The E46 325ti Appreciation Thread

[Mgd_uk]

dirtychinchilla said:

Wow that would be fantastic, thanks man! I'll send you my address now.

EDIT: just tried to send you my address and apparently you don't permit users to send emails to you hah. Perhaps if you send me a message I can send you my address in return?

just send the message over, let me know if you didnt get it

[helix402]

If anyone wants a Vanos unit to rebuild and swop over I have one, send me a PM if interested.

[Deptford Draylons]

Re the CCV, mine is burning loads of oil and going from max to min on the dipstick in a couple of hundred miles. No visible leaks , so assume first course of action would be to change this out. There's a few unbranded kits on eBay, but also one from Meyle which I believe has good reputation for making OE parts , so has anyone used this kit and confirm ?
Thanks

[Fishy Dave]

Deptford Draylons said:

Re the CCV, mine is burning loads of oil and going from max to min on the dipstick in a couple of hundred miles. No visible leaks , so assume first course of action would be to change this out. There's a few unbranded kits on eBay, but also one from Meyle which I believe has good reputation for making OE parts , so has anyone used this kit and confirm ?
Thanks

Or consider moving straight to a catch can. I had similar consumption to you, changed CCV and it made no improvement, catch can has completely sorted it, have a read through the previous 5 or 10 pages or use m54 catch can in Google.

[Rsdop]

Deptford Draylons said:

Re the CCV, mine is burning loads of oil and going from max to min on the dipstick in a couple of hundred miles. No visible leaks , so assume first course of action would be to change this out. There's a few unbranded kits on eBay, but also one from Meyle which I believe has good reputation for making OE parts , so has anyone used this kit and confirm ?
Thanks

The Meyle kit is good quality, it's what I used and it goes together perfectly. Personally I'd rather pay the extra £30 for good quality parts but the cheaper eBay kits may be ok. People seem to have different levels of success with the CCV but my oil consumption has dropped drastically!

[ethomas]

Mgd_uk said:

Is it a handy enough job to do?

There is a pretty comprehensive guide here: http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/vanos_proc...

[gregs656]

Coming up to a year with mine now. Spent last week visiting friends and relatives, about 800 miles with a real mix of roads. Car was an absolute pleasure. The range of driving highlighted to me what a superb all rounder the car is with this engine.

[Deptford Draylons]

Rsdop said:

The Meyle kit is good quality, it's what I used and it goes together perfectly. Personally I'd rather pay the extra £30 for good quality parts but the cheaper eBay kits may be ok. People seem to have different levels of success with the CCV but my oil consumption has dropped drastically!

Found a genuine BMW CCV kit on eBay for £60 inc delivery , so gone with that option now. The oil thirst is getting silly.

[JakeT]

gregs656 said:

Coming up to a year with mine now. Spent last week visiting friends and relatives, about 800 miles with a real mix of roads. Car was an absolute pleasure. The range of driving highlighted to me what a superb all rounder the car is with this engine.

Had mine since the tenth of January, so 8 months to the day. Done a good 16-17k in that time and it's as comfortable moving up and down motorways on long journeys as it is on B-roads giving it some welly. Not to mention it's been reliable, and done better on fuel than I expected. What more can someone want!?

[PaulGT3]

I thought the car was great on fuel averaging 31mpg over 20k miles and around 35mpg on a run. Since doing the vanos seals though it's improved further, I did a 200 mile journey yesterday from chesterfield to Kent including a lot of stop start traffic on the m25 and averaged 39mpg!

Also picked up those 16" wheels whilst I was down here. Will sort some tyres out and get some photos up. Any recommendations for 205/55 r16 tyres? I was thinking of bridgestone potenza re002 at around £50 each.

[gregs656]

JakeT said:

Had mine since the tenth of January, so 8 months to the day. Done a good 16-17k in that time and it's as comfortable moving up and down motorways on long journeys as it is on B-roads giving it some welly. Not to mention it's been reliable, and done better on fuel than I expected. What more can someone want!?

I average just under 35mpg for the trip - happy with that.

Edit - I do think there is some more to be had from it though, folks on here seem to average a little better than me.

[Rsdop]

Deptford Draylons said:

Found a genuine BMW CCV kit on eBay for £60 inc delivery , so gone with that option now. The oil thirst is getting silly.

Bargain for a genuine kit. When you change the CCV be sure to remove the dipstick tube and make sure it's not gunked up down the bottom end.

[Mr Tidy]

gregs656 said:

I average just under 35mpg for the trip - happy with that.

Edit - I do think there is some more to be had from it though, folks on here seem to average a little better than me.

Had mine since November 2014, so nearly 2 years but only about 13K miles.

OBC is reading 34.6 mpg, but I do like to enjoy it so could potentially do better!

But I don't really care - anything 30+ mpg for a straight 6 petrol is great! My 2.8 Injection Capris couldn't manage that..........

[JakeT]

Mr Tidy said:

gregs656 said:

I average just under 35mpg for the trip - happy with that.

Edit - I do think there is some more to be had from it though, folks on here seem to average a little better than me.

Had mine since November 2014, so nearly 2 years but only about 13K miles.

OBC is reading 34.6 mpg, but I do like to enjoy it so could potentially do better!

But I don't really care - anything 30+ mpg for a straight 6 petrol is great! My 2.8 Injection Capris couldn't manage that..........

Both seem like pretty good numbers. I've had over 40 on a few long journeys, but 37 is what I usually get on my commute. As said it could be much worse, and it still gets an Italian tune up from time to time!

[gregs656]

My OBD has read 31.something for ages. I don't tend to reset it, calculated this one off the milage and litres bought as it was brimmed before I left.

I agree that the numbers are good, the MPG of the compact is only slightly worse than my old 318i.

It's a great car.

MOT on Tuesday, not expecting any issues but you never know.

Edited by gregs656 on Sunday 11th September 15:28

[Mr Tidy]

Yes, they are great cars!

Good luck with the MOT!

[Lazzer325ti]

There is far to much talk of high mpg, had mine on track yesterday, well under 20mpg

Great cars and lots of fun to drive

Edited by Lazzer325ti on Monday 12th September 08:14

[ethomas]

Lazzer325ti said:

There is far to much talk of high mpg, had mine on track yesterday, well under 20mpg

Great cars and lots of fun to drive

Edited by Lazzer325ti on Monday 12th September 08:14

Good man, I managed 12.4mpg on my last track day

Where were you?

[Lazzer325ti]

Took part in the Javelin Sprint Series at Woodbridge

Good series, really well run

[gregs656]

And it failed . . .

Hand brake is not working efficiently. I whipped the wheels off and adjusted the handbrake but this made absolutely no difference, it and therefore been bunged into a garage to have a look at it as I need it sorted ASAP.

Entirely possible at this point that I simply didn't adjust them right, as they seem to be balanced but just not working anything like they should be.

FWIW I slacked off the cables, adjusted the shoes until I could no longer spin the disc and then backed them off so the discs would spin, wheels back on and slack taken off the cables. As I say, made no difference (although it felt quite different to me!)