Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLAsc
I'm thinking about picking up an '85 BMW 633CSi (that needs some work). Anybody have one or have thoughts about these cars?
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An 85 would be a 635, not a 633.
They are great cars, I've had a few. Parts are fairly low cost, plenty of used parts available, most mechanical stuff is shared with the 535.
They are solid, but they are getting to be old, relatively low cost cars now, so there is often a lot of deferred maintenance.
They have a bunch of kind of sensitive suspension bushings that go bad and need to be replaced, or you get steering and braking shimmies and other weird things. The front rotors seem to warp sometimes.
They have a power braking system with a brake "bomb" that goes bad and plenty of areas to leak.
By now, a lot of them have high miles and while the engines are strong, I'm sure many of them currently on the road are burning some oil and could use a top end.
If the coolant isn't changed for a long time, they can corrode head gaskets.
The driveshaft guibo and center bearing often needs replacing.
All the things mentioned above, I've personally done over the years. None of it is super hard, and if you have to do one of them a year, it isn't bad. I wouldn't really want to do all of them all at once, though.