Learning from mistakes - Buying used car. Save up on car - pay double.

arleitiss

So, as many may know - I passed test, sold old car and bought new car.
I had 4000 Budget for new car, had to be under 2.0L.
I found a car that I liked, it was BMW 318i 2001 Manual 1.9L - 110000 miles.
I saw it for 1800, got to go down on price only a tiny bit, so I ended up agreeing for 1700. Thought - yay, saved 2300 on a car, gonna have some money to spend on random stuff..

On the day, I went by myself, checked car, looked for rust, oil, how it drives, etc... I asked guy not to drive it for few hours before I come, so I can see it from cold, so I had a look. It had no rust, no moisture in saloon, boot, there was no leaks, no condensation. Electronics were working perfectly, AC turns on and off as required or set, there was no much smoke or bad smell from exhaust. There was no major huge rust parts in engine bay, bonnet opens/closes fine. Car keys work, alarm works, well in general seemed alright. Springs and shocks were not rusty and car suspension was good over any kind of road. It drove smooth and perfect, I loved it. I checked oil, it wasn't creamy (yes, good assumption but finish reading). Oil was darkish, engine seemed to be pretty clean, no hanging wires or pipes or anything. So then I asked guy to drive it back to Dublin and that I am buying it. It had NCT passed on October.
Alright, I was happy, I got used to it pretty quick - in about an hour after driving at night time, good.

Next day - I notice after driving for 3 hours, the engine temperature goes rapidly up, hits red mark, starts giving me warnings, so I try to turn on AC to full (32 degress, max fan speed) it blows all heat into saloon and it cools down - alright that works but it's very annoying. So I kept driving, first I was suggested it's just the sensor, so I kept driving on red mark (thought, ah - it's just sensor probably showing wrong readings, so I kept driving on red mark for 2 minutes) then for some reason my ****-Incoming-Instinct has turned on and I decided to pull over on McDonalds parking and open bonnet, well.... huge steam was coming out of coolant cap. All coolant evaporated or leaked out while steaming -glad I stopped, engine didn't get ruined.

Next day I go to Atlas service on Drumcondra - been there before, very happy with service. Takes them two days to try and figure out problem, they say it could be head gasket and they are 90% sure it's Headgasket - yet again they don't want me to spend huge money on replacing it and turning out it's not that. So they run headgasket sniff test -shows no results, basically another thing that keeps them thinking 90% it's headgasket - not absolutely sure. So they decide to check thermostat, next day they order thermostat and open up engine to get old one out.....
Guess what.... there was no thermostat. Car kept circulating water/coolant through all system 24/7 while car runs trying to cool it down as much as possible - without thermostat the fan didn't turn on when coolant heated up therefore by turning AC on myself it triggered fan to turn on and cool down engine. Now due to this water circulating 24/7 and huge pressures built up - they are 100% positive sure it's head gasket gone.

So I ended up ordering service worth 1325 euros, which includes:

*Head gasket replacement.
*Oil change.
*Fuel, cabin, oil, air filter replacement.
*Tracking
*Coolant replacement.
*Wheel, brake check.
In other words full servicing.

So I ended up spending around 3200 euros for new car anyway.
After this service - mechanics said it's gonna run perfect for next few years.

Lessons learned?:
*Invest next time into OBD reader when buying new car, mechanics saw 6 fualts when connecting car. 6 fault codes came up related to heating system.

Other than that, I don't think I could see anything that would prevent me from buying it - as I can't really take tools and start taking engine apart to see whats inside, there was no signs of head gasket gone, oil was okay (but I suppose he could've poured old oil in to cover it up).


So yeah, We learn from our mistakes :rolleyes:

Alanstrainor

Expensive lesson learned there.

But those 4 pots, as well as the 6 pots don't take kindly to overheating. Once it over heated you should have stopped immediately. Anyway, here's hoping everything works out for ya!

arleitiss

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Expensive lesson learned there.

But those 4 pots, as well as the 6 pots don't take kindly to overheating. Once it over heated you should have stopped immediately. Anyway, here's hoping everything works out for ya!

Yeah luckly I stopped in less than 2 minutes after arrow hit red mark. So I don't think any major damage was done.

JerCotter7

I would have spent half that money on an M54b30 engine instead .

I thought the E46 had a viscous fan which would always be on regardless of a thermostat or not.

Although with that removed I'd say the head was long gone in the car.

arleitiss

JerCotter7 wrote: »

I would have spent half that money on an M54b30 engine instead .

I thought the E46 had a viscous fan which would always be on regardless of a thermostat or not.

Although with that removed I'd say the head was long gone in the car.

Apparently fan on my car was turning on and off whenever it felt like it.

Idbatterim

the first thing i would have thought of was thermostat... Agreed, always get a car checked, but when car is only E1700-1800 I can see why people might take a gamble, good point about diagnostics.

arleitiss

Idbatterim wrote: »

the first thing i would have thought of was thermostat... Agreed, always get a car checked, but when car is only E1700-1800 I can see why people might take a gamble, good point about diagnostics.

Only now after this purchase, I realized it was worth only 40 euro of investment into OBD, I heard there are ones that are bluetooth and your android phone shows codes and faults if there are any, really would help to see all inside problems.

keithsfleet

You don't really need an OBD reader to check faults, most cars have OBC's built in and they will give you a basic reading if there is any faults.
BMW are actually very simple to check with there OBC's sitting there under the radio.
But yes I agree, always get someone to check out a car.
I checked a 08 golf gt for a friends sister two weeks ago and she had already left a deposit on it. After an exhaustive check I discovered the timing chain was in the early early stage of stretching.
The dealer even had there "mechanic" come out and swear blindly it was a "sound car"

Matt Simis

arleitiss wrote: »

Only now after this purchase, I realized it was worth only 40 euro of investment into OBD, I heard there are ones that are bluetooth and your android phone shows codes and faults if there are any, really would help to see all inside problems.

OBD readers arent going to pick up purely mechnical failures (like Thermostats) unless the car has a specific sensor.

Im not totally sold on the problem and Atlas's solution either.

arleitiss

keithsfleet wrote: »

You don't really need an OBD reader to check faults, most cars have OBC's built in and they will give you a basic reading if there is any faults.
BMW are actually very simple to check with there OBC's sitting there under the radio.
But yes I agree, always get someone to check out a car.
I checked a 08 golf gt for a friends sister two weeks ago and she had already left a deposit on it. After an exhaustive check I discovered the timing chain was in the early early stage of stretching.
The dealer even had there "mechanic" come out and swear blindly it was a "sound car"

The guy I was buying it off had no clue about car, he didn't know where battery is, where brake fluid is, where the car is from. After I looked into reg cert it shows that car was first registered in ireland in 2008, which means it's an import from NI or UK (not sure), then out of curiosity I asked guy: Is this an import? he said: "no no no, it's not, it's from ireland", but I didn't say anything as I don't see big of a deal about this. So it was useless to ask guy about anything really. The stock radio has been replaced so I don't think it would show any fault codes on lcd. if thats what you meant.

keithsfleet

Nothing wrong with an English import imo
The OBC is the little computer that sits under the radio, the e36 has it and I was almost certain the e46 has it.
It has your trip button, speed limiter, code entry, time and date etc etc on it. A small bit of playing with it and it becomes a basic OBD reader and allows you change functions on certain things.
In my experience your better off not really taking anything the seller says to heart. Its easier to play dumb about a certain problem you're not entirely sure of than answer honestly and vaguely and possibly loose the sale. Saying that though, it could be very likely he genuinely didn't know much about the car. Most people do find cars purely as transport to get from A to B.