[old grey steve]

Your like this one

Rare sight especially one as good as this one. A very nice, striaght well cared for B3 this one but sadly one with a normal type 335i issues. Namily a little down on power and through the auto box the car had been reported as losing its mojo somewhat.

The customer had come to us having been to the main dealer previously before opting to try somewhere else as he felt he was being "processed" and didn't feel comfortable. After this event had taken place and the customer had researched where to take his car he called me we had a chat on the phone and the car was duly booked in.

First thing first introductions all done and again re visiting old ground we road test to see if any thing was seriously wrong and the answer was nothing really stood out, next as the car was reported as feeling a little lacking going through the gears(especially from cold)best course of action was to check underneath(I was expecting a damp gearbox sump and/or a leaky plug)but the cars gear box was bone dry in fact the underside of the car was dry not a leak in sightand for a 335i based car with over 70k on the clock this is very rare. Though the gearbox wasn't leaking as we know ideally going forward a gearbox service would only do the car some good so this for the moment was put on to the back burner as there were more important things to deal with I thought.

So what was the issue. Well typically after diagnosis was undertaken the car came back with the high and low pressure faults we 335i owners love. No denying the issue as it was recorded a number of times as a fault which the car had lived with for a little while, it hadn't got to the stage of some 335i's but the fact it was present said it all, the cars mojo we suspect was mainly down to these identified faults and followed the usual 335i pattern.

So if you're going to attend to the high pressure pump and repalce the low pressure sensor (updated on this car to a later spec Bosch unit-previously it was Siemens unit - the lower pressure sensor on this car differed slightly to the one I had repalced on mine as mine had a modified line and sensor this came with just the sensor) as the manifold was going to have to come off good time to deal with coked valves too (again this would have as all 335i owners now know a bearing on performance and general running) so in agreement with the customer we would attend to this as well at the same time and looking through the service book noted the plugs hadn't been changed for some time so best practice again with the customers consent get these repalced as well.

Before we started we opted to take the car out one more time for a test drive as traffic was heavy on the first drive and it was raining and happened to stumble upon a very noisy nearside rear wheel bearing which we struggled to hear previously.

The customer hadn't noticed it was a bearing and didn't realise that there was an issue but once explained realised that there was a noise and put 2 and 2 together so this was added to the list.

As the car had warranty it was my job to submit the claim for low high pressure pump and wheel bearing and follow the claim through and here lies the fact that chaps there aren't that many photo's

So wheel bearing first. Make no mistake removing one of these is time consuming as it requires the bearing to be removed from the hub. We had of course a couple of options re remvoing the old bearing either remove the hub completly press out or hub in situ use the correctr tools to remove the bearing hub in situ and that was the option we took we knew the bearing hadn't collapsed but strongly suspsected that due to age the noise was done to this and this alone so





brakes removed (we noted that the ABS sensor was also damaged while stripping down) and as you can see from this picture the main event was over



one tired bearing



one new bearing awaiting re fitting



once fitted everything was bolted up, ABS sensor replaced and wheel on



job done.

Next job the reason why the car was in with us in the first place. Namily the loss of performance.

With the bonnet up everything inlet wise was removed and once everything was out of the way we had full view of the high pressure pump, this was duly replaced and the sensor on the low pressure pipe was duly swapped out (recommended that once the high presure pump and low pressure sensor is repalced an ECU and HPFP software update is carried out and this is stright from BMW ISTA system wwe use and this once all bolted up the software updates needed would take place) once all this was back together the valves.

Before








After








Once bolted up software update was undertaken car road tested immediatly the car performed much much better before hand we had to agree with the customer something wasn't quite right after the work the car reclaimed its Alpina flair.

Customer was. well here is the review he gave us

"Very happy customer,
I have a big issue with customer service and the feel good factor, I also like to know that my car is in good hands and with individuals that are passionate about cars.

My Alpina went in sluggish and underwent a good service and walnut blast and a few other important changes and software upgrades and was returned to me as the elegant beast it's meant to be.

Big smile on face as I returned home on A1.

Thank you A1BN".

Thansk for reading

Steve

[FHE92]

Originally Posted by old grey steve

Your like this one

Rare sight especially one as good as this one. A very nice, striaght well cared for B3 this one but sadly one with a normal type 335i issues. Namily a little down on power and through the auto box the car had been reported as losing its mojo somewhat.

The customer had come to us having been to the main dealer previously before opting to try somewhere else as he felt he was being "processed" and didn't feel comfortable. After this event had taken place and the customer had researched where to take his car he called me we had a chat on the phone and the car was duly booked in.

First thing first introductions all done and again re visiting old ground we road test to see if any thing was seriously wrong and the answer was nothing really stood out, next as the car was reported as feeling a little lacking going through the gears(especially from cold)best course of action was to check underneath(I was expecting a damp gearbox sump and/or a leaky plug)but the cars gear box was bone dry in fact the underside of the car was dry not a leak in sightand for a 335i based car with over 70k on the clock this is very rare. Though the gearbox wasn't leaking as we know ideally going forward a gearbox service would only do the car some good so this for the moment was put on to the back burner as there were more important things to deal with I thought.

So what was the issue. Well typically after diagnosis was undertaken the car came back with the high and low pressure faults we 335i owners love. No denying the issue as it was recorded a number of times as a fault which the car had lived with for a little while, it hadn't got to the stage of some 335i's but the fact it was present said it all, the cars mojo we suspect was mainly down to these identified faults and followed the usual 335i pattern.

So if you're going to attend to the high pressure pump and repalce the low pressure sensor (updated on this car to a later spec Bosch unit-previously it was Siemens unit - the lower pressure sensor on this car differed slightly to the one I had repalced on mine as mine had a modified line and sensor this came with just the sensor) as the manifold was going to have to come off good time to deal with coked valves too (again this would have as all 335i owners now know a bearing on performance and general running) so in agreement with the customer we would attend to this as well at the same time and looking through the service book noted the plugs hadn't been changed for some time so best practice again with the customers consent get these repalced as well.

Before we started we opted to take the car out one more time for a test drive as traffic was heavy on the first drive and it was raining and happened to stumble upon a very noisy nearside rear wheel bearing which we struggled to hear previously.

The customer hadn't noticed it was a bearing and didn't realise that there was an issue but once explained realised that there was a noise and put 2 and 2 together so this was added to the list.

As the car had warranty it was my job to submit the claim for low high pressure pump and wheel bearing and follow the claim through and here lies the fact that chaps there aren't that many photo's

So wheel bearing first. Make no mistake removing one of these is time consuming as it requires the bearing to be removed from the hub. We had of course a couple of options re remvoing the old bearing either remove the hub completly press out or hub in situ use the correctr tools to remove the bearing hub in situ and that was the option we took we knew the bearing hadn't collapsed but strongly suspsected that due to age the noise was done to this and this alone so

brakes removed (we noted that the ABS sensor was also damaged while stripping down) and as you can see from this picture the main event was over



one tired bearing



one new bearing awaiting re fitting



once fitted everything was bolted up, ABS sensor replaced and wheel on


job done.

Next job the reason why the car was in with us in the first place. Namily the loss of performance.

With the bonnet up everything inlet wise was removed and once everything was out of the way we had full view of the high pressure pump, this was duly replaced and the sensor on the low pressure pipe was duly swapped out (recommended that once the high presure pump and low pressure sensor is repalced an ECU and HPFP software update is carried out and this is stright from BMW ISTA system wwe use and this once all bolted up the software updates needed would take place) once all this was back together the valves.

Before



After



Once bolted up software update was undertaken car road tested immediatly the car performed much much better before hand we had to agree with the customer something wasn't quite right after the work the car reclaimed its Alpina flair.

Customer was. well here is the review he gave us

"Very happy customer,
I have a big issue with customer service and the feel good factor, I also like to know that my car is in good hands and with individuals that are passionate about cars.

My Alpina went in sluggish and underwent a good service and walnut blast and a few other important changes and software upgrades and was returned to me as the elegant beast it's meant to be.

Big smile on face as I returned home on A1.

Thank you A1BN".

Thansk for reading

Steve

Nice! Great work

[Iain]

Good write up.
My friend recently had his B3 in to get new HPFP fitted and 6 new injectors as his was slightly down on power but had a really rough idle from cold, I'm thinking his would benefit from a walnut blast as well.

My wife's old R56 Cooper S got walnut blasted and the difference was like night and day.

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by Iain

Good write up.
My friend recently had his B3 in to get new HPFP fitted and 6 new injectors as his was slightly down on power but had a really rough idle from cold, I'm thinking his would benefit from a walnut blast as well.

My wife's old R56 Cooper S got walnut blasted and the difference was like night and day.

Re the Mini's like the 335i's indeed any direct engine deposits on the inlets will be present, walnut blast the inlets and you'll remove the deposits, but remember they'll return as the issue will return and at some point in the future you'll be repeating the exercise again.

We've done a fair few Mini's as well as 335i's plus a few 325i's and 330i's and have seen improvements in all sometimes you'll just walnut blast sometimes it msy be done as part or a visit to resolve an issue.

Many Audi's and VW's for instance are known to suffer especially RS4's for instance there doesn't appear to be any solution fir Audi/Audi specialists out there the process would be the same as we offer on BMW's question is do the ports share similar dimensions to enable the blasting attachment and wand to be safely used? Until we get an Audi in and remove the manifold we don't know. But if it were to be seen to work on these cars the they'll be so be very happy VSG Group owners who'll also benifit.