Just picked up my first BMW..and its already not starting...

[RED87E30]

So I picked up a 87' 325e 5 speed from a guy yesterday. No rust.. little door damage. Power windows work. All lights work except left side of dash. Odometer doesn't work... anyways. The guy owned it for 10 years and had a lot of service records and receipts. I went and checked it out, test drive went good. Nothing out of the ordinary. Started fine every time I was at his house... we made a deal and I'm driving home now to riverside from San Diego. Literally 5 minutes after I leave his house I notice the battery light is now on and so is brake light. Cars running fine. I get to riverside and shut of the car while I run inside the store. Get back to the car(10 mins later) and I get a single turn over then no start like if my battery is dead. Guy says it's a "new battery". It does look new but I don't see a date.. anyways I get it jump started and get home. Now I'm home and I park and let it idle.. idle gets pretty rough so I shut it off. Went to restart and it doesn't do anything. Gauges jumped a little but no crank or anything. I jump it again it starts right up, I leave the cables connected from my Jeep battery to the e30 and it's idleing fine until I unplug it then I gets kinda shitty like it wants to die. I researched and I pulled the Voltage Regulator from the alt and the brushes measure to 8mm and 10mm. Bentley says 12mm is good and 5mm needs to be replaced. The guy said he got an alternator 5 years ago or so from "bav auto". Should I replace VR first then alternator if that doesn't work. I'm noticing ALOT of E30 people chasing an alternator ghost. Is this really that common of a problem? Am I headed in the right direction ? Any advice ?

[325e '87]

Alternators for these cars are pretty cheap, I just got a reman Bosch from oreilly for $75, core charge is $35, so when I get that back it’s only $40 out of pocket.

i imagine if your dash battery light was on then your alt wasn’t producing power which means the fuel injection system was running the engine from battery power. This makes batteries die pretty quickly.

There are more more experienced people here that can probably give you more advice but like I said, alts are cheap.

[RED87E30]

Alternators for these cars are pretty cheap, I just got a reman Bosch from oreilly for $75, core charge is $35, so when I get that back it’s only $40 out of pocket.

i imagine if your dash battery light was on then your alt wasn’t producing power which means the fuel injection system was running the engine from battery power. This makes batteries die pretty quickly.

There are more more experienced people here that can probably give you more advice but like I said, alts are cheap.

I removed the battery right now and am on my way to o Reilly right now to have them test/charge and I'll be ordering the alternator then. Do you have a part number for that Bosch ? All they said on the phone that they had was ultima I think.. we'll see when I get there. Thanks anyways, I'll update in a bit.

[superj]

if the alt light was on then yes, you were only running on battery. just get one from the autoparts place and drop it in and hopefully your battery is still good.

[323i E30]

I'm not an expert, but that does sound like an alternator issue. See if it's connected well, and the belt isn't slipping or anything.
Battery might be dead now as well indeed.

For any new owner of a 6 cylinder E30: the timing belt needs to be replaced every 60k miles or 5 years - whichever comes first.
If that thing snaps it'll seriously damage your engine and it's something that not all sellers are honest about.
Check if you can find it in the receipts. If you can't find it, get that done before anything else.

[RED87E30]

Ok update...
Charged and tested the battery at oriellys. Battery came back good. Purchased a Bosch reman from them for 89$ and attempted to remove my alternator but the teeth on the adjustment bolt and bracket are kind of shot out so I couldn't get the belt off, that was about an hour ago and I gave up for the day.. I did borrow my neighbors multimeter and reinstalled the battery. When the car is off, it read 12.55v when I turned the car on it stayed the same. I idled it to about 2000k and it would jump from 12.25-12.55v. Never went over 12.55v... I then tested the positive on the alternator and it read just about 12.55v as well. Does this conclude the alternator is bad ?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm not an expert, but that does sound like an alternator issue. See if it's connected well, and the belt isn't slipping or anything.
Battery might be dead now as well indeed.

For any new owner of a 6 cylinder E30: the timing belt needs to be replaced every 60k miles or 5 years - whichever comes first.
If that thing snaps it'll seriously damage your engine and it's something that not all sellers are honest about.
Check if you can find it in the receipts. If you can't find it, get that done before anything else.

Yea the guy told me he did the timing belt maybe 2 years ago.. I haven't gone through the receipts yet though to verify.

[aaverhulst]

If alternator was working should read about 13.5 volts. As to the alternator installation, those ratchet bolts seemed like a great idea until they strip. Then just ignore the ratchet, you need to keep loosening until you can freely move it. When installing new, use some type of bar prying against alternator to put the proper tension on belt, hold it, then tighten.

[sienayr]

Bosch alternators cost quite bit more than the prices quoted here. A quick online search reveals prices for Bosch re-man alternators range from 140-200. I just bought one from FCP Euro for $143. Carquest brand from Advance Auto is 85.99, with the Bosch version listed at 199. Duralast at Autozone is 83.99 and 96.99 for the 'gold'. OReilley's Ultima brand is 83.99 and they don't show a Bosch version on the web site. They are probably fine alternators, but not true Bosch at those price points. I kinda wish I'd looked around more before paying 143 for the Bosch re-man.

http://www.bmwbuddy.com/z/part/12311...bmw-alternator

[RED87E30]

Bosch alternators cost quite bit more than the prices quoted here. A quick online search reveals prices for Bosch re-man alternators range from 140-200. I just bought one from FCP Euro for $143. Carquest brand from Advance Auto is 85.99, with the Bosch version listed at 199. Duralast at Autozone is 83.99 and 96.99 for the 'gold'. OReilley's Ultima brand is 83.99 and they don't show a Bosch version on the web site. They are probably fine alternators, but not true Bosch at those price points. I kinda wish I'd looked around more before paying 143 for the Bosch re-man.

www.bmwbuddy.com/z/part/12311466087-bmw-alternator

yea I only ordered it that day I didn't pick it up I was going to just take mine out then go take it to them and let them swap the pulley and stuff for me.. I found out that it is the ultima one. the guy said his system says made by bosch or something i don't know. We'll see what happens when I pick it up...

[aaverhulst]

Hard to say how it compares to actual Bosch but the best house brands have a lifetime warranty while a rebuilt Bosch has only a 2 yr. As you probably have found out the core charge is in addition to the item's price but you get it back when you bring in core. I've never had to switch pulleys when getting a replacement.

[RED87E30]

update:

ended up getting the alternator replaced today and its running good now. starts up every time and all the lights(battery,brake) are off now.. only thing is I swear the heater was working before I dropped it off today and now the heater isn't working... anyways, other than that i'm good.

thanks for all the help !

[superj]

that's odd. no heater sucks

[323i E30]

Check fuse 20