The E46 325ti Appreciation Thread

[helix402]

Muzzman said:

I'm on the hunt for a square setup 17 x 7.5 Style 68. Can i just confirm that these will clear the 330i calipers i've bought?

I'll be able to run 225/45/R17 tyres is that correct?

Style 68 i understand are the strongest / lightest 17" BMW wheel...

Thanks

Yes, yes, maybe. You can check here:

http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/

[anonymous-user]

would fitting 330i calipers to the front, ignoring the rear upset the braking bias or will the difference be negligible?

[Muzzman]

eezeh said:

would fitting 330i calipers to the front, ignoring the rear upset the braking bias or will the difference be negligible?

From what i understand there is so little braking on the rears it wouldn't upset the balance.

Oh....and to the deprement of my family i have now read the full 140 pages.

I do now wish i'd gone for a Sport rather than SE :-(

[Muzzman]

helix402 said:

Muzzman said:

I'm on the hunt for a square setup 17 x 7.5 Style 68. Can i just confirm that these will clear the 330i calipers i've bought?

I'll be able to run 225/45/R17 tyres is that correct?

Style 68 i understand are the strongest / lightest 17" BMW wheel...

Thanks

Yes, yes, maybe. You can check here:

http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/

Thanks for the link. To go for the square setup, can i just get four of the ET41 fronts or do i need to hunt down the M3 ones?

[helix402]

Muzzman said:

Thanks for the link. To go for the square setup, can i just get four of the ET41 fronts or do i need to hunt down the M3 ones?

Yes, four fronts will fit fine.

[Muzzman]

So i've come across some new wheels and tyres on ebay with the right fitment. Problem is ths fella wants £50 less than they are new. What would be a resonable offer?

They have Nankang NS2R 235 40 17 on them, would they work on 17 x 7.5's?

[s m]

Muzzman said:

So i've come across some new wheels and tyres on ebay with the right fitment. Problem is ths fella wants £50 less than they are new. What would be a resonable offer?

They have Nankang NS2R 235 40 17 on them, would they work on 17 x 7.5's?

That was the the original E36 M3 set-up

[Mr Tidy]

Muzzman said:

I do now wish i'd gone for a Sport rather than SE

I wouldn't worry, you aren't missing much! The Sport just has a couple of M badges and bigger wheels, which can be easily changed!

All 325tis had M-Sport suspension and front seats.

[Muzzman]

So i've come across some new wheels and tyres on ebay with the right fitment. Problem is ths fella wants £50 less than they are new. What would be a resonable offer?

They have Nankang NS2R 235 40 17 on them, would they work on 17 x 7.5's?

[Mr Tidy]

Muzzman said:

So i've come across some new wheels and tyres on ebay with the right fitment. Problem is ths fella wants £50 less than they are new. What would be a resonable offer?

They have Nankang NS2R 235 40 17 on them, would they work on 17 x 7.5's?

If you mean the seller wants £50 less than new rims for his that have tyres fitted then you'd be getting the tyres for free, so doesn't sound bad!

235/40s should be fine on a 7.5J rim, but I know nothing about Nankang as a brand. Probably worth a search for some reviews.

[Muzzman]

Mr Tidy said:

Muzzman said:

So i've come across some new wheels and tyres on ebay with the right fitment. Problem is ths fella wants £50 less than they are new. What would be a resonable offer?

They have Nankang NS2R 235 40 17 on them, would they work on 17 x 7.5's?

If you mean the seller wants £50 less than new rims for his that have tyres fitted then you'd be getting the tyres for free, so doesn't sound bad!

235/40s should be fine on a 7.5J rim, but I know nothing about Nankang as a brand. Probably worth a search for some reviews.

No....Wheels and tyres are £800 new, he wants £750, seems a bit mental to me

[Mr Tidy]

Muzzman said:

No....Wheels and tyres are £800 new, he wants £750, seems a bit mental to me

In that case I'd just buy a brand new set and choose my own tyres, or keep looking!

[Krikkit]

Mine in Flamenco red with facelift rear lights.

eezeh said:

JakeT said:

That's way nicer. Might do that on one of my seat handles that's a bit iffy. What did you use?

I bought a bottle of gtechniq c4, really expensive for what it is but i only used 3 drops of it per handle.

Will make a huge difference to the wing mirror trims and the scuttle when I get around to it.

Very impressive - I'll give it a go. I was disappointed when I last used a Gtechniq product - I used the alloy wheel sealer on a freshly-painted set of wheels and couldn't tell the difference, I also tried it on some used ones and there was no change there either.

Edited by Krikkit on Sunday 26th April 23:24

[anonymous-user]

Krikkit said:

Very impressive - I'll give it a go. I was disappointed when I last used a Gtechniq product - I used the alloy wheel sealer on a freshly-painted set of wheels and couldn't tell the difference, I also tried it on some used ones and there was no change there either.

Edited by Krikkit on Sunday 26th April 23:24

I don't think the wheel sealant will actually repel brake dust as advertised but for sure it will make them a hell of a lot easier to clean.
If you want to get rid of it..

[Muzzman]

I'm strangely drawn to Style 44 wheels, i think they would look pretty good. Just over 10kg.

Does anyone know if they're reasonably strong?

Would it be okay running 17x8J all round?

What size rubber would i get for these?

Edited by Muzzman on Monday 27th April 08:38

[helix402]

Muzzman said:

I'm strangely drawn to Style 44 wheels, i think they would look pretty good. Just over 10kg.

Does anyone know if they're reasonably strong?

Would it be okay running 17x8J all round?

What size rubber would i get for these?

Edited by Muzzman on Monday 27th April 08:38

I’m not a fan of them. Very easy to kerb, noticeably heavier than the 68s and often buckled.

[Krikkit]

eezeh said:

Krikkit said:

Very impressive - I'll give it a go. I was disappointed when I last used a Gtechniq product - I used the alloy wheel sealer on a freshly-painted set of wheels and couldn't tell the difference, I also tried it on some used ones and there was no change there either.

I don't think the wheel sealant will actually repel brake dust as advertised but for sure it will make them a hell of a lot easier to clean.
If you want to get rid of it..

Well that's just it - it made no difference to the used ones before/after in terms of how easy to clean they were.

I've got a set of Style 98s to refurb, so I'll do them with it and give it another chance

[Muzzman]

helix402 said:

Muzzman said:

I'm strangely drawn to Style 44 wheels, i think they would look pretty good. Just over 10kg.

Does anyone know if they're reasonably strong?

Would it be okay running 17x8J all round?

What size rubber would i get for these?

Edited by Muzzman on Monday 27th April 08:38

I’m not a fan of them. Very easy to kerb, noticeably heavier than the 68s and often buckled.

Fair enough, i'm struggling to find square 68 set

[anonymous-user]

I have a VCG to replace and figured whilst im at it replace the vanos seals which are known weak point, given the mileage now i think its about time.
Spent a while researching which kit, the obvious besian system and kits offered by i6automotive and x8r.
I found this post online from the owner of beisan systems:

Rajaie said:

You need to be careful of what seals material you are getting. There are many variations of Teflon and to some extent Viton.
Teflon isn't usually used in it's virgin (white) form because it's susceptible to wear and deformation. So normally fillers are added to improve this. Choosing the correct type and grade of the filler is very important. In this vanos application BMW chose a very high grade carbon as the filler. This is correct for several reasons. The vanos has soft non-anodized aluminum cylinder walls and the engine oil pressure is very low, 7.5-60 PSI, compared to the normal hydraulic applications 1,500 PSI. So you need a material that doesn't eat the cylinder walls as the Teflon slides against it, and that allows low enough friction to provide good performance (speed). Graphite would not damage the cylinder walls and has very low friction, but it is fairly susceptible to wear and wouldn't last long. Bronze and glass-moly are too harsh and would damage the cylinder walls and provide poor performance.

When I (Beisan) first looked into this I connected with the largest seals company in the world. They recommended a turquoise Teflon that was essentially virgin Teflon colored green. Once I understood what they were recommending I objected. They said they were right and I needed to follow their advise. I said it would wear quickly. They said that was no problem because you could just replace it when it wears. That was the end of the relationship. I connected with another world class seals company. They agreed carbon was the correct filler. But I was not happy because their carbon wasn't as fine and slick as the OEM. I had them assess the OEM and they found it was carbon but couldn't identify a grade. We launched the seals kit with the standard carbon and ran into issues. It would take 500 city miles for the seals to break in before achieving the performance benefits. Some people had codes during this period. I complained to the seals company. Then I connected with a world class seals materials company. They assess the OEM Teflon and told me that it had a very special very expensive high grade carbon filler that had a single source in the world. This filler had the wear longevity of carbon but was almost as low in friction as virgin Teflon. They recommended it for this vanos application. I switched to this material and the issues significantly resolved. The seals were breaking in in 200 miles. Most of the code issues were gone. We would infrequently see a code just after install before the seals broke in. I found out new vanos units can also experience this. I then had the Teflon rings polished when manufactured. This resolved all the issues and even further reduced the break in period. I had to switch to a smaller seals company to use this material. Essentially no large seals company will offer or use this material because it's too expensive and they are all about reducing costs and increasing profits. With the new seals company we had custom molds made for the seals, $3k each. This allowed creating Teflon billets close to the final dimensions of the seals before sintering and then machining. This notably reduced material loss from machining and facilitated using this very high grade very expensive material.

There are also many variations of Viton rubber. One big issue in the vanos application is compression set. This the flattening of the O-ring. This happens over time due to the compression of the O-ring. There are variations of Viton that facilitate better compression set. We were fortunate to connect with a manufacturer who's O-rings do well with compression set. I have seen many results of compression set over the years and this material does well.

If you look at the ebay listing for i6 Automotive for the double seals kits they specify "Bronze impregnated Teflon". As explained this is too harsh and could damage the vanos soft aluminum cylinder wall and would provide poor performance. Bronze also comes in grades. The standard bronze grade, which is likely what's used, is very course and harsh. We (Beisan) use bronze filler on the S54/S62 Teflon seals. This is appropriate for this application because the cylinder walls are hardened steel and the oil pressure is 1,500 PSI. But we use a very high grade fine bronze filler. This is the same as the OEM.
Another ebay offering by i6 Automotive for the double seals kit has light gray Teflon rings. This is indicative of glass-moly filler. This is the cheapest and harshest material available.

Although the Beisan seals kit is expensive, you do get a lot of value with it. It provides very high grade materials that have been proven with years of install and use. You get a very good procedure to guide you through the repair. I am available continuously by phone and email for support. There is a vanos forum on Bimmerboard where I moderate and answer questions. If you damage any of the seals during the install Beisan will send you replacements at no charge. If you have performance issues or the install doesn't resolve your problem I am always ready to help. I have helped thousands of owners with these issue.

On another note, always use OEM valve cover gaskets. I have recently checked them and BMW has switched to Viton. These new gaskets will last a very long time. All the aftermarket valve cover gaskets I'm aware of are Buna and harden and fail.
I will write a separate post about this to let everyone know.

What are your thoughts? The beisan kit is $60 which is reasonable given the claims but to get them in the UK its around £70 all in whereas i6 and x8r are around the £30 mark.

Any experience with beisan, i6 and x8r? Thanks.

[PaulGT3]

To be honest if I had read that first time round I too would have gone for the beisan seals as it sounds like they have done significant research and development!

However I fitted the i6automotive kit to my 2.5 engine at around 100k miles and it made a huge difference to how the car drove especially at low revs, that engine was still pulling great 50k miles later. So I used them again when I put the 3.0 engine in, again no problems and the car drives great 2k miles so far.

I ordered the full kit first time round but realised it's only the seals that affect performance and the rattle rings are only if you have a noisy VANOS - both my engines have been very quiet so I only fitted the seals.