Thinking of buying a 2000 328i

[Kenyapret]

A friend of mine has a 2000 328i that he is willing to sell. It used to be his daily driver, and he stated it started running rough and "throwing codes" (his term). He parked it, bought a new car and has not driven the car in a while. Right now the battery is dead. Without seeing the car, I offered $2K. Any ideas what could be wrong and the cost to get it running well? I asked about maintenance history and have not received a response. I won't get to look at the car until next weekend. I will take a battery to see if it will start and hopefuly I can get the maintenance history. I don't need it but would not mind having something to drive as an option to my truck and motorcycle. Thoughts???

[Manolito]

Nothing concerning about a 2000 328 unless he really thrashed it or he never changed the oil. I would expect it to be worth much more than $2k unless he really messed it up.

You should probably plan on replacing the whole cooling system (radiator, water pump, expansion tank, thermostat, hoses, etc.) I recently did one of my 2004s and I will have to do the other one this summer. Plan on spending $500 on that if you do the work yourself.

Plan on changing all the fluids - brake fluid, tranny, rear end.

A 2000 is early in the model run so it has the original version of several parts that got improved later in the model run, but nothing of any concern.

If you can borrow an OBD II tool and find out exactly what codes it has stored, that will tell you more.

The fuel pump is not the strongest point in this car so if it won't start after an extended period of being parked, make sure you can hear the fuel pump spin up for a second when you turn the key to On.

Expect the plastic and rubber parts on the air intake to have gotten old and cracked by now. That may be why the car did not run well.

If it was parked in the sun, don't expect the sunroof to work. The plastic guides on the inside panel will have disintegrated, and when that won't open, it jams the glass part.

[Jared at Pelican Parts]

As Manolito said, you need to get a hold of an OBDII scanner and actually read what the codes are. Other than that, there's now way to know what s actually wrong with the car. It could be a variety of different things.

E46's are nice cars however. In my opinion, the last well made BMW.

[Drisump]

I just returned from my first 1500 mile mountain trip with our 2000 328i (auto) and she sure impressed me! Good passing power, comfort, performance, handling, fuel economy....it seems to have it all. A very well designed package. Cheers