2008 BMW 335d E91

[helix402]

Glad yours is working! I’m getting rather fed up with my (current lack of power/4K rev limit problem).

[Jakg]

I know they're a gimmick, but I love seeing condensation out of dual exhausts on a cold morning, something my Megane did too. Shame the F31 335d did away with it.



The car has LED side indicator / repeaters, but one stopped working.

I popped it out to check the connector, and immediately dropped it inside the inner wing...

After much faffing with screwdrivers, hook tools, grab tool etc I found a hook with my cable rods set



Success



Some contact cleaner on the connectors and they're working fine again.

Maps updated



Moved house and now have a double garage to work in - bit nerve racking getting it in though, especially as the last house I had with a garage was about 18" shorter than my car at the time, even though I measured it before renting it!





I had the intercooler off and noticed the boost hose was a bit loose in the upper socket (turbo end). Pulled it off



Whats that black bit?



Seals disintegrated.

Not the first time this has happend with my MTC boost hose - previously it was the other end

Jakg said:

I contacted MTC to get a new o-ring - they mentioned this regularly happens if you install without lubrication. Maybe it wouldn't happen so regularly if they included instructions (I originally used lubricant when installing btw).

The new o-ring is slightly larger so I suspect the originals are undersized.

New o-rings



With the original o-rings it slid on, with the new ones it's noticeably tougher to get it seated - I ended up using a bit of wood with some notches cut in it as a drift and then lightly tapped it home. Having all this stuff to hand in the garage is very helpful!

[Jakg]

Next job was the rear mid caliper lines - I got some braided hoses that go on the rear between the body and rear subframe brake lines, replacing the existing rubber ones.

Unfortunately, one of the unions was seized so instead of it unscrewing, the brake line twisted off instead



This was on the 23rd of December, not an ideal time to be sorting this out.

I considered putting a join in or making new pipes but I've got no brake pipe tools.

Luckily it was on the pipe on the rear subframe from left to right, so not massively long.

I gave in and called a BMW dealer - apparently the pipe doesn't come pre-bent so I'd have to do that myself, and it needed to be ordered in - not ideal.

I found a seller on eBay who'd had the same problem, did have all the tools and had made up several spare sets - with the caveat that being handmade they might need slightly adjustment. But pre-bent, and half the BMW price.
They even managed to get them dropped off a Hermes Parcelshop on the same day for next day delivery... but unfortunately they didn't get collected until after Christmas.

I had some free time so removed all the old pipes - even after several days of repeated plusgas soaking, 3 out of the 4 unions on the rear subframe were seized, so at least I feel I've sorted something out that would've caught me out at some point.

This did mean that when the new pipes turned up, I realised I'd forgotten the exact routing of the pipe so had to watch several videos on YouTube of diff / caliper removal to try to spot where the pipes are supposed to run.



The new pipes are copper, I replaced both sides.

The ad said its "difficult to fit if you dont have the diff out already" so I was ready for a fight but luckily it turned out to be quite easy once I'd got the routing right without removing anything but the wheels. Slight adjustment was needed to get the pipes aligned properly.

Bled up, test drive, all good.

I reset the brake fluid service indicator and noticed it was reporting the front pads had 1,100 miles left - the service indicator wasn't reset when the pads were done last time (had a similar issue with the rears earlier), I'd already checked them so reset it, which caused a bigger problem

Jakg said:

I've reset the light through the computer, but it doesn't take the warning away unless the sensor is actually disconnected / reconnected to prove you've done the work.

Turns out its a bit smarter than I thought - the computer uses the resistance of the sensor to calculate wear position. If you reset the light (saying you've changed the pads), but the sensor resistance stays the same (e.g. you didn't actually change the sensor) it figures you've done something wrong and will instead flash up an annoying red warning when you turn the car on.

Because it measures resistance, just unplugging and reconnecting the sensor isn't enough.

But I found a tip online that says you can short the pins to show a change of resistance, reset it again and then put the old sensor back on and work around it.

I had an old sensor and I plugged that in (electrically, I just left it in the bag), reset it and then swapped back and the lights gone

[Jakg]

Jakg said:

DailyHack said:

I fitted a £100 M-Sport Alacantra seats/interior in my 2012 SE E91 easy fit and somewhat more exclusive than leather.

Made the world of difference and so adjustable, the standard SE seats are/were terrible I don't miss them one bit - sold the whole lot for £15

I'm on the lookout for some sports seats, the current ones are heated so I don't want to lose that which makes it a bit trickier.

I did make a start on fitting some Corsa VXR Recaro seats but that was one project too far.

I had to sell the VXR seats to make space when moving, but tbh I wanted to keep the heated seats and especially the electric memory as my wife regularly uses the car and having seat position tied to keys is very handy.

I've been looking for ages, but finding electric, memory, sports seats has been tough, as the ones I do find are E92/E93.

I found these - whole lot was £150 (!). They were about 2 hours away, but I just didn't see how I could find the time to collect so paid extra (£70) for delivery.



Couple of days before Christmas and at 7:30 I'm woken up to find a pallet full of goodies to unload - unfortunately the cars immobile in the garage so I had to get creative to find places to put all the bits in the above picture



Got the old seats out, quick comparison between new and old - the bolsters are much deeper



The new seats are E90 LCI ones, but the front seats bolt right in and memory, heating etc works fine in my pre-LCI. I think the modules are different (based on research of F80 M3 seats being fitted requiring the LCI seat modules), and the headrests aren't removeable as they are "active headrests" which have a pretensioner-style response in an accident - but this is an extra plug my car doesn't have and is fine.



Definitely more supportive (which was my main complaint with the standard seats), but still need to get the adjustment quite right.

As the seats are from an E90, I didn't bother with the rears - the rear seat base is common between E90/E91, but the back obviously isn't, and the rear seats between regular and sport are identical anyway.

Because I got the whole interior I also got to swap some more goodies

I bought a new centre console trim to go with my updated CIC iDrive controller, but the trim was metal and a little scuffed.
As part of the bundle I got the same thing in a better condition so I swapped it.



I also took the opportunity to add the extra screws between CCC (4) & CIC (6) iDrive controllers I didn't have to hand last time.



The new interior is finished in "fine brushed aluminium", so the centre console, upper dash trims and door card inserts are all actual metal vs the plastic I have - a £200 option when new.

The metal feels nicer, but scratches easily - I've swapped it all over and prefer it overall, but I've kept the originals in case I want to swap back.









I also noticed the drivers door seal had some tears, a new one was quite expensive so I went for a used one instead

[peetee7]

Great thread. That’s some E91 35d passion. I really like the dual exit exhaust on the E series 335d. Shame the F series 335d’s don’t have them.

[Court_S]

That interior was a bargain. I like the brushed metal trim but as you say it marks really, really easily. The trim from my 130 LE was pretty battered.

I liked the dual exits too (liked them on my M140i too).

The new garage looks good; I’d love a double garage. I can get my car in the garage but there’s not much room around the car.

[helix402]

Good work. Your dealer was mistaken about the brake pipe. It comes pre bent as I’ve changed it on mine.

[Jakg]

My car came with the extended storage option which meant (amongst several other things) it has nets on the seatbacks.

The seatbacks themselves swap over, much easier off the car but I didn't have any spare clips to do it at the time.



And another estate car thing - 3.6m skirting boards. I'm aware it desperately needs a clean...

[d_a_n1979]

It's a great car this and some serious work gone into it lately

[Jakg]

Realised I've had it two years today - crazy to think when I bought it covid wasn't a thing.

I've also realised it's going to be 14 this year!

Averaged 35.8 MPG so far, but lockdowns etc have meant shorter journeys and less mileage. Running costs are at 37.3p per mile.

Ticked over 150k...



Seeing as I fitted LCI seats and an LCI starter button, I thought I'd swap to the LCI light switch knob as well.



I picked up a new intercooler, much bigger than standard and stepped design



It was a bit awkward to fit because of the size and I had to trim the undertray a bit to get it in.

Unfortunately one of the boost hoses just wouldn't seal and kept popping off (I'm aware the clips not on properly here)



I swapped between them a couple of times (each time jacking the car, removing the undertray, removing the intercooler, quite a lot of hassle), swapped the o-rings etc but no joy.
Some people get new couplers welded on, but even then they can still leak and I didn't really want the hassle. My next step was to be to modify the retaining clip, but a new one is £25(!) so I was hesitant.
I contacted the seller to ask if they'd had this before or had any ideas and they weren't terribly helpful and it was coming up to the end of the return period so back it went...
Bit frustrating really.

Sold the old seats and some of the interior parts and so the new interior has effectively cost me £40 - hoping to get that down to £0!

[helix402]

That’s a pain re the intercooler. Who did you buy it from?

[Jakg]

helix402 said:

That’s a pain re the intercooler. Who did you buy it from?

eBay (I know, I know).

You can get them on AliExpress and several other places are selling identical looking units on eBay / MaxSpeedingRods etc, so the suggestion is that the same factory is banging out all of them. A lot of the better branded units look identical as well so I thought I'd take the chance...

Edited by Jakg on Monday 2nd May 22:27

[Jakg]

Jakg said:

Brakes are surprisingly decent too - I expected it to be a bit weak with single piston calipers but the discs are 348mm and only just fit under the 17" wheels.

Would it last?



Of course not...



I've got a set of the 340mm F30 Brembo / M-Performance 4-pot calipers fitted to my Z4 - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... - and wanted to do the same here as well.

The standard brakes were fine, and I'm not planning on tracking it, so I can't really justify it beyond I don't like sliding calipers and having the same brake setup on both cars is handy.

I'd forgotten I'd bid on these so was a bit surprised to get an alert over dinner telling me I'd won them.

After plenty of wire wheel and brake cleaner:



Agonised over colour choices.

After various so-so results painting calipers in the past I always said the next set would be powdercoated, but I can't stretch to that right now.

I like the BMW blue caliper finish, but I was confident my attempt at recreating that finish would be a poor imitation.
Plus being a grey car, the colour needs to be bright but not too much.

I thought a gold like the Nissan 350z's would look good, but of course that paint isn't available either.

I went for E-Tech copper caliper paint - it's a brush on paint, not as expensive as the BCS Kit I used on my Z4 but the finish is pretty decent.

Quick test on some old cookware:


Added bonus of brush on paint is that I can paint them indoors.



The caliper looks weird empty so as before, some stickers. Just after applying them I found out last time I bought a 4 pack so already had 2 spare...



Then lacquered:


Unfortunately my garage is quite windy so as soon as I opened the door the sheeting blew on top of it and messed up the lacquer.
Not noticeable when fitted, but it meant I had to hang them to spray and dry which is probably what I should've done in the first place:


Standard calipers:


I love swivel fittings on the end of braided hoses, makes changing calipers much easier.
Unfortunately, mine don't have them (!), so I had to disconnect the other end and put the hose on the caliper, then connect to the hard line.



They say your only ever one broken bolt away from a nightmare, and here's mine:



Thats a mangled thread on the drivers side brake hard line.
I don't remember doing it, but clearly I've cross-threaded it.

I needed the car ASAP and thought I'd try the dealer - albeit a different one to last time.
They (Jardine BMW) were not only helpful on the phone, but they got one in same-day for £16, which was way cheaper than I expected.



The ABS unit sits above the drivers side wheel so quite simple to replace, I had to remove the scuttle, screenwash tube and some battery cables to get it out in one piece.



And fitted



I may still need to adjust the cars coding to tell it larger brakes are fitted (specifically adding SPBR to the VO), but I need to do some more research on this.

[helix402]

New brakes look good. I guess they won’t fit under 17s. I run 17s in winter.

[Jakg]

When I got the car, the OBD socket cover was missing.

It was one of the first things I bought, but the one that turned up was grey and not black and had been gathering dust in a box ever since.

Finally found some time to try painting it - two coats of matt and one of gloss black and the match is pretty much perfect.



I'd noticed when doing the brakes the coolant was low, so filled it up. I also had suspicions about stains on the EGR cooler but wanted to focus on one job at a time.
Got in the car the other day to be greeted by "low coolant", had a look under the bonnet and found...



A leak from the EGR thermostat.

The sealing O-Ring was destroyed



From looking online, they seem to be a single use only and I'm pretty sure this was a second hand one from the second hand EGR cooler I bought.

I called the dealer and said I wanted an EGR cooler o-ring and they knew the part number instantly without me even saying what car is was for so clearly not the only one to have this happen to!

New o-ring, lubricated when installed and looks to be fixed for less than £1.50.

[Jakg]

Jakg said:

Lotusgone said:

I don't half envy your pan roof.

If it's any consolation, it broke a couple of months ago and wouldn't close!
I had to leave it open and keep an eye on it at work until I could get home to work out how to manually close it.
I've tried recalibrating it but without much success - the glass isn't sitting right.
My next job is take the glass out, see whats going on and cover it in the special BMW lube (which is like £10 a sachet).

For the time being it tilts (which, until I tried recalibrating, I had no idea it did), but doesn't slide.
I would warn any future owner that the sunroof lets in a lot of noise - even when closed. With the shade back the difference is noticeable.

So the sunroof has been a bit of a saga.



It broke not long after I got the car - it wouldn't close, every time it was nearly there it'd reverse again. When I closed it manually instead of opening square, it was twisting the glass and popping back - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=646bWqxIbfo

I tried resetting it, lubricating it etc but no joy.

I found a video online of someone repairing one, but it looked very complicated with the drive cables etc, and the video was entirely in German.

The sunroof motors (there's two) can be manually turned using a 4mm hex key. After doing this a couple of times, my hex key snapped.



I managed to drill the remainder out, but realised I was out of my depth - I bought a new motor and found a semi-local sunroof specialist online.
More importantly, I didn't want to mess around doing it myself and just wanted it fixing and didn't mind paying (a reasonable amount) to avoid a £xxxx bill.

They come out, check it all over, realign the glass and declare my new motor duff, advise I get a new motor and it'll work fine and charge me £80, but advise I get a new motor.

I get another new motor (this is motor x3...), fit it and it literally opens once before going back to exactly how it was before. And this time the glass itself had dropped on one side.



I call them again and they sound a bit surprised, and come back again.

They align it again, declare it fixed, but (literally) point at the switch and tell me that it's the problem.
I'm not convinced, but although the switch is part of the interior light, the interior light is actually an ECU for the car so maybe it does more stuff.

They ask for another £80, I'm a little frustrated by this but they turned up and did some work so we agree i'll pay, I'll get a new switch, and if it doesn't fix it they'll come back for free.

I get a new switch, fit it and it's exactly the same - still broken.

So as discussed, I call them and explain the situation.
They claim that they never told me that I needed a new switch, they always said "module", which left me a bit confused.
Some research later finds that there is a module on the sunroof, but it's at the other end of the sunroof and isn't visible (or accessible) without the headlining removed. And it's not available on it's own.
I'm also thinking that it looks more like a mechanical problem with the sunroof (i.e. cables or something) because the motor or electrical system can't cause the glass to twist like I'm seeing, and it's very stiff to open manually (i.e. enough to shear a bit and start to round the internal hex drive).
I call them again and mention that they literally pointed at the switch, and I'm told "don't you tell me how to do my job, I've been doing this job 30 years, I know exactly what's wrong with your sunroof {...} I know exactly what I said, always said module".
I try to calm him down and he suggests I swap the module and then get back to him.

At this point... I've absolutely had it. I've wasted £160 on them, plus £60 on parts I clearly didn't even need - and the cars not fixed.
Oh and because they couldn't be bothered to work out how to remove the interior light, the clips are broken too so it doesn't sit right.

I think, if I was being charitable, they specialise in changing motors, aligning the glass etc which would fix the majority of problems far cheaper than a dealer getting a new sunroof. But "sunroof specialists" is a perhaps a step too far.

So I did a little more destructive testing, including disabling (i.e. breaking) the mechanical clip between front and rear windows and fully loosening the glass, and I was 90% certain the mechanism is broken.
This was compounded by finding someone locally selling various E91 sunroof bits because theirs had similar behaviour which they'd tracked down to a damaged mechanism causing a bent hinge.

And if I'm down over £200 already and the next step is dropping the headlining, why swap just the module?

I found a new (second hand obvs) sunroof very local for £150.

The guy had already removed it when I got there (on his own!) but I hadn't anticipated just how big it is - it's wider than the flat load bay and basically the length of the car, I had to move the front seats forward to get it in.

It's also awkward to manoeuvre as the frame itself isn't very strong and quite bendy, I presume the strength comes from being bolted to the roof with a million screws.



It broke in 2020, I picked this up in 2021 but I delayed fitting it until moving to a house with a garage because this was not a driveway job!

So here we are in 2022...

Sunroof replacement looks like:
Remove A/B/C/D pillar trims + associated trims (i.e. boot trims, lower B pillar and seatbelt)
Remove door seals
Remove all grab handles / interior lights / cargo net restraints
Remove headliner
Remove grab handle etc bracketry
Partially remove curtain airbag
Remove drain tubes / wiring etc
Unbolt sunroof.

Quite a lot of interior parts so I tried to keep to a system to not get all the bits confused



Headliner out





This took about two hours.

Removing the sunroof itself was a bit more difficult - it's quite heavy with no obvious lifting points.

I also got a spare pair of hands, who suggested using some pallet wood to hang the sunroof off the roof rails while supporting it and removing the screws.





With the sunroof out, the hole in the roof looks absolutely massive.



Getting the new one in was a bit harder just being cautious not to break anything.

Getting the old one out and the new one in was about two hours.
There's a special BMW tool to align the sunroof with the body but the shank of an 11mm drill bit does the same job.

Aligned the glass following the BMW specs.
"Initialised" / reset the system and it worked fine.
Gave all the interior parts a quick clean as it was going together.
I bought all new clips for the headliner as I was worried it might be tricky but it was fine.
About 3 hours later all back together, and only had a couple of broken trim clips (of which I had spares) along the way.



Not a job I wanted to do at all, and one I've been putting off for a long time, but it went much better than I thought.

I took it for a drive and enjoyed having the sunroof open. And without glass protecting me, I got sunburnt...

Still some little bits to do:
Replace the interior light that the sunroof guy broke (I can't get the retaining clips to hold it in properly),
The car has a grey headlining, but the sunroof was from a beige headlining car so the sunroofs headlining is beige - I'll never have it closed so not essential but I'd like to swap them,
Put some more lubricant on the new sunroof for some preventative maintenance.

Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 11th May 11:18

[helix402]

Awesome job! Shame I recently binned a spare interior light you can could have cannibalised.

[d_a_n1979]

Bloody hell Jakg; patience of a saint!

I'd have laughed (then cried) and then set fire to it

It's sorted though now, must be a good feeling as it's clearly not been a straight forward fix!

[Court_S]

Good work on the sunroof; sounds like an absolute ball ache to get that sorted. I imagine many would have just thrown the towel in.

[Jakg]

Jakg said:

Oh and because they couldn't be bothered to work out how to remove the interior light, the clips are broken too so it doesn't sit right.

The clips are all bent out of shape, they look like this:



Not like this:



They aren't available separately, and finding an interior light from an E91, in grey, with the sunroof switch, was difficult.

I realised it'd be easiest to buy a base interior light just for the clips and swap them over



Fitted: