bmwNewbe

i have a bc stalk that has been fitted to my e46 although the old owner that had it fitted never had it enabled. the car never had the obc function from the factory and the old owner was starting to carry out a retrofit of the obc but never had it enabled,i have checked and there is an outside temp sensor etc all on the car and seams all is ok other than enableing it. i have checked bmw dealers within a 200mile area and all of them are telling me they need the old system to enable it and they simply dont use it any more nor have it. im sure one of them is bound to but simply dont want to plug it all back in and get it runing again to do a 5 min job,(you know how dealers can be) well a mate of mine has both the carsoft leads and another lead that plugs directly into the serial port so i was wondering if anyone has came across a software that may or may not have the ability to enable the obc function. thanks in advance

its an inst cluster fault, there is also a dde fault but it does not say anything other than just 05 but again thats just a carsoft code. i will have to try and get it hooked up proper but was hoping somone would be well enough in the know to know what the code ment and a possible fix as im just not able to get anywhere due to my crazy hours of work at the min. is there any pc baised tools that would be more accurate than carsoft that might be able to shed a little more light on the faults. the mate spends all day working on computers and wouldnt mind getting another system up and running to try out.lol

with the hours im having to keep at the moment any dealer or garage with dealer level equipment is long since shut by the time i get home,so had just got a friend to hook it up to clear the airbag light and thats when we came across it. would there be any sensors of the like on a manul 320d box.

as the title suggests ive got a recurring fault code, now this is not through the generic scanner or bmw's scanner but through the nasty carsoft so as i dont have much experance with carsoft im not sure how serious to take it but here go's.. the code came up as follows: 11 EGS signal disturbed egs is for Electronic transmission control,this is the bit that throws me,now i havent the covers pulled to have a look yet but my car is a manul and on most cars there is no electric control on them so was wondering if there could be a sensor or the like faulty. car is a e46 320d 5 speed manul pre facelift. thanks Will.

did u get it sorted. basicly there is a cheat for this that does not involve leaving a naked blub tied up under the bonnet,that can rub onto wires plastic etc and can over heat. the trick is basicly a resistor and only costs a few pence, and the meathod is to solder it in between the positive and return just infront of the bulb holder and that feeds the correct resistance back to the lcm and tricks it to thinking all is ok. the only bad thing is that if the led side light fails you wont be told on your dash,but leds last for years and years so u should be good.

they look to be a good job. probably better than the bmw lights. just pop ot the lower griles cut a slot the rite length then screw them down. the only bit id wonder about just now is the retrofit wiring loom and relay. the bmw loom is set up to be wired in a certin maner to suit the car but the aftermarket loom might need to me modified to wire up in the manner to suit. other than a possible slight mod and then again u might not need to id still say this is a good product.

has the 1 series m-sport not got differnt suspension the same way the e46 does. if a stock 135i s near on power with a e46 m3 as another member said then sureley if you came across a set of m-sport 1 series shocks and springs it will drop it slightly and firm it a little also then m sport roll/sway bars will also help keep the car more level when cornering. that will improve the handeling and keep the car oem. if you get the parts from a scrapy it will keep the cost down and give you what you want without going into coilovers or drastic measures.

its quite hard to measure them as im sure ud guess,the only visable differnce i can see is that the outter balljoint seams to be mounted stright into the alloy arm on the m-sport arm but on the non m-sport arm it has like a slight cp at the bottom and is like rubber mounted. also states on the m-sport arm that it is m sport suspension only. im just going to fit the pair of the arms but my main aim is to find out if anyone knows if there is any differnce in length as it will effect the angle of the wheel and if anything else is needed to adjust the shock etc before i have the wheels aligned. thanks for your time and the reply

im sure there is someone here with the know how about this. is there any differnce between the standered and the m-tec bottom wishbones. i know the springs is lower and the shocks are valved differnt to give better damping,and the roll bar is thicker and stiffer. but im wondering about the bottom wishbone as i have a spare set and im going to put them into the wifes car as one of her balljoints has gone.

you can remove the front of the lcm with a few flimsey locking tabs that changes the front with the buttons attached to your own programed module. i have done that before on a car for to retro fit oem front fogs.but if need be i have a way to reprogram the lcm but its the meathod or wiring if any im unsure of.

hi guys now this might sound like a pointless excercise but its not on my car its the wifes and shes hopeless,constantly forgets to turn on her lights,serious like how hard is it.lol well firstly say u retro fit front fog lights into a e46 that never came with them the lcm has the signal wire from the switch down to the relay block with no relay or other wires so if u replace the faceplate to a faceplate with a front fog button then it allows that signal wire to power up when switched without the need to recode lcm etc letting u wire up a loom and relay then having front fogs. now to what i want to try and find out, does anyone know if u put on a faceplate with the auto lights position on the switch is the module able to be coded or wired up to enable an auto function. i know a car without auto lights wont have a window sensor so im also looking to know if the wireing is in the mirror plug for the sensor as theres wires there for the auto dim mirrors. if anyone has any know how on this it would be great.

well this might be of some use to someone or there again maybe not,but anyway.. history is as follows, car run great then with no warning a flat spot/hesatation appered between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 thousand revs. well to say the least it got checked from top to bottom then diagnostics etc etc all came up clean. was doing a little tidying up under the bonnet and decided to flush out the egr valve to stop it cloging up,so first removed the pipe between the 2 manifolds and pulled off the egr,cleaned it out and while setting the can of break cleaner on the beanch knocked the connecting pipe off on to the floor, low and behold it came apart at one of the joints. lined it up and weilded it back together. fitted it all back up and while driving the car home the hesatition had gone. now through all my checks and tests and that of others the egr had been removed cleaned and even replaced and the pipe was tight then,so there must have only been one part inside the joint holding it together.and the pipe was still clean and free from exhaust leak. all in all if your 320 ever does this its worth 10 mins to pull the pipe off even if it looks fine and have the fixed side of the pipe where the pipe is seamed into the flexi joint weilded.

have you bought the car and all? so what sort of mod's you planing.

real good mpg, first thing to do is have the swirl flaps removed/blanked off. as for turbos injector pumps and the like,they are as common or not so common to go as every other make of car you normally only hear the scare storys. best bet is if you get one get the bushes on the front bottom arms replaced with polly bushes will save you money inthe long run,and make sure that it is well serviced. i do mine every 6000 miles somtimes less as im bit fussy. to make sure of an extended turbo life make sure you change the crankcase filter on the rocker cover each time its serviced as its commonly forgot about or not known about. other than that they are quite comfortable providing your not the one sits in the back as the seats in the back are not great for adults. 170000 miles would not be an issue if it sounds like an engine that starts and stops with very little rattles., if the engine mounts or mounts on the exhaust etc are worn then you will hear a little thud when you switch off. mine has 160000 miles on it and when i first got it you could hear the thud but i ended up getting the front flxi on the exhaust fixed that cured it.

sounds like the inverter ok. if they were bought angle eyes thy might not be ccfl rings so could also be just a case of a bad plug. my own went bad on one side but the angle eyes in the lamps were not ccfl so i checked the blubs and all were ok but inside the lamp was a converter plug so that the genuine bmw side light plug would fit the lamp,anyway the plug inside the lamp had a loose wire and that was it.. if your rings are the bright white ones or the blue'y tinted ones then its an inverter problem either located on the outside or possibly inside the light housing,both rings connect to one inverter,if they are standered rings then it could be a bad connection.

all been done thats why its so annoying. have donnor car sitting so have also swaped sensors etc around incase its somthing simple and intermitant but nothing has still come up,except for the slighty faulty pick up i put on so i swaped back to my own one. thanks for the responce just gonna hada give it another few go's with the data loging incase somthing pops its head up.

yea had it checked no codes stored and no pending codes. on the 2009 auto data its listed as a common fault but only states about changing the crankcase filter,that i have done along with the seals to no avail. is it possible to get a faulty crankcase filter,its genuine bmw filter and when it was changed it was only the cartrige was oilded up and bit swolan inside the housing was quite clean. a little annoying as i had a td4 landrover with the same fault yesterday and once i changed the crankcase filter and the inline vacume filter it was a totaly dirrernt car to drive.

hi all my 320d has a flat spot at about 3k revs not much but just noticable. i know with the landrover td4 they do the same thing and its a fault of the crankcase filter and sometimes the inline filter for the turbo boost vacume inlet. i have replaced the crankcase filter (small bluesh filter on top of the rocker beside the inlet manifold) but the car is still doing it so was wondering if anyone knew the location of the small inline filter as i have looked all over and cant seem to find it. or if anyone has any other ideas feel free. thanks.

hi guys was wondering if your able to retro fit the rear windows to electric on my e46 4door. wouldnt bother me but my 4 year old is a nightmare with putting it down.lol i have the switch sets and the rear regulators and the door looms just no wireing on the car side of it but as with everything bmw if it was not in it when you bought the car then the wires are not there. so basicly has anyone done this and if so would there be any help out there for the wiring.

if the alarm just stops the starter from turning over and all fuel pumps etc work then the most comon place to break the starter wire is behind the ignition lock so should just be a case of locating the module of the alarm and trace the wires from there then disconect from where they are joined in,and make sure to connect up origonal wires that were either cut or spliced in to. if its all pulled out but only the starter wire is connected up then it will start ok but if you get stuck you might need somone that knows what they are at to re wire up the windows depending on how it was wired in.

you never know with ford europe they try to milk the very last out of each model, after the first rs was made they changed from the mark2 till the mark3 (new model) but they never made a mk3 rs at first so they added few extras and continued with the first rs. once they bring out a new body shell will be the mark 5 and they will run it for a min of 1 1/2 years before rolling off the new rs so most likely they will do somthing to the current one and continue to sell untill the new one is ready so watch this space...awd in the current mark 4 could still happen as they have been talking about bringing it back since before i worked for ford 9 years ago..

would that stop the electric mirrors working? everything else seams to be working ok as far as im aware anyway. if i stuck a spare one i had in could they be programed with the likes of carsoft etc.

hi all when i first got my e46 the doors used to auto lock once you hit a certin speed,then i changed the radio to a bmw cd player,got the car on the road and the auto locks must have been disabled. never noticed to now as i used to drive the car but then i gave it to the wife to drive and would rather have the locks pop while shes in the car with the kids. checked it out and your supposed to be able to enable and disable it with the remote and the drivers lock, tryed that and it never worked, i know so much in the e46 is linked so i put the tape player back in and sill not working so basicly what im after is if any one has any sort of idea on this. cheers.

they are real simple, pump is on the front behind the belt so its just a case of paint up a few marks pull off the belt and think its about7 bolts hold on the pump,not much overhauling on the pump but more replacing,just make sure u replace the paper gasket. ill have a look and see if i can find the old manul i have and get back to you.