My BMW estate has just failed it's MOT. I need to replace is ASAP. Perhaps you or yoiur neighbour etc is looking to sell a big estate car - it's one of those things where people say "Oh, I wish you'd said because ..." so here I am asking.
What do I want?? I have no objection to older, low mileage cars. Full service history - or a good stab at it! - would be helpful. Some tax would be good, but a new or l-o-n-g MOT is critical. I prefer automatics. Air con would be OK & a full range of electrically operated stuff always attracts. It ought to have a towbar.
Other than that, it must be a big estate car with a big engine. I'm old enough not to have to worry about capacity much affecting my insurance. I have come to prefer BMW's and another 5 series estate would suit me fine. Mine is a 3litre Vee 8 & they did a 4 litre version too. I had Volvos for years and a late 3 or 3.5 litre 960 etc would be a possibility.
Anything considered though.
Time is of the essence as my insurance runs out next week!
It has two fluid leaks, one under the PAS pump & another near the back axle. They are both in valve blocks and part of the self leveling suspension. The bits are quite expensive, but getting at the valves (especially the front one) will take hours of work
Labour these days hovers close to £50 ph ..........
There does appear to be extensive oil loss, but one is seeing months of a slow dribble as I've only topped it up once in 20,000 miles. I've washed the underbody & am getting a second opinion MOT tomorrow.
I have a 2.5 960 (estate naturally) and it's a right old garage queen. Not a patch on the 740 I had before. I'd have another, but I'd look at one of the facelifted 700-series 940s, not my S90 precursor.
50 quid an hour - round here at the big independant multiple franchise you pay 80+ per hour for some spotty faced half wit to not do what you told them to do.
But sourcing the materials and building a whole new car is of course much better for the environment than maintaining the one that you already have! :-)
re. fluid leaks, I'd assume any clever self-levelling suspension system is designed not to do something stupid in the event of catostrophic fluid loss. Drain the system, pass the MOT, top up again...
Now there's an optimistic thought that I wouldn't rely on. The most likely outcome is it will drop onto the bump stops allowing you to limp home at a crawl. Remember that some cars now come without a spare wheel at all. That's how much manufacturers care about engineering backups. They're in the business of selling cars. Only rich folks buy new cars. How many rich folks ask what happens to a system when it goes wrong? Therefore, the answer doesn't sell cars so it's not in the manufacturers design spec.
Given some of the modified stuff I've seen, that seems to be all the rage amongst some of the kids these days ;)
Yeah, I really don't know either - depends whether the self-leveling is just a correction to the main suspension, or if it *is* the suspension. Maybe asking BMW themselves would get a useful answer (although giving the reason why might not be the best idea)
Nuts. I've always had a spare (and stray bits of wire, bottle of coolant, points etc. etc.)
I try hard to never to own a vehicle that's younger than I am, and I'm doing reasonably well so far :-)
Yes, it was a little cheeky - but it's certainly not as clear-cut as governments (who have an interest in people doing the constant spend-replace cycle) would like folk to believe.
I'd much rather keep my old stuff on the road, I think - and maybe consider an engine swap whenever the necessary battery / hydrogen / cold fusion technology becomes readily available :-)
Indeed. If you were mugged tomorrow, and your house keys were stolen, and your home was burgled while you were being treated in hospital, we'd all be better off. Why? Because the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase as a result. GDP is a measure of all goods and services provided domestically. You've had services provided by the NHS, and you'll have to replace the items stolen from your home - so GDP goes up. As far as governments and economists are concerned, that's a good thing!
Whilst sorting the car out, I had a PC failure to make my life complete. I thought it was the mother board, but it now appears just to be a graphics card failure. That said, I just plugged all the USB leads in rebooted & it wouldn't. One at a time now & see what happens. I was surprised just how much I missed being able to use the 'pooter & access the Internet. Now all I have to do is catch up with the 256 e-mails!
My son in outlaw suggested that I get a second opinion MOT & recommended Kwik Fit. I'd never normally have gone anywhere near the place as their tyres are FAR too expensive. But as far as MOT's are concerned, they are My Friends now. Track control arm, back axle control bushes, exhaust rubber, front number plate - never even mentioned the oil leak or anything to do with the self leveling. Not even an advisory. The work cost me £150 for the bits, £100 labour and I now have a nice comforting piece of green paper in the file and have made the acquaintance of a decent & apparently honest mechanic that I didn't know before. Saved me £1,600 or (more likely) from scrapping a car I like.
One thing in my mind - given that the MOT is recorded at the DVLA, I'm slightly surprised that a second test other than at the first place didn't flag up on the second place's system. .
As far as the older/younger car debate goes, I am very much in favour of keeping older cars on the road. It means I can drive a car of a level of size & build standard that I could never afford if required to buy new. Frankly, I'm not overly impressed by mankind's involvement in climate change. I'll go so far as to believe that we have accelerated a trend that has been taking place over the last 20,000 years, but wild fluctuations in our hugely complex weather systems are not unknown as the Greenland ice cores record. However, the damage is done and whilst we bat about the place in commercial jet aircraft and China is opening a new coal fired generating station every week, I'm afraid you are never going to convince me that turning off the kitchen light or slogging around in a low emission, small engined vehicle is going to add one more snow flake to the Arctic ice cap.
Regarding your thoughts on cars, I use a 1969 Rover P6 V8 Auto as my daily drive to get my wife about and as a hobby. She may do 15 around town and 25 ish on a run but the full comp insurance costs me £116, I don't pay road tax, pre 1973, she is comfortable and has a bit of grunt when needed. Once you get used to the quirks, rear brakes for instance, its quicker to drop the diff to work on the brakes than to do it in situ she is easy to work on. I keep her in good fettle and love tinkering with her.
The original rolling free road fund duty scheme was a good way of extending the life of older cars, it's removal by that saviour of the world, Mr Brown must have have surely consigned many vehicles that would have otherwise survived to the scrap yard.
His latest wheeze the scrapage scheme is also creating a shortage of cars available for those who prefer not to keep up with the Joneses. Apparently a Riley RM had been traded in under the scheme and the Riley RM owners club became involved and by some means or another the car was rescued.
I'd imagine that paying the dealer £2,000+ would be a good start towards rescuing the Riley! It must necessarily be their property until they sell it to HM Government.
Right with you there, apart from the auto bit - never have liked autos, they take half the fun out ot if :) Done a lot of work on V8 P6s over the years, though - definitely fun cars. Before I got into Stags I was expecting a life of P6 ownership...
Yeah, I think I used to pay about 250/year (and no tax). That was all unlimited mileage, agreed value though, so better than a typical regular policy I reckon.
Huzzah for inboard brakes :-)
In a way it's annoying having to pay road tax this side of the Pond - OTOH it's only about 20 quid, so I can't complain too much (there are tax breaks for having vintage/collector plates, but then you can't use the vehicle as a daily driver).
never even mentioned the oil leak or anything to do
The basic rule with oil leaks is to wipe the area clean before the MOT. A few drips of oil will spread out and make a nasty mess over a year, the actual leak itself being miniscule and of little consequence.
''Rag spanner'' was the term used when I worked on planes :-)
You are lucky with kwikfit. Around my area a certain tyre fitters/MOT workshop spray damper glands with WD40 in order to give the owner the appearance of a leak....
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