My old 330d used to have parking sensor problems if I'd washed the car using the pressure washer. It wasn't an electrical connector problem (tested with continuity tester), so I can only assume the sensors themselves tend to have bad seals?
BMW and M Power Owners
- Thread starter panthro
- Start date
It was that or stop on the motorway with my wife and father in law in the car. Short junction, less than a mile.
It's only a car, if the head has gone it'll be retirement time as I've just had the timing chain done and don't want to spend any more cash on it. Might be an excuse to finally get a VX220 and a supershed for daily driving.
Mine work and stop working intermittently. Replaced two of the sensors due to an accident but it turns out it's actually the harness wire, a little wiggle seems to sort it out.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
That is what the hard shoulder is for - passengers over the barrier so safe.
The only part of the M4 thats Smart Motorway with hard shoulder usage is 19-20 at Bristol, there is an emergency refuge area half way between the junctions which is better and safer than a hard shoulder even, fully lit with marked parking bays. Why on earth you'd drive past this with a seized waterpump only to stop on and therefore obstruct traffic on a sliproad I've no idea
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Soldato
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That is positively gleaming, which cleaner and polish did you use? I'm getting a sapphire black X3 tomorrow and will need to keep it shiny for the missus
Just the local polish car wash
Think they only use demon shine! 
[TW]Fox;27966667 said:The only part of the M4 thats Smart Motorway with hard shoulder usage is 19-20 at Bristol, there is an emergency refuge area half way between the junctions which is better and safer than a hard shoulder even, fully lit with marked parking bays. Why on earth you'd drive past this with a seized waterpump only to stop on and therefore obstruct traffic on a sliproad I've no idea
Joined at 28 heading east, hard shoulder does not start until you hit the bend at which point you can see junction 27. Issue started as I came up the slip road of 28 and had no hard shoulder. Once I got to the bend where hard shoulder starts I decided it best to exit the motorway as the slip road at 27 has a hard shoulder. I was, at that point, unaware of what the issue was. I had no power steering and that was it - temperature was fine. It wasn't until I pulled over and checked that I realised the belts had been thrown.
You're damn argumentative ;p.
I needed somewhere to store my golf clubs, so this seemed fitting:
Just ticked over 70k miles, and you wouldn't really tell from sitting in it. No leather, as the lovely lady indoors hates it. 6-cylinder E91s without leather aren't all that common sadly, so it was a fairly slim market.
I really wanted a 330i (or even crazily a 335i), but then this one came up at the right price with (almost) the right options, and it's an LCI. Given a choice between a 325 LCI, or a 330 pre-LCI, I think this is probably better long term.
The only thing lacking really is xenons and the ability to stream music over bluetooth, although I don't think you can do the latter on any of the E9x models? I'm also a little bit ambivalent about the wheels and sort of wished it had the 285 ones fitted, but I guess you can't have everything.
Just need to get the warranty sorted - It's got a FSH but then the dealer I bought it off did their own service and put their own stamp in the book. Assuming I keep up the service history with BMW dealers, I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issue with any warranty claims going forward?
Just ticked over 70k miles, and you wouldn't really tell from sitting in it. No leather, as the lovely lady indoors hates it. 6-cylinder E91s without leather aren't all that common sadly, so it was a fairly slim market.
I really wanted a 330i (or even crazily a 335i), but then this one came up at the right price with (almost) the right options, and it's an LCI. Given a choice between a 325 LCI, or a 330 pre-LCI, I think this is probably better long term.
The only thing lacking really is xenons and the ability to stream music over bluetooth, although I don't think you can do the latter on any of the E9x models? I'm also a little bit ambivalent about the wheels and sort of wished it had the 285 ones fitted, but I guess you can't have everything.
Just need to get the warranty sorted - It's got a FSH but then the dealer I bought it off did their own service and put their own stamp in the book. Assuming I keep up the service history with BMW dealers, I'm assuming there shouldn't be any issue with any warranty claims going forward?
You can buy the warranty if the car has non BMW SH as long as it was done to BMW standards by a VAT registered garage.
Sadly though the mileage on that car is too high for the good value warranty option, so it's going to be quite pricey.
As for 'all the right options' it only looks to have nav, what else does it have? Nice find with the LCI though, the iDrive will be massively better than a pre LCI car.
Sadly though the mileage on that car is too high for the good value warranty option, so it's going to be quite pricey.
As for 'all the right options' it only looks to have nav, what else does it have? Nice find with the LCI though, the iDrive will be massively better than a pre LCI car.
Pffft I concede on a technicality, that roads lack of hard shoulder isn't becuase it's a smart motorway
My 2011 E91 320d had Bluetooth streaming, not sure if it came with the pro nav option or was added later as standard though.
[TW]Fox;27967275 said:
Just checked the invoice, they're certainly VAT registered and I'm fairly sure it was just an oil/filter and plug change.
I looked up the cost and it'd be £53pm with a £250 excess. Not cheap, but I'm aware that the N53 can be a bit fussy, so contemplating it for piece of mind.
Options-wise, main ones I wanted were Pronav, cloth trim, parking sensors, auto lights/wipers and bluetooth phone. It's also got things like the BMW assist sim card and the lights package, but looking down the rest of the list I'm not sure what comes as standard on a 6-pot SE (cruise control? Auto dimming mirror?)
*edit* this one's Jan 2010, so no combox streaming for me
All of that is standard fit bar the Pro Nav (Of which BMW Assist is a part) and Bluetooth. The standard spec is pretty good.
IMHO I question the value of the £250 excess. Every time I look at the pricing I reckon the £100 excess is the sweet spot. £250 is such a big excess that you won't benefit from getting random niggles etc fixed because it won't be worth it, meaning you'll get far less value out of it.
You can retrofit the Combox btw but it's about 500 quid so probably not worth the bother. It'd also add Album Art and the ability to have multiple phones connected.
[TW]Fox;27967335 said:
Yeah, okay. Not a usable one that I could play music from. It was tucked in the glovebox, but could be used to update the nav, or load music onto the HDD.
Can't remember the build date on my 335d, but I believe it was an ex-BMW management car or something, so I'm told. It had a YE plate, which is meant to be significant. Couldn't believe it wasn't specced with the USB for playing music though.
[TW]Fox;27967368 said:
£100 excess is £73pm I think? Could just ask for MORE CASH from work, see what they say
Retrofitting seems to be a bit of a DIY job. Not sure I really care enough to want to go down that route.
Sounds a bit like mine - one USB in the glovebox.
Had an 'overheating' error appear yesterday after about 30 minutes driving and then a few minutes later 'overheated'. (Oil temp was fine).
Turned out to be a coolant airlock.
I could have sworn I read BMW's used sealed/closed coolant circuits, sparking some debate, so checking water levels was never on the 'to do' list. Emergency Service came out within half an hour and had it cleared shortly after.
Just curious how an airlock can develop? I've not opened the water cap since owning the vehicle (over a year) so unless when it had an oil service and MOT two weeks ago they've topped it up and trapped some air in there? Quite a bit came out...
The water pump is working fine and was continuously pumping once the air was cleared. My local Indy thinks it could be the thermostat.
Has anyone had this before or something similar?
Turned out to be a coolant airlock.
I could have sworn I read BMW's used sealed/closed coolant circuits, sparking some debate, so checking water levels was never on the 'to do' list. Emergency Service came out within half an hour and had it cleared shortly after.
Just curious how an airlock can develop? I've not opened the water cap since owning the vehicle (over a year) so unless when it had an oil service and MOT two weeks ago they've topped it up and trapped some air in there? Quite a bit came out...
The water pump is working fine and was continuously pumping once the air was cleared. My local Indy thinks it could be the thermostat.
Has anyone had this before or something similar?