Looking to get my first Bimmer

[Cojones893]

I'm in the market for a bimmer. I have found one that I would like to buy it's a 1992 535i. It's a fair price and it looks like it's in great shape. I was wondering what kinds of questions should I be asking the seller? Facts I know about the car: 5 speed manual transmission, recently painted front end, 147k miles, performance chip, M5 replica rims, pedals and parking brake are M-style, and brand new cd/audio system. Thanks for any help.

[dinan540]

The 535i has a bullet proof engine. I would get a compression and leak down test on the engine to be sure. Ask whey the front end was repainted. Service records and receipts. Ask devinwwu on this board since he had one for a couple of years. They are awesome cars. I would want to check the suspesion components, clutch and tranny. Good luck with the car. PM devin.

[devinwwu]

I would check for frame damage. If it was a front end wreck like mine they don't take much abuse to kink the frame rail at the mount for the front subframe. this will be just in front of the motor mounts. Also check the mount brackets, mine broke in my accident and most bmw ones are designed to break away so the engine drops down and below the occupants rahter than through the firewall. Shocks and springs should probably be done soon at around 150k, although i never did my shocks and they were ok... just going through everything that you may end up paying for soon after the sale is the best way to go to see if the car is actually in your price range. I'm very wary about buying a wrecked car because you can never be sure that everything was repaired properly. clutch will definitely need to be done as mine was slipping in and out of gear when i hit 170k. depending on how they drove the car, but judging from the chip i am guessing hard so good preventitive maint. while your in there do the lightweight flywheel upgrade. best mod i made on my car period! What brand chip is it. if its ebay just walk away from the car my friend. if they aren't willing to pay for a reputable chip when making performance mods on their bmw, imagine what they shorted on with general maintenance.
it might help if you posted some pics as well as asking price. if the price is right they are great cars and i loved mine to death, literally (death of the car) motors are like paul said, bulletproof and will take 11psi turboed on the stock internals with no issues. They used this engine for the 5 and 7 series from i think the early 70s through 95 so abundance of parts and knowledge on them are there. The 535i in general was a great car to work on, very simple as long as you didn't dive too far into the electrical systems they have as they get fairly confusing very quickly.

if you have any other questions let me know, i'm always glad to help a fellow enthusiast out!

[Cojones893]

Thanks for all the help. The asking price is 4,800 and here are links to the pictures.

[witeshark]

The pics are nice... have you seen the car?

[devinwwu]

not a bad price. i paid 4700 for mine but it hadn't been in an accident to my knowledge. Car needs to be lowered! check those things and see what kind of preventative maint he's done and get back to us. Looks good though. black e34's in stick are always a ++ even better with the 3.5l

[Cojones893]

I'm going up on friday to look at it and test drive it.

[BMWLotAttendant]

147K is pretty good. It'll last you a good 300,000 plus if you take care of it.

[Cojones893]

Well I looked at the car and I fell in love. She has kept it in wonderful shape. As far as engine condition goes within the past few years she has replaced the clutch, flywheel, radiator fan, oil pan, rotors, brakes, alternator, and the springs. The only things on the car that have a problem are the struts, they create a fairly good amount of noise. Does anyone know what that will cost to get fixed?