BMW 330D E46 - My new car

[LosingGrip]

aaron_2000 said:

Why not an FM Transmitter for the time being?

I've never found one that doesn't sound st and have a load of white noise. I've gone for cheap ones and expensive (£100 range) and found the same. It drives me mad ha.

[aaron_2000]

LosingGrip said:

aaron_2000 said:

Why not an FM Transmitter for the time being?

I've never found one that doesn't sound st and have a load of white noise. I've gone for cheap ones and expensive (£100 range) and found the same. It drives me mad ha.

I'll try to find the one I bought, I use it in the Focus to listen to DAB, sounds just as good as any radio station, only cost £5 too, some chinese made st. Used it in a few cars, including the 340i to see if it still sounded good in that, still did to my surprise. I'll go to it tomorrow and tell you which one it is.

[LosingGrip]

aaron_2000 said:

I'll try to find the one I bought, I use it in the Focus to listen to DAB, sounds just as good as any radio station, only cost £5 too, some chinese made st. Used it in a few cars, including the 340i to see if it still sounded good in that, still did to my surprise. I'll go to it tomorrow and tell you which one it is.

Ah thanks!

[anonymous-user]

Looks like you have a Siemens radio, your production month / year is 11-03.

Only 07-04 + are compatible with AUX on the Siemens radio unless your part number starts with VD (yours is PH) in which case anything 10-02 + is compatible with aux and MP3 CD's.

You can buy AUX compatible head units on ebay for not a lot, I am trying to find the rarer Alpine unit that has better sound quality, if you're not too bothered I'd buy one of the cheaper Siemens radios.

[LosingGrip]

eezeh said:

Looks like you have a Siemens radio, your production month / year is 11-03.

Only 07-04 + are compatible with AUX on the Siemens radio unless your part number starts with VD (yours is PH) in which case anything 10-02 + is compatible with aux and MP3 CD's.

You can buy AUX compatible head units on ebay for not a lot, I am trying to find the rarer Alpine unit that has better sound quality, if you're not too bothered I'd buy one of the cheaper Siemens radios.

Thanks! I'll see what I can find .

[LosingGrip]

Couple of photos after a bit of a clearn (at the car wash...) and some spray on wax that I had to stop half way through due to my ribs hurting!

Ignore the Fiat 500, its my grans!





There are a few stone chips over it, but I think it looks OK with a clean! Also replaced the BMW badge on the bonnet as the other one was tatty as hell.

MPG has gone down lately, around 40 around town on short journeys. Off to my girlfriends tomorrow so be interesting to see what it gets on some country roads. Still enjoying it though!

[helix402]

Obviously 330d cleaning day!

[LosingGrip]

Well that was a waste of time cleaning it...80 mile trip to my girlfriend's and it's filthy!

Just watched a YouTube video on the swirl flap removal...seems rather straight forward. I've got sometime off in the middle of April so I'll look at doing them .

I still can't believe how easy it is to overtake. Before I'd be stuck behind most things in the Corsa as it wasn't worth trying. This however is amazing.

[helix402]

Is it manual or auto? 184 or 204hp? 184 manuals don’t have swirl flaps, I’d have to check if 204 manuals have them.

[LosingGrip]

helix402 said:

Is it manual or auto? 184 or 204hp? 184 manuals don’t have swirl flaps, I’d have to check if 204 manuals have them.

It's the M57n engine according to what I've read online which does have them.

[helix402]

LosingGrip said:

It's the M57n engine according to what I've read online which does have them.

Pretty sure it does have flaps having checked realoem. I’d recommend alloy blanks and it’s also worth changing all the vacuum pipes for silicon ones while the manifold is off. I use Ramair silicon hose.

[LosingGrip]

helix402 said:

Pretty sure it does have flaps having checked realoem. I’d recommend alloy blanks and it’s also worth changing all the vacuum pipes for silicon ones while the manifold is off. I use Ramair silicon hose.

Is that fairly simple to do?

Going to do an oil change tomorrow, checked it yesterday and it's not looking that fresh!

[helix402]

Manifold isn’t bad to remove. Just be careful to not drop any thing in the engine or lose any orange o-rings/manifold gaskets. With the vacuum pipes just change them one at a time and cut the new pipes to match the length of the old ones.

Re oil change oil type is LL04, choice of grade is yours. Oil quantity is 6.75l, sump plug torque is 25Nm. Best oil filters are Mahle, Mann or Gen BMW (same as options 1 or 2).

[LosingGrip]

Helix, I can't thank you enough for the advice you've given! Thank you.

Just a quick one LL04...never heard of that before! What is it?

[bucksmanuk]

I’ve the same 330D touring. I’ve had it for just over 3 years and put nearly 70,000 on it. The swirl flaps I did on mine – just in time as one of the screws had fallen out of a spindle and gone through the engine. No damage as far as I know, but I couldn’t have been far off a very expensive bill. I think the flap themselves are about £34. See this link
https://www.pmwltd.co.uk/pages/bmw-swirl-flap-blan...

There are 2 sizes and I have forgotten which one is which. It’s not a difficult job, but a bit fiddly. I couldn’t say how long it took me as the starter was coming out at the same time as well as a new harmonic pulley.

I don’t remember seeing if you said if it was manual or an automatic. I couldn’t find a manual touring for neither love nor money when I was looking so I got the automatic. VERY expensive to rebuild when the converter goes (like driving over a cattle grid) the engine is rated at more torque (410 Nm) than the gearbox (400 Nm) – thanks BMW!

Keep an eye out on the heated rear window, as these are notorious for poor operation or not working at all after some time. When you see the sealing design on the lift up tailgate glass – you realise why.

Boost controller has just gone on mine, its loads of lag, and then OFF YOU GO. Getting out of busy roundabouts is fun. £54 each.

Headlight washer feeds can leak.

Thermostats (yes plural) are an issue, I had proper BMW ones (£90) fitted at a specialist 10 months ago, and one of them has just failed. Takes a long time to warm up and your fuel economy suffers by around 10%. I just need a couple of days to fix this and lots of other stuff.

Wonderful car though…

[helix402]

LosingGrip said:

Helix, I can't thank you enough for the advice you've given! Thank you.

Just a quick one LL04...never heard of that before! What is it?

LL04 is a BMW spec, it’s short for Long Life 2004, it replaces LL01. I use 5w30 simply our habit as that’s what we used when I worked at a BMW dealer. I’ve been using Quantum Longlife 3 oil for the last few years as I get it at a very good trade price. (Not in the trade any more but you can find it on eBay).

This is the stuff:




Forgot to mention Mann have decided to supply an alloy sump plug washer in the filter kit rather than the copper they used to. I don’t like the feel of these when tightening so keep a stock of copper ones (Febi Bilstein). Sorry if this all sounds rather anorakish but I am something of an E46 geek.

[anonymous-user]

helix402 said:

LL04 is a BMW spec, it’s short for Long Life 2004, it replaces LL01. I use 5w30 simply our habit as that’s what we used when I worked at a BMW dealer. I’ve been using Quantum Longlife 3 oil for the last few years as I get it at a very good trade price. (Not in the trade any more but you can find it on eBay).

This is the stuff:


Forgot to mention Mann have decided to supply an alloy sump plug washer in the filter kit rather than the copper they used to. I don’t like the feel of these when tightening so keep a stock of copper ones (Febi Bilstein). Sorry if this all sounds rather anorakish but I am something of an E46 geek.

Mahle filters are still supplied with copper washers and can be purchased from opie oils.

[helix402]

eezeh said:

Mahle filters are still supplied with copper washers and can be purchased from opie oils.

It’ll be Mahle when my copper washers run out then!

[LosingGrip]

helix402 said:

LL04 is a BMW spec, it’s short for Long Life 2004, it replaces LL01. I use 5w30 simply our habit as that’s what we used when I worked at a BMW dealer. I’ve been using Quantum Longlife 3 oil for the last few years as I get it at a very good trade price. (Not in the trade any more but you can find it on eBay).

This is the stuff:




Forgot to mention Mann have decided to supply an alloy sump plug washer in the filter kit rather than the copper they used to. I don’t like the feel of these when tightening so keep a stock of copper ones (Febi Bilstein). Sorry if this all sounds rather anorakish but I am something of an E46 geek.

Thanks again!

[anonymous-user]

helix402 said:

eezeh said:

Mahle filters are still supplied with copper washers and can be purchased from opie oils.

It’ll be Mahle when my copper washers run out then!

They are the OE supplier for bmw and are supposed to be of a higher quality than the mann filters. Couldn't really find them elsewhere other than opieoils.