'90 BMW 325iX

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BBO - 04 Sep 2006 07:18 GMT

Thinking of possibly buying one of these to use as a winter car. Am I
totally deranged, or should I run and buy it if it is in otherwise good
condition. The car has 260k km on it.

What should I, in particular, look out for? I am thinking splines on the
front driveshaft, outer ball joints in the front and stuff like that.

From what I hear the AWD system is almost bulletproof and should not
need any servicing other than maintaining oil-levels of the
transfercase, front and rear differential.

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azoth@dod.no
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Wenn im Zweifel, Volleistung! DoD#2101
'90 BMW 318i '87 BMW 325i Cab When in doubt, floor it!

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Dean Dark - 04 Sep 2006 18:30 GMT

>Thinking of possibly buying one of these to use as a winter car. Am I
>totally deranged, or should I run and buy it if it is in otherwise good
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>need any servicing other than maintaining oil-levels of the
>transfercase, front and rear differential.

I bought a '91 325iX with 185k miles, say 300k km, back in February,
just to mess around with.

When I bought it, I knew the shocks, bushes and just about everything
in the suspension was shot and needed attention, which I'm slowly
doing. The AWD parts on mine seem fine, I think the front driveshaft
spline problem was fixed on the later models.

The only parts that seem difficult or expensive are the transfer case
and front diff (which seem to go on forever anyway) and the front
spring struts (which would only likely need replacing if damaged).
Make sure it's got all the side cladding and that it's in good shape.
That's near impossible to find.

Apart from that, it's a case of looking out for the same as any e30.

The ETK parts manual is invaluable for figuring out repair & assembly,
you can find it here: www.realoem.com. Just plug in the last seven
digits of your VIN and see what you've got.

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Dan.

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BBO - 04 Sep 2006 21:04 GMT

> I bought a '91 325iX with 185k miles, say 300k km, back in February,
> just to mess around with.

Thanks for your reply. If I buy one of these, it's not for messing
around with, but restoring.

> When I bought it, I knew the shocks, bushes and just about everything
> in the suspension was shot and needed attention,

The one I looked at today was exact the same. The body looked like it
was in good condition, but when applying a magnet to the right places on
the body it fell to the ground. :/ The trunk lid was bright red on the
"lip" above the fender. The doors were bright red on the underside.

I was luckily enough to get the car up on a jack so I could walk under
and see how it looked. Many parts were changed, but a lot of the
important and expensive stuff was not. It was a new servo, and the
driveshaft on the left side was changed. The rest was factory original
and not in a good condition.

I walked away from the car as I figured I needed at _least_ US$ 5000 to
bring it up to decent standards, and then additional work to get it as I
would like to have it. It was like looking at somebody with shiny white
front teeth and rotten molars...

> The ETK parts manual is invaluable for figuring out repair & assembly,
> you can find it here: www.realoem.com. Just plug in the last seven
> digits of your VIN and see what you've got.

Thanks for the tip, appreciated.

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BBO, DoD#2101

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Dean Dark - 04 Sep 2006 21:53 GMT

>I walked away from the car as I figured I needed at _least_ US$ 5000 to
>bring it up to decent standards, and then additional work to get it as I
>would like to have it. It was like looking at somebody with shiny white
>front teeth and rotten molars...

I'd figure that *any* 325iX is going to cost you about US $10K.
Either you buy a $2K shed and spend $8K on fixing it, or you buy an
$8K minter (or so you thought) and spend another $2K finishing it off.

I paid $4.5K for mine, mainly because it's a straight and solid 2-door
5-speed, and in spite of pretty much everything being original you can
tell it's been cared for. I figure I'll spend another $5K on it to
get it where I want it - which ain't perfect by a long shot. It's a
nice car but not, at this point in time, and IMHFO, worth a full blown
nut-and-bolt restoration.

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Dan.

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BBO - 05 Sep 2006 04:58 GMT

>> I walked away from the car as I figured I needed at _least_ US$ 5000 to
>> bring it up to decent standards, and then additional work to get it as I
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Either you buy a $2K shed and spend $8K on fixing it, or you buy an
> $8K minter (or so you thought) and spend another $2K finishing it off.

Exactly. :-D

> I paid $4.5K for mine, mainly because it's a straight and solid 2-door
> 5-speed, and in spite of pretty much everything being original you can
> tell it's been cared for.

The car I looked at had not been cared for very well, and the repairs
that had been done were not lasting, but cosmetic if that. The inside of
the top cover was full of tar like deposits. The list goes on.

> I figure I'll spend another $5K on it to
> get it where I want it - which ain't perfect by a long shot. It's a
> nice car but not, at this point in time, and IMHFO, worth a full blown
> nut-and-bolt restoration.

Yeah, why I wanted this car as well, 2 door, manual 5 speed, AWD and the
right engine. Worth picking up and restoring, if it was the right price.
The guy who sold it wanted $US 6000. I figured at its present state it
was worth $US 1500 - 2000.

When I came home I also checked the number of owners: 8, and 4 - 5 sale
notifications on it. I don't know how that is where you live, but here
it is a damn lot of people owning one car. :-)

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BBO, DoD#2101

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