325_driver

at first glance i wanted to set fire to it and then i realized it was the outrageous kidney grills ruining the whole thing those kidney grills need to be like 1/3rd that size, cause DAMN

If your paranoid, go to https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/select find your car, then find the engine component links with vanos solenoids, grab the OEM number, cross reference that number

@cat007 yup, even @Jacko is living on the wild side right now with some Amazon Vanos solenoids in his 330 with no troubles.

@cat007 take it as a <$100 diagnostic test since OEM are north of $300 each

@cat007 my 325i (130,000) was showing some very subtle idle issues, every now and then low power at low RPM's, and it eventually threw a CEL every 1,000-3,000km Petrol mileage was really poor like 12l/100km Took out the vanos solenoids, cleaned them, checked resistances (which were within specifications) hard to say whether any improvement. Anyway long story short, I swapped out some known working vanos solenoids in there, and my fuel mileage is back to averaging 9l/100km (mixed usage) 7-8l/100 open road, no strange idling issues, noticeable continual power restoration. So i guess the solenoids were to blame and tracking it at times was elusive, cleaning them didn't really rectify the performance issues. It might be worth your while grabbing a set of these off amazon since they are cheap, to try your luck to see if anything changes (they may last, they may not, a few members on here have purchased sets like that with no issues) https://www.amazon.com/Vanos-Camshaft-Solenoid-128i-135i/dp/B06XKPJH39/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=n52+solenoid&qid=1583271891&sr=8-4

I hope your 330i didn't catch a cold off my 325i when I stopped by ... ? Ive realized I live life on the edge owning a BMW, but wouldn't have it any other way. Water pump randomly seized maybe? So got hot and started spitting out the resovior

So after a good cleaning, new oil no issues for 3000km but today a p0015 code about cam shaft over retard and a strange idle surge. Is this symptomatic of the same sensors? Just didn't want to replace them before if it was just a cleaning thing, but hopefully this confirms that one is on the way out

Yup 2.0 FSI. Making a catch can to hopefully reduce the intake garbage. The inside of the plenum is pretty wet with oily residue. Turned a paint can with some JB weld and old BMW quick connectors into a chur bro catch can mod The top one ain't going to be a breather but sealed with a dip stick in it haha Going to have a tyre valve on the bottom as a drain valve. Using an old BMW filter in it to help stop the oil

Not a bad result Soaked in kero for a few hours - loosened up big bits with screw driver / pick - brake cleaner and scotch brite to get the final bits off Found a new use for my paint gun spraying in there to blow out the liquid, i look like i've been stuck in a chimney for weeks now

oh man totally didnt think about it that way, i've already flushed the oil heaps, like 8l of sacrificial new 15w40 through it with flush to get it even resembling oil colour again, and then some nice synthetic in it and looking nice and golden. Oil was looking like black sludge when I picked it up. haha oh well. With that in mind, i'm leaving the ports soaking in kero over night, and going to see if the levels have changed at all, that should give me a good indication of its going past the vales into the oil. i'll also be cranking it a bit without plugs too after all of this, just to be super safe.

yeah, going to soak in kero, then light scraping. got me a set of these also going to rangi me up a scotch brite-round-wire device and put it on the drill

@KwS believe me i was debating it just got the manifold and rail off, wahoo, going to be a fun new years haha

Thanks all, i wasn't sure if petrol or kerosene would work but will give it a shot, but i'll just leave it for several hours before hitting it with a pick and wire brush

Hi all, not for the BMW, those valves are pretty clean. But thought i would ask, There's some serious carbon build on valves up on a direct injection engine, and i'm looking to take the manifold off, soak the ports in a solvent (like gum gutter, seafoam etc) for a few hours and then attack with a wire brush. Trouble is, those products don't exist over here in New Zealand. Anyone know any readily available solvents that will dissolve or atleast loosen up carbon.

5 days stuck in customs, and still counting. Haha good thing im in no rush, but man there must be some massive backlogs of parcels coming through.

@Eagle transmission filter kit from Amazon rrp over here $300 got it 40inc standard shipping, arrived 7 days later. I don't know how they do it but that's insane. Was supposed to show up on the 20th Not always that quick but that was incredible

@gjm ironically, if i just selected the FEDEX option, albeit more expensive, it would have been cheaper because it would have been minus the GST bill, and parts would have arrived already. I'm still awaiting dispatch for my youshop items, they are 3 days overdue. I think this is my last experience with youshop, they have been under delivering over the last few months and this has pushed me over the edge lol

@gjm funny thing is that I was just doing that with RM Euro in the recent order, and they said box size was estimated 15x15x9 inches from my product list, but they couldnt confirm until i placed the order lol (which worked out to be volumetric youshop shipping of $60 (+40gst) so the box showed up at youshop and the dimensions were 30x15x19 inches, $110 postage + 40 gst ??? end of the day, it's a pain, but a drop in the bucket, if i bought retail over here i would be paying $1500+ for what i ordered, and i paid 270 (parts) 130 postage, so stuff it. In the future i'm a tad confused about this GST rule, because i get how youshop or myus can slap a bill on it, but if we select say UPS or FEDEX or USPS from say FCP euro, does the ownace fall on FCP euro (the seller) to collect GST on behalf? and if they don't charge GST, do we in theory have the parcel stopped at customs for a GST bill

Rm euro and FCP. I usually use the direct shipping it's just on larger orders I struggle with the postage calculated. Annoying because it's now awaiting dispatch in sluggish you shop

Thanks @gjm what I needed to know. Think I'm going to switch to myus. Shipping looks alot more predictable and weight based. I struggle to confirm dimensions before placing an order so mu shipping ranges from 30 to 120 depending on how generous people are with packaging.

So basically if I ship to myUS I may or may not be charged gst by them. (In theory I should, but they may not have volunteered to do so) And I won't have any issues through customs unless the order is above $1000 as per the new changes.

I'm a little bit confused after reading this thread. If you ship to myUS do you pay gst when it lands in NZ before they clear it through customs. Or was the law attempting to get the 3rd parties to collect on behalf before it arrives in nz. Just paid youshop a crap tonne and trying to find other options as their volumetric shipping rate is just fckn nuts. Just paid em $109! (140 inc gst lol)

@NRJ Interesting, id be curious if it accepted the custom parameter @74ah. NCS dummy just prepares the . MAN files aye? Saving you from going into a text editor doing it that way.

@NRJ Thank you so much for confirming Good to know I was doing it right, but giving it an invalid value. Handy to know hopefully for others If they come across the same issue. Strangely enough ever since I registered that there has been a battery exchange, it seems to be charging to a better capacity. I.e. battery voltage after over night is between 12.5 - 12.8 now. Would usually be 11.9-12.2

Hi all, don't know where to put this, so i've put it in general discussion. My battery AH in INPA is reading at 70ah, but the battery i have is 74ah When i went into ISTA+ to view for battery exhange there wasn't anything registered, so they probably replaced it but didn't register it Anyway, i wanted to change 70ah -> 74ah in NCS Expert, followed the steps correctly (tripple checked across other people doing it on youtube) F1->F3->e89->CAS->Execute job (to get work files) Changed PSW in .TRC file from 70ah to 74ah saved to .MAN, then basic funtion readfrom FSWPWS -> Change Job to Code -> Execute Job Any way when it tries to code it i get this error sgvt fehler coapi-1142 fehlerhaft 74ah ... etc then the response is 'faulty coding' in NSC job status is this not working because the ECU won't accept 74ah? will it only accept like 70,80,90 as per like inbuilt vehicle data, or is this another problem. Cheers