BMW... The cars...

[dextersaurus]

Looking at E46 320ds...

What would you consider high mileage for one of these, considering they're about 10 years old.

Found one with 86k miles on it, which seemed in decent enough nick, but then there's so many with 100-150k miles on them... What would you lot consider as high mileage? what would you touch, what would you stay away from?

Having owned one diesel, and i blew it up, i'm not too sure.

Cheers,

[MarJay]

Diesels are a lot less smooth than petrols, and they tend to wear their engine mounts and become even more rattly as time goes on.

Really you need to drive it and see, but in my experience like most Japanese cars over 100k is the tested limit of these cars, and after that you start to get unexpected failures of things like electric window motors etc.

Personally I'd stick with the approximately 80k bracket, although I probably wouldn't touch a 320d tbh.

I had a 135k E36 325i and it was a good car, but it was let down by component failures due to age and mileage.
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[Ste]

BMW Diseasel!?! WTF is wrong with you?

[CHR15]

i had one for 4 months.

it had;

new clutch

new flywheel

all subframe / diff mounts

gearbox mounts

engine mounts

pads and discs all round

2 x abs sensors

drop links

front arb bushes

rear springs

egr thermostat

main thermostat

maf sensor

i got a little bit fed up of replacing something every week so i flipped it on for a grand with 152k on it.

after having a straight 6 petrol beemer now i really miss the low down grunt of a diesel although the 4 pot motors are proper rough and loud compared to the 6 pot ones.
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[clancy]

Get an a4 if you want that size car and diesel, my mates is on 220 k miles, still on the original engine and gearbox. Had nothing except consumables go on it basically

I would not be put off by huge miles on a bmw or similar car, it depends how it did thise miles, loads are use nearly just for motorway miles

I'd rather have 130 k miles that's just been sitting on the motorway than 70k that's been ragged to shit round town all its life
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KLX 300r

[Benson_JV]

[dextersaurus]

i've got a 152k mile 6 gen celica just now, and it's falling to bits, so need something a bit... more reliable?

320d was the first choice. then a mk4 golf GT TDI...

[Vracktal]

My dad has the E46 320i (I6 Petrol) touring.

Bought it last week, it had 16,000 miles on it (not a typo, last owner was a little old lady who bought it new then drove it hardly ever) and so far it's needed 1x ABS sensor (r/o wheel) Replaced under dealer warranty but hoping it's not a sign of things to come...
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[arry]

Get a 330d and buy on condition not mileage.

I've had a fantastic experience with mine over 3 years and a lot of miles. It has cost me so little and is such a great drive. I did 550 miles in one sitting and didn't even stop for fuel - I'd do the same again. Brilliant car

[Shaft]

Two major issues with a 320d:

Blocked crankcase breathers, leading to excessive smoke and crankcase pressure and inlet swirl flap failure.

Both are relatively cheap to fix, but you want to make sure they have been, especially the swirl flaps, because they ingest them and blow the engine.

There is no warning sign, they just go, so have them removed and blanked off.

A good oil change history is also very important, as they like a turbo if the oil isn't kept fresh.
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[daemonoid]

[arry]

186,000 miles on mine. Interior is like new. Only issue I've had with it is a lift pump - £150 to put right - that's in 3 years and 48,000 miles.

[-]

I'm OK with high mileage Beemers although I think petrol engines are a safer bet at high mileage. I bought my old E34 525i at 115,000 miles and scrapped it, still running well at around 280,000 miles. I bought my current E38 740i 4.4 at 165,000 and have so far put around 20,000 miles on top of that.

I suppose the trick with high mileage modernish diesels is to check the life and cost of the turbo and injectors and predict whether they will need doing any time soon. A set of injectors on a 6 cylinder diesel can run to over a grand apparently, I bet a turbo is a few hundred quid too.

This goes back to the old story of Parkers or someone similar, who ran a long term test of a 530i petrol and a 530D. The diesel stormed ahead on running costs until the mileage crept up and the diesel started needing some pretty expensive engine components. In the end the petrol worked out slightly cheaper to run, due to not needing major engine components at high mileage.
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[daemonoid]

[-]

[arry]

[arry]

[daemonoid]

[-]

late 30's on a motorway journey from a straight 6 530i sounds about right to me. A quick Google for "530i mpg" shows most people quoting around that on a run. Even my 4.4L V8 740i can average almost 30mpg on a run and averages around 24mpg, when on petrol . With LPG though, it converts to an average equivalent of nearly 40mpg
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[MarkJ]

[st3v3]

Too many people get caught up in how many miles a motor has, how many miles it's got can have nothing to do with its condition.

Proven receipts, work done and how it sounds/feels to drive are what matter.

Can very easily have a car with 15K on the clock that's been ragged to the brink of death and sold for full market value, doesn't mean it's worth the cash.
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[daemonoid]

[dextersaurus]

I've always been under the impression 100k isn't really high mileage. 150k would be the highest i would go. The car's only really for back and forward to work, about 250 miles a week, and longer runs around the country. current car i'm doing about 1500 a month during the summer.

so some of you say they're good cars, others say they're shit. I've got a limit of about £1500, so an audi (unless it's an old pre-facelift model) is really out of the question. 320d seems within my budget and can find ones that look in great condition. if i could afford a 330d i'd get one. i won't be going for the estate, it'll be the saloon. as long as it has enough space to ride a dirty in the front i'm happy.

Like i said, i'd love the BMW, but my second choice would be a mk4 golf GT TDI.

So basically, just do all the checks i normally would, and as long as it's below 150k it should be alright. i'm not fussed about spending money on it, i do it myself and the parts can be had cheap enough, so if bits and pieces start to fail at that kind of mileage i'm not too fussed. I've spent enough money and time on cars i should have a fucking ferarri by now.

Thanks for all the advice though.

[MarJay]

[Clutchy]

I agree that the amount of mileage on a car may not reflect the condition of the engine and engine components but it definitely reflects the condition of the interior and the amount of time the car has potentially spent in the winter.

For example a 150k car has probably used the electric windows etc a lot more than a 100k car.


That car has also had an extra 50k worth of use on the suspension, window wiper motors etc etc which when little things like that start to fail, it adds up for sure.


Back to OP I very much like the GT TDI golfs but at that age can come with a myriad of minor problems, the most annoying being the door lock modules.
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