My BMW 335i M

[dunny83]

Hi everyone, I'm not much of a forum poster normally. So thought I'd start off with an account of how things are going with my 3 series.

First off here's my last few cars.

Fiesta ST (my only ever brand new car) Was a brilliant little car



Next a change of job meant I needed reliable and cheap so..... Vauxhall 2.0DTI.... Not very exciting but this car saw me through tough times without putting a foot wrong and I love it for that.



Back to form meant I could enjoy myself again. Seat Leon Cupra R, this thing was mint and after a couple of years and various parts ie Forge, KW, AMD mapping etc it was a real weapon



By now I was doing big miles to see my gf every weekend so I needed a diesel..... still had to be quick though. So a Golf GT 170 was perfect, well after GTI skirts and rear lower bumper. Was subtle but I liked that about it



In the end a wedding needed paying for so the Golf went and again I wanted cheap for a while, but this time I still wanted fun. Along came my Focus ST170, so much car for so little money! This was on the verge of becoming a shed. But after removing all the blue bulbs, a few new interior parts, a new clutch and flywheel, new rear bumper and a damn good clean! She was a great car for 12months and went to a good home

[dunny83]

So after the year and some saving I finally managed to save for something I've always wanted. A BMW M sport. I've always loved (and still do) the E46 but good ones are getting hard to find and when I read about the 335i engine I had to have one!

So here she is on the way back from Stratstone Derby



And after her first wash





Main plans for this car are to keep it clean and in top shape. Maybe a few additions along the way but all very subtle and oem themed

Cheers

[dunny83]

Lol I can't type fast enough

[dunny83]

The main things I wanted was, manual (quite rare on these I believe) and upgraded audio. So when I saw this with those things plus that leather which I would never have considered until I saw it, two brand new rear alloys and tyres, I knew it was the one. It's also BMW approved used so the warranty was nice (and necessary as it turned out)

After a few weeks you start to notice little things and the first for me was the centre caps really let the look down..



So a few days later....



BMW must have agreed that they start to look rough as they've re designed them.

The other thing I noticed was there seemed to be alot of white chalk getting blown in through the air vents, I was forever hoovering it up during the summer. Wiltshire does seem to be made of chalk though so I thought it was just in the air and getting blown through the filters somehow and didn't think much more of it.

Then on another forum I just happened to see a post about "snow coming in through the vents" a quick read revealed that it's a known fault that part of the AC system can corrode after time and aluminium oxide gets blown into the car. Due to the whole dash having to come out it's a big job and the bill can be huge! I got it booked straight in Ridgeway BMW in Salisbury and they investigated and agreed.

So I left it with them for the week, they gave me a nice new 116i M to bomb about in and it all got sorted under warranty. I have to say that you hear some horror stories about dealers but Ridgeway have been great and I'll happily use them in the future. Chalk dust eh lol..... daft when you look back lol

Cheers

[dunny83]

cerb4.5lee said:

Very nice really like these, have you got any pics of the lovely twin pipes & the interior?

I have always liked the way these sound had one fly by me a few years ago while my window was down & I thought it sounded great, enjoy it.

Hi, thankyou. The sound surprised me, I thought it was a grown up car and then you lift off the throttle and it pops and gurgles lol. It's addictave

I hope these are what you were after






Cheers

[dunny83]

DanielJames said:

Interior is flipping awesome! I'd love one of these!

I think I'd have to make sure I got the BMW warranty though!

Thanks for the comment, yeah the warranty is a must. Now if the turbos could just blow up before my years up I reckon that'd be me set lol

[dunny83]

hornetrider said:

Stunning motor, absolutely love that interior. Congrats!

Thankyou very much

[dunny83]

pimpchez said:

Very nice ,when is the remap coming ?

Ha, I'm not going to lie and say this hasn't crossed my mind but I'm trying to resist. When it came to mapping my Leon there were a few company's that stood out and you could pick between them and the type of power delivery you wanted, easy. I find bmw mapping very confusing and everyone seem's to use somebody different, with different methods

[dunny83]

Baryonyx said:

A proper gearbox! Nicely done.

Thankyou, I'm itching to get the CDV removed though, does slightly ruin the experience

[dunny83]

Pixelpeep said:

just me maybe but i would be itching to take that 335 badge off.

beautiful car fella, good write up on car history too always enjoy reading things like this

Thankyou, I've been tempted a couple of times to remove the badge. I think it's days are numbered

[dunny83]

lewisf182 said:

Loooove the interior. 335i is one of my all time favourite cars, the twin rear pipes finish it off so well. Sadly there seems so many horror stories with the 335i which makes me think is it really worth the premium over the 330i as an ownership proposition?

I'd only consider one if from BMW AUC which is the route you've gone down too.

Gorgeous car OP congrats

Thanks for your comments, I guess it's down to how much you want the extra power to make you want to take the risk. I was looking at E46 M3's but decided this would be a cheaper every day proposition, so it made sense for me. I didn't expect to see anything on the AUC website, was surprised when I found mine

Cheers

[dunny83]

Court_S said:

That's lovely, especially the interior. So much nicer than black.

The whole car looks stunning. I did consider stretching out budget this summer fir an ealy 335 but I wasn't brave enough to do it. An AUC car would be a different natter.

Thanks, you should do it, you'll be glad you did

[dunny83]

As I'm trying to keep the 3 standard but HAVE to play with all my cars i some way, I thought I'd put my energy into tidying a few bits up. If you look at the pic of the wheel on the first page you've probably noticed already how much the wheel bolts let them down.

So they got removed. Nice!!!



My wife was at work so I took advantage of the dishwashers extra hot setting



Hammerite smooth, good stuff



Much better, please excuse the dirty wheels



While the wheels were off I thought I'd tidy the brakes up. A quick wire brush did the trick and then a bit of protection. Again hammerite was used and it's holding up to the abuse very well so far. Next time the brakes get replaced the disc hubs are getting a coat of silver before they go on for sure.




Finally, I've never been a chrome fan so I got some genuine M Sport front grilles to see how they look. Being a BMW part they were easy to fit so I can swap back to the chrome any time easily.

Before



After



Before I fitted them I wasn't sure but I quite like them, let me know what you guys think good or bad.

Cheers

[dunny83]

philmots said:

Running that car I'd never ever sacrifice my BMW warranty (or the option to extend it) for the sake of a remap.

Main reason my 335d stopped standard.

Lovely car, just keep it clean like that and I bet you'll not lose a fortune on it either.

Yeah after the AC issue I'm definitely going to extend the warranty. I bet you were tempted to play with the 335d, mid range they have more go than an e9X M3 if I remember right

[dunny83]

T16OLE said:

Love the combination of the coupe, manual, black with tan leather.

Thanks, when I was looking on Auto Trader there were three manual's for sale in the country. This being one of them, I was very lucky

[dunny83]

stuart-b said:

Very nice As you have a warranty, get the wheels fully inspected. I have two rear cracked wheels of that type sat in the garage and they are over £500 each to replace.

Good point, I'm guessing thats the reason mine came with two new rears. I do check them whenever they come off for a clean and seem ok so far. I certainly do plenty of pot hole swerving now day's lol

[dunny83]

aspirated said:

Very nice, seems like perfect spec, the only thing I'd be doing is adding LCI taillights to freshen it up a little

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OEM-BMW-E92-M3-LCI-LED-u...

Thanks, I do like the lci rears and your link is the best price I've seen yet but I quite like the pre lci's too so I couldn't really justify that at the minute. Maybe in the future though

[dunny83]

cerb4.5lee said:

Great detail work on the wheel nuts & calipers

I personally prefer the chrome grills to black ones if I am honest but the black ones do blend in very well on a black car to give a nice stealthy look.

I wan't sure if the black on black would work but like you say it does have a bit of a stealth look to it. Thats a nice M3 you have there, if I ever get one I'll be looking for a white one

[dunny83]

hornetrider said:

I've got the black grilles on my silver grey E61 - look much better than the chrome standard if you have a Sport and you have no other exterior chrome.

I hammerited the calipers on my old MX5 and it protects them against the elements very well. Not sure about doing it on the bolts though - surely as soon as you get the tyre iron on them it'll come straight off?!

The bolts where a bit of an experiment. I left them over night and the paint still felt a bit soft so I baked them for about 40mins and the paint came out rock solid. So far it's been fine, although I am careful and use a torque wrench which I think helps

[dunny83]

Trtj said:

How hot was the washing machine? Hopefully you have not tempered your wheel bolts :P

Nice car, don't like the black grills. Chavvy in my opinion.

Ha, hopefully not that hot, the tupperware hasn't melted so it should be all good