Are E30's hard to work on?

[ShawHale]

So like the title says I was wondering if E30's are particularly hard to work on. I'm thinking of getting one that already has an M54 engine swap and was wondering if that would change anything in terms of maintenance. I've never had any experience really working on cars and really want to learn how to maintain and upgrade my own car for the money saving factor, not to mention it just seems like a lot of fun. Any advice would be wonderful!

[Brianmoooore]

E30s in their original standard form were extremely easy to work on. The RH drive conversion makes the odd thing a little harder, as did advances such as power steering and the like. Still fairly easy though, without masses of special tools, and because of the high quality of parts, most things can be removed and replaced without damage, if you know how.
The M54 does fill up the under bonnet somewhat, so access is worse than with the OE engines, but nothing worse than on many more modern car, and in most cases, better.
Access to the heater motor is one of the hardest things with a M5x engine, but is still possible.

[Blanca]

I have changed the head, radiator, belts, water pump, 4 shocks, brakes and it has all been very simple and apart from a spring compressor for the front struts, all very easy with basic tools.

Great thing is, you don't need to work on them as much as the newer, 'plastic' spastics made later. Pretty bullet proof.

[Contours]

The e30 is a joy to work on and seems built for the diy enthusiast. In contrast, it seems many modern cars are designed the opposite so the customer has to go to the main dealer with the special tools. You can service an e30 M40 without jacking the car off the ground and change every bulb in the car in ten minutes. With some cars now, you have to remove the bumper to change a bulb. Design engineers do not obviously care whether their cars are easy to work on but when this is the case you would imagine they would design better looking cars.

[Cloggy Saint]

There are a few jobs that are very tricky, changing an M20 starter motor springs to mind but on the whole they're fairly simple.

[Brianmoooore]

There are a few jobs that are very tricky, changing an M20 starter motor springs to mind but on the whole they're fairly simple.

Not as easy as on a M40, I'll give you that, but it's still far from difficult. Try it on a M50 E39. Takes an hour of dismantling just to get a glimpse of the thing.

[Grepot]

I bought my M40B18 touring for a bit over 3 grand with the aim of doing a majority of the work myself. Prior to owning it, I'd never even serviced a car myself.

In under a year of owning it I've done the camshaft, belt and other engine service items. With the interior I've also done the headlining, fixed the sunroof, fixed the door lock and central locking. I'm just about to get around to replacing the cat this weekend hopefully.

It's definitely different owning a car like this since every off sound it makes fills me with fear, but it's still going despite being owned by a neanderthal.

Also, the forum is invaluable for any technical help. Brian seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of these cars and he's helped me loads throughout.