[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.