What would you do if you were me?

[330i Lover]

A friend of mine is an auto broker (honda/acura) and found a 05 330i AW/Tan interior AT with 46k single owner in Florida. Carfax is clean with no paperwork or background info. Back in August they were asking $10k, now they are asking $9k. My broker friend who is sourcing my future car for me (for a small fee) got them down to $7,900 and I was stoked about acquiring her. Since there's no guarantee I had a PPI done in Miami and they found $9k worth of repairs they recommended. The big ticket items were oil pan gasket leak, valve cover gasket leak and transmission oil pan leak in addition to the AC not working and a slew of other items like suspension overhaul. This isn't including any of the prone-to-fail items that we all know of, this is simply what the PPI is finding today.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing these repairs so I'd have a local indy shop perform the work.

What do you think this car is worth? It was a trade-in and the auto broker claimed there were no leaks, AC works great and drives strong where the PPI suggests very differently.

Vin is: WBAEV53415KM42605

In case images don't turn out right here are the links:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ypi8BIndZNDz8wUi1IRd_onLFm-UOPNu/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ow1_qZmWcxMplvzRWqk_2npATLnUECdQ/view?usp=sharing

[GeorgeH]

The big ticket items were

oil pan gasket - To be expected
valve cover gasket - To be expected (I'd recommend a complete valve cover due to the age)
transmission oil pan leak - Not uncommon, but it could be oil from the oil pan gasket blowing back onto the transmission
A/C - Not uncommon in Texas, evaporators are always leaking


Can you post the entire PPI with break downs?

This all seems fairly normal, I would expect pretty much any 20yr old E46 is going to need this kind of work.

[san]

In addition, you?ll need to replace all the cooling system components, which I?m sure you know.
My personal opinion but I don?t think E46s (especially non Ms) make any financial sense unless you do the work yourself.


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[330i Lover]

oil pan gasket - To be expected
valve cover gasket - To be expected (I'd recommend a complete valve cover due to the age)
transmission oil pan leak - Not uncommon, but it could be oil from the oil pan gasket blowing back onto the transmission
A/C - Not uncommon in Texas, evaporators are always leaking


Can you post the entire PPI with break downs?

This all seems fairly normal, I would expect pretty much any 20yr old E46 is going to need this kind of work.

Valve cover - $1k
Tranny oil pan - $1k
Engine oil pan - $2.5k
Power steering replaced - $550
Struts and shocks replaced - $2k
Engine cleaning service to determine leaks - $850
AC diag (not fixing) - $450
Battery - $300

Tech mentioned rotors are slightly rusted and recommends replacing soon and interior rear view mirror needs replacing but both are not in quote. I saw online the mirror is about $200 and if memory serves me right rotors and pads all around are $1-1.5k.


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[330i Lover]

In addition, you?ll need to replace all the cooling system components, which I?m sure you know.
My personal opinion but I don?t think E46s (especially non Ms) make any financial sense unless you do the work yourself.


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Good point, never thought of it that way. Coming from Toyota?s it?s hard to justify the higher annual maintenance but it?s a small price to pay for ?the ultimate driving experience?. If the car was a weekend warrior I would take on more risky tasks but given it?ll drive myself and my two small kids to work/school every day it needs to be relied upon.


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[GeorgeH]

Valve cover - $1k Reasonable if it includes replacing the complete valve cover
Tranny oil pan - $1k Way to much, unless its pouring out I'd be inclined to let it ride until the oil leaks are fixed
Engine oil pan - $2.5k Probably a smidge high but maybe they are including additional items like the engine mounts, steering coupler, etc
Power steering replaced - $550 Probably a leaking line(s)? Depending on the part not unreasonable
Struts and shocks replaced - $2k Unless they are blown this is probably excessive for your use case
Engine cleaning service to determine leaks - $850 This is crazy to clean and inspect for leaks, 2 hrs at most plus brake clean
AC diag (not fixing) - $450 Does it not cool at all or not very well?
Battery - $300

Tech mentioned rotors are slightly rusted and recommends replacing soon and interior rear view mirror needs replacing but both are not in quote. I saw online the mirror is about $200 and if memory serves me right rotors and pads all around are $1-1.5k.

Was the shop that did the PPI a BMW shop or was it a generic repair shop?

If I was buying a 20yr old E46 for my wife to drive it would at minimum get:

Coolant pipes under the intake
CCVV
Expansion Tank
Waterpump
Maybe a radiator
Steering Coupler
Fuel Pump
Any oil leak fixed
Tires


All of that is not cheap if paying someone else to do the work but if you aren't going to DIY it then you are going to be a in a tough situation budget wise.

[330i Lover]

Regarding shocks and struts here are the details: "quote for both front strut grommets and rear shocks grommet. front grommet part number
31302290313(2) rear shock grommet part number 33502290347(2)". I was planning on refreshing them with coilovers and new shocks/struts anyway for about this much or slightly less.

Regarding the AC, the tech said it didn't work at all and that this diag would be needed.

The shop is the BMW of Miami in Florida, not an indy shop. Thanks for all the good input. At this point I've shared the PPI videos and report to the seller in hopes they can aggressively show me they want me to buy the car. If they're not willing to budge then onto the next car and I'm out $400 for PPI.

[GeorgeH]

Regarding shocks and struts here are the details: "quote for both front strut grommets and rear shocks grommet. front grommet part number 31302290313(2) rear shock grommet part number 33502290347(2)". I was planning on refreshing them with coilovers and new shocks/struts anyway for about this much or slightly less.

Shocks and strut bump stops deteriorate all the time, while not ideal I wouldn't sweat it in the short term.

I just ran the numbers real quick at my shop:
Replace valve cover - $984.08
Replace oil pan gasket, oil change, steering coupler and engine mounts - $1,326.44

Food for thought

[John in VA]

Prices seem high, to me. Does your mechanic have a boat payment due?!
You need to do some of this work yourself, unless you're well-paid & can afford these repairs.

[fredo]

Prices seem high, to me.

+1. Those are dealer prices.

[330i Lover]

Thanks to everyone who's chimed in thus far. I got them to lower the price and diagnose the ac issues so I'm leaning towards buying it for $10k after delivery fees and taxes. For a single owner 05 alpine white over tan with auto tranny 330i with sports package in as good of condition that it is I think it'll be hard pressed to find a better deal. It sounds like the issues that have been discussed earlier in the post are fairly common which is a bit relieving. I'll be calling some shops in the local Nashville area to get some more quotes together before fully committing.

[GeorgeH]

Awesome, good luck!

[330i Lover]

I've decided what to do. There is just too much risk on purchasing this car sight-unseen given all the known costly repairs and knowing that I'll be relying on an indy shop to do most of the repairs. For now I'll keep driving the Camry and be thankful that it does what I need. Later on I might be back in the BMW market, but this one isn't the one for me. Cheers!

[fredo]

I've decided what to do. There is just too much risk on purchasing this car sight-unseen given all the known costly repairs and knowing that I'll be relying on an indy shop to do most of the repairs. For now I'll keep driving the Camry and be thankful that it does what I need. Later on I might be back in the BMW market, but this one isn't the one for me. Cheers!

Good call. Of all the issues reported, the one that got my attention is the A/C. You would need to spend money on it right away.

Prob everything else could wait a little.