The Inspection

The pre purchase inspection was done by my friend Jake Larsen. He went over the car and graded all major items on a scale from 1-10. Below you will read his report and will find I could not be happier with what he found. He scored 53 separate items with everything coming together at an average of 9.15. Well on to the report:

1. Underbody

Rear under body: 10
Mid under body: 10
Forward under body: 10

Overall, impressive.  Both sides of the under body in the mid section ( where the side skirts attach ) had been re-undercoated.  Bob also mentioned the side sills had been filled with Waxoil which is a big bonus when it comes to corrosion prevention.

2. Under body components

Gas tank: 10

Exhaust: 9
Forward cat heat shield just beginning to crack on the forward edge.  This is nothing to worry about.  It was very minor.  A picture was taken.

Exhaust header: 7
The lower cross over pipe has a one inch crack at one of the welds.  It won’t effect anything and does not create any exhaust leak noise.  Mine was cracked much worse and I never noticed it.  I wouldn’t worry about it too much.  A picture was taken.

Front sub frame: 10
I looked specifically for cracked motor mounts as well as general condition.  No cracks.  Also worth noting was the fact that this sub frame is the factory reinforced version. Bonus!  A picture was taken.

Underside of engine: 9
Very minor wetness.  Just enough for dust to stick to.  Hardly anything really.  You just couldn’t eat off it, hence 1 point loss.  😎

Steering rack and tie rods: 10
Boots are crack free as well as the dust boots on the tie rod ball joints.  No leaks, no bearing play.

Firewall sound proofing: 10

3.  Suspension components

Rear sub-frame and trailing arms: 10
No cracks in any of the rubber bushings

Rear sway bar and links: 9
LH sway bar link has a little plastic clip mounted on it that is supposed to hold the rear hand brake cable.  It had cracked but the hand brake cable was zip tied to it.  No biggy. Rubber bushings had no cracks.  A picture was taken.

Front sway bar and links: 10
No cracks in either sway bar bushings or end link ball joint dust boots.

Front control arms: 10
Ball joint dust boots were perfect, no bearing play.  The solid control arm offset bushings were installed and looked perfect as well.

Front strut top mounts: 10
I was unable to look at the rear shock mounts.  I felt no clunking while test driving and assume them to be good as well.

Overall, all suspension components were perfect.  While driving, damping felt excellent and very “tight” like new.

4.  Drive-train

Differential: 10
No leaks

Half shafts: 9
The RH inner and outer boots had been replaced.  However, zip ties were used to affix the boot on the inner side.  This is not factory.  He did try to reuse the factory bands on the outside boot, but they shouldn’t be used.  This isn’t a biggy at all, but you should know.  I think he should’ve had his dealer put the proper factory bands on.  Other than that, the installation looked fine.  I only took 1 pt. off since they are new boots even though they are not installed in true factory form.  A picture was taken.

Drive shaft: 10

Gear box: 8
It looked like the selector rod input shaft seal had a very slight leak.  It was minor, but did give the rear of the gearbox a thin oil coating.  A picture was taken.

Shifter linkage: 7
The shifter ball and selector rod link did have some play which let it wiggle around a bit while driving.  Not just they typical “M3 shifter buzz”.  It wasn’t excessive however, I’d renew the links and bushings.

5.  Brakes

Front brakes: 7
Normal pad / disc wear but it’s getting close for replacement.  The next pad change will require new discs.

Rear brakes: 7
Same as above

6.  Engine and engine compartment

Valve cover: 9
The paint had come off in one spot.  Actually very minor and it was in an inconspicuous area.  It was a strip between 2 of the valve cover “ribs” measuring about 2 inches in length.  A picture was taken.

Intake plenum chamber: 10

Throttle bodies: 9
They looked good, but weren’t quite bare aluminum new.  They needed a light cleaning.  The yellow “tamper proof” caps on theindividual mixture screws were still there.  Cool.

Belts: 9
Normal wear

Pulleys: 7
The power steering and crank pulley had some corrosion.  Merely cosmetic.

Cylinder head: 10
I did not pull the valve cover.  When looking at the skimming depth indicator on the bottom of the head (on the sealing surface exposed from underneath) it was obvious the head had never been removed.  The oil cap and all that I could see inside the valve cover had absolutely no carbon build-up.  It did have some slight brown layer on everything inside.  This is caused by the use of Castrol oil.  It doesn’t cause any problems and never builds up, but it does cause this odd brown coating to appear on everything inside.  Bob did not seem excited for me to pull the valve cover and from I did see I was comfortable there weren’t going to be any surprises.  So I decided it wasn’t necessary.

All hoses: 10

All vacuum leak possibilities: 10
Everything was tight

All wiring: 10
In absolute perfect condition.  Never seen one with no wire repairs!

Air flow meter: 10
Never been opened

Radiator: 9
Not exactly “as new”.  Still is very good condition.

Air-box mount: 10
These can crack

Power steering components: 9
I took one point off just because everything wasn’t completely dry.  No biggy.

Fuse box: 10

Hood liner: 10

Oil cooler: 9
Not exactly “new”, but in very good condition.  Just a few bent vanes.

Aux fan: 9
One point for having sliver over spray on it.

The oil filter was proper BMW.

A sticker was present showing the A/C had been converted to R134

There is a drain for the cavity just forward and below the windshield.  It’s part of the firewall.  It’s common for it to plug up and not allow drainage.  It was obstruction free.