Bought an old BMW M3, filled with regret...

^ Thanks ADT!


My next little job on the M3 came after being so impressed that with all the heavy rain over the last couple of days, on opening my boot in the morning, not a single drop anywhere, which on a convertible is a relief.. however after driving to work and back, opened the boot again, and a few drops on the carpet and in the storage tray on the left!

On investigation, I found an inch or so of static water in the hinge area on the left, and a tiny bit on the right hand side, clearly this had built up and then with driving had caused the water to lap out the hinge area and a few drops found their way to the boot..
A bit of hot water and a piece of bent wire to access the hidden channels was all that was needed..

I then checked the sealing mechanism, with reasonably heavy rain, it will always get to this area, the rubber horseshoe seal is designed to accomodate excess water and move it into the hinge area, and obviously straight out the main drainage channel under the hinge. I wondered if it should ever let water in, but clearly, there is a gap, and the pressure of the seal at this interfdace is quite low, so heavy water will definitely ingress, these are the two points on mine it weeps in and through the provided rubber guide channel under the seal..

LZUwg3X.jpg


I reckon with a new horseshoe seal and some fine tuning of the alignment you could reduce this ingress to a minimum but I don't think you can eliminate it due to the obvious gap!
 
ADT said:
Demon, in the place where your top goes down there are 2 draining plugs. They are known to get filled up with gunk and water settles there, causing some of it to into the boot.

Some use mr muscle to get them open again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UMWfyz-1KM
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I saw that! Awesome..

I got away with the boiling water and bit of bent wire this time, and will keep them clean, but I was a bit worried about any sink/drain clearing stuff being hazardous to paintwork!
 
I would never use sink cleaning stuff myself tbh, but if it's not shifting then you won't that much of a choice :p
 
Never knew there was runoff plumbing in there really :o No issues in mine though with water leaks, the innards under the hood lid look like new!

My car isn't ready for collection yet, looks like Wednesday is the day. It's being delivered to me to compensate for the delay. In the meantime all I can do is just close my eyes and image the revs climb, the induction noise and ears popping...
 
mrk said:
Never knew there was runoff plumbing in there really :o No issues in mine though with water leaks, the innards under the hood lid look like new!
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Yeah I think I've been lucky with it being so minor, I'd say that it had been parked under some trees for a little while at some point, there was just a tiny build up of organic 'sludge' on the left side in the seal grooves, but easy peasy to clean and all back to factory fresh! The mrs beetle cabrio had a similar issue, but had been parked under trees for a couple of years so took quite a bit more cleaning, the good news being it doesn't affect anything..

My car isn't ready for collection yet, looks like Wednesday is the day. It's being delivered to me to compensate for the delay. In the meantime all I can do is just close my eyes and image the revs climb, the induction noise and ears popping...
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It'll be well worth it!

The guys in work reminded me that they'd love to buy a car from me.. I seem to deep clean/renew stuff on the car until it's as good as it can be! I just did the little sprung side covers just in front of the horseshoe, they felt a little resistant, so took them out, steam cleaned the plastics/channels, lubricated and put them back together, now they are super snappy and uber clean.. I wouldn't say I am OCD, but my attention to detail gets the better of me! nothing is perfect.. even my 3 month old CX-5 I had before this I kept absolutely showroom fresh.. so an old M3 is like therapy for me.. its 12 years old so you have to accept some wear and tear..
 
Oh, on the head unit front, I emailed various suppliers, and NAVALL got back to me pretty much straight away, the questions I asked are below:

1. Does the extension lead include the aerial? The convertible has the aerial in the rear of the car so that needs extending as well.
2. Does the Navall 3 work with the HK Audio? Or would it need special wiring?
3. Do you know of any reverse camera's that fit a convertible boot lid as that has less height around the opening latch area.
4. Will there be an upgrade to Android 5.1.1 coming?
5. Does it have the play store installed so I can get the Tomtom App?
6. Is there a newer unit coming soon?

Their answers:
1/. Yes , we include it
2/. If you mean the AMP , You can wire it but really it wont change the sound . We can advise
3/. We use a different reverse camera for the Cabriolets, please see photo below
4/. Yes , Its in the works now
5/. Yes
6/. There is a cheaper unit coming but not a more advanced unit than Navall 3 . mainly due to the proccessor and RAM (2GB)

I think I confused them with the HK audio question, but have found people saying it was plug and play for them.. the extension leads are only £25 as well which is cheap.

The reverse camera pic they sent was:
7tyxH3L.jpg



5.1.1 with an intel quad core / 2GB RAM should be quite snappy and being android, I guess you can use alternate launchers if you like..
 
I'd be more interested in knowing if there's an An droid Auto one coming really. An Auto one would mean bypassing any need to have the latest OS on the head unit itself as everything is mirrored off the phone and Auto aware apps will switch to Auto mode, like Android Wear aware apps. Only one device then to consider keeping up to date.

One must be coming out this year!
 
Hey guys, I'm seriously considering an M3. I've found the following two:

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201605113850086

http://www2.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201605093762384

They both seem to have the same specs and mileage but it seems strange one is much cheaper than the other. The cheaper one is closer to me but after doing an HPI, it mentions that it's had 8 previous owners.

Keeper changes recorded

Number of previous keepers: 8
Most recent keeper change: 28/02/2015
Dates of other changes:
23/05/2012
05/11/2009
30/12/2008
05/08/2008
15/09/2005
17/09/2004

It also seems to have dodgy tyres which I will replace anyway.

The other one is being sold by a company that specialises in M3s.

I have yet to phone either but what should I be asking them before potentially making a long trip to go see them. And is the number of owners an issue? I imagine the resale value would be less but I suppose that's why it's cheaper for me to buy.
 
I'm far from an expert in M3s, or even BMWs - but while 8 owners and budget tyres arent a huge issue themselves, they're a MASSIVE warning sign to stay well clear
 
It pretty much tells you that previous owners were cheapskates and did things on the cheap which might be fine for a cat D celica but on a performance bmw you want to make sure it was well looked after, especially if you're paying the market rate.
 
grudas said:
It pretty much tells you that previous owners were cheapskates and did things on the cheap which might be fine for a cat D celica but on a performance bmw you want to make sure it was well looked after, especially if you're paying the market rate.
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That was my thinking, people buying it and not realising the running costs and therefore getting rid.
 
IIRC I am the 5th owner of my car but each service stamp was at BMW or the M3 specialist, so it was maintained properly at least! Aside from whoever did the prop shaft bolts at some point :p

Cars like these will tend to change hands a lot over the years. Many people will get their first big bill and call it a day. When stuff goes wrong it can cost if it's stuff that doesn't have a community solution. The SMG pump is an easy £2500 on its own, and then there's the labour... An average Inspection 1 dealer service is £790, Inspection 2 is over £900. These are much cheaper at a specialist, but not everyone knows of a good specialist in their local vicinity.

Having said that, 8 is quite a lot. Over the 12 years you just can't account for what one of those 8 people might have done to the car. The cheaper one has stick on tat, like some weird looking gear knob and m stick gaiters. It has also been used without mats, this alone is an instant close browser tab discovery IMO.
 
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Hard to tell if those are exhaust tips or an aftermarket exhaust. if the latter then be sure to test drive on a dual carriageway/motorway to check for droning. It will also sound a bit chav if it is the latter.
 
The specialist you are looking at does seem to invest in doing his cars up, sorting out front seats/paintwork and alloys etc, so whilst it's clear he's tarting them up, it saves you doing it!

On the subframe inspected front, it's a bit of a lottery, so many go, it seems only a matter of time, so I'd always budget for it going during your ownership, mine was given the all clear @ 72K miles, then BMW replaced the entire floor 2000 miles later..

The other thing to just factor in is clutches and head gaskets are becoming more common at around 100K+ . Listen for a pinking/rattling when accelerating normally in higher gears around 2K-3K RPM..

And MRK is right, some exhausts really drone and make life uncomfortable.. and I would say standard suspension is best, I've just gone back to almost OEM after buying one that was 'slammed' on tein springs..
 
Ok, I'll look out for these. Aftermarket mods put me off anyway as my insurance won't cover them. I saw one with those tein springs and whilst the car looked good, I wouldn't have been able to get it.

If I was to get the subframe reinforced before it cracks, how much would I be looking at spending? I've seen costs of 2k but generally relating to fixing it rather than preventing it.

First thing I'm gonna have to do though are change those tyres. Are Kumhos any good or should I just replace them with CSC6/F1A3s?
 
Subframe reinforcement varies from £700 to £1750 depending on where you go. ETA Motorsport in Kent have done loads and charge around £850. Reddish are the pioneers of this and charge around £1800.

The Kumhos arent amazing but wouldn't be awful enough for me to consider changing them immediately. Assuming they're brand new, the rears will be gone in 10k miles and the fronts in 20k. I say keep them until they need changing and then get some PS4s or CSC6s
 
Gaygle said:
Subframe reinforcement varies from £700 to £1750 depending on where you go. ETA Motorsport in Kent have done loads and charge around £850. Reddish are the pioneers of this and charge around £1800.

The Kumhos arent amazing but wouldn't be awful enough for me to consider changing them immediately. Assuming they're brand new, the rears will be gone in 10k miles and the fronts in 20k. I say keep them until they need changing and then get some PS4s or CSC6s
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I'd say find a car without such obvious evidence that spending the right amount of money on running a high performance car wasn't a priority for it's owner :p
 
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