Vass

I honestly wouldn't know how to tell, could me small case? I'm yet to figure out the difference. Here's one I pulled from a 320i I parted out. They should be dime a dozen at any Pick-A-Part.

E46 320i automatics came with 3.91 diffs. No idea on specifics or how interchangeable the internals are though.

Wouldn't the coding depend on which variant the new 330ci turns out to be? Don't think the donor car matters unless you're swapping modules over for some reason. But yeah will be one of the two links anyway. Don't think the type of clutch switch matters either, both the hall sensor and the trigger type ones send the same type of signal I would think.

Not sure how it compares to the Nissans but it's all fairly well documented and very much doable. Involves a bit of wiring and coding which is easy enough to grasp following some handy DIY guides. Happy to lend a hand with those if you run into trouble, seeing as you're also Chch based. The hardware will mostly bolt up with the main incompatibility being the diff as alluded to above - can either swap the input flange or the whole diff, depending on the ratio you'd prefer I guess. The 330i automatics have a 3.38 ratio diff, your 323i will probably be a 3.07, assuming it's factory manual. A manual swap technically requires going through the certification process if you want to do things by the book but you'll fly through WoF's without it if you do a tidy enough job.

Does it have a tow bar?

I paid $320 for just an alignment at the dealership last year. Still better than the $90 alignment I got at Bridgestone where they barely tightened any of the trailing arm and camber arm bolts though... Can't win.

What cable do you have? PA Soft uses a specific one, as pictured below, and won't work with the regular K+DCAN cable unfortunately. They're only around $20 on Aliexpress though, one of the very few things actually worth getting off there Should be able to find a link to the software online, if not then shout out, I should have it somewhere. But yeah happy to code it for you over the weekend sometime in the meantime.

There's a wee coding mod you can do to make the temperature gauge more accurate. Removes the buffer and gives a way earlier indication in case of something going wrong. Happy to help with that, takes all of 5 minutes. That's assuming it's got an OBD2 port and not the old style round one under the hood?

Nice one, looks a great purchase! Think I've seen it up for sale a wee while ago. Will make an awesome daily being manual and having the older, less problematic 4-cylinder. E46's are awesome to tinker on, should serve you well. I reckon it'd look great on some Style 68 wheels, make it a bit more sporty whilst still keeping it looking original and period correct. Keen to see what you do to it. Just please don't go sticking all sorts of Aliexpress M-stripe trash all over it hahah

Bold color choice indeed

They're pretty hard to come by but you could keep your current one and get one of these 3D printed adapter brackets. https://www.ebay.com/itm/176203367277?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=unh32eETQa-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Fb8xz-ZcTGe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

$900 for just the starter itself or installed? If that's installed and you're happy to pay that then doesn't seem too bad. Alternatively, a new quality Bosch/Denso starter will run you around $300-350 landed and doesn't look like too daunting a task as a weekend DIY project.

Just got the plates today and went to town on the rear bracket. On second look it was slightly different to yours but essentially the same. Mine had a bottom part connecting both sides as well that I've mostly trimmed off now. Here's what's left of it. Can see how far down it extended originally from where the paint is damaged. Will need to touch those up.

No need to get so butthurt over an innocuous comment there, dad. Once you sober up you might realize it was actually a solid recommendation. From personal experience with a few N42/N46's, they're barely worth the effort of DIY upkeep, and never worth it if you're paying a professional to do it for you. Unless making financial mistakes is your favorite hobby? On top of the numerous, well documented issues plaguing the horrid 4-pot engines, the 120i's, despite being utterly gutless, also somehow like to chew though differentials like they're Weet-Bix. There's really no lesson to be learnt from being the 1,000th person to step on that rake. People generally get into BMW's for the perceived prestige of owning a luxury brand, or for the performance aspect. The 120i is not a luxury car whilst offering the performance of a 90's Corolla. Literally the worst of both worlds. You get to swallow the premium maintenance costs whilst not getting a taste of any upsides. The fatherly thing here would be to urge her to sell the damn thing before it inevitably shits the bed on her, and get something with a proper engine. An electric scooter for example. But seeing as you did nothing to prevent her from getting one in the first place, I'm guessing she's not the favorite child anyway?

Yeah the rear is exactly the same as yours. So far I've trimmed off the bit that was protruding beyond the top edge of the plate. Once the slim plate arrives I'll trim off whatever is protruding beyond the bottom, or try to move it up somehow. Unfortunately it seems to only have a thickening where the existing rivnuts are and the rest of the plinth is a very thin slab of plastic so probably not possible to add extra rivnuts where I would want them.

Yeah I'll post it up once done. I've already trimmed the front one once as the Japanese plinth was protruding beyond the standard plate as well. Moved the plate up to line up with a protruding edge, added a couple of rivet nuts to hold in the new position and trimmed off the plastic protruding beyond the bottom edge of the plate. Before After The rear bracket will be a bit trickier as the bracket doesn't seem to have enough thickness to add in new rivnuts where I would want them but will figure something out. Double sided tape option doesn't really appeal to me.

Just ordered black slim plates for mine. Planning to just trim the jap brackets to size and go with that. Luckily I don't have the issue of any screw holes remaining visible on the E46.

I'd take the 120 straight to Pick-A-Part

Saw this featured on Kiwicarlife, cool to see it in action up close. The wheels look mint. Hope you find an Msport rear bumper for it, would tidy it up nicely.

Preach! Stupidly did that once, was holding the slave in my hand whilst a mate was pumping the pedal. Don't even think a power bleeder was involved at the time. The rod suddenly shot out with a vengeance Luckily wasn't aimed at anything important and managed to reassemble it but lesson learned...

EWS is BMW-speak for immobilizer. Sometimes the DME (ECU) can randomly go out of sync with the EWS and refuse to start. Not to definitively say that that's your issue but could be one of a number of possibilities. Have is scanned to see if there's any codes, could be something simple and obvious.

Not sure if related. Saw this pop up that I thought was interesting.

Looks great in white and Msport that. I'm contemplating getting one for the wife to replace her 3.0L Outback. That also gets around 13L/100 of mostly city driving so not expecting much of an upgrade in terms of fuel economy. Thinking more in terms of ease of maintenance of having several M54's in the family. Heated seats are an absolute must too. I'm sure the maintenance items you've outlined will help to a degree. Also remove and clean out the ICV whilst dealing with the throttle body. Worn VANOS seals can also affect low down torque and fuel economy but that's a bit more involved. You'll probably recoup an extra 1, maaaaaybe 2L/100km doing all that, don't imagine it'll make an earth shattering difference though. I was struggling to stick to 12-13L/100km in my old 325ci with the same engine. The X3 being AWD and significantly bigger & heavier those numbers aren't that surprising I comparison.

Keen to see how you go with it. Not that I need bigger brakes on mine but keen to take on a similar project eventually. My plan is to go with a simple 135i setup, mostly because it's tried and tested, adapters are readily available and the brakes themselves are relatively easy to come by locally. My main fear being that shipping on such bulky items will be the biggest killer, not awfully keen on dumping several grand on brakes alone. Wonder how 135i brake performance compares to the setup you're going with. Pretty sure all non-M E46's had the same master cylinder so your 318i one will be the same as on a 330i. From what I've read on the 135i conversion the master cylinder and booster should hold up just fine with the bigger brake setup, so long as they're in good working order. Pretty keen to know whether there are any out-the-box upgrade options out there though.

Servicing is more expensive being a turbo diesel. Parts aren't as easily available due to not being as common as M54's. Diesels in general don't particularly like short trips so isn't ideal if all you're doing is commuting 5km to work and back every day. They need a good longer bash at full operating temperature on a regular basis to prevent EGR valves and such from clogging up. The general "tractor" stereotype I guess.