Back on the Wagon! 2005 BMW E91 3 Series Touring 325i
Discussion
d_a_n1979 said:
You're not the only one...
Before I bought my previous 730D I viewed a number of E61 530d/535d's and a few E91 330i and 335D tourings and they were all s
theaps 
Obviously they were described as in excellent condition on the advert; as they always are 
I haven't seen many since TBH and would still consider a later version of one, if in budget
A great looking touring IMO
I guess lots end up as workhorses being estates so get nailed. I think the E91 is a great looking car and would snap up a 330 in a heartbeat if I could find a good one.Before I bought my previous 730D I viewed a number of E61 530d/535d's and a few E91 330i and 335D tourings and they were all s
theaps Obviously they were described as in excellent condition on the advert; as they always are I haven't seen many since TBH and would still consider a later version of one, if in budget
A great looking touring IMO
d_a_n1979 said:
Court_S said:
Enjoyed reading that.
I’m a big fan of the E91 but struggled to find a good one when I was looking years ago. They were all absolute dogs. So I had to settle for an E90 330. It was a great car but the spec was a bit pants for a car that had been a dealer demonstrator originally with the lack of xnenos being the biggest omission.
You're not the only one...I’m a big fan of the E91 but struggled to find a good one when I was looking years ago. They were all absolute dogs. So I had to settle for an E90 330. It was a great car but the spec was a bit pants for a car that had been a dealer demonstrator originally with the lack of xnenos being the biggest omission.
Before I bought my previous 730D I viewed a number of E61 530d/535d's and a few E91 330i and 335D tourings and they were all s
theaps Obviously they were described as in excellent condition on the advert; as they always are I haven't seen many since TBH and would still consider a later version of one, if in budget
A great looking touring IMO
I had the same problem back in 2018 and ended up with a leggy 06 plate manual E91 325i SE, but at least it had heated Lemon leather seats and full BMWSH!
But it always felt a bit sluggish to me, so in 2019 I replaced it with a 55 plate manual E90 330i SE with electric glass sunroof, Bi-Xenons, split/fold rear seats, power-fold mirrors and a retro-fit DAB tuner.
I really like it, although given how things have gone this year I haven't used it much.
Court_S said:
Enjoyed reading that.
I’m a big fan of the E91 but struggled to find a good one when I was looking years ago. They were all absolute dogs. So I had to settle for an E90 330. It was a great car but the spec was a bit pants for a car that had been a dealer demonstrator originally with the lack of xnenos being the biggest omission.
I was looking for an E90 330i in 2017 and it was a bit of a surprise to me how crap the selection was. What I wanted, which didn't feel initially unreasonable: manual gearbox + Xenons + sport suspension + sport seats. (Not bothered about the sport bodykit or the sport-specific wheels.) What I discovered: I was actually being very unreasonable indeed! It seems like BMW sold hardly any 330i's with Xenon headlights during the period in question, and that even before you worry about a manual gearbox, let alone any of the SE vs Sport stuff.I’m a big fan of the E91 but struggled to find a good one when I was looking years ago. They were all absolute dogs. So I had to settle for an E90 330. It was a great car but the spec was a bit pants for a car that had been a dealer demonstrator originally with the lack of xnenos being the biggest omission.
After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
to3m said:
I was looking for an E90 330i in 2017 and it was a bit of a surprise to me how crap the selection was. What I wanted, which didn't feel initially unreasonable: manual gearbox + Xenons + sport suspension + sport seats. (Not bothered about the sport bodykit or the sport-specific wheels.) What I discovered: I was actually being very unreasonable indeed! It seems like BMW sold hardly any 330i's with Xenon headlights during the period in question, and that even before you worry about a manual gearbox, let alone any of the SE vs Sport stuff.
After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
I think generally manuals and six pots are pretty rare. Whenever people bought the poshest three, the auto box was ticked. I particularly wanted an M Sport because they look better which narrowed it down.After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
I ended up with an auto saloon. It was my preferred colour combo of Le Mans blue with lemon leather. Option wise it had a sunroof and that was about it. The halogen headlights were crap but it was a great car that cost very little to run other than fuel and lost very little money when we sold it.
I imagine it’s probably even harder finding a hood one now they’ve got cheaper.
to3m said:
I was looking for an E90 330i in 2017 and it was a bit of a surprise to me how crap the selection was. What I wanted, which didn't feel initially unreasonable: manual gearbox + Xenons + sport suspension + sport seats. (Not bothered about the sport bodykit or the sport-specific wheels.) What I discovered: I was actually being very unreasonable indeed! It seems like BMW sold hardly any 330i's with Xenon headlights during the period in question, and that even before you worry about a manual gearbox, let alone any of the SE vs Sport stuff.
After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
I'm also baffled by the almost complete absence of cars with xenon headlights on the market. At around £400 when the car was new it must have been one of the best value options on the list. Yet most buyer were happy to live with candle power headlights while at the same time splashing out on other 4-figure options. Even today with the cars at a fraction of the new price I would pay the new car option price to upgrade to xenons. After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
MiniDisc related answer:
I can record digitally with an optical cable direct from the CD player. The quality when copying using this method is really really good.
I have 2 portable DiscMan players and a hifi separate stand alone player.
Usually however I record from YouTube via the headphone jack on the computer. The quality isn’t perfect but it’s perfectly adequate. Editing them down for my opera roles is dead easy. Then I just sit in a comfy chair with the music and a remote control.
I still have loads of funk/party music compilations in a box, so normally stick one on after an outdoor gig through our PA system (opera is my main job but we have a family band with the wife and kids)
I still find them really useful but my needs are a bit niche!
PM me if you want me to send a few over.
I can record digitally with an optical cable direct from the CD player. The quality when copying using this method is really really good.
I have 2 portable DiscMan players and a hifi separate stand alone player.
Usually however I record from YouTube via the headphone jack on the computer. The quality isn’t perfect but it’s perfectly adequate. Editing them down for my opera roles is dead easy. Then I just sit in a comfy chair with the music and a remote control.
I still have loads of funk/party music compilations in a box, so normally stick one on after an outdoor gig through our PA system (opera is my main job but we have a family band with the wife and kids)
I still find them really useful but my needs are a bit niche!
PM me if you want me to send a few over.
B'stard Child said:
When you buy those mats from BMW - they have a leaflet instructing you to cut of the tail edge which is used for hanging on display
Oh. Must admit I didn't even pay attention to that, I only had them in the previous car for a short while and hadn't even used the velcro tabs. Looking at them now I can see there is a giant pair of scissors embossed on to that tail edge! Thanks.Barchettaman said:
MiniDisc related answer:
Usually however I record from YouTube via the headphone jack on the computer. The quality isn’t perfect but it’s perfectly adequate. Editing them down for my opera roles is dead easy. Then I just sit in a comfy chair with the music and a remote control.
PM me if you want me to send a few over.
Recording from YouTube is exactly what I'm after! I've a handful of DJ sets that I would love to have on minidisc to keep in the car. Will definitely PM you shortly. Sounds like an interesting gig you have... no pun intended. Really need to see how I go about fixing the pixels/display on the head unit though.Usually however I record from YouTube via the headphone jack on the computer. The quality isn’t perfect but it’s perfectly adequate. Editing them down for my opera roles is dead easy. Then I just sit in a comfy chair with the music and a remote control.
PM me if you want me to send a few over.
Anyway, time for a wee update but first I just wanted to say that I am loving the lengthy E91 chat that has ensued and I'm pleased the write ups thus far have been well received. This has been a long week of trial and error via a slow and methodical process but pleased to report the E91 is running well.
Finally got around to tackling the oil filter gaskets that I never managed when doing the valve cover gasket. There are two, one for the oil filter housing and another for the oil cooler. There are plenty of guides and YouTube tutorials to assist so I got stuck in at the start of the week working from the driveway.
Funnily enough, at 5 o'clock on the oil filter cap you'll see a small pool of oil. If I had really stopped to consider the source this could have saved me a lot of hassle through the week but alas, it's done now and so are a handful of items that would need a refresh someday anyway.
Off with the oil cap. The rubber strap was bought in haste as I mistakenly thought my old GSXR oil filter socket was 86mm but it's not (65mm) and seems I've lost it anyway. I was going to do an oil and filter change but ECP have managed to give me the wrong items again so that will need to wait.
Drained and cleaned the oil filter housing as much as I could before removal and you can see the gasket isn't looking too fresh. Probably been faithful for the entire 67,000 miles thus far - new one popped in a real treat. What wasn't a treat was removing the oil filter housing in the first place! Three bolts. One at the top which is fairly easy, one underneath and one behind... it require wobble sockets and extensions to remove/replace and is an absolute ball ache. The guide I used advised the stressful procedure but I think for time and hassle I would sooner remove the intake in future, saves a lot of swearing and exasperation. I'll probably have to do that anyway next time as I'm pretty sure I've ruined the bolt head putting it back in! There won't be a next time...
Anyway, reinstalled and I set about tackling the oil cooler gasket. The guide I was using stated to use a 10mm socket to remove the three bolts for this part. This didn't work. It sorted of seated but when turning it was quickly rounding off the bolt head and I was a bit concerned that I would quickly make a pig's ear of these bolts, leaving me unable to reinstall the oil cooler with them. I took a break from that and set about reattaching the cylinder coolant pipe that required removal for access to the lower bolt to take off the oil filter housing previously.
Lost one of the bolts to the abyss that is my oil stained, pitch black engine under tray. I was raging within myself at this stage and it was getting dark so I decided to email my local BMW parts guy and order replacement bolts for the hose and the oil cooler, just in case. I know what you're thinking, the state of that engine! I'm really disappointed to see how grimy and oily it is now as it was definitely clean when I bought the car. I guess the valve cover gasket and subsequent oil filter gaskets perishing simultaneously quickly put paid to that.
It was a cracking day on Friday so I decided to cycle out to the dealership taking the long way home on my mountain bike. Keen to get the mileage up as I'm not far off 1000 miles on it since March!
Fresh bolts! Which were pretty much redundant following a call with my old man who advised I should try an E-Torx socket instead...
Success. And a bloody mess. I caught pretty much most of the oil with the assistance of multiple rags but I was too chuffed with the bolts being a non-issue to care too much at this point. It's interesting the little oversights that can be incredibly time-consuming when you're a very amateur mechanic and I can only imagine my old man is taking great delight at this.
Years ago, between getting my licence and heading off to university 200 miles from home my Dad had tried to show me a few things with the promise of "It's so simple and it'll save you a fortune just knowing these little things!". It ranged from helping him swap gearboxes in a MK2 Golf 1.3 (my first car) to sorting the cylinder head gaskets out on an E34 520i... it was extensive and varied!
Back then, I failed to realise the value of his wisdom and never paid enough attention. During one famous episode I asked if he wanted a cuppa and nipped back into the house to make it. He popped into the kitchen about an hour later to find nothing but a lukewarm kettle and asked my old dear where I was... "Oh, Jamie? He f***ed off to Elgin on the bus to go and see his mates." He still brings it up whenever I mention that I am having car trouble!
Anyway, I was able to get the new gasket fitted and bolted everything back together and in to its rightful place. With the replacement bolt for the coolant hose I squeezed large hands into the tiny space between the engine and radiator fan as best I could, finding great success. After wiping everything down and getting tired of patting myself on the back I topped up the expansion tank and started the car. No more oil leaks, sweet... coolant dribbling out from where I reconnected the hose, sour... this is where I ran into issues and much frustration. I unbolted and bolted this hose back into place several times but just could not get it to sit flush with the cylinder head. There was a rubber o ring that just wouldn't seat and even seemed to be too big for the job. It wasn't until one of my brothers swung by later that evening to assist that we realised I had snapped the hose connection when removing it. It was such a clean break that I hadn't realised the error of my rough ways.
How the cylinder head inlet for the hose should look.
And how mine actually looked. With the remnants of the old hose still in place. Using one of my trust picks (again, worth their weight in gold alongside a telescopic magnet) I was able to get it out before cleaning the area thoroughly.
Part no. 10 is the hose I am talking about here. Replacement required which my other brother thankfully fetched for me alongside some coolant and de-ionised water on Saturday morning. ECP didn't stock and Pentland Components couldn't get one until Monday so I plumped for the more expensive but genuine BMW option.
This image allowed me to see what had broken off and why I was having such difficulty previously when trying to reattach the (unknown to me) broken hose. It's one of those things that in hindsight I should have been wiser to but it's all part of a process and with my working schedule I sort of have the time and resources to learn at this pace.
Checking new v old to make sure I had the right hose. The old one was a bugger to remove what with my large hands, small gaps below the engine and a tricky upside-down jubilee clip. I removed the expansion tank and a handful of associated pipes to create as much space as possible but try as I might I just couldn't find access to the screw in order to release the jubilee clip. Doing what I do best, I sought advice from a third party and belled up my other brother who explained it might be easier attaching a socket to it. I had no idea that the screw heads were also suitable for a 6mm socket piece. Great! Except for the fact that ratcheting this off involved what can only be described as nano-adjustments.
To get to this point required cutting off the old hose as close to the clip as possible in order to increase working space. This upgraded the nano-movement phase to micro-movements and still took me well over an hour of contorting myself into position and wiggling the ratchet a million times. Again. praise be the telescopic magnet as I lost count of how many times I dropped sockets or the ratchet into the undertray abyss. I celebrated with a cuppa and took only a short while fitting the new hose with the jubilee clip rotated upwards so I could access it easily.
Still had to harness the clip away from the lower end of the hose whilst I got it into place though but I'm afraid I didn't document much from the coolant bleeding stage as I was called in last minute for an overtime night shift and wanted to get it running ASAP so I could grab a nap and get organised. Bleeding the coolant is a pretty simple procedure which involves little more than turning the ignition on and pressing the accelerator for 10 seconds to activate the electronic water pump. It probably required an extra 500ml after this process which lasts about 10-12 minutes and has been running fine since as I managed 30 miles and monitored engine temps via Carly.
Parked up at work and looking swell. During one of my many delays this week I tried out my new Autoglym snow foam lance then gave the car a going over with Sonax BSD to top up the wax protection. I'll probably clean her again before Tuesday as that is when an engineer is coming to inspect the car on behalf of the AA's insurance.
After almost three weeks, repeated emails and even taking to social media I finally heard back from the AA who promptly instructed their insurance to contact me. The woman on the phone had very little information about the incident so I'm guessing the AA have just said "get this dealt with ASAP" without properly looking over my emails and description of the damage. She inferred that the car being 15 years old may warrant it being written off but she did comment on the low mileage when I quite sharply put her straight about the condition of the car.
When asked, I did say a courtesy car would be required but if this is going to impact on the insurance claim and risk the car being written off I'd rather avoid that. Honestly, I'd be happier if the AA just gave me a couple hundred quid so I could get it sorted at a bodyshop I've used before and be done with it but they've called in their insurance so I'll see what happens.
I then had a follow-up call from the engineer/assessor who is coming out and explained the situation better to him. I've stated simply that the damage is very minor but I don't see why I should have to fork out for any repairs on the back of someone else's clumsiness. Any advice or tales from experience would be very much appreciated here as I don't want to get done over here and risk losing the car over something minor.
Oooft, that was a lengthy post! Thanks for reading if you made it this far.
Edited to add the guide that I used for swapping out the gaskets.
Edited by beambeam1 on Sunday 20th December 02:17
Edited by beambeam1 on Sunday 20th December 02:27
Edited by beambeam1 on Sunday 20th December 03:31
I love the work being done - I do similar with every new (to me) car. Scuttle drains and Control Unit locations are one of the first things to tackle as I’ve had my fair share of fried units due to water immersion in the past. My E38 I am slowly getting back on the road after 6 years off it and a lot of leaf debris and moss had made a good job of blocking drains - good job I did that before I powered it up with a new battery 
I have enjoyed reading through that this evening. Lovely car you have.
With regards to the DME waterlog, I have never had an issue with either of my e91's over the last 6.5 years, the first one I owned for 5 years. Maybe it is more prevalent on cars that have lived under tree's and collected leaves and crud more often?
Either way, I will be checking them in the morning :haha:
With regards to the DME waterlog, I have never had an issue with either of my e91's over the last 6.5 years, the first one I owned for 5 years. Maybe it is more prevalent on cars that have lived under tree's and collected leaves and crud more often?
Either way, I will be checking them in the morning :haha:
B'stard Child said:
I love the work being done - I do similar with every new (to me) car.
I try and do the same. I have always erred on the side of caution by servicing most cars not long after I have bought them so that I at least know it has been done recently. My service books for the BMW are entirely written in japanese so I might have to ask BMW if they have an alternate language option for service history. It would make life a little easier knowing some more about the car prior to 2019 when the previous owner bought it.pmorg4 said:
Good work! This thread is becoming a great how-to of all those niggly little jobs that we will all have to do sooner or later on our N52 cars 
It's turning out to be a checklist thread, isn't it!? I may transfer some old posts in here regarding the jobs I carried out on the previous E91 I had as it will useful to refer back to them in this journal. Dave Moore said:
I have enjoyed reading through that this evening. Lovely car you have.
With regards to the DME waterlog, I have never had an issue with either of my e91's over the last 6.5 years, the first one I owned for 5 years. Maybe it is more prevalent on cars that have lived under tree's and collected leaves and crud more often?
Either way, I will be checking them in the morning :haha:
Thanks, glad you enjoyed. I had another E91 for 4 years and put 50,000 on it but never encountered this issue at all. Tree theory could be a goer but given it's a japanese import I would have expected to find cherry blossoms if anything! With regards to the DME waterlog, I have never had an issue with either of my e91's over the last 6.5 years, the first one I owned for 5 years. Maybe it is more prevalent on cars that have lived under tree's and collected leaves and crud more often?
Either way, I will be checking them in the morning :haha:
Court_S said:
I think I probably enjoyed the update more than you did! 
Sounds like it’s been a bit of a ball ache getting to this point though.
Thanks, I just try and emulate the other threads that I also enjoy reading. It's nice to see it is well received. Yeah, it does feel a bit of a saga at the moment but barring the fact I have no garage it has been enjoyable figuring out things as I go along. I've just no real confidence in tackling jobs under the car yet but hopefully nothing to deal with here for a while yet!Sounds like it’s been a bit of a ball ache getting to this point though.
Edited by beambeam1 on Monday 21st December 00:11
pmorg4 said:
to3m said:
I was looking for an E90 330i in 2017 and it was a bit of a surprise to me how crap the selection was. What I wanted, which didn't feel initially unreasonable: manual gearbox + Xenons + sport suspension + sport seats. (Not bothered about the sport bodykit or the sport-specific wheels.) What I discovered: I was actually being very unreasonable indeed! It seems like BMW sold hardly any 330i's with Xenon headlights during the period in question, and that even before you worry about a manual gearbox, let alone any of the SE vs Sport stuff.
After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
I'm also baffled by the almost complete absence of cars with xenon headlights on the market. At around £400 when the car was new it must have been one of the best value options on the list. Yet most buyer were happy to live with candle power headlights while at the same time splashing out on other 4-figure options. Even today with the cars at a fraction of the new price I would pay the new car option price to upgrade to xenons. After 3 months of staring at the classifieds, I'd seen a reasonable number of 330i's in general, but I saw all of 5 cars that fitted my requirements. 3 sold by the time I phoned up; 1 turned out to have a surprise 20% surcharge for paying by card, rather than with a bagful of used, non-sequential £10 notes; the last one was the one I bought.
Never figured this out. Sure, maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the manual, and maybe nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol wanted the sport stuff, and it was pretty obvious that nobody buying the 6 cylinder petrol was buying anything other than the coupé... and actually not that all that many people were buying that sort of car at that time in the first place. But the pervasive lack of Xenon headlights seemed a real mystery.
My manual E91 325i SE had Lemon leather heated seats which was good this time of year.
But it felt a bit gutless, so maybe I got lucky with the replacement manual E90 330i SE.
Seats may be Beige and un-heated, but it has Bi-Xenons, electric tilt/slide sunroof, split-fold rear seats, power-fold mirrors and a retro-fit DAB stereo.
BTW they all had Sport seats so what you probably want are M-Sport seats which are going to be hard to find, unless you buy a Sport model that had them as standard.
But at least you found one.
Nice wagon!
We jumped on a 1 owner 55,000 mile 2010 325i se auto touring in Jan.
Wanted a 30i but couldn't turn down a tidy 25i, it's got xenons and rear door blinds and no other options, need to get a sport wheel and front seats in it! Later N53 engine though however we've been OK with it.
Only thing that's gone wrong is the stereo crackles on the drivers side despite fitting new door speakers!
We jumped on a 1 owner 55,000 mile 2010 325i se auto touring in Jan.
Wanted a 30i but couldn't turn down a tidy 25i, it's got xenons and rear door blinds and no other options, need to get a sport wheel and front seats in it! Later N53 engine though however we've been OK with it.
Only thing that's gone wrong is the stereo crackles on the drivers side despite fitting new door speakers!
Mr Tidy said:
I had the same problem back in 2018 and ended up with a leggy 06 plate manual E91 325i SE, but at least it had heated Lemon leather seats and full BMWSH!
What a small world - I've now this very car (I thought the lemon leather sounded too familiar, and your name is on the invoice for the water pump) with 152k miles. I picked it up in October and so far it's been perfect, and got a pretty clean bill of health from a visit to a specialist. The heated seats are indeed lovely and it's a very relaxing (if slow) drive. Here's to 200k!pixelated said:
Mr Tidy said:
I had the same problem back in 2018 and ended up with a leggy 06 plate manual E91 325i SE, but at least it had heated Lemon leather seats and full BMWSH!
What a small world - I've now this very car (I thought the lemon leather sounded too familiar, and your name is on the invoice for the water pump) with 152k miles. I picked it up in October and so far it's been perfect, and got a pretty clean bill of health from a visit to a specialist. The heated seats are indeed lovely and it's a very relaxing (if slow) drive. Here's to 200k!I sold an E46 325ti Sport Compact when I got the 325i which may explain why it felt less than quick, although in every other way it drove really well.
Anyway a few weeks ago I got a message from a PHer who had just bought my E46!
Club PH rules.
Back once again for the water leak master, D4 damager, power... seems intermittent?
So the latest episode of repairs began with the car refusing to start reliably. Some days I could wake up for work, start her up and drive off. Other days it would be a case of key in, flash of power and dead... the key wouldn't even come out the ignition slot only for it to start up when trying again a few minutes later.
Out with Carly whenever it happened but very little information to be gleaned until a few days before NYE I pulled the following code: 00A0B2 or A0B2 with the description "Error CAS supply / Error CAS supply a0b2". This was similar language to the power supply issues identified alongside the waterlogged DME repair I documented last month so I had a hunch the situation was some sort of fluids again.
I decided to have a look in the boot where the battery is located in E91's - similar placement for all E9X cars I assume? The reason I decided to have a look at this is because I had previous fluid issues with my last E91. I had a progress journal for that car also so will copy/paste a snippet here but remarkably... I even mentioned the issue in this thread as recently as October!
Situated just above where the battery is located, it had obviously been leaking every time I operated the rear window washer. It wasn't separated like the image displays, it was seated correctly but not pushed in tight to prevent such leaks. This annoyed me a bit as it was a simple fix I wish I had spotted sooner. The first time I realised there was an issue was when this happened:
I cleaned the area up as best as I could but at some point down the line I'm going to poke about further, fully dry it out and treat if possible. The corroded wire terminals were cleaned up too and all has been good since. As you can imagine when someone was previously trying to create some slack and repair wiring in the bootlid hinge harness they probably yanked so hard that it caused the washer hose to separate. :roll:I was reminded of the potential for water to gather in this area when I swapped the battery out last month when trying to figure out the DME issue. On removal I found the smallest trace of water at the very bottom of this area so made a mental note to monitor it. I could not have imagined finding this only a month or so later:
Not only was there a decent amount of water in there but it was bloody frozen! (Temps the night before were as low as -4°C). It's difficult to indicate depth with the tip of my screwdriver here but the reflections should show clearly the amount I was dealing with here:
Soaked up as much as possible with clothes, towels and blue roll. Even whipped out my trusty pump system from the last repair:
I've left it for now after removing as much water as I could find. It was still below freezing temperatures when I was working on the car so I think I'll return to it with gentle applications of a hot air gun to thaw out any residual ice in this area. I need to try and identify where the water is coming in from and have read online about rubbish rubber seals in the tail lights. This might involve the wife camping in the boot with a torch whilst I hose the car but I'm working up the balls to ask her first! I'm curious about these channels near the roof and if they are blocked or meant to be? Just in case it is another source of blockage causing fluids to build up where they shouldn't!
Any input at this stage would be appreciated, I feel I'll be drawing on the experiences of others to deal with this effectively. I've ruled out the rear windscreen washer hose at least and I know from experience that drying this area out was a long-term solution.
Hopefully next post = result!
EDIT: A little googling over my Sunday breakfast has indicated that it is likely tail light seals and/or drainage channels from the sunroof downwards. Just going to order new tail light seals since they will likely be cheap and tackle that job when I clear the drainage channels. Went out to the car this morning and still had a touch of intermittent power supply which I can only describe as similar to playing about with broken wiring. One of the wires leading into the "BMW Intelligent Battery Sensor" wasn't quite seated and bolted down correctly. Out with the 13mm and once fastened down properly there has been no power issues - I'm wondering if this has been the source of my recent issues and finding the excess water is a bonus before it caused much worse problems for me.
So the latest episode of repairs began with the car refusing to start reliably. Some days I could wake up for work, start her up and drive off. Other days it would be a case of key in, flash of power and dead... the key wouldn't even come out the ignition slot only for it to start up when trying again a few minutes later.
Out with Carly whenever it happened but very little information to be gleaned until a few days before NYE I pulled the following code: 00A0B2 or A0B2 with the description "Error CAS supply / Error CAS supply a0b2". This was similar language to the power supply issues identified alongside the waterlogged DME repair I documented last month so I had a hunch the situation was some sort of fluids again.
I decided to have a look in the boot where the battery is located in E91's - similar placement for all E9X cars I assume? The reason I decided to have a look at this is because I had previous fluid issues with my last E91. I had a progress journal for that car also so will copy/paste a snippet here but remarkably... I even mentioned the issue in this thread as recently as October!
from another thread said:
Situated just above where the battery is located, it had obviously been leaking every time I operated the rear window washer. It wasn't separated like the image displays, it was seated correctly but not pushed in tight to prevent such leaks. This annoyed me a bit as it was a simple fix I wish I had spotted sooner. The first time I realised there was an issue was when this happened:
I cleaned the area up as best as I could but at some point down the line I'm going to poke about further, fully dry it out and treat if possible. The corroded wire terminals were cleaned up too and all has been good since. As you can imagine when someone was previously trying to create some slack and repair wiring in the bootlid hinge harness they probably yanked so hard that it caused the washer hose to separate. :roll:
Not only was there a decent amount of water in there but it was bloody frozen! (Temps the night before were as low as -4°C). It's difficult to indicate depth with the tip of my screwdriver here but the reflections should show clearly the amount I was dealing with here:
Soaked up as much as possible with clothes, towels and blue roll. Even whipped out my trusty pump system from the last repair:
I've left it for now after removing as much water as I could find. It was still below freezing temperatures when I was working on the car so I think I'll return to it with gentle applications of a hot air gun to thaw out any residual ice in this area. I need to try and identify where the water is coming in from and have read online about rubbish rubber seals in the tail lights. This might involve the wife camping in the boot with a torch whilst I hose the car but I'm working up the balls to ask her first! I'm curious about these channels near the roof and if they are blocked or meant to be? Just in case it is another source of blockage causing fluids to build up where they shouldn't!
Any input at this stage would be appreciated, I feel I'll be drawing on the experiences of others to deal with this effectively. I've ruled out the rear windscreen washer hose at least and I know from experience that drying this area out was a long-term solution.
Hopefully next post = result!
EDIT: A little googling over my Sunday breakfast has indicated that it is likely tail light seals and/or drainage channels from the sunroof downwards. Just going to order new tail light seals since they will likely be cheap and tackle that job when I clear the drainage channels. Went out to the car this morning and still had a touch of intermittent power supply which I can only describe as similar to playing about with broken wiring. One of the wires leading into the "BMW Intelligent Battery Sensor" wasn't quite seated and bolted down correctly. Out with the 13mm and once fastened down properly there has been no power issues - I'm wondering if this has been the source of my recent issues and finding the excess water is a bonus before it caused much worse problems for me.
Edited by beambeam1 on Sunday 3rd January 11:39
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff