The BMW E90 3 series has been a compact sports sedan for us Indians. The car boasts about power and ride dynamics in a much different way from its rivals. Owning one has been a dream for a lot of people out there. But affordability has been a big factor in owning such an expensive luxury car.

Now that it has been more than 10 years since the car first launched in India, the used car prices have significantly come down. It is come down to its last phase before getting scrapped. The good thing about this is you can buy them cheap.

But buying cheap can mean that you may end up with a lemon. So, if you are on the lookout for a used 2009-2012 BMW E90 3 series, make sure you look for these common problems found on these cars.

Clogged EGR and PCV

The diesel model that was launched in India, the 320d and the 320d luxury line are prone to this problem. And this will happen on cars that have spent most of their life running around the city.

The emission control devices, the Exhaust Gas Re-circulation (EGR) and the Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) need a high flow of exhaust gases to stat clean. And that high flow can be achieved in the cars regularly doing highway trips.

Once the car has reached about 70,000 kilometers, you can expect the clog to start happening. It gets worse with time and can cause the engine from starting, the performance would go do as well.

Clean the EGR and PCV would require some major labor so be ready to spend about ₹15,000 or more on this task.

The fuel injector

The health of the fuel injector is largely dictated by the fuel quality you use in your car. The diesel fuel in India, let’s say, is not of the best quality. And it can very well blog the fuel injectors, fuel pump and strainer.

Regularly changing the fuel filter (say about every 30,000 kilometers) can prevent this from happening. But most of the owners are not aware of what parts are changed under the preventative maintenance regime and they blindly follow the service schedule the brand has advised. Even better is that BMW cars do not follow scheduled servicing rather the parts are changed when they are required to.

Ask the previous owner if they have used fuel injector cleaner or have been regularly changing the fuel filter regularly. If they have no idea what you are talking about, you might have to spend big money on fuel injectors in the near future.

The ones sold by Bosch cost about ₹28,000/piece and the BMW ones cost north or ₹65,000/piece. But before you go ahead to buy this part, try the fuel injector cleaning agent.

Oil filter housing leak

Gaskets and seals go bad as they age. With the continuous torture of high heat and dust and dirt, the gasket material deteriorated over time. On a ten-year-old BMW E90 3 series, this is one of the common places the oil leaks from. If the previous owner has not performed the preventative maintenance of this car, you definitely will have this leak.

If there is no leak around the gasket area but the previous owner has not changed it, you can check the inside of the radiator cap. Undo it and check whether there is a chocolate milkshake like formation.

The fix is cheap and easy to do. All you need is the replacement gasket and some tools and the know-how to use them. Or you can follow the FCP Euro video tutorial.

Valve cover gasket

My 2009 Corolla just got its changed last week when I noticed the oil leaking from the valve cover. It has been almost 13 years and about 1,30,000 kilometers since the gasket held up. On a similar aged BMW, you can expect the same thing to happen. And on the BMWs, these failures are fairly common.

If you see that there has been only seepage around the valve cover (Just look at the front section of the engine just below the plastic just cover), you can say that the leak has just developed.

But if you see that the engine is covered with leaked oil, then the coil pack, spark plugs and other rubber parts the leaked engine oil has been sitting on may need to be cleaned or replaced as well.

If the case is former, the replacement of the valve cover gasket takes about an hour and costs about ₹4,800. If the case is the latter, then upon inspection the bill may vary starting from ₹5,000 going all the way, well the sky is the limit!

Follow this video to replace the valve cover gasket on the petrol variant of the BMW E90 3 series with the N52 engine.

Oil pan gasket leak

They say the BMW E90 3 series is designed in a way that its engine oil pan gasket will fail eventually. If you see an engine oil lump at the driveway or car overheating, just look under the engine at the oil pan. It is one heck of a common issue on these.

Replacing the oil pan gasket is not made for weekend mechanics. The job needs to suspend the engine to lower the sub-frame. For that, you’d need an engine suspender made for these cars. Even your local mechanic might find it hard to do this job.

If you have the patience and you consider yourself above regular Joes out there, you can follow the guide by The Bimmer Barn YT channel.

The oil sump gasket on the BMW E90 3 series costs about ₹4,600 but as you can see the job is laborious and can only be performed by people who have prior experience in fixing BMWs. So, expect a high labor bill.

Ignition Coil pack

On the high mileage (more than 1.5 lac kilometers) BMWs the engine misfires may start to happen. This may be related to the worn out or out of spec spark plug, clogged fuel injectors or 90% of the times it is the coil pack.

For the coil pack to be replaced, first you need to buy them at ₹6,600 at BMW or just at ₹1,800 from Bosch. Then, lift the plastic cover in the windshield area and then the engine dust cover. Post that you will need to disconnect the coil pack harness and pull the coil pack out. Put the new one and you are good to go.

Just a friendly advice, if you are there with all the plastic trims open replacing the coil pack, you may want to replace the spark plugs as well. It would not make much sense to do it all over just to replace the spark plugs that are nearing their end.

Depending on the number of coil packs replacement (it is mostly two), the cost of the job varies. Though replacing all six spark plugs should not cost you more than ₹8,000 if you buy the Bosch ones. The one that comes with the BMW tag should cost you almost double.

Vanos

Vanos stands for “Variable Nockenwellen Steuerung” that means variable camshaft timing. It is the BMW way of working the variable camshaft timing and with the two solenoids placed at the front of the engine, they can go bad with all the dirt and debris over time.

When these solenoids go bad the car can experience starting problems, increased fuel consumption and sluggish performance under 3,800 rpm. The car will through a check engine light with a variety of DTCs.

Replacing the two solenoids is easy but should cost you a lot of money (about ₹30,000) when you order it from FCP Euro.

It is not a time-consuming job and can be performed at home.

Blower motor

The blower motor had failed on cars with only 60,000 kilometers whereas some held strong even after crossing 1,20,000 kilometers. So, saying that it is not mileage related is safe.

The failure can happen because the car has been in a dusty area of the interior of the car got cleaned only once a year at the service station. Even lack of lubrication or stuck leaves can make the blower malfunction.

Checking the climate control should be on your list when you are inspecting a used BMW E90 3 series. If there is no air coming out of the vents, you need a new blower motor.

Power window regulator

Power window regulators on these tend to fail especially the rear ones. The main reason is the dirt getting collected in the channels. This put a lot of stress on the regulator and with time they give out.

Check all the windows for normal operation. If the windows are making weird noise when rolling up and down, you may as well put it in the list of replacements.

If the case is the failed window regulator, try to repair it as replacing the window regulator with the original BMW part costs more than ₹26,000.

Cup holders and glove box rattle

Rattle noise generally come from the dashboard are and broken cup holder in a BMW E90 3 series
The car that I test drove had rattles. I thought the engine mounts are gone, but upon digging further, the rattle noise was from the dashboard area.

Upon asking the owner, he pointed out in the direction of the center cup holder and the glove box. This BMW did not have the best quality interiors. The previous generation was even more terrible where peeling plastic was a common thing.

Learn to live with the rattle of fixing it with latex.

Water pump and thermostat

Water pump failure is inevitable in high mileage cars. If you are looking at a car that has gone over 1,20,000 kilometers, you can expect the water pump replacement coming up. And since you’d pay for this laborious job, I’d say get the drive belt and pulley inspected and replace the thermostat as well.

The whole job should set you back by around ₹60,000.

Bonus tip – Check the coolant color

Checking the vehicle’s fluid can tell you a lot about the care and maintenance the previous owners have taken. The coolant on these cars should look oceanic green in color, not the bright green that you see on common cars.

Since these cars are sensitive to coolant type, you can expect major engine damage if the previous owner has been cutting corners in maintaining the car with the right fluid types. Also, if the coolant color is indeed green, you can only imagine what more could be wrong with the car.