SW Sport Pilot

Hey there guys

I was wondering if anyone had knowledge on the BMW Ci's Specifically the 330's. Ive seen a rather tasty one for sale but as with all of the 51/52 ages they all seem to be hovering around the 100,000 mile mark. I was wondering what people think of BMW's of these age and millages. Is there a reason people offload them at this age? or are they likely to keep on going also will their resale value plumett like a stone in a few years when it may be on 120,000 miles on the clock

Thanks for any comments

Ian

MattOz

Hi Ian,

I had a 330i Sport saloon with 125k on the clock. The car was great. It had FBMWSH and I'm sure that treated well it'll be going strong in another 125k.

Value wise, I sold mine for £7.5k back in March. It was an 02 plate with leather and xenons, but that's about it.

Coupes fetch a little more than the saloons, but by now I'd suspect that a 330Ci Sport in good condition with full history etc would be about £8k at 100k miles.

Cheers
Matt

turboman786

Mileage is not an issue for the engines, provided they have been looked after.

Suspension (rear arm bushes etc) can become problematic , so ensure the car drives nice and tightly, with no noises from the suspension.

Brilliant cars though.(Im on about my 10th BMW now!)

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I went to see one with 98k on, pretty well looked after, seemed very well made, almost hewn from solid, it had a few little rust spots, tiny really and there was a bit of oil round the bottom end of the engine.

I changed my mind as it didnt have 3 proper belts in the rear and bought another Saab.

I can see why they are expensive.

icbm

Great cars.

My dad has a '53 330ci wit abt 25k on it. Awesome to drive and sounds great (nicer than the M3 when you start it)

Its noticeably slower than an M3 but still pretty quick.

As said above, check for Rear Trailing Arm Bushes and rear springs. Common failures on E46 models and make the car seem very unstable! Its not an expensive job though.

Mike123

You may find some 330s guzzle oil like nobody's business. Our saloon didn't but a cousin's did. He used to have to put a litre in quite frequently - ran OK though for all the time he had it. Don't think he drove it vastly differently from ours. Could well be something to do with the way they are run in/oil control rings - i don't know? BMW tech said some do seem to use a lot. Hard to see on a short test drive but if it's low on the test drive that might be one sign.

sbk1972

100K miles, ok so the bottom half of the engine / rings can taker 100K, but what about the head gasket, cam chains, belts, bearings, gearboxs, diffs, rads, disks, suspension, seat bolsters, door handles, boot rubbers, MAFS, plugs, etc etc.

At 100K, things are going to be near the end of their life, suspension softens, head gaskets tend to go, etc etc.

The engine might be good, but the rest of the car is falling apart, like an old keystone cop police car :-)

SBK

MooseRacer

Absolute rubbish ^

what would scooby do

I agree

crofty

I Agree, I have a 330ci with 82k, it does use a bit of oil but nothing serious, drives and feels exactly like my freinds 330ci that has less than half the mileage of mine, great car.

ESH

My brother purchased one last year for £14.5K with 45k miles on the clock. I think its a 52 reg car and is fully loaded. It a convertable with a hard top roof too. This stays on most of the time. It really depends on your budget. Not sure I would entertain the idea of a 100k mile car though.

Dream Weaver

Our 53 plate 100k mile 320 was as new inside and out - all trim was fine and the quality of the car was superb.

Hell, even my 107k 205 GTI has stood the test of time with all interior parts still working, so a Beemer can easily manage that mileage

To the OP: They tend to get swapped out at 3 years old by companies/fleet due to needing MOT etc.

I've had plenty of 100k mile plus cars and all have been fine.

crofty

[I've had plenty of 100k mile plus cars and all have been fine.[/QUOTE]

Me to, several Bmw's never had any problems with any of them.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

My saab 9-3 has 98k, the suspension needs work but the engine is in perfect condition, full comrpession, uses no oil and pulls like a train. Part exing it on sat, its easily got another 100k in it if serviced, I swear by frequent oil changes with good oil of the correct grade, synthetic if possible, espcially with a turbo. I do it myself so I know whats gone in, have had garages fill my T5 with f*ckin Magnatec mineral oil and our VW with non VW spec PD compatiable oil. If you do nothing else, change your oil, its them main problem with bying secondhand, the higher the milage the longer some other muppet has had to f*ck it up. The Saab started loosing water, a lot of people would have either killed it by overheating or took it to a garage for diagnosis, they then would have paid for a headgasket replacement, I read the bulletin about the head bolts coming loose, torqued it back down and its been fine for the last 10,000 miles so sometimes I think things get compounded by being ignored or blown up by greedy garages.

A well serviced and sympathetically driven quality engine will last indefitenely, its thrashing from cold, not servicing and general abuse that kills them, witness the million mile BMW 325 that when stripped was still well within tolerance.

Suspension and brakes take a pounding but are consumable, as is the clutch, its just the luck of the drawer if you get one that needs doing, my Saab needs bushes and ball joints, time to move it on as I cant be arsed any more.

Mike123

Generally it does seem to be only the 330s out the mainstream petrol E46 6s that can have high oil consumption - not all do mind

MattOz

My 125k miler used a litre of oil every 3-4k miles or so. BMW states that acceptable usage is 1l per 1000 miles. That seems excessive, but it's what they say. My E39 M5 used about the same, maybe even a little more.

Matt

Mike123

It seems well known for the M5s to be oil drinkers Matt. My cousin's 330 was doing about a litre every 1500 IIRC, ours used none, both run on same oil ( BMW specified ) so I guess it must be either the way they are run in or a modified oil control ring ( like was tried on the M5 i believe? )

sbk1972

Absolute rubbish ? :-) cheers gents :-) Ive got an E36 M3 evo, had it since new, its now done 66K miles. Thank god for the warranty, although I recently came out of that due to the cost increases. The numberous things I had replaced, due to faults etc.

Friend of mine has had 3 E46, 328, 330, then a 330d, and now has one of those new 335d twin turbo things. He alsosuffered tons of problems on the E46's. He travels alot and did well over 100K miles in this E46's.

Taking the type of car out of this equation, my point was that although the engine, well the bottom half, can last a good 200K, you tend to find that the surrounding parts, dont. Perhaps I wasnt too clear on that fact and it made out I was specifically aiming my views at the E46.

SBK

crofty

Dream Weaver

SBK, we all understood what you meant, but out of your list of:

Most of these items will last, especially on high mile newer cars. Only things of concern would be rads and maybe suspension bushes but they are all easy DIY fixes in most cases.

ScoobyJawa

My 3.0 Z4 is on about 52k miles and gets through a little oil, nothing major though, quite well known some of the 3.0's do and some don't.

Tart Man

The issues here is how the car is treated.

With 330 coupes it goes 50:50 between used, abused and pampered and polished. Some are daily hacks, some are weekend toys.

This leads to the problem where you will see two 100K cars, same age, relatively same condition and same price; one will be a dog, the other will be spot on. Its an unfortnate problem with the marque.

Supension bushes are indeed an issue - both front and rear IME. This leads to car that can either feel unstable or unsettled, and/or sloppy. And drivers seats do take a battering -especially if light coloured leather. Rust is starting to be an issue on cars 4yrs plus, notable on underside of bootlid lips and rear wheel arches also repair areas as well as the usual stonechip areas.

A warning with dog a sold on a BMW forecourt (or indeed elsewhere) some even with as little as 30K miles will have seen too many stone chips and door dings to be sellable, and many will have had some body repair work - some good, some not so good, sometimes the latter is not so obvious to the untrained eye. So be careful when browsing the dealerships, fortunately these do have 5year corrosion warratee, unfortunately some BMW body repair agents use every excuse in the book to avoid stumping up - body repairs and unknown (convieniently) prior history being one of them.

Engine are solid, however they are prone to sludge. It doesn't appear to affect them that much. But in the long run? - big question mark. The problem stems from servicing despite the variable mileage count down - the cars should still have the oil changed every 12months (and it does say that in the service manual) - unfortunately due to owner/dealer ignorance many just rely on the mileage count down (about 15000miles) and end up going well beyond 12months on the same oil.

This leads to car running degraded and detriorated engine oil and is not helped when being driven by unsympathetic drivers in this state, the result is sludge desposits (It can be very notable just by looking under the filler cap), and the oil being out of its intended viscosity..too thick when cold, and too thin when hot. Leading to excess wear, and probably the reason why some cars experience excess oil consumption.

The problem is exasperated when incorrect oil is used. These cars should run BMW longlife approved oil, like that of Castrol SLX 0w-30 or Castrol "Edge" as it is called these days which is a full synthetic oil. However semi-synthetics are listed for these cars on the OATs charts (notably early my00 cars), and if that is used, they should have more frequent oil changes.

Having said all that, they seem to take this abuse in their stride without major failure (as of yet).

So to sum up, keep a look out for the hard driven dogs, thats typical of the mark - if its BMW approved, you will have to look past the new alloys and tyres and the hastily blinged up bodywork. There are a few too many dog out there been bought by unwitting customers. alot of which are still unaware that their pride and joy is a dog - because they haven't driven a good one or haven't got a shrewed enough eye to spot any problem.

I wish I was like that; As they say, ignorance is bliss.

Regards

TM

(Who has just bought a 4yr old 530 MSport for £8500; Which is as rough as nails, but at least I know it is, as its in pre-blinged condition, unlike the ones on the forecourt )

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Tart Man, a very informative post, thanks.

SW Sport Pilot

Thank you for all the information guys

Went to see the car, its has Full BMW service history which i confirmed with Cardiff BMW who have worked on the car for most of its life. All of the service checks at level 1 and 2 have been completed with the car receiving all of work needed straight away, the service history also includes a additional BMW wallet full of Invoices showing very regular BMW oil and oil filter changes. I checked the bodywork over and there is no evidence of dinks, rust or otherwise, just slight swirling on the paint work from hand car washing. The Interior was the black leather and showed very little wear at all with only a smaller patch of leather on the driver side giving a look of wear, steering wheel dash etc looked spotless. The Test Drive was very enjoyable with the car feeling planted quick to respond and frightennly quick without realising it.

Could Be a tempting prospect, would be my first RWD too, are they likely to be tail happy

Cheers

Ian

Tart Man

Sounds about right.

RWD shouldn't pose an issue. It has a open diff so most wheel spin under power is on the inner rear wheel. As long as it has decent top brand tyres (no Kumhos or Falkens, please) it should never even pose a problem. If anything, its quite a disapointment if you want sideways action.

With traction control kept on, you'll have to be doing something stupid to lose the back end. (i.e lift off throttle mid bend, brake too late or whilst turning etc). I have a freind with a 318Ci that learnt that lesson the hard way.

Once you've got the hang of it, one thing that may annoy is the traction control can cut power dead - not good if ones wants to pull out onto a busy road quickly. The electronic throttle does hesitate to respond, which is a minor gripe.

And in order to progess in snow, one must switch off the traction control, otherwise it won't go anywhere, so its a case of keeping it below 1500rpm and avoiding 1st gear to keep control - and its only then that with RWD combined with snow with the TC turned off that one starts to learn new tricks

SW Sport Pilot

Bought and loving it. hell of a jump up from an impreza

Cheers

Ian

RAJ27

Congrats mate. Post up some piccies.

noobyscooby

I've had three 6 cylinder Beemers and done over 150K in each. You should have no problems. Oil consumption only occurs in cars that are not driven hard - the harder you drive them the better they go and the less oil they use. I've chipped every one - Starchips - to get more out of it and used Shell Vpower - well worth it as between the chip and the fuel you should get an extra 20 BHP.

If the car drives straight and true on the motorway, and does not require constant steering input or adjustment [or feels as though somehow it is the rear wheels doing some of the steering], then the rear linkages and front wishbones are ok [these only do about 50K if you drive hard]. If your car fidgets, especially under hard braking, find yourself a good specialist NOT, NOT, NOT, a main dealer!!! Visit the Beemer forums.

If you need new pads and discs, again go on the BMW forums - don't fit BMW stuff - as there is some good after market kit around that is better and cheaper.

If it has got zenons, the front corner indicator units may fall out as there is a vibration problem and the plastic mounting lugs on the side of the headlamp body that hold the indicator unit breaks. It is an expensive repair [£1200 each time I'm told] but BMW replaced my zenons and indicators 3 times as it is a known problem they are trying hard to hide but all the service managers know about it.

Change the oil more frequently than the service lights - 8000 miles. This does pay off I promise you!

Other than that, enjoy and when you need new tyres go to Costco - you'll get 4 for the price of 3 fitted by excellent tyre fitters. No other tyre dealer has ever come close! And buy Michelins - they are quieter, better grip in the wet, more comfortable especially on low profiles, and last longer.