Anyone near Kennesaw GA to look at an E46 for me? Tentative. Any advice on e46 subframe issues?

Evanuel9 said:

In reply to Slippery :

I'm also from Chicago. Would it be sacrilegious to drive such a nice car up here? Or if I get the undercariagw cleaned weekly and take car of it I'll be fine?

Just take care of it and you'll be fine.  The car looks extremely clean.  At the same time if it doesn't work out don't sweat it.  I think you can do better than a 323

In reply to glueguy (Forum Supporter) :

Thank you!! I'm excited, it's really clean!

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

Thanks! I definitely plan to take good care of it. 

And you're right, that's definitely my mentality. If it doesn't work out, that's ok, but I figured I'd jump on it ASAP because it's such a nice example

When I was 17, managed to get an FD RX7 with a blown motor. To do so, had to sell my cherry Civic DX (D16 SOHC powah!!) and was left with the ultimatum from my parents that they would NOT be providing rides anywhere if I chose to sell my running car to buy a project.

Bummed rides for the month and a half it took me to get a new reman (from Mazda, for relatively short money) installed and the car back on the road. 

And only took like 4 more months before I had it wadded up in a bean field. But was a fun first foray into buying something cool that I could only afford because it was broken. Not your situation, but reading this got me to reminiscing. Also, I asked my parents wtf they were thinking letting me get that kind of car at that age (now that I'm creeping up on middle age, I ponder such things), and they essentially said that I called their bluff. They thought I would never get it running, haha.

Evanuel9 said:

In reply to Flynlow :

Thank you! I know about the cooling system and guibo weak points..what is the oil leak and front suspension situation?

Vanos, valve cover, and oil filter housing are the big three that i'm aware of.  
 

The lower control arms (lca's) need replacing every 80k or so.  On the bright side, you can upgrade to zhp parts at that time for not a ton of money.  FCP Euro sells a front end service kit with everything, it was $500-600 last time I looked.  

Evanuel9 said:

So on the BMW forums some people say it's inevitable, some people say in lower trims it's fine. I'm just really worried because it is such a catastrophic failure. Especially when doing hpde and mods (which i hope to do, although likely not too much power adding). How long have you had it? Any track time?

A friend of mine had a '99 328 that he bought brand new.  For 20 years it got street driving only (although not gentle driving), then he got interested in track days and when he took it to a shop for inspection they found a ton of subframe cracks.  It all depends on how the car is driven.

In reply to Spearfishin :

Now that is a berkeleying awesome first car. God you've got cool parents. Mine are concerned with stupid E36 M3 like reliability, mpgs, and safety. 

I'm impressed at you swapping an engine in a month and a half. Gives me some confidence for potential future modifications. 

Crying shame you binned it, what a cool car to have at 17

In reply to Flynlow :

Thank you so much! 

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Damn, fair enough. This one sounds like it was babied for it's entire life so it likely shouldn't be too bad

So update, seller says he's got someone looking at it this weekend. If anyone can look at it please let me know. 

I don't understand the appeal of that car. Especially if you want to do some hpde. The engine in the 323 is a bit of a turd, the non-sport package seats are flat and unsupportive, non sport suspension is meh, no lsd. 
 

The only 2 pros I see are that it's manual transmission and clean

In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :

I mean yeah. I've been having a hard time choosing a car and the consensus I came to was basically make a short list of cars that I like (which include e46s), and find the cleanest, nicest example of any of them. E46 is on the list and this is a ridiculously clean example.

However! I just found an FR-S for $5,900 even closer to me and that is a car I would kill for so i might be abandoning this car. Plus the seller said he's got someone coming to look at it this week.

If the 323 is priced reasonably, the first person to see it should buy it. It's that clean!