basically going to look at a p reg m3 evo later just to have for the summer .my bird has decided she is going to use my convertible lol so im stuck with our zafira .

what are the mains probs m3 suffer from and what is the vans prob ? can u check to see if it has it by eye etc ?

any info would be great . its on 113k

 

Not sure what the vanos problem is something to do with cam timing I think but I know that a p reg m3 Evo would fall into that category thats why I went for the earlier 3.0 which decided to blow it's engine on 67k!

 

a vanos problem is the variable valve timeing unit and yes its a big and very expencive problem on evo m3s (3.2 ones) the older 3L ones have a rolls royce unit and dont have the problem. If its fucked it should rattle stop on your test drive open the bonnet rev it to 2000rpm then let it drop to idle and see if it rattles its the silver lump on the front of the rocker cover! It should pull hard in second gear in the midrange then feel like a sort of power band till the red line but they can go without any warning!

 

http://www.beisansystems.com/

 

do E46 M3s suffer from this?

 

Not that i know of but they do suffer from cam shafts! Using the wronge oil washes the hard coating off of them and they wear out