Hey There

[HellaFlush]

Hello, my name's Matt 18 years old and from Bedfordshire.

Looking to get a 320d Msport Touring later this year once the insurance on my current car has ended.

Been looking at a few on fleebay and they're all going for around £2k for a decent one. 

But I was wondering apart from the swirl flaps and breather is there anything to look for when going to buy one in particular? 

 

My dad's a mechanic and I'm pretty confident around cars so I have a decent idea of what is good and not.

 

Cheers

Matt

 

[TriggerFish]

Rust! They're mechanically pretty sound (check for knocking etc., as you would any other car), apart from the cooling systems, which are pretty weak. The resistor for the heater blower can fail too, but they're cheap to replace. 

Rust is the big, hidden problem though. Those side skirts can, and do, hide a multitude of sins, sadly.

Welcome along though - and check out the facebook groups for e46s. They seem to be cheaper on there usually (but not sure if that's because they're all awful or not - but I saw so many dog eared ones when I got my first e46. I struck lucky the second time and bought the first one I saw!)

Edited September 18, 2017 by TriggerFish

[DaveNE]

17 hours ago, HellaFlush said:

Hello, my name's Matt 18 years old and from Bedfordshire.

Looking to get a 320d Msport Touring later this year once the insurance on my current car has ended.

Been looking at a few on fleebay and they're all going for around £2k for a decent one. 

But I was wondering apart from the swirl flaps and breather is there anything to look for when going to buy one in particular? 

 

My dad's a mechanic and I'm pretty confident around cars so I have a decent idea of what is good and not.

 

Cheers

Matt

 

My personal opinion Skip the E46 most of them are now at the point where they are buckets of rusty s**t  that have been abused by people.  

[HellaFlush]

17 hours ago, TriggerFish said:

Rust! They're mechanically pretty sound (check for knocking etc., as you would any other car), apart from the cooling systems, which are pretty weak. The resistor for the heater blower can fail too, but they're cheap to replace. 

Rust is the big, hidden problem though. Those side skirts can, and do, hide a multitude of sins, sadly.

Welcome along though - and check out the facebook groups for e46s. They seem to be cheaper on there usually (but not sure if that's because they're all awful or not - but I saw so many dog eared ones when I got my first e46. I struck lucky the second time and bought the first one I saw!)

Is the blower resistor easy to get to? Or is it a case of ripping the whole cat apart? 

 

Rust isn't too much of a problem unless it needs some serious welding as I'm currently doing an apprenticeship in spraying. So would be able to easily sort things like arches. 

 

Glad to hear they are pretty solid mechanically then, just gonna need my handy rust detector when I go. 

 

@DaveNE Are they really that bad? What would you recommend instead? 

[TriggerFish]

It's easy to get at, but one of the screws is an exercise in contortion to access! You only need to remove one or two pieces of trim to access them though.

The sort of E9* you'll get for E46 money is likely to be a whole lot worse, I'd guess. You'll find a good one if you're patient

[HellaFlush]

1 hour ago, TriggerFish said:

It's easy to get at, but one of the screws is an exercise in contortion to access! You only need to remove one or two pieces of trim to access them though.

The sort of E9* you'll get for E46 money is likely to be a whole lot worse, I'd guess. You'll find a good one if you're patient

Ahh a few bits of missing skin from your fingers never hurt anyone haha.

 

That's my thinking, I don't really like the look of the newer 3 series.

I think I've seen about 2 good ones so far. Both black m sport tourings with the alcantara interior. Perfect e46 to me. 

 

Just gotta play the waiting game

 

 

[momo]

It's not just the arches that rust - it's underneath too so unless you get the car up on a ramp, you wont see it. I've just had to have a plate welded into mine to get it through its MOT.

VERY disappointing in a BMW..

From the sounds of it the E90 onwards isn't anywhere near as bad.

[DaveNE]

Rust is a nightmare and its not just age related. I've seen 2000 plates in better condition than a 04 plates looks to be luck of the draw 

i have to be honest here i thought my coupe was rust free. but when you start peeling back the plastic coverings you will find some nasty surprises and once the rot has set in i don't care what anyone says only way to deal with it is to cut it out. and do you really want to be spending thousands on a 10 year plus car?

Mechanically wise i can't fault my ownership of the E46 but I found some nasty rust that is no longer my problem lol 

As much as i loved My e46 the cold hard truth is the oldest e46 is coming up to 18 years old and the newest being about 11 years old.

No doubt you will find a good one if you play the waiting game. Under sill covers front wing. are a good place to check.

 

Hello E90 335i coupe 

[rasa]

yeh,i can see ,my side skirts have a little rust showing..but im not taking them off..im keeping it till it dies or fails mot and becomes too expensive to keep..they are great cars,,but thtas all they are "cars" they come and go..ive got no real sentimentality towards them after they are gone..although i might look back in 10 years and say..god that 330d was good..

[TriggerFish]

This is what treated me with my rear arches, including their state before I started probing around...

Edited September 20, 2017 by TriggerFish

[R11CH]

Nasty bit of rust there Triggerfish.

Was lucky with my coupe. Stripped the full car down to find only a couple small spots. Treated and fully underseal the entire car. Should see it last several more years.

[TriggerFish]

There's clearly more around some of the holes/bungs in the floor pan too, but I couldn't be bothered to poke at those. It was being broken for parts, so it was only a case of mild curiosity at the time