Potential donor car - need advice

#1

Hey all, happy holidays!

After a 2 month search, I may have found a suitable donor car in Los Angeles. The car is a 88 325iS and is pretty clean, has a clean CARFAX report, and has a slew of maintenance records.

Here are the good points:

  1. Very clean and unmolested (no mods). Very stock.
  2. Alpine white (my favorite color for an E30.
  3. Engine and drivetrain runs well. Tranny is a 5-spd.
  4. Brakes well.
  5. Handles well, drives straight.
  6. It’s an iS model.
  7. Mileage is 183K which seems OK for a soon-to-be 19 year old car.
  8. The car was put on a lift and there is absolutely no rust or underside damage.
  9. Timing belt, plugs, O2 sensor were replaced two months ago.

Here are the bad points:

  1. The car was sideswiped while parked and has a crunched but serviceable left front fender. The car drives well with the damage but it really needs to be replaced.
  2. The sideswipe also lightly damaged the driver door and put a small dent in th rear quarter panel. This damage appears to be easily fixable and the door and power window both work fine.
  3. Oil or tranny fluid noticed below the tranny. Not sure where the leak is coming from. I assume it’s a seal.
  4. CEL light was on and the owner claims it is probably the O2 sensor. He and his Dad (they run a small service station) hooked up a scanner and it pointed to the O2 sensor, which was replaced recently. Bad O2 sensor? Bad wiring? Any other possibilities? The smog tech will be in tomorrow to check it out.
  5. ABS light was also on. No big deal to me as I don’t want ABS but could this be a sign of other issues?
  6. The heater didn’t blow hot or even warm air, even after the engine had been running for a while. Heater core issue?

Aside from all the above, the seems like it was well-taken care of for much of its life. The seller is asking $3000 for it.

Any advice, especially on the CEL and ABS warning lights? I’m not too concerned about body damage. This stuff is easy enough to fix.

Thanks for any help and I apologize for being so long-winded.

Mike

#2

O2 sensor can be bunch of issues you mentioned, but also including vacuum leaks and such. Are you sure that nothing more on the car is damaged that meets the eye? Oil around tranny might indicate that seal is going bad (hard to say without really looking). I would say that 3k is a bit much for the car. If you can find a car where engine and tranny are decent, but suspension and interior are shot (that’s the stuff that you will be replacing anyways so don’t pay premium for it). I got my car (87is) for $600 from a girl that couldn’t afford /didn’t want to pay mechanic ($100/h for few hours) to change water pump and timing belt. Shocks were gone and driver seat was a bit torn…she basically did not want to deal with the car anymore and just wanted to sell it.

Igor

#3

Don’t be too concerned about small fluid leaks. You will have a hard time finding an e30 that doesn’t ooze something. Like Igor said, $3k might be a little high for a car with 180k + miles and body damage that you described. But you mentioned having looked for 2 months for your car and I know how impatient you can get (or I did). For reference, I bought my 1990 325i eleven months ago for $3500. I know that I paid too much for it but I had been looking for 4 months and just got tired of looking. I wanted to start out with a good, straight, solid car so I bought it. My car was a 2 owner car with all records since new. Had 120k miles and was pretty much in excellent condition. I sold off everything I could during the build and made back about $1000.

If you are ready to pay that much money for the car I would take it to a BMW specialist and have it checked out top to bottom, including compression and leak down tests. For $3k you should be getting a strong engine and straight body. The interior doesn’t really matter because its coming out anyway. Good luck!

#4

ABS light is possibly caused by crudded up wheel speed sensors or bad wires on said sensors.
Check engine light meand the ECU holds a code. an 88 iS should be Motronic 1.3 so the key in on position, floor the gas pedal 5 times to have it blink out the code.
Very few E30’s don’t ooze some fluids. The rear seals tend to leak after a while and the tranny input and output seals as well. Also the oil filter housing is a known leaker too. some of the earlier cars also had a leak on the right side of the block, arount cyl. #4 from the head gasket.
There is a valve that opens and closes to supply the heater core that is located under the cover on the left side of the core. check that the PO didn’t just bypass the core at the firewall instead of fixing a leaky valve.

#5

Agreed… 3k seems a lot unless it was a low mileage cherry.Heck, I’ll sell my 90is for half that . And doesn’t have the damage!

#6

BigBruce wrote:

Agreed. Waaaay too much for a car that has both body damage and obvious electrical issues. My car had a very clean interior (w/ exception of driver’s seat), all electical works fine. Enginer had 163K and runs strong. The current suspension is very tight and the car rides nice. Had a wrinkle in the LF fender and the front spoiler missing. Was able to get it for $1100. '87 325is. Have a bead on another car, a '90 325i auto that I hope to pick up for $750. The kid put his own auto trans in and didn’t align the torque converter. He lives in an APT and they are threatening to tow because he’s been working on it in the parking lot. It’s got a very clean interior, 140K engine, brand new exhaust and nice rims. once I scavange the parts, it will almost be free.

Keep looking…

#7

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I guess I’ll pass on this one and start searching again after the holidays.