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Mace1647545504

By Mace1647545504
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carl1647545492 Newbie

carl1647545492

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My 01 E46 3 series started to cost me money at 100k + and was the first round of fixing things in its life.....so whatever Beemer your looking at try and see if the previous owner has put money into it it will mean you will not have to.

 

Suspension and lower control arms are getting tired at that mileage and will need replaced,the cooling system will need a complete overhaul,check the window switches all work,rubber intake boots crack and leaks are hard to spot but throw srs codes its probably a good idea to replace the fuel pump and filter for insurance too.

 

Motors are solid and last forever,if you can turn a wrench I would say go for it if not budget a few thousand dollars a year for maintenance,

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GRN96WS6 Newbie

GRN96WS6

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At 100K on E46's you might as well count on replacing the entire cooling system just to be safe, doing it yourself is around $400-500 in parts and your time getting it done is around $1500ish.

 

Some people complain of the ac compressor going out but I never had any issues with mine.

 

 

I had a 06 325ci and sold it at 110K but never really had any issues outside of the cooling system (which I replaced as precaution).

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cruizin01 Newbie

cruizin01

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As others have mentioned those cars at that age are only worthwhile if previous owners have put some money into them along the way. And typically they haven't. Yes you can use one as a beater but they all will have some sort of oil leaks, coolant leaks, worn out suspension, etc.
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1Quik7 Newbie

1Quik7

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Window regulators....I've had 2 fail on me so far...right now I'm using plexiglass as a window because I don't feel like installing another one. Not a super expensive issue but you don't want a window to not come up especially in Winter.
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Geeto67 Apprentice

Geeto67

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not to throw more fuel on this fire but some of the years you have mentioned fell within bmw's "Lifetime" trans and gear oil recommendation. BMW foolishly said their rears and transmissions never needed a fluid change and as a result many of them failed right around 100K miles (for the record even ZF recomended against this practice).

 

Most of the cars you have to worry about will have taken themselves out of the market through mechanical failure by now, but make sure that you check the history of any car you are looking at to see regular rear end and trans flushes. Every friend I had with an e46 had frequent sensor problems over 100K miles.

 

I know this may sound crazy but if you want a true cheap reliable beater I would look older. Like an E30 or E34. The E36 (1993-1998) was right about when BMW started to focus on tech over tank like reliability. I would actually take a 150K mile E30 325i over a 100K mile E46. My last E30 was at almost 200K without burning or leaking any oil when I sold it. The kid I sold it to drove it 500 miles to canada that night. I have had a '76 2002, an E30, and 2 E34s - all of them were dead nuts reliable (none of them were nikasil v-8s) and easy enough to maintain if you are handy.

 

E30 325E's are esp cheap and then you can swap the head to a 325i head and get a 2.7L 327i (the ETA engines are actually bored out to 2.7L not 2.5 but have a shitty head that keeps them from reving over 5K). E30s are like tinker toys.

 

Every bmw eats control arm bushings for some reason, esp if you live on the moon. my E30 needed them, both my E34s needed them, mom's E90 needed them, and all my friends with E46s needed theirs done as well. This was all NYC driving.

 

I know I am going to get crucified for this - but I see plenty of automatic E36 M3s for fairly cheap (esp convertibles). I mean if you are just going to drive it into the ground like a rail road spike might as well have fun doing it.

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Mace1647545504 Newbie

Mace1647545504

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my first bmw was an 85 325i and I loved it..i sold it and got a call from the guy who bought it after him..i forget why but he found a receipt with my name and got my phone number..anyway we talked for a while and I asked how many miles did it have, he said 300k and it still purred
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Geeto67 Apprentice

Geeto67

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Dear god that's tempting. It's so clean.

 

Side note, how did you like your 2002? I want one of those so bad. My most favorite BMW ever

 

I think as I get older it gets better with every year. I had a 1976 2002 in 1996 in that that metallic rose' color (I wish I could remember the name of it) that had just started to have the rust issues they are all having now. It had been sitting for a number of years in a garage but it took almost nothing to get it running again. I was used to driving big heavy American lumps so the car was light steering even without power and it handled ok even though it was slow. I think when I was a teenager/early 20's I didn't really appreciate how much fun the car was. If I had it back now I would put delorto carbs on it, minilites, and an ansa exhaust and blat around everywhere. but back then I was focused on how much I could get for it and turn that into pontiac parts for the GTO. They were fairly common back in the 90's and nobody wanted them so it wasn't very many GTO parts.

 

I desperately want another one but the prices for clean ones are pretty nutsy and I don't really like the stock M10 4 cyl. it's a perfectly fine engine and all but I fell like it needs an S14 our of an M3 or at the very least an M42 out of a e36 to really make that chassis dance. My budget obsession along these lines is an E21 320i with an m42 swap. The M10 engine is a dog (making 90 hp at best), but the E21 actually has all the suspension improvements the 2002 should have had, esp in the front and is a better handling/driving car. It needs the extra power because of the added heft of being a physically larger car, but the 6 cyl M20s make the car too nose heavy and it's still light enough that 138hp is a lot of fun. The 2002 is certainly a nice vintage place to be but at $10K for clean ones to start, a $2500 e21 that is basically a stretched 2002 with a better front suspension doesn't warrant the $7500 premium for how I want to use the car.

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Geeto67 Apprentice

Geeto67

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my first bmw was an 85 325i and I loved it..i sold it and got a call from the guy who bought it after him..i forget why but he found a receipt with my name and got my phone number..anyway we talked for a while and I asked how many miles did it have, he said 300k and it still purred

 

so you know. for how simple it was it always blew my mind that my E30 325i convertible was a $35,000 car in 1991. compare it to a newish convertible 3 series and the cars seem to be about the same in price but the new car is so technologically advanced it feels like a value....for the first 5 years.

 

 

Something else to consider - if you are just looking for a beater the 318ti is universally hated and I happen to think it is just about the best small bmw made in the modern (post 1993) era. It uses the the e36 front and the e30 rear (like the z3 roadster) and because they are so maligned they are usually $2500 all day long. it's either a shitty winter car or the most epic winter hoon mobile due to the tendency to oversteer but I think you just need to drive one. it's probably one of the last simple bmws made period.

 

Call me crazy but if you are seriously going to consider a 100K bmw, don't buy an autotrans one. maybe it's just me but I don't trust their autotragics to be as reliable.

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Mace1647545504 Newbie

Mace1647545504

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saw this yesterday:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5315741863.html

 

loved it until he said it had a battery drain..really an electrical problem..w/o that I would be buying it. It was solid , ran great and was exactly what I was looking for..to mimic Indiana Jones...electrical..way does it have to be electrical

 

mace

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Geeto67 Apprentice

Geeto67

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I dunno, electrical in that car is way easier to diagnose than say an e46 or e90.

 

While I am a fan of using old cars like cars, with all the salt they pour on the roads here it would be a shame to use that shark as a winter beater.

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BigOxley Newbie

BigOxley

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saw this yesterday:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/cto/5315741863.html

 

loved it until he said it had a battery drain..really an electrical problem..w/o that I would be buying it. It was solid , ran great and was exactly what I was looking for..to mimic Indiana Jones...electrical..way does it have to be electrical

 

mace

 

i saw this one too, its been on since at least the summer.

 

i would love to LS swap this thing

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Geeto67 Apprentice

Geeto67

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Well, my E38 740i has 249k miles and counting on its ZF 5HP auto

 

I am assuming yours is not one of the lifetime fill models and had regular trans fluid changes.

 

how many vanous and pcv valve repairs have you had to make on it? not being a dick - genuinely curious as I don't hear of many E38s that make it past 100K miles before they need something in the top end.

 

I was thinking of the 3 and 5 series cars from the 80s through the early 2000s, where for every 5 nice ones on ebay there is one with a blown trans or a trans in limp mode. finding an e30 or e36 with a blown or limping automatic is only limited by how far you can throw a rock.

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