VANOS Problem

[bread1981]

I am hoping someone can give me some decent advice here. I have 52 reg, SMG M3, it's covered nearly 80k, I've done 45k of those. When it was recently serviced my local BMW dealer said there was a problem with the VANOS unit, it's being investigated this week. The car does sound a bit rough but has done for about the last 15k. BMW are telling me the bill could be up to a £1000, what I want to know really is what other big bills can I anticapte over the next 20k, has anyone got any experience of running an M3 over 100k? Also when should I go to a specialist instead of BMW? My dealer offered me £11k for a trade in, I dimissed this as it's got pretty much every extra and believe it to be worth around £16k when I've compared to similar M3s.

I think I'll probably keep the car for another nine months or another 8000 miles, then buy another one. When is the best time to bail out of the one I own now? I don't think I can sell it privately in it's current state.

Thanks

[Johnbmw6]

bread1981 said:

I am hoping someone can give me some decent advice here. I have 52 reg, SMG M3, it's covered nearly 80k, I've done 45k of those. When it was recently serviced my local BMW dealer said there was a problem with the VANOS unit, it's being investigated this week. The car does sound a bit rough but has done for about the last 15k. BMW are telling me the bill could be up to a £1000, what I want to know really is what other big bills can I anticapte over the next 20k, has anyone got any experience of running an M3 over 100k? Also when should I go to a specialist instead of BMW? My dealer offered me £11k for a trade in, I dimissed this as it's got pretty much every extra and believe it to be worth around £16k when I've compared to similar M3s.

I think I'll probably keep the car for another nine months or another 8000 miles, then buy another one. When is the best time to bail out of the one I own now? I don't think I can sell it privately in it's current state.

Thanks

Vanos unit failures are not common on the later engines, but they do happen, I would get the work done and test the water by advertising it for sale, then buy another lower FS History model. M3 100K do not go down to well together.

[matth76]

Johnbmw6 said:

.. M3 100K do not go down to well together.

If your M3 is serviced regularly it should last well above 100k and up to 200k and beyond. BMW and similar strong makes like Audi should last on very high miles as long as they are properly warmed up (this goes without saying on any sports car) and serviced regularly. 80k miles is only just above average for a 6 year old car (average being around 72k - @12k a year) so I would get the vanos fixed and keep your car as long as it runs perfectly. Just make sure the con rod bearing service action was carried out - this should be a must on all 2003 and earlier E46's.

On the question about taking it to a main dealer or to a specialist, this would depend on how good your local main dealer is and how well you trust them. I personally would always take my car to a German car/or M3 specialist over a main dealer. This is only because I know I would get a better much more experienced person working on my car who I have known for a few years and trust. I have had such bad service at my local main dealers in the past (my gf too), plus you pay double at a main dealer for less experience. But it's up to you. Your local main dealer may be a good one.

Edited by matth76 on Sunday 9th March 13:36

[bread1981]

Who would you recommend then? I currently take it to Snows BMW in Portsmouth but as this is going to be so expensive what specialist would you take it to?

[smartie]

Just had the Vanos done on our z3m (e36 m3 evo engine) and the cost for both was about £1500........................


..however, once we managed to get the top end quiet you could then hear the bottom end rattle!! - Another £750 for big end shells!

This is another common problem I think, but all high performance engines have their issues and cost money from time to time.

Ours has 65K miles and fsh btw.

[bread1981]

It's interesting one. I think really the cost of the servicing is pretty good for a car of the performance the M3 has. But as you rightly say things go wrong. I had a massive job done on the gearbox at about 55k it cost £3.5k under warranty which is really why I kind of want to get rid of it, the type of M3 you can get for £25k is just such good value now.