TiredBMW
New member
Hello fellow BMW fans.
My user name about sums me up. I've owned a late 1970's 520i, an E30 318i (beautiful diamond black, alloys and black leather sport seats, an E36 318i, an E46 318i Touring and now an E83 X3 2.0d. The E46 was by far the most tired by the time I'd finished with it - over 400k km and lots of noises from the engine. The thing sucked money towards the end of its life and I was happy to be rid of it. It proved to me that in SA its very difficult to find repairers who can actually diagnose and solve a problem on BMW's since the E46 came along. That 318i engine was nice when new but very boring. Higher mileage problems were many, from valve stem seals and coils repeat failures, a blown head gasket and bearing damage. My favorites were the E30 and E36, the latter being a proper drivers car with great stiff suspension out of the box and even with 103kw, still fun to drive and a great sound at high revs as well as capable of quite high speed long distance drives. The E46 was a let down in many respects - squishy suspension and safety biased handling with a tendency to understeer. Not sporty at all. That said the Touring was a lekker useful car.
Bring on the X3 - an interesting second had buy at a good price from a friend. The gearbox was the first to give trouble which was sorted by a complete rebuild at ZF which took ages due to parts shortages and of course a hefty bill. No other issues for a while and it drives well and probably handles better than the e46 thanks to the very stiff suspension. Its quite capable off road and has done snowy passes and very degraded gravel in the Baviaanskloof. A few thousand K's later and I've got a drone and vibration apparent at freeway speeds in top gear while on the gas. I've had it checked at Driveshaft Center and they've diagnosed a rear diff issue, not the propshaft.
So, as is probably quite common here, my first post is a request for help. Who would you guys recommend for a diff check and repair and why?
My user name about sums me up. I've owned a late 1970's 520i, an E30 318i (beautiful diamond black, alloys and black leather sport seats, an E36 318i, an E46 318i Touring and now an E83 X3 2.0d. The E46 was by far the most tired by the time I'd finished with it - over 400k km and lots of noises from the engine. The thing sucked money towards the end of its life and I was happy to be rid of it. It proved to me that in SA its very difficult to find repairers who can actually diagnose and solve a problem on BMW's since the E46 came along. That 318i engine was nice when new but very boring. Higher mileage problems were many, from valve stem seals and coils repeat failures, a blown head gasket and bearing damage. My favorites were the E30 and E36, the latter being a proper drivers car with great stiff suspension out of the box and even with 103kw, still fun to drive and a great sound at high revs as well as capable of quite high speed long distance drives. The E46 was a let down in many respects - squishy suspension and safety biased handling with a tendency to understeer. Not sporty at all. That said the Touring was a lekker useful car.
Bring on the X3 - an interesting second had buy at a good price from a friend. The gearbox was the first to give trouble which was sorted by a complete rebuild at ZF which took ages due to parts shortages and of course a hefty bill. No other issues for a while and it drives well and probably handles better than the e46 thanks to the very stiff suspension. Its quite capable off road and has done snowy passes and very degraded gravel in the Baviaanskloof. A few thousand K's later and I've got a drone and vibration apparent at freeway speeds in top gear while on the gas. I've had it checked at Driveshaft Center and they've diagnosed a rear diff issue, not the propshaft.
So, as is probably quite common here, my first post is a request for help. Who would you guys recommend for a diff check and repair and why?
