I feel your pain!!!

In this May, I got sucked into a 1991 560 SEL with almost perfect interior and put down $5K cash for it. The very first thing I noticed when I drove the car home was that the central locking system did not work.

This is now mid Oct and I have only driven this car for about 2000 miles. The biggest problem has been this high idle. beside that, there are just small things every other day. Thing like radio, ball joint, temperature sensor, A/c compressor, etc. I am now at least $1200 in the whole and gor probably another k to go if I have to do the timing chain etc.

I think you have gotten many valuable suggestions here. The first thing I would do is to get a good evaluation of the other part of the car. If the problem is limited to the front end, get it fixed. However, order the parts yourself on line and do the easy things yourself. This will save about 1/2 of the cost. Had I let dealer do all teh repairs on my 560, it would be at least $3K by now.

I am a Ph.D. chemist and have very bad hands on skills on cars. Since I got this money pit, I have learnt some simple things such as using a DMM. Believe me, all you need is some guts and proper tools.

Best of luck