Discussion
Hi Everyone,
Spend alot of time lurking, not enough time posting, so here goes...
My daily is a Leased Jag XE which is great. Use it for the daily drive to / from work and going out to client sites etc. However, recently I have started getting into fishing, and a few 'outdoor persuits' which the Jag is hoplessly impractical for (silly me for not speccing split folding rear seats) this meant that it was the perfect excuse to purchase a shed.
Long story short, I came across this lump of early 00's Bavarian goodness for £1150
Its a 2002 330d (M57 184bhp 5 speed manual) M-Sport touring with a mere 156k Miles on the clock. Bonus MV1 Alloys, Full dealer service history (apart from the last 2 stamps from an independent), Black leather, climate control, dimming rear view mirror, auto lights, cruise, electric folding door mirrors and the shadowline pack.
Had it for a few weeks now, on the whole all is well. Popped a new battery on for good measure as it was a little slow to crank in the mornings but its serving shedding duties quite well.
Jury is out on how long it will stay for, what will happen to it etc. I can say i'm becoming rather attached.
I have done away with the standard stereo as the standard e46 system is shockingly bad to say the least, and I do enjoy a decent stereo. Cue a £50 Headunit from our friends at halfrauds, pop in a subwoofer which I happened to have laying around and probably will replace the door speakers etc.
Plans so far are the following: Full service (oils, filters etc), Vortex oil seperator to replace the old loo roll type, rebuild both rear brake calipers as one side not showing much sign of life, the other one sometimes sticks, full detail, clean up MAF and replace vaccum hoses going to the turbo.
Reasons for cleaning up the MAF and replacing the vaccum hoses is because it seems to be suffering from a stange boost issue. Would be interesting to hear if anyone else has had the issue before but on full thottle in 3rd, 4th and 5th its almost like a pulsing sensation. Almost as if its overboosting, backing off and doing the same again. Have had a poke around on various forums and the MAF / Vaccum hoses seem to be the favourites for solving the issue but im not sure. Theres no stange noises from the turbo either..
I have dug out an old windows XP laptop and loaded up INPA on there. Run the various scans and all is well apart from the farily standard and generic glow plug code (its a tad smokey on cold starts) all seems well. Leaving only the airbag warning light which INPA has pinned down to the occupancy sensor on the drivers side, which I'll look at - suspecting iffy wiring as its a sporadic code.
So, any ideas of the boost pulsing issues and indeed what you guys have done with your e46's would be great. Resisting a remap 1. because of the boost problem and 2. Because I have no record of clutch and DMF change so it could be original. Ill try and keep the thread updated as much as possible as it progresses.
Spend alot of time lurking, not enough time posting, so here goes...
My daily is a Leased Jag XE which is great. Use it for the daily drive to / from work and going out to client sites etc. However, recently I have started getting into fishing, and a few 'outdoor persuits' which the Jag is hoplessly impractical for (silly me for not speccing split folding rear seats) this meant that it was the perfect excuse to purchase a shed.
Long story short, I came across this lump of early 00's Bavarian goodness for £1150
Its a 2002 330d (M57 184bhp 5 speed manual) M-Sport touring with a mere 156k Miles on the clock. Bonus MV1 Alloys, Full dealer service history (apart from the last 2 stamps from an independent), Black leather, climate control, dimming rear view mirror, auto lights, cruise, electric folding door mirrors and the shadowline pack.
Had it for a few weeks now, on the whole all is well. Popped a new battery on for good measure as it was a little slow to crank in the mornings but its serving shedding duties quite well.
Jury is out on how long it will stay for, what will happen to it etc. I can say i'm becoming rather attached.
I have done away with the standard stereo as the standard e46 system is shockingly bad to say the least, and I do enjoy a decent stereo. Cue a £50 Headunit from our friends at halfrauds, pop in a subwoofer which I happened to have laying around and probably will replace the door speakers etc.
Plans so far are the following: Full service (oils, filters etc), Vortex oil seperator to replace the old loo roll type, rebuild both rear brake calipers as one side not showing much sign of life, the other one sometimes sticks, full detail, clean up MAF and replace vaccum hoses going to the turbo.
Reasons for cleaning up the MAF and replacing the vaccum hoses is because it seems to be suffering from a stange boost issue. Would be interesting to hear if anyone else has had the issue before but on full thottle in 3rd, 4th and 5th its almost like a pulsing sensation. Almost as if its overboosting, backing off and doing the same again. Have had a poke around on various forums and the MAF / Vaccum hoses seem to be the favourites for solving the issue but im not sure. Theres no stange noises from the turbo either..
I have dug out an old windows XP laptop and loaded up INPA on there. Run the various scans and all is well apart from the farily standard and generic glow plug code (its a tad smokey on cold starts) all seems well. Leaving only the airbag warning light which INPA has pinned down to the occupancy sensor on the drivers side, which I'll look at - suspecting iffy wiring as its a sporadic code.
So, any ideas of the boost pulsing issues and indeed what you guys have done with your e46's would be great. Resisting a remap 1. because of the boost problem and 2. Because I have no record of clutch and DMF change so it could be original. Ill try and keep the thread updated as much as possible as it progresses.
Neither did I! I'm its 3rd owner, original owner having the car from new until a year ago. The previous owner having the car for a year, using it for ferrying kids and kid suff around and replacing it with a rather tasty e36 cab.
More pics below:
I shall upload a few more once I have got outside and spent a good day washing it.
More pics below:
I shall upload a few more once I have got outside and spent a good day washing it.
Does your car make a light “whooping” noise whilst it pulsates? My old 330d started pulsating and then making the whooshing whooping noise at around 166k. Ended up being the variable vanes in the turbo were shot (it was the original turbo). Self-replaced it on the driveway using nothing more than some axle stands and a Halfords pro toolkit (you can get it out from underneath if you unbolt the aircon compressor).
paradigital said:
Does your car make a light “whooping” noise whilst it pulsates?
Ish, yes. I can hear the wooshing then the turbo is on load and its a little on and off correllating to the pulsing power thing it does. Strangley doesnt really seem too unusual though as most turbo cars i've driven woosh whilst the turbo is on song anyway. Im guessing you can't clean the vanes out on the turbo, iirc like you can do on VAG PD engines? How much did you pay for a turbo? Good choice. I have two 330d threads. One current, on old. They list most of the faults you’ll have to fix.
Re surging boost, change all vacuum hoses for silicon. Do not clean the air mass meter, you’re more likely to damage it than improve it. The existing one may be worn but they are self cleaning.
I had surging boost on my one of mine which was due to a faulty boost pressure converter on the turbo. Pierburg make the part, don’t bother with a used one. If you do need a turbo at some point I may have a 184 turbo used turbo to sell soonish.
Re surging boost, change all vacuum hoses for silicon. Do not clean the air mass meter, you’re more likely to damage it than improve it. The existing one may be worn but they are self cleaning.
I had surging boost on my one of mine which was due to a faulty boost pressure converter on the turbo. Pierburg make the part, don’t bother with a used one. If you do need a turbo at some point I may have a 184 turbo used turbo to sell soonish.
Billyb1234 said:
Ieaving only the airbag warning light which INPA has pinned down to the occupancy sensor on the drivers side, which I'll look at - suspecting iffy wiring as its a sporadic code.
.
Happy to be corrected but there isn't a occupancy sensor on the drivers side, surely there is always someone driving?.
Passenger occupancy mat is a very common fault on e46, can fix it by using a cheap 30p ressistor, this will trick the car into thinking someone is always sat in the passenger seat even when they're not, so perfectly safe.
New mat isn't cheap.
Oh and excellent shedding!
CP12 said:
Happy to be corrected but there isn't a occupancy sensor on the drivers side, surely there is always someone driving?
Passenger occupancy mat is a very common fault on e46, can fix it by using a cheap 30p ressistor, this will trick the car into thinking someone is always sat in the passenger seat even when they're not, so perfectly safe.
New mat isn't cheap.
Oh and excellent shedding!
Correct, passenger seat is the only one with an occupancy sensor. Passenger occupancy mat is a very common fault on e46, can fix it by using a cheap 30p ressistor, this will trick the car into thinking someone is always sat in the passenger seat even when they're not, so perfectly safe.
New mat isn't cheap.
Oh and excellent shedding!
CP12 said:
Happy to be corrected but there isn't a occupancy sensor on the drivers side, surely there is always someone driving?
You're right, makes sense! Just checked back through the codes and its a sporadic code for the Belt Tensioner Driver. Its a ZK1 code which I believe makes drivers side. JamesRR said:
TMaybe it’s too soon into the ownership to say, but do you find you’re inclined to drive the E46 and ignore the XE? Or are the mod-cons of the newer Jag enough to keep you using it?
Interesting one. Yes and no really, I love the engine in the E46. Its no creamy smooth petrol straight 6 but its a damn site nicer than the Jags rattly 2.0 4 pot diesel. On the other hand the Jag is effortless and a nice place to be. The infotainment is crap on the XE so not really bothered about that. At the moment the E46 is my weekend drive and I do look foward to taking it out. Perhaps I'll change the Jag when it does back next year and get something more fruity, using the E46 for daily duties. We shall see! 
Rosewood Red said:
Didn't realise you could get these for something starting with a 1!
I got £1,800 from the insurance after mine got written off a couple of years ago, and I think that figure was about right. Don't pay more than £2,000 for one of these cars! They're great, but they're all 15+ years old, and they're all rusty to at least some extent.(The 330d engine seems to be pretty reliable, but there are still various time-related issues: there's always rust, the wheels crack, there's headlight-related electrical issues, the suspension requires fixing more often than you'd probably like. I had an E46 330d Sport for 7 years, same rust-friendly silver paint as this one, some crack-friendly wheels as this one, and I spent rather a lot on fighting rust and buying new wheels. And mine was a lot better than some I've seen!)
Don't let this put you off, though. My 330d was smashing to drive. Fine 0-60 time; nice meaty torque curve; handled like it weighed 2/3 as much as it did. (But it still always felt like it was the big fat heavy bloater that it was! - never failed to amuse me...)
Edited by to3m on Wednesday 24th April 01:34
Thanks for all of your replies and votes of confidence in my first foray into shedding. Weather has been fairly consistantly terrible and I'm a a fair weather spannerer so not much progress has been made. However, its booked into my local main BMW dealer to have both front airbags replaced under recall (worth checking on the GOV site if you have an E46). Call it a free valet if you will. Airbags aside, next on the list is the full service and vortex breather install.
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