E34 MOT failure... is it worth fixing?

No.

You're pretty stuffed then.

Break it. Sell the bits on Ebay. (I'll give you £35 for the inlet manifold on its own)

Possible but unlikely. What are the emissions results?

Doubtful unless you do the work yourself. My old 1992 520i Tourer got to

Seconded on general principles. Given the cost of garage labour, plus mark-up costs on parts and materials, running something this old with this much attention needed is totally uneconomical unless you do most of the work yourself.

Doing brake pipes is cheap and a piece of piss, by the way.

I've alway though that the only way to run an old car (and especially one with known faults) is to do the work yourself. You can manage cheap motoring that way. By the sound of it, you're going to be spendimg a lot on this to fix it professionally. Probably too much.

That's what I figured.

It's with a garage for a quote. We'll see...

Hmm... downside to that is I end up with a shell I don't want.

Umm... I forget and don't have the results sheet with me but they were all over the place; first run it wasn't too far out, second run it was a long way out. However I don't think the engine/cat was that hot, didn't have this problem last year though.

Well, if it's less than 400 quid to fix I'll pay it, if more I'll get another car and sell this one for very little without an MOT or scrap it.

Which is pretty much what I've done in the past, however time is in shorter supply than cash so I'm happy enough to sub this out. To be honest over the last three years I've not had much done to it apart from bodywork so I can't complain.

Well, that's my guess, anyway I've dumped it with a garage for an 'estimate'. (a trusted one I've used in the past)

( snipped-for-privacy@burnt.org.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Which a scrappy will almost certainly collect for free.

But would you rather spend the money on keeping a dying vehicle limping along or investing it in something newer and cheaper to maintain.

I remain of the opinion that if you can't or won't maintain a car yourself, keeping an oldie on the road rather than investing in something newer is wasting money. Even more so when the oldie has significant known problems.

Well, given that I've had the vehicle for 3 years I pretty much know what faults it has. If I was to replace it I'd potentially buy something with a different selection of faults.

Regarding keeping a dying vehicle limping along, well it's hardly limping at the moment,but I take your point. Given it's got a decent set of tyres on it and I do less than 8k a year in it if I can get it MOTd for 400 quid I'll do it and either out it or run it for another year (probably the latter.)

I'm of the opinion that a carefully bought car shouldn't take much in the way of maintenance beyond regular servicing. This has pretty much been the case with the beemer to date...

Very true, but by waiting for the right vehicle and checking scrupulously you ought to be able to invest in something newer and with less faults and less risk of faults.

Bathtub curve, my friend, bathtub curve. It gets us all in the end.

And to be honest, if you include regular servicing and wear and tear items, it doesn't need much more than that now.

Let's look at your list:

"one of the front wings is starting to 'spot' "

What exactly do you mean by that - just rust spots on the exterior where paint's chipped/scraped/bubbled? Is it really bad enough that the wing wants replacing? And in any case aren't they a relatively simple bolt-on affair?

"an outer sill will need patching"

Fair enough, not a major thing - probably £50-60 or so to get that done.

Dodgy dash display you can live with - as far as the speedo's concerned, as long as the rev counter works ok I'd just work out a few crucial rpm figures at certain speeds in certain gears (mainly 30 in 3rd and 4th, and 70 in 5th) and just go with that for speed cameras, and be a bit on the side of caution.

Clutch - unless it's actually slipping or getting seriously close to it, just be that bit more careful with it and you'll probably be surprised at how much longer it'll last.

Brake pipes - well, s*it happens, needing to replace brake pipes doesn't condemn a car. Balljoint - wear and tear to be honest. CO - possibly needs a replacement lambda sensor.

The coolant issue - who knows - the one thing you don't want is to get all the other work done, only to find out it is the head gasket, and for it to let go in a major way. Suppose the best answer might be to get a compression test done nad a bloody good checkover of the cooling system to see where the water's going. You haven't been getting particularly warm, moist feet whilst driving, have you? :-)

"The weather today is warm and wet. Warm and wet: great if you're in a woman, lousy if you're in a jungle."

Sorry, couldn't resist. :-)

Well, I figure that the water usage/emissions are the killer. The other things aren't that expensive. Oh well, pity really.

It's been repaired at least once before two years ago. They are a bolt on job but I had trouble finding one last time.

Actually; this is where we differ, I can't live with this. For lots of reasons, one of the major ones being that when the speedo is operating the odometer isn't and if this doesn't work how can I work out the fuel consumption... this is important stuff, I've got >15 years of data from every vehicle I've owned...

Well, yes... but there is a risk it'll fail in the next year.

All the above, yes agree completely; if in isolation.

Absolutely- it's in a garage at the moment for this and to test the coolant for traces of 'combustion products'. I trust them, have used them in the past, will use them in the future so I doubt they'll stiff me particularly plus they have an idea of what my budget is to get it through the MOT.

Well it depends what's causing it doesn't it? E.g. pot of Radweld and a new air filter: 15 quid?

Air filter's fine.

Radweld... you must be joking, surely.

There's a time and a place for everything. If it's not economical to repair the coolant leak properly, bodge it for a fiver. If it works for a while, it works for a while... When the alternative is just scrapping the car, what's the problem?

Pretty much my take on it; something I'd use to 'get me home'; not something I'd use in a car I planned to keep.

You've had a good life with the car, and it's had a good run. Clean some bits up, and chuck them individually on ebay, if you're willing to post things to people.