New car/330i problems.
Discussion
McSam said:
I've had my E46 328i for almost three years, it's a 99 car on 156,000 miles and shares some of your issues. You may find the gearstick will move back to centre more readily when it's warm, but otherwise, yes, you need to drop the 'box to sort it. I got used to it very quickly and it doesn't bother me now.
You're interpreting the dipstick correctly, and the bottom notch cut in it is minimum, the top one maximum. There's nearly a litre between the two, and these engines take 6.5 litres in total so it's not impossible that it wasn't totally topped off at its oil change. A lot of E46s use some oil, mine doesn't at all and never has but as suggested earlier, keep an eye on it.
The yellow oil light coming on for a few seconds shortly after starting is extremely common. I didn't actually think it meant the oil level sensor was dead, as jb2410 said earlier, but then as mine doesn't use any oil I would never know the difference.
To the cooling system, then, which is the really fun bit of these cars! As others have mentioned, do not let it get too hot. They're not as fragile as they used to be, but still absolutely hate being overheated. As soon as the gauge moves up from 12 o'clock, shut it off sharpish, you are already in a potential danger zone. The gauge is almost useless except as an idiot warning, but happily you can view the exact temperature in the dashboard's "hidden menu", accessed thus (more details here:
Once you have that selected, you can drive the car normally while monitoring the coolant temp. It should sit around 95-105°C, much hotter and it's struggling for some reason. If you do get it hot, common places for it to fail are splitting the expansion tank, splitting the top radiator hose or more rarely blowing out the expansion tank cap. The radiator itself can get nicely bowed out due to overpressure!
My car has just the single electric fan (despite everyone in the world telling you no M52 comes without a viscous one), and it was dead. I replaced it with a used one from eBay after diagnosing it by unplugging the temp sensor and using a multi-meter to check the feed to the fan plug was correct. Check you're getting a voltage across the chunky-looking wire to ground, and if your meter can do frequency check that too as the fan is run by PWM. If all this looks normal, it's likely the fan itself, replacements seem easy to come by and they're honestly a five-minute job to fit.
ETA - Oh yeah, I forgot about the coolant float. It's really easy to break these, they're just a plastic stick mounted (quite badly) to a polystyrene ball, can you see yours and make sure it is actually still intact, if it's not rising? I managed to snap mine a while back.
The gearbox gets right on my tits!You're interpreting the dipstick correctly, and the bottom notch cut in it is minimum, the top one maximum. There's nearly a litre between the two, and these engines take 6.5 litres in total so it's not impossible that it wasn't totally topped off at its oil change. A lot of E46s use some oil, mine doesn't at all and never has but as suggested earlier, keep an eye on it.
The yellow oil light coming on for a few seconds shortly after starting is extremely common. I didn't actually think it meant the oil level sensor was dead, as jb2410 said earlier, but then as mine doesn't use any oil I would never know the difference.
To the cooling system, then, which is the really fun bit of these cars! As others have mentioned, do not let it get too hot. They're not as fragile as they used to be, but still absolutely hate being overheated. As soon as the gauge moves up from 12 o'clock, shut it off sharpish, you are already in a potential danger zone. The gauge is almost useless except as an idiot warning, but happily you can view the exact temperature in the dashboard's "hidden menu", accessed thus (more details here:
1. Hold Trip Reset while turning ignition key to on position
2. OBC should show "Test"
3. Use Trip Reset to select function 19.0 that unlocks all the features
3. Wait for display to show "Off"
4. Depress Trip Reset for 1/4 second and release it
5. Without waiting, keep pressing trip reset to cycle through menu codes. 7.0 is coolant temperature in °C
Once you have that selected, you can drive the car normally while monitoring the coolant temp. It should sit around 95-105°C, much hotter and it's struggling for some reason. If you do get it hot, common places for it to fail are splitting the expansion tank, splitting the top radiator hose or more rarely blowing out the expansion tank cap. The radiator itself can get nicely bowed out due to overpressure!
My car has just the single electric fan (despite everyone in the world telling you no M52 comes without a viscous one), and it was dead. I replaced it with a used one from eBay after diagnosing it by unplugging the temp sensor and using a multi-meter to check the feed to the fan plug was correct. Check you're getting a voltage across the chunky-looking wire to ground, and if your meter can do frequency check that too as the fan is run by PWM. If all this looks normal, it's likely the fan itself, replacements seem easy to come by and they're honestly a five-minute job to fit.
ETA - Oh yeah, I forgot about the coolant float. It's really easy to break these, they're just a plastic stick mounted (quite badly) to a polystyrene ball, can you see yours and make sure it is actually still intact, if it's not rising? I managed to snap mine a while back.
Edited by McSam on Tuesday 3rd March 22:49
Yeah ill top it up a tad and keep my eye on it.
Ive ordered a fan and I'm hoping for the best atm. Worst case is that its something else and its got a new fan on anyway. Im looking at doing the coolant system soon too tbh. Is it a hard job to do yourself?
McSam said:
For what it's worth, mine really couldn't keep itself cool properly without the radiator fan, so it's not necessarily indicative of deeper problems. These engines are quite long old lumps in a tight space, and the water pumps aren't great. They struggle when stationary.
Im hoping thats the problem! crossing fingers and toes!McSam said:
You've only had the car five minutes, you'll get used to the gearbox 
It's not hard working on any of the cooling system, really. The trickiest bit is undoing the viscous fan coupling, but lucky sods that we are, we don't have one! Make sure you get an uprated water pump with a steel impeller if this hasn't already been done, the standard plastic ones have a penchant for disintegrating. Stewart Components do a pretty awesome high-flow one which ends up on a few E36/46 track builds, if you really want to be sure you could give that a look.
I'd recommend doing the water pump at the same time as the rad, to give yourself a bit more working space, and since the auxilary belts have to come off you may as well do those too. These engines are a pain in the arse to bleed, so when refilling the coolant, do so extreeeeeemely slowly to minimise the chance of producing airlocks!
Last tip is to only ever use OEM thermostats from BMW. Few quid more, but I made the mistake of a Euro Car Parts jobbie when I needed one quickly. This failed in about six months, which I wasn't too impressed by, but at least it stuck open - I've heard of them sticking closed, which can be a death sentence.
I'll have to read some DIYs.It's not hard working on any of the cooling system, really. The trickiest bit is undoing the viscous fan coupling, but lucky sods that we are, we don't have one! Make sure you get an uprated water pump with a steel impeller if this hasn't already been done, the standard plastic ones have a penchant for disintegrating. Stewart Components do a pretty awesome high-flow one which ends up on a few E36/46 track builds, if you really want to be sure you could give that a look.
I'd recommend doing the water pump at the same time as the rad, to give yourself a bit more working space, and since the auxilary belts have to come off you may as well do those too. These engines are a pain in the arse to bleed, so when refilling the coolant, do so extreeeeeemely slowly to minimise the chance of producing airlocks!
Last tip is to only ever use OEM thermostats from BMW. Few quid more, but I made the mistake of a Euro Car Parts jobbie when I needed one quickly. This failed in about six months, which I wasn't too impressed by, but at least it stuck open - I've heard of them sticking closed, which can be a death sentence.
If it looks too difficult I'll have to pay someone to do it.
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