[E90325iM-SPORT]

It's one of best looking touring here but as above I prefer it with oem bumper. Good job

[Jat]

Originally Posted by nathanwest

looks smart mate.. m3 bumper looks sweet as well.

Thanks mate!

Originally Posted by dest

Love that front bumper, got me thinking now!
I really need the 335 style exhaust too

Appreciate it!

Originally Posted by bmwspeed01

Your new wheels are awesome big big improvement can you give me the details where you got them from please?

Thanks, look up CM Wheels they are on the forum.

Originally Posted by Nobber

I know that feeling. I'm just saving up the slush fund right now so I can splurge on Stage2 of the master plans!!

What rear exhaust are you running again, think you answered that in your PM but for life of me can't see it!

Edit: Looked next level on the Rowhe rims fella, I'd of kept them!

4" dual exit exhasut, fully functioning 335 style.

Originally Posted by makkan00

Jat
Nice car. Although most people like M3 bumper but I personally think that your car looks much better with OEM bumper + lip . Fog lights on M3 bumper ruin it.

Perhaps you should have gone for Chris 1M bumper. Or think about it in the future.

Rest of the car is killer and new wheels give it more aggressive look.

Good luck with future mods.

Cheers Sam, i know what you mean about the M3 bumper, and I really wanted a 1M one - i missed out on the one you had for sale! I really like the ones Chris is doing, but I am not 100% sold on a fibreglass bumper just yet. Im sure they are great, but I prefer plastic ones for now. Never say never though. Also, I got this one at a great price so it was a better choice than getting a replacement lip for the OEM bumper.

[Jat]

Originally Posted by Romanbmws/Wheelman

It's one of best looking touring here but as above I prefer it with oem bumper. Good job

Many thanks mate.

I liked the OEM one too, but to replace the lip and get it all repainted was just not worth while for me. I got this one at a cracking price and it made sense.

The only other option I might have considered (aside from a 1M or CM Wheels kit) was to go the LCI route.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Jat

Cheers Sam, i know what you mean about the M3 bumper, and I really wanted a 1M one - i missed out on the one you had for sale! I really like the ones Chris is doing, but I am not 100% sold on a fibreglass bumper just yet. Im sure they are great, but I prefer plastic ones for now. Never say never though. Also, I got this one at a great price so it was a better choice than getting a replacement lip for the OEM bumper.

Mate, is there a way to go for fog delete as it will give you clean and aggressive look.

[335d Rocco]

Wow, your car looks fantastic, so much work and care has gone into that car, Very much a head turner

[Jat]

Originally Posted by makkan00

Mate, is there a way to go for fog delete as it will give you clean and aggressive look.

There might be, will look into it. Snag will be if I can get grilles without fog holes. I might have to see if all else fails to see I can get the honeycomb style grille, and cut it to fit the gaps.

Originally Posted by Uk 330d

Wow, your car looks fantastic, so much work and care has gone into that car, Very much a head turner

Many thanks. A lot of the credit goes to previous owner, i'm just adding my twists and touches to it.

[dest]

I think some darkling rear lights would finish it off nicely!
Now Ive had a better look on my laptop rather than my phone, I agree that it would definitely look better without the front fogs, I didn't realise how big they were

[Jat]

Originally Posted by dest

I think some darkling rear lights would finish it off nicely!
Now Ive had a better look on my laptop rather than my phone, I agree that it would definitely look better without the front fogs, I didn't realise how big they were

Rear lights are actually covered in laminX so are already dark - darker than dark lines too. I might redo the laminX as it has lifted on a bit on a few corners.

Fogs need investigation, will see what I can do.

[Icekube]

if your ever wanting to swap out the M3 bumper, I've got a freshly painted SGM Msport bumper on mine :P

[ALF_E90]

Interesting - can I just say, as a non-modding person (for road cars anyway) that the OEM+ style looks excellent - the 335 style rear end on the E91 looks great.

I used to have a 156GTA and was bit anti OTT mods for them, but the likes of Autodelta made some excellent stuff in the OEM+ mould and the wheels that were OEM style but larger were definitely the best looking.

[GOWRIN]

Car looks great mate, loving the dual exit exhaust, now I want to get myself them!

[Jat]

OK, so last few weeks I noticed some oil around the engine bay, round the oil filter. I was not sure where it was from, so cleaned it all up as best I could and gave it another few days of use. It was back again, and more than before. When I checked the oil level with the crap PITA digital dipstick, it had lost almost the amount from max to min. I think it is normally about 1 - 1.5L for this much, but could be wrong.

Anyway, bit of investigation showed there was no leak from the filter itself, however, looking at the parts online, the oil filter housing has two gaskets, one to the cooler and one to the head. I suspected it was one of those gaskets, and asked my local Indy to check it out.

Turns out I was right, the gasket between the filter housing and the cooler had failed, and as such, was letting the oil spray out under pressure and all over the alternator and belts. Since they had to remove the housing to fit the new gasket, I asked them to change both gaskets at the same time (cost was minimal for the parts, around £10 each + VAT from main dealer).

They also cleaned up all the oil that had been sprayed out, using clutch and brake cleaner. Did a good job to be honest. A few hours labour, and all was done - new gaskets fitted, oil and coolant checked and topped up.

Next on my list is the niggle from the panoramic roof. When closed, but the shutter is open, you get wind noise. I think the main seal all round needs to be replaced, but its a pain to do. Closing the shutter masks the noise, but still something I want to get looked at.

Also need to give the car a good clean, and detail to sort the paint out. Need to lavish some love on it, been a slack winter and its taken it toll on the car to be honest. Hoping the decent weather this week will give me a chance to make some progress, and will use the light evenings to my advantage hopefully. Will try to document with pics and details as I go.

[Jat]

So I dropped for a two hook plate holder after fitting the M3 style bumper to the touring. I couldn't bring myself to stick on the plate with tape or anything, and loved the plateless look for shows and when I want to be a rebel lol.

I go the bolt hardware from US Millworks, and then made up a design for a plate holder for my local metal shop to produce from aluminium. Got plates made up and got them on.

See what you think:

[old grey steve]

Seen this car before with the previous keeper it was an epic execution then and still is now later wheels seem to of added a bit of class to the mix. This car IMO is a belter if I had a tourer in my mind would be your car, that's how good it is.

[Jat]

Originally Posted by old grey steve

Seen this car before with the previous keeper it was an epic execution then and still is now later wheels seem to of added a bit of class to the mix. This car IMO is a belter if I had a tourer in my mind would be your car, that's how good it is.

Many thanks for the compliments mate, I really appreciate it. Its always a hard thing to pick up a car that is well modded, and not ruin it, or kill the style. What I am slowing doing I hope is making it more personal to my own taste, which is and always has been more OEM+ than all out modded. But to make it your own, you do need to change it, and glad that the changes so far seem to be well received.

[Jat]

Few pics I took at a recent meet:

[DaveyB]

As a fellow 330I MSport wagon owner, thats an inspiration! Looks brilliant...

[Jat]

Originally Posted by DaveyB

As a fellow 330I MSport wagon owner, thats an inspiration! Looks brilliant...

Cheers mate, and welcome to the forum.

[Jat]

Another update, this time two parts.

1st Update: Overheating Problem. I look the little one to a medical appointment, approx 20 minutes drive across town. Parked up no issues, was a warm day a few weeks back. About 40 minutes later I am on the way home, and a yellow water/engine temp message came up stating it was running hot, and to drive moderately to allow it to cool down. I was not pushing it at all so this was surprising. It was accompanied but a loud fan noise (I assume the fan on the rad kicking in).

I drive for a few minutes until the sign went red, and told me to stop as the engine was overheating. I did so right away, and popped the bonnet. Pipe to the top of the rad was really hot, as was the expansion tank. I gave it about 30-40 minutes, and then tried again. Started and drove about a mile, yellow and then red message popped up again so I stopped. This time there was a bit of coolant that had sprayed from the top of the expansion tank.

I called my local indy that I use, and he said do not try to drive it to him, but have it recovered. He thought it was the water pump. An hour or so later, RAC turn up and takes me to the garage. Diagnostic shows it was the water pump that was FUBARd. I always thought the car ran hot, so I am now not sure if it has been faulty for a while, and now finally given up the ghost.

I was expecting a parts price of around £100 for a new pump, alas I am never that lucky as the water pump on these is not mechanical driven but electric. BMW wanted £380+VAT for a pump. It was not what I was expecting, but thats cars for you I guess. I ended up sourcing an OE new part for £360, and agreed a special deal price of £500 all in with my garage for the pump and the labour. It was expected to take around 3 hours, and took about that. I got the call the car was ready the next day, and all has been well since. I think the design of the pump is a bit at fault here, since the electrical parts seem to sit in the lowest part of the pump, and hence were water can collect if the pump begins to fail, thus making it fail much quicker. Not sure if that is the case, but seems that way to me.

It also bugs me that the E9x does not display water temp anywhere, and so you cannot readily monitor this. Had I been able to do so, I may have noticed an issue a long time ago with temp sitting higher than normal - but from what I understand it is only visible in the hidden menu. Same goes for oil temp, no gauge on mine.

[Jat]

2nd Update: Noisy Heater/Blower Fan

For a while, I noticed a squeaky noise coming from the fan in the car, mainly noticeable when the radio/music is off. It also seemed to change when braking etc, making me think it was some issue with the bearings on the blower fan or such like.

A bit of a quick snoop around google and some forums, and I found that it seems to be a common issue, and that it can be remedied somewhat by a bit of WD40. The issue seems to be the main shaft of fan/blower and some rust problems. This causes the noise, and some people noted it changed with the fan speed. Mine was contestant, regardless of fan speed, any only changed under braking when it seemed to stop.

Google led me to two ways to try to sort it, both involving applying some WD40 or equivalent to the fan shaft. One method involved removing interior parts from the car, including the global, dash and fan ducting to get access to the fan/blower assembly. This can be found here:

http://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/forum/...cation-t92159/

However, another search found an alternative route to the fan housing, via the engine bay and the cabin filter - it also only takes about 5 minutes:

www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=542618

I used the this method, and sure has anything, what I found matched the description perfectly. I applied some WD40 by using a long screwdriver to reach into the motor, and let the WD40 run down the screwdriver shaft and into the ****s of the motor that I wanted to reach. Note that you need to have the fan on, then turn the car off so the motor stops but the motorised vent stays open so you can access it. If you see the motorised flaps are closed, just start the car, turn the fan on, and turn the car off.

I applied liberally, and then let the fan run for a few minutes. I then turned the car off again, applied a bit more for good measure and refitted the cabin filter. Looks like it is working for now, and if it plays up, it only takes a few minutes to cure, so I will not be replacing the motor just yet.

[Jat]

Lastly, noticed a bit of vibration at slightly higher motorway speeds, thinking it could be a wheel balance issue, will get them checked at some point soon.

[dy63]

i prefer the other wheels you had on first but man what a car.