Likeliness of dislike is likely. 330 Coupe new daily

[DanielSan]

This is becoming a habit now... I made a bit of a spur the moment decision last week to see if anyone would be interested in the Type R with nothing more than a Faceache post, and lo and behold I found a buyer within half a day. That meant I was left with a sudden need to find a sensible and fairly comfortable daily, an RX8 was considered but I just didn't fancy the hassle, so I've bought a 330 coupe with a 162k on it instead

To be fair it drives and rides surprisingly well given how it is... nice stack of receipts and history plus a wonderfully smooth straight 6. I'm quite attached to it already. I do have 3 small jobs to sort, a wire has come out of the forward and back adjustment motor on the drivers seat, passenger door locks but doesn't unlock which is weird but seems to be a common/easy to sort issue. And I may have to raise the front slightly as it catches on the drivers side quuuiiittee a bit.... Here it is after a through wash, polish, wax etc.

[DanielSan]

Hammy98 said:

Thats lovely, BBS' really suit the e46.

They don't look bad for genuine replica's

Butterzzz said:

Bit low, but otherwise I like it a lot! What colour interior?

It is going to have to go up just a smudge but I do like how it looks low. All black leather on the interior, I like a light coloured leather but I don't like the upkeep part of it...

[DanielSan]

£10 each

[DanielSan]

culpz said:

Lovely car. No hate from me, other than being ultra badman and not having a front plate

BBS wheels, whether reps or real, look great and suit the car. Looks more like an E36 328i from the side-on shot and that is definitely not a bad thing! Black grills are nice too.

I like lowered cars but it does look a bit impractical. I'd personally have to raise it up a bit but it does look smart in my eyes. Nice work chap.

I'm glad it's not just me who sees the E36 look in it a bit from the side, I'm not sure if it's an age thing with the shape or the wheels just give it more of an old skool look.

It will be going up a bit as it's catching on the drivers side on harder cornering, not the passenger side though which is weird, I have a feeling that they may well not be completely level.

A new set of rubber will be required in the near future as there's what can best be described as drift friendly budgets fitted at the moment. Other than that it's just a case of swapping the Sony headunit that's in it now for my Pioneer DAB one from the Civic. Oh and repaint the mirrors black as the paint job on them isn't great to say the least.

[DanielSan]

LanceRS said:

Looks like someone has put a lot of effort into this, hope you enjoy it. Mine has the same issue with the passenger door lock. It did fix itself for about 6 months before stopping again. It sounds like it is unlocking but the little bit of plastic fails to rise. I've always assumed that a plastic clip somewhere has come lose but still have not got round to taking the door card off to investigate.

There's a nice pile of history and service receipts with it aswell it's definitely been looked after. Only thing I can't find is what coilovers are on it, they're silver bodies with red springs so could be anything from Eibachs to eBay specials. Saying that even as low as they are they really ride pretty well.

Arches have all been done properly in the past so there's no rot, and even been rolled properly so it's all ready to enjoy as it is. I am tempted to have the wheel centres done in a light gold shade though.

[DanielSan]

Having a car mad girlfriend helps when it comes to wheel cleaning, she sat with a small wheel brush and some none acidic Autobrite Very Cherry wheel cleaner doing the wheels Sunday while I did the rest of the car and machine polished the headlights on her Integra. I got the easy tasks to be fair she cleared all the interior out and even attacked all the switches with cotton buds to get it all cleaned up!!

Obligatory 2 cars now clean pictures taken afterwards...

[DanielSan]

Couple of small bits arrived yesterday, steering wheel control adapter and DAB aerial ready to put the headunit in this week, I took one look st how much trim needs to be removed and run the wires that I thought bullocks to it so that'll be done next Saturday when the seat wiring and coilovers get sorted all ready for the Sunday Service

[DanielSan]

Well having gone nowhere near it this weekend other than to clean it a bizarre issue has reared its head as I was leaving for work at 4am this morning. After starting faultlessly it suddenly decided to use ALL of its electricity over night and not start. I managed to jump it and as soon as I got to work knocked it off and it started with no issues.

Came out of work this afternoon and after being parked for the last 10 hours the same issue reared it's head. Did some googling/fuse checking tonight I can't see anything major but the blower has been pulsing which could suggest FSU failure, a common issue it seems and something that can drain the arse out of the battery so I've pulled the fuse on that tonight and we'll see in the morning if that's the issue or not.

I got the car into secret menu mode tonight and it's running a steady 13.9-14. Volts when the engine is running, even with every single thing turned on for the sakes of it it's running at 13.6 volts so it's charging OK, called in at a friends garage on the way home to check the battery and that's also in top condition so it's just a case of trouble shooting and hoping/praying.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be most helpful, or if you happen to be an auto electrician and live in Stoke, even better.

[DanielSan]

Well good news, started straight up this morning after I pulled the fuse last night so have a feeling it's the final stage resistor or whatever it's called.

But the EML came on in the way work, no idea if that's connected to there being no fuse which seems unlikely or a new shiny separate issue

[DanielSan]

ruprechtmonkeyboy said:

Why don't you put the front numberplate back on?

To annoy people like you who keep asking th you same bone questions.

[DanielSan]

Barchettaman said:

Looks like a cracking example.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with the door locking/unlocking fault. My E90 has a similar problem - RH rear door will lock with the remote, but not unlock. I'm fairly unwilling to throw any money at ut and am hoping it won't need a new actuator.

There's a couple of things I'd like to tidy up, the bonnet has had paint in the past but it's not far from the best job so I'd like to get that and the front bumper redone as that has a couple of bits of lacquer peel.

At the moment it's looking like it's the actuator in the passenger door, I want to get/borrow a working second hand one to try first before I spend £150 at ECP for no reason though.

As for the bizarre issue of draining the battery it's started first time this morning and this afternoon with the fuse back in so just going to leave it in now and see if it was that drawing power slowly. Only other thing I can think is if they don't like short trips where they don't get chance to put any charge in the battery as I did a few short 3-4 mile at most journeys Saturday and Sunday. Just have to see how it goes.

[DanielSan]

LanceRS said:

I'm slightly intrigued. How does a faulty resistor that make the fan blow at strange speeds, flatten the battery then the ignition is off? Mine has been playing up for a while and I keep meaning to sort it out. So far I've not had any battery issues (famous last words).

I'm not the only one baffled then, seems to be a common issue though. Saying that it was fine again this morning so I'm really not sure what's occurring. I'm going to order a new one anyway purely because it does randomly pulse so it's definitely on its way out.

Battery is only about a month old, previous owner put it in 3 weeks before I had the car.

[DanielSan]

ruprechtmonkeyboy said:

It's not annoying me, I just wondered as you will get pulled by the police for it at some point. Is it a scene thing as I've seen a few cars about like this?

Nope, purely looks better when I did a few pics that's it.

[DanielSan]

Couple of small jobs done so far, private plate has been put on and I have some decent rubber on the car now. After some searching, and seeing some good reviews by consumers and on the German Sport Bill tyre test I've gone for Falken FK510's with a 225/35 18 on the front and a 245/35 18 on the rear in a bit to stop the tyres catching quite so much. I've levelled the rear also and it's all but solved the issue which is a nice bonus. The front does need raising a touch but I've had to order new coilovers as the existing eBay specials are seized, so as they ride far better than expected I've replaced the eBay special Prosports with some more of the same. I can't really argue for £250 to be honest, it's not likely to see any track use so as a cheap daily if it rides well and looks cool then all good.


I have had one other issue regarding the EML coming on randomly with p0171 and p0174 codes. So far I can't track down any vacuum leaks or split hoses and the intake temps are reading unusually high on the data so I'm going to try a MAF sensor off another 330 that is showing more realistic intake temps and we'll see what that turns up. If the readings match with the different MAF then we have our culprit, if it doesn't then further investigation is needed.





Just a wee bit of stretch on the rear has made sure any arch rubbing is a thing of the past.

[DanielSan]

Another small update,



Got the Hella FSR fitted this weekend, I took one look at it and called in to my mates garage instead what an absolute ball ache of a job! Wasn't too bad timewise but so fiddly it's untrue! So far so good I haven't had anymore flat battery shenanigans and it seems that problem is fixed, touch wood.

Also swapped my headunit over into the car this weekend so I now have my USB in for tunes and most importantly DAB. This headunit has been in 2 cars now and is proving to be the best £100 I've spent on a car.

One final job that got done at the weekend was to fix the broken wire on the drivers seat motor so that now has full adjustment again thank God.

Only other update is the arrival of a replacement door lock actuator for the passenger side so I'm hoping to get that in this weekend, that'll be all the small niggles sorted, aslong as it works anyway. No pics to post sadly as the jobs are all in right places/not worth taking a picture of.

[DanielSan]

One other thing to add, I am on the hunt for an LSD solution that isn't a compete M3 rear end or a daft money quaffed option, I've been told that it should be possible with an E36 variable locking diff, but I need to find one first before I can even find out if it's definitely possible. Any suggestions where to find one that works for not much cash would be GREATLY appreciated.

[DanielSan]

Dakkon said:

The EML might be injectors?

It's not come back on again since the last reset so I've really no idea what it was/is? Just have to see if it comes on again and go from there.

[DanielSan]

Just a small update to add, had to put a new O/S front caliper on last week as I'd noticed one wheel getting covered in dust wayyyy more than the others. That got replaced with an ATE remanufactured caliper, a bargain at £43 delivered! Also put some new Ferodo front pads in as they were close to dead anyway and the O/S pads were definitely in a bad way.

Only other job I have on the current list now is to get the new passenger door lock fitted finally and some more polish was purchased last week ready to give it a full detail and machine polish.

[DanielSan]

Due to photobucket I can't be bothered to redo all the pictures in the thread so here's one of the first I posted.

I do have an update though, while in the garage a few weeks back we came to level the front tide height and the coilovers are seized solid! So as they're only cheapies I've had a new set of Prosport ones delivered which will be going on next Friday, and also this...



I can't justify a 1300quid LSD purely for the fun of doing some drifting here and there so I've managed to get a welded one instead. We'll see how it goes in daily use once it goes in next Friday, I've got the standard one still anyway if it's terrible but that's crap for drifting so it's a last resort.

I await the PH driving gods and their opinions

[DanielSan]

Not a huge amount to update really but thought I would anyway. It recently passed its MOT with nothing more than a headlight bulb and numberplate light bulb needing to be replaced. A brake pipe is showing signs of corrosion at the rear so that's on the to do list asap.

Other than that just enjoying having the odd play with the now fitted welded diff and recently picked up some genuine BMW roof bars from fleabay for a mere £36. I've added a pair of Thule 532 carriers to them so it now fulfills mine and the GF's mountain bike carrying duties.

Seemed rude now to get s couple of pics on the way home tonight now it's clean