Of course, part of the fun of purchasing a used car is discovering what the previous owners have done to the car and, if a PPI isn't done, exactly what you've bought. I've spent some quality time with my recently acquired E46 M3 and learned some things good and bad. The good: poly bushings where they count on an E46 - rear trailing arm bushings (RTABs) and front control arm bushings (FCABs). No worries about ever having to change these parts, unlike the factory rubber pieces that tend to wear out, sometimes in as little as 20k miles with hard driving. I don't have one, but it's prewired for a V1. The bad: the oil pan gasket and the power steering pressure hose both leak, discovered by the shop that did my track day inspection today. I'm having him do the oil pan gasket - 5.5 hours of labor to replace a $50 part. I'll do the power steering hose, as it's an easy swap out and I wanted to replace the reservoir anyway since it's also the filter for the PS system - unfortunately the hose is a $175 part. When I pulled the front bumper to repair the damage I did to it where I scraped it the 3rd day I had it I found that someone snapped an aluminum bracket that holds some of the underbody plastics in place, $23 for a new one. The battery was bad and had to be replaced since it wouldn't hold a charge.
I've now got a list of maintenance and small repairs to do. I already put Redline MTL into the transmission and it shifts better, but the stuff that drained out looked very good. It got new ATE Typ 200 fluid in the brakes and clutch last weekend, and will be re-bled again before I hit the track in 2 weeks. The diff fluid will likely get a change also this winter. Cosmetically, I need to finish repairing the front bumper - a little filler and paint and it will be an invisible repair. The previous owner had a custom hitch on the car, part of which apparently involved a plate held in by 3 bolts in what would be the spare tire well - when I pulled everything out to vacuum the loose dog food and other schmutz out of the trunk I found 3 holes to the ground where the bolts were. A quick spray with some Rustoleum to halt the little bit of surface rust that was there and some nylon plugs have made the trunk watertight again. The rear deck has faded from black to blue; I picked up a can of vinyl and fabric dye for when I get time to pull it out and re-dye it black again. The sunroof sunshade is loose, a common E46 malady apparently (though my last E46 went 168k miles with no problem at all there...). I hope to pull the sunroof and fix that before my track days coming up, as that sliding back and forth may be a tad distracting. There's missing plastic fasteners here and there that hold much of the underbody plastics in place too, not so much that anything's flopping around but just enough to annoy me - they will be replaced. The shocks aren't leaking and are still good but they are nasty crusty with surface rust and will be replaced this winter when I plan to upgrade the suspension to a stiffer setup.
Overall I'm quite pleased with the condition of the car and how it drives, and drooling in anticipation of my first track experience with it. The up front money for these minor repairs is annoying but I plan to recoup at least some of it from the dealer I bought it from.
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