Discussion
So after selling my A3 and the wife's SLK, replaced with a BMW Z4(for the wife) I got a little fed up with driving round in my Freelander TD4 dog wagon. Now there is nothing wrong with the Freelander, it does what we bought it for very well but as a daily it's a little uninspiring.
So what to do??
The answer was to give myself a £3k budget and check the classifieds. I had no particular cars in mind when i began my search other then that it would have to be more involving then the Freelander, have a reasonable amount of MOT, service history and reasonably local to me.
Last weekend I happened upon this. It's a 2003 BMW E46 325ci MSport. Went and had a look, took it for a test drive and £2500 of the £2750 asking price changed hands.
It is in great condition with no rust at all, 97000 miles with a fully stamped service book and 12m MOT.
Picked it up last night and drove home a happy man. The 30 mile drive home was uneventful, well almost, the car drove very well, smooth and quiet with no unusual knocks or bangs.
As i said almost uneventful. 2 small issues manifested themselves on the journey home, firstly the temp gauge hardly rose above the blue, suspect thermostat stuck open so new one ordered and secondly slight brake judder when braking from higher speeds, will replace the disc and pads which will hopefully cure it.
Other then that everything seems spot on.
So what to do??
The answer was to give myself a £3k budget and check the classifieds. I had no particular cars in mind when i began my search other then that it would have to be more involving then the Freelander, have a reasonable amount of MOT, service history and reasonably local to me.
Last weekend I happened upon this. It's a 2003 BMW E46 325ci MSport. Went and had a look, took it for a test drive and £2500 of the £2750 asking price changed hands.
It is in great condition with no rust at all, 97000 miles with a fully stamped service book and 12m MOT.
Picked it up last night and drove home a happy man. The 30 mile drive home was uneventful, well almost, the car drove very well, smooth and quiet with no unusual knocks or bangs.
As i said almost uneventful. 2 small issues manifested themselves on the journey home, firstly the temp gauge hardly rose above the blue, suspect thermostat stuck open so new one ordered and secondly slight brake judder when braking from higher speeds, will replace the disc and pads which will hopefully cure it.
Other then that everything seems spot on.
DonaldTrump said:
As i said almost uneventful. 2 small issues manifested themselves on the journey home, firstly the temp gauge hardly rose above the blue, suspect thermostat stuck open so new one ordered and secondly slight brake judder when braking from higher speeds, will replace the disc and pads which will hopefully cure it.
You might like to consider replacing the whole cooling system. These are prone to fail eventually, and really don't cost much if you're doing the work yourself. My 330 has now had the lot replaced, albeit not at once- in hindsight I would have just done it all in one go.I'm yet to ever replace the pads without needing to do the discs and calipers. That's owning 2x e46 coupes over the last 7 years. So the judder may actually be a sticking caliper; either way look into changing those too.
Sp00ks said:
Lovely car and in a great colour.
Juddering under braking can also be the wishbones, very common on the e46 and a very easy diy.
Usually the lolipop bushes that go soggy can cause this. I have a spare set of genuine Meyle ones, brand new and never been on the car going spare. These were from my own rebuild last week and came off the new wishbones i fitted (had polybushes so fitted those)Juddering under braking can also be the wishbones, very common on the e46 and a very easy diy.
If you're interested, do send a note.
Looks good! Echo what others have said, take a close look at your front callipers as prone to sticking slightly and buggering your discs. Also do the lower wishbone bushes. Lastly when you do the thermostat might be wise to do the radiator, water pump, and expansion tank. My expansion tank went bang and caused one hell of a mess! Get some grease also on the rear brake lines as they are very prone to rusting.
Very nice.
I have an identical judder from high speed through the brakes, if I jack it up and spin the OSF wheel I can feel the brakes binding at the same point every rotation - presumably a warped disc, but possibly caused by a sticky caliper? Without stripping down it's hard to tell.
I think a tidy standard looking e46 is going to become a reasonably sought after thing before long - go on the Facebook e46 groups and you'll see what I mean...
I have an identical judder from high speed through the brakes, if I jack it up and spin the OSF wheel I can feel the brakes binding at the same point every rotation - presumably a warped disc, but possibly caused by a sticky caliper? Without stripping down it's hard to tell.
I think a tidy standard looking e46 is going to become a reasonably sought after thing before long - go on the Facebook e46 groups and you'll see what I mean...
I went through loads of wishbones on my e36 and e46.
Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
kev b said:
I went through loads of wishbones on my e36 and e46.
Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
I have sent a message to Sf_Manta as he has offered me a set of Meyle.Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
matthias73 said:
Good choice.
May I echo the sentiments above and suggest you plan on buying new calipers too.
I did my e46 today and at 1400 my mate had to take me to ecp to buy new ones at 75 quid each.
Just been hooning, made such a difference
Going to change the lollipop bushes first to see if that cures it. Had a quick look at the brakes yesterday, the discs are in good shape and the off side caliper looks to be fairly recent.May I echo the sentiments above and suggest you plan on buying new calipers too.
I did my e46 today and at 1400 my mate had to take me to ecp to buy new ones at 75 quid each.
Just been hooning, made such a difference
With the high speed brake judder you can definitely feel had hear a knocking from underneath, also the bushes were an advisory on the MOT which was done 6 days ago so i think they are a good starting point.
DonaldTrump said:
kev b said:
I went through loads of wishbones on my e36 and e46.
Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
I have sent a message to Sf_Manta as he has offered me a set of Meyle.Seven years ago I fitted arms made by Meyle, they are still perfect, including lollipop bushes after 40,000 miles on potholed rural Lincolnshire roads.
Check the boot floor for cracking around the subframe mounts, its hard to spot but the majority of these cars seem to suffer this fault.
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