Advice on buying High Mileage
Discussion
newbee79 said:
Some great advice, thank you. For somebody that knows next to nothing about cars how do i check these things? I guess i can ask about the turbo, out of interest what would be the cost of replacing that?
Fair play to be asking here but if you know next to nothing about cars, buying a 55 plate 200k miler is a bold move.Turbo replacement would be at least 50% of what you are proposing to offer
Buy on condition and history. Take someone with you who knows how to read history (for good and bad signs) and observe condition. If the history file is thick and stacks up go for it. £1500 sounds better to me.
eastsider said:
Fair play to be asking here but if you know next to nothing about cars, buying a 55 plate 200k miler is a bold move.
Turbo replacement would be at least 50% of what you are proposing to offer
Buy on condition and history. Take someone with you who knows how to read history (for good and bad signs) and observe condition. If the history file is thick and stacks up go for it. £1500 sounds better to me.
I may try £1500 but not sure they will take that (private sale), It is bold but only have a couple of grand and dont want finance so its a nice 10 year old high miler or a vauxhall that has probably seen better days, Turbo replacement would be at least 50% of what you are proposing to offer
Buy on condition and history. Take someone with you who knows how to read history (for good and bad signs) and observe condition. If the history file is thick and stacks up go for it. £1500 sounds better to me.
t400ble said:
6k miles in a diesel? No thanks. Asking for trouble.
Go petrol
Trouble is, a petrol 318i or 320i has rather more to go wrong than the diesel. The N46 engine is known for timing chain/vanos dramas.Go petrol
Impending turbo failure is the whistle under boost and light bluey grey smoke. Given regular oil changes (10'000 miles max) with decent synthetic oil and the turbo will do 150-200k but not much more. Make sure you're not buying a car that someone is offloading due to impeding big bills. A good recon turbo from Turbo Technics would be about 500 quid and £150-200 labour to fit including removing and washing out the intercooler.
If you can find an E46 320d Touring that isn't a rusting, shagged out scrapper (good luck with that) that may be a better option. £2000 should buy a nice clean 2003/2004 car with 150'000 but you then have swirl flaps to sort out (ignore at your peril) and the spectre of E46 rust.
I'd have a high mileage E91.
If it's got stamps and invoices for servicing and repair work then I can't see it being a problem. A looked after 200k engine is better than any neglected one.
I've ran a 2006 320d for the last 6 1/2 years. Servicing has all been pretty reasonable, there is items you can easily replace yourself it you don't mind getting the socket set out. It's worth learning the air filter change procedure, it's not a quick job at all. First time I did it, it took me an hour ! Got it down to 30 minutes now.
I only do low mileage in mine now, it's on 91k. I've put about 70 ish k on it. The car owes me nothing so I have no intentions of swapping it until I really have to. It runs fine, but as a precaution I take the egr valve off yearly to give it a clean out, I've never found the egr gunked up badly with the low mileage I do now. Which is a good sign. Although it is remapped to 200bhp 315 ib/ft torque, which could maybe help keeping it from gunking up, running a bit hotter ? And I do when I can open it up and give it a good run, rather than pootling about.
It's the non dpf model, hence why you can get away with the lower mileage.
It's not been without its problems, it's never broke down and left me stranded but I have been hit with some of the common faults with this engine.
1. Dsc fault requiring hydro repair kit. Common fault.
2. Swirl flap vacumn control unit failed, flaps stuck open. Vacumn unit not an item you can buy, I was expected to replace the intake manifold for £750. Bought 4 blanks, removed the swirl flaps, the faulty vacumn unit and blanked the pipe.
3. Glow plug control unit failed, replaced the unit and the plugs, both beru items and the brand Bmw use. Common fault.
4. Turbo replacement at 87k Started getting noisy, shaft was getting a wobbly. Opted for a rebuilt unit, new oil feed pipes and intercooler flush. Remedied this before it did let go and do damage. Common fault.
The rest of it has been routine servicing. I'm quite happy to keep on running it until it's dead.
Edit to add: just replaced the battery today, the old ones been in there for 9 years and two months !!
I've ran a 2006 320d for the last 6 1/2 years. Servicing has all been pretty reasonable, there is items you can easily replace yourself it you don't mind getting the socket set out. It's worth learning the air filter change procedure, it's not a quick job at all. First time I did it, it took me an hour ! Got it down to 30 minutes now.
I only do low mileage in mine now, it's on 91k. I've put about 70 ish k on it. The car owes me nothing so I have no intentions of swapping it until I really have to. It runs fine, but as a precaution I take the egr valve off yearly to give it a clean out, I've never found the egr gunked up badly with the low mileage I do now. Which is a good sign. Although it is remapped to 200bhp 315 ib/ft torque, which could maybe help keeping it from gunking up, running a bit hotter ? And I do when I can open it up and give it a good run, rather than pootling about.
It's the non dpf model, hence why you can get away with the lower mileage.
It's not been without its problems, it's never broke down and left me stranded but I have been hit with some of the common faults with this engine.
1. Dsc fault requiring hydro repair kit. Common fault.
2. Swirl flap vacumn control unit failed, flaps stuck open. Vacumn unit not an item you can buy, I was expected to replace the intake manifold for £750. Bought 4 blanks, removed the swirl flaps, the faulty vacumn unit and blanked the pipe.
3. Glow plug control unit failed, replaced the unit and the plugs, both beru items and the brand Bmw use. Common fault.
4. Turbo replacement at 87k Started getting noisy, shaft was getting a wobbly. Opted for a rebuilt unit, new oil feed pipes and intercooler flush. Remedied this before it did let go and do damage. Common fault.
The rest of it has been routine servicing. I'm quite happy to keep on running it until it's dead.
Edit to add: just replaced the battery today, the old ones been in there for 9 years and two months !!
Gassing Station | BMW General | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff