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Personally I would avoid it unless it has had a new timing chain fitted correctly at a dealer, they tend to go around the 110,000 mark sooner if they have been serviced outside the dealer network.
They make a scraping noise when they are worn almost like a chuffing steam train where the chain is scraping against the chain guides, once they get too loose they whip back and forth the slack and shatter the cam chain wheel, very messy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pjoO5NAdZ4
The engine cover could be missing because the little rubber mounts had worn out or someone has left it off after engine work?
@Fixedwheelnut
A friend is looking to pick up an E87 118d SE as a cheap runaround. He's found a nice looking example albeit with 90k already on the clock.
Two questions:
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