E91 330i LCI

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I have been reading the PH forum for many years now and have only recently decided to take the plunge and start posting. Just over 2 weeks ago I made a rushed purchase of a 2009 BMW 330i Touring and posted my new wheels on the E91 thread in the BMW section:

Ad picture:



The next day the PH community did it's thing and I was greeted with a post from another PH'er who'd seen the car on ebay:

"Hate to be the bearer of potentially bad news, but i tried to buy this on ebay recently - for parts for my e91 and/or to fix depending on how knackered it was.

In end, the the price was too strong for me considering the potential cost to fix, so its obviously been offloaded to a trader instead.

Here is the original advert: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-330i-Touring-2009-9...

Message from the seller after i queried a few points:

"I found the oil when checking the coolant level. The car has not overheated or lost any coolant. I've cleaned out the header tank and since then there hasn't been any oil. It didn't get there by accident though so at some point the head gasket needs replacing. I had erratic idle and check engine lights for misfires prior to replacing the injectors. Since then I've not had any issues with poor running. If you're interested 4k is really as low as I can go."

As a best scenario, the oil filter housing gasket is leaking oil into the coolant channels - at worse, the head gasket has gone.

Id recommend that your mechanic gives it a thorough going over"

The ad said:

"IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ THE FULL DESCRIPTION
BMW 330i Touring
94k miles
Blue with tan leather
6 spd auto
272 bhp (This is one of the most powerful gasoline cars you can by with £260 tax)
Full service history
Towbar fitted (this has only been used to tow a 3' x 4' box trailer)
Injector issues are well documented with these first generation GDI engines from BMW. I have recently had all 6 injectors replaced to resolve
intermittent misfire issues. The new injectors are index 11 parts which are more robust that the original index 9 parts. I have also replaced all 6 plugs
and one coil. This work cost £1800 (receipts to be included in sale) and has completely resolved all the misfire issues.
Unfortunately following this repair I found a small amount of oil in the coolant. I SUSPECT THE ENGINE HAS A FAILED HEAD GASKET. The
car is not using coolant as far as I can tell. I've decided to sell the car rather than repair it."

Not an ideal start!

I had bought the car in a rush because it was a) local, b) cheap (£4995), c) from a dealer providing an AA Warranty so I had some level of security.

I would normally do a fair bit of research before buying a car but as this was so well priced it had attracted some attention (a guy was coming from Sussex to see it) and a quick decision was called for. the MoT history was perfect so I went for it.

The PH news was a bit gutting TBH!

Edited by Sn1ckers on Wednesday 3rd July 17:16

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More later once I've done the kids dinner...

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So, I now had a car with a chequered history. I spoke to the dealer who didn't want to know and simply referred me to the warranty company who were, in turn, not much use (the first company they sent me to to check the car over only repaired trucks!). I contacted the ebay seller who kindly confirmed what I already knew but provided more details on who had done the injectors/plugs/coil pack and they checked out as a reputable company with excellent reviews.

I decided to take the car to my local indie who I've used for years and ask them to take a quick shufty. They checked for hydrocarbons in the expansion tank; 0%. This was reassuring. I'd also done some research and the oil cooler gasket seemed a possible alternative to the head gasket. £120 later, inc oem gasket at £25, the oil cooler gasket was done and the old gasket was, I am reliably informed, shot.

As things stand today I'm keeping an eye on the oil level and the water level and possible cross contamination. I have the car booked in to my indie for a full health check this Saturday; fingers crossed!

More to come once the kids are in bed.

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More photos (from the original ad):




The period post purchase has been a little odd compared with other cars I have bought. Usually I’m cleaning the car & going out for a drive somewhere for no reason whereas this time it’s all about checking oil & water levels and generally being a bit paranoid about every imagined knock or rattle. To be fair, had I not seen the eBay ad I would have been over the moon about the car as it’s been faultless so far (oil cooler gasket notwithstanding but I may not have noticed that right away).

Anyway, my confidence is increasing daily and I’m now making plans for what I want to do with the car (beyond taking it back to the dealer!).

As I previously said, I paid £4995 for the car which I still think is pretty good for a Dec 09 330i touring with 94k on the clock. I have the car booked in for a full health check this weekend and, subject to what is found, then plan to ditch the run flats which I have always thought ruined the ride. Next will be retrofitting Bluetooth (pro nav but no Bluetooth - why??) which can be done seamlessly for c£300 and give me a streaming facility to boot.

Also this weekend I’m having a go at replacing the passenger door grab handle which has become very sticky (a common problem?); I’ll come back with an update on how I get on.

Other than that the car is pretty much perfect. The Individual HiFi is a real treat!

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Bit of an update having now taken the car for a once over at my trusted indie.

The front of the engine looks ok. There is evidence of an oil leak in the past but the view is that there’s no leak there now.

There is however a small leak from the gasket between the engine and gearbox. Nothing too serious and something to watch rather than do anything about;


There’s a bit of play in the front near side suspension (marked with chalk in photo;



Booked in for next week to get this sorted along with sorting a sticky near side handbrake adjuster.

Should be about £120 all in so not a bad result. The consensus at the garage is the car is generally sound.

Lastly a few error codes are showing;


These have all been cleared and we’ll have another look next week to see what, if anything, has reappeared.

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Little bit of titivation this morning. The plastic on the inside of the passenger door handle had turned to what felt like putty so a replacement was in order. New v old;



And finished job;



To fix the new handle required drilling out the old studs and melting the new plastic studs in place. Whatever happened to nuts, bolts and screws?

With the door panel off I was surprised to see how seemingly puny the drivers are for the door midrange speaker is. I’d expected something more substantial given these were a £1400 option;

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willmagrath said:

Lovely car OP.

I'd love to buy one of these later in the year. How do you find the auto over a manual? I've always had manuals and don't really fancy the silky 6 with an auto.

The 6 speed auto was decent at the time but is a bit of a slush box compared to more modern stuff. I have an auto because of the o/h but would choose the manual if it were just me making the decisions. That said the 330i lci is a rare beast so you could be waiting a while for one. A 335i manual with the later single twin scroll turbo would be a nice shout though.

That said for most of my driving the auto is perfectly good and makes the car a bit of a mini barge with the ability to hustle if needed!

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Court_S said:

Nice car OP.

I’ve got a real soft spot for tourings. I really wanted a 330 touring but struggled to find one that wasn’t a dog so ended up with a saloon which was a fab car in he end despite not being a ‘holy grail spec’ with folding seats.

The auto in these is OK but nothing compared to a modern auto in terms of shift speed. It’s a cracking engine though.

Thanks.

The engine does make the car. I’ve had a couple of 3L diesel 3’s in the past which are great cars but I much prefer the petrol version.

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Finally got around to looking up the spec:

S752A Individual Audio System
P7RSA Package Comfort

Comfort And Interior Equipment

S418A Luggage Compartment Package
S423A Floor Mats Velours
S428A Warning Triangle And First Aid Kit
S430A Interioroutside Mirror With Auto Dip
S431A Interior Mirror With Automaticdip
S441A Smoker Package
S459A Seat Adjuster Electric With Memory
S464A Ski Bag
S470A IsofixSystem
S488A Lumbar Support Driver And Passenger
S493A Storage Compartment Package
S4ABA Fine Wood Trim Burr Walnut
S4AEA Armrest Front Retractable

Multimedia

S609A Navigation System Professional
S672A CD Changer For 6 CDs
S698A AreaCode 2 For DVD
S6FLA USBAudio Interface

Driver Assistance And Lightning

S502A Headlight Cleaning System
S508A Park Distance Control PDC
S521A Rain Sensor
S522A Xenon Light
S534A Automatic Air Conditioning
S544A Cruise Control With Brake Function
S563A Light Package
S5ACA Highbeam Assistant
S5DCA Rearseat Headrests Folding
S520A Fog Lights

Wheels And Drive

S205A Automatic Transmission
S216A Hydro Steeringservotronic
S230A Extra Package EUspecific
S255A Sports Leather Steering Wheel
S258A Tire With Runflat Functionality
S2BZA BMW Alloy Wheel Double Spoke 161
S2PAA Wheel Bolt Retainer
S249A Multifunction F Steering Wheel

Environment And Safety

S302A Alarm System
S320A Deleted Model Lettering
S386A Roof Railing
S854A Language Version French
S863A Retailer Directory Europe
S877A Delete Crosspattern Operation
S881A Onboard Vehicle Literature French
S8S3A Automatic Locking When Driving Off
S8SCA Telematics Access Requestcountryspec
S8SPA Control Unit COP
S321A Exterior Parts In Vehicle Color

Individual Equipment

S760A High Gloss Shadow Line

Other Equipment

S1CAA Selection Of COP Relevant Vehicles
S1CDA Brake Energy Regeneration
S1CBA CO2 Package

Hadn't realised it had high beam assist. There's noi obvious button for it like there is on the F10?

Suspect this car was originally bought by someone who prefered older tech. No Bluetooth and a CD changer??

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chunkytfg said:

Turn the Headlight switch to the left and then the first time you push the indicator stalk away to get full beam it'll turn the Assist on and you should get the little sign come up on the dash.



Where did you get the spec list from?

Thanks for that; I’ll try it next time I’m out at night.

I got the spec via mdecoder.com using my vin number though there are several sites that do the same thing.

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chunkytfg said:

ocrx8 said:

Individual audio is massively rare - good find!

And there was me thinking i did well finding a car with Logic7!

My spec

S609A Navigation System Professional
S612A BMW Assist
S616A BMW Online
S620A Voice Control
S633A Preparation Mobile Phone Business
S677A HiFi System Professional DSP
S694A Provisions For BMW 6 CD Changer
S6FLA USBAudio Interface

I’d probably swap Bluetooth & Logic 7 for no Bluetooth & Individual audio tbh! It’s going to cost me circa £350 to get oem style Bluetooth retrofitted.

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Sir_Dave said:

Glad the car is going well after the initial scare (sorry about that ebay link lol).

I retrofitted CIC/Combox/Blueooth to my old e90 330i and used the following parts, might be slightly different for you as you already have CIC, but should give you something to work on:

BMW Basic Handsfree retrofit wiring (£100): 84640441949
e90 Combox Media unit (£150): 84109257160
Combox retrofit plug (£15): 61136913644

That will give you bluetooth for phone calls & music streaming. Then if you want to control the iPod/iPhone via the idrive/get album art etc, you will need to buy a USB cable/interface to plug directly into the combox, something like this worked for me: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Aux-Switch-Wire-Cable-A...

Some further reading here: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53...

The whole lot will then need coding with NCSExpert to update your vehicle order etc :thumbup

Edited by Sir_Dave on Wednesday 10th July 10:11

Should have said thank you earlier for the heads up, so will take the opportunity now

The engine was running well so I may not have spotted any problem for a while. Your diagnosis was also on the money so full PH points on all counts.

I’ll look into your suggestions; a retrofit of some description is definitely on the cards.

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I got around to cleaning the car properly this weekend and whilst cleaning the inner reaches of the rear hatch came across this;



This, though not completely obvious from the photo, is rust coming through under the rear window hatch. There are actually 3 areas of rust corresponding, I assume, with the clips holding the rubber surround.

So, on Monday I pottered down to the local BMW dealership and enquired about a warranty repair. Today I got a call from the body shop manager confirming that the repair was approved and booking the car in for the 22nd. Result me thinks.

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Control arm replaced:



Also, I had the car hooked up again to check the fault codes having had all the old codes deleted last week and the car was clear which I’m taking as a positive.

Next up is an oil & filter change plus I’m thinking the gearbox oil will need doing. Does anyone have experience of this? In particular is it best to get bmw items (££££) or are there good aftermarket kits available (the bay of e has plenty but without knowing what’s good I’m reluctant to take the plunge).

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helix402 said:

ZF gearbox kit is the same as BMWs, last one I bought even had a BMW sticker on the sump.

This is what I was thinking, a ZF kit would do the job but if bought the same kit from BMW, in BMW boxes, I could double the price??

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OK, the car went in on Monday to sort out the minor rust issues around the rear window hatch. I got a call today that it was ready and duly went to collect the car this afternoon. The repair was well done and I thanked the garage and went to drive away but noticed the idrive wasn’t working .

I pointed this out to the body shop manager who took the car back and said he’d investigate. I got a call about an hour later saying the car is back with the paint shop and they are looking into the problem.

I have my ideas but anyone else want to take a guess at what happens next?

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I’ve been given a little more information though it just adds to the confusion.

Apparently the body shop manager took the car back to the body shop (a sub contractor, not BMW owned) and the idrive came on after about 5 miles of driving. He carried on to the body shop so they could run a diagnostic. When they switched the car on again the idrive failed to start. This would indicate a fuse is unlikely to be the problem?

The body shop, for their part, claim the only electrical item they touch was the high level brake light which they disconnected while carrying out the repair.

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Stussy said:

First thing I can think of trying is to get it working again and then open and shut the tailgate/glass a few times and see if that affects it.
I can only guess some wiring may have been disturbed?
As above, the Idrive screen power is definitely linked to the tailgate in some odd way.

Just to confirm, does the radio work but not the screen? I could get sound but no image. I was getting close to rewiring the screen power from another circuit!

Nothing works when it goes, no radio, sensors etc, etc...

Very odd!

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I’m not aware of any fuses going.

The garage have just called though and say the car is ready and that the idrive switched off due to the high temperatures!

I disagreed with this diagnosis!!

They are checking the car again and we’ll see how we go..

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OK, the garage (a BMW main dealer who I’ve used, though not exclusively, for 15 years during which time they’ve been pretty good) cannot find a problem and is confident it’s heat related. I’ve done some research and it’s actually fairly common and there seems to be some variability in the temperature at which the cut out kicks in (though the cut out is more common with the later tablet style screens).

They asked me to have the car back, which I have, but will take it in if the problem persists.

To be fair to them the car was facing south with the dash pointed at the sun and a temperature of 36C in the shade so they may be correct.

So far no problems so we’ll see...