BMW E91 335i Touring, Le Mans Blue

A month or so ago our Insignia Estate was written off, in an unprovoked road rage attack. Details here (a longish read) about half way down the page - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

The insurance offer was higher than I thought it would be, just under £5700. The Insignia was bought being a 2 litre diesel, at such a time my wife was doing 25K a year with her job. Now she is work from home we're doing nearer 8. With this in mind I (eventually) managed to persuade her that after 10 years of not having a 'toy', that we should get something I could enjoy a bit.

We looked at an E61 530i, which I really liked. She liked it too, but had made one proviso, if she got any whiff it had ever been smoked in it was a no. She could smell it in it (I couldn't, but she has the nose of a sniffer dog)

I then stumbled across the 335i we purchased, at just under £8k. M Sport trim. 2008. 137k miles. BMW + 1 owner. 13 stamps in the book. 2 keys. Black leather and Aluminium trim. Matching Michelin Pilot Sport 3's all round also made me think it has been loved. One drive, and I knew I had to have it.

I totally love it, and she's beginning to come around. It has less toys than the VX (no power tailgate, power-fold mirrors, even though the ad said it had) It also has a smaller boot, the dogs (one large) can just get in it, and my argument was that if they need to go in to it for longer journeys the rear seats can go down.

The bad points, needing attention. There is a small dent on the roof line above the near side doors, about the size of a 5 pence piece. The alloys could do with a refurb. The lower trim piece on the steering wheel rim and the drivers seat door side bolster could do with a little colour restoration (luckily, I know a man who can do this ) and I've just discovered that the Angel Eyes aren't functioning. I've ordered LED's for this, but if not I gather the next step to eliminate is something called the footwell light module. If it were this, I presume it will be covered under the 28 day warranty? (LED's obv not) Other than that there are just the odd paintwork scratch and the like to sort, which is to be expected on a 15 year old car.

Plans. It is overdue a service, so I want to get this done ASAP. After this I'd like to give it something called a Walnut blast. In short, this is the process of removing carbon build up from the intake ports and valves with the use of compressed air and crushed walnut shells, which is very worthwhile with this engine being direct injection. I've already replaced the number plates, as these had bled and looked a mess, plus they had Dick Lovett dealer stamps, which I don't want for the innuendo! When doing this I also followed an idea done by Court_S on his 335i coupe, in removing the plinth behind it for a cleaner look. Also copying the man I plan to purchase an Andream MMI, to replace the idrive screen. This will retain the BMW functions, but also give us waze, car play, and various other things, for around £300. No plans to remap it as yet, it feels plenty fast enough for now.

After that, just drive it, and enjoy it, and try not to baulk too much at the fuel bill!

Pictures -

Really fancy one of these now....

Read about the Vauxhall hopefully that'll get resolved and your wife gets better soon.

These have aged so well, enjoy the new car OP.

Thanks all for the kind words. I had wanted to refurb the wheels in a light chrome finish like the below, but on Monday night our Dobe x Viz did himself an injury. Having a run around at the allotments he managed to impale himself on something, splitting his belly open, and leaving us with a £750 vets bill to repair him. Stupid mutt.

Looks like I'll be using the DIY refurb kit I bought to do the VX's wheels, but never used.

TY MM. She is gradually building back her confidence. I have been joining her to put the birds away of evenings, and I must remember to chase up the Police to see where they're at with things. She has said she is 'happy' to pick him out in a line-up and attend court if needs be.

Sorry to hear about the dog. Hope the recovery is speedy (the dog and the bank balance!).

The trickiest part with the Andream in my opinion is finding space for the connector block. It's a little fiddly routing cables around but basically plug and play. My tip here is to tuck the connector block off to the left hand side behind the cage before you connect anything to the Andream unit. That leave just enough length on the main harness to join everything up. Cover your gearstick area with a towel or something before you start the job too or you'll scratch it to pieces.

Hmmm, are we talking cross purposes? Which perspex cover are you removing? The Andream unit I have (and I think others) is a full screen replacement so no cover removal required. Old Screen out, new screen in.

You are right about the existing screen. Angled cover over it. But that whole unit comes out whole and is replaced with a complete new screen unit from Andream. You still have idrive functionality through new screen but get all the other modern stuff too.

One tip on this. The Andream screen is prone to glare in bright sunshine and is hard to read. If you get one of these for it, it helps massively.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KTQWBFN?psc=1&r...

Agreed - having done it twice it was barely any easier second time around. I found that the only way I could get my head unit back in was to first remove the plastic cage that the head unit sits in (4 screws from memory), then tuck the large connector block plugged into the OE harness down the bottom left, then re-fit the cage. That way the huge block is behind the cage and no longer taking up space that the head unit needs to slot into. It does make it slightly more challenging to plug in the head unit, but once you've managed that it will slide fully in without feeling like you're shoving on a load of wiring at the back that shouldn't be there.

The screen is an absolute doddle in comparison, you'll have that out and re-fitted in no time.

Try a machine polish on the shadow trim if you have a DA or rotary. It think they're painted metal so just treat as you would a painted panel.