der Mumienwagen; E91 330i Touring

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d_a_n1979 said:

Haha yeah; it's such a lovely island though pal. It's home from home for me/us.

Haven't been since last June when I was really unwell so came home after one night. We might save it for September just as the schools have gone back; great tie for camping but also good fishing at Penmon/Moelfre too

I like it up there to be honest.

If you’re not tied to school holidays, I’d definitely avoid them (wish we still could ).

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I dawned on me tonight whilst give the 330i a wash, that we’ve had it just over a year. It’s covered 14k in that time and it’s a car that we both really like. It’s not always been plain sailing with a few issues along the way the flooded DME being the worst because it grounded the car. That was the only time it let us down.

I did work out a quick summary of what it’s cost to run in that time and it’s quite shocking….I spent almost the purchase price agin on repairs, preventative maintenance, consumables and mods / improvements. I’ve done pretty much everything myself too other than coding and alignment.

A brief summary is as follows;

Repairs

• A/C (initial regas, new condenser & regas, new high pressure line) - £525
• Replacement DME - £490
• Oil filter housing - £190
• Sump repair - £40
• New passenger side rear calliper - £75

Sub total: £1,310

Consumables

• Rear tyres - £300
• Front discs / pads - £140
• Oil (three changes) - £240
• Rear diff oil & plug - £30
• Gear box oil and plugs - £75
• Aux belt kit - £65

Sub total; £850

Total repairs / consumables - £2,160 (or £180 per month / 15.4p per mile)


Discretionary Spend (mods etc)

Paint

• Bumpers - £600
• Wheel refurb - £265

Sub total: £865

Interior

• Refurbed steering wheel - £190
• Gear gaiter - £50
• Handbrake grip / gaiter - £90
• Interior trim - £50
• LED bulbs - £15
• Replacement boot floor - £40
• Boot latch trim - £40
• Centre console end trim - £15
• Kick plate - £20
• Cubby - £30

Sub total: £540

Suspension

• Dampers - £250
• Eibach springs - £130
• M3 arms (not yet fitted) - £150
• Rear arms - £80
• Track rods - £45
• Drop links - £55
• Top mounts - £60
• Bump stops - £20
• ARB bushes - £75
• Alignment - £65

Sub total: £930

Miscellaneous

• FRM II inc. coding - £80
• M3 gearbox mounts - £30
• Rad hose - £30
• Mickey mouse flange - £15
• Boot struts - £30
• Shifter bush - £10
• Dark line rear lights - £250

Sub total: £445


Grand Total: £4,940!!!

The above excludes the random bolts and fixings that I’ve bought from BMW.

The biggest area of spend is the suspension and paint. The suspension was the fine (I.e. no issues with the MOT test) but given that the car is now on 173k, it seems like a good place to spend some money to keep it driving as nicely as possible. The paint makes it look much more presentable now the lacquer peel has gone.

Could we have bought a newer / ‘better’ touring probably. But it wouldn’t have been a six cylinder manual and there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t have needed tyres / brakes etc. I’m joking for a cheaper year this year. It’ll need rear discs and pads and I’d like to replace the CCV system and rocker cover gasket. Other than that it’ll just be servicing (hopefully).

Anyway, enough waffle.

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axel1990chp said:

Looking nice and fresh Sam, making me sad to look at though!

You would imagine that now you've thrown some big money at it this first year and you've given it that TLC, the bills should hopefully come down from now!

Absolutely love how it sits on those wheels

Cheers mate. Shame you had to cut your losses but running old cars can get expensive when you start to add it up.

I’m hoping that this year will be a bit easier. The A/C failure I missed so that’s on me and I could have left the suspension alone until it was properly shagged but I’d rather keep nibbling away.

The next big bill will be dealing with a bit of rust but I think that’ll keep until the spring now.

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d_a_n1979 said:

The way it goes Sam; some essentials, some nice to haves and some 'cos I bloody well want to' spending

I daren't add up what the likes of my E39 touring, 540i Saloon and now F31 have cost me

Yeah, it is what it is. Pissing around with cars is a hobby too I guess. It’s a much nicer car than the one I drive home in though, and we both really like it.

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ThingsBehindTheSun said:

This is the issue when you buy something older, have car OCD and want it to be perfect. I purchased a very tidy Megane Coupe a year ago. First thing I did was fit new number plates (cleaning behind them obviously) and new wiper blades.

Next I purchased all the original sales pamphlets from eBay and replaced a couple of broken interior trim pieces and a missing seat adjuster handle.

The door check strap was noisy so I bought a genuine one and all the door card clips which will inevitably break.

Full service kit and another set of wheels that I planned to refurbish.

A few weeks in I had already spent £500 on bits and pieces for a £4K car and the wheel refurbishment and tyres would have been another £800.

At this point I had a word with myself and stopped spending any more money, but I can see how you can get carried away when you want it to be perfect.

I think it can be just as bad with newer cars especially if you like to fiddle. I had mods bought before I even took delivery of my old M140i!

I just need to leave them alone….

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Jhonno said:

Still less than the payments on a new equivalent car..

That’s how I’m looking at it. My wife had a brand new MINI Cooper for three years which when I worked out how much it cost to have nothing to show for it at the end it was even more sobering. It was good for her from a day to day cost point of view (fuel and VED basically) but awful in every other way.

A cheaper year this year and it’ll start to look better.

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JakeT said:

The first year I had my 330i, I spent £2,500 on bits and pieces that I felt necessary. I’ve had mine nearly 5 years now and put 75k on it, and I’ve spent £7,000, not including cash bits and tyres.

Over my period the all-in running costs are about 30ppm, which I can take. The total spend on the car since new though is just over £21,000.

I agree though, it’s far better than running a new car, and the depreciation is very slim.

Also if you’re pulling the inlet to do the crankcase breathers have a thunk about doing the starter. I did both on mine in 2020 when it was at a similar mileage to yours as the starter was getting very tired.

I was thinking of doing the starter whilst the inlet was off because the hard work is done at that point. It’s a little lazy to start these days so it’s probably a wise call.

I’ll add a starter to the order when I buy a CCV (the one I’ve bought is going into the Z4 to see if it helps with oil consumption).

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JakeT said:

Not a bad plan. You could probably get yours refurbished if you’re so inclined. The OE one is made my Denso, and I got a reasonable deal on one from Opie oils.

New CCV didn’t really change my oil consumption, but I don’t mind adding some every so often.

My Z4 gets through a decent amount. The sump is weeping but as pointed out by GPM, if that much was leaking my drive would be a mess and it’s not. I’ve got the part and the gaskets, so I’ll change it and see if it makes a difference.

Might try a 5W 40 oil too.

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d_a_n1979 said:

Exactly Sam

I always knew re the F31 that I'd be stripping it right back and starting again re the brakes/suspension/cooling system - done it with all my BMWs and it wasn't going to stop with the F31

Just grateful that I've got the extended warranty too as that paid off well last year for the work it had with BMW; I'd have been pissed at having to for out for that work too on top of everything else TBF

Like yours; the F31 is a much, much better car than the one I collected Jan 2023!

Just a shame it spends more time gathering dust than it does being used

That’s the one saving grace; it’s covered 14k in that time which is on the higher side.

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Gallons Per Mile said:

It soon adds up, doesn't it! But you have a well sorted car now. You probably wouldn't get a better one for the money. I'm trying to keep the spend down on my E46 but it's difficult when tinkering with cars is your hobby!

It does indeed. It’d been even worse if I added up the odds and sods bought from BMW (fixings, bolts etc).

Your M3 must have had a fair bit spent n it over the time you owned it (which showed through considering how well it drove despite the mileage).

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Gallons Per Mile said:

Yep, it did! Similar to your car, I spent quite a bit on making the suspension right, and then on stuff that wasn't strictly needed like upgrading the diff...

If you're ever working in my neck of the woods again feel free to come over and see the E46

But that’ll be why it drove so nicely. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t!

I was down your way on Tuesday. I’ll drop you a message next time I’m down even if it’s just to chat guff about cars.

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Tom4398cc said:

Looking good Sam. And you have to consider your repairs and mods spend against no depreciation, possibly even a bit of appreciation.

True…at this rate though it’ll be reaching the levels of your Range Rover!

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pmorg4 said:

That's a big spend in a year for a car that was in pretty good condition for its age to begin with. That said, other than the ECU failure (which was just bad luck that it happened during your ownership and not previously) I'd bet that 90% of owners would just put up with the rest of it and drive the car with leaking gaskets and tired suspension etc. And of course all the mods are entirely discretionary, you could have spent nothing there or gone to town and spent twice as much.

In the end you've got a car that both looks great and most likely drives great. The E91 is a lovely thing, spacious enough as a family car without being huge, still has a bit of old-school feel with hydraulic steering, they sound nice with a 6-pot and are relatively easy to work on (well some of the time...)

Most of them are shagged these days as owners are happy to run them into the ground with only scheduled servicing. Yours definitely stands out from that pack by a huge margin!

True, the A/C issues and the DME were basically a quarter of the spend. One wash error (not spotting the A/C was dead on a cold day) and the other was just Sod’s Law.

I agree that most of these will be getting driven into the ground these days especially if you’re having to pay labour on top. The tourings especially seem to be pretty battered these days.

I think it’ll be quite a hard thing to replace for a BMW nerd: n/a six pot, RWD, manual etc.

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Swervin_Mervin said:

Yeah this. I ran mine for 10 years with various leaks

There's nothing there that most of us running them wouldn't have done at some point tbh - you've just done them all in one hit. Fingers crossed for 12mo of fairly cost-limited running now for you.

That’s what I’m hoping too. It might need a pair of rear discs and pads and I want to change the CCV because some of the pipes look a bit shot. Other than an oil change in 5k, that will hopefully be it for a while. I need to fit the M3 arms, but they’re in the garage waiting to go on.

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Mr Tidy said:

You may have spent a bit, but as you say some of those costs were about improving it to suit your taste. And I justify spending on mine on the basis it isn't depreciating!

I can relate to your potential replacement dilemma too. It's probably why I've had my manual 330i for 5 years and my Z4M for over 4. There's nothing I'd rather have really. Maybe a manual E90 M3 instead of my 330i, but I don't think I could justify the running costs for a daily driver that wouldn't get used properly.

The suspension was a bit of a surprise when I added it up but because it’s largely been done in after I’ve collected parts for a few months, you don’t really realise how much you’ve spent. Ultimately I don’t think this will be going any anytime soon especially if I spend a bit on the bodywork next year.

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Jakg said:

I don't see a line item on there for car cleaning supplies...

I daren’t add that up, I’m not that stupid!

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Looks like the 330i is about to chuck up another A/C related bill today…

My wife got home tonight saying that the A/C wasn’t blowing cold. I had a quick poke around the engine bay and there is green dye under the compressor. It looks like that has failed just as the weather warms up….FFS. What a couple of days.

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JakeT said:

What poo.

Denso make the compressor BTW. I took out a Denso one and put one back in. I think Opie supplied it.

Cheers. I’ve looked at a few online but will check out Opie.

Sod’s Law it happens just as it warms up.

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Some good news on the 330i today….

The insurance renewal came through at over £600 up from £450 last year. Quick trip to Confused and the lowered quite was £195!!! Quite a drop.

The reviews of RAC car insurance are less than stellar but opting for Lloyds only adds £35, which I’ll get back in cashback.

MOT is due next week. Joy.

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The A/C chap popped round this afternoon and confirmed that the compressor has let go.

He’s really busy now it’s warmed up and probably can’t do much until July. So it looks like I’ll be tackling the installation myself and getting him to gas it.

Access looks a bit rubbish, so I think I’m going to listen to him and drain the coolant so I can remove hoses to give myself as much room as possible. The coolant could do with flushing anyway because there’s some oil in it from the cooker gasket leak.

He reckons a decent used compressor isn’t too much of an issue and Quarry Motors happen to have one.