SOLD- KY: TTE-Prepped '89 325i track/street car -SOLD

[jpreston]

Simple. Fast. Reliable.

 

SOLD

$6000

1989 BMW 325i 2-door

2.5ltr. 6 cyl. M20

Zinnoberrot (red)

Natural (tan) interior

tilt and slide crank sunroof

pop-out rear windows

Located in Lexington, KY

 

This car has been my daily driver/track car for close to 2 years now. Has had it's share of typical BMW problems, but has overall been a great car. I've put a lot of time and money into it to make it dead nuts reliable on track and while getting me to work, and hate to let it go now that it's pretty much there, but it's time to move on. It's currently setup as a very competitive TTE car for NASA Time Trials, and currently holds the track record at Autobahn South. Still has a lot of things you can do to maximize it for TTE, which I'll discuss with any potential buyers. Can also easily be caged and made into a PTE car, Spec E30, or GTS car.

 

Modifications:

-Koni yellow adjustable shocks- fronts less than 1 year old, rears were on it when I bought it and still feel fine, though a little underdamped for the 700lb springs

-Ground Control coilovers- 600lb front, 700lb rear

-Ruff front camber plates

-AKG HARD poly rear subframe and diff bushings

-Delrin trailing arm bushings

-Offset M3 front control arm bushings

-Stainless brake lines in 4 of the 6 locations, brand new stock lines from the rear trailing arm to the rear calipers

-Speed bleeders

-325is rear differential

-Momo Race steering wheel- a little worn, but still a great feeling wheel

-Eclipse cd player, stock speakers. Sounds decent.

-Z3 1.9 short shifter- best feeling BMW shifter I've ever felt

-15x7" BBS "euroweaves" euro spec E30 wheels, et24

-Good 205/55 Nitto NT-450's for daily driving- best all seasons I've ever driven on

-All A/C parts removed

-Power steering fully removed- rack taken apart and fully gutted of all power steering seals, then greased (miata style)

-Quicker ratio E36 non-M steering rack

-Kirk rollbar and no rear interior- seats included with sale though

-Recaro Pro Race head-restraint driver seat- fixed mount on Massive side brackets

-Stock E30 Sport seat on passenger side- little rough but fully functional

-Harnesses NOT included

-Mishimoto E36 aluminum radiator

-MarkD 93-octane chip

-19lb Mustang fuel injectors

-The nicer factory headlights- they were on the car when I bought it... not sure exactly what the name for them is. The high-beams are the best headlights I've ever had in a car lol.

-Stock 325i front lip

-OBC was dead- replaced with velcro for mounting lap timer

 

Maintenance:

 

In past year:

-New timing belt

-New water pump and thermostat

-New headgasket/head bolts/head resurfaced

-New starter

-Spark plugs/cap/rotor

-Front left wheel bearing

-Coolant temp sensors

-Both rear axles

-Fuel pump

 

In past 2 years:

-Steering rack

-Tie rods

-Front control arms

-Alternator

-Fuel filter

-O2 sensor

-Front right wheel bearing

 

Previous owner:

-New "roundels"

-Bosal stock replacement rear exhaust section

-New clutch master

-New clutch slave

-New clutch kit

-New throwout bearing

-New shifter bushings

-New guibo/flexdisc

 

The bad...

-Odometer stopped at 198k, actual mileage unknown. My best guess is around 250k, but the car still runs great!

-Glove box handle broken- still opens and closes, but doesn't look pretty

-Knee bar/bolster missing, (under steering column)

-Far left headlight cracked, as well as both fog lights. Unpainted fog lights block-off plates included.

-No carpet in trunk

-Head unit reboots whenever you hit a hard bump. Not sure if it's a wiring problem or if the head unit's bad.

-Oil level sensor not functioning

-Check panel still functions, but since the oil level sensor is dead and that light stays on constantly, I removed the "CHECK" light from the main dash cluster since it would come on every time the car was started

-Few light rust spots NOT ON THE UNIBODY- bottom rear of the passenger door, around the tow hook on the lower rear valence

-Paint looks good from anything farther than 5ft... has had a few areas repainted before I bought the car, and is a little faded like every other old red BMW on the planet

-Front right control arm and tie rod are bent. Car still drives fine, but the control arm is off enough to throw the caster off a little and cause a little steering pull. General consensus seems to be that control arms need replaced every 2 years on a tracked car, so it's about that time anyway. Just found that they were bent while at the track this weekend, or they would have already been replaced.

-Has a wheel bearing on the way out. It sounds like the front right or maaaaybe the right rear... I've never successfully diagnosed a bad wheel bearing by listening to it while driving so I haven't replaced any yet. None of the bearings have any play. A spare front bearing is included, just in case.

-When installing the stainless brake lines, the stock front right fitting refused to come apart. Since that hard line is a bitch to replace without the engine removed, I ended up having to cut it off and reflare it on up the line inside the engine bay. I had a local race shop make me a longer stainless flex line as a replacement, and it's routed through the fender into the engine bay with a rubber hose keeping it from rubbing any metal. It's perfectly functional and safe, but it's one of my least favorite things I've done to the car. If you end up pulling the motor, I would definitely replace that hard line and put a factory length hose back in.

-ABS light just started randomly coming on. Not sure what the problem is. Shutting the car off and restarting always makes it go away.

 

Spares/Extras:

-15x8 +20 TR Motorsports wheels with no tires

-New front wheel bearing

-New front swaybar endlink

-Various used-but-still-good rotors that I carry to the track as spares

-Carbotech XP10 front pads- 1/2 to a full day of use left

-Carbotech XP12 front pads- same as the 10s

-Carbotech XP8 rear pads- 1-2 days of use left

-Used front control arms that came on the car, if you want them (had no play, but they were in the first string of maintenance I did before tracking the car)

-Rear seats and trim panels- can be SQUEEZED in around the rollbar, but I didn't want to mess them up

-E30 non-sport seat in good shape. I had to steal the sliders from it so it currently can't be installed, but if you want it, it's yours. If you buy another set of stock sliders, the Recaro can be removed, the sport seat can be moved to the driver's side, and the non-sport seat can be put on the passenger side for a great daily driver setup. I did this for a long time and it was a great setup.

-Large front lip shown in some of the pictures. Was on the car when I bought it. I think it's from a Volvo... the E30 community has a huge list of lips from different cars that can be easily made to fit.

-Larger adjustable front sway bar. Was on the car when I bought it... not sure of brand. I didn't have the spare points to use it in TTE and replaced it with a stock bar.

 

I THINK that's everything, but I probably still managed to forget SOMETHING important. Will continue to update.

 

Video:

 

Pics:

Edited November 7, 2010 by Guest

[jpreston]

Bump. Just replaced the front right wheel bearing and almost all of the noise is gone, but with that noise gone I can now hear a small amount of noise from a rear bearing. Also ordered all new front control arms and tie rods and those will be installed by the end of the week, fixing the only major problem the car has.

 

I've been getting comments about the price being a little high, but this car has been thoroughly gone through in the time I've owned it. The only things that I haven't removed/disassembled are the engine block, the transmission, and the driveshaft, and that's because they're still functioning perfectly. Other than a rear wheel bearing and possibly an ABS sensor in the near future, this car needs absolutely nothing to be ready for the track again. Good luck finding a cheaper E30 in this good of condition...