E30 Zone

how many of them came over here? are there any? how much would you expect to pay for one? are they any better handling than standard 325's?

I think there is some private import of the ix in the UK and most of them are LHD and I dont know if you got it with RHD? I was looking for an Ix my self because of the horrible winter conditions we get here in Sweden where a normal car have some days no grip at all.....
Price range here in Sweden for an 325ix E30 is from £600 to £2000 all about the rust, milage and condtion of the car for sure!

Do drive well...bit like the 4x4 Sierra but not as low...its a bit hard to explain...good but different..shame the one I last drove has been broken for spares by the E30 centre

U have one for sale here in Sweden, 325ix Touring (LHD) with very low milage and in a good nick! The price is about 32.000 SEK who would be around £2600 into British money

from the spec is sounds pretty sweet, and yeah its basically the 4x4 sierra from the looks of things but tbh i cant see how it would suppress the standard 325's

saw one on ebay earlier this year RHD blue comfort leather bit dented up but the owner said it ran sweet it sold for just over £700!!!!!!!!!

I was a little miffed i didnt bid on it

oh well.

dameon (old skool) has recently bought a blue ix, could be the same one. im still wondering what`ll end up in it

i bet they are bastards to insure.... ah well another car to add to the wish list.

dont think any dearer to insure

really? interesting... im gonna start looking for one.... what body shapes did they do them in?

most I have seen were 4 door or touring but most LHD...The one I did work on was a 4 door LHD and E30 centre still have the axles and gearbox I believe

4 door, 2 door, touring and Baur body shapes.

very cool

bitch to get parts for tho i'd imagine, especially the 4wd sytem, bit slower than normal 325 due to wieght. id still love to try one

touch slower i believe, most parts can be bought from BMW and I have been told ECP but how true this is I dont know

They are like driving a more powerful 320, due to the extra weight it has and with more grip , they have their problems though and if the body has a prang its unique to that car because of the transmission shape.
A lot of parts are unique too like the sump is a one off but will fit any other M20,the front legs are specific to that car along with the top mounts ect, rear diff is a viscous unit gearbox is only for that car and so on.
Like I said they do have issues but they are good cars, just have to remember that you've got twice as much running gear to go wrong, but that said the parts are all over germane bay and are quite cheap.

greenythirty wrote:saw one on ebay earlier this year RHD blue comfort leather bit dented up but the owner said it ran sweet it sold for just over £700!!!!!!!!!

I was a little miffed i didnt bid on it

oh well.

was it by any chance Alpine White? with (I THINK) Mim alloys?

if you're looking for a 325iX, i would VERY HIGHLY avoid autotragics. they are slow and really takes the fun away from driving an E30 or a BMW for that matter. the other issue with the iX auto's is how the auto tranny fluids seep into the transfer-case causing issues.

i have an 88 325iX and it's one of the "weird" years for USDM. it came fully loaded with leather everywhere but no ski pass. like someone here mentioned, rust is the main concern of the iX since they are mostly driven in the snow/salted areas. i'm lucky mine has barely any.

2 other friends of mine have the iX but both are auto. the conversion from auto to 5spd isn't hard; sourcing out the parts... now that's something for the patient.

very expensive to fix if they go wrong from what ive heard.. be interested to try one tho, if only for novelty value..

tailoutcharlie wrote:bitch to get parts for tho i'd imagine, especially the 4wd sytem, bit slower than normal 325 due to wieght. id still love to try one

Kevin coopers stock rear drop links for the ix... on the shelf.



They tried to sell me one for my car.

it's not the rears you have to worry about, it's the front. the rear is just like any e30. the fronts are special and iX specific.

it's twice the work in keeping it up especially with the transfer case and the front cv boots and joint.

There was one Turbo'd somewhere that ran around a 10 second 1/4


I'd like to have one too, A touring with a 525tds engine droped in would be cool even though it probably wouldn't fit with the different subframe

I can't answer how easy it is to get on in the UK since I am not in the UK. However I can answer most technical questions on the IX as I have recently restored one here in the states.

As far as speed goes: Although it is an M20 it is bit slower than than its RWD bretheren. This is due to more drivetrain loss as you are not only sending power through a tranny to a driveshaft to the rear wheels, but you now have a transfer case that powers a front driveshaft.

However, the front and rear diffs are what BMW calls a "viscous" diff. Basically in the dry and wet the diffs act like limited slip diffs, but the diffs will act like open diffs in the snow when they need to. VERY cool technology.

The power split on the car is also 66 to 34% rear to front split that makes it fun to drive while gets the job done in the snow as well.

When it comes to fixing the car: The block is different with a different oil pan, you must get IX specific parts, the Cat is IX specific, the front suspension (including strut housings) is IX specific. The Transfer case is obviously IX specific.

Luckily here in the US there are enough of us that we all know where to find junkyard cars to steal parts when we need them.

This car is by far my favorite that I have ever owned and once you drive one you'd understand why.

I had a 525iX. Bought it from the auctions for 300 quid. It was a great car. Did 7000 miles without trouble.

Had 200k on the clock. Eventually died when the fan failed in traffic on the M6, and the HG went. Ended up going to the scrappys. Shame. Was a good car.

tailoutcharlie wrote:bitch to get parts for tho i'd imagine, especially the 4wd sytem, bit slower than normal 325 due to wieght. id still love to try one

You'd be suprised how cheap they are for parts.

Paul Metcalf is just restoring one at the moment and he wanted a full set of discs. The fronts are just standard 325 equipment but he had to import some rear discs as the handbrake shoe housing is much wider than any other E30.......he paid 17 quid each for them!!

its a shame they didn't sell more in the UK, sounds like a good car. imagine having to replace the rear diff.

Friend of mine had a 325iX diff in his iS.

I've heard from some people that it's a viscous unit and heard that it's just a normal 3.91 large case from others.
Heard it's a 4.1 large case in them once or twice too

Yeah I dont think there is a specific iX rear diff, Ive heard both the 3.91/1 and the 4.1/1.

Yeah I dont think there is a specific iX rear diff, Ive heard both the 3.91/1 and the 4.1/1.

Yeah there is, its usally a 3.73 or a 3.91 viscous diff in Europe a lot of people stick them in standdard 325´s as there are 0-100% lock up

So is an IX viscous diff a bolt on replacement for the standard unit found on UK cars? Or do driveshafts etc have to be swapped too?

I only ask as there are tons of iXs over here and it had crossed my mind that i could probably get a diff from a breakers here cheaply enough (although postage back to the UK would probably bump the price up!).

lots of later BM's use viscous diffs i think, gotta be worth looking into, i'd certainly be interested

only the 4x4 cars use visous diff, just an old way of dealing with the front rear drive split.
A 325ix diff will fit a non 4x4 car as the rear beams are the same, and from what i can remember you need to use the standard 325 drive shafts as the 325ix had a different offset due to the difference in hubs ect so i think they will be difdferent.

from good old wikipedia

Viscous

The viscous type is generally simpler, and relies on the properties of a dilatant fluid - that is, one which thickens when subject to shear. Silicone-based oils are often used. Here, a cylindrical chamber of fluid filled with a stack of perforated discs rotates with the normal motion of the output shafts. The inside surface of the chamber is coupled to one of the driveshafts, and the outside coupled to the differential carrier. Half of the discs are connected to the inner, the other half to the outer, they alternate inner/outer in the stack. Differential motion forces the interlocked (though untouching) discs to move through the fluid against each other. The greater the relative speed of the discs, the more resistance the fluid will put up to oppose this motion. In contrast to the mechanical type, the limiting action is much softer and more proportional to the slip, so for the average driver is easier to cope with.

Viscous LSDs are less efficient than mechanical types, that is, they "lose" some power. They do not stand up well to abuse, particularly any sustained load which overheats the silicone results in sudden permanent loss of the LSD effect.[4] They do have the virtue of failing gracefully, reverting to semi-open differential behaviour, without the graunching of metal particles / fragmented clutches. Typically a visco-differential that has covered 60,000 miles or more will be functioning largely as an open differential; this is a known weakness of the original Eunos Roadster sports car. The silicone oil is factory sealed in a separate chamber from the gear oil surrounding the rest of the differential. This is not serviceable and when the diff's behaviour deteriorates, the VLSD centre is replaced.


perhaps not so good then [/b]

Yeah its basically like a small auto transmission which will never be 100% efficient.
But as for being un reliable they are no more than any other diff and an lsd diff is more prone to breaking than an open diff but it does not stop people from changing their open ones for limiited slip!
A 325ix or 525 for that matter has two of then one rear and a smaller one at the front obviously for the front wheels.
It will be a 40/60 front rear split but ive driven a 325 ix and they are lovely cars and quite unique.
As for changing a standard diff to a visous one it has been done quite a lot but i dont think i would unless i could drive a normal car with it in just to see how it behaves.
But there must be something in it as in Europe its quite a common upgrade for want of a better phase and if you look at German Ebay its got these diffs and they go for a good price so it must be worth while.

dannyboy759 wrote:They are like driving a more powerful 320, due to the extra weight it has and with more grip , they have their problems though and if the body has a prang its unique to that car because of the transmission shape.
A lot of parts are unique too like the sump is a one off but will fit any other M20,the front legs are specific to that car along with the top mounts ect, rear diff is a viscous unit gearbox is only for that car and so on.
Like I said they do have issues but they are good cars, just have to remember that you've got twice as much running gear to go wrong, but that said the parts are all over germane bay and are quite cheap.

How many ix's have you owned or even driven to come to these conclusions?