The Barbara Chronicles

[Vass 697]

This will serve as a diary of my love-hate relationship with this wonderful menace of a machine.

Have a whole heap of catching up to do with all that's gone on since I took ownership, and a whole heap more coming up on the horizon. Will be jumping into the full documentation shortly. But for now... looks tasty from afar, don't it?

[Vass 697]

January '21

Having been a chuffed owner of a 325ci for about a year and a half, I found myself in a bit of despair. Whilst absolutely in love with the car, the engine, the chassis in general, I was coming to the realisation that a coupe wasn't an ideal choice for me moving forward. I had barely started keeping a keener eye on the market, on the lookout for a tidy wagon to switch into, when she popped up.

A fellow Msport 325i, 2003 facelift Touring, looking stunning in black with those crisp xenon's and decent looking rims. The seller seemed as trustworthy as you can hope for, being a regular contributor and a reputable member of the bimmer fam. With the extensive service record and immaculate looking photos, the price came across as very reasonable and seemed too good to pass up.

I quickly put down a deposit, shuffled around some finances and booked a flight to Auckland to pick her up in a month's time.

In hindsight, patience would have been a virtue. A lot more questions that needed to be asked, a lot more photos/videos requested or at the very least, a price negotiation left for the time of pickup. But hey, to be young, naïve and impulsive...

February '21
214,XXX km

The seller was kind enough to pick me up from the airport. I'd also arranged to pick up a multifunction steering wheel from a guy parting out his car nearby, intending to wire in cruise control to make the long trip down to Christchurch that wee bit more comfortable.

Straight away I started noticing that aesthetically, the car was well below the standard I had hoped for. Nearly every panel had some degree of dings and scratches, a whole bunch well beyond what a cut and polish would be able to tackle. The left rear wheel arch, quarter panel and left side of the bumper had clearly had a run-in with.. a wolverine or something.

The front bumper was sagging and the rear bumper had a whole heap of deep scuffs below the rear hatch. Turned out the owner was a builder, so the car had often been used as a work van, which showed as everything from the backs of the front seats to the door panels and rear window tints had all sorts of scuffs and scratches from materials and tools being crammed into it, as well as every nook and cranny being blessed with a healthy dose of saw dust and shavings.

The hood had a few indents and to top it off, right smack in the middle, a couple of dollar-coin-sized spots where bird sh*t had eaten away at the clear coat right through to the paint.

In the front, the driver's seat had a patch stitched onto it, covering up a hole, the arm rest was broken off, the middle of the dash above the stereo had something resembling a shoe print etched into it and the air bag wasn't sitting properly inside the steering wheel, half popping out on one side.

Oh, and the power mirrors didn't work, I was informed.

I was getting a bit overwhelmed, had a long drive ahead of me and was keen to hit the road. I'd come all this way, too late to back out now. We sorted out the payment, ownership and insurance and off I went before I lost all enthusiasm.

"At least she's solid mechanically," I murmured to myself.

Out on the open road, the car was a joy. The engine felt preppy, the handling sharp and she ate up the miles effortlessly. I made a wee detour through New Plymouth on my way to crash the night at some friends' place in Whanganui and was treated to some lovely views of a hill or some sort.

This was really the view I stopped to admire.

The next morning, I partially dismantled the dash to retrofit the multi-function steering wheel I had picked up the day before.

All in all, an easy enough mod to tackle, all of 3 wires to run and splice in and voila, she was now equipped with cruise control and media buttons.

It was a 5am start the next day and a quick sprint down to Wellington to catch the 9am ferry. I made the que with time to spare and later turned out I had needlessly been in a hurry, getting caught by a speeding camera just a few hundred meters before the terminal. Had been a while since my last speeding ticket to be fair.

Upon getting home after a close to 2,000km test drive, I embarked upon my traditional ritual after buying a new car - a seats-out deep clean. I may have gotten a bit carried away this time though as one thing led to another and, well, nek minit...

Oops

Edited January 26, 2022 by Vass

[Michael. 2312]

Looks like some fun is to be had. Also you have name your car Barbara? 

[Vass 697]

2 hours ago, Michael. said:

Looks like some fun is to be had. Also you have name your car Barbara? 

Aye, 'fun' is one way of putting it 

 

The car came with the name. I did think about alternatives but somehow it just stuck. Seems apt.

[Vass 697]

March '21
216,XXX km

On the trip down, the issues had kept on piling up. The windshield washer pump wasn't working, nor was the rear window wiper. The speakers were rattling at even the slightest hint of bass and most annoyingly of all, going over uneven patches of road that I wouldn't even classify as bumps at highway speeds, the rear tyres would rub against the fenders. All things to address further down the line.

"At least she's solid mechanically," I kept on reassuring myself.

For now, the dismantling continued, with the main bish jealously looking on.

All the interior pillars had been rather shabbily redone, the fabric had become stiff and crunchy with visible patches where it had been saturated through with liquid glue and had begun to peel again. Definitely needed a do-over.

 Up until now, I'd somehow also failed to notice the headliner beginning to sag in a few places, as well as having a few rips and poke holes through it. So, out it came.

Went on a wee shopping spree, bought a shop vac, a pressure washer, a steam cleaner as well as a Bissell carpet cleaner. She might be a bit ragged, but at least she'll be clean as. Got the carpets looking all crisp.

Next, onto the seats. The alcantara was looking a bit tired so went with a wee hack with a lint remover. Topped it off with a soft brush and a little diluted Koch-Chemie MZR to remove some of the lighter stains and they came out looking a lot fresher.

Best $7 ever spent. What an absolute trooper of a device.

Next, onto the interior plastics. Went through all of the scratched up center console bits, scraping off the rubberised plastic gunk to expose the bare plastic with the help of warm water, scrub pads and some plastic pry tools. Absolute menace of a job, took a solid 3 nights of scrubbing and had skin peeling off the fingers by the end, but makes such a difference every time. Treated all the bits with Aerospace 303 to finish it off.

By this point, this had snowballed way beyond the scope I'd ever intended, much to my despair, and to the dismay of my housemate/landlord as I managed to occupy nearly the whole garage for the better part of two months.

Oops

[Vass 697]

April '21
216,XXX km

With the car still in bits, I got onto stripping the headliner of the nasty foam gunk to get it ready for reupholstering. That's one of those jobs that I didn't trust myself to do a clean enough job so opted to have it professionally handled instead, whilst doing some of the prep work myself.

Nasty ass task, but actually ended up not being as bad as I'd feared.

While the headliner & pillars were in the shop, I kept myself busy by refreshing the steering wheel. The wheel wasn't in terrible condition, I've definitely seen worse, but was showing slight signs of age so thought I'd get ahead of it. Went with a genuine leather wrap with black stitching from Mewant to keep it clean and minimal. After a few hours of mucking about and stabbing myself a good number of times, it came out looking a solid 4/5. The slight added thickness was definitely noticeable, but really only a problem if you want to be super picky. Also figured out why the airbag wasn't sitting properly - a simple matter of slotting the airbag wires back into the wee groove on the top side of the wheel.

Also took apart the mirrors for a good clean and to check if there was anything obvious causing the issue - no luck. Nothing stuck out as being missing or out of place and the infamous ribbons all seemed to be intact. Really not keen to have to shell out for new motors...

Yikes! Did clean up a few spider webs tho.

Had no luck with the dashboard either. No amount of scrubbing or blasting it with steam did anything to get rid of the bloody "footprint". I guess I can live with it for now.

Whilst demolishing the interior, I came across a whole bunch of wiring that seemed to be either unconnected to anything or not doing much regardless, likely some old stereo system or the sort from it's former life in Japan. Won't be needing any of that anymore.

Finally got the headliner and pillars back. What a difference! Absolutely chuffed with how it came out. The folks at Cover It did a bang up job, would never have gotten anything close to as good a result with my own crooked hand stubs. 

Onto the reassembly.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Vass

[E28E30 334]

@Vass man you don’t muck around man. Looking amazing!  At least you only have the “footprint”:  On my recent MINI GP1 purchase I have the whole ugly metal thing, it won’t come off without ripping the lining off the dash top; it has well and truly baked on.  😡 

[Vass 697]

50 minutes ago, E28E30 said:

@Vass man you don’t muck around man. Looking amazing!  At least you only have the “footprint”:  On my recent MINI GP1 purchase I have the whole ugly metal thing, it won’t come off without ripping the lining off the dash top; it has well and truly baked on.  😡 

Bloody hell, was that thing screwed in there too? Will never understand why people do this type of sh*t. Akin to getting a tattoo on your forehead.

[E28E30 334]

2 minutes ago, Vass said:

Bloody hell, was that thing screwed in there too? Will never understand why people do this type of sh*t. Akin to getting a tattoo on your forehead.

Lol @Vass indeed it was screwed in. Removed screws with high hopes, but it is baked on 😕

Face tattoos lol

[Sammo 2476]

Dude, you are crushing it! awesome work - I do love an E46 wagon, wouldn't mind picking up one as a daily later in the year but my wife needs something to tow a horse float 😑

[Vass 697]

8 hours ago, Sammo said:

Dude, you are crushing it! awesome work - I do love an E46 wagon, wouldn't mind picking up one as a daily later in the year but my wife needs something to tow a horse float 😑

Ohh mate I feel ya! My missus has her Outback for that, tows alright being AWD and a 3L. Dread getting into it though, she cleans it about once a year at best, you can barely see the floor mats through all the hay, feels like a barn on wheels. Horse people ey... 

[Vass 697]

Still April '21
Still 216,XXX km

With the first bits going back on the car, I compiled a huge wishlist and went off on a scavenger hunt to Pick-A-Part.

Pulling the car apart had been like peeling an onion - the deeper I went, the more it made me want to cry. Absolutely no clue how or why someone had felt the need to dismantle some of the bits previously, but the level of care taken was that of a rabid sledgehammer. The absolute majority of the interior plastic bits were either cracked, had clips broken off or were scuffed up to hell. Some of the stuff seemed utterly idiotic. Instead of taking a bit of care to check where the bolts and clips were, or, I don't know, going on YouTube and watching any of the dozens 2-minute videos on how to take every single thing apart without breaking it, it seems that the approach was instead "right, f**k it, brute force it is." So a long list it was. Turned out to be a whole day exercise.

Buggered

Gone

Raped

Shagged

f**ked

Meh

Crap

A bunch of the bits were touring-specific, and we haven't had many of those being parted out down this way lately, but did get quite a few other things ticked off. Got a new armrest, rear rubbish compartment cover, nabbed a fresher-looking gear knob as the old one was rather crusty, all sorts of clips, bolts, wee sensors, fasteners and rubber bits that were tired or missing. Also found a tidy driver's storage compartment and a tidier looking rear seat center armrest off a local fella.

I did pick up some unbroken front wheel arch liners, but upon getting home discovered that the non-Msport ones had different air vent openings, so those were a no-go. Brand new ones are typically silly-money so ended up doing some zip-tie stitching instead. If anyone's got some tidy Msport arch liners laying around, hit me up.

The underside of the front bumper was also well shagged and had fastener points ripped out, so again, zip-ties to the rescue.

Actually lined up pretty well, and fixed the sagging issue to an acceptable degree. Not perfect but beggars can't be choosers I guess.

Also installed the tow bar I had taken off the coupe (who puts a tow bar on a coupe!?). Didn't get round to doing the wiring just yet, but at least I could now lug some pushbikes around.

Finally got the car to a point where I could actually drive it. Hallelujah. That's until a couple of trips to work later, the coolant light came on...

 

f**k.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Vass

[adro 1052]

Beast mode! Awesome work. 

[m325i 705]

Amazing work! More pics!

[Vass 697]

May '21
216,6XX km

I did notice a wee puddle forming under the front of the car whilst it was parked up for a month and a half, but was too preoccupied with other stuff to think much of it. Now it was in my face. The radiator was leaking from the top side right where the plastic connects into metal.

To the seller's credit, upon sharing this with him, he refunded $200 to go towards a replacement, which he absolutely did not have to do. "What a top bloke," I thought.

To his discredit though, once I'd received the parts and bought a few jugs of genuine bimmer coolant and started digging into the task...

I'm by no means an expert, nor a qualified mechanic, but from what I've gathered, the weakest parts on these engines are the rubber and plastic bits comprising the cooling system, and any piece of advice or best practice guide you will come across will tell you to replace all the cooling system components, if not done so already. So when the sale add started off with the bold claim that "anyone that knows me, knows how OCD I am about maintenance and preventative maintenance, so she has been maintained really well," and stating the cooling system had been overhauled, I was fully confident I'm buying a car where this aspect had been comprehensively addressed.

Little did I know that a "cooling system overhaul" apparently means replacing 20-year-old rubber cooling hoses with 20-year-old rubber cooling hoses pulled off from parts cars. Little did I know it would also mean I'd find a rusted up water pump dated 2002, an expansion tank dated 2010 and a thermostat dated 2012. What even is preventative maintenance? What even is the meaning of words, man?

At this point, all I could do is just laugh. I'd been had. All well and good getting refunded a couple hundred bucks when it was increasingly becoming clear I'd overpaid by a grand or two in the first place. Looking back, you start understanding why some of the sales photos were taken from slightly funny angles, angles that conveniently left a glaring defect just out of sight. You start noticing things left unsaid or worded a certain way. The funniest thing for me was the bit about oil changes, stating: "regular oil changes with Castrol Edge 5W30 and Hengst (the best) filters". What a random thing to mention a brand of oil filter, I thought.

What an even more random thing to lie about. Hilarious.

My laughter grew even louder not even a week later, when sitting at a red light this started happening:

"At least she's solid mech... f**k."

Basically, nearly every time you stood still behind a red light or at an intersection with the car in Drive for longer than 20 seconds, the gearbox would go into limp mode. You'd turn the car off and on and the problem would go away, until you stopped next time. Annoying as hell, but the way I figured out around it is to just switch the car into neutral every time I'm stuck behind a red light. I did read it's sometimes as simple as a sensor cable coming loose from the top of the gearbox. An absolute bastard to get to, as it sits on the upper passenger side of the box in a tight spot between the body. The clip did seem a bit loose. Managed to take it off, clean it as best I could with a brush, clipped it in securely and cleared the codes. No luck. It's been the workaround since then.

Having not even driven 3,000 km, the thought of selling up and cutting my losses did cross my mind, but I knew full well that even without those issues I'd be taking a loss of a few grand at least, and I couldn't in clean conscience put it up for sale without disclosing all the issues, which would attract all manner of low-balling opportunists that I didn't have the mental capacity to deal with.

I could call myself spoiled I guess. Having had my coupe for a good part of 2 years, and having done all the preventative steps right at the very beginning, I had enjoyed a few years of absolutely trouble free motoring, with the myth of BMW unreliability well and truly purged from my mind. This was a rude awakening.

Like it or not, I was stuck with her, for better or for worse. In all honesty though, would have been a bit boring if she didn't have issues. And I had a handy backup for when things inevitably went tits up, at least for the moment.

Onwards & upwards.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Vass
Spelling

[balancerider 702]

7 hours ago, Vass said:

Finally got the car to a point where I could actually drive it. Hallelujah. That's until a couple of trips to work later, the coolant light came on...

 

f**k.

Classic E46 failure mode 

[Vass 697]

2 minutes ago, balancerider said:

Classic E46 failure mode 

Loooove to see it 🙄

[qube 3568]

Amazing work though.. good on you for keeping on!

[Eagle 1515]

Man that sucks esp the transmission part. Reading through your thread it doesn't strike me as a car that had any love for along time. Like any forum there is trash masquerading as legitimate enthusiasts sadly. 

[Vass 697]

4 hours ago, Eagle said:

Man that sucks esp the transmission part. Reading through your thread it doesn't strike me as a car that had any love for along time. Like any forum there is trash masquerading as legitimate enthusiasts sadly. 

I wouldn't use such harsh labels but yeah, hard to mask the frustration all things considered. I guess my expectations were set quite high to begin with, which made disappointment that much more likely. Will definitely be more cautious next time before buying a car from a fellow enthusiast, sadly. Would almost prefer a car that's been completely neglected rather than one that's had god knows what done to it to an unknown standard. At least you know what you're getting and what needs to be done. 

It is what it is though. I do have big plans for it on the horizon. Stay tuned ✌️

Edited January 29, 2022 by Vass

[Vass 697]

November '21
221,XXX km

Fast forward a few months, the car had been in regular daily service without any major issues, but with some inevitable annoyances cropping up here and there. Having replaced the radiator, water pump and radiator hoses, it didn't give me much trouble for a while. The gearbox was still smoothly shifting through the gears but going into limp mode when stopped at a red, so I stuck to shifting it into neutral when having to stop for longer than 10 seconds.

Did a wee checkup and engine bay detail on both the babes at one point. Look bloody good side by side those two. The pulleys on the coupe were still fresh so was all trouble free, the wagon ones were in decent condition as well, only wanted a wee scrub. The one point of concern was a slight rattle in the power steering pump pulley. Can't seem to be able to upload a video for some reason, but seemed the whole shaft had a slight in-out movement. As I would have wanted to do a whole reservoir and hose replacement at some point anyway, I noted it down as a potential issue and left it for future me to deal with.

Then I ran into all sorts of issues with the lights. First off I noticed the fog lights and front indicators kept sucking in condensation every time it rained.

Annoyingly, the moisture was sucked in-between the two layers of glass, so took quite a while to dry those out. Was thinking of drilling a few tiny vent holes through the shell to solve the problem, but ended up coming into a different solution further down the line. The fog lights were a different story.

The state of them was horrendous. Not even sure how it was possible to get to such a condition but the coating was flaking and peeling off from both the in and outsides of the housing. As well as that, the fog light surrounds were missing altogether and one side's housing had a clip broken off so it was just rattling about. Luckily, I found a fella in Auckland with a couple spare that were in decent condition so had those shipped down, as well as getting brand new surrounds which were relatively cheap.

After a wash one weekend, I noticed one of the tail lights had a whole aquarium inside of it. Pulled it off to inspect and turner out it was coming apart at the seams nearly halfway down.

 

With some minor prying, it came apart altogether. Lucky it didn't fall off whilst driving. Cleaned up the surfaces and mated the housing back together with some clear epoxy. Seems to be doing the job.

Whilst I was at it, I replaced all 4 indicator bulbs that all had their coloured coating peeling off and were barely flashing orange anymore. Went with the cheapest ones for now, might go for clear ones further down the line.

Took the car out for a first wee road trip. Had a weekend away with a bunch of mates near the Rangitata River. Fun wee drive with some gravel roads thrown into the mix. Definitely enjoying the added practicality of a wagon compared to a coupe, perfect for road trips, exactly what I'd bought it for. I'm not much of a racer so the added size doesn't take much away from the driving experience.

I'm still yet to sort the rear wiper issue. The mechanism itself moves freely with the latch open, as it should, but seemed the motor just wasn't getting any power, with the likely culprit being a seared cable with the rubber tubing also being cracked open. Pretty hard to get to to solder up properly so is another thing added to the to-do list for the future.

Also, this:

Love to see it.

While messing about with the cooling system, I noticed the sway bar links looking pretty tired, so with WoF coming up at the end of November, I decided to tackle those instead of waiting to be pulled up on it.

The old ones came off fine, but putting the new ones in I ran into an issue that I should have checked for before embarking on the job. The stud didn't have a hex slot on the end of it to hold put for tightening, instead having a slim little slot for a spanner the other side of the plate it connects to. Every time I tried to tighten it, it kept jamming the spanner, making it impossible to remove afterwards. With the car jacked up in the air and the coupe having finally sold in October, all I was left to do is jump on my pushbike and pedal my way to Supercheap to pick up a cheap 18mm spanner, and then went to town on it on a bench grinder. Filed it down just enough to fit in and get the job done. Another item added to the BMW specialty tool collection.

With the car jacked up, I gave it a visual check over and to my absolute delight, found the diff bushing to be at the end of its life. I did start noticing a slight clunk coming from the rear when first taking off from being parked up overnight, and seemed to have found the culprit.

What an absolute bastard of a job that is. Luckily a mate of mine has a two post lift and was willing to help me out, so made the task a wee bit easier. Still ended up taking a whole day. Instead of taking the whole diff out, we took off the rear cover to get better access and went to town. First we tried pulling it out with a set of cups, a rod and an impact wrench but the thing was so rigidly stuck and rusted in place that the stainless steel rod just snapped off with a huge bang, nearly hitting one of us right in the noggin.

We tried being nice, but in the end had no choice but to resort to violence. Out with the old.

In with the new.

Topped the diff off with fresh fluid and she was good to go. The previous owner did note the diff oil had been changed, but at this point I wouldn't have been surprised if the "new" oil had come from the parts bin and run through a sieve or something, so was worth doing anyway.

She flew through WoF without a hiccup, but weirdly enough, after doing the diff bush, the clunking noise had only become more prominent. No clue what it might be at this stage. Could be some other bushing, or the springs. I wouldn't know what a cracked subframe mounting point would sound like, but I sure as f**k hope it isn't that. One to keep an eye on.

Also, I noticed this on the front shocks. I'm no expert, but shouldn't the end of the spring rest up against the edge of the indent here? I've never worked on suspension components before so have no experience to draw upon, but somehow this just doesn't look right.

On an aesthetic note, I gave the car a good thorough wash and clean, went over the exterior with a claybar and tried my hand at a basic hand polish. Did nothing to make any noticeable difference except to bring out the numerous imperfections even more. After failing at that, I've invested in a DA polisher whilst SCA had a decent sale on. Yet to try it out but keen to see what a difference it might make. Fully acknowledge that multiple panels will only be salvaged with a full respray, but might as well try and make it a bit more presentable in the meantime. Here's the glorious bird poo wound in all its glory:

Gave the wheels a mighty old scrub though, so those will look fresh for at least a couple of weeks, before being caked in brake dust once again. Never had that issue on the coupe which seemed to have had some dust-free compound pads installed. Will definitely look to switch over to those sometime in the future. Recommendations as to which ones are worth going for are very much welcome.

On the bright side, I finally invested in a decent headunit, going for an Android 10 double-din with an 8-core processor and 64GB storage off a random Kapud brand. An AliExpress special, but does seem decent enough quality and retains the OEM look. The only downside being the ~20 second startup time, but I was fully aware of that prior to purchase so no complaints there. I opted for that model as it didn't have a CD slot that most similar ones come with. I wouldn't have any use for it anyway, and without it, it looks a bit more minimal whilst leaving a lot more space inbehind to fit all the wiring. Also got a 3D printed HVAC relocation bracket from a UK seller on eBay for something like $40-50. Not cheap but holds the unit in nice and firm without any rattles. There seems to be a few more of similar ones that have popped up since then and are now cheaper as well. Worth a go if anyone's looking for one.

I also got a reverse camera that slots in neatly instead of one number plate light but turned out it didn't quite fit in properly, despite being marketed as e46-specific. Might have to butcher the plastic housing on it to make work but that's another thing I left for a later mission.

I thought the speakers were shot and I was prepared to tackle those as the next step, but the unit livened them right up. Gone are the rattles and the sound is now way crisper. Not audiophile level by any means, but to my untrained ear it's more than acceptable. Happy days.

[KwS 2373]

1 hour ago, Vass said:

It really sucks about all the issues you have encountered, but this shot right here should make it all worth it. There is just something about an E46 wagon.

[Vass 697]

50 minutes ago, KwS said:

It really sucks about all the issues you have encountered, but this shot right here should make it all worth it. There is just something about an E46 wagon.

Ohh sh*t yeah mate. All the hurdles aside, it's still a great car and exactly what I wanted. Something timeless about the design. Will be a mean machine once I iron out the main issues.

[Eagle 1515]

Slight end play on the PS pump is normal. Clunking could drive train, diff or worn trailing arm bushings. Does it only do it when cold?   

[aja540i 1896]

2 hours ago, Eagle said:

Slight end play on the PS pump is normal. Clunking could drive train, diff or worn trailing arm bushings. Does it only do it when cold?   

Subframe bushes??