It's amazing the condition that many of them are left in. I don't recall seeing any E36 M3s that were in the same worn out cabin state as many E46s! Although I guess the much smaller production numbers for the E36 is probably the reason for that.
Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...
- Thread starter mrk
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I would not have an SMG car, end of. There are too many niggly faults that can cause the car just to not start/cut out and then there is the big one of the SMG pump. This isn't something you'd change through preventative maintenance - the cheapest I can currently find this part for is approaching £2500. Then add another £500 for labour. Plus more money for recovery if you car has decided to strand itself and is immovable. Oh then there is the issue that last year the part was on back order for BMW for 4-5 months and there was zero worldwide. This obviously presented an issue if your SMG pump had just failed...
The risk of this is far too high. It can go without warning and that's it, boom, over £3000 to get your car moving off your drive....and the end result is that you're still left with SMGII, a system which is clunky, uncomfortable and designed 15-20 years ago.
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SMG nightmares are over played in my view, owned a CSL, it never broke once. My current M3 the SMG has never had issue, yes it wore its clutch but in fairness it lasted 95,000 miles not bad for a car that has seen a lot of track work and the clutch/flywheel is the same parts as the manual so no more expensive and most of the manuals wear their clutches quicker.
Yes it is clunky but in fairness once your used to it you learn to drive it to be smooth when you want and to be ferocious when you want it and that is one of the best things about SMGII still until this day that is it the closest gear box to feeling like a sequential that ever came out, because nothing is artificial it is truly mechanical and ferocious and as a fun and track car in S4-S6 it feels totally insane and awesome.
When it comes to E46 M3 I'd take SMGII everytime, it is different, its only downfall is a manual version is easier to drift and better to control for sure when attempting silly stuff like donuts and shifting mid drift to another gear.
Of course now I have song SMG its praises watch my break down now on the way home........
Everything is usually blown out of proportion 
Regarding subframe, not all of them will get the cracks either. All down to pot luck. ETA Motorsport confirmed to me of all the cars they've done the floor on, it's always been random. Some track M3s go in for inspection and have no cracks at all, yet road cars come in with low miles and have cracks and so on.
My car has had no cracks as of yet, I do believe the convertibles having extra strengthening does help a bit here. Still get it checked every year though
Regarding subframe, not all of them will get the cracks either. All down to pot luck. ETA Motorsport confirmed to me of all the cars they've done the floor on, it's always been random. Some track M3s go in for inspection and have no cracks at all, yet road cars come in with low miles and have cracks and so on.
My car has had no cracks as of yet, I do believe the convertibles having extra strengthening does help a bit here. Still get it checked every year though
I had a look around a couple on Saturday and had a short drive of a manual. A few random thoughts/musings
Cars have really moved on in the last 15 years for better and for worse.
E46 styling has aged really well
Wow! My bum seems to be scraping the floor
The engine noise
The engine noise going through a short tunnel under motorway
Surprisingly wind free with roof down and windows up at 70mph
You have to actually PRESS the brake pedal rather than tickling it
Gears are easy, I must be brilliant (not driven a manual in 18+ months)
2nd->3rd crunch, maybe I'm not so brilliant.
2nd->3rd crunch, OK it's not me, synchromesh is not doing its job
The engine noise going through a short tunnel under motorway @7k RPM
The dealer said the car hadn't been through workshop yet and he had noticed a couple of crunches so would get it sorted prior to sale. I didn't have time to test the SMG so will try and pop back this week but on that car the seats were very worn for a car with 80k miles and the interior generally was not in great condition which was rather bothersome for a car advertised at £12k.
I spent a bit of time on Pistonheads and Autotrader last night and there does seem to be quite a bit of variation on price for 2004-2006 cars with ~80k on the clock from £8k-£12k though strangely they are all in 'great condition', 'maintained regardless of cost', 'not the usual rubbish', 'excellent SMG/preferable manual gearbox'
Interest is certainly peaked but not sure if I want to spend that much on a toy that seems to have such wide variation in price and condition, the potential to get it wrong seems pretty big.
Yeah, bit of a minefield..
I really only considered buying one when one came up that I spoke to the its 3 previous owners and knew the last 6 years of it's ownership and exactly what state it was in..
The best place ones tend to be sold specialist sites where ownership is highly documented and owners are known for their fastidiousness.. they don't tend to go for much more, but you know they are well looked after IMO.
At the weekend, I was in the dealers looking at the new 240i Convertible, and one of the mechanics asked if I was trading it in, because they did the boot floor (when it was done under warranty) and would buy it privately off me as he knew the state of the car, knew the previous owner and has struggled to find anything clean for himself and he's been searching for 2 months now.
Who is ETA buddy, that is a very good price for floor repair and reinforcement.
People who I have spoken to say they can all crack, BMW changed nothing over the years in the design so they are all prone to it and it should be on anyone buying list to have it pre-inspected before purchase, they go first on driver front (hard to see) and passenger rear (easier to see). BMW and other repairers also inject resin which helps prevent the rear from going again, but the front, is a drill it, weld it and plate it up and then hope for the best.
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A friend of mine has an 03 M3 E46 from brand new, his pump went while sitting at traffic lights and cost him £3k for a new one. He is ok as he has his own business and plenty of money but i would not advise unless SMG pump been recently changed for majortiy of people. He only has 43k on the clock too before pump went.
Theres loads of SMG BMW M3 e46's for sale but manuals are getting much rarer cause there more reliable.
I have noticed since really gummi pfledge'ing all my roof seals and cleaning the roof mechanics/area that I've introduced a new 'squeak' when opening the roof...
To save me describing it, here is a video..
It seems to be the rear roof seal being pushed across the boots expanding compartment cover (the one that can be expanded to give more boot space)..
It might be just a case of having over cleaned it, rubber on plastic does squeak so I need to find the right 'product' to stop it..
However, I'd love it if someone could check how theirs folds and make sure mine isn't putting too much pressure on the rear seal.
I keep almost getting tempted into a 335i/435i/235i and I would not get manual, I like teh DCT and 8 speed auto, both suit my driving style perfectly.
To save me describing it, here is a video..
It seems to be the rear roof seal being pushed across the boots expanding compartment cover (the one that can be expanded to give more boot space)..
It might be just a case of having over cleaned it, rubber on plastic does squeak so I need to find the right 'product' to stop it..
However, I'd love it if someone could check how theirs folds and make sure mine isn't putting too much pressure on the rear seal.
I wanted SMG at first, and still see it as 'OK', but definitely it's another common expensive issue that I ended up shying away from..Doesn't mean main preference would not be a manual of course
I keep almost getting tempted into a 335i/435i/235i and I would not get manual, I like teh DCT and 8 speed auto, both suit my driving style perfectly.
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Good news chaps.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJCpxWNjJDJ/
Oh yeah, my roof folding isn't putting any stress on anything like the above dude.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJCpxWNjJDJ/
Oh yeah, my roof folding isn't putting any stress on anything like the above dude.
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Just checked mine, it's not something I've noticed before and mine has the slight noise at the end once the roof is fully folded in and is resting against the rest of the roof, whereas yours comes in early on before it's folded down.
Check it out: