looking to buy e30 m3, i have questions

[WizardE30M3]

Hey all, I am new to the board and so far I really like it! My name is David and I live in Anniston, AL. I work at Wizard Car Audio here in town. Anyway, what I want to ask about is the E30 M3. I have my modded Acura Integra sold and have been wanting an M3. I have never owned a BMW before and do not know a whole lot about maintenance, etc. Are these cars hard to maintain? I am sure that parts are a little more expensive compared to parts for a Honda/Acura. I will have $10,000 to spend on one so I am sure I can find one thats nice in that price range. I have found a few and am considering. I need to now any key points I need to look at when buying the car, what should I look for, etc.

Thanks in advance,

David

[2whitebimmers]

The E30 M3 is a great car that will run for a long time without presentling any serious problems. These cars rarely rust so if you see rust, its probably from accident damage and you may want to investigate further into it. Also, the timing chain must be replaced at 100,000 miles. If you have found a car for 10 grand than it probably has more than that many miles on it and should have had the chain replaced. If the chain is the original and the car has less than 100,000 miles on it, the job requires that the engine be taken out so it will be costly- try to find one that has just had the chain replaced. It would be better to have a car with just over 100,000 miles and a new chain than one just just under that and the old chain. The transmissions usually hold up well so just keep an eye open for crunching gears or rattling. Cars with stiffer suspension can have tiny hairline cracks around the strut mounting points. Turner Motorsport sells a reinforcment kit for this if there are cracks but you still want the car. The interior is well made and should be in good shape but the leather may be faded or ripped in areas if the car was driven daily. The seats are Recaro and if they are really broken it will be costly to replace them. Lastly, make sure you get a good one seeing as the money you will spend fixing a rough one will only add up to more than you wanted to spend in the first place.
Hope this helps with your search, let me know how it turns out.
-Graham

[1974carrera]

David,

I have an '89 E30 M3 and think it's a great car. They aren't hard to maintain but they definitely do require maintenance; partly because of design and partly because of age ( the youngest are almost 12 years now). Some parts prices are typical E30 prices and some parts are M3-priced. These are not exactly cheap cars to keep up like Japanese cars..."you pays your money and you makes your choice". The engine can be quite expensive to rebuild, almost on the order of doing a 911 engine. This is a good car to have someone specifically familiar with the E30 M3 and S14 engine do a pre-purchase inspection on unless you are confident to thoroughly check it out yourself. There is a really good Special Interest Group (SIG) through BMWCCA for these cars. The technical help and resources of the E30 M3 SIG are tremendous and I recommend you check it out if you buy your M3, or even if you are serious about buying one. Also, there are often good examples listed there for sale by members. Following are a few things someone in the SIG suggested thinking about when checking out one of these cars:

1. Check for cracks near the bolts holding the engine mounts
to the front subframe. Some of the heavily tracked M3's are
showing cracks there. You can see the cracks from the
underside of the subframe at the bolt locations. The cracks
are in the subframe metal. Shake the engine vigorously and
if you hear a squeaking sound, the front subframe is probably
cracked.

2. Check for dimples in the roof between the windshield and
the front edges of the sunroof. This is another sign of a
heavily tracked car. The dimples are caused by torsional
stresses on the body.

3. Common modifications are a performance chip and modified
exhaust cam gear.

4.The OEM suspension is fine for both street and driver schools (but adding Bilstein Sport shocks really improves track performance). There are BMW factory "camber correcting upper strut bearings" that will add .5 degree of negative camber to the front suspension. They make a tremendous improvement in the way the car corners on the track.

5. If you take the car to driver schools frequently, you
should consider ducting the front brakes by replacing the foglights
with brake ducts. Without brake ducts, the rotors tend to warp on the track.

6. Plan to buy a new water pump every few years. For some
reason, the E30 M3 engine wears them out quickly. The M3
does not have the coolant leak problems of the other E30 models,
but some of the M3's experience coolant loss from a worn
coolant recovery tank cap. Buy a new cap from the dealer.
The new ones have been "updated." There was also a recall
for a cooling system update which consists of a special
valve that was installed in one the of the heater hoses that
runs from the cylinder head into the firewall.

7. The lower control arms tend to crack on heavily tracked
cars. The aluminum alloy control arms can be purchased
mail-order for about $159 each.

8. The Bentley manual for the E30 BMW covers most of the
same body and electrical as is on the M3, but the engine
and Motronics on the M3 are different. The factory service
manual (on microfiche only) is the only thing available on the
engine. Koala has a CD for the E30 M3.

9. Are the swaybars still stock? If there are stiffer aftermarket
swaybars on the car, you should take a close look at the mounting locations. The mounting tabs on the front and rear tend to crack with stiffer bars. The tabs need to be reinforced with extra welded metal if stiffer bars are installed.

10. When you have the engine inspected by a mechanic, have him/her remove the valve cover and look carefully for wear in the chain, cam sprockets, and chain tensioner parts. These parts are wearing out on the higher mileage cars.

[yelcab1]

Wow, that was one complete list.

I would second many points already brought up. Namele:

1. not hard to keep up, but does require frequent keeping up
2. hard revving and not the most reliable BMW to own.

problem areas include:

3. Warped rotors, all the time
4. Intake manifold gaskets leak, all the time
5. Water pump every other year
6. Head gasket every other year when the water pump is not broken
7. Throw out bearing is very noisy

Expensive to rebuild, or replace the engine
Fun to drive.

[yelcab1]

By the way,

for $10K, I do not think that you will be getting the better preserved sample.

[paul571]

Wow, this is very timely, I am also been thinking of buying an E30 M3. Thanks for all the info.


Paul
'88 911 Carrera

[Wayne 962]

Wow, good responses! For $10K, you can't get a goo E30 M3? I guess these cars hold their value much more than I thought. For $10K, you can get a very nice 325is (I did). I guess it all depends upon what you are looking for. E36 M3s range around $18-$21K for decent examples...

-Wayne

[racea911]

10k will probably buy you an e30 M3 that needs about $5-7k worth of work or maintenance to be very nice. It seems that everything I read about the e30 M3's says that you can spend $15k on a very nice car or spend $10k on one that needs $5k worth of work or $8k on one that needs $7k worth of work etc.

Wayne these cars are so much rarer than e36 series cars. I'll bet if you counted BMW's that you see on the street, you would see 2,000 e36 BMW's 318's, 325's, 328's and M3's for every one e30 M3 you see. And I'll bet it is at least 2,000 if not 3,000 or 4,000 e36 cars. E30 M3's are very very rare. I live in So Cal and I see an e30 M3 maybe once every 2 months and I am always looking for them. And my e36 M3 that I just bought was just over $30k but it is a '99 with 32,000 miles and a factory warranty until 2005. I love it!!! But still want an e30 M3 to go along with my 73RS look 911 track car. BMW club race one weekend and Porsche the next. Yeehaw!

[Wayne 962]

Agreed - I don't think I've ever seen an E30 M3 on the street by itself...

Ahh, now the 73RS clone...

-Wayne

[yelcab1]

There are a total of ~5000 E30 M3 imported into the states from 88-91. many have crashed and died, some are racing. That does not leave too many for the streets.

For $10k, you'll get an 88M3, with 150K miles, ripped seats, worn out carpet, and a clapped out motor.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

There was a white E30 M3 parked on the corner up the street for a while. They guy was asking $11k, but this car didnt look very good. Had red leather that was all chewed up. I guess they do hold value very well.