I've stumbled across a '83 BMW 633 with a 5-speed for sale near me. I have absolutely no business considering it but I'm going to go look at it just in case it's too nice to pass on. Asking price is $3K. 170,000 miles. It has some rust spots but looks fairly decent. Suggestions on what to look for?
Electrical connections get crusty with age and can cause strange issues so look for any inconsistent or flickering lights. Rubber bushings and guibo will all be trashed by now if they're original. Other than that stuff, mostly just normal car things, they're pretty stout.
I've been living in the E24/28 world for a while.
Rust will kill these - look for it in the rockers, the outer edges of the floorpan, the strut towers, and the spare tire well. They also tend to rust in places you can't see it, particularly inside the door jambs. If it's $3k and has visible rust it's not in "too nice to pass on" territory; I could go on and on and on about other stuff but I wouldn't waste my time on a rusty car. Also the 633 is the least desirable E24, but at least it's a 5-speed so not totally bottom-of-the-barrel.
In the e28 world (which is basically the same thing as an e24 under the skin) there's a saying that any car is going to cost you a couple grand to bring up to snuff, unless there are service records showing proper maintenance. It's mostly normal wear items - suspension parts, subframe bushings, etc. and the work is mostly stuff a DIY'er can do at home. The mileage should not be a concern, the M30 engine can easily run for a half million miles.
And anyway, it seems subframe bushings go with such frequency they're a wear part. I just lived with the loosy-goosy feel of my E28.
Rust seems to kill these, and if your not familiar with 80’s bmw electronic’s there’s a steep learning curve when it leaves you on the side of the road. There fairly simple cars but if not cared for they don’t age well.
I believe all the mechanical parts are available but I’m not sure on sheet metal and such.
rear subframe bushings aren’t to bad a job, did them in my old e28 in a afternoon with no special tools. Same as doing e30’s.
If it's anything like my 635, if the sunroof drains stop up, it can and will leak into the ECU, which is conveniently mounted under the dash so that it holds water.
On mine, the steering box had pulled loose from the frame rail taking a chunk of the frame with it. Might want to look into that as well.
While I loved the looks of that car, that was the only thing I loved about it.
The m30 is a beast of a motor that will run forever, it seemed. I had 350k on my 535i when I passed it on and it was the most solid part of the car. Everything electronic (seats, cruise, HVAC, ign switch ) had gone wonky by then.
The fabulous guibo makes a racket when it goes and shifting gets iffy probably due to bad bushings. This is in California so rust wasn't an issue.
When the clutch slave went, it seemed linked to the brakes so I lost hydraulics to both. That was exciting. It's been a decade since I had it so memory is foggy.. I just recall losing braking and clutch simultaneously.
still, it was a great $500 car.
I had an ‘80 633csi and enjoyed the car immensely. Down on power to the 635 but it wasn’t underpowered for what it was. It really lived for interstate cruising. Not much went wrong outside of normal BMW wear items. The one issue mine had prior to my ownership was a transverse metal Chanel section part of the unibody above the differential that developed a crack. I had heard that it was common to cars that were abused and there was apparently a simple repair kit available. If I remember correctly the weakness was addressed at some point later in series production..
You may want to take a look if you get as far as looking underneath.
In reply to cdeforrest :
IIRC the clutch shared the hydraulic reservoir with the brake master cylinder.
In reply to HundredDollarCar :
I'm not a wealth of knowledge on E24's, but early cars (76-81) are based on the E12 and the later cars are based on the E28. I'm guessing the E28 cars are a bit more stout and don't suffer from the tearing you mentioned.
I'm not aware of any cracking problems on the differential mount. There is a known issue with the bracket on the front subframe that fastens to the steering box breaking loose, but there's a simple piece you can buy from MWrench online that easily fixes it. The clutch pedal bracket on e28s will eventually crack and break as well, but again there are simple reinforcing brackets available to fix that problem too (I assume the e24 has the same problem.)
Fortunately, there's a lot of support still out there for these cars, they tend to be owned by people who know how to keep them going. For instance, there's a FAQ section on the www.mye28.com board that covers most of the typical problems that may occur and how to fix them.
Link and pics? I'm curious if it's my old car.
captainawesome said:Link and pics? I'm curious if it's my old car.
Oof, that car is rough.
Yeah, I'm thinking it's too big a project for me.
Yeah, I'd pass. That rust will haunt you. Also, it's not my car like I had hoped.
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