E46 320d touring as a 'shed'

[red997]

ok, I'm in need of a commute / shed

Had loads of BMW's in the past (and current), however nothing serious ever went wrong with them.

I can get an e46 touring 320d auto for a steal;

what are the usual 'gotchas' for this model ?

car is circa 100k miles, but with a pretty comprehensive service history.

I'm all ears !

[DailyHack]

red997 said:

ok, I'm in need of a commute / shed

Had loads of BMW's in the past (and current), however nothing serious ever went wrong with them.

I can get an e46 touring 320d auto for a steal;

what are the usual 'gotchas' for this model ?

car is circa 100k miles, but with a pretty comprehensive service history.

I'm all ears !

Good sheds imo, I dont have the E46, but I have the E91 318d with 100k on it already on a 12 plate, still tight as a drum.

If all the history adds up, run it through online MOT checker - see if its been a good car every year, usually good sign to see if its been neglected, with advisories etc.

Rust I know is issue on these, front wings usually...turbos can fail if oil breather is still the old loo style and not the new vortex mod (some one else may be able to advise on this?)

Swirl flaps were another internet doomsday, check if this has been done - they all had swirls back then on the 320ds - not a biggie to mod im sure afterwards.

Other than that i think its business as usual for a car of that age and mileage.

These cars can see intergalactic mileage if they are looked after.

Edited by DailyHack on Tuesday 25th September 11:11

[helix402]

Rust. Old loo roll breathers are fine if changed at Insp 2s.

[red997]

well, I took the risk and bought the car

2003 E46 320dES touring

I've got to say I'm impressed - it drives so well !
Totally un molested, everything stock - full service history , first 11 years with BMW; all service receipts, and MOT info - a great data pack.

(last E46 I had was a 330d touring, from new back in 2003 (ish)

We have a 2018 f15 X5 too - the 320d is actually quieter on the motorway.

Couple of little niggles:
1) airbag light is on. (is this an MOT failure?)
2) at idle it seems like its idling a bit on the low side and sounds a touch 'lumpy'
3) std fit radio - volume button appears not to work fully - hard to describe; won't go very loud ! - all other functions are OK
4) 55mile journey to work - OBC reports 61 mpg - hope its right !

haven't actually seen the car fully in the daylight yet (!) but the bodywork looks genuine; I can see some light bubbling on a lower rear arch coming though - from memory that's reasonably normal on this age ?

Need to check out the front brakes - can't really see how much meat is on them - loads on the rear as it has new disks and pads. They work fine with no noise, so not on the backing material yet

Anything specific to check for as a matter of urgency ?

[helix402]

Airbag lift is an mot fail. If you want a standard tape/radio unit I have a spare BMW one you can have for £10 posted, send me a pm if you’re interested.

Change all the vacuum hoses for silicon ones, do not do an egr delete.

Edited by helix402 on Thursday 27th September 09:06

[iSore]

The airbag light can normally be sorted with an Ebay resistor under the seat, 20 mins tops and about a tenner. I would whip the inlet manifold off and remove the swirl flaps ASAFP. With that off, replace every vac hose you can see, one by one. Depending on year there will be one to the turbo waste gate and they will all be shagged, oil sodden and starting to leak. I use the braided BMW stuff myself, don't use cheap motor factor st. Replace the crankcase breather as well - the air filter is built into the side of the cam cover on these and they can be a right bd - getting the top cover back on properly is an art form.

As for the rest of it. Ignore the rust as it will always come back so just let it fester - it's not important. It'll never be bad enough for an MOT fail. If you're really keen, take the drivers door lock barrel out and really douse it in WD40 and then spray grease. It's so much fun when the key battery fails, you try to unlock it on the door and the lock breaks because they've gone dry. Very easy to do - open the door and you'll see a small plastic grommet on there reverse of the lock - flick that out, an allen key through the hole on the small allen bolt and out it comes. Lock barrel breakage is very common and an absolute arse to fix.

Essential on Tourings now is lubricating the tailgate hinges, especially the small one for the rear glass hatch. They are at the age where they just seize and snap - again, lots of WD40 and lots of exercise to free them up.

You can buy a BMW Business or Professional single slot CD player on Ebay for 30 quid these days and you can fit one in ten minutes. You can plug a cable into the back that will plug into your phone as well.

[red997]

Thanks for the response
Its a BMW business CD headhunt with a 6 cd changer in the boot ! (just had to look out my old CDs)
Looks like its the radio part of the head unit thats paying up - CD has full volume available.
There was a spare aerial amplifier in the boot. Not that though...
Agree on the oily bits first - thanks for the list will be going through it tomorrow

Need front brake pads too - Discs aren't lipped, but worth replacing whilst I'm in there ?

Rears are brand new, as are tyres - but the wheels could do with balancing - touch of wobble at exactly 70mph

[helix402]

If the discs are ok leave them. Off the top of my head min thickness for fronts is 20.4mm.

On the E46 all pads produce loads of dust, even gen BMW. If you want low dust go for ATE Ceramic or Textar E Pad. Don’t grease with Copperslip, use Plastilube/Ceratec. Don’t grease caliper to carrier bolts.

[red997]

again, thanks for the advice

Pads ordered - not to bothered about dust - car will be kept clean.

Thanks for the copper slip tip; got to ask, why not ?

Swirl flap removal - I'm assuming there is a youtube vid of how to do this.
if you know of a good vid, a link would be appreciated.

Its been a while since I've spannered on a car, but (at the moment...) I'm looking forward to it !

[helix402]

Re copper slip, many years ago it was banned from BMW dealerships. As Technicians we were told the reason was it couldn’t cope with the temp the brakes reach. Whatever the reality it looks a bit rubbish and Ceratec/Plastilube looks a lot better!

Re swirl flap blanks go for metal ones as the plastic ones often crack.

[redandwhite]

pics?

An e46 320d under 100k has got to be a relatively rare thing these days

[red997]

helix402 said:

Re copper slip, many years ago it was banned from BMW dealerships. As Technicians we were told the reason was it couldn’t cope with the temp the brakes reach. Whatever the reality it looks a bit rubbish and Ceratec/Plastilube looks a lot better!

Re swirl flap blanks go for metal ones as the plastic ones often crack.

ordered a set of metal blanks & gaskets etc.
picked up some ceratec - will be fitting in the next 10 mins

just need to move the i8 out of the way first

[helix402]

When you remove the manifold make sure you block off the inlet ports in the head, and don’t drop any orange washers at the end of the manifold bolts!

You can fit the blanks without fully removing the manifold, if you unbolt it and pull it up enough to get to the swirl flaps.

[Mr Tidy]

An E46 320d is a good car OP.

I had a 320td (Compact) for 3 years and really liked it - averaged nearly 48 mpg over 42K miles.

Swirl flaps and rust have already been mentioned, but E46s do like to bow their radiators (although the intercooler on the diesel helps restrict the bowing) and expansion tanks can split.

Compacts also suffer from rear wiper motors getting drowned if you use the rear washer - not sure if the Touring has the same set up though.

It sounds like you are glad you went for it, so enjoy!

[helix402]

The touring wiper has a different problem, the pivot seizes.

[red997]

new headhunt fitted - 5 mins tops
Radio sorted

Brakes are sorted now - all bedded in.
Taking it to garage near work to have front wheels balanced and tracking sorted, as its a bit off.
hate offset steering wheels, no matter how small the offset !

So far so good - nothings dropped off !

[DailyHack]

Look at a hunter 4 wheel alignment will feel like different car when it's done.

[red997]

helix402 said:

Airbag lift is an mot fail. If you want a standard tape/radio unit I have a spare BMW one you can have for £10 posted, send me a pm if you’re interested.

Change all the vacuum hoses for silicon ones, do not do an egr delete.

Edited by helix402 on Thursday 27th September 09:06

Where to get the silicon hoses from ?

Swirl flap blanks should be with me today...so that's my evening in the garage taken care of ;-)

Also, the airbag light.

I have an OBD reader, but it doesn't come up with anything for the airbags when doing a scan.
presumably there is another diagnostic tool I need to buy ? if so, what - and will it enable me to diagnose the actual airbag fault, i.e. trace down to which component has failed ?

[helix402]

I use this hose:



One of these is good for diagnosis:

[red997]

thanks - will that device allow errors / faults indicators to be cleared (when the actual fault has been rectified) ?