E91 Straight Six Bearding

[Mr Tidy]

stevesingo said:

I have a March 2007 build 330i (N52) which does not have Efficient Dynamics (start/stop) and the battery is getting a little slow to crank now the mornings are getting colder.

Do I need and AGM battery?

If I don't need and AGM battery, is there any advantage to having one?

Thanks

If you don't need an AGM battery I would positively avoid fitting one!

My 06 plate 325i needed it's 1st new battery last year and it cost £125.99 fitted at home by the RAC.

My 123d with stop/start needed a new AGM battery when it was just 4 and a half years old in 2012, and by the time it was coded to the OBC it cost over £250.

[stevesingo]

Mr Tidy said:

If you don't need an AGM battery I would positively avoid fitting one!

My 06 plate 325i needed it's 1st new battery last year and it cost £125.99 fitted at home by the RAC.

My 123d with stop/start needed a new AGM battery when it was just 4 and a half years old in 2012, and by the time it was coded to the OBC it cost over £250.

Turns out the battery fitted is not an AGM. 80Ah, BMW part no 61 21 7 604 816. £96 inc VAT from the dealer delivered today.

[zippyonline]

Great new with the A/C compressor Jake.

Swevin - you had the fuse box power cable recall done? If it's when doing sharp turns - i the P/S motor putting so much load on the electrics something is then tripping/glitching out...? This is where watching voltage and load etc.live feeds when driving would be worthwhile - especially if you can invoke the behaviour.

[Swervin_Mervin]

zippyonline said:

Swevin - you had the fuse box power cable recall done? If it's when doing sharp turns - i the P/S motor putting so much load on the electrics something is then tripping/glitching out...? This is where watching voltage and load etc.live feeds when driving would be worthwhile - especially if you can invoke the behaviour.

I've had one of the recent recalls done - I can't remember which one mine needed - I think it was the heater blower one, but I'll check later?

I've managed to invoke it this morning, when not turning. It's seemingly to do with when the revs drop low. e.g. this morning I'd turned out of a junction to go up a steep hill and the revs were dropping when applying throttle, and by lifting I managed to keep it running. Took a couple of goes before it settled and sorted itself. Later it did it again but had the PAS/ABS/Trans/TPMS lights all lit up but engine and PAS still running.

I'm going to check battery levels at lunch and see what it's doing once running. I've had it 7yrs and from 57-123k, and not changed battery. I suspect it's still original so hoping it's that.

However, it's very similar to the momentary bogging down that it's always done, once or twice a year. Historically though it's never cut out or thrown warning lights so something's different.

[dave_s13]

Can anyone suss this little issue out.

It's a 325i with the N53 engine.

https://youtu.be/_tdR2TqGWOo

At idle it's fine. It's anything between 1-2k RPM and you can feel it miss and the idle bounces up and down as per the video.
The car actually drives fine though and no EML.

Strangely - the memory seat button has stopped putting the seat into the 2 stored positions and previously had some weirdness with the alarm going off....the alarm thing was sorted with a few cycles on a decent battery charger. Could a failing battery cause this sort of thing to happen? As far as I can tell it's still on it's original BMW battery and it's a 2008 vintage car.

Cheers.

[JakeT]

If the battery is that old, I'd stick a new one in there. BMW can do good deals. It will need coding most likely though.

My E91 never had any funny issues, but then the battery suddenly died. This was after a few goes on a CTEK too.

Else I'd do the Gizlaroc treatment and use Archoil fuel additive in it, see if that clears it up at all. He mentioned it earlier on here.

[dave_s13]

I'm already using that archoil stuff, not sure it does anything to be honest. Tip, don't store It in the car, it fking stinks!!

I might top the battery up again with the ctek and see if it stabilises. If it does then it's probably new battery time as you say.

Cheers.

[duff]

Has this been discussed here?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

No idea how you’d value a car with those miles but it’s too many for me. Service and MOT history suggest it’s not needed too much work.

[CB 987]

duff said:

Has this been discussed here?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

No idea how you’d value a car with those miles but it’s too many for me. Service and MOT history suggest it’s not needed too much work.

Pretty sure this is currently owned by someone on this thread.... Looks very tidy for the miles, the rear seats look like they’ve never been used!

[rallycross]

CB 987 said:

Pretty sure this is currently owned by someone on this thread.... Looks very tidy for the miles, the rear seats look like they’ve never been used!

Its now sold on the E90 post thread, looks like a nice car. I sold my first 335i coupe at just under 200k miles, the car was great, never broke down or left me stranded, these E90 6 cylinder models can easily take 200k miles with FSH.
My 200k miler was still on its original suspension, clutch etc (it reached 180k miles at 5 yrs old so it was quite a late model for the mileage).

[helix402]

rallycross said:

Its now sold on the E90 post thread, looks like a nice car. I sold my first 335i coupe at just under 200k miles, the car was great, never broke down or left me stranded, these E90 6 cylinder models can easily take 200k miles with FSH.
My 200k miler was still on its original suspension, clutch etc (it reached 180k miles at 5 yrs old so it was quite a late model for the mileage).

The 335d listed looks good. I think it would be wise to expect a gearbox rebuild at some point.

[gizlaroc]

helix402 said:

The 335d listed looks good. I think it would be wise to expect a gearbox rebuild at some point.

The mileage history against service history showed that there was some serious miles covered by one owner.
The owner was doing Sailsbury to Hanworth up and down the M3 150 miles a day from 2013 to 2019, taking it from 30k miles to 230k miles.
It would have had a pretty easy life, better than a 100k mile London car.

[Mr Tidy]

stevesingo said:

Turns out the battery fitted is not an AGM. 80Ah, BMW part no 61 21 7 604 816. £96 inc VAT from the dealer delivered today.

Result.

The high mileage Diesel Touring in the link looks dear to me, but then that might be why I have a petrol Saloon - Tourings always seem to be sought after. Well they were until I was selling my E91 325i in March!

[rallycross]

This just appeared on eBay rarer than a rare thing! a 335i sport manual 2007.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

[Sir_Dave]

duff said:

Has this been discussed here?

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/...

No idea how you’d value a car with those miles but it’s too many for me. Service and MOT history suggest it’s not needed too much work.

That was my car (sold it last week, for £4.5k as it happens), would rather have sold it to someone on this thread, but got told off for linking

Re: the mileage, if you didnt look at the speedo (or the pebble dashed front end), you never would have guessed, was an absolutely brilliant car. Didnt mention in the advert as i had no proof, but the gearbox oil/mechatronic sleave had also been done fairly recently, along with swirl flap removal, carbon cleaned off etc. It had literally spent its entire life commuting up & down the M3, so an easy life for a big old derv.

With 375bhp / 585lb ft it also went like an absolute missile once the torqque convertor was locked up in 3rd

I've had umm, a few e9*'s and it drove better than all of them, well, barring my manual 335i saloon that due to an M135i purchase i also need to get rid of

Edited by Sir_Dave on Wednesday 30th October 14:27

[Swervin_Mervin]

Garage phoned.

Not good news! The ecu has been taking a bath.

They've drained it but it's not happy - getting hot and a few terminals are corroding. So, £1,200+ from BMW for a new one, or £450 to get it either repaired/refurbed or replaced with a used one (with all stored info/data transferred over).

Not sure how water has got in down there as it's all fairly closed off

[ferrisbueller]

Swervin_Mervin said:

Garage phoned.

Not good news! The ecu has been taking a bath.

They've drained it but it's not happy - getting hot and a few terminals are corroding. So, £1,200+ from BMW for a new one, or £450 to get it either repaired/refurbed or replaced with a used one (with all stored info/data transferred over).

Not sure how water has got in down there as it's all fairly closed off

Where is it?

[Swervin_Mervin]

ferrisbueller said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Garage phoned.

Not good news! The ecu has been taking a bath.

They've drained it but it's not happy - getting hot and a few terminals are corroding. So, £1,200+ from BMW for a new one, or £450 to get it either repaired/refurbed or replaced with a used one (with all stored info/data transferred over).

Not sure how water has got in down there as it's all fairly closed off

Where is it?

Passenger side under the scuttle covers. In the white box. Googling suggests it's a very common problem. Seems water is drained to an area of the inner wing but can go up the ecu box drain hole. Need to read further as i don't want it happening again!

[ferrisbueller]

Swervin_Mervin said:

ferrisbueller said:

Swervin_Mervin said:

Garage phoned.

Not good news! The ecu has been taking a bath.

They've drained it but it's not happy - getting hot and a few terminals are corroding. So, £1,200+ from BMW for a new one, or £450 to get it either repaired/refurbed or replaced with a used one (with all stored info/data transferred over).

Not sure how water has got in down there as it's all fairly closed off

Where is it?

Passenger side under the scuttle covers. In the white box. Googling suggests it's a very common problem. Seems water is drained to an area of the inner wing but can go up the ecu box drain hole. Need to read further as i don't want it happening again!

Share what you learn please. Sounds like an important point of learning.

[zippyonline]

Oh no, gutted Swervin. Report back on what you find out, and I'm gonna check all my drainage channels are clear! I am quite festidious removing leaves from the scuttle drain thingies...

It'll be interesting to hear if that sorts all your issues you've been having recently and intermittently over time. I'd also check the diversity unit under your spoiler - that's another common wet circuit board issue that stops your central locking and stuff working.