"New" Car

.:MBK:.

.:MBK:.

.:MBK:.

Soldato
Joined
30 Jan 2004
Posts
5,194
Location
Harrogate
So, i've been silly and said yes to accepting my grandads 1990 BMW 525i SE as he didnt fancy selling it and no one else in the family wants it or is in a position to want it

I was wondering if there is any general things i should pay any particular attention to or keep an eye on?

He has been the sole owner from new (sort of, ex demo) and as far as im aware it has a full service history with an approved used BMW dealer, and an approved LPG conversion, its covered little more than 80k miles is its life, so yes, its barely been used.

Picking it up the weekend after my 21st, makes a nice 21st Birthday present if you ask me :)
 
Bargetastic! Just go through the service history and check whats been done and when so you can get an idea of any upcoming expenses.
 
wasnt on my shortlist of 2nd cars, but well, when you get a phonecall from your grandad saying do you want a BMW 525 for 0, i wasnt going to say no really
 
e34 roxorz, mine was great fun for arse out action (although 150bph was limiting). E39 is too sensible for such antics
 
well had it 1 week and well, its more comfortable, it moves far more gracefully than the thrash the daylights out of 4 pot corolla, consumes the miles like they were nothing and encourages you to go faster, which i sometimes oblige :o

it does seem to suffer from the so called 50mph shimmy quite badly though, whether its general wear and tear on the suspension or the lpg tank upsetting the balance i dont know, can an lpg tank upset the suspension that badly? or is it just get the bushes/arms looked at and replaced as necessary?

to mine, and my grandads suprise, when he had the MOT done and LPG tank serviced they went and services the whole car, can't complain, just had to compensate grandad a bit as he wasnt expecting such a large bill

only fault that came up on the MOT was misaligned headlights, soon resolved and everything is ship shape bar the aforementioned shimmying

cost wise it brought a huge grin to my face filling it up with LPG for the 1st time, quite refreshing paying for that stuff even if it does get burnt through a bit quicker

on that note how long is it advisable to keep petrol in a tank before its really worth considering getting it drained, as well the stuff thats currently in there causes the car to feel more lazy and occasionally judder as if im in too high a gear, usually needing a quick jab of extra throttle to settle it back down again. i believe some of the stuff has been in there upward of 6months with me sticking an extra £10 in just to try and mix it with some new stuff, clearly didnt make a blind bit of difference (still only 1/3 of a tank)

oh and pictures will come when i get it cleaned (again) and if the weather is good
 
i thought you was supposed the warm the car up on petrol before using LPG? how comes the fuel has been in there 6months?
 
pretty much because over summer you dont need the petrol to warm it up, itll start quite happily just off the lpg, and well warming an engine doesnt use a huge amount of fuel, not to mention the ever decreasing mileage my grandad did (hence why i now have it) meant the car, and as such the petrol, just wasnt getting used

even in the colder months it has to be pretty darn cold to need the petrol aswell, but in the mornings i usually run it on petrol for a while, then kick it over to gas at one of the sets of traffic lights or something
 
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