Tonight I picked up
project tractor.

A project car, bought for project money. No idea what I'm going to do with it long term, but I've wanted to play with one for a while, and this came up at the right time and money.. so....
It's a mini facelift 1998 CDX, 2.5 Turbo Diesel BMW engine with a Slushbox - 120,000 miles on the clock.
Body wise - very tidy indeed. Interior, also extremely tidy and fresh. No rust at all.
Ride - beautiful, soft, comfy, decent handling.
Engine - well isn't that S6 lump bloody lovely!! It's definitely one of the best diesel engines of it's era. Starts on the button, sounds gorgeous, and offers effortless amounts of power. Temp totally stable, no pressuring or other nasties..
The issues? I have driven around 70 miles home in the old bus, and can report they are as follows.
1) The brakes need looking at. Pressing the pedal moderately doesn't have anything like the affect I would like. I would imaging checking discs/pads, replacing if needed, and a full fuild change will be the first port of call...
2) The handbrake is totally unservicable, and does nothing.
3) Although the engine is as sweet as a peach, under acceleration when the turbo is spinning, there is a 'whoosh' noise from the engine bay. Suspecting a small split in intercooler pipework or similar, and will check in daylight.
4) It's a slushbox tractor with an AR25 and 120 odd thousand on the clock. Need I say more? In all seriousness, there is an issue with the auto box, but, I'm not sure it's a serious one. In fact, I don't think I would have even noticed it, had the chap not been decent enough to tell me how to provoke it! Basically, if you brake VERY firmly, and then immediately try and set off from a standing start - it dis-engages the drive for a couple of seconds.. that's it. Otherwise the gearbox is perfect through all the gears...
Example... if you brake hard, and try and start off straight away, the drive won't be there for a couple of seconds, and it will slip a little before regaining drive. Or - if you brake hard to a standstill, and then stay stationary in 'D' - after several seconds, you'll feel the drive come back, as if you've just dropped it into 'D' from 'N'.
I'm wondering if it's just low fluid, and perhaps the braking movement is moving fluid around is enough to disconnect the drive for a few seconds?? Certainly worth a level check in the first instance, before condeming the box, IMHO??
5) The bootlid has had a disagreement with a post. Minor inconvenience!!