Wow, I was browsing autotrader and there are 75 02 C32's for sale? Supposedly only 1000 hit America? I wonder how many of these people just gave up with the car and all the inherent problems with it. Heck, I have had mine for a year and have gone through the intercooler pump, front swaybar bushings, sun visor in the rear window, malfunctioning sun roof and have the tranny jerk......

I love the looks of my C32 but the reliability just plain outright sucks.

 

I had more issues with my M3 then I have had with my C32.

 

E36 or E46?

 

e30 and e46....both had issues. The e30 had serious A/C issues has well as tranny problems that led to 2 replacements.

The e46 was never wrecked but had bad front end vibrations, issues with wiring, and the interior didn't last to 65K. The steering wheel looked like a dog had chewed on it and the seats cracked like no tomorrow. The sport button would magically come on by itself and almost got me in a few accidents.

The C32 has been good to me.

So far, I have replaced the TCU, IC pump, and brakes. Other than that, the car has been great...even with all the mods. The previous owner replaced the defective radiator under warranty. The TCU was replaced because I wanted to see if it fixed the tranny jerk, which it did. The IC pump in my mind in a wear and tear item and is an easy fix.

FYI - If you modify your driving style a bit, you can overcome the tranny jerk. I've had a C280 for almost a month now and I can say that it has a tranny jerk too. It's funny because it seems to be worse than the jerk in the C32. The C280 also has a bad 2nd-3rd jerk when under moderate load. Keep in mind this is an 07!

 

How would sport mode coming on almost getting you into accidents???

 

You still got the C32 i hope? What's it making hp-sise at stage II? I've found the C32 very fast in a straightline stock so stage II must be fun

 

Try driving in bumper to bumper traffic and have it randomly come on when you start to accelerate.

I guess I could say the thing about our sprint booster....It has almost caused a few accidents too. It's funny that something like this would cause you to almost hit someone.

 

Well, if you go by Renntech's stages for the E55, then I'm actually like a stage IV or V. The car should have close to 400WHP when I get it back on Tuesday. The last time it was on the Dyno, it made 360Whp without cams, porting, or valve work.

Renntech Pulley
Custom Renntech ECU
Evosport Headers
Schrick Cams
Ported / Polished Heads
Custom Valve Job
100 Cell Racing cats
Custom SS exhaust piping
IK-20 plugs
Greenfilters
Magnecor Wires

 

yesterday i drove my 430hp lemon 400 miles to summit point, hammered around the track for 4 sessions. sideways, tires smoking. my lemon then brought me home in serene comfort.

i love my lemon.

 

Ahhhh. If everyone could have such nice lemons......

 

My IC pump hasn't gone bad yet and I'm at 59xxx. My warranty is up in September. Is there some kind of way I can get it replaced under warranty even if it doesnt go bad before then so i dont get caught paying for it soon later?

 

Have you owned the car the whole time? There is a good chance it has already been replaced.

Buy the pump off ebay and keep it on hand.

 

I suspect there's no legitimate way of doing it. Although it might not hurt to speak to your Service Advisor to share your concerns that yours is probably at the end of it's useful life - I don't know of one that's lasted longer.

If it does fail after your warranty, at least there's a cost effective replacement that's well documented on this forum, using the same part from a Ford Lightning.

 

The 2002 C32 just has a handful of known issues to address. Once you or a former owner addresses them, they are rock solid reliable.

 

Ditto.

My 2003 M3 SMG was a POS!

 

Well, to be fair, the C32 isn't the first German performance car with inherent problems. A good example is the E36 M3, a car which I owned for about 4 years. They had rear shock mounts which failed prematurely (about 20-30k), Boge shocks which were only good for about 50k at best, front brake calipers which tended to freeze up around the 40k mark, and short lived plastic radiator tanks and thermostat housings.

Those were the more benign common issues. More seriously, there was also a weak transmission mount which sometimes let the transmission move so much under hard acceleration so you'd hit 2nd instead of 4th. Ooops! Hello new crate motor. There was also the infamous plastic impeller water pump in pre-sometime-in-1997 models which could fail prematurely and cause the car to overheat in a matter of minutes. Usually the engine was severely damaged by the time the driver even noticed. You could go ahead and replace it with a later metal impeller unit but the bearings in those were prone to fail, which led to the same problem. You had to pretty much change the water pump every 40k or so. Worse of all were rear subframe mounting points which could crack and break away from the body shell. This was very rare but if it happened, you'd be in the market for a new car because your M would be toast. There was no way to repair it. Companies like UUC offered products to shore up these issues but still.

So the E36 M3 had issues more numerous and serious than our cars yet they never hurt resale. Not making light of the C32's issues but to say it's a lemon isn't really accurate. I think the relatively low resale values can be attributed to other factors -- a more competitive market than 5 years ago, the lack of the gushing media enthusiasm that the E36 M3 received, and the relatively high number of AMG models which has led to a lack of brand identity. For the C-Class alone, we've had the C36, C43, C32, C55 and, soon, C63. The M3 has been the M3 since 1988 and everyone knows what it is. Few people know what my C32 is. I have to explain it.

In any case, for me, it just meant I got a great deal on an excellent car

 

i got it with 26xxx. i know i havent had it replaced. not sure if the previous owner replaced it or if the stealership did at anytime. i dont think it would have gone bad in the first 26K. i could always check with the stealership i guess