E87 new owner questions

[noggin2k1]

Recently changed from company cars to car allowance, and picked up the below as a mileage warrior:

E87 118D MSport
2010 reg
70,000 miles
Fully history (first few BMW, remainder at various 'high street' garages)

There's a few little niggles playing on my mind, that I just want to run past people - in case there's the chance of something rather expensive around the corner.

• clutch judder when pulling away in 1st This only happens for the first few minutes, and then everything seems to be fine. Quite a few posts are saying this is a typical 'characteristic' (design flaw) of the clutch. Wouldn't have thought it'd need changing at 70k

• slightly tappy/lumpy at idle/low revs Ticks over nicely at 800rpm-ish in first, but it does sound ever so slightly tappy. This may be paranoia of cam chain issues with earlier N47 engines, but it doesn't sound as refined as previous BMW company cars. It also feels a little on the lump side at low speeds around car parks. Again, a few places note that of this year, the cam chain is a little on the loud side, but much safer than previous N47 engines

• a little noisy past 2,500rpm Again, only marginal, but there's a bit more engine noise than I'd expect - even when the foot is fully off the pedal until it goes below 2,500

• 1st & 2nd gear changes a little clunky May just need a gearbox oil change?

• BMW Extended Warranty I've noticed people commenting about how the warranty has changed a bit recently - would people still recommend it? At £70p/m doing circa 15,000 miles a year, does it seem like value? I've also noticed that it mentions "cars to be serviced in accordance with BMW guidelines and equivalent parts" - I'm assuming the service history will tick that box?

• Mats Generic question - any recommendations of places to pick up a half decent set of fitted mats at 'not silly' prices? Every man and his dog seems to be supplying them now...

Many thanks for any input.

[LocoBlade]

Not sure on all your issues but I had a 123d for 4 years from 10k miles old and by the time it was at 60k it had had 2 clutches and a new dual mass flywheel (thankfully under warranty), so on that basis I'd say 70k was good going! Some of the judder seems to be clutch material transfer onto the flywheel and I found the best cure (at least temporarily) was the classic clutch test you might do to a car you were thinking of buying, i.e. hold the car on the handbrake at a standstill, select first and bring the clutch up to the biting point so it's slipping the clutch pulling against the brakes for a couple of seconds. Doing that seemed to clean up the clutch and the judder would disappear/be much reduced for a couple of thousand miles.

As for the gearbox, I always found the 123d box a bit baulky in the lower gears especially when cold and my subsequent 130i wasn't much different, nor was the one I tried in a manual M140 I test drove so I think some of it is just a characteristic.

Edited by LocoBlade on Thursday 22 June 21:24

[noggin2k1]

Thanks for the response.

Out of interests, were there are signs of the DMF going?

[LocoBlade]

Clutch judder is one of the symptoms that a failing DMF can give so they replaced both clutch and DMF at the same time. Those repairs fixed the judder completely for about 15k miles IIRC, then I noticed it gradually come back

Edited by LocoBlade on Friday 23 June 17:13