E90 M3 - V8 saloon

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Gallons Per Mile

Original Poster:

1,868 posts

106 months

Saturday 31st August 2019
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An impending child had Mrs GPM talking of four door cars, as the Mk4 Golf Diesel Machine only has the two. Not that it's a massive problem, but it was mentioned in passing. She also said she likes having a spare car around, you know, just in case the Golf becomes a gigantic paper weight again like when it ate it's own cam shaft... I couldn't disagree, from my PH point of view, I always need N+1 cars, and I was missing fast cars with big petrol engines since becoming sensible and driving the Golf for commuter duties. The obvious upgrade was a Passat or similar, but who wants one of those when you could also have 400bhp V8 in a saloon car?! Sensible hat thrown out, I ventured on to this very site's classified section and almost immediately found exactly what I was after. I like the E92 Coupe, but at the moment I definitely prefer the E90 saloon shape, there's something about the rear arches and rear end I prefer over the Coupe shape. In summary, we now have a practical car that is a nice place to be, and it satisfies my PH urges with a properly lovely engine! No problem from Mrs GPM over spending the money either, infact she was more eager than me, so therefore I can blame her entirely for this purchase...

The seller wrote an excellent advert and we agreed the sale over the phone as I was fairly sure everything would be as described. I had to jump on a train to Birmingham to pick it up, and the seller found me at the station. Next, we proceeded to look extremely dodgy by parking in a side street so I could look around the car, and then bank transfer the balance in exchange for the key. We got stuck in limbo where the money had left my account but hadn't reached his, so we sat and waited for about 45 minutes until I could drive away!

Spec wise, I've got heated seats, sat nav, business stereo, privacy glass and blinds on the rear doors, USB/aux input, bluetooth, and a load of other things I've probably not found yet. The seller put brand new discs and pads on all round literally the day before I bought it. Wheels had been refurbished recently and the Eagle F1 tyres had done no more than about 6,000 miles. There are also HSD coilovers and 15mm spacers - not ideal as I wanted standard really, but the condition of the car spoke for itself. Not bad for 140k miles!eek On the original rod bearings too...

This thread is going to be to polar opposite of my Diesel Machine thread. Much BMW geekery, some spending of money and less than half the MPG yes

Obligatory motorway services shot on the way home:



Home and on the drive:




The business end:



The first job was to remove the spacers. I don't like the thought of the wheels not being held on they way they were designed to be, and they don't do anything for the handling either. Looked cool I spose, but I prefer the way BMW designed it. Here they are:



The original wheel bolts were luckily in the boot, so I didn't need to buy any. At least the spacers had been put on with correctly matching lengthened bolts:



Shiny new brakes! OEM discs and 'Textar' pads. No idea if they're any good or not, but I seem to be getting pad rattle from them as the rattle stops dead as soon as I touch the brakes... I may bin these off and go for OEM pads:



I noticed whoever changed the brakes re-used the very soft retaining screws. This just won't do, so I ordered a new set, along with a few other parts, and received a nice big box in the post the other day biggrin



No pictures of the 'after' but imagine shiny new bolts coated in copper grease for me, will you? laugh

I also found that the back plate on the driver's side was falling apart. It wasn't the source of the brake rattle, before you ask:



New one fitted. Shame it's not the lightweight ally. Replacements are powdercoated steel by the looks of them. I must've added several grams of unsprung weight! tongue out



I've also changed the washer bottle, which hides in the driver's wheel arch, behind the liner. It didn't seem to be fitting properly but I couldn't see why. Anyhow, a new one solved the problem. For some reason I forgot to take pictures, apart from the manky filter that stops the headlight washers getting blocked up. Blue gunk, anyone?



Next up, a bit of general poking around revealed the driver's rear wheel had a problem in the camber department. It was in drift spec compared to the other three, which made accellerating away from roundabouts give the traction control a panic attack biggrin

Jacking up from the rear couldn't be easier on these. A nice lump of sub frame just where you want it!



Passenger rear wheel, camber looking good - sorry about the wonky pic, please adjust your head a few degrees!



Driver's side - mega camber!



Adjustment is in plain view once the rear end's jacked up, and it's nice and accessible too. The bolts were REALLY tight though. I had to hang off the breaker bar to get them to move. We got there in the end though. Here's the starting pic. The bottom bolt is the one we're interested in. The top one adjusts toe, which by eye didn't look too bad:



And here's where I ended up:



Driver's wheel now looks correct!



That just about brings us up to date in the week that I've had the car so far. I test drove it with my custom camber setting and it feels a hell of a lot more stable now exiting roundabouts smile

FaNtheMaN26

95 posts

58 months

Saturday 31st August 2019
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Lovely, i agree, I prefer it to the coupe

Would have left the spacers on personally but I am a chav

Pica-Pica

13,625 posts

83 months

Saturday 31st August 2019
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A lot of rust for an 08 plate!

Tip. Use genuine BMW washer concentrate for screen wash.

Gallons Per Mile

Original Poster:

1,868 posts

106 months

Saturday 31st August 2019
quotequote all
FaNtheMaN26 said:
Lovely, i agree, I prefer it to the coupe

Would have left the spacers on personally but I am a chav
laugh Thanks for the honesty! The look was ok on spacers but I like it OEM smile

Pica-Pica said:
A lot of rust for an 08 plate!

Tip. Use genuine BMW washer concentrate for screen wash.
Yes I thought the subframe was a tad crusty too. I'm sure I'll see to that in good time! It spent a few months in Scotland a few years back. By the sea too, so that's probably what that is. Everywhere else looks good that I can see, just the actual sub frame itself seems to have taken a beating.

Any particular reason for using the genine screen wash? Happy to follow sound advice beer

peetee7

290 posts

64 months

Saturday 31st August 2019
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Welcome & congrats on the car. Lovely to see a passionate E90 M3 owner ! I totally get the 4 door 400bhp thing (being an E39 M5 owner myself).. as a parent they make even more sense. Great to see a higher mileage car - might be worth considering rod bearing replacement perhaps ?

Keep us posted on how you get in with the car. I will no doubt end up owning one myself too !

stevemiller

533 posts

164 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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If my MG was every to go pop and I was struggling for parts this is one of the very few cars I would look at. Good choice, enjoy.

Mike335i

4,985 posts

101 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Very nice, I also much prefer the E90 to the E92. Nice colour for it too. Any interior pictures?

Genuine screenwash is recommended as apparently it prevents gunking up. Mine seems fine with whatever so far, but undoubtedly now it will gunk up haha.

Is that a personalised reg though? It seems that an 08 is too early for the LCI rear end, which usually was on 58 at the very earliest. Any chance the rear was retrofitted?

Tommie38

758 posts

193 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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I the issue with screen was is actually the BMW stuff mixing with non BMW stuff.

Either way, BMW stuff, from the dealer, is what People recommend.

Gallons Per Mile

Original Poster:

1,868 posts

106 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
quotequote all
peetee7 said:
Welcome & congrats on the car. Lovely to see a passionate E90 M3 owner ! I totally get the 4 door 400bhp thing (being an E39 M5 owner myself).. as a parent they make even more sense. Great to see a higher mileage car - might be worth considering rod bearing replacement perhaps ?

Keep us posted on how you get in with the car. I will no doubt end up owning one myself too !
Thanks! I did consider an E39 as they're brilliant cars too, but I decided they were just a bit too old and too similar to the E46 M3's I've had before. I may still end up with one in the future though! I've been following the thread on your car, it looks great and it's good to see it being used properly smile

Re rod bearings: I need to do an oil service as it's been exactly a year since the last service, even though it's only done about 6k miles and the dash thinks we're all fine for another 10k. I'll get an oil analysis done and decide what I'm going to do based on that. There's absolutely no sign of knocking or anything untoward at the moment. I think the rod bearing issues are over played slightly, and considering the car's already done 140k I'm probably going to be fine. There's no harm in checking though as I don't really want to pay for a new crank should the worst happen.

stevemiller said:
If my MG was every to go pop and I was struggling for parts this is one of the very few cars I would look at. Good choice, enjoy.
Thanks! Go and test drive one, I think you'll see they're insane value for money at the moment... biggrin Obviously you'll need to pick a good one, and I think I got lucky with this one as it was one of the cheapest out there yet in brilliant condition too. I saw dealers advertising lower spec cars in worse condition, albeit with less miles for 15k plus.

Mike335i said:
Very nice, I also much prefer the E90 to the E92. Nice colour for it too. Any interior pictures?

Genuine screenwash is recommended as apparently it prevents gunking up. Mine seems fine with whatever so far, but undoubtedly now it will gunk up haha.

Is that a personalised reg though? It seems that an 08 is too early for the LCI rear end, which usually was on 58 at the very earliest. Any chance the rear was retrofitted?
Thanks! This colour was my top choice, the other being black. I'll take some proper pictures of the exterior and interior soon, and I'll update on here.

I'll see how extortionate genuine screenwash is and decide if I want to add 'clean washer bottle gunk' to the regular maintenance list laugh

It's the original reg for the car. You're correct, it's had LCI rear lights installed by the PO. I did check quite thoroughly for accident damage just in case, but I'm pleased to say it was just a cosmetic upgrade biggrin I do prefer the LCI rear lights so this car really hit the spot for me!

tozerman

1,175 posts

226 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Lovely car OP.
Textar pads are very high quality, OEM Porsche I believe...

s3 akr

262 posts

152 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Loved my E90 too!! Mine was an 08 plate and Silverstone II with pretty much the same spec.

I got fed up with the 21mpg and the hyper-inflated road tax after about 2 years of ownership and moved it on.

Yours looks in great condition, and a great colour. Enjoy that engine - its a special car is that.

I have immaculate black kidney grille surrounds to replace the chrome if you're interested in buying them. They are genuine BMW.


Gallons Per Mile

Original Poster:

1,868 posts

106 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
quotequote all
tozerman said:
Lovely car OP.
Textar pads are very high quality, OEM Porsche I believe...
Cheers!

Oh right, I thought they were just another random brand at Euro Car Parts as that's where they came from. That's good to know, but I do need to sort out the rattle - it's driving me mad!

s3 akr said:
Loved my E90 too!! Mine was an 08 plate and Silverstone II with pretty much the same spec.

I got fed up with the 21mpg and the hyper-inflated road tax after about 2 years of ownership and moved it on.

Yours looks in great condition, and a great colour. Enjoy that engine - its a special car is that.

I have immaculate black kidney grille surrounds to replace the chrome if you're interested in buying them. They are genuine BMW.
Yep the road tax is a bit annoying but I knew that before I bought the car. I'l just have to live with it! The MPG shouldn't be too much of an issue - I'm keeping my Golf for the boring mundane stuff like going to work.

Thanks for the offer but I'm going to keep the chrome kidney grilles. One's got a chunk taken out of it from a stone presumably but I'll get around to sorting that out smile

B'stard Child

28,324 posts

245 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Lovely

What Centre bore are the wheels/spacers

If 72.6 do you want to sell spacers and bolts to recover some coin?

Nik Gnashers

756 posts

155 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Great car, loving it.
If the screenwash system is the same as my 2006 E91, then the filter/mesh in the reservoir can block due to jelly build up as a reaction of different cheapo screenwash fluids, and seeing as (in my car anyway) the filter is behind the front wing, and requires wheel off, arch liner off, and a pita job of wiggling the filter box out, I'd suggest prevention is better than cure.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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These cars look so much better as saloons.

Looks very nice. I've heard that they can be very expensive to run though.

B'stard Child

28,324 posts

245 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
quotequote all
Gallons Per Mile said:
I'll see how extortionate genuine screenwash is and decide if I want to add 'clean washer bottle gunk' to the regular maintenance list laugh
Just hose out the washer ottle and then pick a brand and stick with it - the issue is mixing brands and it doesn't just affect BMW's

CousinDupree

779 posts

66 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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B'stard Child said:
Just hose out the washer ottle and then pick a brand and stick with it - the issue is mixing brands and it doesn't just affect BMW's
Yep. I had the same with my E90. Junk the BMW stuff and stick to one brand. Sorted.

Not liking the rust on the E90s though, had heard they are starting to get shabby now.

Gallons Per Mile

Original Poster:

1,868 posts

106 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
quotequote all
Nik Gnashers said:
Great car, loving it.
If the screenwash system is the same as my 2006 E91, then the filter/mesh in the reservoir can block due to jelly build up as a reaction of different cheapo screenwash fluids, and seeing as (in my car anyway) the filter is behind the front wing, and requires wheel off, arch liner off, and a pita job of wiggling the filter box out, I'd suggest prevention is better than cure.
Yes, the reservoir is in the same place. I've taken it out and put it back a couple of times now! Agree on prevention being better than cure. I'll just buy one brand of screen wash and use that. That reminds me, I need to fill it up! I installed it and left it bone dry...

Elatino1 said:
These cars look so much better as saloons.

Looks very nice. I've heard that they can be very expensive to run though.
Cheers! I guess I'll find out about running costs. So far, so good. Servicing won't be ridiculous as I'll do it myself. I'm pretty fastidious so I reckon I'd do a better job than a main dealer anyway tongue out

B'stard Child said:
Just hose out the washer ottle and then pick a brand and stick with it - the issue is mixing brands and it doesn't just affect BMW's
Yep, as above thumbup

CousinDupree said:
Not liking the rust on the E90s though, had heard they are starting to get shabby now.
AFAIK most of the car is aluminium. The only bit I can find showing rust is that rear sub frame, and I think that's more to do with an ownership for a short stint in Jock country near the sea biggrin

Squishey

567 posts

127 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Lovely car there, old bean! But when are you going to get the RST done?!

Good luck to you and Mrs. GPM with the birth of your first born. If you want anything then just get in contact through your brother.

Demelitia

678 posts

55 months

Sunday 1st September 2019
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Gallons Per Mile said:
Cheers!

Oh right, I thought they were just another random brand at Euro Car Parts as that's where they came from. That's good to know, but I do need to sort out the rattle - it's driving me mad!
Trying not to sound like I’m extracting the urine, are the anti-rattle clips in the right position and good working order? I’ve seen them sat on the wrong side of the surface they’re supposed to push against before now. They look right at a glance but on removal and reinstallation it ends up being obvious how they were wrong.
I’d check they'd not been bent out of shape too; they might not have enough tension to do their job.