der Mumienwagen; E91 330i Touring
Discussion
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!
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!
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.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!
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.
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!
Yeah this. I ran mine for 10 years with various leaks 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!
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.
Court_S said:
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.
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 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.
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.
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.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.
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.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.
Jakg said:
I don't see a line item on there for car cleaning supplies...
I recently bought a house and moved most (not all, yet, some are still in my rented storage unit) of my cleaning bits and pieces. I reckon I've over 200 bottles of god knows what, 3 pressure washers, 2 wet-dry hoovers, and maybe 10 boxes of brushes, cloths, and all that sort of thing. I've been so busy just saving to buy said house that the cars have had a rub of the brush at the work powerwasher once every couple of months 
I need to build myself a wash bay and detailing shed now 
I won't have to buy any supplies for a few years!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.
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.
When we had those few warm days in May the A/C in my 330i was only just managing to chill the air from the vents so I booked it in for Monday last week thinking I'd need it for a 200 mile trip last Wednesday, but I needn't have worried!
I got lucky with just a £70 regas (it has never been done in the 5 years I've had it) and this week I'm glad it's working properly.
Good luck fixing yours.
I got lucky with just a £70 regas (it has never been done in the 5 years I've had it) and this week I'm glad it's working properly.
Good luck fixing yours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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