E30 325i Rag-Top

A couple of tricks and tips I was given for bleeding an M20…

1. Make sure the hole under the bleed screw on the thermostat is clear.. this often gets blocked and then doesn’t bleed the air.

2. To get air out of some of the odd places in the cooling system it can help to have the front of the car jacked up so it’s sitting on an angle. 
 

Good luck, it can be a real pain to get all the air out and stop it blowing all the coolant out the expansion tank.

17 hours ago, Apex said:

 I'm sure the conversation over bumper air vents at the Porsche meeting would be equally punishing though. 

It was a bit of a rivet-counter comment, but I makes me wonder about the part used and for a $200k car, you’d want it to be correct!

Like Dan I’ve never been big on 911s, probably from being scared silly by the 70s oversteer versions.

On 10/25/2023 at 1:22 PM, Neil McCauley said:

Just me or did the Evo 1 have much more appeal when it was an honest unrestored example rather than having half the classic parts catalogue thrown at it?

I get what you mean, it’s a bit of an odd one being quite so “restored” and clean’n’shiny. There’s a couple of little details that are slightly off - the number plates look flat not pressed and the front bumper upper centre intakes are covered. Non-original bumper?

With E30 tax plus M3 tax, could easily be looking at $100k on restoration, hard to tell what has been cleaned and put back rather than replaced.

As for E30s being slow, especially up against other $200k cars, that is very true but the speed is not the reason I love an E30. You can only do 100km/h in NZ, and much over that you should really be on a track.

Saved the planet, one km at a time for approx 900kms, and sneered at all the farmers in their dirty diesel utes spewing smoke.

Yeah, it seems to be one gets put up with a healthy asking price (not getting into whether they are realistic or not at this point) and that lures a couple of others out of the woodwork.

I am 99% sure that the Evo 1 was up for sale for ages, but looks to have been restored and now back up again.

One things for sure, I am well out of the E30 M3 market now. 🥲

Have you got a towbar on that? I’ve got one in the garage if you’re interested. 
Great photos and I do love a wagon.

Hope the insurance give you a decent price for it and don’t fob you off with “market value” BS.

If the brand new tyres are “Supercat” then you’re probably better off throwing them away.

49 minutes ago, overly__under__engineered said:

other brands do 300k+ when driven into the ground. BMW does 100k. no more. hahahaha.  Come on. Jokes aside, BMW is clearly garbage compared to any other brand. 

Plenty of BMWs out there with well over 300k, some with a lot more here in NZ.

Not sure what you’re trying to achieve with that last comment, but it could come across badly on a BMW enthusiast forum.

TradeMe $1 reserve auction for an M-Tech I lip spoiler (needing paint) has just finished with the winning bid at $700! Wow.

I thought it would be a few hundy, but crikey. Need to wrap mine in cotton wool now I know what it’s worth.

Wow, that is cool! Not in NZ I take it?

@M3_Power I think someone is trying to contact you on this old, old thread.

Time for the yearly TLC for the ‘vert whilst the weather is not so flash

On this year’s list a bit of panel and paint for a few bits and pieces - bonnet (to remove the dent in he middle where it fell on the battery charger 🤬), boot, high stop lamp and the Tech I spoiler insert.

Also pulled the rear bumper off to give it a good clean and check behind it.

Had a bit of a panic when I saw what I thought was some serious rust in the bottom left corner of the boot when I took the bumper off. Turned out to be rust from something that had been stored in there and got wet, stuck in some waxy gunk.

Came off when I gave it a vigorous clean and picked at it with a plastic scraper - phew!

Also found a Travis CD stuck in the boot when I took the stacker out..

Wow, that’s really original. The light interior is not to my taste, but would make sense on warm sunny days.

Could be something has gone off the boil - injectors, turbos, fuel pump pressure. However, I would give the car a nice long hot run (not just cruising down the motorway) with a dose of injector cleaner in the tank, to give everything a good clear out. Probably do  filters first -air cleaner and fuel fuel being the key two.  See what it’s like after than then if no improvement, start checking things like the injectors and turbos.

6 hours ago, gjm said:

or BMW having changed the use of an option code at some point.

Whilst it is quite un-BMW to change anything once it has been defined, I think that is the case here.

I think both options 311 and 333 have been re-purposed over time. In this instance it is the option code 333 that is the most interesting.

From looking at VIN decodes on older BMWs  previously I think that code 333 used to be the “M Packet” or “M Sport Package” option which is key to the authenticity of a “genuine” M325i or M-Sport car. This has now been changed to code 337 for current M-Sport cars.

The other point of interest is the anthracite headliner, which isn’t listed seperately (option code 775) and so has been included as part of a “packet” option that is a number of options grouped together.

@Driftitsounds great in theory, and I’ve heard of similar in other countries, but who is to decide if your car is “a pile of junk” or not? Could be very open to interpretation and mis-use.

For personal reasons I would love a vintage/classic status for WoF in NZ, but the 6 months isn’t that much of a hassle and for $60 its good to get someone else* to have a look over the car.

* - disclaimer, as long as you can get a good WoF inspector who understands older cars and doesn’t dream stuff up.

Interesting car. To those ITK it looks kinda weird with the Tech II front and rear bumpers on a PFL. Most non-BMW rivet counters probably wouldn’t think anything of it though.

Something weird going on with the VIN decode though - three sets of wheels on one car..??

10 hours ago, Neil McCauley said:

Evo 3 rubber seals between the front bumper /wings / headlight grilles though, so there's promise of potentially more choice goodies.

The seals on top of the bumper are the “normal” M3 3-piece seals not Evo3, and there aren’t any bonnet to guard seals fitted in those photos?

Plenty wrong to make it perfect - the non-dogleg box (Jap Spec), aftermarket wheels and non-black rocker cover are the big ones for me. But overall presents pretty well for a lightly refreshed M3, how much M3 do you get for $125k these days? 
Market has definitely slowed recently, not a lot of spare change in the economy for playthings like week-end classics right now so could take a while to find a new home.

You would need to define which series of 320i you have, E30, E36, E46, E90…

There is a post count for For Sale threads to stop spammers and others just coming onto the forum to sell their stuff, I believe it is mentioned in the For Sale rules post.

Halcome is a hell of a long way from Cambridge though, is that the right fella? Lots of usernames similar to Beemer, etc.

2 hours ago, Neil McCauley said:

Edit: It will be interesting to see how cheap M2's get, seeing as the 1M never really dipped below $70K did it?

Far fewer 1Ms built and it managed to get a cult status at the same time, both of which kept up the bottom of the price curve.

Lots more M2s built, pre-LCI, LCI, Competition and CS. And now a new generation in production. Great little cars but never going to have the same economics as the 1M.

As to how low they will go, always a great crystal ball gazing question, at this point in time my prediction would be there is still  fair way to go down, especially for those at the bottom of the desirability list.

On 8/9/2023 at 8:42 AM, elias said:

yeah if they are in a state where it is viable to get them back on the road then I would definitely consider that, have got a good panelbeater. Any recommendations on where to look, best to keep an eye on trademe?

Too late by the time it’s on TradeMe you will have too many others chasing it to get a bargain, and whoever brought it in would be looking to make a buck.

Best bet would be to look on the Aussie salvage auctions, some are “trade” only but you should be able to get in easily enough.

Quite a few cars seem to get written off for Not much damage over there which can be repaired here.