E46 325i Sport
Discussion
Pablo16v said:
I remember when I was looking for a 325i or 330i Touring back in 2009/10 and there wasn't a huge amount to choose from within a 100-150 mile area, but plenty of 320d's, loads in fact. Luckily the 2003 325i Touring I ended up buying was spotted in the Pistonheads classifieds by a pal and was just 30 minutes away from where I lived.
I remember having the same problem trying to find a manual 325i or 330i for my nephew in 2016 but got lucky when we found his Imola Red 325i Sport. I was looking for an E91 in 2018 and it was the same problem finding manual 6 cylinder petrols, then a 325i appeared about 30 miles away.
Another quick update. I got the CCV (or whatever it's called) changed the other day. I thought I'd need to take the inlet manifold off but it turns out you don't have to.It's a tight fit but it all goes in ok. I broke the old parts out because they were brittle and about to snap anyway, then carefully put the new parts back in.
Here's the new CCV in place. You can't even see it when the car's fully back together:
A zoomed out version of the pic above. You can make access quite easily to get to it but you have to take a few things off to get there!
New pipework up top:
I forgot to change the oil level sensor when I did the service the other week. The orange light on the dash was annoying me so I cleaned up a drain bucket, dropped the oil, changed the sensor and put the oil back in the top. This has solved my orange oil can light:
While I was tinkering I couldn't help but notice the state of the washer bottle. It was rather dirty inside so I drained what was in there and washed it out. It didn't come up too badly for a quick clean. Before:
And after:
I also put my standard screenwash in that I use across all my cars so I won't get the sludgy buildup in the bottom of the tank and on the filter before the pump.
Last but not least, I've fitted a temporary audio solution. I wanted to be able to stick a load of music on USB so I'd have plenty to listen to on the motorways across Europe when I take this thing to Hungary and back in the near future. I definitely don't want to keep this setup as it's ugly and I'm and OEM geek, but it works and it's made the 3 working speakers sound much better. I need to solder some wires for the driver's front speaker because it usually doesn't work, but if you open the door and poke the wiring it does again. Hard to do while flat out on the Autobahn so I'll have to fix it...
I'll probably research an OEM widescreen/nav retrofit and put that in, and then possibly a BlueBus device and use my phone as the store of music and bluetooth stream it to the car, but we'll see.
While sorting out all the above I noticed a few other bits that need fixing. I thought my sump gasket was leaking (and it may well be still) but while I was under the inlet manifold I realised the oil leak was much higher up than just the sump area. There's definitely a leak from the oil filter housing, so a new £2 gasket is on its way. The engine mounts are also kaput so I've got some Lemforder ones in the post too. Lastly, from the Vanos work I noticed the exhaust cam position sensor was leaking oil seemingly through the sensor, so that's going to be replaced too. It's basically ready for the big Euro drive though, can't wait!
Here's the new CCV in place. You can't even see it when the car's fully back together:
A zoomed out version of the pic above. You can make access quite easily to get to it but you have to take a few things off to get there!
New pipework up top:
I forgot to change the oil level sensor when I did the service the other week. The orange light on the dash was annoying me so I cleaned up a drain bucket, dropped the oil, changed the sensor and put the oil back in the top. This has solved my orange oil can light:
While I was tinkering I couldn't help but notice the state of the washer bottle. It was rather dirty inside so I drained what was in there and washed it out. It didn't come up too badly for a quick clean. Before:
And after:
I also put my standard screenwash in that I use across all my cars so I won't get the sludgy buildup in the bottom of the tank and on the filter before the pump.
Last but not least, I've fitted a temporary audio solution. I wanted to be able to stick a load of music on USB so I'd have plenty to listen to on the motorways across Europe when I take this thing to Hungary and back in the near future. I definitely don't want to keep this setup as it's ugly and I'm and OEM geek, but it works and it's made the 3 working speakers sound much better. I need to solder some wires for the driver's front speaker because it usually doesn't work, but if you open the door and poke the wiring it does again. Hard to do while flat out on the Autobahn so I'll have to fix it...
I'll probably research an OEM widescreen/nav retrofit and put that in, and then possibly a BlueBus device and use my phone as the store of music and bluetooth stream it to the car, but we'll see.
While sorting out all the above I noticed a few other bits that need fixing. I thought my sump gasket was leaking (and it may well be still) but while I was under the inlet manifold I realised the oil leak was much higher up than just the sump area. There's definitely a leak from the oil filter housing, so a new £2 gasket is on its way. The engine mounts are also kaput so I've got some Lemforder ones in the post too. Lastly, from the Vanos work I noticed the exhaust cam position sensor was leaking oil seemingly through the sensor, so that's going to be replaced too. It's basically ready for the big Euro drive though, can't wait!
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