Thats what i like to hear, the guy im buying from, i hope...has only 13K on it, have you ever replaced a clutch or anything major on it...and how do you drive it?

 

I had put about 75k daily-driven miles on my '00. Worked perfect as a daily driver, IMO. 22 to 24 mpg in the city, 26 to 28 on the highway. (With a few 30+mpg tanks if you're doing cross-country type driving.)

The only issue would be if you need to haul plywood as part of your daily routine.

 

Did either of you daily driven guys ever replace a clutch...anything like that, i heard they had some problems with the differentials too

 

I replaced the clutch once. But in retrospect, I'm not sure that I really needed to. I may have pulled a dumb one and replaced it prematurely...not sure.

I've never had any problems with the differential.

As for how I drive, I'd say moderately, not extremely hard or anything. I definitely VTEC at least a few times everytime I drive, though. My car is only street driven.

 

As a last note, I'd take stuff that you read on the Internet with a grain of salt. For instance, from reading the M3 boards, you'd expect '01 M3 engines to be blowing up left and right. On the contrary, several friends of mine have '01 M3's and beat on them daily and haven't had problems.

 

The S54 is a beautiful motor, i dont see why anyone would think that

How many miles did you replace your clutch at, and how much did it cost...did you get it done, buy honda oem or what???

 

I did replace the clutch - but only because I wanted a light-weight flywheel and harder-grabbing pressure plate/friction disk. Upon inspection of the removed OEM units, they were still in great shape. This was done around 40k miles I think...?

The only problems I've experience are the result of driving the snot out of the car during tracks days. The left rear wheel bearing needed replacing at about 70k miles, and now the inner CV joints are causing the car to vibrate under acceleration. No issues with the diff.

Early models like mine sometimes have tranny issues - grinding when going into 2nd gear.

 

Regarding M3 engines - I too recall when there were many reports of engine failues, there was even a video of one such engine making a horrible ticking noise when at idle. Many people said they wouldn't purchase an M3 because of this.

 

The threads about the '01 M3 motor are out there. The issue probably doesn't get discussed very often anymore, but it sure did shortly after the E46 M3 came out. There was supposedly some systematic defect with the '01 motors. I didn't follow the discussion long enough to know what the conclusion was.

Clutch job cost $800 but that's because I had it done at a cheap place. It was about $400 for the OEM parts and $400 for labor.

 

I have the occasional 2nd gear grind when the tranny is cold also. It's really my sole gripe about the car. Everything else has been splendid. On my car, the tranny loosens up very, very noticeably after a few short minutes of driving.

Oh and I replaced the clutch at around 60k miles plus change.