E30 reliability...

[epj3]

I just noticed that most us on this thread joined Jul 2003.
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats becuase July 2003 is when the software was changed to vbulletin, and everyone had to 'rejoin'

If you want to see the real join dates; http://www.bmwboard.com/forum_archive/

 

[Mr.W]

Oh.............
Thats what I ment.............
"Rejoined"

I am a dumbass!

 

[AREITU]

if you guys are paranoid about additives, Motul makes a nonsynthetic detergent-free and additive-free oil. Most people use it to break in a freshly built motor. There's this one video circulating around on the internet of a Civic that was drained of oil and coolant and it ran for about half an hour at full throttle. The only reason it stopped running was because the fuel line eventually melted and set the spark plug wires on fire. The spark plugs themselves were fine, though!

And for the record, if any of you guys pick up a BMW or feel the need to clean out the crud on the inside of your enigne, try some Mobil 1 Drive Clean. My friends use it on their cars when they put Japanese engines in. One of my friends put the stuff in, drove the car around for a few hours and it came out absolutely black.

I'm looking into E30s myself, but more of a fun daily driver car to supplement a potentially unreliable and expensive to operate car. By the way, can anybody point me out to a sticky or a site that explains all the E30 model year changes and the trim levels? (ie "325ie" "325iS")

 

[epj3]

if you guys are paranoid about additives, Motul makes a nonsynthetic detergent-free and additive-free oil. Most people use it to break in a freshly built motor. There's this one video circulating around on the internet of a Civic that was drained of oil and coolant and it ran for about half an hour at full throttle. The only reason it stopped running was because the fuel line eventually melted and set the spark plug wires on fire. The spark plugs themselves were fine, though!

And for the record, if any of you guys pick up a BMW or feel the need to clean out the crud on the inside of your enigne, try some Mobil 1 Drive Clean. My friends use it on their cars when they put Japanese engines in. One of my friends put the stuff in, drove the car around for a few hours and it came out absolutely black.

I'm looking into E30s myself, but more of a fun daily driver car to supplement a potentially unreliable and expensive to operate car. By the way, can anybody point me out to a sticky or a site that explains all the E30 model year changes and the trim levels? (ie "325ie" "325iS")

Unreliable? 16 year old 172,000 mile 325is (the highest 3 series trim model, next to the m3) starts every morning, burns no noticeable amounts of oil inbetween changes, everything works fine. I've put $160 into it since January which includes 80 bucks in rotors/pads for the rear. My car's been more reliable than a few kid's jap car's at school. Plus mine is RWD and not a softened down wanna-be sports car

 

[jrt67ss350]

I'm looking into E30s myself, but more of a fun daily driver car to supplement a potentially unreliable and expensive to operate car. By the way, can anybody point me out to a sticky or a site that explains all the E30 model year changes and the trim levels? (ie "325ie" "325iS")

That's exactly what I did. I bought my E30 to be a fun daily driver to supplement my expensive to operate Camaro that requires periodic tinkering and tuning to keep it running properly. It's been a good choice. I bought my BMW for $1500, and the only major thing I have had to do is have the clutch replaced a few weeks ago. However, 260,000 miles on the original clutch is definitely not something to complain about!

Plus, the driving dynamics of the E30 are awesome - it truly is a fun-to-drive daily car.