BMW and M Power Owners
- Thread starter panthro
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I had made an offer on a 2013 X3 at the weekend and the dealer just phoned me back today to say in the interests of full disclosure that the car had a full drivetrain replacement in March 2015 and it looks like someone painted over some damage on the driver's door with unofficial BMW paint to cover a dingI'm not a car buff but that seems like fairly major works to me involving taking large parts of the engine to pieces. Is this significant enough of an issue to make me turn away? Not sure I'll settle for less than perfect, but sad as I thought my long search was over
I wouldn't buy it. AFAIK the unofficial paint job invalidates the BMW 12 year anti corrosion warranty. If you planned on keeping the car long term, and it did start to rust, BMW wouldn't cover that area or any nearby surrounding area under the corrosion warranty. The replacement engine and gearbox would concern me, but if it was done by BMW, then it's not an issue.
Had the first guy around to look at my 335i convertible (09), it's up for £14999 which seems pretty reasonable, he offered me £13500 which I turned down.
I've been offered £13K in PX from a dealer so I thought that offer was a bit too low
Link?
[TW]Fox;27942493 said:Sigh, E46 saloons with factory HID's are rare enough as it is without ruining one by doing that, arghghghg
Doesn't anyone just seek out a nice example and keep it nice anymore? Every E46 you see now has dubious mods, Ebay lights and either coilovers fitted or on the 'NEXT MOD' list
What's wrong with coilovers? Obviously not ideal for road use, but if you track your E46 M3 then coilovers such as KW v3 or club sport will make a noticeable improvement.
Going to change the waterpump and auxilliary belts on my car (330d auto). It looks fairly straightforward apart from the fan removal which requires a specific tool.
I've been recommended by a mechanic friend (who runs an independent BMW specialist garage and previously worked for BMW for 15 years) to use OEM belts. I have an aftermarket alternator belt on the car at the moment that makes a horrible squealing noise from cold. Is it best to just buy them from BMW or will somewhere like GSF sell OEM?
I've been recommended by a mechanic friend (who runs an independent BMW specialist garage and previously worked for BMW for 15 years) to use OEM belts. I have an aftermarket alternator belt on the car at the moment that makes a horrible squealing noise from cold. Is it best to just buy them from BMW or will somewhere like GSF sell OEM?
I managed to get my fan off pretty easily with a whopping big spanner and a screwdriver - you can get the tool which would make life a bit easier, but it can be done without
I swapped my belts with Contitech ones from ECP, did the trick and haven't had a single squeel since they were done.
Did you do the water pump too? Is it as straight forward as youtube makes it out to be?
I've had the main crank shaft pulley and belt replaced recently, so I think it's just the water pump belt and AC belt left. Am I right in thinking the water pump belt is also the same belt for the alternator? or is that the crankshaft belt?
I put a deposit on an E46 M3 CS last night, collecting it on Saturday. It's a 2006 silver grey manual with red leather and heated seats. Apart from that no other special options. The only gripe I have is that it was registered just after the cut off for the newer tax bracket, but oh well. I'll put some pictures up when I pick her up. It needs a good clean inside and out but once I'm done it will be looking great. One of the previous owners had chavved it up slightly but the current owner has gone through lengths of bringing it back to standard and the only aftermarket item left is a Scorpion exhaust and some smoked indicator clusters. It doesn't sound too bad at all so I might just leave it on there. Not sure about the indicators though.
Cheers! I might just stick it on pay monthly so I don't notice it
Paid £13750, which was the asking price. I was in no position to haggle as he'd already had dealers trying to offer him more money over the phone and another person lined up to view it straight after me. Here's the link:
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...eries-e46-m3-cs------------------2006/4131091
Service history is mixed, but I went through the book and it's fully stamped and had it's last service in 2013 with Redish at a cost of £1500. It's only done 7k miles since then. I've already got it booked in with my friend who's the head mechanic at TWG Automotive to go over it. Pretty happy with the price and condition of the car. The leather is immaculate, which surprised me.
Thanks, the wheels have some kerbing but nothing serious. They were refurbished in 2013. Subframe was inspected by Redish and confirmed as ok. I had a look underneath too and it looked ok, however I'm fully prepared and if needs be will get the plates welded in or the resin injection done.
Headgasket hasn't been done, but it's pretty much impossible to confirm without doing a compression test. Sure it's ok though.
Thanks Fox, good read that and very interesting, out of the two I'd most likely go for the 335, i was interested to know if there were any significant difference between the two.
I've been fortunate to drive my sister's partners 56 335i saloon and the power is just fantastic it, be it going all out or simply pulling in 6th on the motorway, power is just there regardless, and although you don't look at these cars for mpg figures when I had his car for 3 weeks I easily averaged 30+ out of it, very well impressed with it.
Just need the prices on the early coupes to come down
I had a Z4 35i with the N54, and aside from the DCT gearbox, the engine was really the stand out thing about the car. The amount of torque available lower down in the rev range was thoroughly enjoyable.
That sounds like BS to me.
Picked the CS up yesterday. I cannot believe how dirty it was. There was an inch think layer of dried mud in the rear arches. No wonder they rust, it's a trap for dirt the way it boxes round. Gave it as good a clean as I could without removing the wheels, I also did all the gaps in the boot lid, bonnet and door shuts. I dechavved it by removing the roof spoiler and have got plenty do to this month including repairing the lumbar support, getting rid of the crap blue interior lights, fake German number plates, getting a four wheel alignment, diff bushes replaced and an oil service. Plenty to do!!
Will post pictures once it's been fully cleaned. It still has depo front indicators on it but I might keep them on there and they aren't that offensive.
Will post pictures once it's been fully cleaned. It still has depo front indicators on it but I might keep them on there and they aren't that offensive.
[TW]Fox;28020364 said:
He was a nice guy but the car was getting neglected due to his young family and his work. It was just sat outside under a tree doing nothing. The paint work is in excellent condition though after cleaning it up. When I arrived he was in the phone to a dealer who offered him 14500 but he didn't want to take a deposit over the phone. Think the price was reasonable but I wouldn't have paid a penny more.
The spoiler was so nasty, the colour match was a joke. I've written all the things down in a list, now just need to put them into priority. Unfortunately nothing will happen this weekend as I'm going away, but might try and get a couple of things done like fixing the lumbar support. From googling I think it may be a snapped wire. The exhaust clamps made it onto the list yesterday as they are rotten. I'm not spending the £100 odd that most people on cutters are doing though. Crazy money for clamps.
The guy who sold it to me gave me the old indicators in a bag, so I thought I could swap them out, but when I got home I looked in the bag and it's another set of depos
