BMW E46 3 series diesel

[taylor172]

hey hey,

cusrrently own a 3.0i z4 BUT doing about 20k a year and the mpg is starting to mug me off,
great car to drive farnstastic fun but £300 a month petrol bils and starting to get the better of me, that coupled with the fact that the insurance has gone UP £700 this year despite no claims.

i guess now the price of them has made them more attractice to younger folk who enjoy crashing them

sooo anyway looking at the e36, diesel either 2.4 or 3.0.

reliable? good mpg? or dull and thirsty?

[soda]

E36 or E46 ?

I've an E46 330d, hasn't let me down yet. I do similar milage and rarely see under 40mpg.

Performance is adequate, it will shift well enough when needed but I had to consider economy ahead of power when buying it.

[taylor172]

oops e46

e36 is a bit too old for my daily.

[Red&WhiteMonkey]

I've got an e46 330d se (2002), which is the 184bhp. It’s plenty fast enough for me in the real world and still returns decent mpg. The e46 is starting to get quite old now so there is plenty of choice out there and you should be able to get one with lots of nice toys without too much searching.

There a quite a few previous threads on what to look out for in an e46 if you do a search. Swirlflaps are potentially an issue and there is conflicting advice on that out there on the internet. The 184bhp manual 330D's don't tend to have them (mine hasn’t) so there is nothing to break off and screw the engine. If you get one that does have swirlflaps you can get blanking plates from Motormec to remove the issue that are cheap and easy to fit.

[Patrick Bateman]

Conflicting advice with regards to what exactly?

Potentially thousands of pounds worth of required repairs vs. a fraction of that to prevent it with no real change in performance.

[Red&WhiteMonkey]

Conflicting advice as to which diesel models have swirlflaps. From what I've read in e46's all 320d's, all 330d auto's and all 330d 204bhp models have them. The earlier 184bhp 330d manual (what I have) doesn't normally but there is a period towards the crossover to the more powerful engine where some 184bhp models do. I suppose the only sure fire way to tell really is to take the rocker cover off and look. If one goes (I would say it’s rare but it has been known to) you're looking at big bucks to fix the engine. The Motormec blanking plate option, which is cheap and easy, will remove the swirl flaps completely and therefore remove any problem. There doesn’t appear to be any significant change in performance or economy resulting from removing them, it’s more to do with emissions I think.

[Sticks.]

I had a 330d auto some time back and for a long time felt more confident overtaking than in the Z4. I found the SE had too much roll, wish I'd tried an M Sport. 40mpg was the best I got, loved the engine though, unlike the 2.0.

Swirl flaps http://www.pmwltd.co.uk/swirl_flaps.pdf

[soda]

It's also the case with the newer engines (after mid 2004 I think) that the diameter of the swirl flap pins was increased to prevent them breaking off. For the earlier engines as said above the manual 184bhp version should not have flaps fitted.

[Fox-]

The Z4 is the most economical of M54 powered cars. The 330d is never quite as economical as people think it is, and it carries with it the risk of injector failure, turbocharger failiure, etc etc - these modern commonrail turbodiesels are complicated things.

I'm not so sure the savings in total cost of ownership will be as big as you think. Especially given how your average used E46 is now in need of a bit of TLC, notably in the suspension department.