james kiely

iTrader: (5)

a mate of mine has got a knock in the bottom end of his 03 plate m3 and has been told that the crankshaft bolts stretch on them and this was fixed on a recall.unfortunatley his seems to have missed out and has been qouted 4k to fix .has anyone heard of this before .
by the way he donuts the car at every opportunity

Paulo P

There was a recall on early E46's to fix this, gutted his wasn't done First thing I checked on mine when I bought it, a quick call to BMW confirmed it was done, by who and when

james kiely

iTrader: (5)

cheers paulo,thanks for the info i will tell him to check with his bmw dealership to find out .
paulo do you know where you could get a m3 engine /bottom end ,is their any specialists in the uk where you can buy from.

v man

the early e46 m3's suffered quite bad with bottom ends

i know of a few that have chucked rods out the side due to crank and rod bolts

engine wont be cheap
i would look into a rebuild
at least you know what your getting

and if he has caught it early enough the damage might be minimal

may of only been oil surge due to the dounuts

Albino Deano

Was really looking at swapping my cossie for a M3 this year but all i seem to hear is bottom ends knocking vanos units failing rear floors ripping out smg pumps failing they just seem to be a endless money pit thick a focus rs seems a better deal.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

No way. I went from an FRS through an evo8 to my M3 and it's the dogs bollocks. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the FRS. In fact hardly even in the same league.

pimp-daddy

James ive broke loads of these and the engines are as cheap as chips, i sold them with all ancillaries for £1500. And easy to change mate.

ASHCOSSIE

was told this happens because of the rev limmit, the early ones reved to 8500rpm that gave all the problems im sure the later ones have a lower rev limmit, may be wrong

Albino Deano

Yeh i no what u are saying the M3 is 45k new and is a awesome car but running cost servicing and repairs when it goes wrong is when it hits u hard in the pocket least with a frs i can service it myself and cheep on parts and doesnt need plugging in to a computer every time u touch it.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

I understand mate but FRS is also at the age where quite a few things need replaced. I know, I replaced anything and everything that went wrong on mine

rstoughy

iTrader: (5)

Providing you go for as late a car as possible you should be fine.

Bottom end issues were sorted out on the later cars
Vanos is two things, 1. the bolts come loose in early cars but again was sorted out on later models and 2. oil contamination, as a bit of preventative maintenance i change out the Vanos filter every couple of thousand miles, costs less that £10 so well worth it.
Boot floors, hmmm bit of a weird one as some suffer from it and others dont, BMW will replace it anyway should it fail providing there is nothing like coil overs etc fitted to the car.
SMG II is good and tbh i think again it's down to lack of maintenance that causes most of the issues

All in all a very good car that has become very affordable now.

ajamesc

My mate works for woods bmw in hook he says to not buy one lol. They also have cam sharft problems where the hard coating wears off with people useing the wrong oil thats meant to cost a fair bit to!

Jim Galbally

4k sounds quite steep to fix it. i got quotes 2.5k for the same problem on my old 3.0 E36.

www.bmsport.com give these guys a call, theyre not cheap, so whatever they quote you you can consider to be the upper cost limit... lol

carlo

iTrader: (4)

There are more good m3's out there than bad ones & like the above saying ppl use the wrong oil in them well there you go ! thats what happens. The m3 that the bottom end went on if its been in a dealership in the last so many years & they didnt pick up the recall was due i would be taking it up with them as they are meant to do a veiw data check to see if anything is outstanding on the cars like this ! We missed a high pressure pump on a car once & bmw phoned us saying were responsible for the engine if it goes because we missed it so we wernt long in getting the customer back in to have it done. As for M3's & focus rs's a E46 m3 is a far better car ive had both, Mk1 focus rs's can be money pits just like any car.

excursion

It's pretty evident even from this thread that many failures are down to abuse or people trying to maintain them on the cheap (why use cheap oil in such an engine?).

The recall work was free, so you have to ask why it wasn't done?

All in all, even the later ones are now getting on a bit and given the way most M3's get driven -I think they've lasted admirably!

james kiely

iTrader: (5)

thanks for the info lads ,ive told him to check with his dealers to see if it was done.my bet would be it was done and he has fucked it up himself donuting it

carlo

iTrader: (4)

if you pm me the last 7 of the chasis i can tell you

Roosie

iTrader: (8)

how weird had a call by my uncle this morning saying his m3 has just starting knocking from the bottom end. his is a 2002. he gets his serviced at bmw all the time and ive never seen him give it beans lol.
maybe this is the reason why there dropping value so quickly
really dont want to get one myself now

nice_head

iTrader: (2)

Ive owned my E46 M3 for about 3months now and fingers crossed its been as good as gold (except for the fuel lol), its a 02 plate but its only done 55k and was very well looked after by the previous owner.

Alps Pacino

i had my 2002 for nearly 2 years and never had an isse with it. The only thing i had to buy for it was 2 rear tyres but in all honnesty it needed a bit spending on it when i sold it.

james kiely

iTrader: (5)

cheers carlo ,i will see him tomorow and get them

james kiely

iTrader: (5)

have you anything at the minute mark?