CSL Mileage...

[sjb]

Here's my take on it all. Having owned an E46 M3 beforehand I already knew of the few issues these cars suffer from. I gather the main issues are the bootlfoor/subframe issue, the HG failures and then vanos, smg pump and diff (although much less common?).
I bought my car at 63500k without a BMW warranty but with a 6 month dealer supplied one from a company called the autogroup, it's a pretty comprehensive one and covers single claims up to £2500. Three weeks before it ran out I decided to get the potential HG issue and pinking checked out at ML. Sure enough a leakdown showed 95psi on most cylinders!! a quick call to the warranty company and almost without quibble it was ok'd. So that's one of the issues sorted almost FOC. The other is the bootfloor, when I viewed my car in February I found a crack then and informed the dealer. I got £1500 off of the price for that as I already knew of the Redish Motorsport kit for this job. As a personal preference even though my car has all the requirements for the BMW goodwill work I personally don't like the idea of that much work being done and read of too many horror stories of BMW dealer cock up's and the like. Having owned and restored a few decent cars over the years I decided the strengthening kit was preferable. So out of my own pocket (although in theory paid for by the purchase price reduction) that's another of the issues sorted.
The warranty runs out soon and I won't renew it even though I can. Nowhere in the warranty covers the vanos or SMG pump anyway as they're a BMW specific part so I will put money aside although that isn't going to break the bank if I ever had to pay ML to sort it, same with a diff issue. In my case I think I would be throwing money away now taking out a BMW warranty considering the major issues have been sorted. I'm just going to keep a few quid aside in case. It might never need to be dipped into ......

[sjb]

Oh and I think the headgasket picture Monkey is putting up may well be mine, and the bootfloor job he's doing at the mo is my car
Driving the car home with full cylinder compression (150+) as opposed to 95psi is going to be fantastic, that should give me back a good few ponies

[Steve B]

My 2 main concerns are...

Head gasket and SMG pump failure, I know there's a company who can supply and fit with 12 month warranty a pump for £850 inc vat so it only leaves HG which if my car stays I might get done before it blows (cars on nearly 70k now).


Steve

[portlandgrey]

Mines on 86k now & runs like a dream.

Mileage should be secondary to history & condition.

[mattCSLnut]

Originally Posted by portlandgrey

Mines on 86k now & runs like a dream.

Mileage should be secondary to history & condition.

+ 1 Correcto Mundo

[portlandgrey]

Originally Posted by sjb

Here's my take on it all. Having owned an E46 M3 beforehand I already knew of the few issues these cars suffer from. I gather the main issues are the bootlfoor/subframe issue, the HG failures and then vanos, smg pump and diff (although much less common?).
I bought my car at 63500k without a BMW warranty but with a 6 month dealer supplied one from a company called the autogroup, it's a pretty comprehensive one and covers single claims up to £2500. Three weeks before it ran out I decided to get the potential HG issue and pinking checked out at ML. Sure enough a leakdown showed 95psi on most cylinders!! a quick call to the warranty company and almost without quibble it was ok'd. So that's one of the issues sorted almost FOC. The other is the bootfloor, when I viewed my car in February I found a crack then and informed the dealer. I got £1500 off of the price for that as I already knew of the Redish Motorsport kit for this job. As a personal preference even though my car has all the requirements for the BMW goodwill work I personally don't like the idea of that much work being done and read of too many horror stories of BMW dealer cock up's and the like. Having owned and restored a few decent cars over the years I decided the strengthening kit was preferable. So out of my own pocket (although in theory paid for by the purchase price reduction) that's another of the issues sorted.
The warranty runs out soon and I won't renew it even though I can. Nowhere in the warranty covers the vanos or SMG pump anyway as they're a BMW specific part so I will put money aside although that isn't going to break the bank if I ever had to pay ML to sort it, same with a diff issue. In my case I think I would be throwing money away now taking out a BMW warranty considering the major issues have been sorted. I'm just going to keep a few quid aside in case. It might never need to be dipped into ......

Reddish have a good reputation & reading their post on cutters, they seem like a very professional outfit.
If it was better to repair the boot floor in this manner for £1k, why would BMW go to the trouble & expense of spending £5-6k repairing them?
There has to be a reason, BMW would seek to sort the issue at the very minimum of cost to them.

[sjb]

Like I said its my opinion and decision to go this route with my car. Watching the redish youtube vid the repair is extremely professional and factory looking as will ML's im sure. Others will disagree or have their own opinion I'm sure. With such a big company as BMW maybe they have been advised by their legal bods to go above and beyond what is required for a fix. There's also more than redish doing this repair, also well respected.
I've not said anyone is crazy to go the full boot floor repair route, it just wasn't what I wanted done to my car. 5 Years odd down the line maybe we will have an idea which option was the best. Maybe both options will stand the test.

[spoonz]

..hold on I see a pattern emerging!

SMG Pump = £1000 from a specialist
Subframe Repair = £1000 from a specialist
Head Gasket = £1000 from a specialist

Everything's a grand!

So if you put £3000 under the bed for a rainy day we should all be ok

[CraigMillwardCroft]

Originally Posted by spoonz

..hold on I see a pattern emerging!

SMG Pump = £1000 from a specialist
Subframe Repair = £1000 from a specialist
Head Gasket = £1000 from a specialist

Everything's a grand!

So if you put £3000 under the bed for a rainy day we should all be ok

Or get BMW warranty

[dave wilkinson]

Originally Posted by spoonz

..hold on I see a pattern emerging!

SMG Pump = £1000 from a specialist
Subframe Repair = £1000 from a specialist
Head Gasket = £1000 from a specialist

Everything's a grand!

So if you put £3000 under the bed for a rainy day we should all be ok

that's what I do. no major faults in over two years of ownership, boot floor done foc. on 70k no sighs of head gasket failure or any other faults. last m3 I had 7 years ago, I ran it from 79k upto 109k and the head gasket went at 108k. it's pot luck really and as you said the three main common problems are fixed for around or under the £1000 mark at bmw specialists.

being totally honest the csl's at around 50k upwards are just as likely to throw a tantrum as the higher mileage ones. csl's are not like nobles,tvr's, Ferrari's ect they enjoy being using and will still be going stong after 150k+, unlike the others manufactures