E30 Zone

Hi all,
A friend of mine is after one of these....so im looking out for one..
Are there any faults that they are prone too???
any thing that i should be looking for...????[/img]

Up to 2001 they have the M43 engine which is pretty robust.

2001 on they have the N42 which is the worst engine BMW have ever made and is a fragile, complex (for a DIY'er/average mechanic) piece of shit.

Oh.....i have found a 2003 facelift model............with the crappy engine!!!!
Looks nice though....is it worth a look... what should i check for engine wise..it has 97k with fsh...

Oil leaks, rough running, misfires when hot, engine warning lights.

They suffer from valvetronic problems, crank and inlet sensors are common and did i mention oil leaks?

Oil leaks from the vacuum pump (expensive), cam cover gasket, vanos solenoid seals, sump gasket.

I had a 2001 318ci for about 2.5 years. The valvetronic donk gets a hard press but goes quite well and is good on fuel. Mine was an automatic but returned 42mpg on my 45 mile commute to work. I never had anything too spectacular fail on mine but had to resolve a number of oil leaks (rocker cover and crankshaft were two but there were others!) as Barry has pointed out. Mine used to p!ss out Castrol Edge and needed a variety of gaskets/seals replaced. The recommended oil is very thin. The worst leak was so severe it leaked onto the auxiliary drive belt which resulted in it snapping - no water pump, pas etc and I had to get the car recovered before it baked its engine!

The car I purchased was an immaculate FBMWSH example which had only 59K on the clock. I took it up to 88K before finally losing patience in shoddy E46 build quality. In the first 3 months of owning the car it had several hundred pounds of work on the air conditioning system to get it functioning properly; driver's door handle replaced after it broke (common E46 coupe problem) and rear parking sensors replaced.

Later work included new coil packs, new boot lock mechanism (it would only open off the remote in warm temperatures!), new door rubbers (a bargain at £250 per side, unfitted!). Despite living its existence down south mine also needed the driver's side wing and both rear arches (above where the bumper joins) sprayed. All had minor rust bubbling which I got sorted before it got any worse.

After all of that I moved it on. After previously driving an E36 M43 powered 316i for 7 years and adding 90K faultless miles in the process I simply couldn't be bothered with the constant maintenance the E46 needed. They're lovely cars to drive but are clearly built to a cost - sh!tty matt paint finish in the shutlines; carpets from a Peugeot 106 etc. The coupes still look fantastic but I wouldn't have another.

Plus pretty much guaranteed to need vanos units on anything with close to 100k

I own an 03 318ci (2000cc) facelift model have done for around 6 years now. When I purchase it had around 75000 miles with full bmwsh. 6 years on it has around 138000 miles and apart from tyres , servicing, and brakes I can honestly say I have not spent any money on the car. It has been 100% reliable. I keep thinking its time to upgrade but just can't justify getting rid of it. Maybe I've just being lucky , I would highly recommend them.

You have been lucky!

You know you'd rather have an M54....

Persuade him to get the 320. The 318 is gutless!

The Valvetronic engine was designed in conjunction with Rover when BMW still owned them. The Hams Hall factory was set up to supply engines to Longbridge and the whole engine smacks of Rover wrongness - if they designed a bicycle it would have had square wheels.
Coupe door handles generally fail because owners don't use then correctly - it's thumb on the fixed part and use your fingers to pull the handle outwards. Owners just yanking on the handle bends/breaks the contact plate inside.
E46's love to rust, mainly front and rear arches, brake pipes etc. 2001 is plenty old enough to be very ripe. The only E46's worth having now are the six cylinders. M43 ones are mostly knackered 12 year old 130'000 mile bangers but a nice cared for example is worth having.

A better bet all round would be to find a really mint E36 318iS - a vastly superior vehicle and there are a few good opnes left.