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Rubix

E46 330i Touring.

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Sold my e36 last week, spontaneously flicked Ray a text and drove off with this beast.

Deleted roof racks this morning, looks much more staunch.

6 Speed manual, Motorsport M54b30 Touring.

BBS CH (reps it seems) 18x8 square
Potenza RE002's and Dunlop Direzza D101 tyres.

Heated leather seats
Moonroof
Harmon kardon
Rear blind etc, every option ticked.

330i E46 shocks with Eibach lowering springs

M3 Control arms with Poly bushes
EIbach adjustable M3 sway bar with Poly sway bar bushings
Decatted exhaust


To do:
Roof rail Delete
New wheels with some amount of dish, BBS LM, mpars etc.
Cooling system refresh
Besian vanos seals, anti-ratte kit (Will do valve cover and vanos gaskets at same time)
Service, inspection II at some stage.

Dynavin double DIN
Hardwire radar detector
Lower, probably shocks and springs
New stiffer sway bars, strut bracing etc to stiffen it up a bit.

2ltkns9.jpg
2dadrap.jpg
29ftoaf.jpg

Edited by Rubix
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What a score! Looks so clean and mean mate, always been a fan of wagons, must go like a rocket, enjoy!!

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Thanks all. Great car, few more goodies found on it such as eibach sway bar and springs. Unfortunately has a bad coolant leak which only made itself known today. Replaced radiator cap, but still seems to be leaking from the bleeder screw. Will get another from jerry clayton this week. Bit stressful having to keep an eye glued to the temp guage though, memories of my Subaru days.

Edited by Rubix
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Great to see when I get home, glad I took my daily out.
Pre-purchase inspections are probably a necessity in the future. Definitely not just a bleed screw, hopefully nothing major. Will have to look at it next weekend.

post-51715-0-58738200-1463300449.jpg

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Get Ray to look into this for you.

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Not Ray's fault (hopefully :P) - Always should have a car looked at before being purchased, I checked everything I could at the time and asked all questions I thought necessary. Just unfortunate that whatever issue it is made itself apparent after doing <150km of driving in my ownership.

Will be pulling cooling system apart this weekend to find the leak, hopefully nothing major, probably just a lower hose or something. Has to be a pretty large hole to have dumped all the coolant in the time I was out (hour or so). Never a bad thing to refresh cooling system parts, just annoying to have to already.

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Pressure test it and confirm the area of the leak before pulling it appart. The header tanks on these split

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Pressure test it and confirm the area of the leak before pulling it appart. The header tanks on these split

Yeah that's the plan. Hopefully the weather isn't as shocking on the weekend as it looks to be.

Basically as far as I see it, if there's a leak there's only a few parts that can piss out that much coolant, Radiator, expansion tank, upper & lower radiator hose and expansion tank return hose. WIll pressure test and see. WIll replace all hoses and expansion tank regardless of where fault is found.

On a good note, Discovered that car is using an M coupe shifter which gives it a tiny throw, feels amazing. Also has an illuminated shifter which wasn't wired up - Jayden sorted that in 2 minutes for me. Legend.

Edited by Rubix

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How hard was it to remove the roof racks?

Took maybe an hour total, I suggest using a heavy ratchet and long handle to provide more torque/leverage - 8ishmm torx bolts bolt the rail mounts to the chassis (in the roof gutters) and they're secured in there with red loctite. It took me a while as I only hada small ratchet on me so had to go very slowly so as to not round the bolts.

Once the rail mounts were out I put the bolts back in the chassis holes (Don't want rust!) with some plumbers thread seal tape on the threads to keep the water out, and reinstalled the guard with gaffa tape covering the holes currently, just checked this morning after the (what seemed like a) tsunami last night and tape holding strong.

After the cooling system is taken care of next on the list is proper gutter rails (BMW make a rail delete kit) but that's $400-500ish hence my DIY in the meantime.

Edited by Rubix

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Looking forward to seeing this come along Dion; looks like a fun project!

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Thanks John!

Expansion tank + Cap, Upper & Lower radiator hoses ordered today - Paul from Milland is brilliant as usual.

Will pressure test on the weekend but wanted to replace these components regardless.

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Very rare being manual!

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk

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Radiator, Expansion tank (+ cap), upper and lower hoses replaced.

Get it all bled, go for a drive, all seems okay.

Get back home, hear gurgling/bubbling coming from the expansion tank, but no leaks. I leave it for 20 minutes, come back outside and coolant has pissed everywhere from the expansion cap.

Would this be overfilled with coolant, or possibly overpressurized? It's done it from the day I bought it (Leaking from radiator cap when left after a drive).

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Check the actual running temp, this is the E39 version - E36 probably isn't too different (ask Uncle Google):

http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/47848-e39-obc-secret-menu-ktmp-coolant-temperature/

The gauges are super buffered.

If all the air is out, and it's not getting super hot, there should be no gurgling noises! Standard cap is 2.0 bar, so with the correct coolant ratio, the boiling point is very high.

Might pay to get a TeeKay test done to check for combustion gases in the coolant.

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Got the OBC temp reading working (Thanks Allan) - Warmed it up to 96 degrees (running temp) and took it for a drive. Fluctuated between 75 going downhill and 110 going uphill. Temp gauge didn't move. Got back home and coolant everywhere again - seems not bled properly - will do it again.

Edited by Rubix

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Surely Ray would be one of the first ports of call if its been doing it since day one?

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Surely Ray would be one of the first ports of call if its been doing it since day one?

Yeah you're right - Didn't want to bother him, have called him anyway and am having car towed up there. Cheers.

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Much better.
nmjfjq.jpg

Edit: what's best way to tint clear part of tail-lights red? Any spray can stuff?

Edited by Rubix
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Nice! Looks like 19s but theyre 18s right?

What you need is

VHT nightshade red tint spray can. Pretty sure repco or sca have them.

I have a post in the appearance thread for doing this on dads e91. Looks heaps better!

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