I will also add - you also have to be realistic you are buying an older than 10 year old car.
You will have to do preventive maintenance. At this this point as with any car, after 5 years all working parts needs to be checked.
Front suspension components (control arm bushes, engine mounts etc)
Engine hoses
The catalytic converter could be blocked, or close to being blocked.
The common items on an ZF gearbox Bmw is go to ZF gearbox and let them analyze your gear box and see if it is till within spec, and able to do the gearbox oil flush.
If not then you know you have time to save for a 30k gearbox rebuild at a specialist we can recommend. But then the gearbox will be good for another 10 years.
Then the 20D the pulley and wheels need to be checked. Thats about it with the common items.
I do understand it will need maintenance and repairs yes as its almost 10+ years old.
I am no stranger to a spanner lol and dont mind pulling a engine and rebuilding it, hell i pulled the z3 engine twice to rebuild it within a year because spirited driving, track days and the M52b28 were not the best of friends
Ideally what i want is a N54 335i but unfortunately i need to grow up now lol so sensible reliable car is what it will have to be.
What i mean with unreliable to put things into perspective is, with the E90 320D, ran fine for the first month or so after getting it, then the injectors started acting up making a knocking sound under acceleration then rev hangs when you let off, so replaced the injectors, knocking was gone but car stuck in limp, then got ista to code injectors, cant code injectors as there is a vin miss match, new DDE was fitted as previous owner said, and after just doing a software update all of a sudden the ABS and traction control as well as airbag lights came on.
BMW specialist said that it was all disabled in software, and when i updated the modules everting started working but the DME cant communicate with the body control module due to vin miss match, was not to worried as the car was still driving, that' when i noticed the milage on the rest of the original modules to the car showed 700 000+ KM with 5 battery replacements.
Not long after the car started randomly cutting out when driving, ended up being crank sensor, so intake and starter off to get to it.
not long after that the alternator packed up, fitted a new alternator, about a month after that the starter motor packed up. replaced it.
then almost the same month the power steering rack started leaking oil so bad that it empties the bottle in a 10 min drive, replaced the rack.
then the front disks started vibrating the steering wheel under braking, new rotors pads and sensors fitted, (abs light still showing)
then the front shocks went and the front wheels were shaking badly on gravel roads, so new rack / rod ends bushes and shocks.
Now latest is DMF went bang, so needs new flywheel and clutch, and it started pissing oil from the rocker cover somewhere in the middle and the front crank seal or oil pan.
Oh also replaced the turbo as it had a slight bit of shaft play, too much that i was happy with.
Then aircon pump broke, so replace and regas.
forgot to mention the intake manifold was so clogged up i had to hot tank it, then clean it with a pressure washer, then hot tank then ultra sonic to get out all the hard bits, looked like tar. Also took the DPF out as it was clogged. Then the usual major service parts was done when i got the car, filters etc.
Car still stuck in limp mode, cant do any service resets on the OBC as the modules are not communicating.
Not sure on how to sort that out, BMW wants me to but a new DDE for the price of what i paid for the car.
All this in the time frame of 1 year, got the car last year November.
So if the new car lasts at least 1 year without anything major going bang i would consider it reliable lol
One more question, should i shy away from higher milage 320d E90 LCI / x3 (200 000kmh+-) even if they have full service history ? or are they generally reliable if well taken care of even with high milage.
www.gumtree.co.za
