Cat-D BMW 3 series, is it worth buying?

rodenal

I would completely disagree with that sentiment. If you are buying a cooking model then yes, over priced and won't live up to expectations, however if buying a BMW (pretty much any BMW) with a decent 6 cylinder engine in it, say 325i as a minimum it's one hell of a car.

pendulum

The sill looks bent to me in this picture... not by much, but still bent. If you follow the top edge all the way along you can see it going inwards. I reckon it would be more noticeable once the doors are replaced.

makkan00

vax2002 wrote: »

Ps not sure on years but around 2005 onwards the airbag units are coded to the car so swapping them does not put out airbag lights, you need the tech software from the manufacturer and enter the airbag serial code manually on a coding screen and write it to the cars firmware, this is done on cars where bags are fired separately so it knows which airbag to fire and which have already been fired where as older models just fired the lot.
Sounds strange but it enables extra protection if the damage vehicle is struck a second time from another direction following the first collision , so you will need access to the coding techware for that firmware version.
Some private garages do claim to have access to it but generally it is a main dealer job.

Thanks to all of you. I am going to stay away from this car, just in case. But I like to know if airbag registering on computer is true as mentioned by senior member.
Do you have to register the airbags with system?

Cheers.

rodenal

I believe so, it seems to be the case with alot of cars over the last few years. Even previous to this (as far back as mid-late 90's) bmw airbag lights weren't able to be turned off using a standard obd reader, and needed the dealer software to do so it's not outwith the realms of possibility that only a dealer can recode new airbags to recent models.

s_b

You cant resett a fired airbag module via an eobd reader ,there are companies now can do this but its really advisable to replace the module with another unfired one
Thatcham also insist that the yellow cabling to the fired unit should be changed too due to the ends possibly melting on firing,this is pretty impossible to do due to how this wiring is these days part of the loom and so not straight forward to change like it was 10 years ago
I show a picture of a fiat siciento airbag module i disected and as you can see its just a ball bearing that fires out of its cage if the g force is enough,there is no way you could recode this without taking the box apart and putting the ball back in its hole
remember this is a simple one too, not multi bag as the bm has
Most insurers will write a modern car off if any bags deployed on a cost and litigious basis reason, if car was involved in another accident.
This is why it might be a d as opposed to a c as i said last night so a higher salvage price would be attained to put back in the insurers coffers at sale to salvage buyer time whether a yard or an individual

makkan00

s_b wrote: »

You cant resett a fired airbag module via an eobd reader ,there are companies now can do this but its really advisable to replace the module with another unfired one
Thatcham also insist that the yellow cabling to the fired unit should be changed too due to the ends possibly melting on firing,this is pretty impossible to do due to how this wiring is these days part of the loom and so not straight forward to change like it was 10 years ago
I show a picture of a fiat siciento airbag module i disected and as you can see its just a ball bearing that fires out of its cage if the g force is enough,there is no way you could recode this without taking the box apart and putting the ball back in its hole
remember this is a simple one too, not multi bag as the bm has
Most insurers will write a modern car off if any bags deployed on a cost and litigious basis reason, if car was involved in another accident.
This is why it might be a d as opposed to a c as i said last night so a higher salvage price would be attained to put back in the insurers coffers at sale to salvage buyer time whether a yard or an individual

Thanks, v useful.

harveybobbles

One thing to point out - if you take any BMW key to a dealer, they can tell you which airbags have been deployed.

That car looks pretty nasty to be honest! I'd even put money on the B pillar being bent. Which in turn could have pulled the roof down slightly...