Slightly noisy engine - top end

[andye30m3]

well the car I'm looking at went in for it's inspection today.

Went through reasonably well, needs a spring, door seal, air con belt and the boot looking at

only worrying things are a fair amount of play in the diff to the point at which it really needs replacing and the garage (Munich Legends) said that the engine was slightly noisier than others they had in, coming from the top end, especially when cold.

Any idea's what the worse case is for this? I'd have thought they'd picked up on a vanos, didn't seam to be suggesting this was going to cause a definite problem. Are some M3 engines just noisier than others?

Shame as the rest of the car came back fine, with good traceable history, 50k miles, recent inspection 2 and new disc and pads.

In two minds as to what to do, it is good value compared to what other similar cars are being advertised at.

[azrael]

Some M3 engines are noisier than others yes and would be at worst when cold.


As for the diff they have loads of play compared to other cars so could just be normal although I'd expect Munich Legends to have a good idea on this.

Are you going to get a warranty, if so I wouldn't let any of these issues bother you.

[DuncanR]

Funny thing about the noise from the engine, I had one coming from mine, which I thought was top end area, but upon further investigation it was alternator bearings. It threw them at Murketts for a while, as it appeared to move around the engine bay, replaced alt under warranty so happy days

[andye30m3]

Thanks for the replies

Put my mind a rest a bit, ML didn't seam to think it was anything serious and could well never amount to anything but I guess they have to cover themselves and mention it.

Looks like I'm still going to go for it, knocked 1/2 the price of a used diff off the price so I expect I'll keep my eyes open for one and change it as a precautionary measure.

I was expecting an inspection to bring up a few little bits so the other things they picked up I'll fix in due course as it wasn't anything much

[azrael]

Originally Posted by andye30m3

Thanks for the replies

Put my mind a rest a bit, ML didn't seam to think it was anything serious and could well never amount to anything but I guess they have to cover themselves and mention it.

Looks like I'm still going to go for it, knocked 1/2 the price of a used diff off the price so I expect I'll keep my eyes open for one and change it as a precautionary measure.

I was expecting an inspection to bring up a few little bits so the other things they picked up I'll fix in due course as it wasn't anything much

I wouldn't change the diff, I'd expect any other you buy to be exactly the same, even the ones BMW replace under warranty are refurbished and tend to have the same amount.

[azrael]

Originally Posted by DuncanR

Funny thing about the noise from the engine, I had one coming from mine, which I thought was top end area, but upon further investigation it was alternator bearings. It threw them at Murketts for a while, as it appeared to move around the engine bay, replaced alt under warranty so happy days

Ditto, I had the same when I collected my car fromm Murketts, except we (Andy & I) didn't realise the what the noise had been until 5 miles down the road on my way home the car died. 1 new alternator please! warranty of course

[outnumbered]

You can only put the BMW warranty on if it's got full BMW history, no late services etc - so worth checking that if you haven't.

[Great Pretender]

Originally Posted by DuncanR

Funny thing about the noise from the engine, I had one coming from mine, which I thought was top end area, but upon further investigation it was alternator bearings. It threw them at Murketts for a while, as it appeared to move around the engine bay, replaced alt under warranty so happy days

Mine had a new alternator at 54k after I had similar issues.

The top-end sounded 'whiny', which was more pronounced when cold.