KuHL 951

Please excuse this non P-car post. I know many of you are Bimmer owners also and might be able to enlighten me some. I'm looking at a 1991 325 ix. It was the all-wheel drive model popular for rally in Europe. It has 115K on the motor and 180K on the drivetrain. It was mechanic owned and has fair documentation. It drove well to redline, shifted up and down effortlessly, good clutch, rotors @ 50% wear, AC blows cold, interior is fair-good,(dirty no tears), all electrics worked that I tried. Body and paint is straight no evidence of accidents. The bad is a moderate shimmy at 50-55mph and a small coolant leak from the hose at the TB. I need to know if anyone is familiar with any pros and cons of then all-wheel drive system on this car. I can pick it up for $3200 if I work fast. Would this car be a decent semi-daily driver for that price?

TIA,
Steve

TRWright

I just sold my 2000 328i, don't know much about the awd ones.

www.bimmerforums.com is your friend.

Legoland951

Do you really need the ix? If 4wd is important, get it because seems like you are getting a good car for the money. Otherwise, stay away from the 4wd because that transmission may cost more than your car is worth if you had to replace it due to rarity.

bleucamaro

Steve, the shimmy is most likely a wheel balance problem. I had an 85 325e w/ bavarian autosport chip and short shifter. . . and plugwires oooooooh (i know you're impressed). . . back on the topic, Me and my roomate at the time went in halves on the car at $40 bucks each, replaced the clutch slave and charged the batery. The car hadn't moved in nearly 6 months (b/c of the clutch) before we bought it, and when we cranked it fired right up and ran like a champ. after the clutch fix it mostly sat and we drove the **** out of it whenever we did drive it. It had 186k on the clock when we got it (i think). Grover Beach CCRs stated that we couldn't leave it parked more than 3 days, so we'd start it once every couple days, rev it a bunch, dump the clutch from 3 grand and smoke the tires up the block, drift it around the neighborhood and put it away wet. It never burned any oil, or had any leaks. We sold it for almost $1500 to a guy who's been daily driving it for almost 2 years.

The engine was/ is very bulletproof, volvoesque.

If $3200 seems like a fair price to you, ask your self the same question I ask whenever I'm buying or selling something, can I find a nicer one for less money?

All that said, I don't know anything about their AWD setup, but if you plan on taking the car to the mountains in winter, It could be a great thing. . . If you are just going to comute in it, maybe it'll be a huge maintnance liability.

All that said, where we driving to tomorow

KuHL 951

Dan,
Ah the joys of a 9/80 workweek, huh?. Where are we driving tomorrow? You can drive up here and wait for the UPS guy to deliver my injectors and the USPS guy to deliver my Paragon order with EVO diverter valve, seals, exhaust donuts, and copper nuts and help me get back on the road . The PO of my car had stripped the fuel rail cap and sealed it with thread sealer so I had to cannalbalize a rail off one of the spare motors, while I was in there of course I had to send the injectors off to Witchunter for rebuild. I came so close to having an engine fire when I started it last weekend because of the fuel rail spewing gas out onto the dist. cap. Thank God I'm **** and checked for leaks when I backed it out for a test run. I did find my large vac leak though, it was the large rear vac pipe fitting at the intake manifold; it had popped loose but was still semi-attached while sucking like a...I won't go there! JB Weld to the rescue! It idled smooth as glass for the first time in months until I saw the gas leak. BTW the BMW guy says he'll trade straight across for the 83...it's tempting I have to admit.

Steve

bleucamaro

DO IT!!!!

I might stop by in the afternoon then. I also said I'd help my old man prep his cars for this weekend, mmm, detail work.

KuHL 951

No pressure...stop by if you can. I'll be dealing with the Bimmer in the morning I think anyway.

jcb928

I would bet the shimmy is the ball joints going. The all wheel drive system is hard on the front ball joints and they wear out fairly fast. The $3200 price is a fair price.

Legoland951

Though I never had wheel shimmy problems in any e30s I owned, just about every e32 and e34 I had did shimmy. The rubber bushings on thrust arms (upper control arm) were gone and a couple times the ball joints were bad also. I replace the thrust arms altogether and cost $120 for the pair on ebay. Those came with the 750 heavy duty rubber bushings.

KuHL 951

Thanks-I'm seeing if I can bring the car home and do my own PPI while on jack stands. It was sad to see that the steering components are the same as the 944 has...same leak at the same PS reservoir! Do you know if the upper bushings are a press out or integral to the control arm? I have to admit, access the engine is very good, beats access to the 951 that's for sure.

Steve

Legoland951

They are press outs for the e32 and e34s I have dealt with but I have never had to change them for the e30. The parts cost more than the new thrust arms with NEW heavy duty bushings pressed in. Junk yards have plenty of parts for those cars. Though the resevoir are the same, I have never had leaky racks as problems for the bmws the way I had in the 944 and 928s. Access to almost everything on BMWs is better than the 944 or 951s though I never had to do nearly as much work on my bmws as my porsches.

KuHL 951

Thanks Lego, I got more info from RL than on the Bimmerforums.com site...Rennlist to the rescue!

Serge944

Maybe if your thread title was "I just killed a viper in my 318i" then youd get more views.

KuHL 951

I did just kill a Viper in my 318, looked like a freaking garter snake to me; it was touch n' go there for minute though.

my84-944

Yes and you should get a bout 225K from the trans and trans case and rear diff.
This shoud be what you are thinking at purchase.