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300K PROJECT LOG E46 330cd

5K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  E46330dMSPORT 
#1 ·
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Personal luxury car Coupé


HISTORY AND WORK LOG FOR E46 330cd SPORT COUPE. from 235,000 miles to 300,000 and beyond.

car has decat downpipe from Ecotune, performance tuning box. ran 1/4 mile in 14.01 seconds in 2006........................
 
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#2 ·
I have a 2004 E46 330cd that I am planning on getting to 300k. It has 235k on the clock and I have just done an oil service using Exol 0W30 Optima oil. I have done every previous oil service using Castrol Edge 0W30 from 90k - 235k at 12-15k intervals, without fail. I am now going to make those changes at 10k intervals, using the Optima Oil. Most of the mileage is on motorways and when I had the car serviced by BMW I often hit 20k for oil change services using the service indicator/computer.

The car was bought from Synter in 2004 with 500 miles on the clock. Its been pretty reliable.

Below is a quick summary off the top of my head, listing the more major things I have done to this car, I have deliberately missed off some of the more minor things like oil services and the grief I had in November last year when no 6 Injector was blown clean out of the engine, which took a whole day to fix and £15.00 of parts.

Going forward I will be logging everything.

I want to record the work I do on the car and the money I spend on it in one place, to see just how cost effective it really is to run a high mileage BMW.

BMW service for 1st 90k, for what that's worth. Had a new Turbo and updated inlet manifold at 60k when one of the swirl flaps came loose.

109k clutch and 2nd hand flywheel, guibo, also changed Front trailing arm bushes for Powerflex

150k refurbished Injectors, also replaced exhaust manifold as it had started to crack. Found that one of the studs that support the turbo had not been fitted, which put strain on the manifold. Wonder who forget to fit that? Also fitted a decat downpipe from Ecotune Scotland

175k Serpentine belt + Vibration Damper, Starter Motor

190k Guibo & prop ctr bearing, new front shocks and rear struts, rear trailing arm bush.

200k fitted aftermarket intercooler, when i suspected that the original one had a leak, turned out to be a leaking hose. Always wanted a FMIC anyway, so happy days!

215k replaced gearbox oil, replaced front contol arms - originals had done well to get to 215k, visually did not need to be replaced, but was trying to diagnose a vagueness in the handling and some tramlining. Ended up being a worn steering tie rod end joint that was only 6 months old, only discovered after changing the steering rack.

220k Starter Motor

225k thermostat, removed egr cooler.
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Brad
 
#3 ·
Rear brake pads, wear sensor and handbrake adjustment

needed doing. took 1hr15minutes, most of the time was spent looking for the tools.lol and fiddling with the stupid clips that hold the wear sensor wiring.

jack up rear of car, adjust handbrake with a screwdriver through one of the holes in the housing, replace wear sensor and fit new pads. pics show that there was very little meat left on the pads. Original Rotors that are just about hanging in there.

Auto part Automotive tire Tire Wheel Vehicle brake
Auto part Automotive tire


pads cost me £16.00 and the replacement sensor was £4.00

Brad
 
#6 ·
cheers Ian @ Chiptune Guy,

spot on, so long as you look after these cars 300k+ should be easy.

I am a great believer in getting value from any knowledge and experience that gain in the process. The value for me comes from re-using any tools that I have to buy, time savings from regular work that needs to be done ie. oil changes get quicker and quicker and so on.

biggie for me though is that my car just seems to drive nicer than the E90s that I have tried, including my wifes.......

Brad
 
#11 ·
UPDATE 245K

now done 245k

been an expensive few months!

I had to replace the the steering track rods, even though the set on the car was only 6 months old! this is after having the last set only last 6 months. I gave the ebay seller the benefit of the doubt and ordered another set, only to have them last 6 months. I should of known. you get what you pay for! paid for my mistake in time and replacing parts that did not need to be replaced when chasing down handling/steering issues. pretty much all of this was because of the poor quality parts from........

name and shame. don't buy track control rods from this ebay seller..........

1stcarparts on eBay

cant speak for his other items, but I have now used 4 track control rods, from this guy and they all only lasted 6 months.

I fitted Meyle inner and outer assemblies @ £100.00. definitely put the receipt somewhere safe as they have a 2 year guarantee. lol live and learn.

UPDATE 245k

fitted a replacement steering coupling Guibo £60.00 or thereabouts from local BMW garage. easy job to do. need car on an axle stands on the drivers side (RHD car) remove aluminum reinforcement plate by undoing the 8 bolts and drop down revealing the coupling Guibo. This is a rubber bush with a double U link coupling encased in a metal shroud to protect it from the exhaust and turbo heat. there are 2 x E10 star bolts to undo and then the guibo cab be pulled away from by removing it from the steering wheel end first. the connections are keyed, but I made sure the steering wheel was locked in place. not sure if it made any difference, although I think my steering does feel a bit tighter. This was one of the things I replaced when trying to diagnose the steering issues when using those poor quality track control rods!

UPDADE 245k

oil service, fuel filter

UPDATE 245k

At about 240k the upgraded decat downpipe split. the downpipe was supplied by Ecotune. Stan and Campbell at Ecotune were fantastic and repaired the pipe FOC as it had a lifetime warranty.

I decided to buy one of their iFlash upgrades, on the basis that they saved me the cost of the replacement downpipe.lol. and I had read good reviews of the product and their service, plus I had never mapped my car.

Ecotune - economy tuning and performance tuning for cars and commercial vehicles, ecu remap, custom mapping, economy improvement - Ecotune UK Ltd

long story short. the upgrade was very straightforward, but my clutch couldnt handle the extra power. I was sort of expecting that as it had done 130k and was not new when I fitted it. lol. I asked for the max output tune because, well, whats the point otherwise and I do have a larger intercooler.lol.

I was also getting a rumble on acceleration that was probably the DMF, based on what Ecotune had told me and other comments on the internet.

1 x New clutch @ DMF from Eurocarparts £540.00. fitted by me on my gravel drive in the rain(well it was raining in the evening when I pulled the gearbox) took about 7 hours all in, but wasted 1 hour removing the DMF as I had to mod one of my tools to get the deeper access for its mounting bolts. also 1 hour wasted trying to refit the gearbox when it nearly fell off the trolley jack. Had a nice bath when I finished.

rumble was still the same under acceleration. Ecotune produced a remap with less torque that reduced the rumble to almost nothing, but I wasn't convinced it was the DMF as it was the same on the 240k DMF and the new one. turned out to be worn rear shocks and mounts, which I replaced. Meyle HD mounts £14.00 and new original OEM shocks £110.00

Ecotune have now provided a map that sits somewhere between the two maps in terms of its torque.

happy for now, but want to re-visit this as I will be taking the cat to Santa Pod later this year.

UPDATE 245k

on this service I noticed that I had lost a couple of the reinforcement plate bolts. After checking up on this, there is a specific tightening torque needed for these bolts and then a extra 90 degree +/-30 degree turn is needed. Ideal these bolts should be replaced every time you remove the reinforcement plate as they are designed to stretch when you install them and are considered a single use item by BMW, similar to the cylinder head bolts. I must have refitted these bolts more than 10 times!. not a problem maybe 2-3 times if you do it yourself and are very anal and follow the correct tightening procedure.

I treated myself to 8 new bolts £16.00. the upside is that the car feels significantly better on the road and over rough surfaces. I only just replaced them and haven't been on a long drive, but that single improvement on a short trip was enough to motivate me to update this thread! If you have never fitted new bolts and have removed the reinforcement plate, I say that this would be very worthwhile and you would be missing a trick. budget way to get the lb/ft setting would be to use a 12" long wrench with a fisher mans style scale. my wrench is 18" long so I divided the lb/ft by 1.5.
 
#12 ·
hi David,

worth looking at the rear shocks and mounts. you can get Meyle HD rear shock mounts on ebay for £15.00, or so and its a pretty straightforward job. just got to remove the left and right boot carpet to get to the top of the shock towers and unbolt them. The shocks come out from underneath the car, which can be done without even lifting the car.

also worth checking the propshaft bearing and Donut(Guibo), although they tend to get noisy at high revs. bit more involved as you got to remove the exhaust.

do you get a metallic clonk when coming off the accelerator?

Brad
 
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