confession chair

[Fahad]

mistakes i made when purchasing my 93 525i:

-i didn't take enough time to look for a rust free e34, although it is very difficult to find a rust free old bimmer here in Bahrain (Bahrain is an island and the weather is very humid mostly).repairng rust and a repaint will cost me around 2k and still rust might came back.
cheaper solution: drive the car as a beater till it falls apart and look for another one by that time

-i didn't look carefully to suspension parts before purchasing the car which lead to some costly repairs to correct front end vibration.(strangly there was no vibration when i test drove the car! after few days of buying it all sort of vibrations kicked in.. all sorted out now exept for the 130 kmh and above vibration which is more to do with the drive shaft i think)

-i should not buy a car with non original wheels.

-i could wait a little more and get an e34 with leather seats.

-my car is dolphen grey and it's a practical color (needs less washing) but i like black bimmers more.. again i should wait and look around a bit more.


rather than that i am happy with my bmw and it has been very reliable (after changing all fluids, filter, fuel pump etc the moment i bought it).

any one want to share this confession chair?

[Paul in NZ]

i bought the third one i saw but knew exactly what i wanted before i looked,thanks to
1) some luck with my first look
2)The help of this Forum albeit another time and place.
So i ended up with a black on black leather,but like you the car was fitted with the wrong wheels,caused me some frustration at times.If you want another E34 you now know what to look for!

[ILoveMPower]

Yeah I wanted black/black or alpine/black but I ended up with island green :P

I had been looking for 5-spd 535i for months to no avail when this gem randomly popped up with 160k. A couple grand later and she runs/feels like a champ... other than the thermostat I need to get to changing

[Jehu]

I took my 540 to a professional BMW repair shop for a pre-purchase inspection where they told me not to buy it.They said it required aproximately $5,000.00 in repairs to be 100%.I bought it anyway.It has taken about that much over the last 9 months but other than a few days in a rental car during repairs and a few thousand more dollars on a Credit Card balance it has been great fun owning.The car was colse enough to my home when i found it for sale that i was able to at least do the Inspection so i knew ahead of time its true condition. Another 540 6 speed has not appeared anywhere within my reach in the time i've owned this. I didn't want to go for a smaller engine once I tasted the power in thr 540 and the same with the manual shift so if i wanted an E34 this was it. I felt it was in great shape other than needing these normal wear items. I just decided too many Summer driving seasons passed me by while i looked for the perfect car. If its been a love/hate relationship there's alot more love than hate.
If you feel the car is a burden could you not sell it and wait for a better one to appear?

[pingu]

Only a couple of weeks after buying my 540 did I notice that it was just starting to rust around the windscreen (the windscreen was not the original BMW one so some monkey-brained cheapo glass place must have replaced a cracked windscreen and scratched things while doing so). Getting that fixed cost me £800.

[Hal]

I bought my 1994 530iT with 37k miles and had no idea that there was any engine issue. It was from Florida, where it likely saw some high sulfur gas. I didn't know there was a potential problem until after the engine replacement program was over.

Well. it now has 163,000 mi and idles fine and doesn't burn any oil. I never bothered to have a leak down test done, and I don't worry about it any more.

Hal

1994 530iT 163,000 mi Nikasil powered
1999 528 iT 93,000 mi non-Nikasil powered

[Jehu]

Only a couple of weeks after buying my 540 did I notice that it was just starting to rust around the windscreen (the windscreen was not the original BMW one so some monkey-brained cheapo glass place must have replaced a cracked windscreen and scratched things while doing so). Getting that fixed cost me £800.

oh, thanks for reminding me. I did have some rust around the sunroof repaired and rot around the drain plug under the rocker panel.I have sence seen a bibble on the sunroof where it was repianted so i'll have to get them to redo it and now i see about a two inch long area of bubbling paint along the roof at the windshield too. Tha other job included a small patch of rust at the corner of the rear wheel cutout and totaled $500.00

Ad by way of an update my shop just called and quoted me about $1,700.00 for Bilstien HD's $50.00 less fro the Factory ( Sachs) all around with all hardware parts and labor. he tells me Bilstiens will give me a firmer ride for sporty cornering and overall "much better" grip. Sounds like a lot but again i have not place to do the job or tools so though perhaps if i bought the parts myself like from BMA or another online place and had him install them i may save a bit but i believe he does add around $10.00/hr when you supply your own parts ,at least this is what the owners Son stated to me.

Furthur updates include a $200.00 quote to fix the windshield rust and a new apx $1,000.00 quote to install the shocks from a different shop. I am being sent a coupon for a free oil change at an Independant BMW shop for the promise i will consider them for furthur service so i'll get their quote as well.. On a positive note today was way up into the low 60's and the car felt so relaxed and confident driving that i honestly couldn't really feel that i actually need new shocks and struts and hesitate to imagine how much more precise and controlled a ride it might proved when they're in..

[swenpro]

I bought a slush-box... ! Now that I've had that replaced, it's running pretty well. Especially with this warmer weather... my e34 simply does not like the cold.

Nice surprise: My nikasil engine was replaced with alusil per the engine block casting number, even though seller didn't know, and i actually like kashmir-beige metallic

Texas advantage: no rust went it came to me
Illinois disadvantage: I noticed many new places of developing rust from a mere 2 winters

Things I'm glad the PO did: replaced front suspension, installed cross-drilled rotors with brembo brakes

Things I didn't realize going in: It DOES take a few thousand $$ to maintain these vehicles like an enthusiast... but how classy they are now... and how classic they will be even 10 years from now!

[Renman]

It would seem to me that living in Bahrain would really limit the number of decent e34s for sale. We are spoiled in USA where you can still find a well kept inventory, although in the last 2-3 years they are becoming more rare I think.

[CharlesAFerg]

mistakes i made when purchasing my 93 525i:

-i didn't take enough time to look for a rust free e34, although it is very difficult to find a rust free old bimmer here in Bahrain (Bahrain is an island and the weather is very humid mostly).repairng rust and a repaint will cost me around 2k and still rust might came back.
cheaper solution: drive the car as a beater till it falls apart and look for another one by that time

-i didn't look carefully to suspension parts before purchasing the car which lead to some costly repairs to correct front end vibration.(strangly there was no vibration when i test drove the car! after few days of buying it all sort of vibrations kicked in.. all sorted out now exept for the 130 kmh and above vibration which is more to do with the drive shaft i think)

-i should not buy a car with non original wheels.

-i could wait a little more and get an e34 with leather seats.

-my car is dolphen grey and it's a practical color (needs less washing) but i like black bimmers more.. again i should wait and look around a bit more.


rather than that i am happy with my bmw and it has been very reliable (after changing all fluids, filter, fuel pump etc the moment i bought it).

any one want to share this confession chair?

Well, I do have an M20...
I was looking at M30s or M60s at the time, and I still am becuase the ones I ran across either had bad trannys or were just hopeless - but this is a great college car so far, so I've got no complaints! I've fixed it up nice, so I'm quite happy with myself, and the car of course.