Another silver BMW - 2005 330i Touring

[JakeT]

WARNING – Idle musings ahead

After deliberating over it for some time, and a lot of time spent posting my boring ramblings on a thread dedicated to these sorts of cars (found here) I decided I should probably start my own thread on my car.

As a private motorist covering roughly 25,000 miles per year, most of which is privately funded, I’ve fallen into the trap of running older cars. Usually this is an old BMW of sorts. The sensible option would be to buy a 320d, or for the ‘mega torque’ life a 330d. After some time in a 330d I decided it wasn’t for me. It absolutely monstered regular ‘outside lane’ motorway driving, but I found it challenging to drive well on the country roads near where I live. The fear of turbo, injector or any other diesel related failure also scared me (and the moths that live in my wallet ). Knowing this I wanted a car that was a little more modern in the hope it would provide less trouble and have some more ‘nice features’. I’m a bit of a tart for the nice twinkly lights a lot of more modern cars have.
In steps this 330i touring. I wasn’t looking to buy when a PH’er expressed interest in selling. What’s the harm in looking, right? Well, this was about as ideal as an ‘E91’ (the 2005-2012 3 series touring for the less terminally boring) gets for me. 138,000 miles, Manual gearbox, Cloth interior, upgraded audio system, the later iDrive from a facelift car, upgraded suspension (A Birds B3 suspension kit), and tyres that aren’t made of girders. Just what I’d like as a manual gearbox lover and pathological hater of cheap cow covered seats. Further perusal of the VIN and history shows this was the first ‘customer’ 330i touring. Produced on the 30th August 2005, it was delivered new to a chap that worked for Sytner High Wycombe. The spec is a slightly odd one, and is as follows:

• Professional Navigation, including Bluetooth, BMW Assist, and Voice control
• Cloth sport seats, including Lumbar support (Lumbar is really rare on a 3 series for some reason)
• Window blinds in the rear doors.

Not a mega spec, but most of the boxes ticked I would want for day to day usage. There’s been some changes, they’re listed somewhere below.






Necessities were done which involved a final check over of the suspension by birds prior to sale, which meant I took delivery of the car on a Friday in June, with us departing for the South of France on our annual pilgrimage to see family and buy copious amounts of French plonk from the supermarkets.
First thing to do was sort out one of the shortcomings of the ‘E9x’ platform. No spare wheel. These cars were the first of the generation where BMW made ‘Run Flat tyres’ standard kit. This means the spare gets chucked, along with all of the tools to change the wheel. Disappointing. Before I bought the car I managed to buy a BMW ‘spare wheel kit’ BMW offered this kit to owners that ditched the run flat tyres. It lashes to the boot floor providing in this case a spare 17 inch alloy wheel, wheel brace, jack, and some other bits like a wheel chock. All of this comes in a nylon bag. Not the most elegant of solutions but thankfully the touring model has a little bit more room to accommodate the big hulking thing in the cabin.


It’s always a little nerve wracking taking an older car abroad for the first time. This happened to be when France was seeing a record breaking Heatwave, and travelling down past Paris it definitely felt it. I love the heat, but even this was a shock when getting out of the car. At least the A/C worked fine.


I even took it to the Michelin Museum in Clermont-Ferrand much to the good lady’s displeasure. On a side note, this is a really interesting museum even for people who don’t love cars. I’d recommend it to anyone in the region.

Otherwise it was a standard trip, visiting some of my favourite parts of the world. By the time we arrived in Reims it had really got the ‘road warrior’ look to it.

Otherwise the car performed faultlessly, and made itself good where old BMWs can paint themselves in a less than stellar light. No cooling system issues, oil consumption was lower than expected, and it lapped up the abuse we gave it, covering 1,750 miles in the first week of ownership alone. Upon return from holiday it was business as usual for a while, doing the commute and various work engagements. My commute is 84 miles per day, so the mileage soon racks up. The only hiccup was when the aged battery decided it didn’t want to play ball anymore



August brought us to the time of preparing for winter (Foresight would have helped here) when I bought a set of winter wheels and tyres for it. I also did some other normal maintenance type stuff including a service, new wiper blades and new boot gas struts. This brings us to about 144,000 miles.


In September with the days dropping cooler, I noticed fuel economy was dropping a little more than I’d like, so using the hidden menu in the instrument cluster along with a diagnostic scan, it was noted that the thermostat was sticking open. These engines (The BMW N52) run hot, really hot. 110 Degrees C at a gentle cruise is normal for them, and we were barely cresting 70 degrees C. As a result of that, a new BEHR thermostat and Pierburg waterpump were installed. These engines also use an electric water pump to aid warm up times, and allow the car to cool itself even when the engine is off. Neat stuff, but they’re known to fail every 90,000 miles or so. The current pump had 44,000 miles on it so was past the best miles of its life. It’s easier to fit a waterpump to the older cars, but whereas they’re known as a pain to bleed when the coolant has been dropped the electric waterpump brings one more major benefit. The cooling system can be bled with the engine off! No going for a nervous drive with the heater set to full blast. The car can be left in the air and bled while going for a tea and Jammie Dodger break. Bliss.

In October, at roughly 147,000 miles I noticed when feeling the wheels after a drive (It’s been mentioned I really do need help) the offside rear wheel was warmer than the rest. My suspicions were confirmed when swapping to the winter wheels that the ‘warm’ wheel had a lot more dust on the inner barrel than the rest of the wheels. I ordered up a new set of Genuine BMW brake pads with a wear sensor, and a ‘new’ remanufactured ATE brake caliper. These were fitted and dead fine. The offside pads really were quite a bit more worn than the nearside. Resetting the onboard computer took the ‘miles to go’ on the brake pads from 30,000 to 70,000. After driving the car more and more, it now says 80,000 miles on the rear brake pads. Yay for self-generating brake pads! The first drive post brake work was not all smooth though. Having gone for a short drive and stopping for fuel, upon startup there was a hideous engine noise. HOW!? I haven’t even worked at the front of the car! This was the pulley bearing in the A/C compressor having failed in such a short space of time. With another European roadtrip planned thoughts of selling it off and buying a £1500 shed came to front of mind for a while. Fortunately my Father in law owns his own garage, so I dropped it off there to be looked at.
A new Denso A/C compressor was sourced, with a new belt and belt tensioner. The BMW N52 is usually a really quite stout engine, with many having passed 200,000 miles with very little work. The one issue is the belt tensioner. When they fail, they bend inwards causing the belt to wrap around the crank and be sucked through the front main seal of the engine. This causes the oil pump pickup to be blocked and kills the engine. I figured the new tensioner was a good insurance police against premature death of the engine.


The change from the summer wheels to winter wheels. Wash included!

Following this work, off the car went to Europe again. This time to Spa, Cologne, and back via South Holland. I did a bit of ‘autobahn stuff’ in Germany but the winter tyres limited me to 130. The company back on the Chunnel was good though. They even stopped us and ran the car through the heartbeat monitor. Obviously thought we looked like people smugglers.

Once back it was more normal service stuff, smashing up and down the A34 and M4, getting really quite dirty at times. Another service beckoned at 149,000 miles because December was a really busy month with no free time.


December was met with the annual trip to Brugge for a nice weekend away around the Christmas markets, and more French plonk for Christmas. Only 12 bottles this time. The rest of December and January were otherwise uneventful with lots of mileage being added for both pleasure and work purposes. All of our clobber fits nicely in the boot, even with the spare wheel in there.

That brings us (just about up to date). I’ve had to replace one of the winter tyres after a sidewall failure caused large scale vibration on the rear, otherwise it’s been plain sailing. Fortunately for me, and the car all of the owners have been ‘enthusiasts’ and a few of them are on PH, too. It’s had various bits changed and improved over from how it left the factory, which is really what sold the car to me. It’s had the following improvements performed

• Facelift front headlights
• BMW ‘Darkline’ rear lights
• ALPINE BMW retrofit amplifier and upgraded speakers
• CIC (the facelift version) navigation retrofit
• Birds (The BMW tuning house, not the custard lads) B3 suspension kit. This consists of custom-valved Bilstein Shock absorbers, and a custom tuned spring. More info available here .
• The all-important Pistonheads sticker in the rear window

This makes the car just about as I would want it. My previous driver, an E46 328ci had Koni suspension fitted which helped it, and a standard E90 didn’t feel as good as me. I’m no Frankel/Meaden/Harris Et al though, so I probably have no clue what I’m really on about.

The later navigation unit makes the car feel much more modern, with better navigation functionality, media options (more on that below) and a better user interface. The ALPINE upgrade to the audio takes the stereo from ‘fisher price’ to much more acceptable. It includes amplification, and replacement front speakers. It’s a stark difference.

That brings us to just about present day. Currently the car is on ~157,800 miles and running well as ever. I also recently expanded the navigation system with a ‘combox’. This was fitted to very late E9x cars and allows for much more ‘media’ functionality, such as USB input for media, ‘enhanced’ Bluetooth, apps control from an iPhone, and various other functionality. With some help from the forum and coding from a chap in Southampton we were all fitted. It’s now even got 2020 maps so I’m not occasionally driving on roads that don’t exist! This really takes my now old 2005 car into the new decade. Basic AUX in wasn’t cutting it anymore. Control of apps from the phone is the best part, along with album artwork on the centre display.



Now I am all caught up, I do plan to keep this as a running log of how the car is over time. I’ve a couple more bits to update on the way, and when we’re all allowed out I’ll be back to piling on the miles in the usual fashion. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I’m sure it proves a good cure for insomnia.

How do I find it after 19,500 miles? In a word, good. The big six really makes it feel like a BMW should, smooth and tractable with the ability to spin to 7,000RPM. The chassis now with better suspension really does inspire confidence, and is much more capable than I am. The whole package is a really nice daily driver, and all of the upgrades have expanded on a really good base car as is. I’ve not felt the need to replace it, which is rare for me. I’ve kept meaning to take some ‘proper’ pictures of it, too. Once lockdown is over I’ll head to the local beauty spot for some snappy snaps.

[JakeT]

AceKid said:

Great writeup, i especially enjoy seeing the musings of owning an e91 6 cylinder as this is at the top of my list to replace my slightly wheezy forester.
The facelift lights and the nav upgrades are definitely something i will be looking to do as well.

It makes all the difference especially on an early car. The early navigation system doesn't do full postcode entry, which is a real limitation.

dunc69 said:

Great write up. Seriously good choice for a ‘do it all’ daily. And you can’t beat a 6 cylinder petrol, especially since you‘ve come across from the black pump!

Top work that man!

Thank you! I ran a 328ci for years, and decided to try a diesel for doing big miles. It lasted less than a month.

ollyh1988 said:

Interesting write up.

I went for a 325i a few years ago, as was looking for an estate car whilst we were renovating a house. The house didn’t happen but the car stayed. When it works it’s a great place to be (mine is an SE, so softer ride but rubbish flat seats). Mine has been expensive to run with a few issues; aircon packed up, coolant leak, central locking failed. All added up. Overall though it was a lot of car for the money. I’m replacing the car, but only for another BMW.

Looks like my cars doppelganger! Yours has xenons though, which is a useful addition. These cars are the sort of cars you need to tinker with every so often to keep everything right. Otherwise it gets expensive paying the labour to sort out niggles.

fastbikes76 said:

Great write up documenting your journey. There’s definitely something about that lovely big 6 up front.

Thank you. I've been meaning to do it for some time. Spending so much time on the forums it's only fair to give back a little bit.

alec.e said:

The CIC retrofit is a very nice bonus, very interested in getting the Combox fitted to mine, sounds like just what I need.

If you need any info or the like, send us a PM. The chap I used for a lot of the work was really good too. It looks like a totally OE install.

Naldrett said:

Good stuff

Thanks for some more back story. I love it some of the former owners have come out of the woodwork. The sport wheel and clubsport knob make a much more positive experience. The standard plastic knob on the SE models was a massive own goal from BMW. The big stack of history for everything is also nice. Rare to get so much paperwork nowadays.



I've currently got some interior bits on the way for some more interior work. Should be here and fitted soon.

Edited by JakeT on Monday 30th March 09:45

[JakeT]

DaveyBoyWonder said:

Nice - I really, really miss my old 2006 330i Touring. Just been looking at an Alpina D3 Bi-Turbo E91 on autotrader this morning... maybe...

Look out for timing chain and high pressure fuel pump issues that plague the N47 engine and you'll be grand. I really like the look of the D3BT. It's the same engine as the 123d. Think of it as a 323d. Same peak power as a 325d though.

integraf40 said:

Very nice write up! Looking forward to reading more and seeing how far you take her

Aiming for 200k at the least, we'll see how we go with it!

alec.e said:

Thanks! Turns out mine has got the Combox previously retrofitted, but needs setting up properly.

Simon at Bavarian Coding on Facebook did mine. Works flawlessely.

Mr Tidy said:

Good stuff

It didn't take long, Mr. Tidy.

chillbill said:

They do look lovely with a moderate drop. Don't know how the bone stock OEM suspension rides but mine (clicky above) had sport suspension from the factory. Was rather compliant. Only real downsides - mine was a 320d, which in itself wasn't too bad, but had the older automatic gearbox as well. So a fine cruiser but really needed a manual box and/or a petrol 6-pot like yours. So must be a lovely combo Mine also had the same cloth sport seats. After trying an E90 with the standard seats... the sports items are much, much better. Also, these blackline taillights you've got are a rare find.

PS A Hartge lip would finish the non-sport front off nicely.

Those are cool wheels. Big ones, too! Are the M3 ones? I don't mind the 320d that much. Mega fuel economy is good, but finding a nice 320d is really hard these days. They really get abused by nasty owners (present company excluded, I'm sure).

The Hartge lip looks really nice. My front bumper needs painting after the paint was cracked a few weeks ago hitting a Deer. Stupid things, glad it did no real damage though.

[JakeT]

My next project was the last interior chance I really wanted to make. This was upgrading from the old iDrive (CCC) to the later iDrive (CIC) wheel in the centre console.

On the older CCC system (Pic below) the controller allows one to 'quick jump' between the sections. E.g holding the wheel left takes one to climate, and the other directions do the same. My interior, below had the old controller at the time of purchase.




For the newer CIC system (pic below), the controller has the shortcut buttons all around the edges. The older controller works fine with the new system, but lacking the control buttons makes for slow navigation. To swap this, new trims are needed, since I could not for the life of me find the correct silver trim I currently have. I didn't want to go 'too' dark with the trim since the dark dash and carpets need breaking up with something. If I had beige or a nice coloured leather I'd probably fit wood, but dark and wood doesn't do it for me.



I bought a 'nice' (more on that later) set of 'alu cube' trims from a facelift M-Sport car since they're not too bad of a match. Snapped them up for a good price, too. There was a reason for that though. The seller shafted me a little bit.



I needed to swap some bits into the new trims, including the dash air vents, start/stop button and mount the CIC controller I'd bought. The dash vents was a little fiddly, but not too much bother. The start/stop button was easy.

The first giveaway all was not well when receiving the trims was the box STANK. As a result of this, I wiped all of the trims down with an anti-bac wipe. With the times we live in it's only a sensible precaution. Then, when actuating the little door that covers the ashtray it wasn't moving properly, or latching shut properly. Joy. Then on closer inspection someone had broken one of the arms, epoxied it back together, and put a big screw and washer in to hold the door in place. Not what I want. Interior trim issues really get on my nerves.



Fortunately, the ash tray section and door separate, so I could swap the metal cover onto my old (working) mechanism. I could then swap the entire assembly between trim pieces. I'm not super pleased, as I wanted to sell my old trim on, but I won't now as that isn't fair on the next buyer. Otherwise the trims are fine. No real marks, and all clips in tact. The smell has gone after a good cleaning with Autoglym interior shampoo, too. I also took the time to make sure all of the A/C vents and buttons were cleaned properly before they went back in.


The finished article with everything swapped and working as it should do.

All of the trims have now been replaced, and nothing looks too different, bar the new controller. Pleased with the look, even if it was more effort than I'd have liked.


In the car it isn't a stark difference. The newer trims is a little darker than old and has a 'fish scale' look to it vs. the old brushed ali trim. The old to new controller is plug and play thankfully. No wiring changes are needed.

[JakeT]

In a less interesting update, the summer wheels are ready to go back on. Since I'm now on furlough from work I've cleaned the summer wheels up and sealed them to they're less of a pig to clean when we come out of sitting around the house all the time.

New front boots are on order too, the usual diet of Michelins in the 225/40/18 size. They seem to last forever on the front of these cars. Current ones are marked 2016 which means they've done close to 50,000 miles!

[JakeT]

I have but unlike a lot of sets nowadays they're not ruined. They've had a refurb not too long ago since they've not got loads of weight residue on the inside of the barrels. The rears are totally unmarked, and there's only a bit of kerb action on one of the front wheels. I like the colour of the facelift cars, not too dark but not standard silver. Or I can just not clean them for the same look.

The money is better spent elsewhere at the moment, namely stuff like new VANOS solenoids when it's next time to drop the oil. That's an extra £200 spent right there. Most of the time you wouldn't notice it unless you give it stick from low revs but if it isn't right it's wrong. I'm about all caught up on 'stuff' I want to do with it now either way. It's those niggly little jobs people don't tackle that then makes them want to sell the car. Then it's keeping it right over the coming months/years.

[JakeT]

Whilst we've been in lockdown I've also been taking care of little jobs on the car that I otherwise would not have taken care of.

I gave it a 'proper' clean. I'm not an 'I two bucket method to clean my teeth' person, but I've managed to amass some car cleaning bits over the years. In this case, it was.

• A claybar on the paint to remove any embedded 'stuff'
• A hand cleanse of the paint with Autoglym Super Resin Polish
• A couple of coats of Autoglym HD Wax.

This has left it feeling much better. Silver is a bit of a crap colour to clean, as it still looks fine either way. It also means the car should be less effort to clean in the future. I also cleaned up the summer wheels, and put wheel sealant on them, too.

Also took care of the VANOS solenoids. They were removed, cleaned and then re-installed. I might get new ones at some point, as these ones have 157 large on them. They look well worn, to say the least.

After my drive to go and get some essential foodstuffs, before I put it back on the drive I took a couple of snaps of it with my 'proper' camera. The phone pictures are so-so at best. Not to mention it's nice to look on warmer times in the winter.

[JakeT]

Almost at 158,000 miles now I believe. There's not many at all. Even when you group SE and M Sport variants together it's low numbers. Most 330/335i models were Coupe and Convertible models, with the odd saloon thrown in. Big engine estates are rare.

[JakeT]

Another 'big' update

While many readers rides threads are a fun mix of owing a mega car and doing mega things to it, This is neither (apart from the cost involved).

Normally, I try and do the vast majority of work on my own cars, but two things I hate are:

• Replacing brake lines and hoses
• Dropping subframes while lying under the car

The most recent MOT highlighted that the rear brake pipes are starting to swell up in their protective coating, and that the brake flexy hoses were starting to perish, too. In addition to that, I've been keeping an eye on an oil leak recently.



This is a common one for the N52, N53, and N54 as these engines age. The sump gasket. Mine is on 158,000 miles now at nearly 15 years old. Mine's at the point where it's going to start leaving marks on the floor soon, which is no good.

Now I'm not driving very much as I'm working from home and business travel is light, it seemed like a good time to tackle these jobs. I sent the car off to Amersham for these, and a couple of other 'while you're there' bits. While the front subframe was down, a pair of engine mounts were fitted too.

The total bill? Have a guess.

£1411

Eek. Oh well. I wanted gen BMW bits to be used, since the original items lasted for this mileage and time. Hopefully we're not in here until 316,000 miles.

[JakeT]

I believe it did, owing to the fact it's a well known BMW specialist that undertook the work. Being the nosey one that I am I'll get it up in the air soon and have a look. If it's a gentle weep I'll take it, but leaving spots on the floor isn't my style.

[JakeT]

A boring update

Nothing of note particularly the past couple of months. Since the last update, I've serviced it, with the usual oil and filter, along with an engine air filter, microfilter, and spark plugs. Not quite all of the pink coolant was out so I also drained the rad, and refilled with more BMW coolant. Nice and dark blue now.

Brakes still have 50,000 miles left on the fronts, and 70,000 miles left on the rears.

Mileage is up to 162,000 now, so still tramping on well. I'm back in the office now (every other week for the foreseeable). This should mean some more miles are racked up soon. My company has moved office, In classic fashion I managed to reverse into a low wall. There doesn't look to be any real damage, as it was a sloped wall, and it looks to have just pushed the rear section of the exhaust upwards a bit. I've been under it, and seen nothing badly. Had a listen at the engine end and can't hear I've ruined a manifold. I can't even say I was rushing or being reckless. I just didn't see it, and it was too low for the parking sensors to pick up. Oh well. Let's end on a picture of my (slight) misfortune.




MOT is due at the end of October, so I'll try and get it done toward the end of September, before all of the COVID extensions need testing. Worst case my friendly MOT tester will do it on a Sunday for me.

[JakeT]

That's good advice. Thanks gang.

They're really quite dirty currently, as is the rest of the car. I might get a new pair of chrome ones to go on though. The current ones come up nicely with a Brillo pad.

[JakeT]

MOT day

The day all of us dread. Did overnight all of my bulbs fail, the innards fall out of the cat, various items rust and all of the suspension become ruined?

In this case, no, just the one advisory. For one of the rear suspension arms.



The one labelled '18'. I'll get a pair of them and replace both. Otherwise, nice and happy. Handbrake was still more than efficient enough, and even on both sides, and the emissions were nice and low too.

[JakeT]

Thanks for your kind words, all. I figured I ought to contribute to this place with a thread every so often.

I'm happy with the result on the MOT, and I've got some time to swap those arms. I'll probably stick a starter on it at some point too, since it's getting lazy.


I'm a big fan of the regular cloth on the sport seats. My E39 5 series had cloth, as did a couple of my E46s. Cloth wins for me. Lasts better than leather, cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Win all round.

[JakeT]

I put a 780A Bosch battery in it last summer.

The starter has always been slow to turn over on the first turn, and then speeds up a bit. I also notice it's drawing a lot of power, since the radio will occasionally cut out upon starting. Usually that's the first sign of a dicky battery on a BMW.

Probably while I have the manifold off, I'll replace the smaller DISA valve, and some PCV bits too, save me pulling the inlet again at some point in the future.

[JakeT]

beambeam1 said:

Fantastic bit of midnight reading that!

It's probably a cure for insomnia...


Today was one of those 'niggly' issues days. my car is fitted with the ALPINE audio upgrade BMW did for these cars. For anyone looking to buy, standard E90 audio is bad. REALLY bad. BMW do/did an OE style sanctioned kit that came with a new amp. door speakers, included tweeters, and some nice little badges that stick on the tweeter covers. It will fit the 1 series and 3 series. It takes the speaker count from a poor 6, to a slightly less poor 8. Only the front speakers are amplified, the rears are still run off of the head unit. Stolen Google image below.



Every so often with my car, I've found that the left speakers will lose their amplification, and cut out. This can be at complete random, but it's pretty much always the left. I found having a jiggle of the wiring at the amp can make the left speakers cut in again. The past week or so every journey longer than about 45 minutes, the left channel would cut out at some point, so I pulled the boot carpet and re-seated the connectors.

First thing, pull the boot carpet, trim, and then pull the rear seat base to get to the clips that hold in the boot carpet. The module next to it is the combox in this case. Not all modes will have a module here.



Then, it's easiest to fold the seats and take a look at the connectors. They can't be mixed, so yank away.



I used contact cleaner to give the contacts a good dousing in the amp, and the connector, and then re-installed everything.

looking at it, the contacts look fine, and have drag marks on them like they should.



Before the combox was fitted, the issue would get worse and worse where sometimes the left channel would disappear for some time, before coming back. Post fitting I've not had the issue for a good six months, even when on 5+hour drives. Hopefully this keeps it right for some time, before I need to do some more diagnosis on wiring. The kit is quite good to be honest, but I wish BMW included better rear speakers, or at least amplified the factory rears. Then it was back indoors to watch the F1.

Edited by JakeT on Sunday 11th October 20:17

[JakeT]

Another BIG update:

Today (well, yesterday) was arm day. The MOT highlighted that there was a bit of play in the rear upper arm on the O/S. Being the sort of person that has a pathological need to replace suspension components in pairs, I bought a pair of arms. BMW arms, no less.



Main reason was that these arms came as a 'value line' kit with new fastening hardware, and years gone by of snapped suspension bolts on E46s made me wary of it.

Post lifting, supporting and getting the wheels off, it was time to marvel at the nice yellow shock absorbers. Followed by sticking a ratchet in there, for obvious reasons (there's some ratchet abuse coming up). The arms weren't awful to do, and the hardware could all be used again, as the corrosion hadn't crept in making it a pig of a job. Access is a bit tight though.

New arm looks a little different to the old arm, but some RealOEM part numer checking shows the new arm is just a revised part number. The little plastic clips for the speed sensor and pad wear sensor need to be removed and transferred.



As was to be expected, the inner ball joint was ball bagged. Lots of easy movement in all directions.

Then it was onto the N/S! This side is easier, as there's no fuel filler pipe to get in the way. The following picture also includes tool abuse, With no breaker bar to hand, it involved a jack handle on the end of a 3/8ths Ratchet. How professional.



Before tightening up the hardware, use a jack under the hub to bring it all to ride height, or near enough. Following that, it's back on with the wheels, and back down.

Winter wheels are on now, with a drop to 17 inch from 18 inch, and winter tyres. Bit warm for it, but does two birds with the one stone.



I changed to summer wheels during lockdown 1.0, so we're changing wheels every lockdown period. Lovely!

With less mileage being covered, I think the car's going to spend less time like this:



That's it for now. I've got some time off work coming up, so I'm going to order up some bits, and replace the starter motor, and Crankcase breathers, as the inlet has to come off. The starter is getting more poorly as time goes on, so it's not a bad idea to change it before I get stranded somewhere.

[JakeT]

Early 320d is a good car. Those engines last forever, even if they are a little dag-dag. That's how a diesel should be to me, though.


Silver is one of 'those colours'. As a new buyer, I'd never have a silver car, but they hide the dirt well.

[JakeT]

An oily update

What with not being able to go anywhere, and having a week off work, I decided to set about replacing both the starter motor, and Crankcase breathers.

The starter was the more pressing reason, with it sounding more and more sick as time went by. Knowing my luck it would leave me stranded at an inopportune moment, like attempting to get off of the EuroTunnel. The crankcase breathers were also getting on, so it's not a bad idea to change them while the inlet manifold is off. Not to mention the hoses get old and brittle, so they usually break upon removal.

First things first is to get some fuel to perform such a job. There was also half a Victoria sponge home-made at the weekend. Lovely.



It's a big load of mess getting to the inlet in the first place, requiring removal of the airbox, movement of the power steering reservoir and some other bits. The throttle does need to come off too, in order to get to a bracket holding on an electrical junction box.



The aforementioned junction box is a right mess to get off. Some people say it clips off, but no way was I doing that. The bracket holding it on can be unscrewed from the manifold. However, to remove the throttle I had to remove one of the DISA valves in the inlet. Here's how it came out:




Err.. There's meant to be a flap on there that moves around. When the manifold came off, out came the flap, and the pin that holds it in. the smaller inner one was fine, A new one from BMW was ordered for, how much? Well,

£260! 'Kin nora!

With that out of the way, the manifold was about ready to come off. It's a right pain, with the CCV hoses, their wiring connections, and other connections under the manifold. Lost of stuffing arms where they don't really belong.



I decided to call it quits for day one there. I needed an External torx to get one of the starter bolts out, my ratchet with an E Torx socket on it wouldn't fit. I nipped off to Halfords to get one, and then the starter came out with a bit of mallet persuasion. The old starter was the original, and was a Denso unit.

With the old starter off, it was quite clear to see why the starter was failing. The shaft holding the bendix gear steady was able to move, and as a result was eating into the housing of the starter. Looking at it, when the starter was engaging, it was wanting to push off of the starter as gears do, and eating into the housing. The below pictures show it at rest, and with a small load applied to it.





For reference, the new starter (also a Denso unit) had a bushing, holding the shaft steady.



The new starter went in, with new Aluminium bolts. A special note to the breather hose on the right which is a massive pain to get in. Lots of swearing to get that seated. Or at least I think seated.



After this, back on with the manifold, this is a miserable job. Lots of connectors you can't see but can just about feel (fnar fnar), and bolted back down. I used new gaskets for the manifold, and for the throttle body. New (expensive) DISA valve went in, too. In addition to this, a big fight to get the pollen filter housing back on where it lives. I was cursing BMW for changing this. The older E46 design was a doddle to remove and re-install. This one is less so. Lots of pushing and cursing, and it went back on. However there's something I forgot to do. See what's msssing in the picture...



Ah shyte.



No way was I taking off the pollen filter and those bits, so the engine cover went on with the two back bolts missing. 3 out of 5 ain't bad.

Followed by the bit that nobody wants to do. The re-start.



It runs!

I forgot to connect the MAF, which a diagnostic run highlighted, otherwise all good. Smooth idle, and good power. Moreso with a DISA valve no longer floating around the inlet.

Job done. Not a job I wish to repeat soon, as it's a mega pain to do. New starter fires it over like a loon now, and draws less power in doing so, too. That's (hopefully) the main mechanical jobs done for now!

[JakeT]

Court_S said:

Nice update with there. There isn’t an awful lot of room in the engine bay is there?

The biggest issue for me was the vacuum hose and wiring bundle running over the engine. Means you have to bring the manifold out of the front, not from the top as would be easier. Oh well, there's plenty worse jobs to do on some cars.

daver1184 said:

I did the same job on my E90 N52B30 6 weeks ago, apart from the starter and am now thinking I should have done that too.
Yes, manifold out and back in is a massive PITA, what with all the connectors and CCV pipes that pop off half way through...
My big DISA was identical to yours in it's failure condition. Very lucky...
I got a Chinese knock off DISA from ebay for ~£40 and it seems ok. It actually looked identical to the OE one. Fingers crossed.

If yours still starts okay, you should be fine. My starter was getting to the point where it sounded really poorly, so had to come out. I'm sure a Chinese DISA would do the trick, but my local BMW dealer could have one for 11AM the next day when I rang them at about 2.

CB 987 said:

Hi Jake,

Really glad to see the car is still being looked after and enjoyed. I hope it will give you a break from any further expenditure for a little while! I’d love to see it crack 200k!

Cheers.

Hopefully that's it on the wallet for a while. I'm anal though, so can't help but do things.
If we hadn't all been forced to stay at home this year I reckon it'd be well into the 180k mark by now. Either way I still plan on smashing the miles on it!