 50k or so without a major problem. If the top end rebuild was well done, but the bottom is untouched, what are the chances that the bottom will keep on chugging.

Of course, it depends on whether the oil has been changed religiously, and the car has been well cared for. But there seem to be lots of examples of the I engine going on and on....

If any other opinions are out there, I would really appreciate them.

Thanks.

[winfred]

i pulled the head on a 325i that had 311k miles and it still had the hone marks on the cylinder walls and the motor wasn't dead, the car was totaled and the dealer just installed a new head a few months before on the totally untouched bottom end so we sold it. i have beaten the snot out of my 325i for over 80k miles, orignal motor toasted with a disentagrated piston at 136k so i droped in a long block from the yard with almost the same miles on the clock and have been flogging it ever since, it's a crap shoot on how it plays out but a m20 can go the distance i am at 203 now and the last few years have been hard

[billb]

While I was driving at a BMWCC driver's ed event, I asked one of the BMW lovers if they had any advice for me and my son regarding his first car. The uniform response was that an E30 325i/is with 5 speed is a great car for a young mechanic to practice on and to learn from. Son has spent some time working in a Porsche shop as an intern, and is about to go off to study mechanical engineering. Son is very hot to get a nice bimmer.

So we have located an 87 325is as follows:

190k miles, never tracked
3rd owner, owned 10 years
no rust, no crashes, no dents
head rebuilt with documentation
new waterpump/timing belt/thermostat
new BEHR radiator/new fan clutch/all new belts & hoses
replaced rear main oil seal, oil pan gasket replaced, totally dry engine
red line in tranny/new shifter bushings/output shaft seal replaced
new clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing
slotted rotors/stainless break lines
racing dynamics sway bars front and rear
ebach springs/bilstein shocks all around
new lower control arms with M3 bushings
new BBS wheels
M3 rear view mirror & cargo lights installed
documented religious oil changes
new BMW exhaust from the cat back

original paint is glossy, and the car interior is good, with leather seats and dash not cracked.

We are 700 miles from the owner, and have not seen the car up close. The pictures look great.

Could you experts give some advice:

1) price is $5500 firm. Is that too much?
2) would you get a ppi from a local dealer?
3) if yes to the ppi, what would you get? leak down?

We have no personal direct bimmer experience, but both of us are very excited about having a clean E30 to go nuts over. What do you all think?

Thanks for your input(s).

driveline: guibo, driveshaft, cv-halfshafts, diff
HVAC, heater core, etc.
fuel pump/relays (can and will leave your son stranded on the side of the road)
air conditioning?
steering rack (likely will need new one someday soon with that mileage)
instrument cluster gremlins (SI batteries fail causing gauge issues)
odometer gears die; easily replaced, but die nonetheless

And with all those mods, why, oh why, was it not tracked?

leakdown/compression is about all I would check. Find a good local indy to do that. Don't bother the dealer for an E30.

[Kalevera]

I would just carefully go over the car. As Winfred said, it's really easy for someone to mess up a repair. My E30 iX is at 250k, running the original motor, but it took a lot of work to get it to this point, mostly because the previous owners neglected maintenance. And when maintenance was done, it wasn't necessarily done correctly. Case in point: the timing belt wasn't tensioned, so the car ran for ~ 25k+ miles with an de-tensioned belt. And the owner who did the work appears to have been an E30 fanatic. I made the mistake of very quickly going over the car in the airport parking lot; I should've insisted on getting it up in the air and carefully inspecting it. Guess I trusted the PO's marketing job too much. On the cost, I've got $3500 in mine, not counting my time -- the month or so of late nights -- it took to get it back on the road (I had to go through the driveline, front end, fuel system). It's not perfect, but it's in very good condition compared to most iXes. iSes are a different story, and you should be able to find a nice one for three, max four grand around the US southeastern states.

Bill added a nice list; I can't remember what's on it at the moment, or if the PO covered it, but be sure to go over the metal fuel and brake lines (regardless of the "no rust" comment) and inspect the rear subframe barrel bushings.

best, whit