_ethrty-Andy_

i have put three e46 through wof recently, all three with advisories only on steering racks. plenty of e30s etc as well. They just arent as tight as modern cars, and the new wof techs that dont know the old stuff dont know .

will be a bit more than beers, but happy to go have a look, can take my autel with me too etc. cheers, andy, e3x ltd

yep sure do. oh too sevin 3079322. cheers.

Time for another post! In around august or september, i noticed a small puddle of oil directly under the right hand side of the intercooler after a long haul back from Hawkes Bay, which told me two things, one that the intercooler isn't completely sealed, and two that something upstream of the intercooler is leaking oil, which of course can only be the turbo. i recalled that Graham had fitted a new turbo to it during his ownership, however after chatting to him, found that it was fitted, didnt solve the problem he was looking at, so the original one was put back, leaving a minty one in the box with him. A deal was struck, and I was the owner of the new turbo, ready to be bolted up for the second time. (As anyone who knows me knows, I have owned several hundred BMWs, at least another 50 or so non-BMs, and worked full time off and on in other shops as well as for myself. It was the first time I have ever done a turbo swap!) I also made sure that the exhaust was clocked properly, and reinstalled the chassis brace I removed a few years back im sure I mentioned here somewhere! Road test, and wow, what a difference, and now i believe that 320d are quicker than 325 328i as the internet says they are. initial 1990s/2000s/diesel turbo lag and then hits hard! Never done it again tho, as thats not what this car is in my life for! Tho it does have a very audible whistle to it which i do enjoy, and wish my F15 M50d did the same! Intercooler went back in as it is, and will deal with that air leak at some other point, if it becomes a bigger problem. As it turned out, after a few weeks of driving, with the added boost, the DDE was obviously demanding more fuel pressure, and two weeks later the mid fuel pump decided to quit 3km from home on another little road. The 320d run three fuel pumps, one lifter pump in the tank, one mid pump located next to the fuel filter/regulator (both of which are same location as a petrol E46), and a third HPFP which i replaced already. Upon diagnosis, I found all that happened was the plug had come off the pump, however it was covered in diesel, as was the underside of the floor. plugged it in, and the car fired right up, but drips formed quite quickly from the plug. Have seen this a few times before, especially on N52/54/55 waterpumps, but not on a fuel pump before! Ordered a replacement, and good to go once more! I mentioned earlier i ordered some Bilstein B4s and had some used msport springs here. While the car was in the air and waiting for the pump to arrive, and another WOF a month or so away, i had a quiet day so time to swap the front struts over. Again, these turned out to be another original part from 2002! on removal, I managed to snap the bolt holding in the ABS sensors on both sides. I doubt they have been moved since 2002 either. for now, i have just urethaned them back into place, and will deal with them if/when they ever fall out. Cant say a huge difference in handling since its not a car i throw around anyways. however, there is a bump in my drive way, and three speed bumps on my street, that feel a lot more solid going over. As for ride height, i was expecting a bit of a drop from the msport springs, but nothing! I measured the car before and after and at best would be 5mm in it! A pet peeve of mine with the car has always been that the cluster is in miles. I respect that the car is a UK import, and with Graham being a pommy too, i like its part of the cars heritage. but mpg means nothing to me, and if the ODO was in kilometers the number looks much bigger!!! I played around with NCS Expert and PA Soft, and now have the digital part of the dash showing metric. Its still the original cluster with the M35080 chip which means not a lot else can be done with it, which is reassuring! And of course the physical speedo is still in Miles, so still true to its heretige! Last week, I was pulling out of my street, and had a wee incident with a Mercedes. Young indian chap, learners license unaccompanied, and only in new zealand for a few weeks. almost brand new A class merc, and rubs his bumper along my left rear door and wheel. ripped the whole corner of the bumper off his merc, and only a paint graze no dent at all to the 320d. Which brings us up to today. Intending to take it for a roady up to Hawkes Bay tomorrow and being out of a WOF (expired two days after above incident so that was lucky), i took it down today, and another clean sheet WOF. Unfortunately while there, they did mention the fan looked a little wobbly, and sure enough its time for a new water pump! Ive known the viscous clutch has needed doing for some time, however being a diesel they dont get hot anyways. So another couple of things to add to the list. So tomorrow I will have to take my F15 M50d, which im not upset about obviously. Planning to catch up with Graham too, who has some old paperwork for the car he has kindly kept to give to me! Its funny these old cars. It's definately not the prettiest in my driveway, and i have parted out much tidier cars than this one. With the parts ive thrown at it over my ownership its not the cheapest to own either, even if the economy would say other wise. But for some reason, I have quite the affection for it, so Im planning on keeping it on the road as long as it wants to!

Thanks Graham, i am doing a return trip WLG/AKL/WLG next week. Will have car transporter trailer with me too, and could fit a car on both ways (just using it for a few engines and panels etc at this stage) I dont come on the forum much any more, but feel to message me on (oh too sevin, 3079322) Koha appreciated, especially if i'm heading all over the place to pick stuff up!

Yep can do, oh too sevin 3079322. cheers.

Another four months gone by, done a bit to the old girl so thought I better make another post to update the thread! May have posted in here already that I sourced a minty black headliner for it. Any decent E46 headliner is a hard find these days, let alone a non-sunroof, black, Touring one! After sitting on top of my Tech2 E30 in the garage for at least a year, and the original one deciding to come away completely, I had a spare afternoon and got it installed into the car. I have to say, doing a headliner job on a touring is a breeze compared to a sedan, as it flys in and out of the tailgate! I also decided to service the transmission, new filter oil and pan gasket as no idea when those were last done! At the last Wof I got an advisory that the left front shock had very slight misting and to keep an eye one it. I forgot all about it, but the last month or two I have noticed the car a bit bouncy in the front. So I have ordered some Bilstein B4s, and of course tophats and bumpstops as makes sense to do those while in there. I have a set of M Sport springs here, so I think I will put those in place of the original 320d ones and see how that looks and feels. If memory serves correctly, when Graham owned the car, the front control arms and CABs were changed already, so shouldnt have to do anything more for many more miles! Other than that, just keeps going and going, starts first time every time, happy days!

i have a set or two here. oh too sevin 3079322. cheers

Im willing to part with my 320d, but wrong engine and 2.5x your upper km limit... My friend that lives with me has a 325i facelift, just under 200,000, is on E90 Motorsport wheels with good tyres. Black leather sport interior. shes been murmering about selling it, had the trans and radiator both give up which ive since replaced both, it is a good car but you know what some people are like when cars need money, they freak lol. if you want to go any further youll have the message me as i dont come on here much. oh too sevin 3079322. cheers

Recieved rear driveshaft back, both UJs replaced, looks schmiko. Fitted brand new center support bearing, and front half back on, taking note of the paint marks i put on it as it came out. guibo shows no signs of wear so no need to replace, and all back in. also replaced the transmission mounts with some 335i ones inhad lying about while in there. one was a bluetooth mount, the other held up coming up but as soon as on ground and In disturbed it it broke. Have never seen so perished, and they have an ‘01 stamp on them so they have been there right from the start took for a wee drive around the block, its still a diesel so still a tiny hint of vibration, but huge improvement, and no vibration at all under boost any more, so a job well done! Milage update 313950 miles (505254km)

Possibly just experience with whos doing the work. This will be my 4th M52 swap. I havent done an M54 (and wouldnt have taken the job on if thats what was going in). Its hard enough navigating LVVTA certification, learning time is not billable time there is also 20 years of information out there on the M50/M52 swap, which were being put in e30s before the M54 was even launched Rather keep this thread on topic, but feel free to create another thread about it, or even google, im sure there is plenty out there arguing one way or the other.

Also have an M50d F15, picked it up a few months for a song. Have got it remapped by Pramod Parag. Night and day would apply if it wasnt for having all of the go to start with. have done the start stop mod, and remapped the trans at the same. i also have brought an aftermarket transmission pan that is alloy, accomodates an aux temp sensor, and an extra 1.5L of oil. Although the cooler is thermostat controlled, it will decrease the amount they rise if doing a pull up hill with 3 tonnes of trailer on the back, which is what they are made for! also replaced the front grills and mirror caps for black ones, the silver looks naff, like youve got mirrors from another car or something Only thing i dont like about it is the interior colour is tan, which is hard to keep clean with my lifestyle. I prefer black, but ill just have to get used to cleaning the inside more regularly! happy motoring

I remember the listing vividly, it was the same as my house deposit for my first home, and i thought long and hard. dont regret for a second my choice these days tho!

If that includes removal and reinstall, thats a great price. the other option is finding one at a wrecker in good shape (im out of stock). If its not black, VHT spray it, use 2x cans. Ive done that plenty of times tarting up repos and you cannot tell the difference.

Parked up for 3-4 weeks over christmas new year, drove it then for a few weeks. I am doing an M52 conversion on an E30 at the moment and had to drop some parts into the engineer anyway, so have finally got around to removing the driveshaft from thos, it is in with them now. CSB looked to be in decent shape when installed, but on removal did have a tear about 20 degrees around the edge. Quite cheap trade price , and bearing was solid on the DS, and would have been destroyed during replacement of UJs due to heat required. so will be all new going back in which will be nice. saw the collapsed transmission bushes i had forgotten about as well (have mentioned earlier in this thread) , the engine mounts being replaced removed virtually all of the vibration from the car, residual i just put down to being a “self clearanced” diesel, so will do those too when it all goes back in. Guibo looks like a reletively recent replacement (within the last 150,000km anyway!) and shows no sign of wear. will update when its all back in !

Not the worst out there by any means. Id be more than happy driving on those until they wear out if i were you.

just not a mazda diesel. M54 and N52 are both very good. but your little M47 is here waiting. I havent touched it for three weeks. we both know it will bump over first turn and take you all the way back to waipuk. something something devil you know.

ive seen and probably owned more E30s than anyone still on this forum. Unless this car was your great grandmothers hand me down with non-economic value to you, this car will never see the road again. new owner should take it for a $70 wheel alightment at thier corner tyre dealer note the front caster values, that will tell you everything you need to know. its a banana.

Christmas update ! Now at 314,000miles , 505,000km just keeps ticking them up, albeit a bit slower lately. If anyone is interested in being its next owner, im having thoughts about moving it on. I have 5 cars that remain in the fleet (19 BMWs in total at the moment) , probably should get the number down a bit. Needs an enthusiast owner that will keep putting the miles on! Can come on the m parallels with virtually brand new tyres, or on standard e46 wheels. Could do with either paint or a wrap. I havent got to rebuilding the driveshaft yet, but thats the only thing that needs to be done. I havent done it because i have a manual conversion here for it which is diesel specific and could go with it. oh too sevin 3079322

doesnt look to be a lot of interest in keeping this thread alive, never the less, it serves as a good build diary for me in the future, and prehaps the next own if it is ever sold ! had a quiet afternoon around march or so. had some black leather seats from an E53 parts car. The bolt pattern is identical across E38/E39/E46/E53 so spent the afternoon getting these installed. This 320d had poverty pack seats, was surprised to find it wasnt even prewired for electric or heated seats which they usually are. Not too fused about the heated seats, but had to run some wires to make the move/recline etc work, and also swap the seat buckles and pretensioners over I also got an E39 540i motorsport parts car in recently, which had a set of 18" M Parallels which were quickly pinched. The photos make them look tidier than they are, could do with a professional refurb, but look the business! Fitted brand new tyres to make them work (as the E39 tyres were much too big) as well as hubcentric spacers, due to the E39 center bore being slightly larger than all other Exx BMWs for some strange reason! The front work perfectly as is. The rear i had to roll the inner lips of the gaurds in, trim the wheel well liners a but, and delete the front most of the side brackets for the bumper. the rear shocks had visible corosion around the top near the upper mounts, so also replaced those. Sorry to the purists that only fit Bilstein etc, off the shelf items at BNT will do for this car. lowered back down and gave it a drive, no rubbing anywhere. over the past month has done a lot of miles loaded to the brim with gear for the shows Im doing for ACT, and no rubbing anywhere. Great result! forgot i had some BMW plates and found one day in the shed, so fitted those up as well. While it had a pitstop in Hastings last week, Greg at GH Automotive swapped the engine mounts for me. Left side easy peasy, right hand side a bit of a pain with a turbo tucked in there so you need to drop the frame to do it. Also discovered the vaccum hose to the wastegate was disconnected, and hooked that up. turbo whistle instantly sounded WAY better. as the EGR and DPF has been deleted many moons ago, its only the back box doing the heavy lifting. However, with that hooked up, the car would no longer go over 2500rpm. just to test, re-disconnected (is that a word?) and worked perfectly again. freeboosting isnt as much of a concern in diesels as it is petrols, providing the engine is healthy, so thats a good sign! I have ordered a new boost solenoid for it which should solve!

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 !

havent seen so many E30s for sale for a long time, its sorting out the actual enthusiasts from the speculators, which is well over due in my opinion!

got lifted a few weeks back. CSB is all good. could be the UJ's, so at some stage will pull that and have a look. Accidentally a M47 manual from Ashburton, so that might end up being the solution. cant think of a more fitting 500,000km present to liberate the car., about 8000km to go. no gaurentees it will actually make it into the car tho eh!

Probably about ready then lol

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