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Buying 3 series


COLIN ANTHONY
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Yes.

320D's in E46 guise (which is what yours would be on an 04 plate) are known for Turbo's going beyond 80,000 miles.

There are hundreds of posts online about them going big style at 100k and people having bills in excess of £4,000 for engine replacements/repairs. That's it though, other than that (a pretty big 'that') they're virtually bullet proof. My wife had a new 320D back on a 54 plate and she did 50,000 in 3 years without so much as a missed beat. It ran perfectly.

The key from what I recall is that you must get it inspected or a warranty that covers the Turbo - otherwise you are without doubt taking a risk.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Removal of the swirl flaps and replacement with blanking plates is a cheap and fairly simple job and completely removes any risk of a flap becoming detached and then ingested causing catastrophic failure. It would be worth considering if you did/do end up buying the car. There is a school of thought that says if failure is going to happen if will probably occur in the 60k and 100k miles range, but I certainly wouldn't rely on that!

The mod may have already have been done - a little unlikely, but becoming more common. And so far as I am aware the M37 (136bhp) engines do not have swirl flaps at all, so it might be academic in this case.

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