BMW 330d advise.
Turbo Mini Forums

Me and the Mrs having been looking for a new motor, something to suit us both. It needs to be fairly economical, but have a decent bit of go when needed.
I like the idea of a 3 series BMW 330d and am just looking for any advise on problems or areas to look at when I start viewing potential purchases. Anybody have experience of these motors ?
Cheers
Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

What series are you looking at? E46, e90?

We have had a few BMW's over the years, e46's e90, e39, e60 petrol and derv units. They have all been ok however not without their faults, in the five we have owned they generally needed a suspension overhaul every four years, or they started to wander about. The later e90's and e60 were much better, but then they were also newer.

The run flat tyres are expensive and very hard, they don't particularly suit the early cars that they were standard on, and we had two cracked alloys on the wife's e90 m sport.
The sport suspension is hard but we both much preferred it.
The auto gearboxes are generally sealed for life so tend to fail around 120k I had one on the way on in my e39.
The newer Manual gearboxes have a delay valve on the clutch which did my head in.
They hide Miles well so watch out for clocking.
I did love the driving position and grip, they have all handled well, went well and stopped well.
I got the merc as I never had the money for an auto e60 at the time.
The msport always seem like better value as you get the much more comfy sport seats.

I guess you need to watch out for the normal modern derv issues like dpf. I haven't had any issues but I have only done high miles in the derv cars 25k+ a year.

The dealer warranty has always paid out and everytime we had it we used it! The wife's old 325i convertible had the fuel pump go in the first month we had it.

Edited by gr4h4m on 18th Jul, 2015.

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

If you are thinking of having kids, the 3 series boot is tiny compared to the equivalent VAG or Merc. You will struggle to get an umbrella folding push chair in. At best it will be in diagonally and take up half the boot.

And folding seats are an extra

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

Be aware that it's a 3litre diesel, don't expect much more than 40mpg.

Im aware that there's a certain valve to delete, sometimes they break up and end up in the engine, something on the inlet manifold I believe.

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.