Buying an E23 BMW
Discussion
Jag_NE said:
If the car is currently reasonably rust free and it’s restricted to dry use and garaged, I presume it won’t deteriorate?
I’ve worked on a few garaged BMWs that were rust free when garaged. They often seem to rust underneath more than one that’s parked outside and driven regularly.I ran a few E23's when they were worthless bangers. I never cared much for them tbh, bloody horrible things.
The more kit the car has, the less reliable it's going to be. The 735i sounds great but in reality they never seemed to be that much faster than a good 728i.
Bodywise they rot along the top wing seams, rear arches, sills, rear valances. A lot of the chrome is unobtainable.
The suspension is a collection of bushes and balljoints held together by steel bits. You will be replacing a lot of it.
The brakes used that daft hydraulic booster that either works like a charm, or will be a f
king nightmare. The ram, master cylinder, linkage, all a PITA. ABS has its own delights such as the hub trigger rings rusting, failed sensors (currently NLA I think) and so on.
Many 4HP22 auto gearboxes were stretcher cases 30 years ago with switchable EH types on Motronic cars (735i and some 732i's) could be aggro, damp getting into the engine ECU hidden away in the driver's A post. Old Motronic 1.1 was trouble - ruined ECU, the two relays, both flywheel triggers and the timing pin that fell off the flywheel - yeeuuk.
The ride was ruined by those stupid TRX wheels on the bigger engined cars.
A basic non ABS 728i is the way to go, if you must. The E32 was such a huge improvement in in every respect.
The more kit the car has, the less reliable it's going to be. The 735i sounds great but in reality they never seemed to be that much faster than a good 728i.
Bodywise they rot along the top wing seams, rear arches, sills, rear valances. A lot of the chrome is unobtainable.
The suspension is a collection of bushes and balljoints held together by steel bits. You will be replacing a lot of it.
The brakes used that daft hydraulic booster that either works like a charm, or will be a f
king nightmare. The ram, master cylinder, linkage, all a PITA. ABS has its own delights such as the hub trigger rings rusting, failed sensors (currently NLA I think) and so on.Many 4HP22 auto gearboxes were stretcher cases 30 years ago with switchable EH types on Motronic cars (735i and some 732i's) could be aggro, damp getting into the engine ECU hidden away in the driver's A post. Old Motronic 1.1 was trouble - ruined ECU, the two relays, both flywheel triggers and the timing pin that fell off the flywheel - yeeuuk.
The ride was ruined by those stupid TRX wheels on the bigger engined cars.
A basic non ABS 728i is the way to go, if you must. The E32 was such a huge improvement in in every respect.
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