your worst experiences with your E30

[Ajsingh]

Last winter, me and the misses at the petrol station, filled the car to the brim with fuel, jumped in and i just wouldn't start... It was minus 7 outside, no heating in the car and only had the bmw toolkit to sort out the car.. So for the next 45 mins i cleaned up all 6 of the plugs and tried starting again. Nothing happened. I was now pissed right off and just left it on the starter, after a loong time just before the battery started conking out, the fappin thing started!!

Previous e30, 320i, whilst doing the timing belt, it was all timed up.. Took the belt off and went to get the new one.. Totally forgot that the old belt was off, i turned the crank and totally forgot the check the cam position up top... Bolted it all together.. Turned the key and click click bang.. There goes
most of the inlet and exhaust valves... Head off with a full rebuild and i gotta say.. After that it ran like a dream! Until my lovely brother found a pole to wrap it round

[Speedtouch]

Spinning my first E30, a 320i moredoor with my brother on board, on a slippery corner, and knocking down a 'Vauxhall Road' sign - it remained in a mangled state for months afterwards

[Silverfang]

[jann]

Seeing all these horrors makes me very nervous about my e30

[Cypriotgeeza]

Seeing all these horrors makes me very nervous about my e30

could happen to any car mate..if you look at it most have happened just after a purchase so what you should be nervous about is previous bodge jobs..if you do everything properly it should be fine!

[Kos]

Another time with the cab it blew a cooling pipe on a slip road just before Bimmerflex and the covent garden flower show. Baking hot day and about a zillion BMW owners just looking at my cab stuck by the side of the road.

covent garden is a long way away from hampton court

[Tedswagon]

Worst experience in an E30 was taking a 318is for a test drive years ago and forgot the owner told me before we set out the rear tyres were nearly legal!! and it was peeing down. What do I do? Enter a roundabout doing about 45 / 50 and accelerate towards my exit. I turned to the owner in the passenger seat and appoligiesed as we span out of control through 360. Managed to bring it to a halt and hit nothing which was good as I didn't want it anyway!!

[stuturners]

My school boy error was the 325i i had just bought conked out (fuel pump) and i was desperate to get it home. Couldnt find the towing eye so just put the tow rope on the front end, it ended with the front end being virtually ripped off. I nearly cried.

[Topblag]

Taking avoiding action from a head on smash with a bus, E30 went broadside and the rear wheels ended up between the front and rear wheels of a large trailer.

Damaged rear quarter, smashed the rear windscreen and quarter window, burst tyre, rear bumper ripped off, a wrecked pair of undercrackers and to top it all off, I'd stopped smoking for 2 years and I drove straight to the shop and bought 20 fags. Now 15 yrs later I'm still smoking.

Bloody E30s !!

[Alex]

just before last years Concourse of the north, I was doing some Paedo style Buffing to my mint brumsport when this happened




I think this Meguires crap was a bit too course ....

Good job it wasnt a tech 1 sport or you would have nothing left to frag

My worst experiance is decided wether or not to sell the IS a 5 year old Audi a4 seems a better idea when your clocking up miles

[aj_mckay]

...some little bugger decided to slash my roof (convertable) to pieces...

Aaaaaah; Corby

[jaffacake]

...some little bugger decided to slash my roof (convertable) to pieces...

Aaaaaah; Corby

not even joking, thats where it happened, was living there 8 weeks ago, moved to tamworth now, it happened about a 6 months ago at Northbrook Gainsborough Rd

[kman82]

not even joking, thats where it happened, was living there 8 weeks ago, moved to tamworth now, it happened about a 6 months ago at Northbrook Gainsborough Rd

very sad mate, hope it didn't put you off keeping the cabby

[aj_mckay]

...some little bugger decided to slash my roof (convertable) to pieces...

Aaaaaah; Corby

not even joking, thats where it happened, was living there 8 weeks ago, moved to tamworth now, it happened about a 6 months ago at Northbrook Gainsborough Rd

Not familiar with the exact area but I know enough about Corby to know never to go there!!

[robbo86]

Spinning my first E30, a 320i moredoor with my brother on board, on a slippery corner, and knocking down a 'Vauxhall Road' sign - it remained in a mangled state for months afterwards

At least it wasnt you that demolished that "Thankyou for driving carefully sign" on the a28 just outa Sarre, Maurice..... Was it???

You know, the one which has done the rounds on the emails etc

[robbo86]

Come to think of it, doing my IS/manual conversion!

More specifically, having replaced the pedal box, realising the brass rod connected to the brake pedal did have a use and trying to reattach it at both ends. Me and furbster spent the best part of 2-3 hours on that.

[Jozi]

Cracked a few sumps on the M42 but not left me stranded. Cracked the 1st one test driving the car

Nothing major gone wrong with the touring aside from a few self inflicted problems that hadn't been accounted for.

Profile gasket (I think) went on the m42 when 3-4hrs away from home, lost a lot of coolant but looked to have gotten home safe without over heating (and hopefully no damage).

[mike325e87]

Yes this certainly can happen to any car. The e30 is a safe car when on it's own in a collision, considering most crashes I've seen pictures of where there were no other vehicles involved. The problem is when you are in a collision with another vehicle. With my car lowered the way it is, (any lowered car) hitting a truck or suv would not end well.

Aside from crashing, I can attest to the strength of the suspension design as I've mentioned before I lived in northern Quebec for nearly 4 years. The suspension held up under horrible conditions, and although some parts became worn and noisy I never had a component break leaving the car inoperable.

In fact many people up north were mystified how my car could survive given it's age. Newer vehicles were breaking trailing arms, having side skirts literally fall off from the gravel blasting the plastic off.

[E30Gheko]

Spinning my first E30, a 320i moredoor with my brother on board, on a slippery corner, and knocking down a 'Vauxhall Road' sign - it remained in a mangled state for months afterwards

At least it wasnt you that demolished that "Thankyou for driving carefully sign" on the a28 just outa Sarre, Maurice..... Was it???

You know, the one which has done the rounds on the emails etc

I love that picture! It cracks me up every time I see it.

I have so many bad E30 experiences it's a wonder I still drive them to be honest. The list of things which haven't worked is huge.

I think the funniest though was a 325i auto I used to own that had a few teeth missing off the fly wheel. Occasionally when I went to start it, the starter wouldn't engage and it would just let rip with an almighty PA-DING!!!!! - Almost always after filling up with petrol on the forecourt. Turning the key felt like a game of Russian roulette.

I would fish into the engine and pull the bottom pulley half a turn to get it going again. I damn nearly killed someone when it did it to me after driving 8 hours through France in blistering heat. The engine was so hot I burned my arm trying to pull it half a turn.

[Speedtouch]

Spinning my first E30, a 320i moredoor with my brother on board, on a slippery corner, and knocking down a 'Vauxhall Road' sign - it remained in a mangled state for months afterwards

At least it wasnt you that demolished that "Thankyou for driving carefully sign" on the a28 just outa Sarre, Maurice..... Was it???

You know, the one which has done the rounds on the emails etc

I can assure everyone, this incident was nothing to do with me - I've never owned a blue E30. I didn't realise it was in Sarre - classic pic!

[robbo86]

Spinning my first E30, a 320i moredoor with my brother on board, on a slippery corner, and knocking down a 'Vauxhall Road' sign - it remained in a mangled state for months afterwards

At least it wasnt you that demolished that "Thankyou for driving carefully sign" on the a28 just outa Sarre, Maurice..... Was it???

You know, the one which has done the rounds on the emails etc

I can assure everyone, this incident was nothing to do with me - I've never owned a blue E30. I didn't realise it was in Sarre - classic pic!

Hmmmm, well having proffessed to a tendency to lose control of e30's into road furniture, with either hilarious/ironic results..........

Gheko, this picture appeared on the front of my local rag about 8-10 years ago. Then randomly, a few years later I got it on an email of ironic pictures from a mate I worked with in the states.