New or pre-loved?

Rambling from the Sage of Oxford
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Charles
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New or pre-loved?

Post by Charles » Thu May 30, 2013 1:20 pm

I've been building up to a few expenses on the B3S in recent months and I now have to bite the bullet.

I had the front bushes replaced a little while back and was advised the rear ones, along with the diff bushes were on their way out. No problem - after 223k miles I would expect some wear and tear.

However, as some of you may recall, recently I had an expensive time with a worn wire hidden under the inlet manifold and a replacement ignition coil.

So, in the run-up to sorting out the rear end, I now find the auxiliary air pump is whining badly and sounds pretty terminal to me. Having checked that it wasn't just the rivets loosening and allowing air in (a quick fix by replacing the rivets with nuts and bolts, I am told), it was clear that the internals are reaching the end of their life. At £270 for a new one, I took the decision to source a pre-loved one from Quarry Motors (as recommended by my garage in Reading). £35 + £5 postage didn't sound too bad and they promised to run it up and find me a "good one", so I reckon that I can go through at least three more of these (allowing for labour to fit them) before it would have been better to buy a new one.

Or should I have gone for new straight away? What do you think?
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Post by John_C » Thu May 30, 2013 2:21 pm

I'd do exactly what you've done Charles, it's a common sense approach and it's not as if the car will suffer in any way from having that particular used part fitted.

It is a slight gamble as you never know how much life the used part has left in it but in this case with a part which generally lasts a long time anyway I think you've done the sensible thing.

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Post by jamesa » Thu May 30, 2013 2:57 pm

Don`t disagree at all but I`d only do that if I was selling the car in the near future.

Would I tell the new owner, of course I would :wink: :lol:
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Post by PerryGunn » Thu May 30, 2013 3:08 pm

As it's something where the labour component of the overall replacement cost is relatively small (my back of a fag packet calculations gives a fitting cost of about £35), fitting a part from a breakers represents a considerable saving over fitting a new part so it seems a sensible choice. Had the labour component of the replacement been a much higher proportion of the total cost of fitting a new part, I suspect the pendulum would swing the other way.
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Post by Charles » Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:20 pm

So I dropped the car off at Grosvenor Motors in Reading this afternoon for the following:

Inspection 1 (not including plugs as these were replaced with the new coil about 2k miles ago)
Replacement rear trailing arm bushes (going for the polyurethane ones)
Replacement diff bushes (sticking with BMW parts as they are likely to have been tuned to deal with the vibrations from the diff)
Full KDS
Replacement auxiliary air pump (using the pre-loved one that I taked about earlier in this thread)

I did the diff bushes about 100 - 120k miles ago so, with the car at 224k miles, this appears to be the normal lifecycle for these items. Similarly for the rear TA bushes.

The way I see it, I am having a normal service and happen to be replacing some wear and tear items - that way I can brace myself for what will be a relatively hefty bill. However, the expensive bits won't be happening again for at least 100k miles ... :roll:
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Post by I_MNL » Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:48 am

Interesting... :think
Let us know the overall bill, will you? :?
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Post by Charles » Wed Jun 05, 2013 8:53 am

I_MNL wrote:Interesting... :think
Let us know the overall bill, will you? :?
I'm supplying my own oil but I expect the overall cost to be in the region of £1000 - hopefully a little bit south of that point but it's only money :roll:
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Post by polynesian2 » Wed Jun 05, 2013 12:13 pm

Charles, where is most of the likely cost there? Is it the labour on diff bushes? Or just a scary accumulation of lots of smaller bits?

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Post by Charles » Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:13 pm

I will be picking the car up tomorrow - slight delay due to problems releasing the track rod adjusting nuts so KDS is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Slight change of plans too - we've left the diff bushes for another day as they were still serviceable but the rear shock top mounts needed changing along with the nsf wishbone (not quite sure how that got past the recent MOT but I'm asking no questions ...

I won't have the full breakdown until tomorrow but there are a large number of parts in there - rear trailing arm bushes, rear shock top mounts, wishbone - along with service items (filters etc), a KDS and then whatever labour is required.

Having changed the front brake reaction bushes recently, I'm hoping for a significant improvement in general handling once the rear end is fixed and the alignment done :twisted:
Charles
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Post by Charles » Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:58 pm

Wonderful :D

It's amazing what you get used to over time - now that the rear end has been sorted out and the alignment done, the car feels as tight as it did when I first got it :D

£350 of parts + £450 of labour and 20% VAT came to £968 - but worth every penny, I tell you.

Many of these items won't need touching again for another 100k miles and the polyurethane bushes should be there for ever - so I see this as just one of those expenses that come round occasionally.

Additionally, after 4k miles, the PS3s are still at 8mm on the front and 7mm at the rear, so these look like they'll be going a fair distance too :D

All in all, an expensive month, but based on my current mileage of 20k pa, a "5 year bill" @ £200 per year. Isn't "man maths" a wonderful thing :D
Charles
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Post by John_C » Fri Jun 07, 2013 11:53 am

:)

Ah, man maths, it's a fine and wonderful thing.

Glad to hear the changes have been worthwhile, I never minded spending money where I could feel the benefit. Well, not as much anyway.

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Post by jamesa » Fri Jun 07, 2013 2:50 pm

How much was the KDS ?
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Post by Charles » Sat Jun 08, 2013 1:03 pm

jamesa wrote:How much was the KDS ?
£90 I think - don't have the invoice in front of me though.

Grsovenor use an outfit just round the corner with full ALPINA specs loaded up on the system.
John_C wrote::)Glad to hear the changes have been worthwhile, I never minded spending money where I could feel the benefit. Well, not as much anyway.
Indeed :D

I was thinking about it yesterday and this is the first time in a while since the car has felt spot-on. First the engine rebuild at 180k, then the gearbox rebuild and shock absorber replacement at 190k and now the various bushes, top mounts and wishbones, not forgetting the coil and auxiliary air pump recently as well.

It certainly put a smile on my face yesterday morning as I travelled to school at pre-dawn o'clock to go on a Battlefields Trip. No traffic about so I took the twisty roads and gave the car a proper work-out :twisted:
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Post by jamesa » Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:05 pm

£90 ... that`s a lot cheaper than the Abz BMW dealer quoted me last year ! seem to recall it was ~ £240 ?

I went elsewhere and paid £80 ... not an `official KDS` but a proper 4 wheel system.

Thank you.
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Post by ALPB1033 » Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:04 am

Charles where did you do the KDS and any booking required? Thanks!

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