I know theres some knowledgeable people on here so hopefully you guys will be able to help me out with this one.

I've now seen a E90 318i (petrol with auto step tronic box) for sale on an 06 reg, it's done 120k miles with FSH (5 dealer stamps & 1 specialist) are they still reliable at this sort of mileage & are they capable of much more?

Thanks peeps

 

ive had 2 with over 150 and no probs id say it is well serviced so should be no probs

 

timing chains jump, uber common and done loads.

uprated tensioner and guide is only Ł24 from BMW and takes about an hour to re-do but garages charge Ł2-300 normally

***edit, didnt read e90 lol

 

So they're quite reliable even at that mileage then? Good stuff! I think that may be the car for me then

 

Got an E46, which apart from using a lot of oil, (christ knows where??! Lol) is as good as gold! Touch wood.... Don't know if similar lump as in an E90?

 

Timing jumps on the e90 4 cylinders as well I hate them and would not advise them , the 4 cylinder petrol engines are something BMW has struggled with , the e46 valvetronic was terrible

 

If i was to buy the car what would you recomend i have done in order to stop the timing from jumping? It's just had a long life service or something like that (whatever that means)

 

mileage can be a hard one to guess tbh since you dont know if its done 120k easy miles or been thrashed with in a inch of its life, just make sure you have a good look and listen failing that get the AA to do a check or a BMW garage.

i have worked on cars with silly miles and some with hardly any, if it doubt walk away or try and get a price where you could still have enough to cover any work needed.

With regards to the car your wanting at that mileage you will want to change oil and filters in the box if never changed and change the oil in the diff. see/ask whats been dont and haggle from there.

 

e90`s suffer with magnesium blocks, the bolts snap, i.e crank sensor bolt on 6 pots, inlet manifold and starter off to drill them out, but you MUST replace with BMW bolt that is also mag and sooooooooooooo light, if you dont the currosion from a steel bolt can be hurrendous!


done 2 now and there not nice

 

So whats this long life service all about lads?

 

UPDATE: I went to view the car & it was quite nice, it was very clean inside with not much wear on the seats etc which i thought was good considering the mileage it's done.
The engine sounded quiet on start up & apart from it pulling slightlyto the right (tyre looked a bit under inflated) it drove really nice.
When we got back off the test drive the engine sounded a bit 'tinny' like the kind of metallic noise you get if a manifolds blowing but it wasnt coming from the exhaust area. The trader said they all sound like that & this was actually rather quiet compared to others.

So - people in the know, do they all sound like that?

 

They do sound as if there is a blow to the exhaust , you can buy a anti skip bracket for the timing chain from BMW and I would advise a new chain tensioner