E46 320d what goes wrong

Post Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:24 am

I need something a bit more economical than the e36 328i touring
I'm currently using.
I've got to do more miles for work but still want to keep with a bmw .I've got a budget of upto £7k so i could go for a e90 but would prefer to keep the budget down to £3k ish .
Do the diesels have many problems as i will be buying higher milege

Post Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:46 am

Turbo's and swirl flaps are the main two
1/ Turbo seals wear and blow engine oil in to the engine, look for excessive oil in the air intake pipes, or loud whistling from the turbo bearings.
Particulate filters means you don't always see excessive smoke from the exhaust.

2/ The swirl flaps in the inlet manifold can snap off and get sucked in to the engine wrecking it, worth getting a new inlet manifold or I have heard of some people doing kits to remove the flaps.

Post Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:40 am

cheers for the reply I've had a look at the economy of the 318i petrol and its not bad on a run and probably less to go wrong than the diesel

Post Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:15 am

david106 wrote:cheers for the reply I've had a look at the economy of the 318i petrol and its not bad on a run and probably less to go wrong than the diesel

An E46 318i is not bad on petrol at all. The earlier M43 engines are excellent. The odd head gasket failure but they're simple to work on and will return 35mpg easily.

I've got a 2001 318ci with the N42 valvetronic engine and the fuel economy is excellent. Even with an autobox it returns 38-40mpg on a run. The most I've got out of it was 44.8mpg on a 90 mile trip. They're a lot more refined and noticeably quicker than the M43 powered cars. However, the engine is quite a complicated piece of kit and most jobs are very labour intensive in comparison.

Post Mon Jun 20, 2011 10:29 pm

seen an e46 320 diesel with 192k on the clock full bmw history is this worth a punt

Post Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:15 pm

It could be. Check for oil leaks under the inlet manifold as the breather gets blocked causing issues.. Ask owner if it has had any swirl flap issues, whether a modified inlet manifold has been fitted or if they have been blanked off... Apart from that, there a good engine

Post Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:02 pm

cheers for that the said car was sold before i could get to see it
I'm still debating what to buy I've got a 328i touring at the moment but its a great engine but too juicy round town not bad on a run though and boy does it shift drop it into third doing say 50mph and floor it