My Glacier Silver F30 320d, and my previous BMWs

[joropug]

This is now for sale on Pistonheads if any of you lovely people are interested:

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




Thought I'd share some details of my latest purchase.

Having sold my E60 530d LCI, I briefly ventured into a life without BMW and quickly realised what a mistake I made.

I decided to go for an F30, requirements being lowish mileage, full history and xenon equipped (detest the halogens sorry). In my search radius, there were just 3 with xenons!

The car I settled on is an SE (first time I haven't got an M Sport!), a manual (after saying I'd always buy an auto) and doesn't have leather (which I said I'd never buy!) but after seeing it, I changed my mind entirely. The cloth interior is really comfortable and as an added bonus is also heated. Automatics are rare in the budget too, as most of these cars are coming off 3 to 4 year lease deals by company users trying to keep the BIK down.

It has the upgrade 18 inch wheels with new run flats, the adaptive xenon package, interior comfort package, storage and ambient lighting packages . power Fold mirrors too not sure if they're standard. With it being really low mileage (42k) compared to the rest of the market and in unmarked condition I'm over the moon especially being 1.5k under budget! The adaptive xenon package is awesome, if not distracting following it like a cat to a laser pointer at night...

Anyway here are some pictures. Plus a few of my old BMW, a 330ci Sport, a 330ci M-Clubsport, a 530i Sport (PX that I sold same day for a 250% profit!) and my 530d M Sport (Stage 1 mapped).

Plans are.... Nothing really. Maybe swap out any interior halogen bulbs for LED, activating enhanced Bluetooth if I can and some other coding. Maybe some tints in the future and am M Sport leather retrofit I can ever be bothered.

Oh and the best bit, the 184bhp lump is absolutely fine day to day thanks to the torque and got an astonishing 71mpg (60 US) on a trip the other day.
























Old cars:

Edited by joropug on Saturday 2nd February 16:52

[joropug]

I've been very pleased with economy. Doing 70 to 80ish on cruise it got 65mpg on a 190 mile trip the other day, the tank seems bottomless too I've done 550 miles on this tank and have an indicated 80 left. I'm averaging 54mpg on this tank, which included the 190 mile motorway trip.

As for power, I had a stage 1 530d (275bhp and bags of torque, with the 6 speed auto). It was very fast, but I don't find myself really lacking power in the 2.0, in fact I'm really pleased with it.

The drive modes I thought would be a gimmick, but the sport mode seems to come on boost more aggressively which makes it great fun.

My only complaint is the clutch position/seating position. I found the clutch to feel far away with the accelerator / brake feeling too close. Basically felt twisted a bit in the seat. I've now fitted a clutch stop though which has improved it a lot.

[joropug]

Would you believe, far superior. The E60 had m sport suspension and run flats, I ditched the run flats as it clattered over bumps so much and it was better, but still nowhere near as smooth as the F30.

In its defence i got the e60 on 87k on seemingly original suspension that didn't need replacing when I sold it on 115k. The F30 SE suspension seems significantly smoother. Neither have rattles in the interior and are solid in that respect, the F30 has more road noise but probably the run flats.

The e60 had more comfortable seats mainly as they had Base tilt and extendable knee supports which SE models unfortunately do not.

[joropug]

Brett748 said:

I've got an F30 320d company car. The economy is amazing given the reasonable performance and it is a comfortable mile muncher. The chassis is also good too if you push on.

My biggest gripe with it is the awful manual gearbox. The clutch travel is ridiculous, worst thing about the car. The pedal offset is silly too, it's worse than a Saxo!

Do you not miss the refinement of the six pot?

As above im totally with you. I can't recommend getting one of these enough.

https://www.mlperformance.co.uk/products/bms-short...

Or, make something similar yourself. Basically there's a huge dead zone which this can reduce. It makes it a lot better.

I still struggle to get the seating position right though, feeling too close ok my right leg and too far away on my left. I have considered buying metal pedal covers and putting spacers behind the clutch pedal!!

I don't find the box bad but the gear knob is really light. On my clubsport I tried a few different oem knobs and the weighted clubsport (same as F30 m sport) gives a much much weightier shift. On my shopping list.

I don't really notice it being 4 cylinder over 6, it obviously isn't as powerful but refinement has improved a lot since the older models.

[joropug]

So I made a purchase after consideration this weekend. The SE gear knob is quite light and hard plastic. I scoured eBay for a second hand M-Sport knob but none were available, they're £120 on eBay new. It's the same knob as found even on e46 clubsport models so I knew it was weighty and ergonomic, even if it is a little dated (my clubsport is 10 years older!).

A quick call to BMW confirmed suspicions that the eBay seller are buying direct from BMW hence the crap UK shipping time. £107.

First impressions are its as nice on the hand as I remember on the clubsport, the shifts are vastly smoother (amazing how much difference some weight does!) and it doesn't seem to vibrate as much with the 4 pot derv!

Do it. Complements the clutch stop well.

Comparison:

free image hosting ebay

Edited by joropug on Wednesday 27th September 14:52

[joropug]

In addition I'm going to keep a list of my Carly coding here. For anyone not in the know it's as easy way of coding your bmw using a phone and their Bluetooth dongle. It's expensive as a one off purchase but a few 10 quid donations here and there to sort friends out and you may see some of it back!

First off, diagnosis - nothing out of the blue. Phew.

Coding options:
-Activated digital speedometer
-Windows now do not stop rising on one touch, when someone opens a door
-5 blink lane change indicators
-3 Indicator flashes on lock
-1 indicator flash on unlock
-Start/Stop default = off (to save the battery/starter/engine mounts)
-Start/Stop auto turn on if you activate EcoPro drive mode.
-Door handle LEDs illuminate in reverse gear
-Led fog lights included on welcome lights
-LED Amber mirror lights included on welcome lights
-Welcome lights extended from 40 to 90 seconds
-Rear lights included in DRL
-Ambience lighting is no longer affected by dimming the speedo lights (always on bright)
-Front fog/cornering lights error check turned off and cold voltage check off
-Reverse lights error check turned off and cold voltage check off
-Mirrors auto-fold on 0.5s press of the lock button
-Audible beep when locking/unlocking (set to short, low volume chirp)
-Audible beep option unlocked in iDrive to turn it off if needed
-Drivers seatbelt bong deactivated
-iDrive now turns off immediately on opening door once engine off (usually stays in till you lock it



Things that didn't work so far:
-Power dials on idrive (torque and bhp gauges), apparently diesels don't give off the right info so they stay on 0 readings (boo!)
-PDC stop beeping when you select first gear (incredibly irritating, if you park up after reversing and the PDC is reading an object, it'll continue beeping with no way of turning it off except with the engine or moving forward a set distance.) presume this is for automatics only

More to do very soon as Carly have now unlocked all additional features for free!

Edited by joropug on Thursday 4th October 07:07

[joropug]

You won't be disappointed with that spec! The 530d I had was about 275bhp and 450 lbs ft allegedly, was very fast for what it was especially 30 to 100 on the autobahn

[joropug]

Small update. Fitted my LED reverse light bulbs, they're pretty epic. Relatively straight forward fit but BMW allowed an absolute sadist to design the boot trim. Somehow got it back on in one piece.

The bulbs:


Comparison pic:


In reverse the door handles light up also (coded):


Just the fog lights to go, haven't got around to fitting the led replacements. The fog lights are also cornering lights and again come on in reverse for some reason at night:




Also st a brick this morning. Carly bugged out mid code. Usually no issue you just reload the back up but it kept saying my adapter needed an update, which wouldn't work. Cue 40 minutes of cold sweats. The whole rear light module which includes the parking sensors was temporarily inactive. I realised when I parked in a bush. Fortunately a soft one and I was able to restore the file ok.

Edited by joropug on Thursday 28th September 21:05

[joropug]

Is it an LCI? Think it's to do with the idrive also.

[joropug]

Oh Behave said:

How did you find the stage 1 map on your 530d? I have an E61 530D which I am thinking about getting mapped, is it worth it?

Fantastic, night and day. I think my map was a relatively 'safe' one. The peak boost was no different (23 psi if I recall) before and after. It was the throttle response and how quickly it came on boost that you really noticed the difference. So much better lower down.

I used MVT in Wareham, who put in oscarli software which I believe is written by the same bloke who does revo diesels. I coded out my faulty egr at the same time and you can go back and update it to remove the dpf at a later date if yours failed. Mine was still fine at 115k despite the map which had been on since 85k, regenerated approx weekly.

[joropug]

I shouldn't get so excited about mpg but this thing runs on fresh air when you want it to. Benefit of a smooth journey and eco Pro mode.

Edited by joropug on Wednesday 25th April 19:56

[joropug]

Just a quick update, after a fair bit of driving this weekend I was finding it hard to shift smoothly on particular from 1st to 2nd. I realised the clutch stop I'd installed was causing it so did another test run on the first setting and it is now so much better. Takes a little bit of the travel distance away without compromising the clutch engaging and disengaging properly.

This is it in the current setting, versus the standard stopper:


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And in situ:


upload photo to internet free

And these arrived to replace the final piece of halogen (bar indicators). Led Fog/Welcome lights/Cornering lights:



Hopefully work!

[joropug]

Updated some coding on page 1.

Had an issue with Carly coding again. This time the FEM module failed when coding. Luckily everything still worked but I couldn't access my back ups after and restore it. A panicked email to Carly and it was sorted next day. Just had to rename a file removing the module name to force it to show up.

Fitted the fog bulbs I previously acquired. Colour was great but very low quality. Bulb was always on a small amount and one snapped putting it in. I bought identical ones off amazon looks wise but they're better quality. Down side... Bulbs are too blue. Just leaving them for now as I may upgrade the headlight bulbs at a later date. Fogs only used for my cornering lights really.

Also had a change of heart on the clutch stop. The more I've driven I've noticed it slightly hard to take out of gear, sometimes hard to engage second and reverse. I've removed all spacers and it's far better but means it's basically stock again, maybe a few mm difference. Maybe just my clutch...


animated gif hosting

[joropug]

Just an ownership update, had the car about 9 months or so now and really enjoying it.

Things I like:
-Economy (45mpg is my lowest, 73mpg is my highest.) 600 miles a tank is lovely.
-Tax is £30 and insurance is cheap
-Ride quality is really good
-I'll never put leather as a criteria when buying a car again. The anthracite cloth is comfortable and the heating was sublime over winter, so quick to warm up.
-Love the coding flexibility on Carly
-Adaptive xenon's are the best I've ever used

Things I don't like:
-Wish I'd bought an automatic , the manual is reliable and solid but the clutch position really grates me. I feel like I'm too far away from the clutch or too close to brake/accelerator.
-That it had a service pack on it (woohoo) but I couldn't get it serviced until next of April (which felt like too long , I prefer to get oil changes done more regularly) and it invalidates if the car goes past 50k, which it did. So glad I got it done last year for peace of mind. Annual schedules for this one now on.
-Want a chunkier steering wheel, M Sport ones are much nicer.

Overall though really pleased. Never had such a frugal motor that isn't a bore to drive. Probably have this one a while.

Updated coding on page 1.

[joropug]

Updated coding list on page 1

Well the MOT man advised my tyres are not long for this world. To be honest , they have a fairly decent amount left on them but all 4 due at once is a kicker.

Did some pricing up and almost fell off my chair. 4x Bridgestone Potenza (staggered) was coming out at nearly £800! Mental

So I took to eBay and made a 2 hour drive to collect some apparently mint style 400 wheels with 5mm approx all round on the same potenza tyres. As my car has upgraded alloys as standard the dimensions are the same.

Got there and the wheels were absolutely spot on, I mean really mint....but....tyres were worse than mine. To say I was disappointed was an under statement , I let the guy know and to be fair to him he was a bit embarrassed and went to his unit to see if he had another set (small business).

That he did ! The same set, 99 percent condition with 7mm rears and 6mm fronts. All this for the same agreed price of £450. My luck has turned.

When I factor in the sale of my style 398 probably looking at 150 to 200 to upgrade alloys and get great tyres at the same time. Less than the cost of one front.

Need them fitted!!

Edited by joropug on Thursday 4th October 07:20

[joropug]

Before



After (Ignoring the fact it's M Sport)

[joropug]

Cheers ! My dad and mate both have F10 520d auto and are also struggling to get more than 40 unless it's on the motorway.

62mpg round trip to collect the wheels for me !

[joropug]

Alfa Pete said:

I had a 320ed for two years. As you’ve found the economy was astonishing particularly given that the performance was plenty for pretty much any scenario.
The ED rode well on its 16” wheels but the low rolling resistance tyres weren’t especially grippy and the suspension sometimes was a little soft.
Other than that was a great cruiser and really enjoyed my time with it.

Yep I'm so happy with running costs. I've been tempted to downgrade with a looking house move but anything worth having at the 5k price point will outweigh its benefits in extra costs.

I didn't consider the ED as wanted the extra oomph if needed although I hear they remap to the same figure as mine would.

[joropug]

Well got them fitted and I'm over the moon! Luckily no wobbles or problems I can tell of.

The car is driving nicer courtesy of the fresher rubber and alignment. I think it looks great!







Tracking done, the guy wanted to leave NSF as the tyre had worn perfectly even - he knows best.



And mental how clean it is underneath, no leaks, damage or missing parts always a plus.

[joropug]

I upgraded my camera this week, so fancied getting out tonight and having a quick go.

I used 2 LED strip lights (the kind that would normally go behind a TV) , USB powered and placed them on the passenger and drivers seats accordingly to give some great colour to the image.