warranty is very important to have on these, headgaskets are a worry at over 80k as well (cost about £1k to rectify), so will be getting a compression test done when the subframe is checked over!!
Well, thought i'd add a little update now i've owned the car for a couple of weeks .... Now, at this point, i'd love to discuss the huge amounts of pleasure i've had driving around, enjoying the power & handling of the car i've dreamed about for years. Unfortunately i cant lol, i only drove it for the 1st four days of buying it :dapprove:
Basically i noticed that at motorway speeds, in 5th/6th (& more noticeably uphill), it seemed to be 'pinking' between 2.5k and 3.5k rpm. Still pulled hard & drove perfectly normally, so didnt notice it on the 30 minute test drive, but in my daily commute, on the traffic ridden M3, where part throttle is the norm, it was a noticeable noise. So last Monday, after a week of owning the car, & only 4 days/400 miles of use, i did a compression test with Sarah's dad where it unfortunately showed low psi in cylinders 5 & 6 - the 2 at the back, that generally get the hottest apparently.
Obviously i wasnt best pleased, so got straight back in touch with the supplying dealer & stopped using the car. Fast forwards to last Saturday and it was leakdown tested by the dealer, where unsurprisingly, it failed spectactularly. Its now (hopefully) in bits being fixed; new HG, skimmed head, all seals, new coolant & oil change, etc so hopefully it'll be like a new car
Fingers crossed lol.
So anyways, thought i would just put this as a little warning that no matter how much checking you do beforehand, M3's (as with any car really, just more £££'s) can still bite you in the ar5e. Before i had even looked at the car i had phoned BMW Customer Services to check the history, specification & recalls, then phoned all the garages that serviced it to see what they did (barring one, but nevermind, being sorted now), downloaded the cars MOT history online (shows all the advisories) & obviously Hpi checked it. I then went on a 30 minute test drive, & did all the usual checks.
BUT, without doing a compression/leakdown test on the test drive, a failing HG is very difficult to spot - they go between the cylinders so no coolant loss - so if you do buy one, either make sure you have warranty, or keep £1500 back in case it fails. More & more common on them these days, & history/mileage/condition of the car seems to have no bearing on the failures either.
For those that are interested, there is nore info on the M3 HGF problems here:
http://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/showthread.php?t=8868
In addition, doing 100 miles a day in a Trophy with buckets seats & a BTB exhaust is quite frankly, tiring.
PS. Big big thanks to Jamesstone for coming with Sarah & I for the leakdown test, much appreciated xx