Buyers Guide?

[gannet]

Point is you can never tell how the previous owner treated it. There were a couple of owner before me and BMW originally as a demo vehicle (not sure how long).

Gamble you take when buying a used car I suppose.

My mother used to own a 1.4 Astra and was putting 600 motorway miles a week on it never had a ounce of trouble. Came to sell and it was the mileage on it that stung, because of peoples perceptions of big miles on smaller engine cars. Subsequent cars she had all had larger engines and there was never so much of an issue with resale.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Yep mine was a demo car originally, then from the looks of it was a BMW AUC lease until I got it, and from the mileages per year/service intervals, and condition (low general wear, but lots of stone chips on bumper), was a motorway car...

Either way, I'm not too fussed on the clutch, it's a consumeable and all said and done is easy to access/do on this kinda car.

Does anyone have the book time for the clutch? Can't be much over 4hrs tops shirley?

Dave

 

[un1eash]

4 hours sounds about right but you know bmw, they'll want it for days. Can drop an engine in an E30 in less then 4 hours and all bmw's are alike. Remove the drive shaft, undo bell housing bolts, remove slave cylinder, remove gearbox mount and your done.

 

[gannet]

Only had my car in for a day - once the clutch came in

 

[Mr Whippy]

4 hours sounds about right but you know bmw, they'll want it for days. Can drop an engine in an E30 in less then 4 hours and all bmw's are alike. Remove the drive shaft, undo bell housing bolts, remove slave cylinder, remove gearbox mount and your done.

Exactly, probably a DIY job all considered. Longitudinal/rwd is pretty easy vs a transverse fwd/awd setup...

 

[MrGringo]

This is probably quite a newbie question but is the clutch covered under bmw warranty? I've noticed a slight judder shifting out of second gear on a couple of occasions when the engine's cold. My car only has 22k on it and still has 6 months BMW warranty remaining. Should I get it checked out?

 

[gannet]

This is probably quite a newbie question but is the clutch covered under bmw warranty? I've noticed a slight judder shifting out of second gear on a couple of occasions when the engine's cold. My car only has 22k on it and still has 6 months BMW warranty remaining. Should I get it checked out?

They replaced mine under the AUC warranty

Cannot hurt to get it checked out, better to do so before your warranty runs out than after

 

[Mr Whippy]

Shifting *out* of 2nd gear? As in when you clutch in and move to neutral, the car is juddering at the wheels, or the gearbox judders, or the engine output is juddery?

Can you explain exactly what you are doing and when it is juddering?

Dave

 

[un1eash]

I would argue that if a car is less then 3 years old and 30k on the clock then it should be covered as noway should you be having problems even if it is classed as a consumable.

 

[MrGringo]

Shifting *out* of 2nd gear? As in when you clutch in and move to neutral, the car is juddering at the wheels, or the gearbox judders, or the engine output is juddery?

Can you explain exactly what you are doing and when it is juddering?

Dave

Thinking carefully about it, it actually happens when I change IN to second gear, while I am lifting the clutch back up and increasing the gas. I suppose it is probably the gearbox, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd tell the difference between gearbox & engine output. If it does it again I'll make sure to note exactly what happens.