M3 cambelt/service history

[couger]

Guys
Veiwed another M3 at the weekend, book all stamped up, vanos done,70,000 miles, lovely motor, no record of a cambelt change?? is this done automaticly in one of the earlier services?? if not how much do I need to knock off the price to cater for this?? good chance Im going to buy it,

[silverback mike]

It's a chain isn't it?

[silverback mike]

As far as I am aware, the tensioners have to be replaced at 100k ish...

[celcius]

you should do more product research

[silverback mike]

who me?

[celcius]

No no not U cougar
As far as im aware all M3 6 cyl are Chains not belts.
I might be wrong if so some one let me kmow.

[silverback mike]

I know for sure the E30's had chains.
My E 36 328I had a chain, and I remember the Motorsport engines being talked about, and definately recall that the only thing needs changing are the tensioners...

Cougar - get back to your seller, if he says it has a cambelt, what else doesnt he have a clue about...

[couger]

Thanks guys good points, will find out

[RobbieM-Evo]

No cambelts on the E36 M3 Evo or E36 M3

[Hannu]

This is something that keeps on being raised on M3's ( camchain change ). I have an E30 M3 and the chain is a big talking point on these so I contacted some specialists to see what it was all about. The reality seems to be that it is a bit of a scare story. In reality the E30 and E36 use a duplex ( or double row chain ) and non of the specialists have ever heard of one breaking. They do tend to be a bit rattly on E30's, don't know about E36's but in most cases the specialists seem to think this can be solved by fitting the spring loaded tensioner from the 36.
However if the chain is getting seriously noisy they say they can stretch and jump so get the chain done which can I'm afraid can be an expensive job.
All of the above accepted my chain has been done but the car has done 120k!! I'm sure the one your looking at, at 70k will be fine. Good Luck in your search!! For further info on this issue check out Total BMW April 05..