Common E46 problems

[anonymous-user]

I'm in the throes of researching a potential 330i m sport touring purchase 2002 MY and am hearing accounts of common problems. So far the main one appears to be premature wear on the front wishbone bushes and the ARB bushes. I'd be looking at a car with around 60k on the clock with an auto box. Any other things i need to look out for? Cheers

[LordGrover]

I think it's a 330Ci Sport, not M Sport MY2002 - mine certainly is. Good choice though - I'm loving mine.
I'll watch this thread with interest though as I did no research before I bought it.

[road_rager]

Had to do the front bushes on my 330 touring ...so yeah watch out for those, they are not that expensive, I had mine done at main dealer for Circa £200. I've had plenty of problems with mine with front discs warping, main dealer has been unable to sort that one out..

[anonymous-user]

oh dear. rager would you recommend it? apart from discs any other significant non routine expenses? whats the mileage on yours? cheers

[DavidLScott]

In 56k miles my only main expense has been one set of front discs at about 40k ish.

They hardly ever need servicing (about 15k intervals) and I can't think of anything I would want to replace it with as a daily driver.
The only change I would make is maybe change from auto to a manual but I am not absolutely sure about that as I have the TVR for 'driving'.

Scores of people on here recommend them highly and at that mileage/age you can use an indie for servicing anyway.

[Killwilly]

I had a power steering pump fail on my 2001 320 last June (£600), 52000 miles, I have since learnt this is not uncommon!

[road_rager]

Don't get me wrong I love the car! I bought mine with 70k on it, now it's at 95K,apart from disc problems it's been great

[LMC]

The water pump went on mine a month ago, a 76,000 miler. Apart from that nothing major, changed disks and pads, service costs, oh and not forgetting rear tyres.

[anonymous-user]

Ok so my running costs for this potential purchase should also allow for:

- front wishbones bushes
- ARB bushes
- water pump
- discs
- tyres

Looks like at least 1500 worth of extra spend on top of routine costs... Clearly this would be worst case scenario especially if some of the work done already

[obscene]

Check out E46fanatics, there's usually a ton of good info on there.

As for the comments here, I agree with the bushes. Other than that nothings gone wrong on mine, I might need a new window regulator (which also seems to be a common problem).

[stevesuk]

I bought a 320 Ci automatic in February (October 2002 build, 2003 registered) and I'm very happy with it.

Its done 107000 and if the extensive service history (and expensive, since all work was done at BMW dealerships!) from the previous owner is to be believed, its only needed routine servicing through-out its life. Pretty much only tyres, brakes, and fluid changes.

Last year the ventilation system must have been playing up, because some stuff had been replaced (including the blower motor and resistor pack), and the same time the front suspension bushes were done too.

But nothing scarey on top of that.

However, I knew something wasn't quite right when I got it because the rear suspension was squeaking/knocking. Turned out to be both rear springs snapped, which I've just had done. I understand this is also a very common E46 problem.

Booked it in to my local independent and had some other bits and pieces looked at (very minor) and the bill came to about £300. So not the end of the World. After all, the car cost the original owner not far off £30k just six years ago, and I picked it up for £5k :-)

To me, it still drives like a new car, and doesn't need servicing for another 14000 miles according to the computer.

We also have a 1 series (diesel) and that cost us £1500 to fix in January! So anything will seem cheap after that.