Neglected cars

[Zonda_]

Was in town earlier and walked past an 05 plate M3 with rust holes in the wings so big you could have passed a golf ball through. Why would you buy a car like that and then let it go so badly?

[mik]

Maybe they enjoy the driving only?

More than one person on here has stated they never wash their cars - which I am sure would upset many who can’t afford said vehicles but would love to?

Takes all sorts dude.

[Mito Man]

Probably not worth saving as it costs more than it's worth, so it's at the point where you just do the minimum to get it through each MOT until it meets the jaws of the mechanical reaper.

[V8Granite]

Some cars rust horrifically, MK5 golfs especially. Do M3s have structural rust aswell as body panel rust ?

What I hate seeing is cars with a non visible rear plate and lights or low tyres, it just makes me think they never check anything and I then assume (possibly wrongly) that their car is a rattling death trap.

Dave!

[Rich B]

If it's your only car and you work full time, getting it sorted is hassle. Then you leave it too long, then it becomes bigger hassle as it'll cost a load too. Etc....

[mik]

What Dave said. Or cars with totally bald tyres that the owner is either oblivious to, or has absolutely no idea of the consequences.

[scotta]

Theres a guy round the corner with an E46 M3. Noticed the other day that the front wing is rotten.

Tom Hollick has pretty much rebuilt this one due to tin rot.

[Rich B]

My E46 M3 only had some minor bubbling under the rear number plate, but I saw loads with Rusty arches. As I said, if it's your daily driver, having it off the road loads to do loads of bits is hassle and expensive.

[ZedLeg]

When you’re running a car that’s 15+ years old you either accept that there’ll be rolling maintenance/restoration or you let it crumble into the ground.

As Rich says some people don’t have the time or inclination to keep up with the maintenance so it’ll keep falling apart until someone picks it up as a project or strips it for parts.

[Foz]

That’s around the time they changed from oil to water based paints..

And they took a while to get it to a good level!

[Delphi]

Rust is at least one issue I don't really have to think about with the 928 as the whole thing is either aluminium or galvanised. Of course it makes up for it in other areas!

I remember my Leon Cupra was one of the first to use water based paints and it was incredibly susceptible to stone chipping.

[Rich B]

My 2005 CTR paint was shocking. The bonnet looked 10 years old at about 6 months.

[V8Granite]

My entire 500e shell was galvanised

What they don’t tell you though is that spot welding studs and tabs etc to it draws that away and that’s where they still rust. Mr Flew has had to do a couple of repairs on mine where an inch either side of the stud it looks brand new.

2 pack and sealant that killed all the Whales is far better stuff.

It seems like they peaked with construction techniques just at the point they removed the good paint. A 2004 e46M3 with late 70s 2 pack paint would probably be rot free if you parked it under the ocean.

Dave!

[Jimmy Choo]

This was round the corner from me. It slowly decomposed for 8 years then the owner died, the house was sold and the car was taken away to be scrapped.

[Zonda_]

This was round the corner from me. It slowly decomposed for 8 years then the owner died, the house was sold and the car was taken away to be scrapped.

That’d be a easy restoration on CAR SOS

[Jimmy Choo]

This was round the corner from me. It slowly decomposed for 8 years then the owner died, the house was sold and the car was taken away to be scrapped.

That’d be a easy restoration on CAR SOS

All it would need would be a new shell, doors, boot lid, bonnet, engine, running gear, interior and tyres.

[integrale_evo]

With a roof and boot rotten like that I bet theres no floors left and it would pretty much break into pieces when you moved it.

Restoration would cost way more than the finished car would ever be worth.

Some people like ‘stuff’ just because they don’t have the time, money or inclination to fix it doesn’t mean they want to get rid of it or let anyone else have it.

As for e46 wings, I expect there’s very few left with original unrepaired or replaced wings. They’re really bad for it, worse than the e36. They rot from the inside out so by the time you see the paint bubbling there’s a good chance there’s already a hole. Our touring had a pretty ugly bubble, when I replaced the wing the old one disintegrated enough you could stick several fingers through the hole.

I think new m3 wings are about £400 each at the moment, plus fitting plus painting which by not usually involves blending down the side and possibly bonnet. Maybe they don’t have that sort of cash spare on top of the running costs, maybe it doesn’t bother them, maybe they’ve had the car ages, had their money’s worth and it doesn’t owe them anything so they’re happy to run it into the ground.

[Jimmy Choo]

With a roof and boot rotten like that I bet theres no floors left and it would pretty much break into pieces when you moved it.

Pretty much. looking through the rust in the boot (which got significantly worse over the next couple of years), you could see the ground.

I think they loaded it onto the recovery van with a broom.

[Ascender]

Was in town earlier and walked past an 05 plate M3 with rust holes in the wings so big you could have passed a golf ball through. Why would you buy a car like that and then let it go so badly?

I was talking about this with my mechanic last week. When I got there a guy was just leaving and he was telling him that there was an engine management light on as well as a few others and the guy shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't even notice but will get it looked at down the line.

He was saying that more people than you'd think just leave things which are advisories when cars are in for MOTs or services. So they just do the absolute minimum to keep the car on the road and these things just fester and get worse over time.

[Rich B]

To be fair, half the advisories MoT places give are bullshit anyway. I've had loads of advisories that turned out to be complete rubbish, brake hoses that were just a bit dirty, tyres with 5mm on them, etc and despite no change don't feature in subsequent MoTs for years. And as for the famous "undertrays fitted" advisories...

I always sent my cars in once a year for a service with a trusted garage and they told me what was urgent/one to watch out for.