First of all, a little back story...
I purchased my BMW Dec. 11, 2014. I bought it from a Toyota dealership and it came with no maintenance records, but it was a 1 owner car with a clean carfax. It was very clean and in great condition. I drove it for a few weeks listening for sounds, checking under the hood for coolant and oil leaks. It shifted very smooth (Auto box) and seemed to be very solid and taken care of. The car had ~108k miles on it. At the start of the trip it had ~111k
I added a long tube CAI that puts the filter down behind the driver side front bumper right behind the fog light. Despite having no leaks I also replaced the VCG which it needed very badly since the old one was as hard and brittle as a rock. I did spark plugs at the same time. The plugs fixed my semi-rough cold idle and the car ran even smoother!
The road trip..
I started out in north Georgia and my destination was Corpus Christi, TX (not exactly but without giving away my personal info, its close). Anyways, it came out to 1050 miles one way. Despite my car running solid without a problem, I was a little iffy to say the least, mostly because of all these Doomsday BMW preppers here on the forums! My rear tires could've used replacing first, but I said what the hell, I'll use these on the trip and get some when I get back.
The way there..
I left at around 11:30 pm eastern time. Let me start by saying, prior to my trip I had only tested the cruise control one time, but ones I got on the road and set it with almost zero traffic late at night, it was so smooth and comfortable! I almost did not even have to steer! Also, I would like to note that before the trip since I have had the car, I have been in a "honeymoon" state with it which basically means, I have been driving on sport mode with a heavier than average foot! Since my cars computer functions were used to this driving, with a full tank I was rated at getting as far as "350 miles" on one full tank of gas. I was OK with that, and that would mean 3-4 tanks which breaks down to a minimum of 3 stops since I already had a full tank. So i embarked on my journey... Alabama..Mobile...Mississippi..Biloxi..Louisiana..Baton Rouge - Honestly, I was starting to get very tired when I hit Louisiana, and I was seriously debating a stop for a nap. However, as i hit Baton Rouge, daylight began to emerge and I was in awe of the scenery and the giant bridge ahead of me! It woke me up, so I continue...I debated taking a scenic route down to New Orleans as I have never been, but I really was eager to see my friend in Texas. Louisiana was thus far my favorite part, partly I would suppose because it was actually light out. There is water and bridges and bayous! I came to a 20 mile long bridge over a bayou which was pretty awesome. Alas I saw a 75 MPH speed limit sign and realized I had hit Texas. Woohoo! cruise control went up 5 MPH and I continue. Texas is flat and I mean, there are no hills in Texas whatsoever. This is a far cry from my home state of Georgia which is mountainous and hilly in the north. Semi-desert scenery with very large oil refineries, and guess what? EVERYONE drives a truck haha. I swear about 70 % of the vehicles once I hit Texas were trucks. I finally made it to Houston.. what a great city. It definitely has more efficient roadways and interstates when compared to Atlanta. I'll fast forward as perhaps I am being a little too detailed.. I made it to my destination in approx. 15.5 hours with only 2 stops. It turns out our cars get great gas mileage on the highway! I made it ~1050 miles on about 2.5 full tanks of gas I think probably less but I am being conservative.
Anyways... back to the point... I had 0, zero, zero, zero problems from my car whatsoever. The temp gauge never moved one bit, the gas mileage was excellent, RPMs were steady the entire time on cruise control, everything was smooth was start to finish.
The trip back..
It started out terrible... rain.. hours of rain.. about 3 hours of straight rain. I have to admit, I was a little worried about my CAI. I did not buy into all the "common" hydro-lock myths with the long tube CAIs through heavy rain. Turns out.. I was fine.. the rain let up close to Louisiana and i decided to take the detour to New Orleans. I was not too amazed. The bridges and water and superdome were pretty awesome but everything else was pretty rundown and trashy looking. I do not think I would choose to vacation here. The long ass bridge was truly awesome though. As I made it to Mississippi..then Alabama...it started to rain again..heavy rain. Again, my CAI was in the back of my mind, but it had already made it through 3 hours of rain, so what was there to worry about? I was also worried as this point about my rear tires. Like I stated early, they needed replacing, I would put the tread at about 20%. I wouldn't have been worried except I have been with a friend who hydro-planed before at 70 mph and it was not fun. I continued...rain..rain..heavy rain.. I get a text from a family member warning me of cold icy roads in Georgia. Thuse far the entire trip had been from 70-64 degrees. Even where I was now in Alabama, it was 64 degrees and i was close to Georgia. So this was hard to believe that it was 32 degrees just a few hours away! I made it to Atlanta, and at this point I had driven through 5 hours of straight rain, not including the first 3 hours of the trip in Texas. So that is a totally of 8 hours of straight rain so far in one day. This is heavy rain too, I mean if anyone saw the storm that went through the south the past 2 days.. it was heavy stuff. I was weary of the icy roads at this point as it was in fact 32 degrees when I hit Atlanta, and I still had about an hour to go and it was north.. where the temperature drops and the radio was saying trees and ice everywhere. I started seeing trees and branches that had already been cleared off the road, but other than that the roads were just wet. I made it home and guess what? The car was still smooth and perfect... despite over 2000 miles and 9 hours of straight rain into my CAI! Omg!
So listen... I am not saying maintenance is not important.. but if you did your research and you buy an e46 that was taken care of and driven regularly, then you have nothing to worry about.. Don't let the doomsday preppers around here discourage you. Now if you buy a shitty, beat up e46.. you are first of all, dumb, and second of all, yes you need all the maintenance you can afford which will be the price of the car and you will not get it back.
If you have a solid car.. take a road trip! I could not have asked for a better car to drive long distance!
Thanks for reading!:bump:
I purchased my BMW Dec. 11, 2014. I bought it from a Toyota dealership and it came with no maintenance records, but it was a 1 owner car with a clean carfax. It was very clean and in great condition. I drove it for a few weeks listening for sounds, checking under the hood for coolant and oil leaks. It shifted very smooth (Auto box) and seemed to be very solid and taken care of. The car had ~108k miles on it. At the start of the trip it had ~111k
I added a long tube CAI that puts the filter down behind the driver side front bumper right behind the fog light. Despite having no leaks I also replaced the VCG which it needed very badly since the old one was as hard and brittle as a rock. I did spark plugs at the same time. The plugs fixed my semi-rough cold idle and the car ran even smoother!
The road trip..
I started out in north Georgia and my destination was Corpus Christi, TX (not exactly but without giving away my personal info, its close). Anyways, it came out to 1050 miles one way. Despite my car running solid without a problem, I was a little iffy to say the least, mostly because of all these Doomsday BMW preppers here on the forums! My rear tires could've used replacing first, but I said what the hell, I'll use these on the trip and get some when I get back.
The way there..
I left at around 11:30 pm eastern time. Let me start by saying, prior to my trip I had only tested the cruise control one time, but ones I got on the road and set it with almost zero traffic late at night, it was so smooth and comfortable! I almost did not even have to steer! Also, I would like to note that before the trip since I have had the car, I have been in a "honeymoon" state with it which basically means, I have been driving on sport mode with a heavier than average foot! Since my cars computer functions were used to this driving, with a full tank I was rated at getting as far as "350 miles" on one full tank of gas. I was OK with that, and that would mean 3-4 tanks which breaks down to a minimum of 3 stops since I already had a full tank. So i embarked on my journey... Alabama..Mobile...Mississippi..Biloxi..Louisiana..Baton Rouge - Honestly, I was starting to get very tired when I hit Louisiana, and I was seriously debating a stop for a nap. However, as i hit Baton Rouge, daylight began to emerge and I was in awe of the scenery and the giant bridge ahead of me! It woke me up, so I continue...I debated taking a scenic route down to New Orleans as I have never been, but I really was eager to see my friend in Texas. Louisiana was thus far my favorite part, partly I would suppose because it was actually light out. There is water and bridges and bayous! I came to a 20 mile long bridge over a bayou which was pretty awesome. Alas I saw a 75 MPH speed limit sign and realized I had hit Texas. Woohoo! cruise control went up 5 MPH and I continue. Texas is flat and I mean, there are no hills in Texas whatsoever. This is a far cry from my home state of Georgia which is mountainous and hilly in the north. Semi-desert scenery with very large oil refineries, and guess what? EVERYONE drives a truck haha. I swear about 70 % of the vehicles once I hit Texas were trucks. I finally made it to Houston.. what a great city. It definitely has more efficient roadways and interstates when compared to Atlanta. I'll fast forward as perhaps I am being a little too detailed.. I made it to my destination in approx. 15.5 hours with only 2 stops. It turns out our cars get great gas mileage on the highway! I made it ~1050 miles on about 2.5 full tanks of gas I think probably less but I am being conservative.
Anyways... back to the point... I had 0, zero, zero, zero problems from my car whatsoever. The temp gauge never moved one bit, the gas mileage was excellent, RPMs were steady the entire time on cruise control, everything was smooth was start to finish.
The trip back..
It started out terrible... rain.. hours of rain.. about 3 hours of straight rain. I have to admit, I was a little worried about my CAI. I did not buy into all the "common" hydro-lock myths with the long tube CAIs through heavy rain. Turns out.. I was fine.. the rain let up close to Louisiana and i decided to take the detour to New Orleans. I was not too amazed. The bridges and water and superdome were pretty awesome but everything else was pretty rundown and trashy looking. I do not think I would choose to vacation here. The long ass bridge was truly awesome though. As I made it to Mississippi..then Alabama...it started to rain again..heavy rain. Again, my CAI was in the back of my mind, but it had already made it through 3 hours of rain, so what was there to worry about? I was also worried as this point about my rear tires. Like I stated early, they needed replacing, I would put the tread at about 20%. I wouldn't have been worried except I have been with a friend who hydro-planed before at 70 mph and it was not fun. I continued...rain..rain..heavy rain.. I get a text from a family member warning me of cold icy roads in Georgia. Thuse far the entire trip had been from 70-64 degrees. Even where I was now in Alabama, it was 64 degrees and i was close to Georgia. So this was hard to believe that it was 32 degrees just a few hours away! I made it to Atlanta, and at this point I had driven through 5 hours of straight rain, not including the first 3 hours of the trip in Texas. So that is a totally of 8 hours of straight rain so far in one day. This is heavy rain too, I mean if anyone saw the storm that went through the south the past 2 days.. it was heavy stuff. I was weary of the icy roads at this point as it was in fact 32 degrees when I hit Atlanta, and I still had about an hour to go and it was north.. where the temperature drops and the radio was saying trees and ice everywhere. I started seeing trees and branches that had already been cleared off the road, but other than that the roads were just wet. I made it home and guess what? The car was still smooth and perfect... despite over 2000 miles and 9 hours of straight rain into my CAI! Omg!
So listen... I am not saying maintenance is not important.. but if you did your research and you buy an e46 that was taken care of and driven regularly, then you have nothing to worry about.. Don't let the doomsday preppers around here discourage you. Now if you buy a shitty, beat up e46.. you are first of all, dumb, and second of all, yes you need all the maintenance you can afford which will be the price of the car and you will not get it back.
If you have a solid car.. take a road trip! I could not have asked for a better car to drive long distance!
Thanks for reading!:bump:
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