Can I get a quick rundown on this guy?

Can I get a quick rundown on this guy?

Looks like a car, dude.

>high maintenance
>shit subframe
>finicky motor
>sexy af

The car for passive agressiv fucks with erectile dysfunction, or turks.

>Slower than a v6 camaro

the quad tips that saved europe

BMW will get you laid, guaranteed.

best looking coupe of the past decade

Most are being fucked up by poorfags

I worked at an M3 specialty shop for several years, and E46s were our bread and butter.

The chassis cracks where the rear subframe mounts to it. It can be fixed as long as it's not totally fucked.
Rod bearings need replacement every 100k or so.

The VANOS hub is connected with two little tabs that can snap off, fall down into the engine, and destroy it. Aftermarket replacements that solve this issue are available.

SMG cars almost certainly will need transmission service, and they're not great to drive on the street. However they can be great bargains, the price difference between SMG and 6MT cars is much greater than the cost of the necessary service.

They are otherwise pretty reliable cars. Expect to pay between $3k and $5k for the necessary work on a 6MT car if it needs everything, but once that's done you should be solid for at least 100k.

Recommendations:

Take any car you're considering buying to a reputable shop for a PPI, it can save you a lot in the long run and help you negotiate with the seller.

Don't make the mistake of thinking these are cheap cars. It wasn't that long ago that they cost 60k+, and parts and service are priced to match.

Have cash, don't try to finance one of these.

If you have a subframe reinforcement done, replace your subframe bushings while it's off the car. Most shops will do this for free since pulling the subframe is the main labor of the job.

Also replace your rear trailing arm and front control arm bushings. These are always fucked, and combined with the subframe bushings will transform the car. I recommend AKG street bushings, they add a ton of performance with few downsides.

The best affordable coilovers are made by Status Gruppe. Some shops can pair them with Swift springs instead of the default SG ones, I highly recommend this upgrade.

Downpipes and a flash are the best horsepower bang for the buck.

The best affordable wheels are from Apex. 18x9.5" wheels with 265 tires are a great setup.

Great reply, thank you!

Would you say it's worth buying an SMG and doing a 6MT swap if one is comfortable with the labor?

Would that tank the resale? Can you use a BMW PA Soft or something similar to code it as a manual afterwards?

Thanks again for the info

>ugly front
>virgin alert murder mobile

>>ugly front
no

>>virgin alert murder mobile
yes

Tell me about the e92

6MT swaps are actually pretty straightforward, since the SMG is actually the same transmission with an automated shift mechanism hooked up to it. It may actually improve the resale value, too.

Coding shouldn't be an issue, but I can't say for sure because we didn't do that in house. (We specialized in race prep and chassis/suspension stuff, and had a deal with a "street performance" shop where we'd send them cars for engine tuning work and they'd send us cars for corner balancing, race alignments, rollcages, etc.)

Excellent cars in most regards, but with a few caveats. They're hard on rod bearings and they're worse than E46s when it comes to electronic issues, especially because they're much harder to do electrical work on. (Everything is on its own separate plug-in harness in the E46, while the E92 is a giant clusterfuck of inseparable wires. (It takes literally 10 times as long to strip an E92 for racing.)

They handle great for their size though, they're quite fast, and they sound glorious. The S65 may well be my favorite engine ever, it's like two S2000 motors put together. It's always going to be a heavy car, even with serious weight reduction, but it carries it well. (Even a full-race E92 with every practical ounce shaved comes in at around 2800lb with a cage and one seat.)

You're an awesome poster and this board is a better place because of your type. Shine on you wonderful diamond.

PS the s65 is my favorite motor as well.

How lightweight can the E46 get ?

How long do these cars last? With perfect preventative maintenance, say, doing half-interval maintenance with oil or the like, could it reach 300k? Any tips?

i have 300k km's on my 323ci
it runs like brand new, great car.

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Please don't stop putting up with the aggressive shitposting here, and continue sharing your knowledge.

Please tell me about the n52 and the possibility of turboing it

You should forget about that turd and look into a Camry Sport model with 290hp unless you really want a pretty but unreliable piece of junk.

Not him, but I picked up a 12 year old E90 with 90k on the clock.

Everything seems in great condition. All in order.

Starting to read those horror stories of people who had something big go and wondering about preventative maintenance. Apparently the water pump is a common one?

Gonna have a google and read the service history in more detail.

Get from my E46 last night

I've seen them get down into the 2500s with really serious weight reduction and a time attack cage. (Which has less side impact protection and sometimes thinner tubing.) We once got one into the 2400s, but that was with a rollbar and not a real cage. You're talking about stuff like fiberglass/CF for every removable panel, hacking out every bracket or bit of unnecessary structure, lexan windows, etc. at that point though.

Perfectly maintained and close to stock I see no reason they wouldn't pretty much run forever. I've never seen one die of old age.

Haha, the shitposting makes me come and go in spurts, but I never seem to be able to leave for that long. Been here too many years, and the anonymity is nice when posting anywhere else means having my company attached to anything I say.

N52 stuff is unfortunately out of my wheelhouse, I've only ever worked on a couple of non-Ms and it wasn't engine stuff. (They were NASA GTS cars and we did cages and suspension work.) My gut says that turboing one right would cost more than selling the car and buying an M or 335 or whatever.

E90 M or non-M? With the Ms, the problem isn't so much that the water pump fails as that the whole cooling system is a bit underspec.

I have to admit that I know E90/92s a bit less well than E36s and 46s, I left my BMW job around 2 years ago and E9xs were still expensive enough that not many people were using them as track toys. I know the car pretty well from an engineering standpoint, thanks to tearing our race car down and rebuilding it from scratch, but that's not a big sample size for reliability issues etc.

I think the M3 E46 GTR is the best car BWM has ever made

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I can't give you a rundown but I'm sure the car can give you a brokedown

My childhood fully agrees.

>auto

you will love it despite the constant maintenance
however once you have done an inspection 2 and any work needed it should be good for a long time, just change the oil every 5k

parents own an e46 m3, got it from a friend who put 70k miles on it but a mechanic fucked up the engine or something so they replaced it at 40k

Best BMW for

it's the most reliable modern German sports sedan

N52 or N54? N54 fuel pumps usually go out by 60k tho they are under warranty. Water pumps are a general bmw issue, doesnt matter what model it is. For N54's make sure to change your oil filter housing gasket and if its a sport model change the oil filter housing to oil cooler gasket as those are the most common oil leak locations. Valve cover gaskets should be replaced every 80k miles. Outside of this, if you didnt know the maintenance or problem history of the car I would go under it to check for leaks every couple thousand miles. for N54's the turbos can go out after like 80k if you treated them badly and its like a 20 hour job just to get to them. If you stay on top of this as well as oil changes with synthetic 0W40 she won't surprise you with problems. I don't know enough about N52's to help you in that field.

probably a good condition e46 330i ZHP. like 220hp or something stock but is a fucking god, was my first car until the valve cover blew up because 16 year old me liked to drive with a broken water pump. For 9k you can get one and have parts for when it gives you trouble for the next few years

One of the best sports car bmw has ever made

love the look of these with meaty apex wheels