Brother offers me his 300E wagon...

My '93 BMW 525 is DOA so I'm in the market for a car. Was looking for a

300E w/ 100k miles or so. My brother bought a 300E wagon w/ 130k miles about a year ago then received a company car. The 300E still has 130k miles and he's offered it to me to drive for a while and possibly buy.

He says the car has one major problem. It uses about 1 qt of oil per 1000 miles. He also says it doesn't leak oil or smoke.

I know its a very vague problem description buy any ideas where the oil is going?

Chip L

Reply to
Chip L
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"Chip L" haute in die Tasten:

Wild guess: I would think about changing the Valve seals. In former time you could see blue smoke, when you went off the accelerator pedal during the ride, but today the catalytic converter may keep away most of the smoke.

Frank

Reply to
Frank Kemper

Thanks Frank. Your diagnosis is the same as the one my brother recieved. The catalytic converter involvement makes sense. Really appreciate it.

How much would a valve seal job run US$

Chip L

Reply to
Chip L

If it's not leaking or smoking what are the othr possabilities? Alies are sucking it out at night?

It's smoking, just not much. Probbaly valve guides; they do that at aorund this age. Sign of not-frequent-enough oil changes.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Valve seals alone won't fix this if it's the guides which it probably is. Seals can be replaced in situ; for guides the head has to come off.

Around $1000 plus or minus.

Much cheaper if yo udo it yourself, maybe less than half.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

If the car is from late 80's the guides may have a material problem and they will be ruined even with good oil.

I suggest checkin spark plugs. Some of them might be black indicating oil leakage thru the guides.

Reg: Harri

Reply to
Harri Markkula

If it is valve guides and it costs $1K to fix, is it worth fixing, or can you just keep adding oil? Will the car get worse and/or eventually fail emissions testing? You can buy an awful lot of (miles of oil) for $1K...

Reply to
William P.N. Smith

Reply to
Chip L

Reply to
marlinspike

If everything else is in good shape it's worth doing. Worn valve guides isn't exacly uncommon in Mercedes engines of this age. Uncommon is an understatement of epic propostion.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

What is this guys name? I've yet to hear of a vale seal replacement that had any long lasting effect. If it's the guides you're just wasting your money. I've love to be proved wrong...

Reply to
Richard Sexton

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