Finally.... found one!

After a good few weeks of looking around. Finally I managed to find a Silver 330Ci in very good condition with 75k on the clock.

The car has some nice touches:
- Electric Folding Mirrors
- Electric memory seats with lumbar support
- All the tool kit in place
- BMW Boot protector - handy for putting the shopping in and anything going to the tip

It also has some slight let downs:
- Curbing on the alloy wheels
- Slight scuff on the near side wing mirror

The only things I'd of ideally liked would be the M Sport front bumper and the M Sport steering wheel. These items can be sourced online and fitted.

I think the bumper is about £350 painted and the steering wheel is £150 - ish so not too bad.

Over all I'm happy with it. Very smooth and power there when needed. The cock-pit is more roomy than the old E36 and the build quality seems more sound (however the old E36 320 I had was nearly 18 years old)

I must admit you really can't tell this car is 9 years old. The interior is in really good condition. Leather is almost perfect and all the electrics work as they should.

Here are a few initial pictures after getting it home:

Still the hunt goes on....

Why is it when you look for cars but don't have the cash for it there are LOADS of them... Then when you have the money there are none around!

The hunt still goes on for the right car...

The usual search on Auto Trader, Fish for Cars, Ebay, motors.com and Piston Heads has not turned anything up. I have been to see a Silver one at a dealer in Sheffield and the interior was really worn out!! Must of been a work-mans car, wood shavings in the boot and nicks out of the leather. The worst thing is they wanted nearly £6k for it...

If anyone out there knows of a Silver/Black 330Ci Manual with leather memory seats, black interior and as may toys as possible for sale please let me know :-)

The hunt begins!

After over a years motoring in an E36 320 SE I caught the Bimmer bug....

The 320 is a nice car for it's age. It's comfortable, reasonable insurance and pretty cheap insurance.

However over the year it has cost a fair amount to keep running. In Excess of a thousand pounds to be honest. So it is time for a new car.

This opens up the question to which one.

After looking through the available options. The choice for a an E46 330 Ci was made.

This site will become a large information source for all things E46 and in particular the 330 Ci model.

Replacement of ISCV breather pipe - NO DICE!

I ordered some silicone tubing to replace the old and worn breather hose.
I was hoping this would fix the whining engine noise. Unfortunately this was not the case and the wining still continues!
The rubber intake hose has a section where the breathers go to. This has cracked and had been fixed temporarily with some electricians tape. This will be next to be replaced as air could be getting into the engine and bypassing the MAF sensor.

As always I will keep you posted!

Whining..... aghrrr

Ever since summer last year when the alternator decided to conk out there has been a slight whistle noise coming from the front at idle.
Today the car went in for a quick service, so I asked Mrmechanic to have a quick look.
It seems to be an air leak coming form the ISCV (Idle speed control valve).
Not long ago I had noticed the pipe coming from the ISCV to the crank case was looking shoddy and was very soft. I'm assuming this has failed and is letting air in causing the noise.
I'll swap the pipe with some new and see if it solves it.

Has anyone else come across this with their M52 E36?

Fixing the sagging headlining

Sagging Headliner- Over time, a common problem with the E36 is that the headlining material starts to sag and droop. This is due to the glue coming weak.
There are two options really. Replace the headliner with a new/second hand one, or repair/re-cover the old one.
Both processes require removal of the old headlining.
Quite a simple process if a little awkward.
1)Remove the passenger grab handles (two screws) take care not to damage the screw covers as this will look bad once re-fitted
2)Remove the sun visors (two screws each)if you have a visor light then unplug the wiring too
3)Remove the sun visor clips (two screws)
4) Remove the A,B and C pillar covers.
5) Remove the electric sunroof switch panel where applicable. Just slide down and remove wiring.
6)Remove the seal from the sunroof (aghhr aghhr)
7) Drop down the seals from the top of the doors.
This should leave the headliner free to drop down. Ensure you recline the seats and carefully remove via the front doors at an angle. It might be worth having a trusty assistant on hand as you don't want to bend it (unless you are binning it anyway, in which case see how many times you can fold it...)

If you are replacing with a new/second hand item then just reverse the removal process.

However if you are going to re-cover the old one you need to follow these steps:
1) Carefully remove all the old foam backing from the fibreglass shell of the headliner
2)Once all the foam/glue has been removed you can start to measure up the replacement material. It might be worth doing a few test pieces first to get used to the glue you are using.
3) Cover the headliner and material with the glue. Once it has started to get tacky you can apply to each other.
4)From the middle outwards remove any bumps and smooth out.
5) Once dried it is just a case of reversing the removal process.

It might be worth replacing the fabric on the A,B and C pillars too so they all match.

Broken brakes....

If ever there was an incident that proves the kiss of death was a scientific fact this would be it!

Wednesday night at a party we got talking about cars... I was saying how the BMW was running OK now after all the problems.

So on the Thursday morning I set off for work as normal. Drop off the wife at work and proceed to the park and ride. The steering started vibrating a little. This then turned into a very bad shaking. I pulled straight over to check it out thinking there was a flat, or the wheel was about to fall off!

A quick inspection showed no signs of a flat tyre. The wheels didn't wobble when moved by hand. However when I was down checking the near side wheel I could smell burning brakes. I touched the alloy, and sure enough, burnt my hand!

Ouch!

So it looks like a seized calliper then. The RAC came out and took a look, he said the wheel span freely so wasn't sure what it was all about. He recommended taking it to a local garage to put it on a brake test.

Long story short(er). It did look like a faulty caliper.

While inspecting this it appeared the discs (rotors) were not in good condition..
Very rusty and a large lip on there too.

So I decided to get the whole lot replaced. I'm glad I did as after looking at the discs that came off they were very shoddy indeed!

Can't fault the service at the garage at all. Didn't try to sell me having the discs and pads changed but showed me before hand. Also he took the car to have a wash and polish as it was really dirty due to the snow, grit and salt on the roads.

Very reasonable cost as well. It's a new outfit in an industrial unit, I never even knew existed!

The guy who runs it used to have a BMW E36 328 coupe so could advise on bits and peices too.

Lesson learned, don't tempt fate!!!