Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Heard back on the self-levelling suspension...

[JAshburne (JAshburne]

Dennis:
 
Depends on what you want to do and whether you feel lucky in buying a  
formerly expensive car that may or may not have some expensive routine  service 
costs not covered by an extended warranty.  Brakes could  be $800 easily on one 
of 
those cars and that is not usually a warranty  item.  
 
If you would keep the 740i for a while longer if it wasn't for the repair  
bill of $$$$ and the car in its current un-driveable state is worth $2K, I  
would have to say that an investment of $900 is bound to result in a payback of 
 
at least that much additional value the day after you pay for it and even 1  or 
2 years from now.  I would think that any car these days that can  pass 
inspection, be legally licensed on the road and basically works is worth at  
least 
$3k and probably more even if it is a high mileage 7 series  BMW. 
 
So it probably makes sense to do the conventional repair even if you turn  
around and sell it right away.  Or drive it for another year or two with  
little 
or no maintenance costs (fingers crossed!) and zero depreciation.
 
After that, your decision is whether you want to spend the extra money on  
one of your other choices.
 
I used to keep my cars for a long time when they were simpler and  more owner 
serviceable but lately I have been scared of the  out-of-warranty costs for 
something like a Mercedes or any other recent  production "nice" (read 
luxurious, sporty and/or otherwise complex)  car and would insist on the 
manufacturer's primary or extended warranty  coverage for one of those.  Those 
things can 
chew up $2K in a climate  control or an ecu repair without blinking an eye.  I 
will probably  consider continuing to own my daily station driver 2005 Toyota 
even after  its warranty expires because it has had absolutely nothing go  
wrong with it in 3 years and 22,000 miles.  I wouldn't even think  about owning 
my 2008 ML350 if there wasn't a warranty on it.
 
My sense of your philosophy is that it makes sense to do the repair and  save 
your disposable dollars for your truly "fun" cars.
 
Or I could be totally wrong!
 
John
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 12/16/2008 4:04:16 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com writes:

Howdy.  First off, thanks to the great advice from lots of folks -  very much
appreciated!

Spoke with the shop where the car ('95 740iL)  is at right now.  Asked him
about the suggestion to just cut off the  corroded part of the line, and
flare in a bit.  "Every bit of that  line is as rotted as what you saw; there
is nothing at the leaking end that  I could flare onto.  And the other end of
the line is just as bad, so  if we tried to replace the line, we'd almost
certainly have to replace the  blocks on each end.  That's why I wanted to
warn you that it could get  really expensive."  (I'm paraphrasing, but I
think that's mostly  right.)  

I then asked him about plan B - going with a  conventional rear suspension
setup.  He said that he's done them on  earlier Bimmer, no problem, but
hadn't done it on an E38.  The concern  is how/where to plug the hydraulic
system, so it doesn't affect the power  steering.  He added that he knew that
Bavarian used to sell a kit, for  the older cars, but did not know what would
work on the E38.

So  then, at Bob Alexander's suggestion, I called up Steve Haygood, who  was
*very* friendly and helpful.  Said that NEW parts (shocks,  springs, mounts,
a couple of bitsas) would probably total somewhere between  $400-$525, which
isn't too bad.  He thought that labor would be  anywhere between 3-4 hours,
given that I was up in Boston (ahem :-).   As for how to deal with the
hydraulics, Steve suggested that a simple brass  plug with some teflon tape
right at the power steering pump should do the  trick.

So...  My options:

(a) spend the $700-$900 for the  conventional suspension, and run the car for
as long as it keeps running  (or I hit the next stumbling block).

(b) Do the same as (a), but try a  couple of boneyards to save a couple of
hundred on the parts (it's got 200k  miles, so any used parts are almost
certainly newer, right?), but is it  worth it?  

(c)  Sell it to the next guy with $2k in cash (or  best offer!) and the skill
to do the work himself, then go buy something  from that long, endlessly
debated but entertaining list....

Again,  all thoughts are welcome!

Grazie,

--Dennis
(the wife weighed  in prefering an E61 or E39 Wagon... I got the  hint...)
Bostonish



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