I purchased a 1987 325e
I did some minor work to it and I have been daily driving it for the last 2 years.
Ever since then I wanted another e30.
I have found a few for sale here on r3v, e30tech, ebay, autotrader, craigslist, bimmerforums. Through local advertisement in papers and automotive catalogs.
I'm a bmwcca member and have check the classified section of the roundel for an e30.
I have purchased one way plane tickets to cars that I thought were the one for sure. With something always coming up.
Yes I'm picky, but its my money an I wanted a nice example of a clean e30.
I ended up finding one right in the city I live in.
I was on my way home when I saw an alpinewhite e30 driving on the same street in the opposite direction.
I immediately made a u turn to go check out when I hit a red light.
As soon as it turned green I floored it to try to catch up to it.
I saw the e30 turn into an automotive complex of shops.
I parked next to the e30 and then went out to find the owner.
I met the owner and asked him if he was interested in selling the car.
He politely told me no not at the moment and left in another car.
He was dropping off the car at a shop to get his fuel filter and some other maintenance done.
I talked to the mechanic and he put it on the lift for me. I took detailed notes and several pictures of the car.
I also found out that the this mechanic (eric) has worked on this car for the last 7 years. So he knew a thing or two about the car :pimp:
I left my name and number with the mechanic to attach to the invoice just in case the owner decided to change his mind and sell me the car.
I wrote down the vin and license plate to do some hw and research when I got home that night.
I found that the car was indeed a alpinweib II car with no airbag. Build date 12/14/1988 BMW only made these for approximate 8 months with a clear coat but no airbag.
It was the reason why I had such a hard time finding an e30.
It was well worth the wait.
I also ran the carfax and the car has only been registered in southern California its whole life and shows no accident damage.
About a month after finding it the day at the shop I got a call from the owner and he said that he was ready to sell.
Immediately went over to negotiate the car with him
we came to an agreement and I asked him to go with me to the dmv to get the title transferred I wanted to do it in person.
Just for personal reason's I didn't want something to come up later on.
Got the title all squared away got the car insured and went off for a drive down to San Diego.
The day I found her at the shop.
Up on the lift for inspection.
Yes the blue bmw was out of the way when I inspected her.
When I snapped the shot it was closing time at the shop and the were storing the blue car underneath.
The day I bought it.
12/23/2009
I drove down to San Diego to open her up on the highway:pimp:
Getting some 91 octane at Chevron
Got her home and assessed the condition she was in.
engine bay
hot air filter
cracked intake boot
cracked idle control valve hose
cracked valve cover to throttle body hose
misc wires unplugged and in a mess
overall pretty dirty
misc wiring in the battery tray
valve cover gasket leaking on to heat shields
checked out the interior in close detail
Cracked dash
sony headunit
misc led's above headunit
4 spoke steering wheel
old shifter
sloppy shift linkage
torn shift boot
fluctuating gas gauge.
missing rear center console
missing rear ash tray
cracked ebrake handle
stains in the carpet
non oem matts
sticky passenger seat belt buckle
sharpie mark in the rear seat back.
So I started off with the engine bay.
I wanted to get rid of the filter setup.
The engine ground strap was in sorry shape:(
corroded and just looked terrible.
Yep sure was time to replace
I had to special order one at the dealer.
3 days later I got this badboy
Much better
I wanted to check if my cps was in spec.
And although it was I replaced it anyway as the cable was frayed near where it crosses the front of the motor.
I replaced the throttle body gasket, and I also cleaned the inner part of the throttle body gasket and the inner part on the motor side of throttle body.
I replace the idle control valve hose, the valve cover to throttle body hose
and the intake boot cleaned the afm a bit and acquired a used afm from Peerless at e30 motorwerks.
It came with an old filter so that was immediately replaced with a stock mahle filter
Installed an upper radiator hose and zip tied out of the way to prevent it getting caught in the clutch fan.
and here is the before shot of the cap, rotor and wires
old vs new rotor
old vs new cap
I haven't decided which spark plug wires to get here is a thread on that.
But I'm leaning towards stock
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=164076
I wanted to figure out what the extra wires that were in the battery tray were for.
I traced them back and went from the battery tray across the firewall zip tied to the stock wiring harness and it went into a plug in the firewall near the brake booster.
I removed the lower dash panel, to see where the wire leads were going to and the wire was cut right there.
It was fed through the firewall and just cut there.
I believe the car has an alarm installed by a past owner and the previous owner just cut it out.
extra wiring in the battery tray
wiring across the firewall
wiring at the firewall plug
wiring removed
Engine all buttoned up, for now...
Now that the engine was all buttoned up I went to my smog guy.
In the state of ca you have to have an airbox or you "can technically" fail visual inspection. Some smog guys don't really care but I wasn't going to risk it.
O did I mention my smog guy used to track a zinno e30 with a full cage and used to track an e36m3
now he is tracking a delphin gray shade of gray e36m3, you can see it in the back left of the shop.
This is the only other person who has driven my e30 since I bought it and Im half way comfortable with it because he used to have an e30 and he has an e36 m3 now.
Super Smog in Lake Forest Ca.
Ask for Danny
track prepped e30 & e36
getting tested for nox and co2
his m in the back corner
The car passed the dreadful CA smog with flying colors!:pimp:
shot to celebrate passing smog first try.
