Calling Everyone for help Touring Help ???????

[TW166Y]

right here is the touring that ive been offered, its a 325i manual.... 107.000 miles, cream sports leathers, alpina's, stainless exhaust, chipped, private plate, also spare set of alpina's thrown in but two are damaged, heres the bad bit... it has no m.o.t but has tax... the sills have a little hole in either side about 10p size, battery tray is rotton but will plate up, filler neck is knackered on tank, and two little dents on bonnet and manifold has a slight blow!!! all this for Ԛ£750 is it over priced or a good bargain?? need some advise a.s.a.p because im picking it up in the morning but i wont be having it if i cant be teard away from it!!! here are some photos below... thanks guys

[Taylor325i]

Looks a bargain and if you don't find much else wrong with it when you view it then I'd go for it. Shouldn't cost much to repair the faults you already know about. Good luck, mate.



Taylor.

[dazleeds]

yeah id go for that if the worst happend and it fails test badly it would break for decent money 6good alpinas leathers stainless etc
engine/box/chipped ecu etc just have a good check over it fella but looks like will make a nice car mate

shame no mot but lots of goodies try haggle a wee bit

[TW166Y]

how are you taylor, aint heard off you for a while? yeh sounds good buddy thats what i thought but i have been told to replace the manifold the head has to come off, that job aint gonna be cheap.. also another job that worries me is the filler neck to the petrol tank... been told also that is a bitch of a job to do and tanks aint too cheap either!!

[dazleeds]

why does head have to come off???

[TW166Y]

yeah id go for that if the worst happend and it fails test badly it would break for decent money 6good alpinas leathers stainless etc
engine/box/chipped ecu etc just have a good check over it fella but looks like will make a nice car mate

shame no mot but lots of goodies try haggle a wee bit

Daz my man, this is also my trouble i cant afford to break it, i need it as a car because im selling the sport so that will leave me with no motor!!! it gives me 1 week exactly to get the beast back on the road

[TW166Y]

why does head have to come off???

been told its a bolt underneath the head and is a b@stard to get at

[dazleeds]

theres never any guarentees mate

best to check things like brakepipes rear axle bushes etc have a good look in the inner rear arches etc never done filler neck so dnt know how bad that is??

do u know a mech who could do a check for ya when u go??
failing that get it jacked up yaself and just look at everything and try work out what it will need for test mate

[dazleeds]

thats crap mate theyre all a bit fiddly but not a nitemare hardest part is not snapping studs

maybe they have already thats why they say head has to come off???

check all the studs are there

[TW166Y]

will do nice one daz, cant take a machanic neither the car is miles away from my house

[dazleeds]

make sure them studs are all on mate if not then cut price cos costs to get em out if u cnt do it yaself and it could get pricey also makesure whoever does the manifold knows how prone to snapping the lil buggers are might be a good time to change em and the nuts i usually go to hardware shop and match them up as the bmw seems to seize to the studs a lot obviously not the best quality Daz

check check and check again mate but sounds and looks a good car
good luck

[Taylor325i]

how are you taylor, aint heard off you for a while? yeh sounds good buddy thats what i thought but i have been told to replace the manifold the head has to come off, that job aint gonna be cheap.. also another job that worries me is the filler neck to the petrol tank... been told also that is a bitch of a job to do and tanks aint too cheap either!!

Yeah I'm fine mate not been doin' much surfin recently.

The manifold comes away from the head no probs - just unbolt it. (give the nuts a skoosh of WD40 the night before you're gonna tackle it). Should just need new gaskets. The filler neck should be able to be replaced without a new tank - I think (might be wrong but i thought they were separate parts) although the tank will probably need to come out although again not too sure as I've not done a filler neck/tank replacement yet.


Taylor.

[TW166Y]

cheers for the help fellas both of you, nice to know the jobs aint gonna be as hard as first suspected im a happy man

[gareth]

looks like a good buy to me.

absolute worst case Ԛ£500 will cover buying a good tested head from a bmw breaker (overpriced) and paying a garage to fit it. at Ԛ£1250 it's still good value when you consider its condition.

check the touring specific bits are all ok (loadcover, rear seats, boot panels / hatches etc) as they can all take a hammering in a tourer. i paid about this for mine with 15" bbs, lowered, scorpion exhaust, lsd, cloth recaro interior etc. imo it's worth it even if the car's a dog. buy a good one and swap the leather over . it's rare a rocking horse poo in that condition!

thinking about it', i'd buy this and if it's rotten, buy a non rotten one and swap away til it's got the best bits of both!

[TW166Y]

nice one mate, also its a 1988 so does this make it a pre or doesnt it really matter? i think its dam cool for the money, needs a little tlc but dont they all???

[bigdek]

dude thats the one that was on ebay and was only 5 mins away from me (dunfermline scotland ) .

sold on ebay for 1500 notes if i'm not mistaken

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... =9837&rd=1

[dazleeds]

most of pics same too??

[TW166Y]

thats the very one fellas!!! i guy bought it with the intention to do the jobs that needed doing but "hasn't got around to it" thats why im a bit cagey about buying it....... you see why im dragging my heals a bit now?? dont know if he simply hasnt got the time or if he's realised its too big of a job to complete!! he seems like a genuine nice guy though soo i think im gonna have it, deffo worth the coin i think

[E30Adam]

Seriously mate, as I've said in my PM's... don't touch it.

Ask yourself this... why would the guy let a perfectly good car go so cheap?? I'll tell you why, because he can't shift it and it's got too much wrong with it. If you buy this car then you're going to be buying a car full of problems. Don't be fooled by "it looks nice".

The manifold is blowing because one of the studs is snapped. This means getting the head off and having it drilled out and helicoiled which is not going to be cheap. That's if none of the others snap when you're trying to get it off. I've never taken an exhaust manifold off without a nut siezing or a stud snapping, it most likely will happen.

The rust as I said to you before is the tip of the iceburg and a structurally sound shell is the most important thing when buying an E30. Becuase there is rust in so many different places and also the fuel tank is leaking shows that it's been kept in damp conditions and there will be a lot more rust and corrosiono to parts where you can't see it. THe sills will most likely be rotten as will the rear arches. If the filler neck pipe is rotten then there's most probably a hole in the inner arch leading to the inside of the boot behind all the trim. The battery tray is rotten which means the inner wings won't be far behind which will be an MOT failure.

If you buy this car it's going to cost you a lot of money to put right and I still don't think you'll end up with a very good car.

[TW166Y]

when you put it like that adam it really does sound like a shed!!! the guy who im buying it off only payed Ԛ£750 for it because he also bought these points up when it was advertised..... he payed exactly what hes letting me have it for, the only thing im too bothered about is getting the cream sports leather but Ԛ£800 is a lot of money to shed out for interior, lol, fair enough the alpina's are ok to have too but its like adam says if things have rotton, how far does the rott actually go where you cant see??? that another big problem, i think its gonna cost me a lot of money to put this back on the road and like adam says i aint gonna end up having a near "perfect" ride am i? there is still going to be rott niggling away where i cant see it

[Jos]

If you can see rust then it is a lot worse than you think, learnt this from my 1st shell.. the more you go looking the worse it gets. When I looked at the car 1st of all, I could see a little touch of surface rust beside the subframe mount, I had to replace the whole thing, same issue with the rear arches, little surface rust on the lip, they were shot to hell. There were lots of other little holes all over the place. It only takes a little pinhole in the underseal and the water gets up in behind it and rusts the body away behind the underseal, you don't see it until basically the thing is rotten..

Have a look here and see all the bits that had gone on mine, keeping in mind that was an '85 sub 100k car and the cills weren't that bad on it (no visible rust) If yours has then it is going to be worse.

http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... light=318i

Shame too, it would make a nice breaker and I would love the seats from it

[E30Adam]

the guy who im buying it off only payed Ԛ£750 for it because he also bought these points up when it was advertised

I rest my case!!!!

Chances are he can't afford to get it repaired!!

[fuzzy]

definately looks nice in the photos,but the rust is a bit of a worry,although it doesnt seem to much it does suggest that its spread through out the car ,so lots of hidden problems not yet discovered, a garage quoted me between Ԛ£200-Ԛ£300 for fixing a broken manifold stud as the head had to come off,having said that though the sum of all the parts on it would make you much more than the original Ԛ£750 you paid if you broke it for parts,so you wouldnt be out of pocket if you did buy it and it turned out to be a scrapper

[TW166Y]

may be worth it just to rip the leathers out then and stick them in anothershell, alpina's should fetch a bit x6 stainless exhaust and a chip, i dont think id be that much out of pocket by the time id swapped over, may actually prove to be a good move, this touring has all the gadgets apart from obc, could buy a cracking shell and do it that way around i suppose,

[E30Adam]

Sounds to me like you've already made your mind up and you're going to buy it no matter what anyone else says.

[Cotty]

Cant offer any tech advice but good luck whatever you decide

[TW166Y]

no adam not at all buddy, should have picked it up today but i havn't gone down because of what "everyone" else has said, i just know that those cream leathers are rare as hell to get hold of and i just dont wanna miss out on them, like i said in the above post Ԛ£800 is a lot of money to pay just for the leather, i want a really good touring adam and ive been searching for 2 months and found nowt!! just feel like the best option is too get two tourings, one with all the parts on i.e the above car then the other to have a cracking body, then do the swap, im really dissapointed how many S H I T tourings there are on the market and if they are any good they are automatic

[TW166Y]

Cant offer any tech advice but good luck whatever you decide

+1 post cheers buddy

[gareth]

if you find a good tourer it's unlikely to happen to have a decent sport interior. for this reason alone i'd risk it. lay it up somewhere and look for a good soplid shell with no regard to wheels, toys, interior etc. that way you can then play swapsies between the two and finish up with a bit of a heap to flog on fleabay and a tidy solid tourer with the toys.

i bought mine assuming it was a total heap (150 miles away on ebay) as it had a mint cloth interior, the rest of the car turned out to be pretty smart, just mechanical niggles and the bonus of finding a LSD! that said, if it turned out to be a rusty heap, i got the full 325 running gear, lowered, uprated disks and pads, lsd, loadcover with dog guard, 15" bbs's, full electrics etc and that's worth it alone. the only rik is if you can find the money to have the two at the same time and if you have a place to strip them.

imo, you'll almost never find one that doesn't want anything doing... if you did, you'd probably cry at what it's worth!

[TW166Y]

soo very true, in this case it has to be worth the money, cream recaro leather 4 door, how rare is that?? i think ill buy it regarding the niggles, if its a pile i can play swaps with two motors, at the end of the day you have hit the nail on the head there, i aint gonna get what im looking for so i may as well make one up out of two motors,

[gareth]

i agree. don't forget that the rear seats in a tourer are unique. the fronts are non-tilting sports like the 4 door but the rears have the split fold. i doubt that even 4 door rears could be made to fit without looking very nasty!

[TW166Y]

either way they will go inside another touring wont they mate? wouldnt want to put them in a 4 door saloon, i need the extra boot space for the mut so i would only consider buying another touring to exchange, with a bit of luck on my side for a change, i might be able to pull this off and just hpeing that the rust aint too bad, thanks everyone for you advise and opinions but it has now been bought to my attention that its quite a deal ill be getting regarding all of the extra's i do agree with adam though about the rust side of things........ one can only hope i hope it aint too much of a dog though

[320Touring]

Have to agree with Adam here, Ԛ£750 is way too much for a shed like that.

Karan's Red touring cost Ԛ£500

my 320 touring cost Ԛ£300

this one is way too expensive for all the problems that you'll encounter.

the one for sale in the "for sale " section (lachs silver, grey leather) is a much better bet IMO

good luck either way

[TW166Y]

im starting to come around now i think, Ԛ£800 is a little steep for a 16 year old car with no m.o.t! accessories are good but te price is too high, maybe if it was Ԛ£400 would sound a bit more tempting hhhmmmmm?

[320Touring]

im starting to come around now i think, Ԛ£800 is a little steep for a 16 year old car with no m.o.t! accessories are good but te price is too high, maybe if it was Ԛ£400 would sound a bit more tempting hhhmmmmm?

TBH mate its got no real value-leather seats are all well and good-assuming you can use the car!!!

I'd leave it well alone.

mine was 300 + Ԛ£170 to get an MOT-so 800 is way too steep