BMW 323i

Magazine Subscription

Subscribe to Classic Motoring Magazine and save over 20%

Subscribe NOW

Available at all good newsagents including WHSmith

When it comes to the crunch – and that meant a credit card crunch!

Car:

Year:

Owner:

Alan Anderson

We haven’t spoken much about our Golf R32 since its perky purge treatment by TerraClean last summer and that’s because it’s been in the wars and is slowly being brought back to better than new shape. A seemingly minor low speed town shunt did more damage than it ought but that’s modern crumple zones for you.

As the insurance excess is a whopping £1000 for its custodian, due to his age, it made just as much sense to repair it ourselves; not difficult as the wounds are cosmetic rather than structural and the panels are all bolt on as well as being easily obtainable from the likes of GSF which is where many of our OE quality replacements were sourced. As all the front end requires painting, it makes further sense to make perfect the rest of the shell and completely respray it. We’re hoping to have it finally fixed for an annual major national Volkswagen show this month.

Contrary to the last report, our BMW 323i hasn’t been cured of its battery blues after giving its ‘hedgehog’ (a name given to the relay located on the transmission tunnel-ed) some tlc. Speaking to other owners, it appears to be a common fault that’s difficult to eradicate but at least you can live with it by not leaving the car dormant for more than a couple of days.

It’s going to need a new clutch soon but we don’t know what to do as some parts suppliers – like GSF/The Parts Alliance – only list a solid flywheel conversion for this model – pricey and may be not necessary. To cheer ourselves up, we jump started it and used up what little clutch plate was left and had some fun in the snow. The sort only an old school rear-wheel drive classic serves up…