E46 330d auto/triptronic Questions

The_One

The_One

The_One

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2003
Posts
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Anyone had experience with these?

Seen a nice 2000 model touring for sale with 150k on, loads of service history, lower arms and various bushes have been replaced as have the front wings are they had rusted behind the plastic arch liners.

Its also remapped so i imagine around 230bhp?

Still on the original turbo, these good to go or do they fail quite often? If they do whats common practise is it to refit a low mileage one or buy a new unit for around £700?

What the auto box and the triptronic like?
 
Original turbo, remapped, auto, 10 years old?

Buy another one. Infact buy another one with a petrol engine, by the time its 10 years old a 330d is more hassle than its worth, you are not buying a cheap car to own so whats the point in the diesel, the mpg becomes a secondary cost :p

The autobox is pretty decent - for an autobox.

It wont be 230bhp either, its the older 184bhp 3.0d which is the first ever version of it, they dont make 230bhp reliably with a remap.
 
The_One said:
Why buy another one lol its had heaps of stuff done to it and lots of service history.
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It's 10 years old, why do you think its had heaps done to it? Because it's totally reliable and never puts a foot wrong? Why not add up all the loads of service history and see what the bills come to? Then ask yourself if you want to be paying that :p I suspect also you are trying to buy a diesel because its cheap to run (Why else buy a diesel), whereas aside from the reliablity of a 10+ year old 330d, the auto 330d's only average about 35mpg anyway.

It also isnt a 7k + 330d like most are.
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Why do you think this one is much cheaper then?
 
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Its cheaper because of its age and mileage, fox please allow someone else to comment because your attitude towards soem vehicles stinks at times.

You havent helped at all you merely try to slate a car when you know nothing about the ACTUAL car in question.

Its had lots of things replaced before hes a perfectionist, like myself hes decided to replace things that will be showing their age after 10 years.
 
Listen to fox, he doesn't own one but listen to him
Or, listen to me agreeing with him as I do own one 2001 330d 'loon.
Mines a remapped 2 owner car that had lots of BMW service history from the original owner.

When they are running well they are great, if they aren't then they cost far too much for wht they are IMO (similar to the point fox made abot the £3k 530i).

Economy is terrible if you aren't doing long runs, my short commute is returning 22.9mpg.
 
The_One said:
Its cheaper because of its age and mileage, fox please allow someone else to comment because your attitude towards soem vehicles stinks at times.

You havent helped at all you merely try to slate a car when you know nothing about the ACTUAL car in question.

Its had lots of things replaced before hes a perfectionist, like myself hes decided to replace things that will be showing their age after 10 years.
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Got receipts for fuel pumps, batteries, autobox, 6 injectors, turbo etc etc etc?
Believe me, it's not cheap if not been done already :p
 
The_One said:
Its cheaper because of its age and mileage, fox please allow someone else to comment because your attitude towards soem vehicles stinks at times.
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Thanks.

You havent helped at all you merely try to slate a car when you know nothing about the ACTUAL car in question.
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I know nothing about them? Ok, fair enough. You obviously know better.

Morba owns one, so obviously he will disagree with me as I know nothing right?

What did you want, somebody to come along and tell you that its wicked fast, super economical and a fantastic buy or something?

The right 330d is a great car. The right 330d is unlikely to be a prefacelift, decade old example of one of the first ones ever produced. But hey, my attitude torwards certain vehicles stinks apparently. Though I thought I was also supposed to be some sort of blind BMW fanboy, not sure how those two fit, but there we go :p
 
The_One said:
you obviously cant read either because i said you dont know the ACTUAL car in question.
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I know its a prefacelift 330d SE Automatic with the 184bhp variant of the M57B30 thats enough information to discuss the car, what else do we need to know before we can offer you meaningful opinion? The reg number?

Come on use a bit of common sense. If its had 'heaps of stuff' done to it, somebody has presumably paid for all this stuff to be done. You've therefore got documentry proof of the sort of costs involved with an older 330d, yet you chose to **** us off for pointing this out to you? It's at the age where stuff is going to start wearing out, going wrong, and costing money - thats fine if you dont mind that but it will cancel out any fuel savings from buying a diesel. They are complicated engines and a 2000 example is one of the very first of the breed.

If its remapped, on 150k miles and still on its original turbo then the turbo is on borrowed time. There are also quite a few reports of the GM autobox fitted to the diesels (The petrols for some reason have a better ZF box) not coping very well with remaps - infact jamoor on this very forum had an autobox fail after a remap on a 5 year old 330d let alone a 10 year old one. I seem to remember some sort of worrying fact about the box being rated for 400nm and the engine outputting 390nm in stock form, though I cant remember the exact detail.

So you've got huge potential risk in the turbocharger and gearbox alone, before we even consider the rest of it.
 
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You asked if anyone had experience with these. Fox has and has told you what he thinks.
The only comment I have is that you will be looking at a new turbo very soon.
Auto boxes are generally reliable but can munch themselves without warning.
I wouldn't buy this particular car no matter how well it's been looked after. 150k is too much and is at the cusp of the poit where expensive things will fail on a regular basis.
 
That's 3 BMW owners recommending you look at something else, that's gotta tell you something :p
 
I don't really get the thought process. He's found:

a) A massive pile of bills in the history
b) The fact that most nice 330d's are £7k

Those two things alone tell you something? :p

If you want a 330d then great - they are excellent cars. But, follow these guidelines:

a) Dont buy an auto if you want fuel economy - get a manual. One big failure potential out of the way as well if you do this
b) Don't buy an uber mileage one unless its had recent turbo AND injectors - ie, dont bother unless its a good deal from a family member or somebody else you know well
c) Buy as new a one as you can - I wouldnt go older than about 2003ish.
d) Buy a decent warranty - so in order for this to happen, keep the mileage under 100k.
e) If you dont do the miles to justify a diesel, buy the petrol one instead. It's less complex in the engine department and the engine issues it can encounter are cheaper to repair and easier to ignore (VANOS seals..).

If you can buy a nice 2003 example with 80kish, and a decent warranty, then you will enjoy owning what is a good car.

Obviously this sort of car will cost you more - but then they are not cheap. Cheap ones are not cheap either, you just pay after you buy rather than before.

Thought for the day: An economical car is pointless if the fuel economy savings are eaten by repair bills.
 
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The_One said:
You havent helped at all you merely try to slate a car when you know nothing about the ACTUAL car in question.
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What on Earth...?

I think Fox probably knows more about this car than anyone else on the forum, even the owners.

On a side note, I had a mini-spaz last night and started questioning Janesy about these on MSN, thinking I might be able to save money over my Leon which is rapidly approaching 30K miles in it's first year of being with me. He said exactly what Fox has just said - they'll give reasonable (but nothing massively improved over the Leon) economy, which will get eaten up and more by the costs of keeping the thing on the road.
 
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Mate Fox is right, just give it a swerve.

All your going to do is spend money on that, month in month out.
 
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