[OfficinePanerai]

Hello,

Just got a fairly high mileage M3. It was mostly an impulse buy so before driving it off all i did was checked if it ran ok and whether it leaked anything/overheated etc.

In any case, the car came without any service records. It currently has 174k on it.

I've been reading around here and other M3 forums and apparently many people would never touch an M with these kind of miles. My question is

1). at this point should i only do regular maintenance on the engine (plugs, oil etc) and not even worry about valve adjustment etc, putting away money instead for a new engine and fixing the rest of the stuff along the way? or is it reasonable to expect the engine to run another 100k and thus would it be wiser to invest in "more advanced" maintenance?

i went to the dealer and they didn't have any records either but at least they told me that my car wasn't due for a rod bearing recall

2). when i go in for inspection, what are things that i should have them check? i know subframe is one of those, anything else?

it seems that the car was well taken care off and its suspension does not feel like its original...very stiff.

im mechanically inclined and do most of the work on my cars (including new engine installs etc) and only let a mechanic do more "technical" things.

[cmk227]

Wow. That is a lot of miles. I hope you got a great price.

I love those car. I think the car just need a new timing belt or band. Also try posting on M3forum.net since more e46 user on it. I am on both under cmk227

[BMRLVR]

That mileage isn't that bad...... It is high by not too extreme. If the car still runs and looks good then it was probably fairly well taken care of.

For the engine it would be a good idea to have a mechanic look at it and check the valve clearance, compression and a few other things........ the mechanic will know what to look for.

For the body/suspension he can look it over and check ball joints, tie rod ends, bushings etc. If the tires are wearing even the alignment must be close which would tell you there are no excessively worn parts. NOTE*** Just because of the mileage unless you can confirm the RTAB's were done, have these done regardless.

Enjoy the car, it may run for hundreds of thousands more miles without anything but routine maintenance. Please realize a well maintained high mileage car can be a lot better than a lower mileage poorly maintained car.