People at the shop ask me sometimes why I spend my weekends on old BMWs when I already work on cars all week. It’s a fair question and I don’t have a complicated answer.
I just like them. The older ones, E30s and E36s especially, were built in a way that made sense to me. The engineering was straightforward enough that you could actually understand what was going on. The steering felt connected. The car communicated with you when you were driving it. A lot of newer vehicles don’t really do that. They’re comfortable and they’re reliable but there’s a layer of electronics between you and what the car is actually doing.
From a mechanical standpoint they’re satisfying to work on too. Not because they’re simple, they’re not, but because things are where you’d expect them to be. You can get your hands in there without having to remove half the car first. That’s not always the case with newer stuff.
The most common thing I deal with on older BMWs is oil leaks. Valve cover gaskets, oil pan gaskets, oil filter housing gaskets, the seals get old and start going. It’s not complicated work but it needs to get done. Cooling systems are the other thing that comes up a lot. Water pumps and thermostats on these engines need to be kept up with because if you let the cooling system go and the engine overheats you’re looking at a much bigger repair.
I’ve got a couple of them in my garage at home right now in various stages of getting sorted out. No deadlines, no customer waiting, just something to do on a Saturday. That’s really what it comes down to for me. It’s a hobby as much as it’s an extension of the job.
They’re not perfect cars. They have their problems like anything else. But I know them well enough at this point that I don’t mind dealing with it.