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Me and my car.
For my 100th post (hello new avatar!) I just wanted to post my about my car in general and the upcoming projects I have in mind for it and see if any of you had any opinions and/or suggestion. I figured it would also give you enough info to let me know if I'm in over my head on some stuff.
The car: I bought a 1997 one owner (who bought it in Germany, so it is a Euro delivery car) 328is with 158,000 miles from Raliegh, NC. I drove 4 hours to go buy it, and looked for it for over a month. It is an automatic, but I actually don't really mind that. Maybe one day I'd like to swap it to 5spd but for now it's fine as is. It is my first BMW, although my father had an E30 and has an E39 that I have driven extensively and helped him work on. My car came with a boatload of parts from the PO too. He had done the suspension refresh for the front, the cooling system refresh, had replaced all plastic pulleys with aluminum, and had over an inch thick stack of papers, including oil analysis for over 3 years. Paid him $2750 for the car. The extra parts are a flex disc, center ds bearing, new door lock actuator, 4 oil filters, cabin filters, air filters (all Mann), a Bentley manual, German dealer CD that had all diagrams on it as well in PDF form, and toe casters and bushings. And a Peake code reader. It has no leaks of any kind, anywhere, doesn't burn oil etc. He knew his stuff well.
I knew going in I was going to have to expand my ability (and patience) to own the car so I know I'm clueless sometimes but I try to research before I ask anything. I've always changed my own oil, etc and done alternators, thermostats, brakes and the like. I've never cracked an engine all the way open though, and probably never would unless I had extremely experienced help. I have plenty of tools and a garage and most importantly this is not my DD, so I have another car.
What I need: Replace ALL fluids, get those casters on! The flex shaft, fix the headliner, refresh rear suspension, possible RW bearings, brake has a wobble in it I think could be a warped rotor, replace ignition coil #1 (keeps giving me a CEL, but car is not missing) and do something about my only oxidized paint and peeling clear coat on the passenger side fender. The interior is not ripped but DIRTY and plan on a Leatherique fix kit soon as well.
I guess the point of the post is just to get my ability level and car info out there so you guys what know who I am so to speak and what I'm dealing with. I've been lurking around here for a while now and I know you guys like as much info as possible when someone posts a problem, so I figured I'd just go ahead and throw this out there for info purposes.
If anyone has any tips, pointers, and warnings please let me know. And thanks for all the help and opinions I've gotten so far.
Jon
Post Script: I should have a purple italic name soon, I just became a supporting member!
Last edited by SCJon; 12-12-2012 at 09:09 AM.
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