BMW E46 330d SE Touring
Discussion
I missed some things I had on my old 330. Sports seats and Individual sill trims being two.
I don’t like standard seats in the E46 and have had a saloon which I put manual sports seats in and the last touring had a Coupe sports seat then electric Nappa seats.
I decided some sort of sports seats were needed. I’ve gone for M3 Coupe seats. They are Nappa which is nice.
Fitting in the touring is a simple job, swop one rail from a saloon/touring seat. I bought a pair of beige standard seats for 99p for the rails. If anyone wants them for anything over 99p send me a pm!
The individual sill trims are very rare. I couldn’t find any. Instead I have the even rarer “Edition 33” trims, fitted to mainland Europe special edition E46s built to remember 33 years since the first BMW Touring was built.
I don’t like standard seats in the E46 and have had a saloon which I put manual sports seats in and the last touring had a Coupe sports seat then electric Nappa seats.
I decided some sort of sports seats were needed. I’ve gone for M3 Coupe seats. They are Nappa which is nice.
Fitting in the touring is a simple job, swop one rail from a saloon/touring seat. I bought a pair of beige standard seats for 99p for the rails. If anyone wants them for anything over 99p send me a pm!
The individual sill trims are very rare. I couldn’t find any. Instead I have the even rarer “Edition 33” trims, fitted to mainland Europe special edition E46s built to remember 33 years since the first BMW Touring was built.
No bolster adjustment in the seats. Mpg on the new car is still a way off the old one. That was averaging 50mpg, the new one is doing 44 so far.
It goes well so I don’t think there’s any problem with it. I may do an air mass system test to be sure. I read through my M57 training material and a reason for the better mpg of my last car occurred to me.
That was converted from an auto to a manual, only the auto had an egr cooler, I left it on. This cools the recirculated by 100 deg C, hence the improved mpg. That’s my theory.
I may retrofit an egr cooler later to see if my theory is correct. This also explains why the old car used more fuel and performed worse with an egr delete.......
Or maybe an egr delete would work with no egr cooler? I’m not sure as when I tried it on the old 330 it put the air mass readings out, hence the fueling would be out.....
It goes well so I don’t think there’s any problem with it. I may do an air mass system test to be sure. I read through my M57 training material and a reason for the better mpg of my last car occurred to me.
That was converted from an auto to a manual, only the auto had an egr cooler, I left it on. This cools the recirculated by 100 deg C, hence the improved mpg. That’s my theory.
I may retrofit an egr cooler later to see if my theory is correct. This also explains why the old car used more fuel and performed worse with an egr delete.......
Or maybe an egr delete would work with no egr cooler? I’m not sure as when I tried it on the old 330 it put the air mass readings out, hence the fueling would be out.....
Edited by helix402 on Thursday 8th February 21:36
Today’s jobs, new battery and M3 Seats:
The battery fitted was a tad weak, it went flat whilst I was fitting the new window regulators. It recharged ok though even without testing it I knew it wasn’t giving enough juice out.
M3 seats and Edition 33 trims are in (there were 333 Edition 33 E46 Tourings made):
Yes, I know the interior is dirty! The seats are rather lovely and grip you nicely.
I Phone made my pictures upside down.
The battery fitted was a tad weak, it went flat whilst I was fitting the new window regulators. It recharged ok though even without testing it I knew it wasn’t giving enough juice out.
M3 seats and Edition 33 trims are in (there were 333 Edition 33 E46 Tourings made):
Yes, I know the interior is dirty! The seats are rather lovely and grip you nicely.
I Phone made my pictures upside down.
Paint’s a pretty good match. Not bad for a £40 used bumper!
The fan stumped me briefly. I put the new one on and it didn’t work, checked connection, good. Cleared DDE fault memory, the fault came straight back. I then checked the fuse. Fuse 37 50a. It had been removed, once refitted I activated the fan via old school DIS (it was closer than my ISTA laptop). All working.
The fan stumped me briefly. I put the new one on and it didn’t work, checked connection, good. Cleared DDE fault memory, the fault came straight back. I then checked the fuse. Fuse 37 50a. It had been removed, once refitted I activated the fan via old school DIS (it was closer than my ISTA laptop). All working.
5harp3y said:
Do these fit the standard pop out centre caps?
They fit the two piece badges and replace the non adhesive factory ones. They don’t fit the one piece earlier badges. I have bought the latest complete caps before but didn’t like them on the E46. I sold them to a friend with an E91. I found they were a little “bling” for my taste and also protuded from the wheel centre.
Egr cooler fitted this morning:
Before:
Parts to be fitted:
Old parts removed:
New parts on:
All back together:
I cleaned the egr valve whilst it was off. I’m hoping the cooler with bring an improvement in fuel consumption and maybe power. I used some new stainless bolts for fitting it, some of the original and even some Fiat bolts I had!
Before:
Parts to be fitted:
Old parts removed:
New parts on:
All back together:
I cleaned the egr valve whilst it was off. I’m hoping the cooler with bring an improvement in fuel consumption and maybe power. I used some new stainless bolts for fitting it, some of the original and even some Fiat bolts I had!
It would appear that my egr cooler retrofit has worked as planned. My wife had the car today, todays average indicated mpg has gone up to 45.
Previous best was 43 pre cooler, was down to 41 before I reset it after I fitted the cooler.
Will my 127k 330 achieve the mpg of my 250k 330? The difference between the two cars reminds me of the good old E30 325i, the local potter to the shops car would never go as well as the high mileage car that got more open road use.
Previous best was 43 pre cooler, was down to 41 before I reset it after I fitted the cooler.
Will my 127k 330 achieve the mpg of my 250k 330? The difference between the two cars reminds me of the good old E30 325i, the local potter to the shops car would never go as well as the high mileage car that got more open road use.
My new 330 has certainly been well looked after. I know the specialist who used to service it once it left the dealer network. He is stickler for genuine parts.
Every part his garage has fitted on this car is genuine BMW, it even has four new gen BMW dampers, all brakes and filters are genuine. It’s had regular crankcase breather filters too. I was going for H&R springs like the last one but I don’t think it needs them with the thicker anti roll bars.
I’m just making it a little more to my taste. I may have to put my winter wheels on soon.
Every part his garage has fitted on this car is genuine BMW, it even has four new gen BMW dampers, all brakes and filters are genuine. It’s had regular crankcase breather filters too. I was going for H&R springs like the last one but I don’t think it needs them with the thicker anti roll bars.
I’m just making it a little more to my taste. I may have to put my winter wheels on soon.
New rear pads today, I was taking my winter wheels off so thought I’d pop some new pads in at the same time.
I had some ATE Ceramic pads on the shelf so they went in. The old pads were on 5mm at the lowest, they hadn’t hit the sensor but I prefer the ceramic pads for clean wheels. The old pads were genuine BMW.
I had some ATE Ceramic pads on the shelf so they went in. The old pads were on 5mm at the lowest, they hadn’t hit the sensor but I prefer the ceramic pads for clean wheels. The old pads were genuine BMW.
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