BMW E46 330d SE Touring

BMW E46 330d SE Touring

Author
Discussion

Benjijames28

1,702 posts

91 months

Monday 5th February 2018
quotequote all
Love what your doing with this car. Well defo keep track of your progress.

When I've bought my house and rebuilt my coffers a bit, I hope to buy something similar.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Monday 5th February 2018
quotequote all
They are great cars, if you’re wise parts can be bought cheaply and most things are quite straightforward to fit. You just have to watch the rust (see my last 330d thread for some major rust repairs).

Triumph Man

8,670 posts

167 months

Tuesday 6th February 2018
quotequote all
helix402 said:
I use DCM in Shaftesbury for four wheel alignments, they do a good job.
Thank you, I have heard good things about them.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 8th February 2018
quotequote all
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.


JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Thursday 8th February 2018
quotequote all
Manual M3 seats are bloody rare, too! Like the Edition 33 trims, too. Do these manual seats have the electric bolstering like the leccy ones do?

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 8th February 2018
quotequote all
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.....

Edited by helix402 on Thursday 8th February 21:36

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 9th February 2018
quotequote all
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.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
Three good jobs today, M3 Conv anti roll bar on the front, new aux/a/c fan, new front bumper.












Sf_Manta

2,188 posts

190 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
Looking good Helix,
Ordered up my H&R roll bar kit here, should have it next week.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
The H&R bars are 27/21 I think? My ideal E46 Touring set up. Afraid this ones getting a 19 rear as the budget won’t stretch to a 21.

JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
Ah, looking much better. How's the paint match on the bumper?

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
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.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Saturday 17th February 2018
quotequote all
I decided to go for the egr cooler retrofit, I have some of the hoses already in my spares collection.


helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Monday 19th February 2018
quotequote all
I checked my spares today:



and found a full set of pipes to add an egr cooler. Which is handy. I’ll fit them soon.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Wednesday 21st February 2018
quotequote all
Little jobs to make a big difference:





New wheel centre badges. According to BMW they don’t fit. They do.

JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
I can't believe how cheap they are for gen ones. I paid over £40 for a set of 4 when i had my MV1 wheels refurbished. They look fab though, prefer the convex ones, and they still look great.

ndg

560 posts

236 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
"genuine".....

I got some very much like these. Some of the ebay ones are decent quality, I'm not convinced they're properly genuine though.

helix402

Original Poster:

7,832 posts

181 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
ndg said:
"genuine".....

I got some very much like these. Some of the ebay ones are decent quality, I'm not convinced they're properly genuine though.
The ones I bought are genuine. The vendor is a BMW dealer and they supply a receipt. There are a lot of fakes out there though.

5harp3y

1,942 posts

198 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
helix402 said:
The ones I bought are genuine. The vendor is a BMW dealer and they supply a receipt. There are a lot of fakes out there though.
Do these fit the standard pop out centre caps?

ndg

560 posts

236 months

Thursday 22nd February 2018
quotequote all
helix402 said:
The ones I bought are genuine. The vendor is a BMW dealer and they supply a receipt. There are a lot of fakes out there though.
I'm impressed for that money then. Noticed they're the plaques only, but they've superceded the original style caps with modern full dome versions, so I can see why you've gone with them.