2000 BMW 328ci

E. Fudd

Hi folks, currently looking at one of these, and would appreciate any views people have of them. Are they troublesome? Is there anything in particular I should look out for?
Cheers.

milltown

Only problem I know of is rear subframe mounts ripping from the chassis. I'm not sure how widespread it was but I know some people got BMW to cover the cost of the repair, although it was never the subject of a recall or admitted as a fault ( like the 320d turbos).

Victor_M

I had one for a couple of years, great car, the engine itself is fantastic. Not sure if the Nikasil issue affected those engines, although at this stage if it hasn't appeared it shouldn't be a problem, check it out though. Rear subframe tearing was an issue with a certain batch alright, a quick Wiki or google search will tell you exactly what to look out for, and as with any 2nd hand car get someone to check it out. Full service history (or AC car sales stamps) a must (for me anyway), plenty of people on here 'service' their cars themselves.

Same BHP (193) as the 02 325 Ci but more torque, really is a quick car, not too bad on the juice (26-28 Mpg, if you call that not too bad;))

The only problems i had were the usual E46 issues, bushings, rear tyres, sticky door handle, and car tax.

unkel

Victor_M wrote: »

Not sure if the Nikasil issue affected those engines

Only pre april '98. A '00 will not have Nikasil problems

HungryJoey

kdevitt on this forum and moderator on http://bmw-driver.net forums, use to drive a beautiful 328i for a few years, maybe pop over to that forum for more information on it or PM him.

I would love to be driving a 328i.

Hj

e46s have a tendency to wear their front suspension wishbones so get that check before you buy as it its over a grand to put it right.

The 6 cycl is a beaut pulls really nicely.

Eoin

unkel wrote: »

Only pre april '98. A '00 will not have Nikasil problems

Hi Unkel, I looked into this briefly when I was looking into an e39 from the UK.

Unless the e46 engines were different, I'm not 100% sure that it's that easy to determine what engines may suffer from the issue. I was looking at 2000/01 5 series and I think even some of them needed checking out. I know the 530 was OK, and I think the V8s.

unkel

eoin_s wrote: »

I was looking at 2000/01 5 series and I think even some of them needed checking out.

Only if the engine for the car was produced before week 8 in '98! I suppose the car could have rested in the dealers showroom for a few years

Excellent nikasil link

E92

If the engine is designated M52BXX then the Nikasil issue could be a problem, however engines designated M52TUBXX do not have the problem as I recall.

The M52TU has double VANOS and the M52 just has VANOS. TU stands for technical update. Its the same basic engine really. M is Motor(German for engine)(although newer BMW petrol engines are designated N instead of M, don't know what N stands for), 52 is just an engine code, like the V8 of the time was called the M62 and B is Benzin(German for petrol) and XX is the engine size multiplied by 10 e.g. the 328i has a 2.8 and is designated M52B28 if it has VANOS and M52TUB28 if it has Double VANOS.

Edit: having checked the excellent link unkel provided only M52BXX engines have the problem, M52TUBXX do not. Only the E36 3 series(91-98), E39 5 series(96-03) and E38 7 series(94-01) with the M52 engine have the problem. Most E39 and E38's with this engine have the M52TU which has double VANOS though, and all E46 3 series have the updateed engine apparantly,and the M52TU was introduced early in 98 as unkel mentioned.