E91 Straight Six Bearding

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I'll just say they're polybushes for now.

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Did an oil and filter change yesterday, then went on to pop the sideskirts off to see if I have any rust on the sills - and depending on what I find, quickly nip it into BMW before the anti-corrosion warranty period is out.

Anyway, looked like all good news, some very minor corrosion just starting - but I'd have been really surprised if I had found none. In fact, most of it I couldn't see until i'd cleaned it. So, cleaned it all up, scraped back a few points, and then treated with BH dynax S50, including all inside the structural members, underneath the car splash panels and in the sills.
This cars a keeper.

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I shall test this soon, as I have a friend at work with a 335i! It should do...but I don't know so.

Here's a photo of the clearance from my 330mm dia discs and std calipers.



Edit: Ah hold on, mine are style 188... still 17" BMW OE though...

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Might as well get the ATE stuff, in keeping with the label on the brake reservoir!

https://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-accessories...

"ATE TYP200 Dot4 Brake Fluid" if that link doesn't work.

I tend to scroll opie and pick something half decent off the list.

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IIRC, but I might be getting different markets muddled up here, you can get the N52 325i up to 330i levels through a remap and installing the 3 stage intake manifold (i.e. with the DISA valves - but keep an eye on them!).

I have a leggy N52 in a 330i, the torque curve is very smooth. I've not driven a 325i to compare it to though. Manual N52 E91s are fairly rare it seems (last time I looked, in M Sport guise, there's less about than M3 CSLs), although not quite as rare as a manual N55 E91 335i!

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Having come from a little 1.6 98 bhp petrol mazda 323f, and my other car being an RX-8, I find the 330i quite torquey. I guess it's just compared to what you're used to

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This auction has just finished. I think someone has themselves a good deal and a fairly rare model!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302504750524

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helix402 said:

The common hard line problem is the union will be seized to the brake pipe. Mechanic tried to twist union and the hard line snaps. Also common on the E90/1 etc is the rear brake pipes corrode near the rear subframe.

I've heard of this, and underneath mine I can see my rear lines are just starting to bubble. My car came with a set of braided lines fitted to the front, but the rears hadn't been fitted yet and just came with the car loose. I've bought the hard lines to replace the bubbly ones when I get around to changing to the braided lines (and the F3x brembo's on the front).

The other week was a bit déjà vu pulling the rear suspension apart again, but fitted my warranty replacement powerflex bushings for the lower lateral arm to chassis bush.


282 (09-10-2017) by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

It's a lot happier now, but think I need to do the subframe bushings next. That said, I think I need to do the upper shock mount bushing as it's making a small clunking noise in the boot - almost like loose luggage, and it really is the only bit I haven't done in the last year. I did the spring pads and lower shock bushing the last time, and every single other bushing has been replaced with either powerflex or lemforder bits! Getting quite efficient at it all now!

Oh and today, I've renewed my gtechniq G1 screen coating, that should ward off all but the worst frosts.

In other news - who here does this affect?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bmw-recalls-million-vehic...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41862153

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Yeah, it cost me along the lines of £30ish for the two lines that run along the subframe. Think it was something like a fiver for the shorter one, and £25 for the longer one, which to be honest is worth it for not spending having to copy a line and I haven't got the flare tool either.

No's 8 and 9 on here: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=VS32-...

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ATM said:

My car is ready. What do we think is reasonable in terms of a charge to change front discs, all pads, all flexis and some hard lines if I provided all parts?

One of those jobs that could be a doddle if everything comes off easily, or an arse if something is a bit seized in a hard to reach area. Timescales, I've only really got myself working on a driveway to compare (and I always get carried away cleaning something to the nth degree and doing other little things whilst I'm there), but I'd expect something like half a day, maybe a day tops if it turned out to be a real ball ache.

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325iMSport said:

Also did you get a wheel alignment after removing the refitting the spring and damper?

Are you referring to my photo?

I got an alignment when I put all new bits in which changed the bushings by the geo adjusters . Changing the spring/damper, you can get away without removing this, so you could manage it whilst keeping your geo spot on. I admit, this time when I changed the faulty powerflex bushing with the new one, I just put the adjuster bolt back in the same position and will get it all checked again when I pop in at MOT time - it's only camber, looked alright by eye and crude iphone adjustment, and drives way better anyways. Excessive toe is what kills tyre wear anyway in terms of geo...

No high beam assist here, but do have xenons - didn't really look at my vin decoder close enough. I don't have idrive, so fiddling with the menus is a bit more of an arse. It took me 15 minutes the first time to change the indicator setting from 3 ticks to 1!

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ATM said:

Why do you not want the 3 tick flashers - they're great.

Several reasons. Sometimes I like to use a single flash - i.e. to let a motorcyclist coming up behind me through the traffic, I do a single tick to let them know I’ve seen them and they can come past me without me knocking them off. I can also hold the indicator on the ”halfway” point to do as many or as few ticks as I want. 3 ticks doesn’t suit all scenarios on the road.
Also, I feel less of a tit if I’ve just tapped the indicator when I meant to press cancel on the cruise (only happened once!)!

My stupidly worn pilotsports in 600 or so miles saga…well that was more excessive toe compliance (i.e. toe would actively change) more than just excessive toe. It was an absolute pig to drive too! Each time I now change something, I’m getting a better and better feel for the car – the lack of LSD is now really starting to bug me…boy open diffs are a handful when you’re playing silly buggers (although the electronics are quite good at compensating I have to say!).

325iMSport said:

I have seen people mentions that the Eibach Pro springs give a better ride compared to M Sport springs.

Any views on this?

Mine’s on the Birds B3 suspension kit, which is a set of EIbach springs (can find photo of writing on them so you know the spring weights if you want) matched to some custom valved Bilsteins. It’s firm, but not silly so. It’s only about 10mm lower than stock M Sport, and day to day driving never have a problem – but you do have to be careful down an unmade road etc. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven an M sport, the birds kit isn’t as crashy, and you don’t wince at potholes. The car can handle and go faster than I’ve got the balls to go on the road to be honest! I dunno what the Eibach Pro Springs are like, but I doubt in isolation they’d cure the crashiness. Maybe you should try the ohlins setup – I hear they’re good (and rather expensive!).

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Nice Ibis

Riding is my life ( https://flic.kr/p/dX8sgg etc.)

Skimmed your thread - the waterpump seems a recurring theme, although I changed mine at 190k miles - it was the original for the car!

Edited by zippyonline on Thursday 16th November 17:10

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It wasn't showing any fault codes, and the car didn't hint of overheating - but there was an electrical humming when I locked the car up. I found it to be the waterpump using a stethoscope, and decided it was time for a change. When I took the existing one out, it had an '05 stamp on the manufacturing bit! I could also shake the shaft about.... New one in, no more electrical whining.
I also think the old stat was also stuck open - so it took a bit longer to warm up beforehand (although not as bad as you'd think because I mostly do longer journeys anyway, and the electric water pump helps with the warm up process).


140 (20-05-2017) by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

It wasn't too bad a job either - certainly compared to a few others.

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Swervin_Mervin said:

It's confirmed that I really ought to get on with what I'd planned for the new year, and have a full suspension refresh. There's a leaky shock, 2 tired control arm balljoints, a very tired front wishbone balljoint, and cream crackered rear shock bumpstops. My original plan was all new dampers, and new bushings, but might as well throw in new control arms and will price up some Billies. Thoughts appreciated as to what I should consider having done whilst I'm at it

TBH, as someone who has over the course of the past year replaced every single bushing in their rear suspension, I suggest you bite the bullet and do the whole lot at once - anything less and you won't be seeing the full benefit, and they'll need doing eventually (as in not too soon afterwards) anyway. It would seem mine had the birds b3 kit fitted - but the rest of the suspension wasn't touched - which explains the "it feels well controlled but with a few worn out bits" when I test drove it initially! It will be pricey, but worth it imho. Control arms wise - if you're paying labour, it's cheaper just to swap them all out (a few bolts) rather than get the bushings in them changed.

ATM said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

And I'm still toying with the idea of the M Performance 4-pot calipers. I got too used to 4pots with the Brembos on the 197, and getting the 125i has highlighted just how much less confidence inspiring the standard calipers are on the 330. It's just a case of finding some at a decent price.

I've just switched to EBC yellows and they feel good. Easily enough braking in this weather and very good feel to them. If you switch to the 4 pots do you need to replace the discs - how much does all that cost?

4 pot brembo's from the f3x come in either 340mm dia or 370mm dia depending on what your'e after. 340mm should fit under 17s just, and 370mm you'll need the 18s. E91 335is come with 348mm and boggo 330i come with 330mm (which is smaller than the rears @ 336mm!)
I'll be fitting mine sometime over spring (gonna get my current set of discs/pads through this winter - the fact they're just boggo ECP items new when I bought it is starting to show!).

My next big thing I'd like to sort on mine is the subframe bushings - but whilst I'm there it would seem silly not to change the rear ARB as you have to lower the subframe to do that...then you need the front ARB to match the rear...and really I should get an LSD to go with them... oh it all gets out of control so quickly!

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Swervin_Mervin said:

I assume the calipers are all the same size Zippy? If I can squeeze 370mm in there I'll go for that.

Totally with you on the bushings etc. All the control arms are likely original apart from the n/s front ones which wree changed about 4yrs ago. I'll probably still do the lot though. It's going to cost a few £££!! But then, I can't see me changing it anytime soon - not until I can afford to get into a 650i GC or something!

QUestion is, do I go OEM from BMW (Cotswold) or are there cheaper OEM spec available? I seem to recal Lemforder being mentioned as the same stuff but not BMW stamped. Not sure how true that is.

As far as I can tell, the actual callipers are pretty much the same (same body and pistons), but integrated different mounting bits for the different diameter discs. There’s a good page on ecs tuning somewhere explaining the different callipers that come on the f3x.

For the rear suspension (not fiddled with the front yet) Lemforder is OEM – I bought mine from ECP and when they turned up – you can see on some of them where the BMW part no. has been scribbled out. I’m pretty confident they’re the same. I think the front stuff is TRW OE, but don’t quote me on that! The OE BMW bushings from BMW aren’t stupid money either – although I did go Powerflex simply due to struggling to install the OE ones with the tools I had to hand – I suspect when I come round to it again, my tool collection would have increased and I’d fit OE parts.

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Swervin_Mervin said:

NSF arm needs doing in order to pass its MOT.

Yours OK otherwise?

My MOT is due, I was just gonna use up the last of my tyre at the weekend - and kinda wished I'd changed them before the weekend as I ended up on snowy roads in Wales and almost parked it in a ditch (where another car was also parked!) - but was fine...just needed a change of pants! In the same trip however, I gained a new windscreen chip - which is massive, and has turned instantly into a nice line.

So new windscreen and tyres needed for MOT - will be doing that/getting it sorted on Saturday

I've also bought a nice SP hydraulic puller off eBay, so to make that worth it's while, and LSD will have to be fitted at some point

(mind you, it is getting a bit cold to be tinkering with cars...)

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Swervin_Mervin said:

Assuming this CP4L Lemforder part is up to snuff it's quite a saving on OEM.

CP4L is EuroCarParts - so should be fine. I used them - like I said, BMW part no's still on some of them! I tend to use euros with a discount code (as there's always a discount code going pretty much) which ends up as a price pretty much the same as CP4L and easy to pick-up/return if needs be. Just don't buy the cheap tat from euros, it really is cheap tat!

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Nope!
Although I bought new nuts and bolts for mine - the ones I took off were in far better condition that I was expecting.

I had a pile that looked like this:


E91 Suspension Parts by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

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Swervin_Mervin said:

Did you get the nuts/bolts from BMW or ECP Zippy?

BMW (don’t think ECP do them, and the BMW ones are decent and not insane money – although not cheap!). I’d weigh up whether you need them by poking your head under the car and seeing what they’re like. I say I was impressed by how good condition mine were in – I don’t actually know when they were changed – mine had suspension work done before I got it. And my new bolts already have surface corrosion on them, and they’ve been under the car less than a year… (and the new shiny lemforder arms also have surface corrosion on them – and they were also new less than a year ago) – salty winter roads absolutely paste the car under there!

Cost of the bolts soon add up by the time you add up the number of links there are!