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2005 BMW E46 330Ci M Sport

79K views 178 replies 39 participants last post by  thegentleway 
#1 · (Edited)
I bought Delilah in February this year. Spent ages looking for one with the right colour combo and the options I wanted (and at lots of M3s as well). Only option missing was xenons but that's not a deal breaker as they can be retrofitted. She was pretty much 100% OEM apart from golf tee mod and hole in the bottom of the airbox. Only issue on test drive was air con compressor was a bit noisy. Previous owner admitted to never having refilled it in his ownership so I figured the level was just low. Even though she had 106k on the clock, he'd clearly looked after her. Here are the pictures from the advert:

















 
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#31 ·
Good effort on the mod 1. It is a bit nerve racking when you actually do it for real. I was the same, 1 minor for 49kph on my swerve.

Passed the mod 2 6 weeks wish ago and loving riding the bike around. I've had a few runs out but mostly on my own apart from the other monday when i tagged along with two other bikes on way back home which was good to see how they interacted with road users as the did things that i wouldn't have done due to experience i guess so i followed them which was good but when they put the hammer down i let off as i am still getting used to the bike and i know my limits
 
#32 · (Edited)
Yeah I was so nervous. Still can't get over how easy the mod 1 is and how I managed to fluff it up twice! Glad to hear you are loving riding around; can't wait to do the same! Good idea watching and learning from more experience riders.

-----

Sorted out the dual cigarette lighter sockets; they were stuck closed so I forced them open. Used a cloth so I didn't scratch the plastic.



One had a cigarette lighter in it and the other a blanking bit. They both weren't pushed fully in so wouldn't pop out. I took them out so now it works great. Then I cleaned Squidger's motor, pictures in this thread.

She didn't notice the last time I hoovered it or cleaned the alloys. Maybe she'll notice some of that?!
 
#37 ·
Cheers, that link is really useful!

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Went to Silverstone for endurance race on Saturday then gave her a quick service (oil and filter) today:



I swapped the jack over to the other side to make sure I got all the old oil out. It was pretty dark. Old filter vs new:



Old one looks very black, which is a bit worrying!
 
#38 · (Edited)
Passed mod 2 with 4 minor faults! Whoop whoop.

Unfortunately, the small windscreen crack has eventually spread across most of the windscreen:



New windscreen fitted by autoglass, had to pay £75 excess:



Chap lost one of the wiper plastic covers in the engine bay and I found this when I was cleaning the dirt off:



Not very happy but my HID conversion kit from SSDD arrived just in time to cheer me up:



One bulb had a bit of dirt on it:



Cleaned it off with IPA and tested the kit. Worked fine with no errors on the dash so set about fitting it. 50/50 shots



35W 4300K xenon on the left of the pictures (driver side) and normal halogen bulb on the right of the pictures (passenger side)



It's the facelift coupe so the headlights are projectors as standard.



And with both conversions done:



The pictures are different to what you see in real life. It's a nice clean white beam. It's much brighter than OEM and saturates the camera.

Stuck the right ballast to the screen wash bottle:



There's more space on the left:



I'm very happy with the kit and the upgrade. Looking forward to nighttime driving, the halogen bulbs were a bit dim at night. I got 4300K but the colour is much whiter than the halogen sidelights:





It's hard to show on pictures but this one shows the colour difference quite well:



I'll get some 4300K sidelight to match the xenons.
 
#42 ·
Teddy sent a new HID on Tuesday. This pic shows a halogen vs HID. Need to adjust the headlamp height but keep forgetting to do it:



Got these bad boys from ebay for a couple of quid:



They look a bit funny when you look into the headlamp but you don't really notice them otherwise:



They are much brighter and match the xenons nicely:



It was nice and sunny on Sunday so I had a go at the rusty brake calipers. Before pic:



I used some 4" brass wire brushes on my cordless drill and got some rust in my eye. Learned my lesson and took a safety first selfie:



My drill went fat pretty quickly so ended up doing most of the wire brushing by hand. Put a layer of hammerite rust remover gel. Not very impressed. Probably should have wire brushed again but BBQ was calling. Cleaned up pic:



Paint was weird, thin and gloopy. Not sure if high temperature paint is supposed to be like that. It seemed to work fine though. After a few licks of paint:



Looks so much better:



1 down, 3 to go! I serviced my friend's Nissan Micra and the oil filter I took off was much smaller than the one I bought from carparts4less:



It fitted on OK but thought it was odd.
 
#44 ·
Thanks!

Wing isn't sorted yet. I was waiting for insurance company to sort out liability. If they said I was at fault, I was going to pay for repairs privately to keep my 9 years no claim. If they could get CCTV and prove scumbag was at fault then I was going to claim. It's been 6 weeks and no CCTV obtained yet. Scumbag has been trying to claim directly on my insurance a number of times. They've told him to go via his insurer as liability remains an issue. It does not appear that scumbag has reported the claim to their insurance company. My insurance company hasn't sent allegations as I've not initiated a claim. Not sure what to do but I think I will just pay for repairs privately. If I claim without CCTV, at best the insurers will split 50/50 and at worst I will be liable. It's lose lose. Makes me angry but my new drill got delivered today to cheer me up. Will be able to vent out my frustration on rusty calipers.

 
#45 ·
" Not sure what to do but I think I will just pay for repairs privately. If I claim without CCTV, at best the insurers will split 50/50 and at worst I will be liable. It's lose lose. "

Irrespective of whether you claim or not, your next renewal will be loaded to reflect the fact your were involved in an accident, irrespective of fault. :(
 
#48 ·
" Not sure what to do but I think I will just pay for repairs privately. If I claim without CCTV, at best the insurers will split 50/50 and at worst I will be liable. It's lose lose. "
Irrespective of whether you claim or not, your next renewal will be loaded to reflect the fact your were involved in an accident, irrespective of fault. :(
Yep! I had some kid got into the back of my old BM in November 2014. It made some marks on the bumper but it nothing serious; there were worse marks on there already so I didn't claim (don't like claim culture). I'm still being harassed now to make a whiplash claim. So tempting but managed to stick to my principles so far. At renewal time, I shopped around on price comparison sites like I do every year and was gobsmacked at how high the quotes were! The renewal from Swiftcover had gone up as well. I rang them up and managed to get it down from £317.13 in 2014 down to £308.84 for 2015. Was really pleased with that as all the other quotes were way more than that.
Is that a blob of weld?.....
Could be but I don't think so, I cleaned them and I'd like to think I would have noticed weld. I'm going to have to get them out and check now though! It's a right pain as they are tucked away in the back of a trunk room with tons of tools in front of them so it takes me ages to move everything and get to them!
Im guessing they are MV2's there are known to crack but usually on the rear edge it could just be corrosion bubbled up
Yep, they are genuine MV2s that came with the car when I bought it in February. The front faces are in decent condition but the rear faces and barrels are very corroded. I think it's just corrosion bubbles but I will check.
 
#49 ·
Squidger had a friend come up to visit this weekend so I got to play with my car. Set out to paint the remaining 3 brake calipers. Some before shots of the rear offside:







Went to put the wire brush on my new drill and realised I'd bought a SDS. Went to screwfix to get an adapter chuck. Popped into Kwikfit to get them to rebalance front wheels on Squidger's beamer as they'd put those horrible weights on the face of the alloy instead of the stick on ones. They also left the old weight on! They are cheap for a reason! They were really busy and said to come back first thing tomorrow (Sunday). Went home and cracked on with the wire brushing. During pic:



Got as much rust off as possible and cracked the paint open. Still can't really get used to how it looks:



First coat drying off:



Put a second coat after about an hour, not sure if you can tell but I also cleaned the disk:







Don't mind the safety footwear.



And with the wheel back on:



Didn't take pics of the other side as it's exactly the same. Except the handbrake fell apart. It's a bit of a weakness on these cars. The backplate corrodes and the locator pin comes out:



Took the locator pins and springs out:



And popper them in some delicious white wine vinegar:



She never uses it so she won't notice. You can buy overhaul kits with new springs but want to see if I can rescue these. I don't think the handbrake shoes are rescuable though:



Cracked on with the painting. Got two coats on the rear nearside but the music stopped. Had been using the car radio all day and the battery was flat! Gave it a slow charge the next day:



I took Squidger car to Kwikfit first. There was a long queue and a pimped up 330i, 2001 with 160,000 miles with LED conversion, angel eyes, xenons, M3 mirrors, 19 alloys with red calipers. Chap said his was better than mine as it's been remapped to 280bhp. Not sure where his tuner got 50 bhp from mapping a N/A engine!



When I did the front caliper, I caught the brass wheel on my latex glove, which removed some of the rust and skin from my wrist and forearm!



And finally the front wheel done:



Whilst the paint was drying, I also serviced Squidger's car. Air filter and oil. The heat shield on front offside is broken and rattles so I secured it with some cable ties. I'm not removing the hub for a heat shield! Sprayed some aircon cleaner in the all the vents a it smelt a bit musty.
 
#51 ·
She's getting there. Going to get some BH electrox gel and do the bits of rust I can reach in the arches. Accident is really frustrating. Definitely considering a dash cam. I've heard some insurance company don't use the footage so might be worth checking yours does.

Gave the bits a scrub, looking much better already:



Put them back to soak in some fresh vinegar.

Car wouldn't start; didn't even crank. Battery is too low. Need to charge it more!
 
#52 ·
Not many updates as haven't had any time to play with the car since we moved on bank holiday weekend. Just in case you were wondering, a king size mattress does fit in the coupe:





Squidger went to London at the weekend so finally got a bit of time to clean the car. Tried to do some before/afters.

Started with interior:



Then the alloys:



Bodywork:



Can't really tell how dirty she was so took some close ups:



The view from my lounge:



She's booked in to get the wing sorted next week: J is going to replace and paint front wing blended into door, bumper and bonnet. Cut rust out of rear arch and weld in fresh metal. Machine polish and sealant. I've also got the handbrake shoes and back plates to fit. Ordered some new repeaters as well.
 
#53 ·
All looking good mate :thumb:

I've got a 330i Sport too but in 4 door. I'm sure you had a reason, but why not just charge up the battery from the connection points in the engine bay? It's so much easier than having to remove that plastic tray covering the battery in the boot.

280bhp from just a remap on the M54? No, I don't think so - not that alone. 15-20 increase is about the norm on these depending on who's doing it and what else has been done to the engine, its condition and mileage etc. My car's only done 41k and even with a couple of other little tweeks, with a map, it's about 250 ish.
 
#55 ·
All looking good mate :thumb:

I've got a 330i Sport too but in 4 door. I'm sure you had a reason, but why not just charge up the battery from the connection points in the engine bay? It's so much easier than having to remove that plastic tray covering the battery in the boot.

280bhp from just a remap on the M54? No, I don't think so - not that alone. 15-20 increase is about the norm on these depending on who's doing it and what else has been done to the engine, its condition and mileage etc. My car's only done 41k and even with a couple of other little tweeks, with a map, it's about 250 ish.
Cheers! I am happy with how it looks but there are still lots of things I want to improve/restore.

You got any pictures of yours? That's really low mileage! Barely broken in! What tweeks you done?

I have to remove battery as I live on the university campus and you can't leave things out overnight as the drunken students will chuck it in the lake lol.
 
#54 ·
Nice tidy coupe there, elegant shape, smooth quick-ish 6cyl NA engine. I can see these going up in price at some point.

I ran a 330Ci manual for a few years back in the day. Manual SE heated electric/memory seats, M Sport 18's and HK Stereo. It was a great car.

Trim around the door frames frequently comes adrift, needs gluing back on. Final Stage Resistor for the A/C system died on and needed replacing, otherwise it was a gem.
 

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#59 ·
Thanks mate, I do really enjoy her!

I think "they all do that Sir". Whenever I see one on the road I take a look to see if the trim is hanging down and see that it is in about 50% of cars.

I used Gorilla Grip contact adhesive which worked.
Yeah, I've seen it on loads of them. Will try superglue and see how I get one.

My mate got quoted just over £900 (VW stealership) to have all his discs and pads replaced for his mark V R32. I bought him the bits (pagid) from carparts4less for £230.28 and tried to replace everything on Saturday morning.

Started with the n/s rear (further away from brake piston for bleeding):



Got the slider off no problem but I couldn't wind the piston back in (have to rotate it as you push in back in) and couldn't remove calliper as my spline kit only goes up to M12 and this is a M14:



My mate went off to find one so I started bleeding the brakes. I've got a cheap kit that uses the tyre pressure to push the fluid round. However, the tyre clamp broke off…

Not a very successful morning! I've bought all the bits I need from ebay and will give it another go this weekend!
 
#60 ·
I changed all the disks and pads on mine and don't remember having any problems other than having to lay on the cold ground outside while I removed seemingly masses and masses of under-body cladding to get to the connector for the rear pad wear indicators. Why the connector couldn't be closer to the wheel remains a mystery to this day.
 
#65 ·
A few more pictures to share...

Dirt in the front wheel arch:



Due to pocket of wet silt behind the wing:





Other side has also started to corrode:



J is going to underseal both wings (as well as the underside and arches)

Waiting for new wing:



Painted wing:



Broken brake sensor (it's the rear one, will sort it out when I do the handbrake):



Underside is nice and clean:













Just an oil leak at the front for me to investigate:





J said the paint is in good condition, with usual factory orange peel:





I wanted to get it polished and sealed with ceramic sealant but the repairs are costing me too much already so will have to get that done some other time!

The rust on the rear arch is caused by a spot welded fixing for the bumper hook:



Cutting out the rust:



New metal welded:



Same on the other side:



Onto painting the n/s arch:



And the o/s arch:



Getting the door painted as well:



Arch all done:

 
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