How to buy a used e46 BMW Pt:1

so today I'm going to do a quick video on what to look for when buying your first BMW E46 series when I was looking for mine I almost made a few mistakes and I almost jumped the gun a couple of times so I'm going to amass a bunch of information in this video for you really quickly so you can digest it and then do your own research and Shop smartly first off I want to say I'm no expert on BMW e46s but what I can give you is all the information that I've learned over time and when I was shopping for mine I want to give a big shout out to all the contributors over at E46 Fanatics The Forum if you're not on there already you should be and if you're looking for one of these and specifically Cactus Jake who has amassed a massive amount of information in a thread which I'm going to put right here so you can click on it this is where I suggest you go to do your reading if you want details about the different models of e46s as well as specifically what to look for mechanically there's also a series of videos on there which go through in great detail all the different things you should look for in the engine in the body in the drivetrain and in the suspension okay I recommend that you get a pre-purchase inspection before you actually finally pull the trigger on buying the vehicle you can do it a lot of checking out yourself first but when you finally are thinking this might be the car for you then get a proper inspection from a mechanic because he's probably going to find stuff that you'll miss the first big issue that I want to talk about that you really need to watch out for is the potential subframe cracking issue okay so on any BMWs up to 2002 and even some e46s past that there has been a lot of reported issues of the subframe separating and cracking in the body so the actual unibody chassis of the car is cracking and separating which is a massive issue and costs thousands to fix to do it properly so do not be afraid when you walk up to the first car ask the owner right away because it had a subframe issue just look at him straight in the face and say it see what he says you can check it out yourself a little bit but it's difficult to see it's where the suspension Mount actually meets the unibody the unibody itself will crack because of torque on the suspension Mount some people say it's due to vibration some people do say it's due to a excessive torque it's not exactly a hundred percent understood what causes it in my reading anyway you can look in the trunk you can rip up all the carpeting and look and see where the actual well of the suspension Mount is and see if it's cracked there you might be able to see it from that side you might not it might be a hairline fracture that you can't even see there's something to be very wary about in any of the up to 2002 E46 models foreign after that what you definitely should be doing is opening up the engine bay and taking a look okay you want to see what type of condition is the owner left the engine in so one of the big things that happens on this car is this seal right here this is the valve cover gasket seal this cracks and it leaks you want to make sure that the rubber is okay you want to make sure that it's not pouring oil down the side you're probably going to see the oil over here just below where the gasket is the second main source of oil leaks on this car is the oil filter housing gasket right down at the bottom there where it actually mounts to the engine block there's a gasket there that fails see if you can get a flashlight definitely bring a flashlight with you look down take a look see what's going on crack this open and take a look on the underside if you see any yellow sludge you've got a few things to worry about do some reading on what that might be okay when you're looking at someone else's car get your hands in there feel free to actually pull things and grab things and squeeze things feeling these hoses are they okay are they brittle are they cracked that's what you're looking for pull the oil dipstick out hopefully come out easier than that take a look at the oil put it on a cloth what color is it is it jet black does it look burnt does it smell burnt here's a trick that I do I walk over and I take a look at the the next Oil Service or whatever the last person that was that put the sticker up there and then check the odometer on the car and see if they match up see if the odometer is a lot higher than when it says the person was supposed to get their next Oil Service now onto the cooling system you want to ask a few very important questions has the cooling expansion tank ever been replaced has the water pump ever been replaced has a thermostat ever been replaced these are very important questions depending on the mileage of your car because all of these things eventually go on from what I've heard every single E46 so this is the expansion tank right here this is the cap and the bottle goes down in there take a look how new does it look what condition is it in cracks form on the side of it and these things can actually pop and explode your engine will overheat and then it's done okay you might not be able to see the crack but take a look see what condition it's in your power steering reservoir see if this is leaking around here look down into the power steering system and see what's leaking when I got mine it looked fine not two months later I had a massive leak in a power steering hose right at the rack I just replaced it it was a pretty easy repair but there there you go I didn't see it I didn't catch it and it happened real quickly dumped power steering fluid all over the driveway the next thing you're going to want to do is start the car you'll be listening for a few things listen for any clicking that shouldn't be there any whooshing of sounds any serious pulling or hesitating in the belts anything that seems off get it checked out the intake system here you want to see if you can feel around feel any vacuum leaks feel anything that might be causing a rough idle I recommend driving the car around a lot and coming back and listening again to see if you can hear a rough idle that could be this vano system which is BMW's variable valve timing system the seals on that go eventually you could look at the the throttle bodies dirty the idle control valve could be dirty the diesel valve could have a problem with it these are all things you need to think about and get checked out okay some of these things you can't check out without actually taking them apart that's fine there'll be symptoms a lot of those are encompassed with that potential rough idle issue all right but ask all these questions of the owner ask if any of this stuff has been done if it has been done great if it hasn't it probably will need to be eventually so just keep that in mind when you're shopping foreign take a look at the outside of the car walk all around it you're looking for little bits of rust on cars of this age you're going to get a little bit I had a little bit down here didn't concern me that much make sure you look underneath the wells as much as you can to see what you can find check the suspension out from the outside look at the actual shock see if there's any oil on it that shows that you might have a shot piece of suspension there give this a bounce right here if that bounces too many times up and down that means it's just going up and down in the springs and the shocks aren't even doing anything if you're buying this car from a dealership say I want to see it up on a lift have them take it into the garage put it up on a lift and look underneath yourself even if you don't know what you're looking for look for really obvious things spots of rust leaking oil fluids underneath while you're up there take a look at the rear differential you want to make sure that it's not leaking oil you want to make sure the underside of the engine body is not covered in oil or any other type of fluid all right even if you don't really know what you're looking for you can still go underneath and see if everything makes sense to you does it look clean that's very important

Channel: Throttle House

Views: 185,005

Keywords: e46, used, bmw, shopping

Id: brdL29hLz5E

Length: 7min 35sec (455 seconds)

Published: Tue May 10 2016