time for another update
done 3 more bigger trips, once to Wairou and twice to Hastings, just takes it all in its stride!
Second time in Hastings i popped in to see Greg, vibration starting to get pretty bad now and he had a hoist free so lifted it up and spun it up on the hoist, confirmed in the DS UJs, so thats good to know. also noticed the transmission mounts are buggered too so any vibration that is there is going straight into the cabin.
Got home and looked up the part number for the driveshaft, it is 320d specific which seemed strange to me since the diff, trans and engine are all geometrically the same as any other automatic 4 cylinder BMW.
Have a parts car E46 318i here so measured it up compared to the 320d, all looked the same so pulled it , and then realised the guibo on the 320d is the larger type. realised prefacelift 318i E46 have smaller output flange. thought oh well since my issues is in the rear half, i can just make one shaft up from two, however for whatever reason the slip/spline part is the other way around to the 320d one, so not possible. argh! so still to get that one solved, the easiest is probably to take the car off the road and get the current one rebuilt. another way is i could swap the output shaft on the transmission but not totally sure if that is possible or not, probably end up more hassle figuring it out than its worth!
Previously mentioned the fuel gauge on the cluster is also not working right. yet to see a fuel level gauge on the cluster fail on these E46, the senders are much more common on this era BMWs. Brimmed the tank and ran it 500miles (about 800km) till i was satisfied the tank will be pretty much empty. the sender is located inside the tank and a really messy job to do if the tank is full. Removed the seat base, and removed the inspection cover, and right away found the problem! must have had a resident mouse above the fuel tank at some point as newspaper (there is always newspaper!!!) and the wires to the sender chewed. took a loom cutting from the parts car, spliced it into the car and connected up to the gauge, and hey presto gauge is back in business! Lol at doing 800km in the tank and still showing 2/5ths on the gauge! put cover and seat back in, took it round the conrner to brim the tank again, an gauge now is back all the way on full and has been there ever since (about 200km into this tank so far lol)
Got a E90 parts car in a while back with the same E90 Motorsport wheels that are on it. all four tyres are different (and mostly bald), just so happens one of the good ones is an RE003 which matches the front on the 320d, so i have decided to break the set and use that wheel as a full size spare to replace the space saver.
And finally, had a spare hour so made up and installed a hardwire kit for my Beltronic. really don't need it in this car tbh but a nice little addition so the cigarette lighter cord no longer hangs across the radio! just used the power for the makeup mirror light above the sunvisor. the switch inside the visor itself was buggered anyways, so the light never worked. have been looking out for one for a while, hard to find e46 non-motorsport (and therefore beige) but also high enough spec to actually have the feature. usually there are no lights at all, or its an Msport car with black. so just a cut and splice this time, not my usual way to do it as not easily reversable but im sure life will go on !