2008 E91 335i M Sport - The Dad Wagon
Discussion
Welcome to my very first RC thread.
So to start, a quick history of the cars I’ve owned.
First car a hand me down 1.3 KA collection. Image not mine.
It was okay for town driving and first car, but I soon hankered for something a bit bigger. The next car was planned to be a mk1 Focus. But whilst in a garage saw tap E36 316i compact. Nice little hatchback.
After the E36, i hankered for something a bit sportier. I had no kids. I was young. My insurance was dropping. So I went for a 2.5 Z4. Red leather sports seats. Loved it.
Due to a change in work, I had to replace the Z4 with a diesel. Cue a 120d M Sport.
Didn’t really enjoy this. Did the job. But had to have a lot of work done to it even though I was doing the miles to need a diesel. This is currently for sale on Auto Trader. Well was. Looking worse than it did during my ownership.
Change of work again and finances meant I needed to downsize as such. So the obvious choice for me was a E39. 530i. Always liked the E39. Really enjoyed the car. Got me back and to to Bangor down that A55 with no issues. Only sold it for something a bit more practical due to change of family life this time.
So my hunt for my next car started in the middle of 2020. Perfect time to buy a new car... during a pandemic where we were all in a National lockdown. My E39 sold in November. And I was fortunate to have use of my mums 1 series for the time being.
I said to myself I wanted an estate. It had to be petrol. And have a few mod cons. The hunt was a long one. Originally I wanted a E61 530i. But my god... trying to find a petrol was so hard. If I wanted a diesel... then I was in luck. But I don’t do the miles to warrant a diesel.
During my hunt, one E61 petrol that suited my needs came up on eBay. I missed it... 3 months later it’s up on AT with a garage. Really overpriced for what I wanted to pay and the age of the car. A 2007 car on a 2010 plate. Could tell this because it still had the CCC iDrive and not the CIC variant.
I almost thought sod it, I’ll just get a diesel E61 and take it for some Italian Tune Ups. But then a couple of weeks ago a E91 335i popped up on AT.
After some messages between me and the seller, I thought this was the car for me. It was well looked after. Stacks of receipts! Credit to the previous owner who had it for over a decade! So after 6months of searching I finally bought my new car home. During the awful weather, floods everywhere and snow. It was a journey to get it. Not had time to drive it properly yet. But I love it already.
It’s comfy for me. Big enough for dad duties. And it’s got a bit of a wild side.
So here she is. First pic from the advert.
First night at home.
No major plans yet. It does need some bits doing to it cosmetically. I would like to replace the grills to maybe some black ones. And maybe some new caps on the wheels.
Thanks for looking!
So to start, a quick history of the cars I’ve owned.
First car a hand me down 1.3 KA collection. Image not mine.
It was okay for town driving and first car, but I soon hankered for something a bit bigger. The next car was planned to be a mk1 Focus. But whilst in a garage saw tap E36 316i compact. Nice little hatchback.
After the E36, i hankered for something a bit sportier. I had no kids. I was young. My insurance was dropping. So I went for a 2.5 Z4. Red leather sports seats. Loved it.
Due to a change in work, I had to replace the Z4 with a diesel. Cue a 120d M Sport.
Didn’t really enjoy this. Did the job. But had to have a lot of work done to it even though I was doing the miles to need a diesel. This is currently for sale on Auto Trader. Well was. Looking worse than it did during my ownership.
Change of work again and finances meant I needed to downsize as such. So the obvious choice for me was a E39. 530i. Always liked the E39. Really enjoyed the car. Got me back and to to Bangor down that A55 with no issues. Only sold it for something a bit more practical due to change of family life this time.
So my hunt for my next car started in the middle of 2020. Perfect time to buy a new car... during a pandemic where we were all in a National lockdown. My E39 sold in November. And I was fortunate to have use of my mums 1 series for the time being.
I said to myself I wanted an estate. It had to be petrol. And have a few mod cons. The hunt was a long one. Originally I wanted a E61 530i. But my god... trying to find a petrol was so hard. If I wanted a diesel... then I was in luck. But I don’t do the miles to warrant a diesel.
During my hunt, one E61 petrol that suited my needs came up on eBay. I missed it... 3 months later it’s up on AT with a garage. Really overpriced for what I wanted to pay and the age of the car. A 2007 car on a 2010 plate. Could tell this because it still had the CCC iDrive and not the CIC variant.
I almost thought sod it, I’ll just get a diesel E61 and take it for some Italian Tune Ups. But then a couple of weeks ago a E91 335i popped up on AT.
After some messages between me and the seller, I thought this was the car for me. It was well looked after. Stacks of receipts! Credit to the previous owner who had it for over a decade! So after 6months of searching I finally bought my new car home. During the awful weather, floods everywhere and snow. It was a journey to get it. Not had time to drive it properly yet. But I love it already.
It’s comfy for me. Big enough for dad duties. And it’s got a bit of a wild side.
So here she is. First pic from the advert.
First night at home.
No major plans yet. It does need some bits doing to it cosmetically. I would like to replace the grills to maybe some black ones. And maybe some new caps on the wheels.
Thanks for looking!
Edited by 88LG on Wednesday 17th February 20:57
d_a_n1979 said:
Really glad this turned out how it needed to turn out pal 
30 pages of PMs on the 5 forums and sorted haha
Cracking car...
Haha yeah. So many AT links! Haha30 pages of PMs on the 5 forums and sorted haha
Cracking car...
- Cough... REMAP
Court_S said:
That’s really nice. The E91 has aged really well and I’ve fancied one in the past but finding a none shagged one was nigh on impossible. Good luck with it.
Thanks very much! Yeah they have aged well! 
Well first issue has arisen with the car tonight after a dash to the shop. Came on after I went over a bloody pot hole.
Quick google search and question on the E91 thread in the bmw section say it could be either the ABS sensor or the ABS reluctor ring.
Plan is to take it to my Indy tomorrow and to have the codes diagnosed, and then take it from there.
Really should look at investing in a reader. Any suggestions on a good reasonably priced one will be much appreciated
88LG said:
Well first issue has arisen with the car tonight after a dash to the shop. Came on after I went over a bloody pot hole.
Quick google search and question on the E91 thread in the bmw section say it could be either the ABS sensor or the ABS reluctor ring.
Plan is to take it to my Indy tomorrow and to have the codes diagnosed, and then take it from there.
Really should look at investing in a reader. Any suggestions on a good reasonably priced one will be much appreciated
As for the reader, for a brief while I owned a Carista adapter (£25 off eBay). Fantastic bit of kit and enabled me to access a ton of codes. The main selling point however, actually coding the car, was useless in my experience. Turns out 2007 and earlier cars are not supported by Carista. BimmerCode works however, and requires a different adapter. From memory I liked the look of the VGate adapter but as yet I haven't gotten around to buying one.
I see also your angel eyes are extremely white - the previous owner might have upgraded them to LED because the OEM bulbs are £42 a pop and a much warmer colour. The E9x generation is very good although I haven't had anything nearly so tasty as the 335i.
Levin said:
Using the switch on the indicator stalk, flick through options until you find 'Check,' then flick through those options until you get to the ABS symbol. Push and hold BC on the end of the stalk and eventually the screen should give you a CC-ID code, which you can then search on Google. The ABS issue is one I haven't had, meaning I'm unsure whether the sensor or reluctor ring will fire different codes.
As for the reader, for a brief while I owned a Carista adapter (£25 off eBay). Fantastic bit of kit and enabled me to access a ton of codes. The main selling point however, actually coding the car, was useless in my experience. Turns out 2007 and earlier cars are not supported by Carista. BimmerCode works however, and requires a different adapter. From memory I liked the look of the VGate adapter but as yet I haven't gotten around to buying one.
I see also your angel eyes are extremely white - the previous owner might have upgraded them to LED because the OEM bulbs are £42 a pop and a much warmer colour. The E9x generation is very good although I haven't had anything nearly so tasty as the 335i.
Cheers for that. I’ll have a look at it tomorrow then! See what it brings up on there before taking it dealer. As for the reader, for a brief while I owned a Carista adapter (£25 off eBay). Fantastic bit of kit and enabled me to access a ton of codes. The main selling point however, actually coding the car, was useless in my experience. Turns out 2007 and earlier cars are not supported by Carista. BimmerCode works however, and requires a different adapter. From memory I liked the look of the VGate adapter but as yet I haven't gotten around to buying one.
I see also your angel eyes are extremely white - the previous owner might have upgraded them to LED because the OEM bulbs are £42 a pop and a much warmer colour. The E9x generation is very good although I haven't had anything nearly so tasty as the 335i.
I’ll have a look at that reader then! Be nice to have it for coding stuff. I think my car was built early 2008. So potentially be able to code bits then.
Yeah the angel lights look so much better with the whiter light.
It is a tasty car. Still not got bored of starting her up. So fruity. Not sure if wether to unclip the restrictor in the boot so both exhausts are always open.
Still waiting to give it a clean. Not got any of the materials myself yet. And don’t want it going through the supermarket ones.
88LG said:
Cheers for that. I’ll have a look at it tomorrow then! See what it brings up on there before taking it dealer.
I’ll have a look at that reader then! Be nice to have it for coding stuff. I think my car was built early 2008. So potentially be able to code bits then.
You probably already know about it or a similar service, but mdecoder.com is probably the single greatest thing I've found with my E90. Feed your VIN into it, and it will tell you everything the car left the factory with, as well as build dates and suchlike.I’ll have a look at that reader then! Be nice to have it for coding stuff. I think my car was built early 2008. So potentially be able to code bits then.
The coding mystery left me digging through the 'BMW E9X Owners Club UK' page on Facebook for an explanation too. If one of the gurus on there is correct, the changeover comes with the actual LCI cars rather than the year unfortunately. Pre-LCI cars use a different coding protocol (K-Line) to the LCI cars (D-CAN). So it would appear another point for BimmerCode, although my reason for liking the VGate adapters isn't due to anything technical... they just seemed among the best looking of the BimmerCode compatible adapters.
Ah yeah. Seen mdecoder. Really helped when looking for the car.
So another event today, the Mrs was pulling off the drive in her motor, and god knows how, she scuffed the rear corner of my car.
Hoping a remedy I seen on ChrisFix YouTube channel will fix it. No deep scratches which is a bonus. Seen about t-cut, but that seems to strip top layer away. Stuff that! ChrisFix seem to use 3M stuff? Any suggestions. Will have to sort her car out too I suppose
So another event today, the Mrs was pulling off the drive in her motor, and god knows how, she scuffed the rear corner of my car.
Hoping a remedy I seen on ChrisFix YouTube channel will fix it. No deep scratches which is a bonus. Seen about t-cut, but that seems to strip top layer away. Stuff that! ChrisFix seem to use 3M stuff? Any suggestions. Will have to sort her car out too I suppose
DC.11 said:
I've had good results from G3 scratch remover in the past, and currently use an inexpensive Creator C350 OBD scanner for fault reading/clearing.
reviews seem very positive for the G3 on amazon! just a case of applying with a wet microfibre and wiping off with another microfibre cloth?Polished the scuff out. Indy I had did it for me whilst I got the car diagnose.
It’s come back as a rear sensor on the right hand side. He did clear it the code, but got to 20mph and it came back on. So it’s booked in tomorrow to get the sensor replaced.
And scuff gone.
Still needs a clean. Soon. I hope.
It’s come back as a rear sensor on the right hand side. He did clear it the code, but got to 20mph and it came back on. So it’s booked in tomorrow to get the sensor replaced.
And scuff gone.
Still needs a clean. Soon. I hope.
The three lights can also be a dead ABS / traction control pump - £1600 from BMW and they don't provide factory rebuild kits for 6 cylinder units. But you can get a rebuilt one from a number of different companies from around a third of that! I had mine replaced with a rebuilt one, which then failed again a couple of years later, after their warranty period so I got to do it again. Not sure of the companies involved sorry as it was all through mechanics.
A mechanic told me one of the failure mechanisms is if the vents in the scuttle panel fill up with leaves or whatever, you can flood them and the electronics get unhappy so keep these clean.
The traction control is two stage in these - it will pull power using the ECU initially and then grab the brakes (using the pump) in a fairly aggressive manner. This can happen fairly often in a tuned one as the torque comes in in a big slug, even with an LSD. I ended up driving with TC off but leaving stability control on at least in the dry.
You can improve the sound at low rpm by disconnecting the exhaust valve plug - in the cubby whole on the LHS in the boot.
They're fabulous cars and we loved ours. The guy we bought it off sold his coupe to buy an estate version as he was going mountain biking more. We couldn't figure out what could really replace it, so went insane and bought asupersports car for 4 times the price. The N54 is a fantastic engine - sounds great, revs well for a turbo and stock engines can run 600bhp which is up there with the famous Japanese straight 6s. I think the well publicised faults (mostly driven by class action lawsuits out of the US) that have driven down prices are pretty overblown. Early fuel pumps (HFPF) failed but all fuel pumps fail at some point. They need a carbon clean every xx'xxx miles but so do all direct injection engines - these were one of the first DI engines so it was a big deal. Wastegates can rattle but it doesn't mean they're faulty as long as they hold boost and most of them do.
A mechanic told me one of the failure mechanisms is if the vents in the scuttle panel fill up with leaves or whatever, you can flood them and the electronics get unhappy so keep these clean.
The traction control is two stage in these - it will pull power using the ECU initially and then grab the brakes (using the pump) in a fairly aggressive manner. This can happen fairly often in a tuned one as the torque comes in in a big slug, even with an LSD. I ended up driving with TC off but leaving stability control on at least in the dry.
You can improve the sound at low rpm by disconnecting the exhaust valve plug - in the cubby whole on the LHS in the boot.
They're fabulous cars and we loved ours. The guy we bought it off sold his coupe to buy an estate version as he was going mountain biking more. We couldn't figure out what could really replace it, so went insane and bought a
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