The winter of 2006 I was living in Colorado doing some snowboarding for a while. On my first trip through the town of Frisco in late September I noticed the sillouhette of an E30 BMW under a few inches of snow. I could see a for sale sign in the window. At that point I didn’t have the time to stop and look at it but the initial feelings of wonder where eating away inside.

After driving by the car two more times,  I was finally able to stop and get the phone # and planned to take a look at it the next day.

That night I got a gig hanging Christmas lights for $100 for a gentleman in Breckenridge. With the $100.00 in my pocket, My buddy and I went the next morning to look at the car. It was a 1986 BMW 325ES. Black on Black. The guy had a bunch of records and owned it for over 14 years. He said the car started having an idling/surging issue and he parked it. He thought the engine was repairable but wasn’t for sure. We tried starting the car and it would die after a few seconds of surging. My mind was thinking it had to be MAF box or idle control valve. He wanted $1400.00 for the car which was too much without being able to drive/see the car with all the snow. I asked him how bad he wanted to sell it and he said whatever offer I made wouldn’t hurt his feelings. I asked if he would take $50.00 he thought about it a good and long time. He counteroffered at $150.00. I couldn’t pay that because I didn’t have that much! My buddy jumps in and said, “He’ll give you a $100.00 bucks”. What could I say? Afterall, I totalled his truck the day before. So, I bought a BMW for $100!

We got the BMW towed over to a friends house and I had to let it sit for a few weeks while I did some travelling. I Finally got a MAF unit ordered for the car. Back in Minnesota, I hooked up the trailer to the Ford and headed out to get the BMW in Colorado. Upon arrival I put the MAF unit in. Fired up the car and it ran. It purred! I drove it up and down the street. Now my buddy wanted the car again! But, a deal is a deal. I drove it up on the trailer and and made the journey back to Minnesota.

Once home, I immediately went to work on the car. I was having trouble figuring out the surging it would do at idle so I took it to the local foreign car (hack) mechanic. I told him I thought it was the Idle Control Valve. He said “No, that couldn’t be it”. I thought to myself, Oh great here we go… He poked around under the hood for 20 minutes and I finally said I would do some research on it and call him back. He wanted $250 for 20 minutes of poking around. He said it would be at least $750 to fix the car! I paid him $50 for poking around and never went back.

I got on bimmerforums.com and found out it most likely was the Idle Control Valve. I ordered a used one on Ebay for $13.00. It arrived a few days later. I installed it in and away we went. NO MORE SURGING! The car ran perfectly. 

Here’s the best part. I had about $850 into the car including fuel for picking it up and parts. My wife LOVED that car. It was a 5 speed with the recaro’s, sport valance, etc. Everytime you drove it you felt happy because of the story behind it.

Later that fall I put the car up for sale and a first time BMW buyer got it for $1900. He still has it and has done a TON of modifications to it including a turbo!

Pic after new owner, new paint and a Turbo