How big is the boot bs a 5 touring? Also rear seats, lots of space?Changed cars recently
Part ex’ed my 2010 525d, bought it for £10k in 2017 on 100k miles and part ex’ed for £2k on 165k
Great car, smooth, comfy, refined, loads of space and powerful enough. Overall happy with the reliability but more recently did suffer with the common high mileage N57 problems. Other than tyres and brakes the repairs it had were: rear airbag, crank case pulley failed, rocker cover gasket oil leak, egr/throttle gunked up with carbon, heater blower failed, a couple track rod ends, one headlight let moisture in and one alloy cracked 2 times. Had a few minor niggles, rear parcel shelf was noisy so lived in the garage, driver’s seat creaked.
Considered a few options, needed to be big enough to fit 3 kids and wanted a petrol and a G model
6GT well spec’ed, loads of rear leg room but a bit of a boat
5 Series tourings were comfy, familiar but a bit muted
X5 great cabin and nice seats, wish all cars had big fuel tanks like this but ultimately ruled out as fair bit more expensive to buy, insure and run.
Ended up on a 2018 X3 M40i, ideally wanted one with ID7 and a sunroof but this came up with a factory towbar (rare option but useful for me) priced well at £26k on 51k miles at a non bmw main dealer, so happy to spend less.
It’s an early car on an 18plate and has a bit of a strange mix of options, essentially has the m sport plus pack but without the 21” wheels, the tech pack but without the display key and the comfort pack.
Enjoying the extra power and the noise, surprisingly quieter on the motorway compared to the 5 series but that may be because that was a bit old and worn.
Had to change to an iphone to use carplay as no android auto.
BMW and M Power Owners
- Thread starter panthro
- Start date
X3 isnt as big as the 5, the 5 has taken single bed and a large bookcase with the seat down.
the X3 is smaller so a bit easier to park
Here's a few resources i used when searching.
interior dimension : https://www.ridc.org.uk/features-reviews/out-and-about/choosing-car/car/520d-5dr-estate-2018
exterior https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/bmw-5-2010-estate-vs-bmw-x3-2017-suv/
if autotrader doesnt have the spec the only way i found to get the vin was here https://web.vinwiki.com/#/home but you need to create an account then use https://bimmer.work/
the X3 is smaller so a bit easier to park
Here's a few resources i used when searching.
interior dimension : https://www.ridc.org.uk/features-reviews/out-and-about/choosing-car/car/520d-5dr-estate-2018
exterior https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/bmw-5-2010-estate-vs-bmw-x3-2017-suv/
if autotrader doesnt have the spec the only way i found to get the vin was here https://web.vinwiki.com/#/home but you need to create an account then use https://bimmer.work/
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
It's basically a 3 series estate, so it's smaller than the 5 series.
Just saw that. Then puked
Rude.You were probably looking at that blue 5 series you posted
What would you get if you needed more space than the 440i gc offers?
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Hi there
Thought I would drop a post in here, so I've owned E60 M5, E46 M3 CSL, E46 M3 track car, E36 M3 and now I go one step further back and am in a childhood dream of mine an E30 325i Sport, some may ask why not E30 M3? Well it was never a childhood dream and well I've always loved straight 6 BMW's, I love the E30 M3 look but not the engine and as such always lusted over a 325i Sport, when I dreamt of one they were just a few grand, which at the time I could not afford I was driving around in cheap Peugeot 205 GTi's which I generally bought for less than a grand. Wind on a few years where I could afford one but performance was more at the front of my mind, but now it no longer is and so I am finally visiting a childhood dream, which for many might think what on earth it is just an old E30 but I owned a shed of an E30 320i when I was young and could not afford the 325i Sport and absolutely loved it even though it was a shed, rotten and unreliable.
So may I present you with my 1989 Mtech2 E30 325i Sport in Brilliant Red with just 6 previous owners and 135,000 miles, guy I've purchased it from owned it for 17 years and basically sorted all the rust and rot with a full strip down, new parts welded in and full respray 5-6 years ago, as such it is a pretty solid car, there is a small bubble on sunroof and a small bit on front wing, underside all solid as is boot, bulkhead, windshield area and footwells, though sunroof drains are leaking into cabin, something I need to resolve as this will be a daily driven car so needs to be made watertight and don't want to cause rot but very lucky to have to highly recommend E30 specialist on my doorstep with YorkeSport and Peak Racing, should I need any body or fabrication work in future.
The car drove the 60 mile trip home fault free and was smooth with all electrics working as they should, except central locking and interior lights don't illuminate when opening doors.
Upon getting home and starting to do jobs I am finding lots of a little minor issues but so far I have completed:
- Upgraded all halogens to Halfords 150% brighter bulbs, big improvement over the stock candles, but one high beam lens is welded solid to the cap and split, so need to buy a new pair and a previous owner has seemingly unplugged the passenger fog light and chopped the plug of the wiring, maybe a reason but shall re-wire back in and see if it works, but found a few random plugs and bare wires under the hood which for now have all been sealed to prevent shorting.
- Cleaned the ICV, MAF and throttle body, checked all hoses but have a high idle, circa 1200rpm when warm so suspect a vacuum leak, my throttle body elbow has come loose so could be this but I silicon it back and taped for a test, no change still ordered one of the modified elbows which solve that issue, but will get garage to investigate further if I cannot fix it as should idle 900rpm ish ideally.
- Fitted new spark plugs and air filter, car is now smoother and more responsive, old plugs were pretty black, so car might be rich, could be linked to high idle, again garage to fix if its a tuning issue, got new fuel filter to fit.
- Sunroof letting water into cabin at drain holes in footwells, garage to fix.
- Fuel gauge is bouncing around like crazy, suspect contacts need a clean on cluster and inspection lights not working so also probably needs new batteries soldering on, shall look this weekend into
- Central locking does not work, tried bypassing wires, no luck, ordered a new relay.
- Brakes work, all smooth but feel pretty weak, decided to fit new blank Brembo disc all round with Yellow Stuff pads along with brake fluid change to RBF 600, remember my old 525i been much better after this
- Also got new dizzy cap, arm and leads incoming from BMW, current ones are working OK but again just preventative maintenance.
- Shall also change engine, diff, gearbox oils along with PS and coolant fluids as good maintenance, plus AUX belt.
- Timing belt and water pump was done three years ago and its driven less than 1000 miles since then
- AC needs re-conditioning, converting and gassing to get it working once more.
Once I have done everything I can do as a home mechanic, then what I cannot do such as wiring issues or more complex jobs it will be handed to a specialist to finish my list of findings, once that is done it will go for a full machine polishing and 5yr ceramic at Autobrite, in the meantime I shall enjoy it and will continue to do so once done.
It is driving great as it is now, clocked over 100 miles in it now since collection but since changing plugs, cleaning the ICV, MAF and air filter it is running superb and a joy to drive, it also handles really great, shall have alignment checked but I can see it has negative camber dialled in, car is running new Toyo T1R tyres with 31psi front and 30psi rear, it is lowered on H&R springs (no idea what dampers are) and it has front and rear strut bars and is mainly poly bushed, it seems to handle great but once I've done brakes as per above I think I'd also like to consider a set of of coilovers, thinking Bilstein or KW just basic ones to further improve ride and maybe raise the cars height 5-10mm as I feel it is a tad too low and though it rides pretty nice I feel it could be a little less harsh. May also fit an E46 purple steering rack too as I'd forgot how slow the steering is on these old cars.
Lastly the wheels I am divided on them, at least they are not black as they have a silver lip with a gunmetal centre, but I think bright silver or chrome would look way better, or maybe try to hunt down a set of chrome BBS wheels in 15 or 16" I certainly don't want to go bigger as I am not keen on the 17" Alpina wheels so many fit to these.....
I have more pictures which shall post in a day or two.
Anyone familiar with these who has any tips, please feel free to share but drove it to work today, handled the commute and traffic jams just fine.
Oh also considering a Blaupunkt retro head unit, along with some decent Focal Speakers, hopefully will improve the sound system, any good audio specialist / fitters in Stoke/Stafford/Cheshire?
Thought I would drop a post in here, so I've owned E60 M5, E46 M3 CSL, E46 M3 track car, E36 M3 and now I go one step further back and am in a childhood dream of mine an E30 325i Sport, some may ask why not E30 M3? Well it was never a childhood dream and well I've always loved straight 6 BMW's, I love the E30 M3 look but not the engine and as such always lusted over a 325i Sport, when I dreamt of one they were just a few grand, which at the time I could not afford I was driving around in cheap Peugeot 205 GTi's which I generally bought for less than a grand. Wind on a few years where I could afford one but performance was more at the front of my mind, but now it no longer is and so I am finally visiting a childhood dream, which for many might think what on earth it is just an old E30 but I owned a shed of an E30 320i when I was young and could not afford the 325i Sport and absolutely loved it even though it was a shed, rotten and unreliable.
So may I present you with my 1989 Mtech2 E30 325i Sport in Brilliant Red with just 6 previous owners and 135,000 miles, guy I've purchased it from owned it for 17 years and basically sorted all the rust and rot with a full strip down, new parts welded in and full respray 5-6 years ago, as such it is a pretty solid car, there is a small bubble on sunroof and a small bit on front wing, underside all solid as is boot, bulkhead, windshield area and footwells, though sunroof drains are leaking into cabin, something I need to resolve as this will be a daily driven car so needs to be made watertight and don't want to cause rot but very lucky to have to highly recommend E30 specialist on my doorstep with YorkeSport and Peak Racing, should I need any body or fabrication work in future.
The car drove the 60 mile trip home fault free and was smooth with all electrics working as they should, except central locking and interior lights don't illuminate when opening doors.
Upon getting home and starting to do jobs I am finding lots of a little minor issues but so far I have completed:
- Upgraded all halogens to Halfords 150% brighter bulbs, big improvement over the stock candles, but one high beam lens is welded solid to the cap and split, so need to buy a new pair and a previous owner has seemingly unplugged the passenger fog light and chopped the plug of the wiring, maybe a reason but shall re-wire back in and see if it works, but found a few random plugs and bare wires under the hood which for now have all been sealed to prevent shorting.
- Cleaned the ICV, MAF and throttle body, checked all hoses but have a high idle, circa 1200rpm when warm so suspect a vacuum leak, my throttle body elbow has come loose so could be this but I silicon it back and taped for a test, no change still ordered one of the modified elbows which solve that issue, but will get garage to investigate further if I cannot fix it as should idle 900rpm ish ideally.
- Fitted new spark plugs and air filter, car is now smoother and more responsive, old plugs were pretty black, so car might be rich, could be linked to high idle, again garage to fix if its a tuning issue, got new fuel filter to fit.
- Sunroof letting water into cabin at drain holes in footwells, garage to fix.
- Fuel gauge is bouncing around like crazy, suspect contacts need a clean on cluster and inspection lights not working so also probably needs new batteries soldering on, shall look this weekend into
- Central locking does not work, tried bypassing wires, no luck, ordered a new relay.
- Brakes work, all smooth but feel pretty weak, decided to fit new blank Brembo disc all round with Yellow Stuff pads along with brake fluid change to RBF 600, remember my old 525i been much better after this
- Also got new dizzy cap, arm and leads incoming from BMW, current ones are working OK but again just preventative maintenance.
- Shall also change engine, diff, gearbox oils along with PS and coolant fluids as good maintenance, plus AUX belt.
- Timing belt and water pump was done three years ago and its driven less than 1000 miles since then
- AC needs re-conditioning, converting and gassing to get it working once more.
Once I have done everything I can do as a home mechanic, then what I cannot do such as wiring issues or more complex jobs it will be handed to a specialist to finish my list of findings, once that is done it will go for a full machine polishing and 5yr ceramic at Autobrite, in the meantime I shall enjoy it and will continue to do so once done.
It is driving great as it is now, clocked over 100 miles in it now since collection but since changing plugs, cleaning the ICV, MAF and air filter it is running superb and a joy to drive, it also handles really great, shall have alignment checked but I can see it has negative camber dialled in, car is running new Toyo T1R tyres with 31psi front and 30psi rear, it is lowered on H&R springs (no idea what dampers are) and it has front and rear strut bars and is mainly poly bushed, it seems to handle great but once I've done brakes as per above I think I'd also like to consider a set of of coilovers, thinking Bilstein or KW just basic ones to further improve ride and maybe raise the cars height 5-10mm as I feel it is a tad too low and though it rides pretty nice I feel it could be a little less harsh. May also fit an E46 purple steering rack too as I'd forgot how slow the steering is on these old cars.
Lastly the wheels I am divided on them, at least they are not black as they have a silver lip with a gunmetal centre, but I think bright silver or chrome would look way better, or maybe try to hunt down a set of chrome BBS wheels in 15 or 16" I certainly don't want to go bigger as I am not keen on the 17" Alpina wheels so many fit to these.....
I have more pictures which shall post in a day or two.
Anyone familiar with these who has any tips, please feel free to share but drove it to work today, handled the commute and traffic jams just fine.
Oh also considering a Blaupunkt retro head unit, along with some decent Focal Speakers, hopefully will improve the sound system, any good audio specialist / fitters in Stoke/Stafford/Cheshire?
Last edited:
Hi there
Thought I would drop a post in here, so I've owned E60 M5, E46 M3 CSL, E46 M3 track car, E36 M3 and now I go one step further back and am in a childhood dream of mine an E30 325i Sport, some may ask why not E30 M3? Well it was never a childhood dream and well I've always loved straight 6 BMW's, I love the E30 M3 look but not the engine and as such always lusted over a 325i Sport, when I dreamt of one they were just a few grand, which at the time I could not afford I was driving around in cheap Peugeot 205 GTi's which I generally bought for less than a grand. Wind on a few years where I could afford one but performance was more at the front of my mind, but now it no longer is and so I am finally visiting a childhood dream, which for many might think what on earth it is just an old E30 but I owned a shed of an E30 320i when I was young and could not afford the 325i Sport and absolutely loved it even though it was a shed, rotten and unreliable.
So may I present you with my 1989 Mtech2 E30 325i Sport in Brilliant Red with just 6 previous owners and 135,000 miles, guy I've purchased it from owned it for 17 years and basically sorted all the rust and rot with a full strip down, new parts welded in and full respray 5-6 years ago, as such it is a pretty solid car, there is a small bubble on sunroof and a small bit on front wing, underside all solid as is boot and footwells, though sunroof drains are leaking into cabin, something I need to resolve as this will be a daily driven car so needs to be made watertight and don't want to cause rot but very lucky to have to highly recommend E30 specialist on my doorstep with YorkeSport and Peak Racing, should I need any body or fabrication work in future.
The car drove the 60 mile trip home fault free and was smooth with all electrics working as they should.
Upon getting home and starting to do jobs I am finding lots of a little minor issues but so far I have completed:
- Upgraded all halogens to Halfords 150% brighter bulbs, big improvement over the stock candles, but one high beam lens is welded solid to the cap and split, so need to buy a new pair and a previous owner has seemingly unplugged the passenger fog light and chopped the plug of the wiring, maybe a reason but shall re-wire back in and see if it works, but found a few random plugs and bare wires under the hood which for now have all been sealed to prevent shorting.
- Cleaned the ICV, MAF and throttle body, checked all hoses but have a high idle, circa 1200rpm when warm so suspect a vacuum leak, my throttle body elbow has come loose so could be this but I silicon it back and taped for a test, no change still ordered one of the modified elbows which solve that issue, but will get garage to investigate further if I cannot fix it
- Fitted new spark plugs and air filter, car is now smoother and more responsive, old plugs were pretty black, so car might be rich, could be linked to high idle, again garage to fix if its a tuning issue
- Sunroof letting water into cabin at drain holes in footwells, garage to fix.
- Fuel gauge is bouncing around like crazy, suspect contacts need a clean on cluster and inspection lights not working so also probably needs new batteries soldering on too, shall look this weekend into
- Central locking does not work, tried bypassing wires, no luck, ordered a new relay.
- Brakes work, all smooth but feel pretty weak, decided to fit new blank Brembo disc all round with Yellow Stuff pads along with brake fluid change to RBF 600, remember my old 525i been much better after this
- Also got new dizzy cap, arm and leads incoming from BMW, current ones are working OK but again just preventative maintenance.
- Shall also change engine, diff, gearbox oils along with PS and coolant fluids as good maintenance, plus AUX belt.
- Timing belt and water pump was done three years ago and its driven less than 1000 miles since then
- AC needs re-conditioning, converting and gassing to get it working once more.
Once I have done everything I can do as a home mechanic, then what I cannot do such as wiring issues or more complex jobs it will be handed to a specialist to finish my list of findings, once that is done it will go for a full machine polishing and 5yr ceramic at Autobrite, in the meantime I shall enjoy it and will continue to do so once done.
It is driving great as it is now, clocked over 100 miles in it now since collection but since changing plugs, cleaning the ICV, MAF and filter it is running superb and a joy to drive, it also handles really great, shall have alignment checked but I can see it has negative camber dialled in, car is running new Toyo T1R tyres with 31psi front and 30psi rear, it is lowered on H&R springs (no idea what dampers are) and it has front and rear strut bars and is mainly poly bushed, it seems to handle great but once I've done brakes as per above I think I'd also like to consider a set of of coilovers, thinking Bilstein or KW just basic ones to further improve ride and maybe raise the cars height 5-10mm as I feel it is a tad too low and though it rides pretty nice I feel it could be a little less harsh. May also fit an E46 purple steering rack too as I'd forgot how slow the steering is on these old cars.
Lastly the wheels I am divided on them, at least they are not black as they have a silver lip with a gunmetal centre, but I think bright silver or chrome would look way better, or maybe try to hunt down a set of chrome BBS wheels in 15 or 16" I certainly don't want to go bigger as I am not keen on the 17" Alpina wheels so many fit to these.....
I have more pictures which shall post in a day or two.
Anyone familar with these who has any tips, please feel free to share but drove it to work today, handled the commute and traffic jams just fine.
Oh also considering a Blaupunkt retro head unit, along with some decent Focal Speakers, hopefully will improve the sound system, any good audio specialist / fitters in Stoke/Stafford/Cheshire?
Lovely car , kinda retro look which is what I like.
You have a great car collection @Gibbo, I do envy you!
Well the one up in scotland only wanted to offer £13.5k for mine.A 540i touring but without M4 style mirrors, an M5 grille or M performance stickers
Told them there is zero chance, especially as I've already had a private offer of £19.5k
May end up keeping the 440i GC and buy a cheap van :/
A 540i touring but without M4 style mirrors, an M5 grille or M performance stickers
That rules out about 90% of all available cars
I'm pretty sure unless it was renewed you wouldn't be covered if they cross reference the code dates and when the policy became active.
Exactly what I said in his thread
Just clear codes now... then wait lol
It's in the history... surely.
Unless you have ISTA they're stored, even then I'm not sure ISTA can completely erase the history. Even then the car may have told the mothership already.
The sills weren't too bad, but any rust was removed.
The whole job was 122 hours, not sure for the arches by themselves
Yes, a Reddish RACP strengthening kit was welded in along with and internal brace.
I'm not sure they've done a CSL, but they've had a few regular M3's in recently
Should last you a lifetime now