E46- common things to look for

[bigwinn]

Evening all

I'm thinking of getting an e46 for winter, I've had the coupes before (325 and 330 on 51 and 04 plates) as company motors, so if something went pop- back to the dealers and the company paid...

So now its mine, whats best to look out for on these:

2001 (Y) 325i convertible 97k miles
2003 (52) 325i 4 door SE 70k ish

both going into the mix... decision not made yet

Cheers

Stu

[johnt0709]

Control Arm Bushes
Rubber door seals perishing (fortune for the cabby)
Heater working correctly - google heater hedgehog
Rear parking faults
Water heater valves - jamming open - only get hot air
crank case breather hose - burst
airbag lights on - normally seatbelt pretensioner fault
vaccuum hoses leaking

Think thats about it

[harry_p]

Rear subframe tearing itself off the floorpan

[jimjim]

Rear subframe tearing itself off the floorpan

+1 Happened to my T reg 323i! Luckily the car had full history and BMW repaired it free!

Also airbag lights, Diff Bushes, Prop Donut, Prop Centre bearing and Oil gumming up/carbonating in the rocker cover where they have left it too long for a service.

[bigwinn]

cheers! liking the Hedgehog thing!!!

[darkchild]

Had a 318ci for 18 months now. Lovely car but numerous faults:

Air-con that cost the best part of a grand (parts & labour) to fix (infamous hedgehog was one fault but there were several other things that needed replacing).

Broken driver's door handle. Had to lower the window before opening the door from inside. Nice!

Knackered door/window rubber trims (£250..........per side...........unfitted!).

Snapped auxillary drive belt due to an engine oil leak. No PAS, water pump etc - had to ditch the car and get it recovered before it cooked its engine.

2 rear parking sensors replaced.

Dodgy rear boot lock that seems to work when its warm but not when its cold.

Rocker cover gasket oil leak.

Crankshaft oil leak.

Luckily the vast majority of the above was repaired under warranty.

The rear subframe issues mainly affects the earlier cars (323i & 328i).

[bigwinn]

Darkchild- what kind of year you talking about- early or late?

[darkchild]

Darkchild- what kind of year you talking about- early or late?

For what?

[bigwinn]

for your E46, what reg is it?

[darkchild]

2001 51 plate with the 16v valvetronic donk rather than the 8v M43. It had FBMWSH and only 59K on the clock when I got it too. In its defence its been pretty much faultless since the drivebelt problems last year but for a low mileage and obviously well cared for car its had more problems than my old E36 had in 80K/7 years. The N42 lump is very good when its working properly but isn't the easiest thing in the world to work on.

Lovely to drive but everything is just disposable.

[bigwinn]

cheers bud- agree with the disposable comment. shame as disposable does not equal cheap