320d advice

[Abyss]

hi all,

I have just bought my first diesel BMW 320 d se 136bhp yr2000 model. It has been owned by a grandad for its entire life, and has only done 10,100 miles!
Its in pristine condition, as far as I can tell, and has had one BMW service, it even has its original tyres! Has been garaged and blatenly looked after in a pristine/anal manner! ( fair play to the prev owner really)

I have read about manifold issues, turbo issues and other stuff on here, can anyone from experience offer any advice on owning this car, other than the standard services?
Everyone seems to recommend a mem remap chip, should i really given this example?
Is there anything I should be particularly wary of considering its age and its obvious minimal useage?

Thanks in advance

[Olf]

Abyss said:

hi all,

I have just bought my first diesel BMW 320 d se 136bhp yr2000 model. It has been owned by a grandad for its entire life, and has only done 10,100 miles!
Its in pristine condition, as far as I can tell, and has had one BMW service, it even has its original tyres! Has been garaged and blatenly looked after in a pristine/anal manner! ( fair play to the prev owner really)

I have read about manifold issues, turbo issues and other stuff on here, can anyone from experience offer any advice on owning this car, other than the standard services?
Everyone seems to recommend a mem remap chip, should i really given this example?
Is there anything I should be particularly wary of considering its age and its obvious minimal useage?

Thanks in advance

I'd be inclined to change the tyres. You can get dunlop SP2000's on black circles at the moment for 62 each fitted. I have exactly the same car for my commute and it's a gutless bastard. I've been thinking of doing a DMS. Would see 160 I think which would probably be a substantial improvement in driveability.

If I were you I'd also be looking a some fluid changes. Certainly brake fluid, PAS and engine oil. Depends how rich you are feeling, you could just whack it in for a inspection2.

Your call.

[Abyss]

yes rich, hmm not very at the moment, tax + annual hol + purchase of new car have all left a big dent!

Will go over the fluids thoroughly, but official service interval from a BMW perspective is due in another 11000 miles, it has had un-offical sneaky oil service, just for fun i think.

Well the power thing is, well, nothing amazing, good coming from the golf 68bhp, but nothing compared to the 323i I had! Reckon I will get used to it in a bit, then, eventually do the chip.

Dont suppose anyone has had these chips apart, downloaded the eeprom contents and got schematics?!

[carl_w]

Gutless? My wife has a 150bhp 320Cd (i.e. only another 14bhp) and it is sufficient for most purposes. Surely the 136bhp version can't be much different?

[Olf]

carl_w said:

Gutless? My wife has a 150bhp 320Cd (i.e. only another 14bhp) and it is sufficient for most purposes. Surely the 136bhp version can't be much different?

I'm sure it is sufficient for most purposes. That'll be why you bought a 2.0l Z4?!

[Methane Bloke]

I ran a Y plate 320d touring for 18 months and knocked up just under 60,000 miles with it. Never missed a bit and found it had enough go (previous car was a V6 Mondeo). I found it best to let it rev a little and not change up too soon. Averaged 45 MPG over that mileage as well so was sad to see it go (change of job). Ended up with a Primera diesel after that which was total crap.

Regards

Chris

[Abyss]

having played with it today, I am pleased to confirm all looks well, the last owner managed 50.1mpg, impressive.
After reading all the manuals I am quite shocked to see BMW only offer a 6yr body warranty, as opposed to my VW, which is 12yrs?
Either way the body is great, and I cant believe this car is 7 years old, it even has that new smell, inside is so pristine, my only slight concern is when changing from 2nd to 3rd (and other gears, i followed my missus in my car for a bit) a little plume of black smoke? not much, but more compared to my golf, which, though diesel, doesnt emit any smoke,,I see it on other cars, but presume normal on a turbo diesel engine, hence the exhaust points to the ground?

[Olf]

Abyss said:

having played with it today, I am pleased to confirm all looks well, the last owner managed 50.1mpg, impressive.
After reading all the manuals I am quite shocked to see BMW only offer a 6yr body warranty, as opposed to my VW, which is 12yrs?
Either way the body is great, and I cant believe this car is 7 years old, it even has that new smell, inside is so pristine, my only slight concern is when changing from 2nd to 3rd (and other gears, i followed my missus in my car for a bit) a little plume of black smoke? not much, but more compared to my golf, which, though diesel, doesnt emit any smoke,,I see it on other cars, but presume normal on a turbo diesel engine, hence the exhaust points to the ground?

Black smoke is generally ok unless vast quantities. Black smoke = burnt fuel, blue smoke = oil or unburnt diesel.

[carl_w]

Olf said:

I'm sure it is sufficient for most purposes. That'll be why you bought a 2.0l Z4?!

Yes, I used the 320 Cd for most purposes and the Z4MC for the others

[Methane Bloke]

Abyss said:

having played with it today, I am pleased to confirm all looks well, the last owner managed 50.1mpg, impressive.
After reading all the manuals I am quite shocked to see BMW only offer a 6yr body warranty, as opposed to my VW, which is 12yrs?
Either way the body is great, and I cant believe this car is 7 years old, it even has that new smell, inside is so pristine, my only slight concern is when changing from 2nd to 3rd (and other gears, i followed my missus in my car for a bit) a little plume of black smoke? not much, but more compared to my golf, which, though diesel, doesnt emit any smoke,,I see it on other cars, but presume normal on a turbo diesel engine, hence the exhaust points to the ground?

Don't worry about the smoke, they all do that. Mine was more noticeable at night when someone was behind with their lights on. In reality though they put out less smoke than most diesel engines.
Quote from Wikipedia:
"BMW diesels also has one of the best performance and quality standards in the world. Emmissions of black smoke is also relatively far less than others"

Regards

Chris

[Abyss]

good to hear, wasn't sure, but I have heard of some manufacturers such as Audi putting stuff in the exhaust to filter this, anyway, its isn't much really.
Anyone into servicing them selves? any good suppliers of quality bits, have had some stuff from ebay in the past,,

[Big Ashy]

320d`s are a solid engine and you shouldn`t need to worry about anything really at this age. As already mentioned above an oil and filter change would be 1st on my list closely follower by a change of brake fluid. Tyres may be borderline age wise, check for cracks in the side wall. The smoke between gears is nothing to worry about provided it`s not heavy soot. Considering its low mileage and age, its probably never really had a good run and had been driven sedately by it`s former owner. Chances are its "coked up" and needs the "cobwebs blowing out", you may find it will run cleaner after a "good nailing!"