Daygall

From my experience with the e46 and e66 platforms previous owners are 99.9% of the problem.

You get the typical 18-25 year old with no diy skill, no mechanical aptitude that see these at 3-5k and go "I can own a bmw!" Then 6 months of thrashing on them later the 20 year old car breaks and they go " stupid pos German crap! " then turn around and trade them to a dealer that does the bare min to auction them.

Then "we" pick them up. Take one drive and go "fuck me every bushing is shot and every gasket leaks..." open that wallet.

Once you get them sorted out they're fine. Then keep to a maintenence schedule. IIRC in INSTA they even list the maintenence intervals.

Follow the bmw recommended intervals for everything except fluid - life time fluid my ass 😡- and my 330xi has been cheaper over the last 100k miles than my father's Subaru.

These at best are 19 year old cars now. The wiring to the LCM and the LCM itself are old. Insulation is no longer in good condition. When you have the headlights in AUTO mode the system is running 12V constant through that switch to the sensor in the windshield for the ambient light level to see if it should turn on the lights.

So with possible wire age, meaning compromised insulation, possible increase in wire resistance or the LCM being old too, that means resistance, resistance means heat, heat means fire.

It's a fairly well documented problem in older E46s now. I've seen way to many posts of car fires due to failed LCM modules or the wiring to them. So just wanted to pass along the heads up. It would be a shame to see a 330 burn down :(

Take your headlights off auto unless you've just replaced the LCM and wiring to them. Other than that have fun!

Should be. Good luck!

And yes 10% ethanol only in our cars. So whatever the highest octane 10%ethanol gas you can find.

In cold weather these engines vape like a Subaru owner it's normal. If it still dose it when it's completely hot. Like you can see it in your mirrors pulling away from a stop levels. Then you might have an issue. But a little white on start when cold in the cold is perfectly normal for these cars.

As others said it's much more likely it's just your short commute not letting the engine warm up fully caused buildup on the oil cap. A nice long highway cruise is honestly the easiest way to tell.

Edited for phone grammar and spelling 😑

Sorry. Euro specs. Let me unfreedom unit my brain.

High octane gas. Whatever you can afford, it will allow the engine to run "harder" by not retarding timing because of knock.

And if you're headgasket goes there are separate things that can happen.

You'll have large white clouds coming from your tailpipe. This is a gaskets failure from cooling jacket to combustion chamber. This also can be reversed and you'll be blowing combustion gas into the cooling system which can cause it to fail.

You'll see the same kind of sludge in your expansion tank and on its cap. This is failure of the gasket between the cooling jacket and the oil passages in the head.

In the case of the first one of you're really scared you might have lost the head gasket *unlikely of the engine had never been overheated. * you simply pull the spark plugs and stick a cheap borescope camera in the cylinders and look for one that is very clean. Like steam cleaned. That's a sure fire way to tell if you have a headgasket failure.