Bunnit: BMW E46 330CI Thread.

[sierraman]

I’d be inclined to pressure test the cooling system. Could be something as simple as a micro crack in a housing that will only present under pressure. If it’s something Celine Dion like the head or whatever I’d just whack Steel Seals finest in and bung it on EBay and await the long line of people wanting to take it to Romania, Bulgaria or wherever. 

[Schaefft]

Hey I'll have it for 600 quid just so I can compare it to my E39s😂

[Split_Pin]

I have been determined to use this over the past few days and have been learning to drive around the gearbox issues. I've also put a bottle of 50/50 coolant in the boot as there is still a leak from somewhere.

It certainly drives, steers and stops OK. The suspension is very smooth, almost as good as the A8. I'd definitely not be interested in an M packaged example with low profile tyres and firmer suspension, SE is the way to go for me.

I'll see what the A8 needs for its MOT next week and if it's not too ruinous then I'll try a gearbox fluid change on this.

I've also ordered 6 litres of 5/30 and a filter to do the engine oil.

[Matty]

On 11/06/2024 at 15:53, Split_Pin said:

Thankfully I think there's a hatch to get to the sump plug for oil changes!

Which never stopped me removing the full lot year after year before remembering the hatch!

[Split_Pin]

A new sensor arrived from Autodoc for the coolant level.

Looked different, fitted but didn't work. Tried seeing if the terminals on the plug were wet, all good, sprayed with WD40 anyway, no change. Refitted the old sensor, no change, the BMW xylophone played on.

So I fixed* it:

Taped it up,  cable tied it out the way. Done.

[SiC]

I wonder if the cracked tank was masking another leak. Now the tank is holding the system up to pressure, another leak has revealed itself from that pressurisation.

I'd find it and fix it properly. Of course you could always do the nasty and chuck in a bottle of radweld. 

[Split_Pin]

No I won't use radweld, I'm thinking it's either the thermostat, waterpump or the coolant pipe under the inlet manifold. 

When it's up in the air at a garage for a gearbox service I will ask them to have a look.

[Split_Pin]

What kind of oil filter does this engine have (rhetorical question)

That's right, paper cartridge.

Great!

Eh, OK.

Fucking arse holes.

Thankfully the package was suspiciously heavy and the oil hasn't been delivered yet so I am nowhere near ready to contemplate an oil change, but still. 

Second time this has happened with an oil filter.

[SiC]

I've been getting mine from Amazon tbh. I think the Mann filter for my 330i was a tenner or something like that. 

They need to pay return postage as it's their mistake iirc.  

[SiC]

This:

https://catalog.mann-filter.com/EU/eng/catalog/MANN-FILTER Katalog Europa/Oil Filter/HU 925~4 x

Here:

MANN-FILTER HU 925/4 X Oil filter evotop – For Passenger Cars, Yellow https://amzn.eu/d/9AqWiGD

For £11.52 on prime delivered tomorrow (at least for me).

[Split_Pin]

Cheers, will order from there.

[Split_Pin]

Oil filter ordered from Amazon now.

I made an attempt to buff the headlights at lunchtime:

The whole car is stained with TFR and the lights were particularly bad. Same product that fucked up the 75s lamps.

They came up well.

Might polish the whole car at some point!

[Split_Pin]

Oil change time for this as I couldn't see when it was last done other than an invoice for oil in 2021. Pela doesn't work on this car either, I just used it so suck out the oil left in the filter housing.

The sump plug was unexpectedly far back which makes sense as so is the engine. So I had to get the car quite high so I could get under. Came out no bother though, new washer fitted as well.

Now, the company, and I feel able to say this, such is their incompetence, 'Online- Automotive' from ebay messaged to tell me that the oil filter I had ordered didn't fit my car. This was in spite of their listing stating the filter does fit my exact car. They said they changed it for me at no cost and sent it on its way. What arrived was a large metal spin on filter. When I contacted them, they insisted it was the right part. I explained that I think I know the difference between a metal spin on filter and a paper cartridge type. After a while they came back and said their system showed an Audi when they keyed in my registration. What appears to be the case is that their system is over 2 years out of date and is still showing my vanity plate as the blue 80 cabriolet which I sold in June 2022. The metal filter I received is the right one for that car. 

They apologised and sent the filter pictured on the listing. However, it turns out that their listing is actually wrong anyway as the hole in the middle is too wee! 

Absolute shower of wallies.

Anyway, I had the presence of mind to order another filter from Amazon which did thankfully fit. I have kept the box for future reference.

All done now.

The engine bay cleaned up well too.

[Split_Pin]

I have booked this in for a gearbox service on 3rd July to see if that will cure the hesitancy and lurching on light acceleration. I have also asked the garage to try and identify the source of the coolant leak because I can't find it.

[grogee]

10 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I have booked this in for a gearbox service on 3rd July to see if that will cure the hesitancy and lurching on light acceleration. I have also asked the garage to try and identify the source of the coolant leak because I can't find it.

Please take my advice and change the solenoid seals. 

If the garage is taking the oil pan/filter thing off, it's an extra hour's labour and £20ish parts. 

One of these seals is part of the circuit which provides pressure to the torque converter clutch. When they are old and hard, seal leaks, pressure drops, TC slips. 

There is a YT video that details the work, which seems scary because OMG VALVE BLOCK but isn't, you just need to follow the bolt sequence and torque. 

I guarantee that a fluid change alone will not cure the slip. 

[Split_Pin]

1 minute ago, grogee said:

Please take my advice and change the solenoid seals. 

If the garage is taking the oil pan/filter thing off, it's an extra hour's labour and £20ish parts. 

One of these seals is part of the circuit which provides pressure to the torque converter clutch. When they are old and hard, seal leaks, pressure drops, TC slips. 

There is a YT video that details the work, which seems scary because OMG VALVE BLOCK but isn't, you just need to follow the bolt sequence and torque. 

I guarantee that a fluid change alone will not cure the slip. 

Cheers 😀

It's not slipping though, the revs fluctuate and it surges on and off when accelerating sometimes. Backing off a touch stops it and then you can proceed normally and it drives fine the rest of the time. Changes are actually smooth as well and it definitely locks up as I get 32mpg on a run.

Unless that is slippage, I've never had an auto with issues before🤷‍♂️

[grogee]

14 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Cheers 😀

It's not slipping though, the revs fluctuate and it surges on and off when accelerating sometimes. Backing off a touch stops it and then you can proceed normally and it drives fine the rest of the time. Changes are actually smooth as well and it definitely locks up as I get 32mpg on a run.

Unless that is slippage, I've never had an auto with issues before🤷‍♂️

Yep I guarantee it is. Revs fluctuate maybe 200ish RPM and you can feel it jerk slightly. More throttle - TC is open so it doesn't do it. Very light throttle - torque is too low for TC to slip.

Mine did it, same vintage but a 525i.

[Bren]

The auto boxes on these are pretty wank. I would have loved a V8 with a manual box.

[Split_Pin]

13 minutes ago, grogee said:

Yep I guarantee it is. Revs fluctuate maybe 200ish RPM and you can feel it jerk slightly. More throttle - TC is open so it doesn't do it. Very light throttle - torque is too low for TC to slip.

Mine did it, same vintage but a 525i.

OK I'll say to the garage tomorrow as I'm taking the Audi for its retest.

[Split_Pin]

I had to buy a slightly smaller workbench but the 5 series now fits in my garage, but only just 😂

Front:

I have a piece of wood at the end placed so that when the car starts to move that then it's time to stop.

Back (garage door closed, neighbour possibly thought I was trying to commit suicide when I shut the door with me and the car inside)

Tight squeeze but the garage is actually wider inside so getting out is easy.

Also, the mirrors are corroded to the point that they no longer fold but I still got the car in.

I've parked other large cars in here before so I'm used to the dimensions and kind of just know where things are at when driving it in.

It's handy as I now don't need to have a car lying in the street any more when I'm using the 75 (which was previously the only one that I thought fitted in the garage).

[Split_Pin]

The paint on this was very flat and had been burned a bit by TFR so I decided to crack out my orbital polisher.

Worst of the bits:

 

Unfortunately I can't do anything about the offside doors which have been rattle canned but a bit of wax later in the week might put a bit of a shiny glaze on the area for a bit.

The rest came out really well though, it's not bad apart from the above mentioned area.

I fitted a brand new pair of number plates as well.

I even hit the tailpipes with a bit of Autosol.

My son leaned out the window and said it was really shiny and could see himself in the reflection 😁

Inside came up well too, I still need to clean and treat the seats with Gliptone but they're pretty good as is tbh.

I really like the interior in this car (I like this part of all my current fleet at the moment in fact) which is important to me as that's obviously what you see when driving.  The styling has aged really well.

[Split_Pin]

Had a go at cleaning the seats last night, I used Gliptone leather seat shampoo.

Some ingrained dirt:

Scubbed with a brush, dried and treated with Gliptone Liquid Leather. I cleaned the front passenger seat in a similar way but I just treated the back seat with the liquid leather as they looked barely sat-on.

Looking closely it didn't make a huge difference to the ingrained dirt but the clean and treat has lifted the seats a bit overall.

BMW went for quite cheap-feeling coarse leather for this base model but at least the whole base and back are covered.  The 75 has much nicer, softer leather but only the centre parts of the seats are trimmed, the bolsters are 'pleather'.

The A4 has similarly coarse leather but the A8 seats are awesome with super soft and smooth material, which is also hard wearing as despite the near 1/4 million miles, is barely showing any wear.

[grogee]

What was the outcome from garage visit re: gearbox? 

[Split_Pin]

It goes in tomorrow.

I'm not planning on fucking about with this car too much, as long as I know the fluids clean and it's not internally ripping itself apart then I am happy for now.

Obviously if the report comes back 'metal shavings in gearbox' then it will be effectively dead but I am hoping to continue as-is for a while. The rest of it drives like the the low mileage car that it is.

[SiC]

8 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

It goes in tomorrow.

I'm not planning on fucking about with this car too much, as long as I know the fluids clean and it's not internally ripping itself apart then I am happy for now.

Obviously if the report comes back 'metal shavings in gearbox' then it will be effectively dead but I am hoping to continue as-is for a while. The rest of it drives like the the low mileage car that it is.

Are you getting those seals done while they drop the pan?

[Split_Pin]

16 minutes ago, SiC said:

Are you getting those seals done while they drop the pan?

I'll ask them but I doubt they'll want to get involved with that kind of thing.

[Split_Pin]

One very expensive gearbox service (full kit was £228 😳) later and we have smoothly changing gears. 

I took it for a brisk run up the back and kept running out of road, such was progress.

Pleased with that!

[SiC]

2 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

One very expensive gearbox service (full kit was £228 😳) later and we have smoothly changing gears. 

I took it for a brisk run up the back and kept running out of road, such was progress.

Pleased with that!

Fluid and bridge seals?

Good news either way if it's made it well behaved. Probably the biggest complaint you had with it, is now sorted?

[Split_Pin]

26 minutes ago, SiC said:

Fluid and bridge seals?

Good news either way if it's made it well behaved. Probably the biggest complaint you had with it, is now sorted?

New pan, screws, filter and fluid. When I suggested solenoid seals, he suggested the filter might be blocked but whether that turned out to be the case or not I don't know. Either way it shifted well on the brisk test drive I went on.

That was my only real bugbear but even then I could have lived with it.

[Split_Pin]

It was a nice sunny evening so I set about some jobs on this.

Since buying it, only the nearside bonnet catch was present. It functioned fine but the offside of the bonnet wasn't as secure as I'd like as there wasn't anything holding it down. I had picked up a replacement catch from a breaker but as the car came with a replacement cable, I had hitherto avoided this job as I assumed it needed a cable and catch. However the cable looked fine and on checking, it still moved freely when the lever was pulled.

So I set up the catch off the car:

..clicked it into the closed position and it fired perfectly when the lever was pulled.

I shut the bonnet, held my breath and the bonnet popped open again, fixed!

The short part of the cable has some deterioration to the plastic sheath and the inner metal membrane looks slightly corroded in places

but on opening up the junction box (same as a Rover 75 so I knew my way about it OK) the inner steel cable looked fine.

As it looks an easy switch, I will replace just that part from the replacement cable set up in the near future.

I also think I found the coolant leak as there's a bit of emulsified fluid around the thermostat (hard to photograph properly).