Quick E34 story from my childhood

[repenttokyo]

the moral is don't let maniacs drive your car!

[525iZA]

Sooo a close friend of mine who is a real petrolhead bought a used E34 in the late nineties. Friend is a perfectionist and the car was in top condition.

So he had the car taken to a BMW specialist to have the brakes done and a couple of other things.

Car was done and friend was called to come fetch. Before driving off the owner of the specialist shop (who was a racing driver before) took my friend and another friend of his for a test drive.

Owner of the shop drove like a maniac, but it was clear that he knew what he was doing.

My friend said that at one stage they were doing 150km/h+ in town!! So they rounded a corner at a rate of knots and in front was an intersection with 3 lanes and red traffic lights. All 3 lanes with cars in them. Owner of the shop slammed on the brakes and there was nothing.... no brakes at all!

So he started to swing the car from side to side to reduce speed, but there wasn't enough space. So they went onto the pavement on the left side of the stationary cars where they demolished a railing consisting of steel poles and chains.

When they were about to enter the traffic, the owner of the shop turned the wheels so that the car would be facing the same direction of the traffic, but the momentum was too much and chassis was already too severely damaged and the car rolled over once into another car.

The spotless E34 was a complete write off, and the only injuries was to the owner of the shop. He scraped his arm on the road surface and obviously his ego took a bit of a knock. He also had to pay for the written off car.

Unfortunately my friend then bought a POS Mazda MX-6... he should have gone with another Bimmer!! :D

[525i winter driver]

crazy - i guess the moral is to test the brakes in the parking lot first?

i would have loved to listen to the owner trying to explain that to his insurance company if he did.

[Ross]

"he should have gone with another Bimmer!!"....and a different mechanic.

[Ross]

Don't let hacks fix your brakes!

[AngryPopTart]

Brakes are easy to fix; do it yourself!

[535Nick]

Sounds like someone forgot to bleed the brakes....

[pingu]

And also forgot to go easy on the brakes while they bedded in...

[repenttokyo]

You know when their is something wrong with the brakes, they don't just go. As a "race car driver" he would know this. The peddle gets sloppie/more effort. Complete driver error imo. Glad to hear everyone was ok though (except the car)!


no - sometimes brakes do just go. as in right to the floor, usually when you break a line. there is no advance warning for this.

[healtoeit]

Owner of the shop slammed on the brakes and there was nothing.... no brakes at all!

You know when their is something wrong with the brakes, they don't just go. As a "race car driver" he would know this. The peddle gets sloppie/more effort. Complete driver error imo. Glad to hear everyone was ok though (except the car)!

[ryan roopnarine]

sounds like somebody left the cap of the resivoir off. i had no idea that that could make your brakes "stop" working until i did that on el ford taurus after a brake job. the back out of the driveway was fine, but when i tried to brake on the street---pure floor. took about 40 pumps with the cap back on, and no air in the system afterwards.

[healtoeit]

no - sometimes brakes do just go. as in right to the floor, usually when you break a line. There is no advance warning for this.
True, however the advanced warning should have been the mechanic looking over his own work.