Neal 546 Report post Posted February 5, 2019 On 1/19/2019 at 1:33 AM, Gaz said: Maybe call me cynical, or even drunk (drunk is more likely) but I feel too many people buy into the internet hype. Not all M3s have vanos, smg, bearing issues and people get too excited to shoot them down for not having these issues address. There are thousands of these engines about and and I can guarantee Alot of them are ok and had no issues whatsoever, there a plenty on eBay with 160k+ miles still demanding good money Thats the reality and people talk themselves out of owning great cars Still loving my factory standard m3 with smg 7 years on and 120,000 kms .... and it’s a early 2002 model ? 5 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M3AN 4016 Report post Posted February 5, 2019 (edited) Edit: I fully accept your point that not every failure will affect every vehicle and that some vehicles may never experience a failure. The risk of a failure is certainly less than what 'everybody that's ever been on the internet might say' but you all must agree, the risk does exist and it can be expensive. My mates e36 M3 Evo has done 240k kms and is still on the original VANOS... doesn't make VANOS failures a myth. It's not that's it's going to happen guys, it's the risk of it happening... if it's fixed, whether it was going to happen or not is irrelevant, the risk is eliminated. That's what affects the price. Two otherwise identical houses built in the 90's, one with monolithic cladding and the other with weatherboards - we all know which one will cost less, just because of the risk. In fact somebody on here just bought an e46 M3 only to find out a month later the subframe is completely screwed... bet they wish they got it inspected before purchase. Doesn't need to stop you buying but if I saw a torn subframe pre-purchase I'd be expecting a lot off the market price. So, silly not to ask. Caveat emptor. Edited February 6, 2019 by M3AN 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M3_Power 636 Report post Posted February 6, 2019 (edited) The subframe is a certainty it’s just a matter of when not if. But the degree of repair required depends on a few factors and it also depends on how you drive the car, what you have done in maintenance bushing wise how often you adapt the smg ect .. the list goes on. The Vanos issue not so much and is blown way out of proportion by the Internet. In fact, a well known German race team that build some of the best E46 M3s and s54s do not rebuild the Vanos with the well known kits out there simply because and I quote “of failures from repair kits”. They use brand new Vanos units from BMW only. The big end bearing to me is a maintenance item like a clutch kit ... so it’s a non issue in reality. SMG ... again these last for many many miles before failure and if you know how to diagnose these they are not a scary technology, in fact they are fairly basic to work on. There’s also abundant information out there about them and repair kits that are proven to be as good and at 1/10 of the price of buying a new pump unit. Edited February 6, 2019 by M3_Power Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
