E91 Straight Six Bearding

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

NSF arm needs doing in order to pass its MOT.

Yours OK otherwise?

My MOT is due, I was just gonna use up the last of my tyre at the weekend - and kinda wished I'd changed them before the weekend as I ended up on snowy roads in Wales and almost parked it in a ditch (where another car was also parked!) - but was fine...just needed a change of pants! In the same trip however, I gained a new windscreen chip - which is massive, and has turned instantly into a nice line.

So new windscreen and tyres needed for MOT - will be doing that/getting it sorted on Saturday

I've also bought a nice SP hydraulic puller off eBay, so to make that worth it's while, and LSD will have to be fitted at some point

(mind you, it is getting a bit cold to be tinkering with cars...)

[Swervin_Mervin]

All others are acceptable for MOT aye. So the rest can wait until new year. Assuming this CP4L Lemforder part is up to snuff it's quite a saving on OEM. £65 vs. £115. Multiply that across all the arms etc and that's quite a chunk of cash.

I nearly went with 123carspares.co.uk, which is part of Mytyres but there's very little info on them on the web, and a couple of stories of stuff not turning up and orders being cancelled. On the contrary there are posts on some forums with people having saved a right packed on stuff liek proper Sachs shockers etc.

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Assuming this CP4L Lemforder part is up to snuff it's quite a saving on OEM.

CP4L is EuroCarParts - so should be fine. I used them - like I said, BMW part no's still on some of them! I tend to use euros with a discount code (as there's always a discount code going pretty much) which ends up as a price pretty much the same as CP4L and easy to pick-up/return if needs be. Just don't buy the cheap tat from euros, it really is cheap tat!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Noted zippy. Do they come with new nuts/bolts?

[zippyonline]

Nope!
Although I bought new nuts and bolts for mine - the ones I took off were in far better condition that I was expecting.

I had a pile that looked like this:


E91 Suspension Parts by Chris Reeves, on Flickr

[Swervin_Mervin]

Did you get the nuts/bolts from BMW or ECP Zippy?

Assuming the existing ones are ok I'll get the garage to re-use them for now. Will probably replace when I get everything else done next year.

Now I just need to figure out what spring/damper setup to go for. Birds obvs gets very good reviews, but at c£1400 for the parts alone it seems a bit much to me. I'd rather replace with a standard setup and spend the difference on the MPerformance calipers front and rear for that money. Would be nice for the car to sit a little lower, but I'm not that bothered that I'm prepared to spend that much and still have turd brakes.

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Did you get the nuts/bolts from BMW or ECP Zippy?

BMW (don’t think ECP do them, and the BMW ones are decent and not insane money – although not cheap!). I’d weigh up whether you need them by poking your head under the car and seeing what they’re like. I say I was impressed by how good condition mine were in – I don’t actually know when they were changed – mine had suspension work done before I got it. And my new bolts already have surface corrosion on them, and they’ve been under the car less than a year… (and the new shiny lemforder arms also have surface corrosion on them – and they were also new less than a year ago) – salty winter roads absolutely paste the car under there!

Cost of the bolts soon add up by the time you add up the number of links there are!

[ferrisbueller]

Aren't the bolts single use?

[helix402]

Some of the suspension bolts are stretch bolts so it’s wise to change them.

[ferrisbueller]

That's what I was thinking.

[zippyonline]

helix402 said:

Some of the suspension bolts are stretch bolts so it’s wise to change them.

I suppose I didn't really consider it as I was changing them all anyway. The only thing I can see on TIS is to make sure you change the self locking nuts. The adjustment end shouldn't be a stretch bolt - otherwise you'll struggle to get it aligned!
If you get the arms from BMW via the "repair kit", they come with the bolts - but as has been discussed - that carries a price premium (that is probs more than buying the nuts/bolts separately!).

[helix402]

zippyonline said:

I suppose I didn't really consider it as I was changing them all anyway. The only thing I can see on TIS is to make sure you change the self locking nuts. The adjustment end shouldn't be a stretch bolt - otherwise you'll struggle to get it aligned!
If you get the arms from BMW via the "repair kit", they come with the bolts - but as has been discussed - that carries a price premium (that is probs more than buying the nuts/bolts separately!).

I may have thinking about front susp arms!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Zippy. What do you use to read codes - INPA? Been reading your posts on someone's potential DISA issue with interest

I'm trying to get to the bottom of an on/off issue I've had for a few years now, which never throws any fault codes according to my indy who has whatever the latest BMW kit is.

Every now and again, when going for an enthusiastic launch (usually going for a gap out of a junction/roundabout) it will die. Revs drop right off. At first I thought it was 'box related but I've had all that reset and had it serviced. I now know to ease back off the throttle a little to let it collect itself and then go for it, but occasioanlly it all gets very hairy and most recently saw it stuttering out in front of a big 8wheel tipper! It then kicked into life and fired me down the road leaving me looking a right tw4t, whilst I was breaking out in a cold sweat! Not cool.

The indy is at the point where they reckon it'd be a case of trying to hunt the issue by replacing sensors and keeping fingers crossed. Trouble is it's so intermittent it could be ages again before you find out it it's solved.

Google doesn't throw up any solutions, but quite a few people with the N52 having the same issue.

[Seek]

Have you considered dirty VANOS solenoids?
On my Z4 3.0Si it gave similar symptoms & no particular fault codes.

[zippyonline]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Zippy. What do you use to read codes - INPA?

Yeah INPA, whatever version happens to be floating about the internet. I have a half decent cable that talks to the car fine, but I’ve not really done anything in depth other than read codes and clear them. I do eventually plan to code a few things (doors unlock when I turn car off, seatbelt binger, etc.), but other things have taken precedent! The version I have when speaking to the N52 requires me to have google translate on the go as it’s in German!

When I was researching a couple of issues I had, things that can come up without codes include, DISA, VANOS and the Eccentric Shaft Sensor (you can see the cable plugged in at the front of the engine in the rocker cover – if you take your engine cover off obvs). I had a dodgy vanos – but it did show a CEL actually. I pulled them out and cleaned them + swapped them over to see if the fault would follow, and it did, which confirmed the solenoids. When I took them out, I applied I think 5v to the terminals, and one was slower than the other. Apparently VANOS can be error free though, so worth pulling them out and cleaning – you don’t even need to remove any engine gubbins really apart from the air intake scoop thing. Also worth checking the check-valve/filter things for the vanos – one of mine had a load of crap on it, and cleaned that – some people have reported that being the issue in the end. You can get to the via the wheel well. I do have some photos somewhere, but I’m at work at the moment.

The eccentric shaft sensor can get full of oil through the connector, so pull the lead off that and have a look. Apparently they all go bad, and it’s not a cheap sensor (£300 or so from BMW, I got mine £150 from someone else for the proper VDO part), but it’s quite a bit of work as you have to take the rocker cover off – and that’s surprisingly in depth for a relatively simple task! I changed mine whilst I was changing the rocker cover gasket as that needed changing – and I wasn’t gonna do all that work again if the sensor was bad, or gonna go bad – and it was whilst I had an undiagnosed DISA issue at the time – so it might have fixed my lumpy idle at the time.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Cheers Zippy. I got a cheap bluetooth reader recently, but it won't connect for some reason. Connects fine with our F20, but not my E91. Hence I was thinking about going down the INPA route.

Darren Wood's had mentioned about possible VANOS, but they said one was a PITA to get to. I'm thinking though that when I get some free time (hardly ever with a 1yo around) I'll take a look at that, the DISA valves and will definitely take a look at the eccentric shaft connector as that sounds fairly quick and easy to access.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Last question for now Zippy, but what kit do you need for INPA? Been looking and it seems fairly confusing in terms of laptop requirements, serial ports etc.

[helix402]

INPA works from a USB port.

[bennyboysvuk]

This was my 330i E91 and although it should have been a great car, the clumsy auto gearbox and understeery handling (unless being absolutely savage with it on wet roads in low gears) meant that I only owned it for 10 months.

It's best moment was cruising to the South West for a holiday with my young family where it cruised there and back in speed and comfort. All that said, it was a very handsome car.

[cerb4.5lee]

bennyboysvuk said:

This was my 330i E91 and although it should have been a great car, the clumsy auto gearbox

I remember us both disliking the N52 engine/Auto combination...you managed to get out after 10 months...I put up with it for nearly 4 years!

I had so much hatred for that gearbox and that engine combination, although I liked the car overall as a family run around, and it was a lovely cruiser.