tonylauno1

The trick is (as with all e46 parts) is not to look in NZ. orrrr phone Ray from HellBM. 99% sure he still has one for sale

Thank you, unfortunately someone else bought it before I got there.

You guys are getting pretty good mileage - my e46, a 1999 323i according the the car's computer averages about 8.6 Ltr / 100km around town - and that's driving it like a little old lady.

I get it serviced every 10,000kms.

Hey, that's probably the best consumption 8.6L/100km, somehow it looks too low to be city driving or is it 8.6km/Litre which equates to 11.6Ltr/100km

It's too hard for me to drive like a little old lady, i just use 95 rather than 98 unleaded

Thats so right Wayne... now you get kids that left school 1 or 2 years ago... read a few books..checked out a few forums and read a few posts by other kids .. and now they know it all ???

My neighbour has a e38 and the transmission is not smooth when shifting cold. One day he came over, and said, he thinks it's cause by something he sees in the engine bay. I told him, there's no way you can see anything in the engine bay, but he wanted to show me. It turns out, the top of power-steering reservoir has a hole in it.

I asked him why he thinks that was related to the transmission, and he replied, he found out what ATF stands for. The reservoir says ATF Fluid only LOL - definitely someone who doesn't know what he doesn't know.

From the looks of his signature above they're "VS Work 19" Staggered"

I usually don't read those fine prints, how stupid it makes me look now

Cool wheels, probably the best looking multi-spoke I've seen.

Sorry, don't have aluminium trim to swap.

By the way, what brand are those wheels?

I doubt anything wrong. I added cruise control to mine (New MF Steering wheel) and it made a world of difference to my gas consumption.

See my write up on it here i did a year or so ago.

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=13689

Thanks, I've seen that early 2008. I have the triangle-shape airbag and have not seen any of those MF steering wheel for sale. Didn't want to spend on steering wheel + airbag for functions I rarely use.

Since this is an E46 discussion, I hope the author won't mind if I mention another issue related to E46 with the M52TU engine.

Has anyone noticed when they start their car in the morning and let it idle for a few mins, at the end of the warm up period, the car starts to shudder. RPM would drop sharply, shudder briefly, RPM recovers and idle normally for several second, this would repeat a few times. On occasions, it would stall when RPM couldn't recover fast enough.

The M54 & M56 are very similar engines with the same double-vanos. Has anyone else experience this?

Using 95unleaded, my 328ci gets about 14L/100km in lots of stop/start driving and 9L/100km on highway with lots of overtaking.

Looking at others with 328 & 330, they seem to do a lot better than mine with city driving, I wonder if there is something wrong with mine or is it that most don't floor it when getting off the line or after a corner.

I always tell myself, smaller engine ref harder to get up to speed, and at 100km the ref are much higher too; therefore I go for the larger engine which keeps the fuel consumption down

More torque is good, so get a larger engine, these cars are heavy and need all they can get to get moving

FYI, The earlier e46 are 323 & 328 (around 1998-2000) then it was upgraded to 325 & 330 (around 2001-2005).

These 6 cylinders have a 60-65L fuel tank, not too sure exactly how much they will hold.

To me, they are not grippy compared to Direzza + GridIII but you pay for what you get. I didn't go through a set but they seem to last longer.

when you push the car down, it should bounce back up and then stop almost immediately. If it bounce up & down a few times then shocks aren't doing it's work. Depends on mechanic, some don't care and just let you pass even if your car keeps on bouncing up & down when driving over a bump.

Don't know if it's too late to try someone else.

Jesus Cameron didn't know what hit him!

I feel sorry for the poor bastards who paid $16,000 for a ringside table.

Table seats 10 so it's $1600 for each poor bastard lol

There is no such thing as a quick fix for anything, safety should be ones main priority in any circumstances. If Glenn has shown you the movements in rear subframe and shock mounts and now you are hearing noises, don't gamble your life on it or even worst when you have friends or family in the car with you!

No one in NZ will fix subframe issues for free, especially if no one in NZ has ever dealt with these cases before.

Go to a mechanic who is experience in BMW and just pay them. The only quick fix for vehicles is when you detect the problem early; the longer you wait, the bigger the problems becomes and the more money you need to spend on both parts & labour. Who know how badly your car has deteriorated since then.

The other cheap fix is to enrol yourself at MIT to train as a mechanic then find employment in a BMW workshop to gain experience then after 5 years, you can start repairing your own BMW

E46 service lights set to 25k and adjust the interval by semi logic dependant on drivers driving style

I thought that was the case, with my style of driving every 900km the service interval would decrease by 1000km. .

Doesn't necessarily mean your engine is much cleaner. Could be that the oil isn't doing its job as well?

Wouldn't have a clue, I guess it's because the engine is still dirty. Might use the same oil as my previous car to see but I just keep flushing each oil change.

Do you guys change when the service light comes on? Or every 10000k?

The service light is probably designed for the BMW LL-01 oil which is suppose to last longer.

I change every 10,000km or 12 months, which ever comes first. Never use the service light, they take too long about 20,000 for my e46.

I have flush my engine twice and it's still gets dirty after 6 months. My previous car still had see-through oil after 12months

Don't see any point in using 5w or 0w because we don't have -20degree unless it's winter in Central Otago.

I refused to buy into the hype on Castrol Edge and Mobil1 being the best. The engineers at Exxon Mobil said off the record, that there is no evidence that their oil is better. Even if their marketing department claim so, no one can refute the claim because it cannot be proven.

As long as it meets the ACEA A3/B3 or A3/B4 specs then I'll use it for the M52 engine as stated on BMW TIS. So currently I have Fuchs 15w40 semi-synthetic in the engine, I'm no expert but it seems to be more smoother than the Castrol Magnatec 10w40.

I will be getting some Mobil1 Synthetic 0w40 next time, lol, but simply because they are the cheapest oil I can get.

Yes I know Anton very well...have done for many years

And you are wrong with the training scheme you have just indicated. BMW NZ Ltd, EMD (Audi VW) and Daimler Chrysler NZ Ltd (Mercedes) do not train mechanics outside their dealerships. Like ourselves we have to train ourselves and access all tech info and equipment from overseas.

I would suggest the original OP take his car there for a quote or second opinion.

Hi Glenn,

What I had meant was the mechanic at the dealership that trains them, like Coutts or Giltrap or Team McMillan. I'm pretty sure the owner pay them so he could sit in or get them to come out so every staff could be trained.

Tony

The best thing is to get a 2nd opinion especially if the problem is not straight forward.

From your description the clunk sounds serious, metal on metal makes a clunk, best to check it out.

I always use the guys at www.autoclinic.co.nz. The owner of the place David is an expert on these cars, does a lot of work for Continental cars in the background and even trains their mechanic on certain fields. The manager Anton is from BMW North Hampton or North Hampshire, I don't recall, my geography is not good in that part of the world. All the staff get regular training from BMW, Benz, Audi etc...

The rate is $65+gst p/h, they don't normally charge me to diagnose problem because they know my family well. You can tell Anton that one of your associate Tony who drives a 328ci as well has recommended you.

If I were you, I wouldn't expect him to give me his time for free, but just that he knows you are an associate of one of his good customer and he will look after you personally.

With all due respect, I know Glenn is the expert mechanic and he is the forum mechanic here but I'm just giving this guy an alternative.

These guys have Lots of courtesy cars, so tell them that you need one too.

Hi Everyone, just a boring question. Had WOF 2 months go and noticed the service brake efficiency is 20%.

What does that mean at 20%?

I'm will be traveling 1200kms in early-mid August, do I need to worry about 20% brake efficiency?

Thanks

Tony

It's interesting that there is one with 468k kms and has never change transmission fluid, I guess some are lifetime

Like alot of cars these strong and it goes on and on if well maintained, go drive it and if acceleration is comparable to others with lower mileage and transmission is silky smooth then buy it. Drive the car when it's cold and see how it transmission shifts in lower gears.

These cars does need to be fix as nothing last forever, searching through forums, common problems for the e36/e39/e46 6 cylinder M52 engines are cam sensor, crank sensors, cooling system (some say replace entire cooling system rather than wait for each part to fail like idler, tensioner, waterpump, fan clutch, thermostat etc)

The problem that I have with buying a high mileage car is that repairs might amount to the purchase price of vehicle. If I had the vehicle for a while and had put some miles on it myself then I wouldn't mind spending the money if I was keeping the vehicle.

I would assume that alot of these common problems would have been addressed between 100k - 150k kms so at 174k kms it might be relatively trouble free for a while.

Just my opinions.

I'm just gathering information about lowering a e46 328ci so have been going through all bmw forums about springs & shocks.

Looking through the H&R website, there isn't a "29485-1" spring, there is a "29485" used by 323-330 which looks like 6 cylinder models. No springs specified for the 316-320 4 cylinder models.

They have different springs for cars with & without factory sport suspension too, 29485 is for cars without factory sport suspension.

http://www.hrsprings.com/scripts/appguide....d3&MakeID=4

An owners manual is definitely worth the money, there are so many little things in these cars it will amazed me when I got my first BMW.

eg

passenger mirror dips when in reverse

window drops when object caught between window & frame

3 chimes whenever clock strikes 12

rear view mirror darkens when light from behind is brighter than light at front

Go find article on how to make tv work at all times rather than pay someone $50.

I appreciate the comments about old European cars that runs just like new, and how people get worried about the the numbers 1 & 0. It's not a problem when serviced on a regular basis and that is exactly what I'm referring to.

I'm not saying that BMWs are not built to last 10 years or 100,000kms, all cars are built to last forever if serviced as required. I am referring to European & Japanese cars in general.

I know that 10 years or 100,000kms is not a lot, but you cannot hide the fact that it does cost more when compared to a Japanese car. ie Gather all your receipts and compared the parts that are being replaced.

I am not picking on BMWs, if I had posted this on a Alfa Romeo forum, I'm sure people would start getting defensive about the Alfa Romeo brand and how replacing cambelt at 55,000kms or every 4 years is normal when compared to other brands.

My point is, if the author of this thread has budgeted $1000 pa to service his car, then he might be taking a lot of risk with an e65. Who knows, these are cars, he might be lucky and does not need to fix anything and $1000 pa is more than enough for oil & filter change.

The car might only cost a few hundred to maintain each year then suddenly, in one year you need to fork out $5000 to fix several things. I personally put $10,000 aside for anything automotive related like fixing, general maintenance, brakes, tyres etc

Here is one thing to remember, European cars are made for a good time but not a long time. What I would consider a long time is 10 years or 100,000kms.

A 3.6L V8 would also cost more to maintain than a 1.8L 4cylinder, obviously being a performance engine, all parts & oil would be more expensive. Just the tyres alone on a e65 would cost you a fortune, one it's bigger and two it's not a common size

Your 5 series & 7 series has so much more electronics than a 3 series, so there is a lot more which can go wrong.

I do not own a e65 so I can't say how much it is costing me. Comparing a e39 straight 6 (528i) & V8 (540i), the V8 cost more to maintain when mechanics & other people gives me examples of what was needed to be replaced.

Maybe you will be lucky and spend on $1000 a year on the E65 then when problems arrive, you sell it. Looking at 10 year old e38 740i, there is not a market for big european cars so the price is $10,000. And should the same fate fall upon a 10 year e65 then you would have lost $18,000 in 3 years.

Keep fixing a 1.8L e36 which you hate or buy a e65 3.6L which you like, either way there is a lot of money involve in both options.

If I should be handed $9million in powerball, would I spend $300,000 on a ALPINA B7 or a Murcielargo or a Cayenne Turbo?

It would definitely be $300,000 for a F355 and 2nd hand Vantage V8.