Buying a 318is

[Swoon]

I'm looking at buying a 318is. I've found one, the owner says that the car has well over 200,000 miles on it but the engine has been completely rebuilt. The car seems to be in great condition aesthetically, but with such high milage I'm worried about the condition of it mechanically. How do I verify that the engine rebuild has been done and done correctly? And what else do I have to worry about on a car That's getting up there in the miles?

[Chessmaster]

Lol, most people on the forums just motor swap if it takes a turd. Yeah sorry cant help you on the m42 engine, my 318is is m20 swapped.

[Vivek]

Check for any chain rattle from the front of the engine. If you can pull the valve cover and look at the timing gears that would be good. Check for oil leaks, a rebuild engine shouldn't have any. Mechanically these cars are fine and age is more of an issue than miles, and all e30's are old. Honestly if the owner doesn't have records/receipts to prove the rebuild he's likely full of shit. Half the e30 ads I see claim to have a rebuilt engine and I highly doubt they spent $5k or more on a complete engine rebuild at a shop when they're selling a car for 1200 bucks.

[Swoon]

Check for any chain rattle from the front of the engine. If you can pull the valve cover and look at the timing gears that would be good. Check for oil leaks, a rebuild engine shouldn't have any. Mechanically these cars are fine and age is more of an issue than miles, and all e30's are old. Honestly if the owner doesn't have records/receipts to prove the rebuild he's likely full of shit. Half the e30 ads I see claim to have a rebuilt engine and I highly doubt they spent $5k or more on a complete engine rebuild at a shop when they're selling a car for 1200 bucks.

True lol.
How about other parts of the car, like should I be worried about the transmission giving out any time soon?
I'm new to e30's, is there a lot of electrical problems to deal with?

[Swoon]

Lol, most people on the forums just motor swap if it takes a turd. Yeah sorry cant help you on the m42 engine, my 318is is m20 swapped.

Any reason for the m20 swap? Just a more powerful engine?

[thedguy]

If the owner has no proof of a rebuild, it's probably BS. If it has been though, there should be 0 oil leaks to start with. open the oil cap and try and get a good peak at the cam gears, they should be round on the top, if they are pointy, their worn out. Officially the factory chain and gears are good for 200k miles. listen for chain rattle (it's quite loud if it's bad.)

The transmission has never been an issue on these cars under stock power. My 318 has 260k or so on it (odometer broke twice). The trans shifts a little funky, but I haven't had to worry about it, and hell the original clutch is still good. And this is driving in Los Angeles traffic the majority of it's life in the past 80k.


m20 makes more bottom end torque along with more HP. The 6 is naturally smoother as well. I'm more preferential to the better turn in and handling of the lighter and more balanced 318.

[Swoon]

If the owner has no proof of a rebuild, it's probably BS. If it has been though, there should be 0 oil leaks to start with. open the oil cap and try and get a good peak at the cam gears, they should be round on the top, if they are pointy, their worn out. Officially the factory chain and gears are good for 200k miles. listen for chain rattle (it's quite loud if it's bad.)

The transmission has never been an issue on these cars under stock power. My 318 has 260k or so on it (odometer broke twice). The trans shifts a little funky, but I haven't had to worry about it, and hell the original clutch is still good. And this is driving in Los Angeles traffic the majority of it's life in the past 80k.


m20 makes more bottom end torque along with more HP. The 6 is naturally smoother as well. I'm more preferential to the better turn in and handling of the lighter and more balanced 318.

So proof would be receipts of the parts if he did it himself or documents by wherever he had it professionally done? If I was to get a prepurchase inspection would they be able to tell me how well the rebuild was done and the overall condition of the car? Will they be able to tell me what's going to go wrong with the car soon?

Say the engine actually is a POS and I bought it anyway. How much would a swap cost me? Or is it worth it to rebuild the engine?

[Chinampa]

You could swap in a motor from a 325i for cheap, and its an easy swap being that theyre from the same chassis.

[thedguy]

So proof would be receipts of the parts if he did it himself or documents by wherever he had it professionally done? If I was to get a prepurchase inspection would they be able to tell me how well the rebuild was done and the overall condition of the car? Will they be able to tell me what's going to go wrong with the car soon?

Say the engine actually is a POS and I bought it anyway. How much would a swap cost me? Or is it worth it to rebuild the engine?

M42's have a couple flaws that could have lead to an early demise of the engine. The biggest is the timing chain tensioner. It is "Life of the engine" but realistically should be yanked every 70k. My brothers engine destroyed itself at 130k because of that. Chain rattled itself to bits then took out the oil pump.

The other flaw is the bolts inside the upper oil pan (easily accessible with the car on a lift) will back out, seems BMW didn't believe in locktite. I have seen a case where 2 of the bolts that seal the oil pickup tube to the oil pump housing came out and allowed the seal to fail, oil pump sucked up air and ruined the engine. This was also at less than 150k.

Only way to tell for sure it was replaced would be receipts, or perhaps the shop he took it too.

My friend picked up a used 318 with an engine used replacement engine prior to his buying it, and the previous owners receipts showed it cost about $2200 for parts and labor.

As far as an inspection, they can determine the health of the motor/chain and rest of the chassis. This was how another friend of mine ended up not buying a 330i zhp, the owner thought it was cherry, the shop found the engine was ready to blow up... and did on the way home for said owner.

[Swoon]

Thanks for the help

M42's have a couple flaws that could have lead to an early demise of the engine. The biggest is the timing chain tensioner. It is "Life of the engine" but realistically should be yanked every 70k. My brothers engine destroyed itself at 130k because of that. Chain rattled itself to bits then took out the oil pump.

The other flaw is the bolts inside the upper oil pan (easily accessible with the car on a lift) will back out, seems BMW didn't believe in locktite. I have seen a case where 2 of the bolts that seal the oil pickup tube to the oil pump housing came out and allowed the seal to fail, oil pump sucked up air and ruined the engine. This was also at less than 150k.

Only way to tell for sure it was replaced would be receipts, or perhaps the shop he took it too.

My friend picked up a used 318 with an engine used replacement engine prior to his buying it, and the previous owners receipts showed it cost about $2200 for parts and labor.

As far as an inspection, they can determine the health of the motor/chain and rest of the chassis. This was how another friend of mine ended up not buying a 330i zhp, the owner thought it was cherry, the shop found the engine was ready to blow up... and did on the way home for said owner.

So other than the chain tensioner and that bolt issue, the M42 is a solid, reliable engine? Searching around, it seems like it gets a lot of criticism.

When it boils down to it, just take the car to the shop for an inspection and if everything checks out I should be good?

What are some other e30 issues not exclusive to the m42?

[rex]

Buying a 318is

For general issues, see the 'you know you're an e30 owner when' thread


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[pmat]

Pull the spark plugs if you can and see how the threads are. Ive had 2 m42's shoot out plugs. Neither were over/under torqed.

[totheredline]

As said previously, the chain tensioner is a weak point with these engines.

I've yet to see an m42 that wasn't a nasty greasy, oil leaking pig. The timing case gaskets tend to fail at higher milages.

I bought a complete gasket set for my M42 ($150 on ebay) and replaced them all.

My car is undergoing a pretty in depth restoration so I haven't been able to drive it yet (hopefully the interior will be done and i can drop the motor in soon! :) ) but I have a feeling that Im not going to be satisfied with the power. We'll see though. Im thinking M30B35 or M50 stroker swap this summer >;)

[Nick_S]

Valve cover bolts like to strip out if overtightened which can cause a nice oil leak. I heli-coiled all mine. Great little engines, don't expect it to be a top end monster but they are geared awesome for daily driving around town or backroads.

[Swoon]

As said previously, the chain tensioner is a weak point with these engines.

I've yet to see an m42 that wasn't a nasty greasy, oil leaking pig. The timing case gaskets tend to fail at higher milages.

I bought a complete gasket set for my M42 ($150 on ebay) and replaced them all.

My car is undergoing a pretty in depth restoration so I haven't been able to drive it yet (hopefully the interior will be done and i can drop the motor in soon! :) ) but I have a feeling that Im not going to be satisfied with the power. We'll see though. Im thinking M30B35 or M50 stroker swap this summer >;)

All I find is people saying that the m42 is either bulletproof and dead reliable or that's it's poop
Other than being a nasty pig, with the tensioner, gaskets and the other problems addressed in this thread, is the m42 good to go for a while as a DD?

Good luck with yours though! We'll see if I follow through with this one