Project: E34 Busted Pile

[Jake]

So just before winter break, one of my friends called me up. He's an RA on-campus and his car had "some issue with a gasket" that had been diagnosed in early November. He didn't drive it after that, for fear of damaging things. He asked if I'd be able to take a look at it, and I told him sure, I and hopefully other MMers could get it sorted out.

He's paying for all parts, which is why I agreed to the work. I don't mind tinkering and he doesn't need the car in any rush. I picked it up yesterday and have been driving it around town to figure out what needs to be done.



It's a 1995 525i, automatic trans, with 194,000 miles. Orient Blue Metallic with gray interior (Dove, I think?) - the paint is in good shape, the leather seats are 'meh' but might just need a good cleaning.

The "gasket issue" is a leaky valve cover gasket. He said he took it to Merchant's for a diagnosis and that's what they told him. They also said there was a little bit of oil in the spark plug wells, presumably from said leaky gasket.

The fun starts here though... There's a lot of other things that need to be fixed with this 15-year-old, 200k mile BMW.

• Driver's door handle on the inside won't pull. Joey and I looked today and it's the cable connecting to the handle. Cheap and relatively easy repair, $5 for the part.
  
  Driver's door window will not work. Needs new regulator. Conveniently, so does the driver's back door window.
  
  Auto trans could really use a fluid change. Jeff doesn't have record of that ever being done so we may as well do it.
  Same deal with coolant... should be flushed/changed.
  
  Desperately needs an alignment. The thing is all over the road.
  
  Has a vibration in the driveline at idle and at various speeds. Not trans related, I don't think. I'm thinking the oil in the plug holes is the culprit. I figure we'll clean out the holes and do new plugs.
  
  Slight 'clunk' from the right rear wheel area when applying and releasing the brakes. Jeff said the pads and rotors were done before the fall semester started, so that work should be good. Should. Any ideas there would be appreciated. I haven't looked at it yet to opine myself.]

So that's the 'rough' starting point for this project. I've already decided to send the ATF change to Mid Atlantic Motorwerkes and they quoted a reasonable price. Same for (obviously) alignment, and I don't have good luck with coolant so I might have MAM do that as well. Everything else, I figure I/we can tackle.

That all said, anyone (current students, townies) wanna help out? There's no rush on getting this stuff done and I still need to get money from him and order parts. I figure it'll be a good learning experience for myself and those less-experienced MMers who want to learn random car repairs.