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Author Topic: Dead BMW  (Read 5289 times)
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bruciebonuz
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« on: 11 February, 2013, 04:54:34 PM »

Our X5 is kaput.  Its a 2002 3.0i petrol, 95k, black with black leather.  Seems its had a head gasket failure (gunk in the oil, sickly smelling smoke).  Not economical to fix and I am loathe to spend money on it when we had planned to sell next year anyway.  It would be near enough 2k to put a new engine in it and I wouldnt really want to spend more than 1k anyway on it.

Options are:

- ebay
- breakers
- px for peanuts

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do or require a broken 4x4?
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1969 RHD Fanalone Lusso
lancialulu
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« Reply #1 on: 11 February, 2013, 05:32:44 PM »

sorry to hear. reminds me when our low mileage but worth nothing Frontera threw a cam belt in south of France. Jonathan its the breaker so another X5 is permanently off the road! he he Sad
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Its not the winning but taking part! or is it taking apart?
Lancias:
1955 Aurelia B12
1967 Fulvia 1.3HFR
1972 Fulvia 1600HF
1972 Fulvia Sport 1600
1983 HPE VX
1988 Delta 1.6GTie
1998 Zeta 21.  12v
phil-m
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« Reply #2 on: 11 February, 2013, 08:04:41 PM »

eBay, you will be surprised how much you could get even for a dead 'un
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bruciebonuz
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« Reply #3 on: 11 February, 2013, 08:24:50 PM »

It still starts and drives....just not sure for how much longer!
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1969 RHD Fanalone Lusso
ncundy
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« Reply #4 on: 11 February, 2013, 08:58:37 PM »

Agree with phil. I recently sold a 20 year old w124 merc on ebay. It had a terrible misfire and was a bit rough round the gills but got £750 for it, which was more than I thought. You will however get a load of silly questions and chancers.
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1969 Fanalone, Mazda RX-8, Fiat Multipla
Kevin MacBride
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« Reply #5 on: 11 February, 2013, 10:42:46 PM »

This is an interesting one. When the market went kaput over here in 2008, sales of new cars and parts dropped dramatically. So after a few changes in work I convinced my boss to go into the scrap car business. We started early last year,and its only beginning to take off now. People ring us to buy thier cars. At the start, I was viewing the cars and trying to judge how much they were worth before making an offer, now I have a completly different outlook, and view cars simply as scrap. Cars from pre 2000 we offer 100 Euro, maybe 200 if its a decent model or a van. Pre 2004 500 Euro again depending. Only last week I picked up a '00 318, an '01 320, and a '98 316 coupe....500 Euro the lot.
The real money is to be made in '05 or '06 onwards, light crash damage but with cars driving. the 'salvage' value insurance companies put on 'uneconomical' crash damage is staggering low, in relation to the actual value.
Its a tough world out there. Your car has huge potential as a breaker, unfortunatly the breakers and salvage companies know this, and will only offer peanuts.
Get the average price of what a decent version of yours would sell for, and put it up for sale at half that. If you get viewers, tell them the truth about the repairs, and let them make an offer. Offering it to a breakers will only get you peanuts.
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B20 4th series (having a 'facelift')

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Fiat Multipla
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Thotos
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Theo Kyriacou


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« Reply #6 on: 11 February, 2013, 11:50:22 PM »

Why a new engine just for a head gasket failure? Why not repair the engine? If it starts and drives, it can't be that bad. So don't drive it to cause more damage and simply get it repaired. It just shows ownership expectations. If/when the head gasket goes on my Gamma I say "oh well, I didn't really want to go shopping next Saturday" and I repair it but an X5 owner says "don't fix but get rid of it". We definately live in a disposable world these days.....

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Theo Kyriacou
bruciebonuz
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« Reply #7 on: 12 February, 2013, 09:51:15 AM »

Why a new engine just for a head gasket failure? Why not repair the engine? If it starts and drives, it can't be that bad. So don't drive it to cause more damage and simply get it repaired. It just shows ownership expectations. If/when the head gasket goes on my Gamma I say "oh well, I didn't really want to go shopping next Saturday" and I repair it but an X5 owner says "don't fix but get rid of it". We definately live in a disposable world these days.....



The car is maybe worth £4k tops as a runner and will cost quite a lot to put right and buying a second hand engine doesnt appeal.  Not all of us can tackle these types of repairs.  Its in average shape at best after being run for over 10 years as our family car.  So not that disposable thanks very much chum. 
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1969 RHD Fanalone Lusso
Jai Sharma
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« Reply #8 on: 12 February, 2013, 12:57:08 PM »

I suppose it depends on which way you look at the question of the cost of repairs in proportion to the cost of the car. It might be a high proportion of the current value, but probably a much smaller proportion of the cost of buying a replacement car......
You're probably close to the bottom of the depreciation curve now, and you'll climb back up that with a replacement. Of course, there are other reasons/benefits in buying a replacement.
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the.cern
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« Reply #9 on: 12 February, 2013, 02:20:42 PM »

Yet another of life's great imponderables relating to any vehicle, when is it time to cut and run Huh??? It is purely down to your own unique set of circumstances and, when you have made your decision and the deed is done, you will never know whether or not one of the other options might have proved better. Therefore, deep breath make a decision and do not waste time wondering whether or not it was the right one !!!

My problem is ....... I find it is so much easier to advise other people to do this than it is for me to do it myself !!!

                                  Andy
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lancialulu
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« Reply #10 on: 12 February, 2013, 03:38:34 PM »

We had no such problem when our Frontera died. Nice car low mileage but we were looking to "dispose" of it as it was surplus to requirements. It had reached the bottom of its depreciation and was worth around £800 albeit to replace would have been £20k. Costs of repair when it threw a cambelt in the south of France was c2000euros.... We unhappily paid 100 euros (to add insult to injury) to have it scrapped French style. We drove by last year and it was still by the side of the French garage looking rather forlorn.

When our 10 year old everyday Corsa (worth £1500) suffered a gearbox failure at 60,000 miles it made sense to spend £1000 to get it serviceable again.

As Jai and Andy says each car failure has its own CBA.
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Its not the winning but taking part! or is it taking apart?
Lancias:
1955 Aurelia B12
1967 Fulvia 1.3HFR
1972 Fulvia 1600HF
1972 Fulvia Sport 1600
1983 HPE VX
1988 Delta 1.6GTie
1998 Zeta 21.  12v
DavidLaver
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« Reply #11 on: 12 February, 2013, 04:12:03 PM »


What I tend to do is to PLAN to sell a car before it gets expensive, not sell in time, get drawn into a succession of expensive stuff then not be able to sell as it owes me - or is that owns me?

The Aurelia was the exception to that rule.  My genuine reason for sale was that the engine and interior and paint all needed looking at.  Of course in THAT case I should have kept it...

Thinking about it I did once sell a car at a good price at the right time.  Just the once.  The problem there was that I felt terrible about it.

Perhaps I shouldn't become a motor trader eh?

David
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David Laver, Lewisham.
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« Reply #12 on: 13 February, 2013, 08:34:15 AM »

Fix it and export it to South Africa? 

Here's a similar one for sale at £20k http://www.junkmail.co.za/motoring/bmw/gauteng/bmw-x-series-suv-x5-3.0i-24106217
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Guy McDougall
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Rare Parts for Rare Machines
Appia Coupé S3 (Rosina), Appia Berlina S3 (La Giaconda), Fulvia 1.3S 5 spd coupé (Tigger, belongs to Carol), Beta Spyder S2 (Vivaldi), Montecarlo Spyder S2, HPE VX (Pugsly) etc
Charles
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« Reply #13 on: 13 February, 2013, 09:48:51 AM »

Having owned various Lancias (including a couple of Gammas) over the last 32 years I have found that one of the "benefits" is that I have been forced to improve my mechanical, welding, and paint spraying skills.  So I'm with Theo on this - head gasket - is that all!  That BMW engine is a good-un (I had one like that) and certainly worth fixing.  £20 for a torque wrench (if you haven't got one), £40 for a gasket and maybe £100 or so to get the head skimmed (if it needs it) + a day's work and job jobbed for the next 100K miles.  I don't trust garages anyway!!  But on the other hand - it is still winter and I must admit, I wouldn't fancy doing the job in the cold.  Good luck whatever you decide.
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Augusta berlina, Appia S3 berlina
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bruciebonuz
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« Reply #14 on: 13 February, 2013, 01:41:34 PM »

After all that and a second opinion from the very nice people that MOT my Fanalone it seems its ok after all.  A build up of gunk from short journeys, cold weather, condensation etc.  Resulted in a spectacular blow out of black, followed by white smoke and general unhappiness.  Moral of the story - get a second opinion.  First garage (a "specialist" BMW independent) charged me £60 and wrote it off as blown gasket and not worth repairing.  The fact that it wasnt overheating and the rarity of head gasket issues on the engine meant a second opinion was the right option.

Not sure that you can easily repair the X5 engine, alloy block, threads that strip easily (I did look into it) which is why people often conclude its often cheaper and a better idea to replace the engine.

Thanks for all the responses and views.  Lessons learned.


 
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1969 RHD Fanalone Lusso
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