What to expect for £400?

[AMC442]

I think it could be interesting to share experiences about bargain purchases and what you can expect if you have not enough experience when it is time to decide if you opt to mechanical challenges or if you prefer a "plug and play" car to enjoy.

My hobby is to collect very cheap cars and put them back on the road. Not a business, just a way to use my brain and my hands, with no rush and a lot of passion.

I am a mechanic engineer but as a manager I have few oportunities to put my hands in the grease. My team will not let me do it and it is not what they are expecting me to do.

Bad luck, I love it, so I do it at home.

I caught the virus when I was a kid watching my dad fixing the cars of the family, mainly to save money. So no exciting sport cars or luxurious limo but I've learned a lot and keep on learning.

I made my army as a mechanic as well, 6WD trucks, jeeps and buses helped to learn a couple of tricks but not as much as books, internet and friends can do to make a '72 XJ6 come back to life.

So, what is the last experience? To find a reliable roomy car, a bit vintage to please my partner, but safe and confortable enough to travel with the kids, dogs, luguages and bicycles.

And under £2000 if possible... a van? Nope, I had been suffuring too much travelling in the noisy Peugeot J9 camper of my parents to do it again.

E39 Touring of course! A few clics and here you go... 525 tds, R reg... 50 miles from home... £500... a text to contact the owner inviting me to come and have a look... sunday afternoon... a quick road test... a lot of documents... 20 years owned by the family... 160k miles on the clock... a bit of rust... clean interior... no strange noises... tyres dead... weak battery... long MOT... a deal at £400 and driving back home without any issues.

Once at home, a better inspection started ...Emergency: 4 new tyres, R16, Cooper on offer, £220 to start with.

The tyre shop owner is a friend. While we were fiting the new tyres we realised the wheels were bent... inside, uneasy to check at the time of the purchase.  And for the money paid you do not start to be too picky.

What I thought was a balance issue was in fact real waves on the rim. On the outside the wheels were looking almost perfect .

Well, with the help of a good hamer and some experience, wheels came back to their shape and are perfectly balanced now. What a change!

Time now to inspect a bit more how this car had been serviced... needed urgently an oil change as the message on the dash board is warning  when you switch the car on... oil and air filters as well. Easy bit and very cheap if you do it yourself. Heaters will be changed later, 6 of them for less than £20. No need to hesitate.

Battery has to be changed for safety... no way to get stuck because of it. £70 for a brand new one. This is not affecting the budget too much.

Discs and pads had been changed for MOT by the former owner, not bad.

Belts need to be changed immediately, they are cracked and will not survive very long. A good opportunity to change the tensioner pulley as welll.

Alternator looks like new... water pump? Who knows? No records it had been changed in the past, coolant level is stable and the liquid looks clean. Maybe not urgent but this will have to be double checked later.

Chock absorbers... ???? What happened here... front OK... rear left, genuine BMW... rear right, Monroe?... self leveling system is working perfectly... the car handle very well... might not be that urgent to change but this will need to be fixed at some point. Budget £200.

Power steering assistance... no issue with the pump... rack is fine... but there are evidences of red fluid leaking... a bit of cleaning... new tightners for the hoses and it seems OK now... to be inspected frequently to be sure...

CD player is working as the rest of all the electric devices, lights, cigaret lighter... good.

Direction Coventry to collect a brand new Thule tow bar bought for £80. This is were I met the 2nd Touring I've bought.

This is part of the story and you will understand why later if you are patient enough to read this to the end.

Plan is to go to Belgium and France to visit family for Easter holidays. Shall we use the tourer or not? This is a good test. About 2000 miles in the week.

Let's try.... Friday, starting early in the morning... Eurotunnel... heading to Normandie to visit a supplier before being  100% on holidays. Levels checked... no issues... no warning... diesel consumption about 40 miles per galon... temperature stable... let's go to Belgium... passing Lille  and almost arrived to destination the automatic gearbox passed on lsafety mode... this was not planned.

This is not what will stop the panzer. But can we sort that quickly in order to go to the South of France as decided? Most of the friends on holidays... a quick look on internet... this does not look that simple to fix.

Having a better look under the car, trying to identify which gearbox is fitted on it in order to prepare a filter and oil change, I discovered the cooling system had been bypassed!

This is criminal!

We spent the weekend relaxing and on Monday reached the garage of a specialist a friend of mine recommended, 40 miles  away form our home in Belgium.

The guy could not find the plug to diagnose the failure and  offered me to let the car a week long to fix it for ... 2000€... 

Believe me or not, we spent our holiday enjoying Belgium insteed of the South of France and the car came back to Yorkshire driving with only 2 gears available respecting the 70mph speed limit without a single problem, worth case scenario we have a breakdown insurance. I will of course not do it again.

Now the car is parked awaiting the decision if it will be repaired or broken. Found a cooler for £20 that will be installed if I can find a way to go out of the safety mode.

Is a raise of temperature the reason why it failed? Wrong  or old oil, level, filter issue? Solenoid gone? Friction discs worn? No clue at this stage and does the car worth the money to be saved?

As a 2nd one is coming this weekend, with a manual gearbox, we might keep it as a spare parts donor.

My little boy find this car "so cool" we will take time to make the decision and maybe you will give me some good advices that could help?

Thank you for taking the time to read this story and I will add pictures soon.

Cheers!

[Greydog]

Welcome Leandre

Well your "BMW" life has started with an adventure, you also have enough knowledge and know how to bring the beasty back to full health. At the age of your 5 series your box could be either GM or ZF the GM boxes are not so good, BMW like many other manufacturers decided to tell their customers the box is "sealed for life" as engineers we know that is rubbish but it means the poor old gearbox often dies from abuse not use.

A code reader is essential with BMW's as so many of the control modules are interlinked of leading to mis-diagnosis of issues. For us with older models (the X5 and 5 series are cousins) I would recommend either INPA or BMW 1.4.0 as diagnostic tools, I use BMW 1.4.0 loaded on an old laptop which I use just for that purpose. It reads individual modules showing any faults (even intermitent faults) if you investigate the fault it will give a description in plain English as an example my PDC is intermittent a common issue without the reader I could be changing parts to try and fix it the reader showed "rear centre right sensor". So once a month I read all codes and reset, many are I have discovered due to poor earth connections to be expected on a 16 year old car. Cost of BMW 1.4.0 is about £15 

A couple of websites for information www.realoem.com this is a BMW parts web site just put the last 7 digits of your Vin in the search box and it will bring up your model it will let you see all parts and part numbers so you know you are getting the right part. It also has small exploded drawings to help. I also use www.newtis.info this is a technical sight as used by BMW dealers which gives "how too" information, torque settings etc. 

Look forward to some Pics and how you get on

Good Luck 

Dave

[AMC442]

Thank you Dave for this useful information.

Is the OBD plug to connect to the computer easy to find as well? 

It is not the OBDII I have already for my other cars.

This one is round. A plug is in the engine bay and a 2nd one underneath the dashboard, driver side.

Progression will be slow but looks untertaining. I am learning...

[AMC442]

[Greydog]

Hi 

I believe you should be OBD II but supported in the car by BMW's Ibus system check Newtis to be sure but I believe from memory you can read from either OBD socket I use the under dash socket on mine.

Depending on the Code Reader you have you may not be able to see all the control units but fingers crossed

From your pictures it looks like she has suffered a few "Bodges" through the years and a little "tin worm" I am sure she will be back to health soon.