My BMW E46 330i Sport

My BMW E46 330i Sport

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Discussion

madmover

1,725 posts

183 months

Tuesday 17th January 2012
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Im sure you will have great fun, Never drove the e46 only my mums e90 330i but boy is it good fun and im sure this would be equally good. Great colour as well!!

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Little Update:

I've done over a 1000 miles in the car now. It's just getting better and better. I discovered the butterfly valve in the exhaust was seized shut meaning I was running on one pipe, so I sorted it out so it's now stuck open which as a result means it sounds damn fantastic everywhere, even crackles and pops a little on the overun. cloud9

Last owner certainly never opened it up often, felt really restricted at the top end, but now after some V-Power and a few good runs it really shifts down a road. Only just found out that when EVO tested in a while back they got a 0-60mph time of 5.9seconds. Seriously impressed.

So far the only thing I've got for it is a new front badge to replace the old worn one. My ebay fault code reader software is on the way so I will address the airbag fault code next.

Last thing to mention is fuel economy, in town I'm getting 17mpg. But amazingly I've matched BMWs claimed 40mpg on some longer runs being very good with that usually lead-based foot of mine. Normal for motorway driving is around 32mpg. Pretty pleased with that.

More updates to come....

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

199 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Bringing it to Silverstone next weekend, Tom?

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Waugh-terfall said:
Bringing it to Silverstone next weekend, Tom?
It will be there of course, well not if I get to bring the S4, but most probably I'll be there in it.

james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

190 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Lovely car, lovely colour! How much was the insurance?

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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james_gt3rs said:
Lovely car, lovely colour! How much was the insurance?
Ummm enough wink A price I hope to never have to pay again. But still worth every penny.

It was a nice colour, it's now a sort of brown on blue colour. Not keen on keeping a gleaming BMW in dodgy little city side streets. It will be making an appearance at the PHSS at Silverstone after it's had a nice long bath. biggrin

james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

190 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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petrolveins said:
james_gt3rs said:
Lovely car, lovely colour! How much was the insurance?
Ummm enough wink A price I hope to never have to pay again. But still worth every penny.

It was a nice colour, it's now a sort of brown on blue colour. Not keen on keeping a gleaming BMW in dodgy little city side streets. It will be making an appearance at the PHSS at Silverstone after it's had a nice long bath. biggrin
I'll take a guess then. £3500?

Poko

303 posts

168 months

Wednesday 1st February 2012
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james_gt3rs said:
I'll take a guess then. £3500?
£2k iirc smile

sparks_E39

12,738 posts

212 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Lovely car mate, well done. No problem with owning a BMW at a young age, I got my E39 528 at 21, insurance was only £700 ish so you should see a sharp drop over the next few years.

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Poko said:
james_gt3rs said:
I'll take a guess then. £3500?
£2k iirc smile
Poko is bang on the money.

The Crack Fox said:
One of the two pipes should remain shut until a certain RPM, although plenty of owners jam it open to enjoy the sound, take care if/when we get a smattering of snow as these are crap in bad conditions. I've enjoyed owning mine, trip reads 29.7MPG over the last 20k miles of enthusastic driving. I hope you enjoy yours smile
My valve was seized shut so it needed freeing up. Best thing I've done to the car, it's like having a new exhaust. Sounds amazing in tunnels too. biggrin I'm not expecting good things with 255 rear sections and real drive in the snow. As for fuel, I need to calculate my total averages at some point. Be interesting to see.

ETA
Bugger! Just calculated my overall mpg over the last 1200 miles.... 22.9mpg. Oops, that'll be the city driving and new car fever doing that. driving


Edited by petrolveins on Thursday 2nd February 07:39

Stedman

7,212 posts

191 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Tom, did I tell you I was getting an AVERAGE of 11mpg for about 300miles when I fitted my exhaust? biggrin

Can't wait to hear it!

sparks_E39

12,738 posts

212 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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If you do a lot of town driving don't expect much more than the MPG you get now, thirsty buggers they are!

Petrolize

324 posts

173 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Missed this first time round, you've not done badly at all, it looks like a lovely car.

Waugh-terfall

18,488 posts

199 months

Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Stedman said:
Tom, did I tell you I was getting an AVERAGE of 11mpg for about 300miles when I fitted my exhaust? biggrin

Can't wait to hear it!
Our trip to the airfield may not have helped that... At all. hehe

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Friday 3rd February 2012
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sparks_E39 said:
If you do a lot of town driving don't expect much more than the MPG you get now, thirsty buggers they are!
It's the combination of traffic, a set of traffic lights into a 50 zone and a nice bridge I go under everyday on my way to uni. hehe

I'm actually loving how filthy it is at the moment. Might just never ever wash it. wink

Clivey

5,108 posts

203 months

Friday 17th February 2012
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DanielJames said:
petrolveins said:
Yeah Parkers price guide said about £5300 is what I should pay. But in all fairness it's not perfect. The airbag light comes on and off intermittently, so I'm suspecting loose connection somewhere. Common problem I know. Also it needs one new parking sensor, so those don't work, and I need to get a new key for it. But touch wood mechanically it seems all good. Oh and I need to replace the front badge and possibly give the wheels a refurb at some point. Currently I'm sorting out the airbag light, ordering a new key, and some BMW plates for it. Pleased as punch though. biggrin
Sounds familiar, my parking sensors are hit and miss and the airbag light likes to flash with passengers..

BMW electronics ey!!
Thirded! I also need to look at my parking sensors and the airbag light had started to illuminate with passengers, but since Wednesday it's decided to stay on. Bugger.

I seem to remember reading that the airbag light flashing is a common fault; any idea what causes it?

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Friday 17th February 2012
quotequote all
Clivey said:
Thirded! I also need to look at my parking sensors and the airbag light had started to illuminate with passengers, but since Wednesday it's decided to stay on. Bugger.

I seem to remember reading that the airbag light flashing is a common fault; any idea what causes it?
90% of the the time I'm told it's the passenger occupancy sensor, which can be fixed yourself with a part that costs £10 from ebay, and bypasses the sensor. But can be many other things.

I've just had a new light spring up which tells me a rear bulb has blown, when in fact all the bulbs are working. Also a cheap self-fix soldering job I'm told, just need to find the time now. I did get some BMW Diagnostic software which I tried today. Interesting the number of fault codes the 'blown' light bulb has thrown up. Seems the car at some point has recorded a fault from every single rear bulb. A short-circuit I'm told, fixed by re-earthing the light unit somewhere else. However there is no fault code I can see for the airbag light, meaning I have no idea what's wrong. The software did however pinpoint the exact sensor that has packed up and gave me a part number to order it. Had good fun running though some of the diagnostic tests, seeing the dials go to 155mph and back, setting off the car alarm from my laptop and getting individual lights on the car to turn on. Also gives you timings on the Vanos system, engine, oil and water temperatures and all sorts of geeky things. I even found one function to tell me how close the nearest object to each of the individual sensors was. Also found a way to disable the annoying headlight washer system, which I don't need as I don't have xenons. So now I don't washer fluid spray all over the front end of the car every time I wash the windscreen.

Since last time I've treated the car to some nice proper BMW Dealership plates, just to make it look less wheeler dealer. However I think I've got myself a slow puncture. Hoping it won't require a new tyre.

Clivey

5,108 posts

203 months

Friday 24th February 2012
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petrolveins said:
90% of the the time I'm told it's the passenger occupancy sensor, which can be fixed yourself with a part that costs £10 from ebay, and bypasses the sensor. But can be many other things.
Hopefully that's it. In reality, if the car's involved in an accident that's bad enough to require airbags, bearing in mind it's worth £4-5k it's going to be written off anyway, regardless of whether or not you've got to replace the passenger airbag / dash.

petrolveins said:
I've just had a new light spring up which tells me a rear bulb has blown, when in fact all the bulbs are working. Also a cheap self-fix soldering job I'm told, just need to find the time now. I did get some BMW Diagnostic software which I tried today. Interesting the number of fault codes the 'blown' light bulb has thrown up. Seems the car at some point has recorded a fault from every single rear bulb. A short-circuit I'm told, fixed by re-earthing the light unit somewhere else. However there is no fault code I can see for the airbag light, meaning I have no idea what's wrong. The software did however pinpoint the exact sensor that has packed up and gave me a part number to order it. Had good fun running though some of the diagnostic tests, seeing the dials go to 155mph and back, setting off the car alarm from my laptop and getting individual lights on the car to turn on. Also gives you timings on the Vanos system, engine, oil and water temperatures and all sorts of geeky things. I even found one function to tell me how close the nearest object to each of the individual sensors was. Also found a way to disable the annoying headlight washer system, which I don't need as I don't have xenons. So now I don't washer fluid spray all over the front end of the car every time I wash the windscreen.
Sounds geeky enough to appeal to me, lol! nerd - Having said that, I really would rather it didn't have any faults!

petrolveins said:
Since last time I've treated the car to some nice proper BMW Dealership plates, just to make it look less wheeler dealer.
New plates are on my "to do" list too - I just want to sort out the niggles first. Cracking car though - I did 320 miles yesterday and could've done double that comfortably. The only downside now is the price of fuel, especially comparing MPG to my diesel Citroen C4!


Edited by Clivey on Saturday 25th February 11:38

petrolveins

Original Poster:

1,780 posts

172 months

Wednesday 29th February 2012
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Not so much an update as an excuse to post up some photos I took of the car today. Loving the car, average fuel economy is up now too. Total average is about 26mpg, finding I get into the mid-30s on a decent run.

Overall I'm loving the experience, but the BMW electronics are living up to their reputation. I have rectified the shorting issue with the rear light-clusters, which was much less complicated than I feared. However the next day the passenger wing-mirror packed up, guessing it's the motor. I'm going to book it into a recommended BMW Indy garage to get all the things looked at, I've also discovered it's about 3 years overdue a brake fluid change so that needs doing too. eek

Anyway now for the pictures




james_gt3rs

4,816 posts

190 months

Wednesday 29th February 2012
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Are the indicators working? wink

biggrin