The 3 day lifespan of our 633csi

[fastrack1]

Well you can refer to this thread to see our excitement about finding a 82 633csi for my son to drive.....

http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2210956-Newbie-Picked-up-a-1983-633CSI-manual-got-some-questions

The excitement was short-lived. Brakes crapped out today while stopping at a red light and unfortunately another car got in the way

547036

That's the end of that. It was hard to watch his disappointment but we are very thankful everyone was okay. Back to the drawing board....

[alpinacsi]

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Sorry about the loss and glad to hear all are ok.

[BMWtyro]

I'm so sorry to read this, fastrack; I think you had a beautiful car. If it is any consolation, I wrecked our 633 last year. The damage was lighter so it is now back on the road and on the mend, but I know how you (and your son) must feel.

Where in SC are you? I am in western NC, not far from the Upstate. I can keep an eye peeled for another Sixer for you if you like.

Also, if you are not yet a member of Sandlapper Chapter BMW CCA I can certainly recommend joining as I am a member of that chapter as well as Tarheel Chapter. They are a great group of guys/gals and you may find them to be helpful in finding a replacement for the 633.

Best of luck in whatever outcome you seek.

Jeff

[fastrack1]

I'm so sorry to read this, fastrack; I think you had a beautiful car. If it is any consolation, I wrecked our 633 last year. The damage was lighter so it is now back on the road and on the mend, but I know how you (and your son) must feel.

Where in SC are you? I am in western NC, not far from the Upstate. I can keep an eye peeled for another Sixer for you if you like.

Also, if you are not yet a member of Sandlapper Chapter BMW CCA I can certainly recommend joining as I am a member of that chapter as well as Tarheel Chapter. They are a great group of guys/gals and you may find them to be helpful in finding a replacement for the 633.

Best of luck in whatever outcome you seek.

Jeff

In Greenville SC. I actually think I am a member of Sandlapper, due to my Mini. I get emails from them all the time. Didn't think about reaching out to them. Thanks for the advice.

[DesktopDave]

That's a sad ending there. Glad everyone is OK. There are good many old BMWs around that need saving, so I'm sure you'll find another one.

It might be worthwhile to buy this one back from the insurer if you have space for a parts car.

[BMWtyro]

Agreed, Dave!

Jeff

[smashervt]

Sorry to hear that It seemed you already did a good amount of work on it with your son. What are you planning to do with it now? Keep it as a parts car for another 6 series or part it out?

[pthm]

Thats a bummer, qish you the best in finding another. As a side note my grandfather told me this years ago, "any time you get into a car, stomp the brake as hard as you can."

[fastrack1]

Sorry to hear that It seemed you already did a good amount of work on it with your son. What are you planning to do with it now? Keep it as a parts car for another 6 series or part it out?

Just waiting to hear what the insurance company offers and also what they offer to buy back. I'll report back

[av8r4aa]

how did the brakes fail?
these E24 have a brake accumulator for this reason.

Unless there was a visible brake fluid on the ground, i would have to
say this is a classic "texting while driving" issue.

I have teen drivers so Im always watching for this.

I have owned 6 of these cars and have never had the brakes crap out.
In fact, the brakes are above average and very well engineered.
You might want to take a closer look at the story.

That is what I would do, your conclusion may vary.

[BMWtyro]

[QUOTE=av8r4aa;28788606]I have owned 6 of these cars and have never had the brakes crap out.[QUOTE]

av8r,

We've only owned one Sixer, but we have had a 1-year-old rebuilt hydraulic brake booster fail completely on ours (turns out that it was spurting ATF like severed artery; a burst high-pressure hose will of course do the same). True, it doesn't make the brakes stop working altogether . . . but it does dramatically increase required pedal pressure and stopping distance.

I'm sure that fastrack has a pretty good sense of whether his kid is telling the truth or not; he can take the screen out of the hydraulic reservoir and see whether there is any Dex/Merc in it if he's on the fence. I'm betting that either it or the brake fluid res is empty.

Jeff

[av8r4aa]

My bad,
Forgot that the older cars have vac brake boosters.
All mine were hydraulic.
I sold my M6, woulda been a great car for having fun, looking good

[BMWtyro]

av8r,

Our '84 is indeed hydraulically-boosted . . . and I am willing to bet that fastrack's '83 is, too. My point is that there are half a dozen (or more) places for that hydraulic system to leak all of its fluid out in a hurry, including the booster itself. A lot of owners don't realize that the power steering reservoir also supplies fluid to the hydraulically-boosted brakes. There's no redundancy: if you lose pressure to one system, you lose pressure to both.

Jeff

[fastrack1]

Just to clarify, the brakes didn't fail completely. They just turned to mush. He had the pedal to the floor and while it was slowing down, it wasn't slowing down fast enough.

He wasn't texting but I can't promise that he was giving proper distance on a car if that age.

We picked up an 1987 325 over the weekend. Totally different car than the 633 obviously. Fun little driving car.

[BMWtyro]

fastrack,

We also have an '87 325. Your son is going to love that little car and its excellent handling characteristics!

You may already be aware of this, but the first order of maintenance business on a BMW M20 engine is: change the timing belt every 4 years or 50K miles, whichever comes first. And change the belt sprockets, too, if they are of the folded metal (as opposed to cast) design; with age and use, they can collapse . . . yielding the same head/piston damage as a belt failure.

I'll see you over on the E30 forum.

Jeff

[fastrack1]

Jeff,

Thank you sir for the advice. Everything has been ordered from Rockauto for the timing belt plus some other minor issues. I couldn't find anything related to belt sprockets though. Any chance you have a link? I'm paranoid about engines going due to timing belts.

Along those same lines, I have no idea the history of this vehicle. It will take a couple weeks for parts to come in and be installed. Would you just park the vehicle until then just to be on the safe side? Or just look for wear on the timing belt?


fastrack,

We also have an '87 325. Your son is going to love that little car and its excellent handling characteristics!

You may already be aware of this, but the first order of maintenance business on a BMW M20 engine is: change the timing belt every 4 years or 50K miles, whichever comes first. And change the belt sprockets, too, if they are of the folded metal (as opposed to cast) design; with age and use, they can collapse . . . yielding the same head/piston damage as a belt failure.

I'll see you over on the E30 forum.

Jeff

[BMWtyro]

fastrack,

Visit this page:
http://www.penskeparts.com/DiagramsMain.aspx?vid=47321&rnd=03192010

13 rows down and in the right column will be the diagram that you need; click on it.

What you will need are ref. numbers 2 and 4 (sprockets), plus the three parts shown below #4 if your car was built before 12/86 (build date stamped into silver tag on driver's door jamb). This is because all cars built prior to 12/86 had the folded (stamped steel) sprockets. If the car was indeed built before 12/86, assume that the inferior design sprockets are still in there and order them. 12/86-on cars should already have the cast sprockets.

When ordering parts, try fcpeuro.com or eeuroparts.com; you can often get BMW Genuine or OEM parts for about the same price you can buy RockAuto's off-brand stuff. Be sure to get either a ContiTech timing belt; they make great belts of all types. And delivery is usually much quicker than two weeks; please check them out.

As for parking the car: that's your call . . . but I think that I would be reluctant to send a teen out on the road in a car with an unknown age/quality belt. There is an irregularly-shaped rubber belt inspection plug on the driver's side of the engine just behind the belt cover . . . but it doesn't let you see much, and it won't tell you how old the belt is. However, if the belt looks frayed or cracked when you peer in through the tiny opening with a flashlight, definitely don't operate the car until you change the belt.

Jeff