[JakeT]

Hello E90post, having read the forums on Bimmerpost for the past 10 years or so, I finally thought it necessary to contribute, and add my own thread. Most of the BMWs I've owned have all been Europe only models, like an E46 325ti, E46 330d, E39 530d, and some others.

In this case, it's for my daily driver. An E91 330i 6MT. Owned since mid 2019. These posts are copy and pasted from another forum, so I will include the dates that I posted, to keep some sort of timeline. Currently the car has ~171,500 miles on it.

June 2019 - March 2020:

As a private motorist covering roughly 25,000 miles per year, most of which is privately funded, I’ve fallen into the trap of running older cars. Usually this is an old BMW of sorts. The sensible option would be to buy a 320d, or for the ‘mega torque’ life a 330d. After some time in a 330d I decided it wasn’t for me. It absolutely monstered regular ‘outside lane’ motorway driving, but I found it challenging to drive well on the country roads near where I live. The fear of turbo, injector or any other diesel related failure also scared me (and the moths that live in my wallet). Knowing this I wanted a car that was a little more modern in the hope it would provide less trouble and have some more ‘nice features’. I’m a bit of a tart for the nice twinkly lights a lot of more modern cars have.
In steps this 330i touring. I wasn’t looking to buy when a PH’er expressed interest in selling. What’s the harm in looking, right? Well, this was about as ideal as an ‘E91’ (the 2005-2012 3 series touring for the less terminally boring) gets for me. 138,000 miles, Manual gearbox, Cloth interior, upgraded audio system, the later iDrive from a facelift car, upgraded suspension (A Birds B3 suspension kit), and tyres that aren’t made of girders. Just what I’d like as a manual gearbox lover and pathological hater of cheap cow covered seats. Further perusal of the VIN and history shows this was the first ‘customer’ 330i touring. Produced on the 30th August 2005, it was delivered new to a chap that worked for Sytner High Wycombe. The spec is a slightly odd one, and is as follows:

• Professional Navigation, including Bluetooth, BMW Assist, and Voice control
• Cloth sport seats, including Lumbar support (Lumbar is really rare on a 3 series for some reason)
• Window blinds in the rear doors.

Not a mega spec, but most of the boxes ticked I would want for day to day usage. There’s been some changes, they’re listed somewhere below.






Necessities were done which involved a final check over of the suspension by birds prior to sale, which meant I took delivery of the car on a Friday in June, with us departing for the South of France on our annual pilgrimage to see family and buy copious amounts of French plonk from the supermarkets.
First thing to do was sort out one of the shortcomings of the ‘E9x’ platform. No spare wheel. These cars were the first of the generation where BMW made ‘Run Flat tyres’ standard kit. This means the spare gets chucked, along with all of the tools to change the wheel. Disappointing. Before I bought the car I managed to buy a BMW ‘spare wheel kit’ BMW offered this kit to owners that ditched the run flat tyres. It lashes to the boot floor providing in this case a spare 17 inch alloy wheel, wheel brace, jack, and some other bits like a wheel chock. All of this comes in a nylon bag. Not the most elegant of solutions but thankfully the touring model has a little bit more room to accommodate the big hulking thing in the cabin.


It’s always a little nerve wracking taking an older car abroad for the first time. This happened to be when France was seeing a record breaking Heatwave, and travelling down past Paris it definitely felt it. I love the heat, but even this was a shock when getting out of the car. At least the A/C worked fine.


I even took it to the Michelin Museum in Clermont-Ferrand much to the good lady’s displeasure. On a side note, this is a really interesting museum even for people who don’t love cars. I’d recommend it to anyone in the region.

Otherwise it was a standard trip, visiting some of my favourite parts of the world. By the time we arrived in Reims it had really got the ‘road warrior’ look to it.

Otherwise the car performed faultlessly, and made itself good where old BMWs can paint themselves in a less than stellar light. No cooling system issues, oil consumption was lower than expected, and it lapped up the abuse we gave it, covering 1,750 miles in the first week of ownership alone. Upon return from holiday it was business as usual for a while, doing the commute and various work engagements. My commute is 84 miles per day, so the mileage soon racks up. The only hiccup was when the aged battery decided it didn’t want to play ball anymore



August brought us to the time of preparing for winter (Foresight would have helped here) when I bought a set of winter wheels and tyres for it. I also did some other normal maintenance type stuff including a service, new wiper blades and new boot gas struts. This brings us to about 144,000 miles.


In September with the days dropping cooler, I noticed fuel economy was dropping a little more than I’d like, so using the hidden menu in the instrument cluster along with a diagnostic scan, it was noted that the thermostat was sticking open. These engines (The BMW N52) run hot, really hot. 110 Degrees C at a gentle cruise is normal for them, and we were barely cresting 70 degrees C. As a result of that, a new BEHR thermostat and Pierburg waterpump were installed. These engines also use an electric water pump to aid warm up times, and allow the car to cool itself even when the engine is off. Neat stuff, but they’re known to fail every 90,000 miles or so. The current pump had 44,000 miles on it so was past the best miles of its life. It’s easier to fit a waterpump to the older cars, but whereas they’re known as a pain to bleed when the coolant has been dropped the electric waterpump brings one more major benefit. The cooling system can be bled with the engine off! No going for a nervous drive with the heater set to full blast. The car can be left in the air and bled while going for a tea and Jammie Dodger break. Bliss.

In October, at roughly 147,000 miles I noticed when feeling the wheels after a drive (It’s been mentioned I really do need help) the offside rear wheel was warmer than the rest. My suspicions were confirmed when swapping to the winter wheels that the ‘warm’ wheel had a lot more dust on the inner barrel than the rest of the wheels. I ordered up a new set of Genuine BMW brake pads with a wear sensor, and a ‘new’ remanufactured ATE brake caliper. These were fitted and dead fine. The offside pads really were quite a bit more worn than the nearside. Resetting the onboard computer took the ‘miles to go’ on the brake pads from 30,000 to 70,000. After driving the car more and more, it now says 80,000 miles on the rear brake pads. Yay for self-generating brake pads! The first drive post brake work was not all smooth though. Having gone for a short drive and stopping for fuel, upon startup there was a hideous engine noise. HOW!? I haven’t even worked at the front of the car! This was the pulley bearing in the A/C compressor having failed in such a short space of time. With another European roadtrip planned thoughts of selling it off and buying a £1500 shed came to front of mind for a while. Fortunately my Father in law owns his own garage, so I dropped it off there to be looked at.
A new Denso A/C compressor was sourced, with a new belt and belt tensioner. The BMW N52 is usually a really quite stout engine, with many having passed 200,000 miles with very little work. The one issue is the belt tensioner. When they fail, they bend inwards causing the belt to wrap around the crank and be sucked through the front main seal of the engine. This causes the oil pump pickup to be blocked and kills the engine. I figured the new tensioner was a good insurance police against premature death of the engine.


The change from the summer wheels to winter wheels. Wash included!

Following this work, off the car went to Europe again. This time to Spa, Cologne, and back via South Holland. I did a bit of ‘autobahn stuff’ in Germany but the winter tyres limited me to 130. The company back on the Chunnel was good though. They even stopped us and ran the car through the heartbeat monitor. Obviously thought we looked like people smugglers.

Once back it was more normal service stuff, smashing up and down the A34 and M4, getting really quite dirty at times. Another service beckoned at 149,000 miles because December was a really busy month with no free time.


December was met with the annual trip to Brugge for a nice weekend away around the Christmas markets, and more French plonk for Christmas. Only 12 bottles this time. The rest of December and January were otherwise uneventful with lots of mileage being added for both pleasure and work purposes. All of our clobber fits nicely in the boot, even with the spare wheel in there.

That brings us (just about up to date). I’ve had to replace one of the winter tyres after a sidewall failure caused large scale vibration on the rear, otherwise it’s been plain sailing. Fortunately for me, and the car all of the owners have been ‘enthusiasts’ and a few of them are on PH, too. It’s had various bits changed and improved over from how it left the factory, which is really what sold the car to me. It’s had the following improvements performed

• Facelift front headlights
• BMW ‘Darkline’ rear lights
• ALPINE BMW retrofit amplifier and upgraded speakers
• CIC (the facelift version) navigation retrofit
• Birds (The BMW tuning house, not the custard lads) B3 suspension kit. This consists of custom-valved Bilstein Shock absorbers, and a custom tuned spring. More info available here .
• The all-important Pistonheads sticker in the rear window

This makes the car just about as I would want it. My previous driver, an E46 328ci had Koni suspension fitted which helped it, and a standard E90 didn’t feel as good as me. I’m no Frankel/Meaden/Harris Et al though, so I probably have no clue what I’m really on about.

The later navigation unit makes the car feel much more modern, with better navigation functionality, media options (more on that below) and a better user interface. The ALPINE upgrade to the audio takes the stereo from ‘fisher price’ to much more acceptable. It includes amplification, and replacement front speakers. It’s a stark difference.

That brings us to just about present day. Currently the car is on ~157,800 miles and running well as ever. I also recently expanded the navigation system with a ‘combox’. This was fitted to very late E9x cars and allows for much more ‘media’ functionality, such as USB input for media, ‘enhanced’ Bluetooth, apps control from an iPhone, and various other functionality. With some help from the forum and coding from a chap in Southampton we were all fitted. It’s now even got 2020 maps so I’m not occasionally driving on roads that don’t exist! This really takes my now old 2005 car into the new decade. Basic AUX in wasn’t cutting it anymore. Control of apps from the phone is the best part, along with album artwork on the centre display.



Now I am all caught up, I do plan to keep this as a running log of how the car is over time. I’ve a couple more bits to update on the way, and when we’re all allowed out I’ll be back to piling on the miles in the usual fashion. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I’m sure it proves a good cure for insomnia.

How do I find it after 19,500 miles? In a word, good. The big six really makes it feel like a BMW should, smooth and tractable with the ability to spin to 7,000RPM. The chassis now with better suspension really does inspire confidence, and is much more capable than I am. The whole package is a really nice daily driver, and all of the upgrades have expanded on a really good base car as is. I’ve not felt the need to replace it, which is rare for me. I’ve kept meaning to take some ‘proper’ pictures of it, too. Once lockdown is over I’ll head to the local beauty spot for some snappy snaps.

[JakeT]

March 2020:

My next project was the last interior chance I really wanted to make. This was upgrading from the old iDrive (CCC) to the later iDrive (CIC) wheel in the centre console.

On the older CCC system (Pic below) the controller allows one to 'quick jump' between the sections. E.g holding the wheel left takes one to climate, and the other directions do the same. My interior, below had the old controller at the time of purchase.




For the newer CIC system (pic below), the controller has the shortcut buttons all around the edges. The older controller works fine with the new system, but lacking the control buttons makes for slow navigation. To swap this, new trims are needed, since I could not for the life of me find the correct silver trim I currently have. I didn't want to go 'too' dark with the trim since the dark dash and carpets need breaking up with something. If I had beige or a nice coloured leather I'd probably fit wood, but dark and wood doesn't do it for me.



I bought a 'nice' (more on that later) set of 'alu cube' trims from a facelift M-Sport car since they're not too bad of a match. Snapped them up for a good price, too. There was a reason for that though. The seller shafted me a little bit.



I needed to swap some bits into the new trims, including the dash air vents, start/stop button and mount the CIC controller I'd bought. The dash vents was a little fiddly, but not too much bother. The start/stop button was easy.

The first giveaway all was not well when receiving the trims was the box STANK. As a result of this, I wiped all of the trims down with an anti-bac wipe. With the times we live in it's only a sensible precaution. Then, when actuating the little door that covers the ashtray it wasn't moving properly, or latching shut properly. Joy. Then on closer inspection someone had broken one of the arms, epoxied it back together, and put a big screw and washer in to hold the door in place. Not what I want. Interior trim issues really get on my nerves.



Fortunately, the ash tray section and door separate, so I could swap the metal cover onto my old (working) mechanism. I could then swap the entire assembly between trim pieces. I'm not super pleased, as I wanted to sell my old trim on, but I won't now as that isn't fair on the next buyer. Otherwise the trims are fine. No real marks, and all clips in tact. The smell has gone after a good cleaning with Autoglym interior shampoo, too. I also took the time to make sure all of the A/C vents and buttons were cleaned properly before they went back in.


The finished article with everything swapped and working as it should do.

All of the trims have now been replaced, and nothing looks too different, bar the new controller. Pleased with the look, even if it was more effort than I'd have liked.


In the car it isn't a stark difference. The newer trims is a little darker than old and has a 'fish scale' look to it vs. the old brushed ali trim. The old to new controller is plug and play thankfully. No wiring changes are needed.

[JakeT]

April 2020:

Whilst we've been in lockdown I've also been taking care of little jobs on the car that I otherwise would not have taken care of.

I gave it a 'proper' clean. I'm not an 'I two bucket method to clean my teeth' person, but I've managed to amass some car cleaning bits over the years. In this case, it was.

*A claybar on the paint to remove any embedded 'stuff'
*A hand cleanse of the paint with Autoglym Super Resin Polish
*A couple of coats of Autoglym HD Wax.

This has left it feeling much better. Silver is a bit of a crap colour to clean, as it still looks fine either way. It also means the car should be less effort to clean in the future. I also cleaned up the summer wheels, and put wheel sealant on them, too.

Also took care of the VANOS solenoids. They were removed, cleaned and then re-installed. I might get new ones at some point, as these ones have 157 large on them. They look well worn, to say the least.

After my drive to go and get some essential foodstuffs, before I put it back on the drive I took a couple of snaps of it with my 'proper' camera. The phone pictures are so-so at best. Not to mention it's nice to look on warmer times in the winter.

[JakeT]

June 2020:

While many readers rides threads are a fun mix of owing a mega car and doing mega things to it, This is neither (apart from the cost involved).

Normally, I try and do the vast majority of work on my own cars, but two things I hate are:

• Replacing brake lines and hoses
• Dropping subframes while lying under the car

The most recent MOT highlighted that the rear brake pipes are starting to swell up in their protective coating, and that the brake flexy hoses were starting to perish, too. In addition to that, I've been keeping an eye on an oil leak recently.



This is a common one for the N52, N53, and N54 as these engines age. The sump gasket. Mine is on 158,000 miles now at nearly 15 years old. Mine's at the point where it's going to start leaving marks on the floor soon, which is no good.

Now I'm not driving very much as I'm working from home and business travel is light, it seemed like a good time to tackle these jobs. I sent the car off to a BMW specalist for these, and a couple of other 'while you're there' bits. While the front subframe was down, a pair of engine mounts were fitted too.

[JakeT]

September 2020

Nothing of note particularly the past couple of months. Since the last update, I've serviced it, with the usual oil and filter, along with an engine air filter, microfilter, and spark plugs. Not quite all of the pink coolant was out so I also drained the rad, and refilled with more BMW coolant. Nice and dark blue now.

Brakes still have 50,000 miles left on the fronts, and 70,000 miles left on the rears.

Mileage is up to 162,000 now, so still tramping on well. I'm back in the office now (every other week for the foreseeable). This should mean some more miles are racked up soon. My company has moved office, In classic fashion I managed to reverse into a low wall. There doesn't look to be any real damage, as it was a sloped wall, and it looks to have just pushed the rear section of the exhaust upwards a bit. I've been under it, and seen nothing badly. Had a listen at the engine end and can't hear I've ruined a manifold. I can't even say I was rushing or being reckless. I just didn't see it, and it was too low for the parking sensors to pick up. Oh well. Let's end on a picture of my (slight) misfortune.




MOT (The annual safety test in England) is due at the end of October, so I'll try and get it done toward the end of September, before all of the COVID extensions need testing. Worst case my friendly MOT tester will do it on a Sunday for me.

[JakeT]

September 2020:


The day all of us dread. Did overnight all of my bulbs fail, the innards fall out of the catalytic converter, various items rust and all of the suspension become ruined?

In this case, no, just the one advisory. For one of the rear suspension arms.



The one labelled '18'. I'll get a pair of them and replace both. Otherwise, nice and happy. Handbrake was still more than efficient enough, and even on both sides, and the emissions were nice and low too.

[JakeT]

October 2020:

Today was one of those 'niggly' issues days. my car is fitted with the ALPINE audio upgrade BMW did for these cars. For anyone looking to buy, standard E90 audio is bad. REALLY bad. BMW do/did an OE style sanctioned kit that came with a new amp. door speakers, included tweeters, and some nice little badges that stick on the tweeter covers. It will fit the 1 series and 3 series. It takes the speaker count from a poor 6, to a slightly less poor 8. Only the front speakers are amplified, the rears are still run off of the head unit. Stolen Google image below.



Every so often with my car, I've found that the left speakers will lose their amplification, and cut out. This can be at complete random, but it's pretty much always the left. I found having a jiggle of the wiring at the amp can make the left speakers cut in again. The past week or so every journey longer than about 45 minutes, the left channel would cut out at some point, so I pulled the boot carpet and re-seated the connectors.

First thing, pull the boot carpet, trim, and then pull the rear seat base to get to the clips that hold in the boot carpet. The module next to it is the combox in this case. Not all models will have a module here.



Then, it's easiest to fold the seats and take a look at the connectors. They can't be mixed, so yank away.



I used contact cleaner to give the contacts a good dousing in the amp, and the connector, and then re-installed everything.

looking at it, the contacts look fine, and have drag marks on them like they should.



Before the combox was fitted, the issue would get worse and worse where sometimes the left channel would disappear for some time, before coming back. Post fitting I've not had the issue for a good six months, even when on 5+hour drives. Hopefully this keeps it right for some time, before I need to do some more diagnosis on wiring. The kit is quite good to be honest, but I wish BMW included better rear speakers, or at least amplified the factory rears. Then it was back indoors to watch the F1.

[JakeT]

October 2020:

Today (well, yesterday) was arm day. The MOT highlighted that there was a bit of play in the rear upper arm on the O/S. Being the sort of person that has a pathological need to replace suspension components in pairs, I bought a pair of arms. BMW arms, no less.



Main reason was that these arms came as a 'value line' kit with new fastening hardware, and years gone by of snapped suspension bolts on E46s made me wary of it.

Post lifting, supporting and getting the wheels off, it was time to marvel at the nice yellow shock absorbers. Followed by sticking a ratchet in there, for obvious reasons (there's some ratchet abuse coming up). The arms weren't awful to do, and the hardware could all be used again, as the corrosion hadn't crept in making it a pig of a job. Access is a bit tight though.

New arm looks a little different to the old arm, but some RealOEM part numer checking shows the new arm is just a revised part number. The little plastic clips for the speed sensor and pad wear sensor need to be removed and transferred.



As was to be expected, the inner ball joint was ball bagged. Lots of easy movement in all directions.

Then it was onto the N/S! This side is easier, as there's no fuel filler pipe to get in the way. The following picture also includes tool abuse, With no breaker bar to hand, it involved a jack handle on the end of a 3/8ths Ratchet. How professional.



Before tightening up the hardware, use a jack under the hub to bring it all to ride height, or near enough. Following that, it's back on with the wheels, and back down.

Winter wheels are on now, with a drop to 17 inch from 18 inch, and winter tyres. Bit warm for it, but does two birds with the one stone.



I changed to summer wheels during lockdown 1.0, so we're changing wheels every lockdown period. Lovely!

With less mileage being covered, I think the car's going to spend less time like this:



That's it for now. I've got some time off work coming up, so I'm going to order up some bits, and replace the starter motor, and Crankcase breathers, as the inlet has to come off. The starter is getting more poorly as time goes on, so it's not a bad idea to change it before I get stranded somewhere.

[JakeT]

November 2020:

What with not being able to go anywhere, and having a week off work, I decided to set about replacing both the starter motor, and Crankcase breathers.

The starter was the more pressing reason, with it sounding more and more sick as time went by. Knowing my luck it would leave me stranded at an inopportune moment, like attempting to get off of the EuroTunnel. The crankcase breathers were also getting on, so it's not a bad idea to change them while the inlet manifold is off. Not to mention the hoses get old and brittle, so they usually break upon removal.

First things first is to get some fuel to perform such a job. There was also half a Victoria sponge home-made at the weekend. Lovely.



It's a big load of mess getting to the inlet in the first place, requiring removal of the airbox, movement of the power steering reservoir and some other bits. The throttle does need to come off too, in order to get to a bracket holding on an electrical junction box.



The aforementioned junction box is a right mess to get off. Some people say it clips off, but no way was I doing that. The bracket holding it on can be unscrewed from the manifold. However, to remove the throttle I had to remove one of the DISA valves in the inlet. Here's how it came out:




Err.. There's meant to be a flap on there that moves around. When the manifold came off, out came the flap, and the pin that holds it in. the smaller inner one was fine, A new one from BMW was ordered for, how much? Well, £260. At least it was at BMW the next day and the revised part.


With that out of the way, the manifold was about ready to come off. It's a right pain, with the CCV hoses, their wiring connections, and other connections under the manifold. Lost of stuffing arms where they don't really belong.



I decided to call it quits for day one there. I needed an External torx to get one of the starter bolts out, my ratchet with an E Torx socket on it wouldn't fit. I nipped off to Halfords to get one, and then the starter came out with a bit of mallet persuasion. The old starter was the original, and was a Denso unit.

With the old starter off, it was quite clear to see why the starter was failing. The shaft holding the bendix gear steady was able to move, and as a result was eating into the housing of the starter. Looking at it, when the starter was engaging, it was wanting to push off of the starter as gears do, and eating into the housing. The below pictures show it at rest, and with a small load applied to it.





For reference, the new starter (also a Denso unit) had a bushing, holding the shaft steady.



The new starter went in, with new Aluminium bolts. A special note to the breather hose on the right which is a massive pain to get in. Lots of swearing to get that seated. Or at least I think seated.



After this, back on with the manifold, this is a miserable job. Lots of connectors you can't see but can just about feel (fnar fnar), and bolted back down. I used new gaskets for the manifold, and for the throttle body. New (expensive) DISA valve went in, too. In addition to this, a big fight to get the pollen filter housing back on where it lives. I was cursing BMW for changing this. The older E46 design was a doddle to remove and re-install. This one is less so. Lots of pushing and cursing, and it went back on. However there's something I forgot to do. See what's msssing in the picture...



Ah shyte.



No way was I taking off the pollen filter and those bits, so the engine cover went on with the two back bolts missing. 3 out of 5 ain't bad.

Followed by the bit that nobody wants to do. The re-start.



It runs!

I forgot to connect the MAF, which a diagnostic run highlighted, otherwise all good. Smooth idle, and good power. Moreso with a DISA valve no longer floating around the inlet.

Job done. Not a job I wish to repeat soon, as it's a mega pain to do. New starter fires it over like a loon now, and draws less power in doing so, too. That's (hopefully) the main mechanical jobs done for now!

[JakeT]

November 2020

An annoying issue

100 miles have been covered since the other work has been done, and all is well (so far). Another issue came up, when I'd been out and was going to come home.



The service of doom light. In this case the handbrake wasn't on either, so that and the handbrake light. iDrive also said the following:



I know the pads are fine, as I checked them just the other day when I put the winter wheels on, so I drove home.

In the cold light of morning, I nipped off the O/S/R wheel and took a look at the wiring. Ah, that'll do it.



The bloody rear brake sensor wire. This was new last year with new rear pads I fitted. This one has worn through from whe rear wheel.

Like with the older E46, I was going to try a bodge while I have a new sensor on order. Twist the wires together. These cars rely on a closed circuit for the sensor. Open sensor = change pads.





Success! (The handbrake is on, now.) Then I cut the wire, and re-twisted them up at the connector, to save the loose wire causing any issues, because I will forget to replace this for a while.




A free fix for now. It just relies on checking the pads every so often. (2021 note - Still have not changed this. Really ought to.)

[JakeT]

January 2021

A not very interesting update

A happy new year to all readers of this thread. Started as a lockdown boredom project, it's quite nice to write some bits on the 'goings on' of the car as of late.

Nothing to really report as of recent. I fitted a new set of front wiper blades, and a new rear one. The familiar light that makes an appearance to most BMW owners also showed itself.




A litre of oil went in and the car was then happy. The iDrive doesn't show the vehicle specific graphic because my nav system has an emulator in it. That means no vehicle specific graphics. I might sort that this year with a different head unit. Maybe a DAB enabled one.



Otherwise it's just been used. Got very dirty and then cleaned. I even used a snowfoam 'cannon' I received as a gift, and some Autoglym snow foam on it. The jury is still out there, I think it's good on a very dirty car but I wouldn't use it on every wash.






No real 'plans' for the car this year. A couple of bits I might do is replace the CIC unit for a more 'legit' one, and have it coded to show the vehicle graphics, but that's a real vanity project when everything else works perfectly. I would also like to embark on a Logic7 retrofit, as a mate has it in his newly acquired 130i and holy moly it sound great. The Alpine upgrade is nice, but Logic7 is on another level.

I also need to get some paintwork done where I punted a deer last winter and the paint is starting to come off of the front bumper. Fortunately it's been painted before, so it's just silver beneath and doesn't look awful. The tailgate beneath the rear window is also showing corrosion, so I'll also have that done. Otherwise it's drive and enjoy (and maintain) it more.

[JakeT]

February 2021:

Nothing more to update with this really (If anyone is reading).

Not many miles done, but I did buy a new Birds B3 suspension kit to refresh the suspension later in the year. This is the last run of the kit they're doing, so I didn't want to be caught out if I snap a spring, and I'll keep what's on the car as spares too.

I always thought the bootlid on my car, and the glass were a bit stiff. I even replaced the boot struts as they didn't seem to be lifting the boot properly. New ones were better, but not ideal. Then, over the cold snap they were really stiff. The window being particularly reluctant to move. I could even see the N/S hinge flexing. I gave the hinges a shot of Lithium spray and thought that would do it. But the stiffness remained. After some reading, these hinges get dirt and moisture inside and can snap. Replacing the hinges is a sad job, the previous owner of my car has replaced one.

In light of this, I thought I'd set out to lubricate them. In this case, I spent about an hour spraying WD-40, and moving the glass back and forth. Using paper towels to catch the WD-40 and muck, a lot came out. I lubed the following areas liberally:



And for a closer look... (I need to do some more cleaning in there it seems )



The labelled points move with the glass portion. Only one hinge part moves with the bootlid. With the glass already open, the bootlid was very easy to move.

The glass did losen off eventually, and then I kept doing the above actions, and it did free off nicely. Finished off with the Lithium spray to keep further dirt and moisture out. The boot opens and shuts a lot more nicely now, as does the glass. Hopefully it should also mean I don't need to replace the boot hinges, either.

Finally, I cleaned it. Can't really drive it, apart from to the shops. If you look closely, there's a scuff on the front bumper and the paint is peeling where I hit a deer (at low speed fortunately) last winter. I plan on getting this, and a couple more paint aspects sorted soon.

[JakeT]

April 2020:

A suspension update

As I think had been mentioned some time ago, I wasn't 100% happy with the suspension on my car. Namely that the front shocks were knocking. This, combined with the rear shocks having done over 100,000 miles, I thought it was time for an upgrade.

I bought a new Birds B3 suspension kit, as they were doing a final run, and now I have spare springs should I snap one.

I also spent a load of money at BMW and bought all new fastening hardware, top mounts and the funny little washers and rubber spring pads, just so it's all new.

Some pictures from the job:


Car in the air. I managed to borrow a ramp (in a Land Rover specialist) to do this job. Heated, and adjustable height was lovely.


Old damper off. I compressed it in the arch rather than disconnect any of the front suspension arms.


Building up the new ones. I had to disassemble the old struts, as one washer was on back order at BMW. The MINI bag contained all of the bits from BMW. First time I've ever been given a bag!


Front in and happy.


Hole where a rear shock goes.


And where the bottom mounts.


A poorly looking bottom rubber mount

I didn't take any more pictures. It does seem the knock on the front is gone, and generally the suspension is quieter. The top mounts were tired, as was the rear shock bottom mounts.

[JakeT]

June 2021:

Today has been service day and it was (sort of) a success, and sort of a failure too.

The good lady was kind enough to let me use her workshop today (she runs a Land Rover specialist) so I had a lift to use to get things done. The plan was to to the following:

• Oil and filter
• Microfilter
• Renew Oil cooler gasket
• Renew VANOS solenoids
• Renew droplinks
• Renew front anti-roll bar bushes

Most of the above went to plan nicely. I bought some new (expensive) bits from BMW, and even full forum tosser and took a picture of them.



and then whipped a couple of covers off, and did some cleaning to remove the oil cooler.



Oil cooler then came off, and I noticed that the bolts didn't look too nice. Cleaned them up and started to pray that they would torque up nicely (You can see where this is going, can't you?)

Assistant was pleased at this picture while she held it to avoid coolant leakage

Things were cleaned up, new gasket added, and then tightened up. The bottom bolt went up nicely, but the top two hadn't. When the last change of these seals had been done, someone did something wrong and goofed it. They would tighten up just about, but not to the paltry 25Nm BMW specifies for them. I did do the other bits, and checked that it didn't leak (it doesn't- yet).

New droplinks


New ARB Bushes


All of the other bits too, of which I did not take pictures. I then drove home, gingerly and took another look at the oil cooler.


Just about okay...


Most definitely NOT okay. Not leaking though!

Now, looking at this, I called BMW and paid a lovely £19 for three new bolts as BMW describe them as 'self tapping', and hope that they go in and torque up okay. I am not so sure, however.

This leaves me with three scenarios.

A. Fit new bolts. They torque up okay. Everyone wins.

B. Fit new bolts. They do not torque up. Buy new (used) oil filter housing. Replace seals (AGAIN) and hope the block threads aren't damaged from whomever did the previous oil filter housing gasket. Everyone wins (Sort of)

C. I did notice (pictures below) that these are not blind holes in the oil filter housing. As a 'temporary' solution, I might nut and bolt these top ones, as the bottom one has done up okay. Everyone wins, bar Klaus. The BMW engineer that designed it this way for a very specific reason.

Pictures of said holes...




For now, the car is sat. I am off to get pissed in a field with some mates, and if I am compis mentis tomorrow, then I will nip to halfords for some M7x40 bolts and nuts to see if I can effect a temporary repair. It's a bit Motorsport, but means I don't need to do too much swearing for a while.

Old cars, always a surprise.

The next day...

However, after a massive fry up to ward off the hangover this morning, it was decided I needed to do something about my predicament. Waiting for new bolts to be delivered to my nearest BMW dealership was just too much of a wait. I took the 'spare' car, and nipped off to Halfords to find some suitable bolts to make a 'temporary' repair.

Most importantly on a day like today, it has working air conditioning! 325ti doesn't see many miles now, but always saves the day when needed.


Once I returned from Halfords, I started about what I needed to do. To keep the bottom bolt in and happy, and the various fluids where they should be, a big G clamp was used. My assistant from yesterday had gone out, and didn't want to help me in the blazing sunshine (don't blame her).


To get some purchase on the nut on the back site of the filter housing, the airbox had to come out.


The nut and bolt combo was then tightened up. I can't fit a washer between the nut and the filter housing, so the grinder may need to help me out there one day. There is a washer on the other side. Note the puddle of oil, this was from moving the car on the drive, to let the compact out.


Nut, bolt, and appropriate washers were added on the other side. The engine cover was just moved out of the way to facilitate this. Access was better on this side.


Then, it was all buttoned up. Also, I need to cancel the order with BMW for new bolts tomorrow morning. Plan A was definitely not going to work.


I nipped the fanbelt off too, to make sure any oil that had dripped on it was removed. Same with all of the pulleys. After some more cleaning, I went for a 45 minute drive to make sure the oil, coolant, and oil cooler were all at their operating temperature. Once home, I re-checked the area, and it looks like (fingers crossed) we're leak free so far. Touches various wood things nearby


I know it's not the most ideal method, but I am loathed to remove the filter housing to either add a helicoil, or to replace it as the block threads could have been weakened, too. If (probably when) the oil filter housing starts to leak, I'll cross that bridge then. For now, it will do. The little cover no longer fits, but the N53 doesn't come with a cover either.


That brings us up to date now. The oil cooler still isn't leaking or doing anything else naughty. 171,000 miles and still doing good service. Just ordered some BMW rubber mats for it.

[bubarak]

nice car cheers mate

[johnnyorange]

This is an absolutely wonderful read - thank you for the pictures and clear explanations and reasoning. Cheers indeed

[JakeT]

Thank you both. It’s been a labour of love, I’d like to keep it feeling as good as it can do. It’s a rare car, and BMW don’t really make anything new I’d like to own now.

[e91tom]

Great read, had quite a lot of fun going through this and related to much of it, here 3 years in the future.

Do you still own this car? Any updates since? I am from the US, never seen cloth sport seats before and wish they had something like them here!