What's wrong with this car?

[ferrariF50lover]

Hi all,

Browsing for a new commuter slag and have come across a 2002 320d. 140k, £1500.

In email conversation, seller (who is certainly a decent and honest guy) says,

The only thing I can say wrong with it is that the gears are sticky sometimes but not all the time so they can be difficult to go into gear. But if that happens if you just depress the clutch again its fine. If hasn't been driven in a while it will seem worse to begin with but if drive on daily basis its not there, I never had a problem all the time I had it as used it everyday, but as sitting at then moment my dad said it was a little bit annoying but other times he's had no trouble.

Question is, what problem does this suggest? Clutch borked? New box? Gearbox oil change to fix?

What do we think?

[lostkiwi]

Sounds like a dragging clutch. The clutch plate is either sticking to the flywheel friction surface or sticking to the input spines. Only sure cure is a clutch strip down though it may come right on it's own. It really depends on the underlying cause. An oil leak from the crank seal or gearbox input shaft can cause the symptoms. The oil gets on the input shaft and mixes with dust forming a thick gunk which makes the clutch stick.
One other cause is a bad clutch master or slave cylinder (if its hydraulic) or even low fluid.

[loose cannon]

Gear leaver ball socket/ linkage is probably worn out also

[mx5ian]

These e46 BMW's have a clutch delay valve CDV it's there to slow down the operation of the clutch to reduce the risk of damage to the drive train by letting the clutch more slowly. This can sometimes make the gears stiff and makes it hard to change gear fast a lot of people remove it this might be it's problem.

Or like someone has already said it could be the slave or master cylinder failing on it.

Edited by mx5ian on Friday 27th November 04:22

[ferrariF50lover]

Hmmm, this is all beginning to sound expensive.