Hmm, thanks for the replies. Truth be told, the E36 Compact was a bit of a lash up with some E36 parts, some from the E30, and it was quite evident that it was built to a cost and didn’t quite have the quality feel of the rest of the range. We can help you to find replacement ball joints, at very low prices. Parkers suggest that £3170 is top money for an independent dealer for that model with 90k on the clock. Thank you very much for the E46 Compact Buying Guide you published in the January issue! If you can hear a knocking noise coming from the rear suspension, this is usually caused by a failing track control arm. Steering racks rarely give any trouble and a good used one is around £35 and two hours to fit. They can piss oil out, timing chain and tensioner problems, Valvetronic problems, vanos problems, oil pump failure, crank sensor failure. Buying Guide & Common Faults: BMW E46 & E90 3 Series BMW’s 3 Series range has long been one of the most popular model lines for the German car maker and has, through the years, been offered in a variety of body styles from coupe to estate. It’s free of charge and what can possibly be bad about some brand new parts on your 15-year-old car at the expense of the manufacturer? To this lot the 325ti SE added a different style of 16-inch alloys, anthracite roof lining, DSC stability control, colour-coded exterior body parts, cloth/leather sports seats and Titan line exterior trim. Rusty brake pipes are an E46 bogey and most will need the rear ones replacing. Coil packs rarely fail and the engine management system is more reliable than the 2007-onwards N43 direct injection motor. I believe it had something to do with BMW not allowing the sealant to dry properly during production. unless it's a fake sport, learning everyday! The crankshaft position sensor was intelligently mounted on the back of the block under the inlet manifold… just where you can’t get to it. Broken cables in the window regulators are a common E46 fault and the Compact regulators are different to the Saloons’ and Coupés’ – aftermarket ones are £60 a side. This will be most noticeable when driving over speed bumps, or rough surfaces. It did very well for BMW and while it wasn’t the most popular of the E36 range it did account for one in every six sales, and perhaps most crucially BMW reckoned that two out of every three buyers were new to the BMW brand and that they went on to buy another BMW after they’d sampled the Compact. BMW cars owner and specialist - our expert. 2004 saw the arrival of the 1 Series hatch which effectively ended the reign of the three-door 3 Series. Rear wiper motors are a common casualty – water that passes through the spindle to supply the rear washer jet leaks into the motor, rusting it solid – a new one is around £160 but you’ll get a good used one for £40. The big news for the four-cylinder machines was that they were the first BMWs to be endowed with Valvetronic and this allowed power and torque gains over the older four-pot units while also seeing improvements in economy and emissions. Dampers wear out of course and so can the wishbone rear bushes, but nothing is expensive to sort out. Alternators and starters are reliable and used ones are around £30 each. Bore/ring wear is common leading to bluey/grey exhaust smoke but at least crankshaft troubles are rare. We update you with latest information on new car prices from both parallel importers and car authorised dealers with brands such as Aston-Martin, Bristol, TVR, Bentley, Ford, Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, Citroen, Tesla, DS, Alfa Romeo, Subaru, Toyota, Acura, Honda, Nissan, Audi, Kia, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Volvo, Mitsubishi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz. I intend to follow it by not only replacing my radiator but also my timing chain and the associated parts, after which my car will be ready for a couple more years of happy motoring I hope. When running well they’re okay but the potential for going wrong is high – find one with a bill for engine work and regular oil changes and it should be okay. Sport models featured chunkier bumpers, and this LCI model also has the more attractive rear light clusters. By accepting you will be accessing a service provided by a third-party external to https://drive-my.com/, Drive-My.COM MEDIA EN/UK based is United Kingdom’s top cars/retro/classic/modern/tuning/moto/commercial news, test drive, classic cars and classifieds. Some use oil (but not as much as the 3.0-litre version) but timing chains rarely fail (if ever) but the Vanos unit will appreciate being resealed by now – £300 with new seals. The five-speed gearboxes used in manual Compacts just don’t go wrong and even if yours did, a good used one is 50 quid tops and will two hours to replace.
During 2003 the Sport trim level was added to both the 316ti and the 318ti while the 316ti could also be spec’d in an ES trim which was effectively a halfway house between the base model and the SE. Click here, Not sure of reg? The four-cylinder petrols need caution – to be frank, they’re possibly too much of a risk and given that a good 320td can be bought for £1500 you have to really want a petrol because the 320td is usefully fast, much more economical and more mechanically robust. Both will lead to chain jump and to replace the chain and rails (it’s a cassette setup) is, to be fair, three hours of work as long as the guide rails are intact – if not, the sump needs to be dropped to fish out the bits – add another two or three hours for that. Copyright © 2000 - 2020 www.Breakeryard.com ® All Rights Reserved. Like all E46 cars, it’s worth whipping the driver’s door lock out (30 seconds with an allen key) and giving it a dose of spray grease to prevent it seizing – important if the key battery is dead and you’re locking and unlocking it manually. 316ti and 318ti cars were available with the ES (Edition Sport) trim package that came with a very nice chunky M Sport steering wheel as well as single-slot CD player and manual air conditioning – don’t dismiss this as it works well and offers rapid temperature change without having to hold a button down for an eternity. When you apply the foot brake, do you hear a thudding noise coming from the front suspension and/or does the vehicle pull to one side instead of staying in a straight line? Four-cylinder machines use a GM (General Motors) unit, and 325ti cars use a ZF. I'd get a 320d if that's your budget. Repair costs are around £500 for a timing chain and rail replacement if the sump can stay on, £250 to supply and fit a new Valvetronic motor and nearly a grand to supply and fit a new eccentric shaft – in other words, engine repairs are bordering on being uneconomical. Firstly, I would like to mention two safety related recalls BMW issued to begin with.

If you cannot operate the air conditioning, due to not being able to alter any of the settings, you will need new panels. Powered by a 192hp M54 2.5-litre unit, the 325ti goes very well indeed and isn’t too tragic on fuel. Watch the video below, to see how to fix it. Recently BMW started a new campaign, this time in order to replace the driver’s front airbag. We are also your information hub for parking, road tax, car insurance and car loan, car audio, car performance parts, car discussion, motor insurance, car grooming, car rental, vehicle insurance, car insurance quotation, car accessories, car workshop, & car sticker, tuning, stance and Cars Clubs, Registering to this website, you accept our, You are now being logged in using your Facebook credentials, Figures in brackets refer to five-speed automatic gearbox, This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site, Supercharged BMW E46 330i AC Schnitzer ACS3 C30, Carbon-clad wide-body BMW M3 E46 KEAN Suspensions, 657hp 2JZ-engined BMW M3 E46 drift monster, 600whp turbo GM 6.0-litre LQ4 V8-swapped drift BMW E46 Coupe, Garage - BMW X5 E70, 635CSi E24 and 325i E30 Cabrio, Group test 2015 Jaguar XE S against 2015 Mercedes-Benz C450 AMG W205, 2015 BMW 340i F30/2 and 2015 Audi S5 Sportback.
Cam cover gaskets can leak, and by now they will all need the CCV (crankcase ventilation) valve and rubber breather hoses replacing but apart from that, the M54 is a great engine. 325ti diffs almost never go wrong although they can suffer backlash – you can hear a faint thud as you engage first gear and this can also be tired driveshaft CV joints. Even though the Compact was built in the same factory as the Saloons, they seem less prone to rust. As mentioned above, you can usually fix the window regulator. With an extra 200cc to play with the 318ti was a more appealing proposition with 143hp and 148lb ft of torque – not monumental gains but enough to see the 0-62mph time improve by over one and a half seconds while only losing out by a couple of miles per gallon in the economy stakes. The E46 is a known quantity and really, any competent garage can service and repair them – they’re hardly rare. As mentioned above, you will need to replace the air conditioning panels to sort the problem. I would urge every E46 owner to take their car to an official BMW dealer to check if it qualifies for any of the recalls and have the airbags replaced. These are symptoms of the front suspension ball joints failing. Thanks once more for all the advice you have given me. But it drove well, was solidly built and practical. To be honest the 316ti wasn’t really anything to write home about as its 1796cc unit developed just 115hp and 129lb ft of torque which equated to a somewhat leisurely 0-62mph time of 10.9 seconds for the manual and an even more sedate 11.9 seconds for the auto-equipped model. © 2020 Pistonheads Holdco Limited, All Rights Reserved. They will not light up either, if they are failing. Many Compacts will have the useful BC on-board computer but the end button on the stalk can fail – good used ones are a few pounds to buy and half an hour to fit but as the steering wheel has to come off, the airbag light will normally require resetting. The E46 Compact has been overlooked for far too long – it’s a great steer – bag one before they vanish. Don’t be put off – these are cheap cars now and there are still thousands of them on the roads and if you’re after a winter beater then one that runs okay could be fine for 500 quid. The E46 was basically a refinement of the E36, so no real dramas here. Here was a model range with modern engines, high tech suspension and up to date interiors. These pads are known for failing. Four-cylinder diffs can whine with old age and a good used one is £100 – they are the same as fitted to 316i, 318i and 320i E46 models but autos and manuals have different diff ratios.


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