E46 Coupes, nightmare or still worth looking at?

sigma said:
What kinda things go wrong?

Am I likely to be left stood by the road clutching my RAC card?
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Power steering pump sheered off and took the alternator with it on mine, only thing leaving me stranded.

Had cooling system replaced because it's brittle, this is common.

Had lower control arms replaced as the ball joint wiggled around.

Oh and the hedgehog resister for the blower needed replacing.
 
Do these issues just pop up out of the blue or can I be safe in the knowledge that if I use an odb2 reader I can see things failing? So does the warning light system give you enough of a headsup? I guess that's a tough question to answer.

I'll measure the coils with a muiltmeter and also check the alt. Clutch felt fine although I didn't specifically test it.

I'm still tempted as it's a fair bit of bang for buck @ ~£1k and I don't mind doing bits as long as I'm not stranded!

I do want to stick an S54 in it...for the lols.
 
I've had no warning lights come up on the dash. But the vanos seals made the car run a bit crap, although I didn't realise till I replaced them. After replacing them the car is better on fuel, doesn't hunt at idle, pulls away much more smoothly at low revs and mid range grunt is much improved.

Also I wouldn't worry about coils. All 6 of mine are 120k miles and 14 years old and are completely fine.
 
At a grand, so long as its tidy and it doesn't matter if you spend a few days with it off road while you sort stuff now and then I'd take it.
 
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I think the vanos is still original.

Is vanos a matter of when, not if, it fails? Just looked at the diy steps and it seems fairly lengthy to do on the driveway.

The car does stall a bit easier than most, which after googling could be a number of things. I did read the codes and it's only showing coolant sesnsor at the moment. Air con comlressor was a bit noisy. Can't expect a great deal for £1k, although that is mates rate tbf.
 
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You can still drive it with the VANOS seals failing, its just not as quick as it was once was. I'd imagine most of them have long failed seals but the owners don't notice or care.
 
On the M52TU engines in the 323i and 328i, the VANOS seals failing manifests in a rough cold idle during cold weather. The RPMs will rise and fall if the car is idling within a few minutes after starting.
 
flinco said:
On the M52TU engines in the 323i and 328i, the VANOS seals failing manifests in a rough cold idle during cold weather. The RPMs will rise and fall if the car is idling within a few minutes after starting.
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But a 325i does not have an M52TU, it has an M54, where the issue does not manifest itself in this way.
 
If I do go for it I'll take it to the next RR day to see what it is pushing out :) didn't know that about the Vanos, so that's handy to know. Maybe one for summer if nothing much goes wrong on it.

The plan would be to give it a full service, all filters etc, plugs are quite recent, maybe change drive belts, and also change the rad, thermostat, level sensor and exp tank. Maybe pick up a spare coil as a side-of-the-road backup.
 
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sigma said:
I think the vanos is still original.

Is vanos a matter of when, not if, it fails? Just looked at the diy steps and it seems fairly lengthy to do on the driveway.

The car does stall a bit easier than most, which after googling could be a number of things. I did read the codes and it's only showing coolant sesnsor at the moment. Air con comlressor was a bit noisy. Can't expect a great deal for £1k, although that is mates rate tbf.
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As above it doesn't fail as such, it can get a bit noisy which means the vanos rattle rings can be replaced, but this seemed a pain of a job with shimming the bearings etc for not much gain as mine wasn't that noisy anyway. But the main thing is the vanos seals were made from a poor buna rubber from factory and will have gone hard and brittle many years ago. I found these quite easy to replace with uprated viton seals, probably another 40 minutes on top of doing the valve cover gasket. You just need to make sure you have a torque wrench that works tightening left handed as many don't, I had to borrow one.

It made mine less easier to stall at low revs as it pulled so much better at low revs, the mid range pull was also noticeably better and thus mpg improved by a couple too.
 
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Very handy to know, the valve cover (rocker cover, yeah?) has been done recently, so I'll probably just leave it as is for now.

It doesn't actually need a service according to the computer but I'll do it anyway.

Nothing else at this price point tickles my fancy, golf, civic, focus, accord, Mondeo...

For £1k if it lasts more than a couple of years it'll have served its job. Mot only flagged up a bit of play in the rack i think.

Apologies for the slight hi-jack of the thread...
 
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No worries mate it's good to take advantage of the free flowing info :D

For me it'd be a value of a few grand rather than £1000, and based on that, I put my sensible hat on earlier and made the decision to keep my Civic. After all, I trust it won't leave me stranded and despite the complexity of the engine, overall it is a simpler, more reliable prospect.

So, it's booked in for a genuine timing chain, genuine front wishbone bushes, ball joints, ARB D bushes, Lemforder drop links I already have, alignment, brake fluid change and general inspection of engine/gearbox mounts, the underside and a bit of waxoiling where required. Preventative maintenance gone mad? :D It's already had in my ownership; oil & filter, air & pollen filters, NGK iridium plugs, gearbox oil, valve clearances and rocker gasket too.

Can't see it giving much grief or costing much after all the above is done, I will do a bit of paint (bonnet, bumper, wheel refurb) and a few dings then the car should actually likely be worth something as it will be an excellent example. Some of them go for top money indeed when at a high standard. As next year I don't want to be spending a great deal on motoring as I intend to buy property in Jan or so.

The BMW was a lovely looking car to me, but there is more than enough in here to put me off compared to my Civic which I now know well after spending a couple of months with it and I know about the cars in general from my last one.

Thanks for making me see sense guys :)
 
Thing is after you've done all that work. I keep thinking you'll end up selling it and then doing it all over on another car?
 
They're prone for stretching and I've seen a few too many "my chains snapped" scenarios now. In fact, a good friends 60,000 miler has recently snapped! Mine has a slight misfire at low revs and about half a second of noise from cold sometimes so would rather it be right. Mechanic reckons it may be chain related (stretched) as can't find anything otherwise wrong with it. It only bothered me as soon as he noticed on a test drive as it's next to un-noticable :D It's £330 fitted genuine chain and tensioner so not too bad.

For a car which hits near on 8500RPM I'd rather it be in good shape :)

Vita, probably!! And likely would have done so on the BMW. Bearing in mind my Civic started as a £2250 car, the BMW would be starting as a £3250 car.
 
Chains shouldnt snap at all really unless they've ran low oil / sat on the limiter for extended amounts or had them replaced with non-OEM parts from what I've read

What noise are you getting from cold? Is it from start? k20 sneeze?

Stretched chain *should* throw a sensor error or EML if it's fairly bad.
 
No codes due to chain. Little bit of rattle from cold for half a second lately, was OK when I bought it. It's fairly common they stretch a lot now but agreed if it was bad it should put the light on. Only other issue is a bit of a hesitation at low revs. I use a Honda specialist and they think it could just be stretched a bit which could be causing it. I didn't even realise it was there until my mechanic took it for a test drive after some work whilst I waited. It's more prominent since I fitted the cat back exhaust to be fair.

As for the chain noise... It's not bad and fades rapidly, it might not even be the chain as it sounds more tappety :) Oil is always near max at worst as checked weekly and topped up if necessary but this one isn't an oil burner so that's something.

It does do what most EP3's do and the starter sticks for a split second at cold which makes a nasty grinding noise but this is so common I don't care, my last one did it too.

For the money though I'd rather get it done then I don't have the worry in the back of my mind of chain problems when I hoon it :)
 
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My E46 has hardly cost anything during my ownership time. It's 2004 320Ci which I've had for 8 years and taken it from 35K to 113K. Bar consumables it's only needed bushes and the water pump replacing. Very impressed with its reliability.
 
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