Found a 2007 BMW X3 3.0 with a 6 speed manual. M Appearance package, white/tan leather, 115k miles, all optioned up. Guy wants $7900. Should I run toward this deal or away from it? Do these need the $1000 cooling system rebuild at 100k miles? I can do all the wrenching myself, just a little gun shy after my E55 AMG and cost of parts.
What to look for: literally everything. IMHO X3s are some of the deepest money pits on the road, and they don't even drive well enough to try to make up for it.
The only BMW I've even seen multiple dealers be completely unable to fix, and more than one example. Of course the customers still got stuck with ~$7k service bills to show for it.
YMMV, of course.
That price sounds like an okay deal, not an awesome one. I got my ’05 with 140k for just over $5300, though mine is a bit older and it’s a different motor. Make sure you get the adaptive xenons, they’re easily the best thing about modern BMWs.
2007 had the N52 motor, and the cooling system has different problems than the M54 in the pre-07s. The N52 has the electric water pump that has been known to fail suddenly, but by now, it should have failed and should be on its second pump and the revised version tends to be pretty reliable. The N52 likes to leak oil, look for oil filter housing gasket leaks, oil pan gasket leaks and valve cover gasket leaks. The early versions of the N52 had issues with broken “external headbolts”. It’s my understanding that these didn’t really do much to retain cylinder pressure, but they can cause a (you guessed it) oil leak. I had an ’06, ’09 and ’11 N52 and I didn’t have any issues with that, but the internet says its common. All three N52s had the oil filter gasket leak though, and my ’06 had a valve cover gasket leak.
The rear suspension design is the same as the E46s, so look out for the same stuff you would on an E46--driveline clunks (Diff bushings), squirrely feeling over bumps (RTABs), oddly worn rear tires. Also, the bottom coil of the rear springs is known to break, so check for this on your prospective E83. Mine is currently broken…I’m putting Eibachs on since they’re about the same cost as new OEM springs. The front suspension is like an E39/E6x/E9x, so look for worn “tension strut” bushings, it’s the front lower control arm. When they’re worn, you’ll get a warped rotor feeling on braking and sloppy steering.
Look to make sure the transfer case fluid has been changed. Worn fluid will cause a really low frequency growling sound at highway speeds that will turn into a shudder during acceleration. I fixed the shudder on my E91 (similar transfer case) with a fluid change, but I’ve heard that it can progress so far that you need a rebuild. Transfer case rebuilds are really expensive. You can troubleshoot by unplugging the transfer case module under the rear trunk floor. The transfer case shudder feels just like a bad coil or a misfire, this will help you not buy all new plugs and coils unnecessarily (like I did on my E91).
The actuator gear on the transfer case also has been known to fail a lot, though it’s a pretty cheap part (~$20). I haven’t done it, but it looks like a pain in the ass to get to. You drop the transfer case bracket, supporting the trans with a jack, unbolt the actuator motor, and replace the gear.
The interior has all of the E46 common issues, window regulators, seat occupancy mat sensors, heated seats that burn a hole in the seat leather. The E83 had probably the nastiest interior of any modern BMW, but I really don’t mind mine THAT much. I’m not much of an interior guy though.
I remember these having some weird combination of chassis tuning and wheelbase that made their ride be super choppy.
Been a a while since I was in one.
If it were me, I'd look for a car and not a small SUV that is lacking in both sportiness and utility. Don't understand the point of these vehicles unless you want less interior space and worse gas mileage than a comparably priced car. Sorry, nothing constructive to add, but you asked for opinions.
I was talking to the guy who runs the local independent BMW repair shop a while back, and my understanding is he thought the X3 was a pretty reliable vehicle. The X5, not so much.
I have never been impressed with the BMW SUVs. While they share a fair proportion of their components with the cars, the sum total of the parts always seems less in the SUVs than the cars they were derived from. If it were me I'd forget about it and go find an E9x wagon.
T.J. said:If it were me, I'd look for a car and not a small SUV that is lacking in both sportiness and utility. Don't understand the point of these vehicles unless you want less interior space and worse gas mileage than a comparably priced car. Sorry, nothing constructive to add, but you asked for opinions.
I think it depends on what you're doing with it. FWIW, the X3 I have is easily the best handling SUV I've ever driven, though I haven't been in a Macan or SQ5. Its hard to describe exactly, but its a pretty fun vehicle to drive with great steering feel and an extremely mild understeer handling balance. The outside front tire just seems to hang on forever and the steering lets you know really well when its letting go, like a BMW should.
It'll also legally tow up to 3500 lbs, which is nearly impossible to find in most cars sold in America. The X3 is also a depreciation queen, since people are so afraid of it. I'm not sure why, though I've only had mine for 5 months. Its issues seem to be the same as E46s and E90s, but people love those cars.
I do wish it was RWD and not AWD though. While the AWD was unstoppable in the snow we had in NC this past winter, it is a lot of complication and weight that I don't really want to deal with. I'm also lowering mine a bit, hopefully it doesn't mess up the suspension geometry too much. The gas mileage also sucks. I get ~15-16 around town, and 24ish on the highway. My AWD e91 got 17-18 around town and 30 on the highway. The one the OP is asking about has the same motor and basically the same transfer case as my E91 did, I'm curious to see what kind of MPGs it gets.
Why buy one of these? You get all the headaches of BMW ownership, but without the sedan/wagon chassis dynamics. Get a wagon if you really want a 6-speed BMW.
You can't get a comparable 6-speed manual BMW wagon for $7900. Try double it and MAYBE.
So here is where I am at, and how I ended here:
Sold my WRX wagon yesterday, need something to fill the gap. Liked the wagons liveliness, utility, manual trans. Hated the road noise, appliance grade interior, lack of amenities, no heated seats, no sunroof, AM/FM/CD only, looked like a beater
I don't need something super fast since I don't track my cars any more and already have a Dodge Viper if I need to go fast.
I don't need something super utilitarian since I have a diesel F250 4x4. (but the F250 is too nice to daily in winter and is for sale)
No real care about chassis dynamics. I am sure this will be nicer than 99% of cars I have ever owned and I don't know the difference anyway.
Maintenance doesnt scare me, I enjoy working on cars and have a large selection of tools. Electronics don't scare me, I assembled my own STAR system for my Mercedes and installed the STAR software myself using online tutorials.
I do need something that will get me around day to day though and be dead nuts reliable for 4-6 months out of the year. I can always drive my truck for a week in winter but don't want it to become a daily driver. I have a heated shop but don't like the idea of wrench on Monday to get to work on Tuesday. Scheduled weekend maintenance is fine though.
I guess all I am after is something like a nice WRX thats cheap enough to daily but still looks decent. Forester XT? This lil guy?
93gsxturbo said:
I guess all I am after is something like a nice WRX thats cheap enough to daily but still looks decent. Forester XT? This lil guy?
You just described the V50.
The T5/AWD/6spd combo can be elusive, but they're out there.
93gsxturbo said:So here is where I am at, and how I ended here:
Sold my WRX wagon yesterday, need something to fill the gap. Liked the wagons liveliness, utility, manual trans. Hated the road noise, appliance grade interior, lack of amenities, no heated seats, no sunroof, AM/FM/CD only, looked like a beater
I don't need something super fast since I don't track my cars any more and already have a Dodge Viper if I need to go fast.
I don't need something super utilitarian since I have a diesel F250 4x4. (but the F250 is too nice to daily in winter and is for sale)
No real care about chassis dynamics. I am sure this will be nicer than 99% of cars I have ever owned and I don't know the difference anyway.
Maintenance doesnt scare me, I enjoy working on cars and have a large selection of tools. Electronics don't scare me, I assembled my own STAR system for my Mercedes and installed the STAR software myself using online tutorials.
I do need something that will get me around day to day though and be dead nuts reliable for 4-6 months out of the year. I can always drive my truck for a week in winter but don't want it to become a daily driver. I have a heated shop but don't like the idea of wrench on Monday to get to work on Tuesday. Scheduled weekend maintenance is fine though.
I guess all I am after is something like a nice WRX thats cheap enough to daily but still looks decent. Forester XT? This lil guy?
After reading this, I'm not sure the E83 is what you're really looking for. Its an awesome compromise car, and does a lot of things well, but with a 4x4 diesel truck in your stable, you don't really need the E83's towing or snow-driving abilities, so I'd probably echo the others and go for a more car-like vehicle. I really liked my E90 and my two E91s, but I'm a certified BMW fanboy and so I'm probably not a reliable source.
ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE FOLLOWS:
I have an 2007 AWD E60, so similar but not the same. My car has the same N52 as the X3, and the only *failures* i've suffered in driving it from 136k (purchased in Sept 2015) and 180k (will hit this afternoon on the drive home) are the electric water pump and the alternator.
The water pump / thermostat combo was a motherberkeleyer to replace *on a hoist in a well lit shop*, although part of that motherberkeleyerness was due to the PO letting oil leaks go unattended, so the entire engine bay was a filthy mess. Between cleaning and R&R I spent about 12 hours in the garage that day. It failed at about 138k and was original to the car. I was told that they normally fail between 60-100k on NA cars and 40-60k on turbos.
Although the alternator was soaked by the same oil leaks, it was actually a bearing that failed. DIAGNOSTIC PRO TIP: I swear it sounded like a cracked piston skirt, kinda rod knocky but not quite that loud. I've never heard an alternator or any other purely rotating part knock like that. Anyway, the oil filter housing gasket and oil cooler gasket that I replaced as part of the water pump cleanup work needed to be replaced again only 42k later, so I did those at the same time as the alternator. Easy Peasy.
I also removed and cleaned the VANOS solenoids (super easy) when I got a cam position DTC, and I replaced the valve cover gasket and associated seals last weekend while doing the alternator job. Again, not difficult.
I changed the transfer case fluid a while back, which required removing the crossmember to access the fill plug. This required dropping the exhaust, which required splitting the nuts on the exhaust manifold studs. I bought a drill bit extension and drilled parallel to the studs, through the nuts, then whacked them with a long chisel.
My biggest worry now is that the automatic trans will take a E36 M3. i changed fluid and filter and fixed a couple leaks at 165k, and it's been great so far but who knows when the mechatronics might fail.
I see my continued ownership of this car as dancing with the devil i know. i fear the electronic complexity -- for example, I get the 4x4 / DSC Disabled light a couple times per month because (the internet tells me) the steer angle sensor "loses its calibration". The fault clears when I turn the wheel full left - full right - full left - back to center.
With a set of blizzaks, It's an absolute beast in the snow.
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