I have today gone all the way to Weybridge top look at an elderly first-shape BMW 520i. I can get it very cheap. I don't know yet what MoT or licence it has (I drove it but fairly typically didn't even look).

The engine and as far as I could tell the gearbox were sweet as a nut. The oil was not new but far from squalid. There was a light on saying 'inspection' on the dashboard. Underbonnet, fairly filthy, showed a breather pipe sort of thing strangely lying there with a spark plug stuffed up it to seal it. Perhaps as a result of that, it idled much too fast, nearly 2,000 rpm, and the idiot economy meter read zero at idle (!). It drove OK but like a boat. Brakes weren't sharp but worked. Whole thing felt just slightly lopsided, not in a bad way, and not unusually for a 175,000 miler.

My mechanic, who has a much newer-shape 525 and is a fine fellow, said the light wasn't a problem and BMWs were generally reliable and long-lasting, but the original 5 series could suffer rust. (I didn't look under the car but it was apparently rust-free, perhaps often garaged). He also said those models if in sound nick were fairly easy to keep in order. It has been the much loved hack of a film maker. I thought it might make a good station runabout for the place in Sussex where my long suffering wife is sometimes staying with grandnippers and no personal car.

Am I, at a frankly buttons financial level, just being dumb and thinking of wasting money? There's a front wing crunched too but I know a good body man. Speak soon if you have an opinion, especially Aprilia if you see this. Read more

This has come up because of the revelation in another thread that you can check your cars MOT history on the VOSA website. It's not at all important, but I just can't get my head around it.

I bought my car in February. At that time it had a private plate, so was re-registered by the dealers.
The MOT history lists the old and new registrations, stating that it was transferred on 16/02/07.
All fine so far. But the paper MOT certificate (which agrees with the web in every detail) was issued on July 10th 2006, and has the current reg on it. It also has mention of the transfer in February.
So how does that work? To take account of the reg change did they have to contact the garage who performed the MOT back in July and get them to re-issue a certificate with the new reg? Read more

Hi,

I've recently fitted a replacement engine to my 306. The new engine came from a citroen zx and has a bosch fuel pump without immobiliser, in order to get it to run all I wired in was the stop soleniod. The old engine had a lucas pump with immobiliser, don't know if any of this helps.

For some reason the engine won't go past 3100rpm. It flies up to this point, really does. I've adjusted the max fuelling and it has given it a bit more go but it still won't rev past 3100rpm. It feels like I'm hitting some sort of limiter. If I give it max throttle it'll jump when it hits 3000rpm, but if I give it a little and let it accelerate more slowly it will creep up to 3100rpm before it starts jumping.

I've noticed there is a wire that goes to a very thin pipe which goes to what i think is the top of where the bolt that accesses the governor is. There is no feed going to this as I have explained only the stop solenoid has been wired in. Is this anything to do with it????

Or is it something else?

Cheers
Bryan. Read more

I am quite appalled at the number of new cars I see and often prestige ones at that, that seem to suffer from orange peel on the paintwork. I thought that this phenomenon was a thing of the past. My last three new cars, two Rovers and my current Golf don't have any signs of this scourge. Maybe this is because my cars have been finished in metallic Silver or variants of colour thereof.
I pulled alongside a new black BMW 1 series a day or so ago and the orange peel finish down its side was very apparent - I would have been straight back to the dealers with that car, I can tell you.
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I recently bought (Feb 2007) a BMW 316i 1999 4 door saloon with 65,000 miles on the clock. The car cost £3900. I bought the car from a dealer. When i went to view the car it had a full service history. I took it for an hour test drive and no issues arose. The dealer didn't disclose any issues with the car. So happy with it i paid a deposit and collected the car the follwing day.

After 2 weeks of driving the coolant light came on followed by the oil light which were leaking I have been keeping the car topped up with coolant and oil until i could have it checked yesterday.

The garage has just told me the head gasket has broken, water pump is leaking, radiator is leaking, and various asscoiated works are required costing £1200 inc labour and VAT. Obviously i am annoyed and think the trader knew about these repairs prior to selling the car - but i have no proof.

Does anyone know if i have any rights or comeback to the trader? If so what should i do. Or am i just going to have to pay this bill.
any advice is appreciated thanks
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