Devastated : Go easy what would you do?

easyrider

easyrider

easyrider

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Driving to work yesterday morning heard a massive clunking sound and then what I can only describe as a loud rhythmic grinding noise.

Anyway managed to get to my Indy on the way home.

And just had an email:

Rear backing plates and handbrake shoes (Causing Noise) £265

Bottom pulley is badly worn which could cause the belt to come off and you will then lose power steering on your vehicle. £280


Play in N/S/R Wheel bearing £174

O/S/F Brake pipe corroded £132 ( MOT failure likely )

Front anti roll bar link bushes have slight play £90 for the pair

Front control arm bushes are worn £110 each

Bad earth connection on the O/S/R Lamp unit which requires further diagnostics and the air con belt has fallen off.

Tyres: £170

Oil service :£120

Battery : £90

Total: £1541

Pouring this much into a BMW 2003 320D sport is crazy right?

I just need some reassurance on scrapping the car...

Am I best to sell of the alloys separate on ebay..( Not long been acid dipped and refurbished)

And advertise for spares?

What are my options?

Cheers
 
Some of the costs there can be mitigated, this is an old car it doesn't need a service history for example. You can therefore save most of that oil service price, and the battery probably doesn't need to cost £90 (does it even need a battery? Usually IME a decent conditioner will save batteries which are acting up). The bad earth connection might just be the usual BMW corrosion on the lamp holders/connecting plate - 5 minutes with a wire brush to fix that issue if its that.

After that, it just comes down to usual consumable and wear and tear items which any car can suffer from - bushes, brakes, tyres and belts?
 
Jez said:
Some of the costs there can be mitigated, this is an old car it doesn't need a service history for example. You can therefore save most of that oil service price, and the battery probably doesn't need to cost £90 (does it even need a battery? Usually IME a decent conditioner will save batteries which are acting up). The bad earth connection might just be the usual BMW corrosion on the lamp holders/connecting plate - 5 minutes with a wire brush to fix that issue if its that.

After that, it just comes down to usual consumable and wear and tear items which any car can suffer from - bushes, brakes, tyres and belts?
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The battery is 13 years old and the original one.

That's still leaves a massive chunk of cash being poured into the car.:(
 
Oh it's the bi annual easyrider 'my car has some consumables that need replacing and I got a hilarious quote should I scrap it' thread.

Change the oil. Fit a new belt. Get a new wheel bearing and have the handbrake done. Under 500 quid.
 
[TW]Fox;29099068 said:
Oh it's the bi annual easyrider 'my car has some consumables that need replacing and I got a hilarious quote should I scrap it' thread.

Change the oil. Fit a new belt. Get a new wheel bearing and have the handbrake done. Under 500 quid.
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Do handbrakes go every year?

Only last year I had the handbrake done.

Plus your talking rubbish. For effect.

you're telling me all this work can be done for 500?

great I have national breakdown cover tell me the garage and I'll get it towed there:rolleyes:

I'm waiting....
 
easyrider said:
Rear backing plates and handbrake shoes (Causing Noise) £265
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Get this fixed - however shop around - some of the prices you are quoting are on the expensive side.

easyrider said:
Bottom pulley is badly worn which could cause the belt to come off and you will then lose power steering on your vehicle. £280
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Note the *could*, hasn't happened yet, and *could* have been badly worn for a long time. Not essential to do at present.

easyrider said:
Play in N/S/R Wheel bearing £174
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Worth sorting this out

easyrider said:
O/S/F Brake pipe corroded £132 ( MOT failure likely )
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Check yourself or get second opinion (could just be cosmetic) - but worse case get done before the next MOT.

easyrider said:
Front anti roll bar link bushes have slight play £90 for the pair

Front control arm bushes are worn £110 each
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If handling isn't noticably affected, don't bother with these at present - *slight play* could mean anything, *worn* could mean anything,

easyrider said:
Bad earth connection on the O/S/R Lamp unit which requires further diagnostics
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As others have said, sounds like common issue - clean up earth point yourself - if still an issue then get looked at.

easyrider said:
and the air con belt has fallen off
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Not essential - get done when you can e.g. before Summer.

easyrider said:
Tyres: £170

Oil service :£120

Battery : £90
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General running costs - can't factor them in.

easyrider said:
What are my options?
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Keep the car you have, rather than buying another - at least you know what the issues are with this one.
 
Why are you getting a garage to do that work?

Everything except the tyres you could do yourself and would cost less than £600.
 
easyrider said:
Rear backing plates and handbrake shoes (Causing Noise) £265 - Seems excessive, use quality pattern parts, or get what is already there re-furbished. I would be surprised it it isn't something simple like a hanger/clip etc which has rusted and got lodged between the shoe and the drum, if that is the case, £80 or so to re-furb the rear drums. If not, £150 or so for a re-build including new clips/hangers and shoes sounds more reasonable.

Bottom pulley is badly worn which could cause the belt to come off and you will then lose power steering on your vehicle. £280 - Again seems excessive, how easy is it to access the pulley? How much is the part?


Play in N/S/R Wheel bearing £174 - I would expect this to be done for closer to £100. How much is the part?

O/S/F Brake pipe corroded £132 ( MOT failure likely ) - not sure on this one, £132 sounds like a lot just to change a brake pipe though!

Front anti roll bar link bushes have slight play £90 for the pair - Fine, but may not be absolutely necessary. How much play is slight play?

Front control arm bushes are worn £110 each - £110 each to change a bushing? May not be absolutely necessary anyway. As said previously, how worn is worn?

Bad earth connection on the O/S/R Lamp unit which requires further diagnostics and the air con belt has fallen off. - Earth connection is an easy fix, even if you chop the wire and crimp it to a new one which goes to a different earthing point. Air con belt has fallen off, so what - leave it or get a new one fitted.

Tyres: £170 - Not relevant, they are a consumable part and are not related to the issue.

Oil service :£120 - Not relevant, it is a service. £120 is too much, you can get some good oil and a filter for £30 and do it yourself, it is quite easy even if you are inexperienced. The only thing that can be a pain is getting the old oil filter off.

Battery : £90 - Why does this need replacing? If this was necessary I'd expect you to have noticed.

Total: £1541
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See above. To be honest that indie sounds like he is having a laugh...
 
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Acme said:
See above. To be honest that indie sounds like he is having a laugh...
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I've just emailed them and asked them for labour cost for fitting the backing plates and handbrake shoes

I just need to know what to order from euro carparts...

any help would be great on this...
 
easyrider said:
Plus your talking rubbish. For effect.

you're telling me all this work can be done for 500?
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Some of it doesn't need doing, some of it can be done for less. Excluding things like tyres, yes, you can probably see change out of 500 quid for this stuff.

The AC belt falling off - put a new one on? They are 10 quid and so easy to fit that even myself - an automotive DIY idiot - managed to change the AC belt on my 530i in the dark the night before setting off on a trip around Europe. If you cba to do it fair enough but its so simple that any indy should be charging next to nothing to swap it.

Oil service? It's a 200k mile tatty 13 year old car. It's not going to be sought after on the used market so use this to your advantage and just change the oil yourself (Or for 60 quid at National Tyres if you dont want to).

The only two items of real 'concern' are the brake pipes and the bushes - both of which can be expensive jobs on an E46 (No idea what Acme is on about, but thats par for the course) as the brake pipes go up behind the fuel tank and the bushes on an E46 are enough of a pain to do that its often cheaper to just replace the arm. Normally I'd recommend only genuine Lemforder parts for this but as you managed to drive around oblivious to the fact you had two bald tyres and a completely missing AC belt I'd imagine you could probably get away with the cheapo ECP generic ones for loads less money without noticing the difference.

This is all straight consumable stuff which if I am honest you are very lucky to have had last this long, I'd expect loads of this stuff to have needed to be done long before 13 years old.

Unless your intended replacement car is a nearly new one then you run the risk of experiencing the same sort of issues on anything you'd get to replace it instead of fixing this one so I'd just get on and get it fixed.
 
easyrider said:
Rear backing plates and handbrake shoes (Causing Noise) £265 Buy from a scrappers or second hand for substantially less. Fit yourself in a few hours (if that!)

Bottom pulley is badly worn which could cause the belt to come off and you will then lose power steering on your vehicle. £280 As others have said *could* - ignore.

Play in N/S/R Wheel bearing £174 Fix, but I'll be damned if it costs that much for a bearing

O/S/F Brake pipe corroded £132 ( MOT failure likely ) Again, as others have said, check if its cosmetic, if not replace.

Front anti roll bar link bushes have slight play £90 for the pair

Front control arm bushes are worn £110 each This one and the above amused me. We have a V70 at home that has had advisories on its MOT for 6 years for very similar problems, it has made absolutely no noticeable difference to handling and has not gotten worse. Fox knows BMWs a lot better than I though, so he thinks its an issue might well be worth looking at

Bad earth connection on the O/S/R Lamp unit which requires further diagnostics and the air con belt has fallen off. Probably just corrosion, check that out and wirebrush it, see if that helps.

Tyres: £170

Oil service :£120 Above two are just normal consumables, can't complain about those - though you could do an oil service yourself for much much cheaper.

Battery : £90 £90? Naaaaaah. Can probs get one for half that price.

Pouring this much into a BMW 2003 320D sport is crazy right?
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Wheel bearings on an e46 require change of the whole hub (or something like that) iirc. I certainly remember paying that much to have one done.
 
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