Anyone suffered from E36 Nikasil issue?

[Biggles111]

I've got the patter of little feet due in October, so need a bigger car for carrying all the baby gear, grandmother, kitchen sink etc. I fancy buying an E36 touring 323 or 328, as they seem to be a bit of a bargain, at between £4.5K and £6K in autotrader, yet are still a good drive! I imagine they are pretty cheap (similar price to 316 and 318)because some people get scared off of the 6 cyl models by this issue.

Are they really so likely to have a problem? I read that the problem was due to previous high sulphur fuel in the north of England, and that as all the fuel sold now is low in sulphur it is unlikely to become an issue unless the engine is already in trouble.

Has anyone recently bought an E36 6 cyl car? What did you do to avoid buying one with the problem?

Or, if you already had the problem what did it cost to fix?

Thanks,
Brett

[Scoobysnack]

Bought a 328i Sport Coupe (N Reg) .... for this reason...

The previous owner had kept the BMW warranty going, until the engine failed from this issue at 72K miles.

BMW put in a complete new engine..

J

you could try www.e36coupe.com/ good bunch of lads

[jhoneyball]

i bought my sis's 328 touring a few weeks ago -- she'd had it from new. I got the dealer to do a leakage test adn they said it was fine. I guess a new engine is around 3-4k -- if the engine dies, I'll fit a new one. The 328 touring is a stonking good car

[daver]

Err, as the owner of a 323 E36 Coupe.... what is the Nikasil issue?!

[douglasr]

daver said:

Err, as the owner of a 323 E36 Coupe.... what is the Nikasil issue?!

Certain high sulpher fuels caused the cylinder bores to wear prematurely. As far as I know, BMW replace the engine if this is the cause - even if it is out of warranty(better check on that tho...).

According to my dealer failures were generally 2.8 litre cars used in the south of the country.