Buying BMW 320d, Any checks I should be doing? Thinking of contacting the AA first..

EC1991 · 14-01-2012 09:26PM #1

Buying a 320d sometime next week in Wexford, He's looking for €8,500 but I'm sure will take €7,500. 90k Miles 2006.

''This car has being serviced, but record book has being misplaced. Receipts can be shown. only 91,000 miles.''

There there any checks I should be looking at here? I know the AA have a service that checks cars, costs about €200 or something. Anyone ever use this service before?
Don't want to be buying trouble, The car is up on donedeal 8 days now and still not sold, But perhaps this is normal

Thanks for your help,
Eoin.

dar83 · 14-01-2012 09:41PM

Have you done a Motorcheck/Cartell check on it?

Have you been to see it already? Test driven it?

They're the basics, I wouldn't be thinking its strange that it's still there after 8 days, but don't be rushed into buying it because you think it'll be gone before you get it. Make sure to do all the checks first and look at more than one, even if it's out of your price range, you'll want to know what condition others are in and what to look for yourself.

swhyte027 · 14-01-2012 09:45PM

I work in. Bm specalist.ul have to do a turbo on it for defo.make sure the turbo filter has being changed.check the wish bone bushes and rear metal brake pipes they will need doing

EC1991 · 14-01-2012 09:48PM

Solid advice man thanks. Test driving it tuesday and if happy buying towards the end of the week. So if I agree a price I'll get the relevant checks done then.

Anyone know any issues that arrises with these 320ds? Its 2006 E90.Any specific checks to do?

And anyone got any views on the AA mobile car check?
Thanks again Dar83!

EC1991 · 14-01-2012 09:52PM

swhyte027 wrote: »

I work in. Bm specalist.ul have to do a turbo on it for defo.make sure the turbo filter has being changed.Bm specalist.ul

Sorry man I'v literally no knowledge of cars, what do you mean by this?
I'm bring a friend who knows what he's doing, he'l take a look at the other things you have mentioned..

thanks man

high horse · 14-01-2012 10:36PM

swhyte027 wrote: »

I work in. Bm specalist.ul have to do a turbo on it for defo.make sure the turbo filter has being changed.check the wish bone bushes and rear metal brake pipes they will need doing

You can tell all that without ever even looking at the car?

bazz26 · 14-01-2012 11:20PM

Misplaced service history? I'd be very careful around this. It could be honestly misplaced but could also indicate that the mileage is not genuine.

BMW store the mileage on their cars in 3 places, the odometer, the key and the car's ECU. Might be worth asking the seller if they wouldn't mind bringing the car to a BMW dealer with you. They can read information such as mileage, etc from the key afaik. If the car has any BMW service history then it should be on their computer as they are all tied in centrally throughout the BMW dealer network.

swhyte027 · 15-01-2012 12:08AM

Yes I can.as they are common faults on that model that are going to happen no matter how much maintenace you do to the car.its well knowing facts and faults plus I've fixed dozen of the them

Leonard Hofstadter · 15-01-2012 12:37AM

Never mind the turbo, the first thing the OP needs to do is get the swirl flaps removed.

With proper maintenance the turbo should not give any trouble. There is some filter that needs to be changed every service or second service r something like that. Change the filter and you're unlikely to have turbo trouble. Don't bother and you almost certainly will blow the turbo. The older 150 bhp engines were notorious for turbo failure, but the newer models are less prone to it. The only other weakness with those cars is the ABS module, but there is now a repair kit available (probably because so many of them failed) and it is not that expensive any more to fix it (it used to be a two grand job:eek:).

Then there are the usual diesel weaknesses like the DMF, DPF and EGR valve if the car is constantly driven in town.

The other thing to note is that these cars have 'long life' service intervals. Regardless of what the computer says, I would service it at least every 20,000 km or once a year, whichever is the sooner. More than 20,000 km on the same oil is bad, very bad for your engine in the long run. Decent oil is the lifeblood of any engine (not just a BMW), so make sure you change it frequently. Look after it and it will be fine. If you don't look after it, it will become a moneypit.

Nonoperational · 15-01-2012 12:41AM

swhyte027 wrote: »

Yes I can.as they are common faults on that model that are going to happen no matter how much maintenace you do to the car.its well knowing facts and faults plus I've fixed dozen of the them

Even on the E90?

So your saying that no matter what you'll get a turbo failure on a 320d?

Wouldn't agree. The earlier E46s were known for it but if you regularly replaced the turbo filter you could avoid it in most cases. The E90 is much improved turbo wise.

dharn · 15-01-2012 01:53AM

swhyte027 has an obscession with the turbo in the 320d, the 06 163 bhp engine has little trouble with the turbo if the crankcase breather filter is changed regularly the dsc module is very common but now cheap to repair other wise great car get one with the top spec if you can no, dearer than a poor spec on i own a 06 320d sad to see how cheaply they can be bought now !!

Anan1 · 15-01-2012 01:58AM

Re turbo failures, the E90 is newer so it might be too early to say. Our 2007 needed a new turbo last year at 80k kms, although it did have service inclusive and so probably didn't have had that breather hose or whatever replaced.

bedirect · 15-01-2012 02:00AM

watch its not clocked, dont believe receipts or log book stamps, car could be a ringer or have hp on it

George Dalton · 15-01-2012 11:43AM

I agree with Anan1. The E90 320ds with the Mitsubishi turbo are starting to give a bit of turbo trouble. Even changing the breather filter regularly doesn't seem to be any help. I personally think it is down to the crazy long oil service intervals they run.

shaunandelly · 15-01-2012 12:31PM

DMF and Turbo. Common Failures.

Leonard Hofstadter · 15-01-2012 12:53PM

George Dalton wrote: »

I agree with Anan1. The E90 320ds with the Mitsubishi turbo are starting to give a bit of turbo trouble. Even changing the breather filter regularly doesn't seem to be any help. I personally think it is down to the crazy long oil service intervals they run.

I'm inclined to agree about the extra long service intervals causing trouble, they're really there so the marketing men can say to the fleets that their reps can have a premium make car like a BMW without premium make running costs (less frequent servicing = lower bills).

Going as far as 30,000 km on the same oil is a recepie for disaster in the long run. The most anyone should go on the same oil in my opinion is 20,000 km, I don't care what the trip computer says.

jsd1004 · 15-01-2012 01:07PM

dharn wrote: »

swhyte027 has an obscession with the turbo in the 320d, the 06 163 bhp engine has little trouble with the turbo if the crankcase breather filter is changed regularly the dsc module is very common but now cheap to repair other wise great car get one with the top spec if you can no, dearer than a poor spec on i own a 06 320d sad to see how cheaply they can be bought now !!

Jesus..Please read your posts before posting to see if they can be understood.Trying to decipher some of the posts on here is painful.

bazz26 · 15-01-2012 03:17PM

The 150bhp and 163bhp versions need the breather filter replaced every second servce and should be replaced with the modified vortex filter which replaced the old bog roll type filter and eleviates the issue a little. The newer 177bhp version doesn't need the breather filter changed.

My E90 is now 4 years old with 95k km on the clock and has had no turbo problems yet. It gets an oil and filter change every 15k km.

Gumbo · 15-01-2012 04:27PM

bazz26 wrote: »

The 150bhp and 163bhp versions need the breather filter replaced every second servce and should be replaced with the modified vortex filter which replaced the old bog roll type filter and eleviates the issue a little. The newer 177bhp version doesn't need the breather filter changed.

My E90 is now 4 years old with 95k km on the clock and has had no turbo problems yet. It gets an oil and filter change every 15k km.

I agree with this, but BMW still say every third oil service :eek:

EC1991 · 16-01-2012 07:50PM

bedirect wrote: »

watch its not clocked, dont believe receipts or log book stamps, car could be a ringer or have hp on it

Elaborate on this someone? Thanks for the input so far btw guys

L-M · 16-01-2012 07:57PM

captainspeed wrote: »

Never mind the turbo, the first thing the OP needs to do is get the swirl flaps removed.

Thought they rectified that fault from 05 on?

Also, i was talking to a guy, who seemed to know his stuff, last week and he said removing them does more harm than good. Apparently Bmw released a 5mm plastic replacement kit and this is what is to be used instead?

Anyone shed any light on the above?

George Dalton · 16-01-2012 08:02PM

I wonder what did he mean when he said removing them could do more harm than good?

I agree that if the removal job is botched or the method involves bonding in self tapping screws like I have seen in the past it could be risky but the proper blanking plates are perfectly fine and I don't see how they could cause any harm.

L-M · 16-01-2012 08:05PM

George Dalton wrote: »

I wonder what did he mean when he said removing them could do more harm than good?

Not so sure, he reckoned it worsened fuel economy, honestly can't remember what else he said but he did say he spent a fortune replacing his turbo etc. anyway. i was under the illusion that the swirl flap issue was post 01, too.

dharn · 17-01-2012 02:19AM

jsd1004 wrote: »

Jesus..Please read your posts before posting to see if they can be understood.Trying to decipher some of the posts on here is painful.

sorry..:( i left out a few commas here and there

focus_mad · 17-01-2012 07:12AM

Get the AA check. I got one done on me 5 series. The AA mechanic couldn't have been more thorough. Well worth the money when you are going to be spending 7-8k as well as you are putting your life on the line driving the car.

Buying BMW 320d, Any checks I should be doing? Thinking of contacting the AA first..

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