Re: Heard back on the self-levelling suspension...
From: Dennis Liu (bigheaddennisgmail.com)
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:47:44 -0800 (PST)
John, you are exactly correct!  Luckily enough, I've done BMW brakes before,
so it's only $250 in parts and a few hours of my (poor) labor.  But your
overall point is what scares me off the big German sedans.  The Nissan
Armada has been bulletproof, and the 996 (build with a LOT of input from
Toyota) has been equally reliable (in part because it doesn't have all of
that BS that MB/BMW/Audi insist on adding).
 
vty,
 
--Dennis

  _____  

From: JAshburne [at] aol.com [mailto:JAshburne [at] aol.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 5:43 PM
To: BigHeadDennis [at] gmail.com
Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Heard back on the self-levelling suspension...


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



_________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options, please visit:
http://lists.ferrarilist.com/mailman/options/ferrari/jashburne%40aol.com

Sponsored by BooyahMedia.com 
and F1 Headlines
http://www.F1Headlines.com/


 



  _____  

Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in
one place. Try
<http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000
010> it now.

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.