E30 air conditioning...........

[manu]

A big hello to everyone, i am new to the forum........BIG BIG BMW FAN

I'm 30 yrs old and live in langley, berkshire. Been driving bmw's for around 9 years. Love them.......would'nt drive any other car.

Past cars include E30-318/320/325, E36-325/328, E36 M3 Evo 4 door south african import

All these cars were coupes

Then, one day i done something really stupid.........i got married. My wife in all fairness loves bmws like me, but wanted a bigger house......so the M3 had to go. My life is miserable.......i now drive around in diesels, one is a peugeot 206 HDI and the other is a VW golf GT TDi (150bhp) Anniversary model(which is a lovely car to drive, even as a diesel)

What i would like to do is buy a nice 325i sport coupe or convertible.

My question is, how hard is it to fit air conditioning to the 325 block and how much will it set me back.

Can anyone advise

manu

ps If anyone is selling a nice 325i coupe or convertible, i would be very interested.

[Simon]

If you're in the market for buying a 325i sport, then keep you're eyes peeled for one fitted with aircon from new, 9 times out of 10 though it will probably not be working, but at least the components will already be fitted.

Fitting to a car that is not fitted from standard is quite an involved task, and in my opinion would best be left to a specialist, there's a guy on here ian332isport that is/has fitting A/C to his 325i sport (but with a 3.2 evo engine).

P.S. the E30 is refered to as a saloon not a coupe!!

[manu]

Thanks mate, i've always referred to them as coupes...............learned something new as soon as i joined the zone

How much should i be looking at spending on a mint 325 saloon or convertible and wheres the best place to look.

manu

[William]

hi chap welcome to the zone,

if you really mean mint and money is the secondary consideration I would look no further than http://wlnautomotive.co.uk/

even if there isn't a car there at the mo you fancy, get in contact because I gather he's a very knowledgeable and helpful chap and could probably get you what you want within reason.

Also keep looking here, Ebay and Autotrader, and be prepared to wait to find what you want. I waited a couple of months for the right one which wasn't that long but felt like it at the time - there are boys on here who have looked for 6 months + before finding the right car.

good luck

[aus325]

9 times out of 10 though it will probably not be working

....and I thought I was just unlucky...that's a relief.
Does this suggest that there is a relatively common fault within the a/c system? ie: simply requires regassing? or perhaps a more acute electrical problem?

[CaesarBob]

Failed air con systems are probably due to lack of maintenance so it'll likely be any number of things from no gas to failed seals and electrical gremlins.

Manu - if you can't find a car with air con as standard there are specialists who retro fit air con to older cars. TBMW featured one such company a while back (can't remember the name tho) who were fitting to a 2002. From memory they reckonned on about a Ԛ£1000 to fit out a car where air con was originally an option.

[ian332isport]

I'm pretty sure Shinobi called them soon after the article was in the magazine, and they were looking around Ԛ£1400 for an E30

Fitting A/C to a non A/C equipped E30 is a bit of a pain as the entire heater box needs to be replaced. This can only be done if you remove the entire dash. If you are happy to do that then the rest is easy really.

The car is mostly pre-wired for the A/C, so the electrics are not really too much of a problem (unless you have an E36 engine fitted ).

Most used systems from broken cars are going to be in need of some new parts, but they seem to be available from the dealer still.

Cheers,

Ian.