BMW Touring Mills-a-matic and me.

[red5]

Good everning.

 

Having recently purchased said beast from forum wallah (top bloke) to enable slightly more convenient commute into the home of Lea and Perrins finest it is time for a interesting* and informative update.

 

The conveyance. this thread will be sadly lacking in pictures past this one until tomorrow**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*   may not be true.

** also may not be true.

 

 

[Lord Sterling]

Cool. Didn't know you already had this until yesterday. Can I have a drive at some point?

 

I'd imagine it's much like mine, only an auto and an estate.

[red5]

It is pretty much as bramz7 described it.

 

Topaz Blue 318 SE Auto Touring. 

 

I do have in the fairly large list of paperwork a build list.

Including (but not limted to) - 

 

Myrtle Wood Trim

Light Beige Leather

 

Alarm System (Thatcham1) 

 

On the 6th of September 2001 Mr GDPR removed had just enjoyed a light lunch at the Loch Fyne Seafood and Grill Restaurant in Cobham (easily accessible from the Esher Bypass A3/A245 junction,Cobham) before his appointment at Cooper BMW Cobham to collect his recently built (wk32,Aug 2001) 318 SE Auto Touring with Options.

 

Having spent his formative years working at the 'Bluebird Toffee' Hunnington factory as a filling-refitter in the tasting room and then working his way up to the heights of lower middle Management under the guidance of his mentor Mr Harry Vincent, of Messrs Harry Vincent Ltd, Birmingham, Mr GDPR removed  had retired after the factory was closed in 1998 and the toffee production dragged to Darkest Hull. After the obligatory three years of Mourning he hung up his Widowers Weeds (coll) and ventured out with the intention of purchasing 'something flash I think, possibly one of those continental types'. After much research and discovering a latent tendency to never indicate a BMW was presented as the logical purchase.

 

The gentleman, having considered all options, selected Myrtle Wood Trim and Light Beige Leather amongst others. The sales executive, seeing a man of discerning taste suggested Alarm System (Thatcham1) as an ideal accompaniment to them both to deter would-be marauders, pilferers and brigands - 'thieving toe-rags everywhere these days' and to demonstrate that 'I've got a remote for my doors and you haven't, serf.'

 

 

 

 

[Fabergé Greggs]

Ah yes!

 

I owned this fine conveyance for a couple of days in between the Favorit and the Saab, but didn’t see it until I’d already sold it. Only on Autoshite.

[Tamworthbay]

It was owned by a local doctor who I know, then someone else in his family before I got it at 95000 ish miles. It wanted for nothing during his ownership and was in amazing condition save for a small giffer dent on a rear wing and a strange mark on the passenger seat where I think someone had used some sort of wipe to clean the seat and removed some of the colour. It had a fair bit of work in my three years with it, including a new rad, and a few electronic issues tracking down and sorting. It took us the bottom of Cornwall and the top of Scotland without a hiccup.

[Tamworthbay]

And I see Ken never found the badge he bought for it

[red5]

I did leaf through the large file of paperwork - it's been looked after well it seems.

 

So far I have - 

 

Serviced it. Everything except plugs (LL), brake fluid (next) and coolant change.

Reset indicator appropriately. Filled in service sheet. Checked stuff.

Replaced o/s/r reverse lamp bulb.

 

Diagnosed - 

 

Rear Parking Distance Control inoperative. 2 lots of terrible open wiring repairs undone, soldered/crimped as necessary. 1x faulty sensor replacement ordered.

 

Acrid oil stink in passenger compartment when engine warmed up. Oil leaking onto rear of manifold/top of downpipe from rocker cover (definitely) and maybe from headgasket. We will see (hopefully not).

 

Annoying rattle from drop-links/rollbar/strut-top mountings. I'll get back to you on that after the new ones arrive.

 

To do (so far) - 

 

Fix odd throttle sticking (closed) randomly. Opens okay with a hefty-ish shove. Will check tomorrow - I suspect the throttle housing is clagged/butterfly worn. 

Check/replace diff oil.

Replace transmission oil (multiple partials, then a filter etc).

Drain, re-oil and re-gas air-con system

Bit of a clean.

Clean and feed the leather - it's rock-hard at the moment.

 

Fixing n/s/f window - slooooooooow even after cleaning and lubing the channels. Might have to be door panel off.

Replace n/s/f door panel speaker cover.

 

Ignore graunch from o/s/f window.

 

Check for CD multichanger.

 

[red5]

And I see Ken never found the badge he bought for it

 

It seems not. I did get a bonus LED bulb though.

I might see if I can fabricate something.

[red5]

Is this a 'project' ? I feel I may be mis-labelling or not?

 

First world problems.

[Tamworthbay]

Coolant changed last year, brake fluid is 2 years old (all this should be in a little notebook). Passenger window has always been very lazy, oil smell and suspension noises are new. Cd multichanger is behind panel on nearside of the boot. Throttle used to do that after using the cruise control if you didn’t press the CC release twice, apparently it is so you can use the pedal as a foot rest but can override if you ever need to. Could be related to that possibly?

[red5]

Can't see a little notebook?

 

I did wonder about CC - it's not an uncommon fault on some types. Seems to do it without ever having used it though (now).

Thanks for update. Which panel? The one with the tag for first aid kit?

[Tamworthbay]

Can't see a little notebook?

 

I did wonder about CC - it's not an uncommon fault on some types. Seems to do it without ever having used it though (now).

Thanks for update. Which panel? The one with the tag for first aid kit?

Hmm, should be a little book that says homework on the front and the reg handwritten where the name should be. It had all the info on what I did and when. Cd- It’s the side panel on the nearside with a black plastic lifter to open, I think it had first aid kit mark there but can’t be sure. Both sides pop off easy enough though. It never did the throttle issue when I had it apart from when it should have, I had a phase of odd electrical niggles that I eventually solved entirely by accident by leaving the dash unplugged for a day. As it takes about two minutes to get the dash out so it could be worth a try.

[red5]

I'll look in the morning. It's about 15 yards from where I'm sitting currently.

 

Or...