Subject: Congratulations, Look Out For: Author: nitrophish : member since April, 2007 : 97 posts Posted on: 2007-08-07 03:38:35

0. Never heard of wishbone problems on the E30's, though there is a first for everything.

1/2. Find a good Indy (Independent Mechanic) who specializes in older BMW's.

3/4. Buy a Bentley Service manual for your model, this is a bible for BMW owners!

1. Timing Belt, If you don't have records on the car, or the previous owner didn't ever change or doesn't remember changing the timing belt, Have it done immediately, or else you'll have to have the engine rebuilt which costs any where from $1800 (Cheapest I've ever heard of) to $4000 (Dealer Rebuild), and sometimes even more. Good interval to keep you up and running: 55,000 to 60,000 miles, or every four years (Which ever comes first)

2. Water pump, replace it with every timing belt, or every second timing belt (Whichever suits you). It is a simple $50.00 (Or less, find a good place) part that will save many, many headaches. If you hear a sort of "Sleigh Bell" under your hood, replace it as soon as possible, or you will be looking at a rebuild.

3. Oil, ALWAYS USE SYNTHETIC!!, If possible, do it your self and use a quality oil filter. I have heard/experienced horror stories from going to jiffy lube/big-O/etc. (I beat the shit out of a mechanic at jiffy lube, who unscrewed a spark plug, hoping that I would return for more service. His little stunt caused an engine fire in my '88 528e)

4. Strut/Shock mounts: BMW's stock mounts are notorious for going out on the E30's, watch out for that.

5. Regular maintenance & tune-ups: I cannot stress this enough, keep up your maintenance and tune-ups (If at all possible, have all of it done at your local BMW dealer. They do everything buy the book, use/have the right tools, and just generally give you a higher level of service and precision, that you can't find ANYWHERE ELSE. Other people may say that their technicians are just your every day, run of the mill mechanics in BMW logoe'd jumpsuits. Nothing could be further from the truth.) If you keep up your maintenance and tune-ups, your E30 will have know problem running up to 400,000 miles. The engine you have in your E30 "is like wine", it only gets better with age. (You either have the M20 2.5 litre Inline-6 with about 168 horses, or If you have an 325e an M20 2.7 litre Inline-6 with about 121 horses,has less power/torque and geared for more economy)

6. BUY A PERFORMANCE CHIP!!, Look at Dinan's page (http://www.dinancars.com/) for the best you can get. You can buy from the other places, but Dinan is about the best. The chip will remove the top speed limiter, raise the rev limiter about 400 revolutions, and give you more torque and better drivability all around. For the 325i you'll get a 177 horses (22 HP increase) with 177 Nm (15 Nm increase).

7. Good luck with the car, and I wish you many miles of Pure Driving Pleasure.




1988 528eA Delphin-Metallic 152,345 Miles
1988 M5 Black (Repainted Alpineweiss) 32,000 Miles
1991 325iA Alpineweiss 115,452 Miles
1991 M3 Convt. Alpineweiss (Import From Munich) 43,471 Miles
1997 528iA M Technic Sport Titanium Silver 52,386 Miles
1997 850CSiStep Alpineweiss 67,307 Miles
2000 328iStep Sport Titanium Silver 60,437 Miles
2001 750iLStep Sport High Security Titanium Silver 51,621 Miles
2001 M5 Titanium Silver 72,995 Miles
2003 525iStep Blue Water 20,450 Miles

• new e30 owner - loboty 2007-08-06 19:05:45 (648 views)
  • Congratulations, Look Out For: (url) - nitrophish 2007-08-07 03:38:35 (751 views)
  • Congratulations, Look Out For: (url) - nitrophish 2007-08-07 03:38:34 (665 views)
    • Re: Congratulations, Look Out For: - loboty 2007-08-07 08:30:43 (662 views)
      • Re: Congratulations, Look Out For: - nitrophish 2007-08-07 17:00:50 (611 views)
        • Edit: 318's are starting to get rare (nt) - nitrophish 2007-08-07 17:23:46 (650 views)
          • Re: Edit: 318's are starting to get rare - louiseven 2007-08-09 17:40:41 (623 views)
            • Oh, not good - nitrophish 2007-08-12 17:49:41 (635 views)