tell me about e46 m3

mrmoomoo

hi there am new here am looking about buying a m3 e46 type., any info on them what to look out for, cheers,

166man

Get an insurance quote on one yet? M3's are very quick but they aren't supercharged....

mrmoomoo

thanks for getting back me, .,
am looking a phoneix yellow one i think yea??, anyone no the proper term colour.,

Hogzy

mrmoomoo wrote: »

anyone no the proper term colour

Attachment not found.

Phoenix Yellow

Matt Simis

Why is supercharging even mentioned in this thread!?

mrmoomoo

i thought they where all supercharged.,

Matt Simis

mrmoomoo wrote: »

i thought they where all supercharged.,

Right.. Im going to suggest its not the car for you then! That would be a fundamental misunderstanding of what the whole point of the solid lifter S54 engine is all about. Its likely the last "race" engine for the road from any maker.

It would make more sense to list what you want in a car and hear suggestions.

Hogzy

Matt Simis wrote: »

Right.. Im going to suggest its not the car for you then! That would be a fundamental misunderstanding of what the whole point of the solid lifter S54 engine is all about. Its likely the last "race" engine for the road from any maker.

It would make more sense to list what you want in a car and hear suggestions.

He's made it fairly clear he is interested in an M3. Who are you to tell him otherwise?

Matt Simis

Hogzy wrote: »

He's made it fairly clear he is interested in an M3. Who are you to tell him otherwise?

Lol, no he didnt, he doesnt have a clue what an M3 is, hence his posts?! As to the who am I, well how about a random stranger on a forum (:P obviously its the internets) who has seen many a person with a pie in the sky, completely mis-understood notion in their day either amount to nothing or invest in their "idea" only to berate the product they shouldnt have bought in the first place.

You should/could provide counterbalance to me by indulging his fantasies, but Im not going to back pat him.

rocky

Look for a full service history (including run in service)

Look for subframe cracks.

mrmoomoo

yea m3 e46 only and in that colour.,
i did a bit of research but not a hole lot.,

mrmoomoo

Matt Simis wrote: »

Lol, no he didnt, he doesnt have a clue what an M3 is, hence his posts?! As to the who am I, well how about a random stranger on a forum (:P obviously its the internets) who has seen many a person with a pie in the sky, completely mis-understood notion in their day either amount to nothing or invest in their "idea" only to berate the product they shouldnt have bought in the first place.

You should/could provide counterbalance to me by indulging his fantasies, but Im not going to back pat him.

if your not gonna help a man, then on your bike.., internet tough guy
go **** on some one else's thread,,

pippip

mrmoomoo wrote: »

if your not gonna help a man, then on your bike.., internet tough guy
go **** on some one else's thread,,

Well that's the end of this thread.

mrmoomoo

pippip wrote: »

Well that's the end of this thread.

why cuz its ok for foak to come on and wreck a thread and then f, of i was only looking some help.lads

pippip

mrmoomoo wrote: »

why cuz its ok for foak to come on and wreck a thread and then f, of i was only looking some help.lads

Do you mind me asking what you currently drive?

burke027

Really tho there is no such thing as a super charged m3. Been around a lot of them in the garage and there still my fav car. How old are you tho honestly. These are very costly to run and maintain. And there are Afew common problems to look out for such as the diff pulling through the floor and such. Maybe do a little more research

Bandara

Do you mind me asking what age you are ?

PrettyBoy

E46 M3 - very nice car - I love them - but they cost a lot of money to maintain, fuel, insure and tax.

Good examples are getting rarer and rarer, if you're serious about buying one then go to www.bmw-driver.net and talk to the lads over there, they'll be able to give you more detailed and concise information than we can.

mrmoomoo

pippip wrote: »

Do you mind me asking what you currently drive?

evo 8 mate. am just looking a change.. what you have your self.,

burke027 wrote: »

Really tho there is no such thing as a super charged m3. Been around a lot of them in the garage and there still my fav car. How old are you tho honestly. These are very costly to run and maintain. And there are Afew common problems to look out for such as the diff pulling through the floor and such. Maybe do a little more research

no i seen one in mondello, am 22., have traders insurance.,.. maybe i need some more research lol,

Sobanek

22? Ha! Good luck getting an M3.

challengemaster

burke027 wrote: »

Really tho there is no such thing as a super charged m3.

There is, not out of the factory though. ESS Tuning in the US make a supercharger kit for the e46 M3, but it costs about $8k. Gets the car up to ~460bhp though.

There also is a supercharged phoenix yellow e46 M3 in Ireland, which is likely the one the OP saw.

In all seriousness though, @OP you need to do way more research. "tell me about m3" is about the most vague "I'm not interested and couldn't care less in doing my own reading" type of question. I'm not surprised you've been met with the posts you have. Particularly since you haven't even done basic reading on standard M3 engines.

If it's main problems you're looking for, subframe cracks and rust are some of the main things to watch for. Apart from that, just about everything else that can go wrong with any car. Everything is well documented all over the internet. Obviously most M3's are going to have had a relatively hard life, so service history and proper maintenance is key. There's plenty of lemons out there.

Voodoomelon

At this stage, with E46 M3s in this country, id say its 9 out of 10 now in favour of lemons. I'd only buy one from a forum member now to be honest.

CoDy1

mrmoomoo wrote: »

evo 8 mate. am just looking a change.. what you have your self.,



no i seen one in mondello, as i say i think its the one in my link i tried to upload, am 22., have traders insurance.,.. maybe i need some more research lol,

Just curious, Is the traders insurance in your own name? if so you are probably paying €2.5-3.5+k for it at 22yrs old at a guess. What co. is it with? not many trader ins policies in Ireland taking on 22yr olds AFAIK.

Matt Simis

Voodoomelon wrote: »

At this stage, with E46 M3s in this country, id say its 9 out of 10 now in favour of lemons. I'd only buy one from a forum member now to be honest.

Ironically there is a strong chance I might be selling one at some point within 6mths, but alas, the one I have available isnt a totalled Phoenix Yellow on the back of a flat bed with a supercharger visibly hanging out that became the sparkle in the eye of some 22year old dude hanging around Mondello. So close though.

mrmoomoo wrote: »

yea m3 e46 only and in that colour.,
i did a bit of research the car in the pic i uploaded, (tried to)
is a supercharged i think., can someone embedded it up for me maybe the car is for sale, thought i seen it in mondello maybe not?? maybe someone can correct me on that, thanks for the help guys,

Looks like a legit choice for the discerning M3 buyer alright.

Mully_2011

Sobanek wrote: »

22? Ha! Good luck getting an M3.

Typical Irish begrudgery. In fairness providing your not on the dole/still in college an M3 wouldn't be that hard to own and run at 22 if you wanted it bad enough.

Great car and I reckon now is the time to buy a good one.I can see these going the way of E30 price wise. Last of the high revving N\A engines with a manual I canthe s2000's starting to rise in price in ten years too that would be another good investment late reg 2.2 S2000 get one before they fall into the hands of the boy racers

Matt Simis

Mully_2011 wrote: »

Typical Irish begrudgery.

In fairness that poster isnt Irish (um I think ) and getting insured on an M3 at 22 would be super hard and expensive (too expensive for most). Even the OP of this thread is on slightly grey "traders insurance".

Tigger

this thread is facepalm
its up there with 535

delly

Tigger wrote: »

this thread is facepalm
its up there with 535

Well the OP does drive an Evo...

Homer

delly wrote: »

Well the OP does drive an Evo...

You spelt civic wrong!

CoDy1

BMW-M3-supercharged= Cryogen

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056749389

wonski

CoDy1 wrote: »

BMW-M3-supercharged= Cryogen

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056749389

Another EVO moment I suspect (that's what ND said there)...

Sobanek

Matt Simis wrote: »

In fairness that poster isnt Irish (um I think )

Correct.

Matt Simis wrote: »

getting insured on an M3 at 22 would be super hard and expensive

Correct once again.

You have to be 25 to have "reasonable" quotes at least. I'm into the M3 topic myself, because it's my true dream to own either the M3 or the M5, but to be honest, I don't know anyone who'd insure the M3 at this age.
Maybe try http://xsdirect.ie because that's the only one I can think of. Be aware of the super high excess though.
(I sure will try to get insurance there once I turn 21.)

TouchingVirus

Mully_2011 wrote: »

Typical Irish begrudgery. In fairness providing your not on the dole/still in college an M3 wouldn't be that hard to own and run at 22 if you wanted it bad enough.

It's not begrudgery at all. I own an E46 M3 and I had a difficult time getting (reasonable) insurance quotes with a full license and 5 years NCB at 26 years of age. 2 companies would quote me - XSdirect and Aviva. I was with Axa on my previous car (a 1.1L Pug 206) and wanted to stay with them - they were having none of it over the phone, ended up dropping into their HQ to get it sorted and it still took some persuasion. Their additional premium wasn't fantastic but at least I get that extra year NCB out of them.

It's not supercharged and I don't want it to be. Matt Simis is right - it's one of the last great N/A l6 engines and the noise is immense. If you want more ponies than it pushes out just buy something else or stick a supercharger on something else, don't ruin the magic of the S54.

They take a bit of money to love - Between insurance, tax and a yearly NCT you're looking at €300 a month before you've even covered fuel/maintenance. The best way to save money is to do a lot of the maintenance yourself.

That all being said, even though I'm only clocking up sub-10k miles a year I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't see myself selling it in two or three years either; it's my pride and joy and the odd blast of an S54 engine when I'm older with more responsibilities is probably the escape I'll need to keep on living

OldmanMondeo

I priced front brake disc for one last week, over €500 per side. and they were not a big brand either....

TouchingVirus

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

I priced front brake disc for one last week, over €500 per side. and they were not a big brand either....

Where they diamond encrusted?

I replaced all discs (ATE front and BMW OEM on the back) and the pads (Mintex all around) for €600€750. Fitted them myself. They're grand for road use, have had to go full on the brake a few times at speed

listermint

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

I priced front brake disc for one last week, over €500 per side. and they were not a big brand either....

You need to look at where your buying your parts !

OldmanMondeo

listermint wrote: »

You need to look at where your buying your parts !

I wasn't buying...

discodavie

I run an e60 m5 and to compare to do

tyres €500 a corner (Bridgestone run flats )
discs 170 a corner and
brakes 80 a corner
Oil 160 a fill or 20 a litre (10w60)

So a basic service runs at around the 1k mark and I do the oil every 8000km.

I know it's hard to compare the m3 and the m5 but from what I've been told there's not a lot between the two.

TouchingVirus

€20 a litre is hefty enough discodavie - You can pick up 4 litres of Castrol Edge (for M engines) for €60 in Rathgar Motor Factors. If you buy a bit more of it in one go (like 25 litres) you can get it for less from Patsy Keoghan & Sons in Meath. I've not taken that step just yet myself but probably will soon. Would love to go halvsies on a bigger amount if you're interested in the future - could be a chance there for a group buy.

Gumbo

TouchingVirus wrote: »

€20 a litre is hefty enough discodavie - You can pick up 4 litres of Castrol Edge (for M engines) for €60 in Rathgar Motor Factors. If you buy a bit more of it in one go (like 25 litres) you can get it for less from Patsy Keoghan & Sons in Meath. I've not taken that step just yet myself but probably will soon. Would love to go halvsies on a bigger amount if you're interested in the future - could be a chance there for a group buy.

A few lads do this on bmwdriver.net

€20 a litre sounds like the main dealer pricing for the one litre bottles they sell.

discodavie

kceire wrote: »

€20 a litre sounds like the main dealer pricing for the one litre bottles they sell.

Never priced it out of the stealers to be honest the only things they do are technical stuff that I'd only trust a main man for. The most recent was a new clutch with sensors.

The main reason it goes there is that if something goes wrong I'd hat to have to take it back to my Indy to work on for free.

I pay €62 for 5L of castrol 10w60 at the minute but saw some lad pay 20 for one once in the same place.

Would still be interested in a group buy price though as it used a lot of oil last year on the over regular usage as it was out in mondello a bit :-)

TouchingVirus

kceire wrote: »

A few lads do this on bmwdriver.net

€20 a litre sounds like the main dealer pricing for the one litre bottles they sell.

Oh yeah? I must keep my eye out over there for one of those then, would be very interested.

clarkey1980

discodavie wrote: »

I run an e60 m5 and to compare to do

tyres €500 a corner (Bridgestone run flats )
discs 170 a corner and
brakes 80 a corner
Oil 160 a fill or 20 a litre (10w60)

So a basic service runs at around the 1k mark and I do the oil every 8000km.

I know it's hard to compare the m3 and the m5 but from what I've been told there's not a lot between the two.

Run-flats on an M5?

rocky

clarkey1980 wrote: »

Run-flats on an M5?

Good catch

discodavie

clarkey1980 wrote: »

Run-flats on an M5?

Yea ...

That's what was on it when I bought it , e60 m5

When I put standards on it for track days ya can feel it in the suspension if you drive up the country lanes where I live.

And just to back it up

http://www.bmw-driver.net/forum/showthread.php?p=483828

However I am open to being told that they are not supposed to be there if the relevant docs/links to back it up.

tossy

Falkens on an M5? My car is only 230 bhp and has the added stability of 4wd,even with that i wouldn't put a falken in the boot!