Re: E-21 Being Held Hostage (archive)

Sorry to hear about your situation. I live in London, England and I have a 1982 323i. It needs suspension bushes to freshen the handling up, but this car will be with me until one of us dies. I have no problems with O/E parts as they are available from BMW dealers and independant specialists, but tuning parts...FORGET IT. Apart from a few bits, it's a case of " all hail the mighty E30/36!" (no disrespect to any E30/36 owners). Thank God I typed E21 into a search engine...This mechanic must be a Mercedes owner...!
I've written about this car before and it is a work in progress. The E-21 is an 82 320is (1.8 L) with 230K miles. Ran rough when I took it in to only shop in area that seemed (at the time) to know anything about the car. Has all vacuum hoses off car. Car won't run now. Said he is having trouble finding all hoses he needs to get car running. His policy, he won't install any part that he doesn't get from "his" sources. Has had car 2 & 1/2 months now and still says can't find all hoses he needs to do job.
I have sources thru BMW CCA and can get any hose I need, and have found shop that will install parts that I supply as long as I don't hold him responsible for part if it fails. (Fair enough).
Gotta get car running and settle bill with present shop for work done so far and terminate further dealings with this establishment. He's dragging feet (and nuckles on ground) and keeps plcing my car further down on his list of priorities. I'm starting to get PO'd and am looking for help. I can do small stuff to car myself, but when it comes to vaccum hoses, fuel injection, computer management system and the like, I am lost. His suggestion: Get rid of the car...it's worn out. My reply: "BS"!! Car is rust free, wreck free and dent and ding free. Put most of the miles on car myself (except the first 50K) and know what has and has not been done to the car. More valuable to me than to anyone else because basically I love the car. It fits me like a glove and have NO plans of ever getting rid of it. Want to keep it forever. Alas, I ramble over my cripple but loved car.
Anyone out there have any advice, suggestions, past experiences. This car should run for as long as I care to pay to keep it on the road and since I am near a metro area, emission regulations have crept their way into our county and to get the car past that mess, we had to detune it so it would pass, but it ran like crap and now we can't seem to get it running again. I know the rubber under the hood gets hard due to heat over time and this car is 18 years old so I expect these problems but hoses should be available somewhere. I have not yet searched the advertisers in the Roundel yet but see that as a good place to start. I know there are a bunch of us out there (those who love their older BMW's) and we want to keep them running. The Government wants them off the road, ergo the emission regulations. I plan to have the entire drive train redone (read replaced) when I get to around 300K, but I am not there yet so I want to keep it running in a reliable fashion until that time comes. There just isnt any good reason, that I can see, to get rid of a car just because it has lots of miles on it because the new rolling stock isn't that interesting and BMW rolling stock is mega bucks and I like living in the past. Perhaps I should see a "Shrink"....but they are nuts too so I doubt if I would be any better off.
This is a message board and not a place for me to wax and wail over my love for the car. You guys know what I am talking about so nuff said.
If anyone has words of encouragement and suggestions, I would appreciate your E-Mail (it is illegal to shoot the guy holding my car hostage, but I have considered kidnapping the car at night...it is parked outside w/o a security fence...but that might cause legal problems since I owe him for whatever work he has done).
Thanks for reading this.
Harv

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