BMW and M Power Owners

Voxination said:
New battery hasn't fixed the issue :( The only other issue with the car is the Oil Level Sensor has gone kaput, could that have caused something else like a fuse to go?
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You got a bluetooth obd2 reader to check for fault codes or access to one?
 
mrk said:
You got a bluetooth obd2 reader to check for fault codes or access to one?
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Sadly not. Garage has diagnosed as faulty starter motor (completely frozen solid), quoted £120 for part and another £150-200 labor due to 3 hour job, sounds fair to me from my initial research?
 
Iirc it sits in behind the alternator, kind of depends what you need to remove to get to it ( the alt is simple but its very awkeard to get in behind it without stripping at least the intake stuff out).

Edit had a quick look seems best access is from the bottom, probably a pain the arse I'd happily pay 150 not to do
 
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One thing you can try before you get the starter done is to ensure that the battery & block both have good earths - free to do and a chugging starter is often attributed to dodgy earths.
 
My MOT is on Saturday but my light beam on both headlights isn't straight at all, it's more \__/ (not quite that pronounced, obviously).

I've tried wiggling, I've tried turning the adjusters, but nothing I do seems to make any difference to the beams.

Surely a headlamp can't fail? (the nearside one is slightly melted where the previous idiot put a higher rated bulb in but it passed last year with it)
 
Hey all. Rather than starting a new thread I thought I'd post here.

I'm looking at getting a 325 or 330, either coupe or estate with a manual. For my budget of about 4k I am looking at 8-12 year old cars. I have a few questions...

What sort of warning signs should I be looking out for when I inspect a 10 year old 3 series?

What are the different trim levels like se and ci? Is there anything I should avoid?

I've noticed that I don't seem to get much more car for 4.5k over 3k when looking at these cars. From experience is a 3k likely to be a dog?
 
There are only two trim levels, SE and Sport (there was a rare Clubsport version as well).

Ci isn't a trim level it simply shows that the car is a coupe or a convertible.

The early Ci models had a 'no trim' version instead of an SE, ie it was just a 330Ci not a Ci SE.
 
A shame really, you wont find a perfect 528i Touring for a grand and the problems you described with were very minor in the grand scheme of things. Any other you find could have any number of other things wrong, too.
 
Bradmax57 said:
Trader take it back?
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Yeah, right mardy *******, suggested if I wanted a new car I go to Sytner, to which I replied I dont expect a new car for a grand but I also dont expect it to be throwing oil through the vents when its sat in traffic..
I mean, its literally left residue on the vent fronts ffs..
 
[TW]Fox;25255744 said:
A shame really, you wont find a perfect 528i Touring for a grand and the problems you described with were very minor in the grand scheme of things. Any other you find could have any number of other things wrong, too.
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Very minor yes, but given the oil through the vents, the abs/tc randomly cutting out and the brakes being warped I decided that it would cost more to put right than the car was worth.
I'd have another one tbh, it was silky smooth and a comfy quiet car, body was a bit scabby but I really dont care about that sort of thing, its a grand car, problem with this one was its not really safe and given my missus was the second driver on it if the abs/tc spat its dummy out and she had the kids in the car, shes not been driving long and has never driven rwd and no abs...
 
I am thinking about buying a worthless bus at some point too (although I am not sure, I might spend more and get a current gen 5-series/E-Class instead)

I came to the conclusion that the 1 granders are just too far gone, up the budget to say 2.5-3 grand and you can get a facelifted E39 touring, ive seen some actually fairly OK ones for this money which are loads better than the type of stuff you will get right down at a grand.
 
Trig said:
Very minor yes, but given the oil through the vents, the abs/tc randomly cutting out and the brakes being warped I decided that it would cost more to put right than the car was worth.
I'd have another one tbh, it was silky smooth and a comfy quiet car, body was a bit scabby but I really dont care about that sort of thing, its a grand car, problem with this one was its not really safe and given my missus was the second driver on it if the abs/tc spat its dummy out and she had the kids in the car, shes not been driving long and has never driven rwd and no abs...
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You make it sound like a deathtrap when in reality a gasket for 20 quid and 60 miniutes labour would totally fix the oil problem, a new wheelspeed sensor would fix the ABS/TCS problem and new discs and pads are would fix the warp and are a consumable item you should expect to replace at some point on any car.
 
My 270+k mile 528i had a slight oil whiff coming from the vents, as Fox said its a simple gasket job.

And I cured a brief ABS fault merely by jet washing the wheels from behind!

You buy a £1k 5 series, chances are, at some point or other, its going to need odds & sods doing to it, ok, your oil problem sounded like it had gone way too far (the vents would always stink of the stuff if it was leaving residue which would be a bitch to replace) but the other stuff is pretty trivial.

You worry about safety for the Mrs, understandably, but imo she'd be as safe in the e39 as she would in many a much more modern car.

Shame you bought it from somebody who couldn't be bothered to get it to a more sellable standard, then again, had he done so it would have cost more than a grand!

No win.
 
commited said:
One thing you can try before you get the starter done is to ensure that the battery & block both have good earths - free to do and a chugging starter is often attributed to dodgy earths.
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Tried already I believe, but thanks for the tip :)



mrk and scratch (or anyone else who has had it done (fox?)) would you mind posting up some pics of your refurbed steering wheels, preferably in their current state now they've had some wear. Am strongly considering having it done again....
 
The only current pics I have of mine are in the advert:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...es-e46-330ci-sport---------------2004/1822473

To be honest I've only done roughly 2k miles since fitting it, so it really doesn't look much different to when it was new:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18526223

It's lost a little bit of the matt finish due to natural grease off my hands, but that could probably be sorted with a bit of cleaning.

I'd still highly recommend getting it done, even if just for the extra padding as it feels so much better in your hands.
 
Does look beautiful..... Bugger it will send him an email as I'll be going passed on the way to the meet anyway.

Did you ever sort out the gear stick?
 
No never did get round to sorting the gear stick. Jack quoted me £25 to retrim it which was a good price, but he couldn't do swaps so I left it there.
 
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