natch97

I've looked into it. It's worth it if you are going to keep your car for 3 yrs+ and/or do a lot of miles. Make sure you get a good system though. You get what you pay for and the cheap ones are crap

Are the gearboxes the same on these two engines.

Hi there guys. I have a 2002 316ti with the 1.8 n42 engine. Does anyone know if the 2.0 engine will swap straight in without much messing. I did hear that they are the same engine but with different bore size. Any help would be great as my engine is about to give up and if I need a new engine then thois seems to be the way to go.

Ok so up date. Getting to the point where I will try to sale this car soon. I took it to my usual mechanic. He could find no fault codes. He took it for a test drive and said he thought it could be throttle body. so he took it apart and cleaned the throttle body. It was the end of the day and i needed the car for work. He told me to see how it is and if not better to bring it back. It is no better. I am loath to take it back as I think he is clutching at straws and guess work. I've got a friend to look at it. The engine is getting louder as time goes on. Like the tappets, ticking noise. He is going to do a compression test on the cylinders tonight just to rule that out. He thought maybe it is running on three cylinders and the sound is a bit like the old twingos. I'm not sure but we will see. The bit that i don't get is that all the problems people have suggested to me would be like that from cold. Why would it matter when it gets hot. also things like MAF and sensor faults would A. usually throw a code and B. don't explain the ticking noise. Lastly When I took it to the mechanic he said they did a "valve test" and the noise whent away and when they finished the test it came back. Does anyone know what he was talking about and could this lead to an answer. Please Please help me with any ideas as I love this car but cannont afford to drive it 80 miles a day as it is costing me the best part of £20 at the moment on the motorway. :(

Cheers guys. I will suggest this to the mechanic on tuesday and see what he says.

With a tail wind and a skinny driver :lol:

1995 318ti 8.9 secs. More like 10.9

Yeah! Well you live and learn

Unfortunately he did state the price of the diagnoatic before I booked it in so I didn't have a chose. I thought of just getting the spare key and driving off but I did a case study in law where a guy took his car from a mechanic without paying and got done for theft.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took my bimmer to a " specialist". He hooked it up to the diagnostics, found no fault codes. Took it round the block, bunged in some injector cleaner, shrugged his shoulders and said it was ok. 60 quid... Cu$£. On the up side I went straight to the guy who does my MOT usually. He said bring it in next week and he will find the problem if it kills him and will only charge me a maximum £35 for 1 hr to find the fault and then what ever to fix it. He is a good guy but not a specialist. Langdon Motors Totterdown Bristol.

Will do

Got it booked in at a local bmw specialist. I've done all the simple stuff that i can e.g. checked coils, changed spark plug, oil, fuel filter and cleaned the MAF sensor. Just fingers crossed it's something cheap.

What is wrong with that guy. Is he scared to redline it .

I have driven a mk2 golf gti with a vr6 engine in it and about 10k spent on the suspension. That was fun

I don't think you can really beat a bmw for fun and pleasure with a front wheel drive car.

Cheers. Does anyone in the bristol area have one of these cables/software. If not can someone tell me the best place to get it from and price.

I think that diesals are in fashion at the moment but will be extinct long before petrols. Firstly diesals are not faster then petrols, they need a turbo to be as fast as petrol. They do generate more torque but i really don't think that this "feels" as fast as a high bhp car. ultimately though petrols are able to run on lpg and diesals are able to run on veg oil. veg oil is a comodity where as lpg is a by product that has to be used one way or another.

It's silver. Very basic spec. ie no leather or air con but all that will change B)

Hi guys. Don't know if any of you lot read my thread in the welcome section but basically I have just become the very proud owner of a 2002 316ti. went to get the car on sunday. 2002 115000miles. £1700. bargin I thought. I asked the guy why it was so cheap. He pointed out that it had had a new tailgate because someone had dented it in a car park and that sometime in it's life it had a blow over that was not the best job. I checked over the body work. All the panels lined up and there was no other sign of damage. Test drive was fine. Full service history but in need of a service last 1 was 12000ago. So to my problem. THe car loses power at exactly 1500 rpm to 2000rpm when it is warm. There is no problem when it is cold. It feels like 1 big misfire. It is the same in any gear but most noticed in 3rd and 4th. I seems ok once you are over 2000 rpm but sometimes does feel nippier then others. If I turn the car off and go back in 5 mins the temp gauge will not have moved but the problem will go until I get to the end of the road and then come back. I have changed the spark plugs with NGK platiniums, changed the air filter, oil filter and oil for castrol edge 5w-40w but the problem is still the same. Any ideas on this would be great. If I can't fix it myself then I will have to take it to a garage but I prefer to have an idea first. :(

Cheers guys. I have actually bought a 316ti due to finding one crimalliy cheap from a friend. Looks like I'll be doing some engine mods then but I'll start a new thread for that

OK so I have finally decided on a 318ti. It's a pitty cos I have found a 325ti sport with red leather interior. Looks amasing. But after driving a few and watching the mpg needle almost never go over 30mpg it would be foulish of me to buy one to drive 80 miles a day. Now my problem is finding one. My wife only likes the look of the sport models, we both want leather and we both only like red, black or silver. I am searching ebay/autotrader regularally. are there any other good places to look. be speciallist

Looked at 330d but as I said I really want a hatchback. MPG is not a massive issue but doing 25000m a year means quite a difference between doing 30mpg on a run or 40. As I said LPG is an option or if not I will have to look at a 318ti but not really what I was looking for. Cheers for the comments guys. And Caz maybe 5 knuckle shuffle or hand shandy is more descriptive for you :D

Shaking hands with Tommy

Hello There I am new to the forum and as yet not a bimmer owner. I am seriously considering buying a 2002 325ti compact as my regular transport and wondered how other owners find them. I have one 3year old and a dog but i don't see this as a problem as i have owned a ford puma before. The reason that i am looking for a compact is that I would love to drive a powerful RWD car but I hate driving salons or estates (bit like trying to have man time with boxing gloves on.). The looks of the compact do not put me off at all and the fact that it is a well designed and made bmw is a bonus. Now my main query. The MPG for this car is listed at 23 urban and 40 on a run. Does anyone get anything near to this or believe it is do-able as I have 40 miles on the motorway to work every day. Also has anyone got an LPG kit on theirs and if so was it worth while. I will be doing about 25000miles a yeare in this car so if they work well I think it might be the way to go. An feedback one way or the other would be a huge help. Great forum by the way. Got lots of great info Cheers guys