E30's Reliability for sure

[Denker]

I got back last night from Papillion, Nebraska. I had driven there from Dayton, Ohio to attend a memorial service for my late uncle. A last minute flight would have been expensive and Delta let me down last time I absolutely HAD TO BE SOMEWHERE ON TIME. So, I opted to drive the 325e, despite 223,000 miles on the odo. Smooth trip, through all 1600 miles. Got up to 34.7 MPG at one point. I detected a leaky fuel line & had it repaired by Papillion Foreign Motors (Cheers!/Thanks! to Jeff.) in 15 minutes. Good to go and happy to be under way. Try that trip in your typical hunk-o-junk from 1987, if it's not melted down already!

[my1stE30]

I love to hear about these successful E30 road trip stories ... had my E30 out for 2700 kilometer (1680 miles) round trip last April, and I am planning another (likely a bit longer) road trip in the early new year....

[Denker]

On my return drive, I saw a Delphin gray E30 (a 325es) near Des Moines. Later on, I saw a Brilliantrot E30. Can't remember where I was when I saw the 2nd one. We all waved & did the thumbs up back & forth. There are not too many E30's on the highway any more.

[WBZ]

Great to hear that, what kind of hwy speed did you maintain if you aren't afraid of incriminating yourself:D

[strad]

That's nice. I think, though, that pretty much any old car, if maintained well, can get you down the road just fine. It's just that most people don't maintain their stuff -- One thing piles on another and pretty soon it ends up in the junk yard. We are a consumer-minded society.

I mean come on, we're still flying B52s around and those things are 55 years old! And they are a helluva lot more complicated than an E30. The secret is maintenance.

[Denker]

Exactly. If you value your equipment, and maintain it, then you can run it a LONG time. This is true of any decent piece of equipment. As to my speed on the roadtrip: usually 75 MPH or so; not terribly fast. Once in a while I drafted behind semi trucks.

[DaRvDrUmS]

I got back last night from Papillion, Nebraska. I had driven there from Dayton, Ohio to attend a memorial service for my late uncle. A last minute flight would have been expensive and Delta let me down last time I absolutely HAD TO BE SOMEWHERE ON TIME. So, I opted to drive the 325e, despite 223,000 miles on the odo. Smooth trip, through all 1600 miles. Got up to 34.7 MPG at one point. I detected a leaky fuel line & had it repaired by Papillion Foreign Motors (Cheers!/Thanks! to Jeff.) in 15 minutes. Good to go and happy to be under way. Try that trip in your typical hunk-o-junk from 1987, if it's not melted down already!

Awesome! Where was the leaking fuel line located?

[Denker]

Leaking fuel line was up high, near the valve cover, pass. side. Maybe 4 inches worth of rubber hose that looked ancient. Should have been replaced earlier, it seems.

[Jackson42]

There's also a plastic tee in the fuel line on the early six-cylinder cars right at the back of the engine that is known to break after high miles. And when it goes, you'll smell gas and see your gas gauge heading for empty. I strongly recommend replacing it before it breaks. If you can' get a new plastic part, a standard 1/4" brass tee with barb fittings works just fine and you'll never have to worry about it breaking again. Glad to hear you had a good road trip - these little critters are sure fun to drive, aren't they?

[genoknox]

How do I know what size hoses to get to replace that and other ones under the hood, I have the same car and have a few really old hoses but they seem pretty particular. Realoem was no help.

[powaz]

Not sure the exact size, I had to replace mine earlier this year and I do recall it's not a standard I / O diameter. I just got mine at O'Reiley - on the second go-round (the first line he gave me was the wrong size). Basically, make sure the guy at the counter pays attention to the inside diameter. They'll go by the outer diameter but the standard gas line inner diameter is bigger than on these cars. The hose he ended up giving me was supposedly like an AC line or something, but it fits and works.

[BMWtyro]

Hey, Denker! BMWtyro (E30 Jeff) here; I haven't heard from you in a while.

I recently had a similar experience. I just bought the Baur shown in my sig, odometer not working but showing 169K, drove it fifty miles home from Asheville, serviced it -- and proceeded to then drive this unproven, unfamiliar Bimmer on a trouble-free 500 mile-plus round trip to VIR to see the Heacock Historic Races!

Once again, I am totally impressed by the reliability of a high-mileage E30 which has received reasonable care during its lifetime.

Jeff


@ Genoknox, Powaz et al,

Fuel hose size on most (all?) E30s is 8mm. Buy the Genuine BMW brand O.E. hose to be certain that what you are installing will be compatible with high fuel injection pressures and the corrosive characteristics of ethanol which is now used as a fuel additive.

Jeff

[Denker]

Hi Jeff! I am planning on attending Vintage in May. (this time, in the 2002) Are you going to go? One huge improvement to my E30 was removing the hideous window tint. Hated it! My a/c now works properly and the ventilating fan was replaced since I saw you in NC.

Oh, and I replaced the glove box which basically died at Vintage!

[BMWtyro]

Denker,

Absolutely I plan to be at The Vintage in ‘12, with one Bimmer or the other. The new arrival has been christened "Opal" for her Euro-only (or perhaps other-market-only) Opalgrün-metallic paint scheme, and that is the one which I intend to bring if possible.

Jeff

[Denker]

Hey, Jeff. That '84 Baur looks very interesting. I'd like to see it at Vintage.
Jim

[BMWtyro]

Jim,

I'll try to have the Baur there . . . but I want to do a bit more fix-up on it before I show it, and I don't really have a very good place to work on it this winter. Not that I expect it to win anything; trying to make it “as good as I can” is really more a matter of causing myself the least embarrassment.

Jeff