New Car - e90 330d

[Danxr46]

Hi everyone,

After initially searching for months to find my ideal car and giving up it finally appeared. I have now been the owner of a e90 330d in Le Mans blue for 3 1/2 months and can say after the initial hiccups has been great.

I decided one last attempt at looking and late at night one appeared, so I left a voicemail. The next morning my call was returned and deposit was paid shortly after. I went to view and test drive then a week later took the car for ownership after its servicing and tyres being fitted. As I viewed in really hot weather there were no issues however when the weather returned cold or if it had been sat there was a lumpy idle issue. This was a few days after pickup and the car was in a local specialist garage who deemed it to be glow plugs. These were changed and at the time while the manifold was off I opted to get the swirl flap blanking kit fitted. The issue was still there the next morning and the kit wasn't fitted due to time so I decided to purchase myself and fit the next evening over a couple hours.

After fitment of the swirl flap kit on start up there was no issues at all and has been fine ever since. I can only put the issue initially down to potential swirl flap failure being imminent.

However I ended up with a car with new plugs covered under warranty and be fine for the rest of ownership and fornoeace of mind swirl flap kit fitted.

For the car it had 113,500 miles. Full service history with full black leather, I drive pro, xenons, access pack, fold rear seats, original folders and kits etc an more. The car then had an oil service, MOT, two new tyres and health check

Ive taken the car on various long trips and has returned some impressive mpg (see pics) all in comfort and luxury.

Only little niggles I've had which have been little and also a common one is the rear wire trunking for the lights had a wire go due to someone slamming the boot down but this was easily rectified. The other the angel eye on one side bulb was flickering. Initial thought was the bulb and I popped a new one in and checked, all was good until I closed the bonnet and fitted the multiple fasteners when it went out. In the end it turned out the connector in the back of the bulb was loose and came off so this again was easily rectified.

Ive attached a few pics below. I plan to fit a black grill, rear csl spoiler and tint rear set windows so tasteful but not chavvy. I also hope to get the car remapped but can't find where is best for money and cost. I fitted some carbon wrap but shortly after it started peeling from hot weather. The last pic also shows the result of the garage fitting the antibroll bar bolt in without checking so I end up with no washer fluid also!! As a pic shows below for half a tank it had a range of 650 miles which I don't think is normal haha however sometimes I wonder if it has been economy remapped. Another potential thing to do is a different colour for the wheels but I'm in two minds as yet. Other than that I'm happy with the car and hopefully have many years of happy ownership.

[Sparkzz]

I had one. It was very reliable and also good in snow on Vredstein winter tyres!

Pretty quick when mapped too.

Enjoy.

[cerb4.5lee]

A cracking car these I reckon and I had one for 6 years and over 150k miles, that's a lovely spec and Le Mans Blue is a stunning colour when clean I reckon(had 2 bmw's in that colour).

Enjoy it.

[Danxr46]

What was yours remapped to and who by? Yeah hopefully it will last a few years.

[Huskyman]

I used to have one and really bonded with it. I have some B3 (Birds custom valved) Bilstien dampers you can have for nothing if you want them, they need a refurb and some springs.
I used to change the oil every 10k in mine and it ran as sweet as a nut and it's still going strong

Edited by Huskyman on Friday 11th August 16:48

[Danxr46]

Hi. Yeah love the car so far. I think only a filter an map is what I'm planning. Oh right are they easy to fit and better over the standard m sport? I don't have much experience of bmw's if any and don't know if many people upgrade. That would be good though where are you located? What car did you move to as I can't imagine a can't that caters for everything better than this.

[Huskyman]

I'm in Soith Wales. The B12's were a big improvement over the standard stuff, and you have the 18s as well that make the cars handling a bit sweeter.
Bilstein do a refurb service for the dampers, I just never got around to it. The exhaust is a pretty big bore as standard and the air filter is mahoosive, so not really a thing to bother with aftermarket. Check the PCV valve and make sure that isn't blocked, it sits in the cam cover, if you change the air filter you're half way doing it anyway.
Enjoy it, just be careful about leaving the steering on full lock before engaging the steering lock when you take the key out, as this can cause the steering lock to fault. It did on mine.
I put 66k on mine and really enjoyed it. Give it a regular yahoo and don't do too many short journeys.
Have a look at this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SkVYNr8EZqE
And check the coolant is getting up to above 80 degrees otherwise the DPF doesn't regen,

[Danxr46]

Oh right well if I make the trip over there sometime I may take u up on the offer...cheers. Well I was thinking updated air filter like ITG pre remap. How trouble free was your 66k...? I'm just unsure on which remapped to go to. One quoted near 300 AND they have a rolling road but I doubt that figure.

[Huskyman]

it was pretty painless, but if you have the SF 6HP automatic transmission budget for £300 to get the ATF changed. These need doing every 80k. Enjoy the car mate it looks like a good un👍

[cerb4.5lee]

Huskyman said:

it was pretty painless, but if you have the SF 6HP automatic transmission budget for £300 to get the ATF changed. These need doing every 80k. Enjoy the car mate it looks like a good un??

It doesn't always need doing in my experience though, and sold mine with 157k on it without changing it(had it from 3 months old/3k miles).

I suppose it must depend on how it's used though, and mine was used mainly as a high mileage motorway car and maybe one that's used as a town car/short runs would need doing.

[Danxr46]

I know bmw say sealed for life so what is the idea of going against that? Also looking at some videos they say only change a proportion of the atf as some old fluid is required for the torque converter and so therefore the reason that when people have changed I've heard of them then having issues. Strange one.

[harrykul]

Absolutely change it: ours is done every 30/40k as you never get a "full change" for torque converter the reason you mention. Given the colour of the fluid when it comes out, God knows how BMW et al thought that it could go on forever without changes.

[Danxr46]

Do you get it done at the dealer or yourselves? I just don't get the reason behind bmw thought! Do you notice a different after? May do it when o do an oil change and service pre remap.

[twink]

Definitely get the box serviced. It's on the ZF website that the box should have the fluid changed below 100,000km or more frequently if driven harder. I had my 5 series done and it was much much smoother afterwards.

300bhp is also perfectly possible on the standard turbo. They'll top out around 320 but the DPF would need removing for that. 280-300is safe with the DPF in. It's a game I'm out of now but I used to do that for a living.

[Huskyman]

My 66k was fairly painless but I needed to do wear items in the suspension and replaced the steering rack and PAS pump. I agree 100% with twink! I would definitely replace the ATF fluid
See here https://www.zf.com/corporate/en_de/aftermarket/tec...

I came close to losing my box because of the stupid filled for life bks. Gear changes were getting a bit rough, so I decided to have it done. The fluid that came out was degraded and had it been in there any longer it would have buggered the gearbox. £300 to £400 or a new transmission for a few grand? Bit of a poser that one...

Oh btw I really like the colour if your new steed mate. It does look good. I'm on my third big six diesel beemer.

Edited by Huskyman on Saturday 12th August 11:37

[Danxr46]

Thanks for the comments. I have a list of things to do to the car not only to increase the life but make it slightly better. I will add a atf change to that. I think from what I saw 5.5 litres comes out and 2.5 stays in torque converter which is good for it....? I've added a black grill on front and plan to get a rear spoiler duck tail or csl.... somewhere round there. Also I will probably just prior to remap change engine oil, itg filter and possibly dpf removed then get it remapped all in to one. Do you people keep a can of tyre foam or keep your RF's? I've got some uniroyals on ATM which are the best for price and ratings which match Goodyear assy's but a few DB louder. I plan on keeping the car for a few years and then I'd imagine an f30 330d as an upgrade. I'm getting some good mpg too cruising at 70-75mph sitting at just over 50mpg on the needle and indicated.....if the journey is long enough a high of 54.3!!! Happy all round and dare I say better than my R32 Mk5 I had..... however we will wait and see how winter is 😮

[Danxr46]

Thanks for the comments. I have a list of things to do to the car not only to increase the life but make it slightly better. I will add a atf change to that. I think from what I saw 5.5 litres comes out and 2.5 stays in torque converter which is good for it....? I've added a black grill on front and plan to get a rear spoiler duck tail or csl.... somewhere round there. Also I will probably just prior to remap change engine oil, itg filter and possibly dpf removed then get it remapped all in to one. Do you people keep a can of tyre foam or keep your RF's? I've got some uniroyals on ATM which are the best for price and ratings which match Goodyear assy's but a few DB louder. I plan on keeping the car for a few years and then I'd imagine an f30 330d as an upgrade. I'm getting some good mpg too cruising at 70-75mph sitting at just over 50mpg on the needle and indicated.....if the journey is long enough a high of 54.3!!! Happy all round and dare I say better than my R32 Mk5 I had..... however we will wait and see how winter is 😮

[helix402]

No need to remove Dpf or egr if you feel tempted. They both do a good job of doing what they were designed for.