Last weekend in need of a new daily driver and being a 20 year old new driver I was trawling the classifieds. Insuring an E36 was out the question and with my marrakesh brown E30 project being a little bit from completion I knew I needed to buy something to bridge the gap but it had to be a bmw. Id always loved E21s but hadnt seen any decent ones going cheap...all 320 bauers ( which I hate ) Until I was about to give up....I typed BMW one last time into gumtree and up it popped. An MOTed 83 316 which was a 2 door manual and only 78 thousand miles!!! It was also well in budget. So having chatted to the owner who requested I phone til 1am! ( he was waiting up for his daughter returning from the pub ) I decided it was the car for me. My good friend drove us down the next day to view it.
The car arrived on a rope however, luckily the plugs just needed a bit of a clean and it roared into action. So well infact we managed to drive it the 200 miles home.
The next day we stuck in and fitted the new stainless steel exhaust which was included., that made it run a lot better. Yesterday I drove it into work without drama from a very cold start. It was still juddering in the low RPMs and generally feeling like a bag of spanners, so i ran it past my friends who is only 22/3 but has only ever owned a car older than himself.
We cleaned the jets, tweeked the distributor, changed an HT lead disconnected the f*** choke which was causing part of the running rich issue and did some other bits
When I got home my dad and friend changed some of the hoses which had split or perished. I drove it to work this morning and good god it feels waaay better. Theres still juddering but its nowhere near as bad and it was. This week im going to change the oil filter and the oil, and at the weekend Im going to fit a new throttle cable and tighten the timing chain
At work ( when you drive an E21 you can park how the hell you please )
PARTS NEEDED - if you have anything for sale please let me know
Left hand side front wing
Sill - cant remember which side, will update
Throttle cable ( mine is F$$$$$ )
Rear Bumper - mine is roosty
Was also wondering about the plug thats required to install the OEM stereo, are they universal or do i need an E21 specific one?
welcome here! nice and unmolested car you found, and already booked some progress as well! Pity about the front wing. Anyway, please keep feeding us with your stories and photos and we'll try to assist and comment. Enjoy, both the E21 and the forum!
