New car time!

[GoNz0]

Fingers crossed on Tuesday I will be collecting my new car the E36 328 isn't big enough for a family of 4 so I have been trying to find a decent 535d sport touring, a couple of months ago I started chatting to a nice guy who runs a prestige detailing business and nearly got a 535d saloon but backed out when he found out from the previous owner that it was stage 1 tuned and DPF gutted, I wanted a stock car for insurance and reliability.

A month ago he said he had seen a E61 touring on a 2010 plate (last run of them before the F10/11 came in) at the main dealers that was about to be chopped in the owner wanted 11k for it so he walked away. Last Tuesday he sent a message saying he found it going to auction the next day and won it. I have a contact at British car auctions who sent me the details, the guys selling it on at the same price as he knew I wanted one.

He put it on his ramp and had a good look around it, bit of seepage from the swirl flaps and charge pipe, also showing all 6 glow plugs dead so it should be the controller and the temps don't come up so it needs both stats to allow a DPF regen. Good bodywork, several stone chips that have been sorted well but as it is his job he can see them all and passed on his report. Might need the tailgate wiring repaired as it has a few codes related (common issue along with the others, also due an oil service.

I can't wait to drive this to Cornwall on holiday!

20171117_143133.thumb.jpg.13bfffe13015d5a6a02535dbc69937f2 by Gonzo Holland, on Flickr

20171117_144940.thumb.jpg.70c99a4f0bb99135194d8b7039929d4c by Gonzo Holland, on Flickr

20171117_144945.thumb.jpg.d4374a132f4c6e58ea3bb0344a2a9043 by Gonzo Holland, on Flickr

20171117_144932.jpg.71543dc149749d198bfde8a0ff55f6fe by Gonzo Holland, on Flickr

[TeePee]

That's a nice looking car! Can't get the estates here, but I wish we could!

[cruiser]

Hey! That looks in great condition!

[Zak33]

Have you been on holiday yet fella? What's it driving like?

[GoNz0]

Just booked for end of may, 300 miles to Cornwall, like I needed an excuse!
Sods law I had my hand op the weekend I picked it up so I couldn't set about the many things it needed but managed to sort out the boot wiring loom by replacing 3 looms a week post op, bloody hurt mind, (40 ish wires) but I will return to that in the summer and redo it as this was an up and running repair) that fixed the many voltage & light related codes as I expected for the summly price of £20 (BMW want about £2500 )
Since then when the hand got a bit better I did the glow plug relay, all 6 glow plugs as 3 were open circuit, swirl flaps blanked off before the engine eats one even though it is the revised manifold a few cases have happened and destroyed the engine.
Turbo charge pipe seals as they were weeping oil. all inlet manifold seals (more oil)

I took it to a local indy who specialises in the ZF gearboxes and BMW's for a gearbox service as ZF suggest 60k service intervals but BMW state lifetime (my arse)
I could have done it myself but didn't fancy a 2-3k repair bill if I got it wrong.

Both thermostats and a gearbox heat exchanger (it hides a 3rd thermostat) to sort the engine temps and let the bloody DPF regenerate (millibars have come down a hell of a lot on that)

Full oil and filter service except fuel filter as it was documented on the last service.

Replaced one of the horns as it sounded like a fiesta!!!

Wiper relay

Boot switch.


And no I havn't been far in it at all yet bar a couple of late night trips up the M1 with the laptop plugged in so I can force a regen under ideal conditions.

40mb to 25 mb to 7mb so far at idle (80 is when it throws a fault)

TBH apart from wanting an excuse to drive to fetch the Mrs from work and a couple of shopping trips to Tesco it hasn't been far at all, I still take the Wife's Mini out due to the fuel economy for the local trips, I only just got the chance to start cleaning the interior last week, leather and trim, carpets next then onto the outside.

It does go like stink though, brave mode (sport on the stick) turns it into a beast of a car for the size of it, I also had some tit in a focus ST sat in the outside lane for a few miles down the bypass, I was not rude and kept back and he finally moved over half a mile from where the road splits as he was going left so I put my foot down just below kickdown to go past him, for some reason the dick decided to drop it down and let the fart pipes rip to stop me so I used kickdown and embarrassed him, him and his Mrs both had reasons to be looking down inside the car when we pulled up at the island then he felt the need to bounce off the redline as we turned into the shopping park so my 8 year old sat in the back with no prompting at all gave him the loser sign, I love that kid!

Once mine was what I consider roadworthy I got the parts out the garage I got before I got the op dropped on me in record time, removed the entire subframe from the Wife's Mini to replace the front wishbones with rear bush (the problem was the rear bush) complete tie rods and bellows, it had already had new shocks a few months back and AB bushes so that was another weekend gone, stupid bleeding design, to change the ARB bushes you have to drop the subframe, the wishbones sit under the ARB mount sharing the same bolts that also hold the rear wishbone bush and I figured in for a pound so I may as well do the tie rods while I have the rack out attached to the subframe (electric rack so no fluid pipes!!!!)
Car is close to 100k so a suspension overhaul was needed and it had started to knock.

I have now spent enough to take it to £1500 below the value of "poor condition" private sale on the confused.com value check and £1200 below trade in price.

I need to blow another grand to overhaul the suspension at some stage so I may live through it as I keep stating the trade in price to the Mrs

Have I had fun tinkering, well yes I have as I consider I probably do a better job than the main dealers most of the time. Car came with full history, all but the last at main dealers, the last service was some garage local to the owner who did random things like changing the microfilters but not removing the leaves and compost blocking the drains under it so it stuck when it got warm.

Fortunately I knew about the majority of the faults as the guy who got it from the auction gave it a once over and listed everything he could find wrong, he even ground out the rust on the boot lid where they shut it on something and it had started to track rust along the split to stop it getting worse until I can get it resprayed later this year.

Unexpected cost so far is the gearbox heat exchanger as I wasn't aware it had a thermostat in it as well, the surround for the rain light sensor stuck to the windscreen due to autoglass butchering it off and breaking the clips plus a bit of plastic with string running through it to hold up part of the boot floor that lifts up to box off part of the boot to stop stuff flying around.

Yeah I love messing about with cars, it will have no more official service history, just a book of receipts and when I did what to it, I also gave up on a 3rd party warranty as non are worth the paper they are wrote on.

[Millennium]

"40mb to 25 mb to 7mb so far at idle (80 is when it throws a fault)"

I'm not a car guy like you do you mind explaining this for me? Thanks

Also it seems with a nice big car like this and a mini you are motoring right

[kalniel]

"40mb to 25 mb to 7mb so far at idle (80 is when it throws a fault)"

I'm not a car guy like you do you mind explaining this for me? Thanks

Also it seems with a nice big car like this and a mini you are motoring right

Soot built up on DPF, increases exhaust back pressure, measured in millibars.

[GoNz0]

Soot built up on DPF, increases exhaust back pressure, measured in millibars.

^^This

But I put MB, can be megabyte or millibar but I should have used mBAR on a tech forum

Anyway, back to shampooing 7 years worth of crap out the carpets

[Zak33]

GoNz0..may I make a suggestion?

Buy a nice hard back, blank paper book on Amazon, and record everything, dated and detailed in your own hand writing.

Every litre of oil, every gallon of fuel, every tyre, every soldered joint... everything, and date and mileage

I have an old Civic CRX Del Sol which my uncle owned for 15 years and it has one... every single drop of everything. It has my dad's handwriting in it too when he went on holiday with him and paid fuel etc.

All these years later my missus and I now keep it updated too.

It's invaluable and when you sell it, it'll convince someone

[GoNz0]

GoNz0..may I make a suggestion?

Buy a nice hard back, blank paper book on Amazon, and record everything, dated and detailed in your own hand writing.

Every litre of oil, every gallon of fuel, every tyre, every soldered joint... everything, and date and mileage

I have an old Civic CRX Del Sol which my uncle owned for 15 years and it has one... every single drop of everything. It has my dad's handwriting in it too when he went on holiday with him and paid fuel etc.

All these years later my missus and I now keep it updated too.

It's invaluable and when you sell it, it'll convince someone

Not a bad idea m8.
I sold my E36 BMW without the guy driving it after he looked at the book of receipts and MOT history!
he knew not to ask for a discount as that was made clear in the ad

[Zak33]

when cars are new, these book are useless... too easy to fake

but as they get older, it's easier to see legit love.. real effort ... in the book reflected in the car and the owner.