89 bmw for parts now? not running need some advice plz

budddddylee

my gfriends 89 bmw i 4 door blew a gasket and it would cost possible over 2k closer to 3k to fix. mechanic said they gotta send in the head to test and resurface and then put in new gasket and while your add it do a tuneup since its all open for work etc....

its a white never wrecked and no rust very clean. all the extras and the leather is in great shape. alarm, 10cd changer etc...

anyways is there anyway someone can give me an idea as to how much i should hold out for on this? mechanic said his customer he knows would give us 1700$ . her brother in law said he would give 2000$ sight unseen. i was gonna call some autobuyer tomorrow that buy running or non-running automobiles.

anyways anyone with some info that has been thru this?

tia

q45man

in older 90,91,92 Q45 where the owner lets the motor or tranny get trashed, they are looking at $6,000 to $3,000 plus all the other things wrong with the cars.
We usually offer between $1200 and $1500 and use most of them for body parts. Exceptionally clean and good paint may get rebuilt by techs in spare time as personal drivers or for friends.
You didn't mention mileage or model obviously the 535,525 are worth more than 3 series.
Why wouldn't you just repair it and put in condition to drive another 5 years sure beats payments of $600-$800 month for a new one.

Mr_Shiftright

I'd agree---fix the car. HOWEVER, I would instruct the mechanic to pull the head, then STOP, and have the head tested. BMWs of this era will crack their cylinder heads, which means you could be in the hole for money money than just a head gasket.

$3K for just a valve job and head gasket and tune up seems rather high to me. Closer to $2K would be more like it, but up to $3K with a cracked head, yeah I guess I could see that. You may have trouble finding a good head, and someone has to do the chasing. If you buy a new head, OH_HAH, that could cost some money.

PS: I'm presuming this is not a 528e. If it is, I might change my mind about fixing it, as you can buy them cheap in very nice shape.

budddddylee

mileage is 167k. this shouldn't of happened. this is what u get from not taking it into a dealer i am guessing. seems like this beemer should of had better luck. 167k is not too many miles .

other stuff i noticed and was disappointed with is these other problem with it just for the record.

89 bmw with 167 had
-ac needed to get fixed. the on/off mechanism wouldn't work. off worked all the time but to engage it. you had to push it in slowly like 100 times and then it would finally catch for you. we would drive with it on all the time and just turn the fan off if AC wasn't needed.
- display didn't light up. never knew if oyu were in neutral or park or reverse. tuff for people borrowing the car.
-had to glue door panel back on. try super glueing black plastic on black leather. its still holding.
-seat belt wouldn't lock or clip in and lock.

kinda lame if you ask me. those beemer mechanics get like 65$ an hour too.

those inspection 2's looked pretty costly for just looking into things to make sure all was ok.

tia for everyones comments. i am staying away from beemers.

Mr_Shiftright

Well, gee, 167K is a LOT of miles!

I don't think the car owes you guys anything, even though I am sorry to hear of your troubles with it.

Yep, at those miles definitely flip it. Grab that $1,700 fast as you can.