The new daily - E46 330i Touring

[MR_Y]

Admins, we need a special title for guys like Benji on this forum.
"Well Known Member" should be upgraded to "Blood, sweat and tears Fanatic", or something like that.

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

Adnins, we need a special title for guys like Benji on this forum.
"Well Known Member" should be upgraded to "Blood, sweat and beers Fanatic", or something like that.

There I fixed it for you 🤪

 

[Benji]

There I fixed it for you 🤪

Thank you for fixing that important detail, beer lubricates high quality work Found this pic after a typical weekend of work, you could play a game of "count the bottles"

 

[Sabretooth tiger]

Thank you for fixing that important detail, beer lubricates high quality work Found this pic after a typical weekend of work, you could play a game of "count the bottles"
View attachment 21499

now that's what I call a productive weekend.

 

[rodga]

My chinese android radio finally arrived after delays from Alibaba, applying for a refund and then ordering from Aliexpress instead.

I am so far very pleased with this unit, it looks OEM and works as OEM with the added benefit of Andoid Auto (soundcloud, spotify etc), Google assistant, 128 gig onboard memory etc. It even has the useless ability to mount a SIM card so I can make the car a wifi hotspot.

All nicely mounted with the proper HVAC relocation bracket which is in much better condition than my old one. I just need to mount the USB ports properly so that it all looks OEM:
View attachment 21498

Looking good, thats the unt I want, not really a fan of the ipad type ones. There is another one with the buttons on the bottom which also looks good.
Can you share a link for the one you got?

 

[Benji]

Looking good, thats the unt I want, not really a fan of the ipad type ones. There is another one with the buttons on the bottom which also looks good.
Can you share a link for the one you got?

Yeah same, I think this is the most OEM looking unit available:

CHSTEK Qualcomm 8+128G Android 11 Car Radio DVD GPS Navigation For BMW 3 Series E46 M3 1998-2007 CarPlay Head Unit Auto Stereo - AliExpress 34

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

 

[Benji]

Wired up my Golf 7 Dynaudio sparewheel subwoofer yesterday. It is running off a cheapie Starsound mini amp mounted in an unused space under the bootfloor. I must say I am pretty impressed with the level of bass provided by the sub - it wont win any awards, but does bring that all important bass to music and uses literally no space.

This has however, highlighted just how catastrophically terrible the standard BMW speakers are. BMW mounted unusually rubbish speakers in imaginatively stupid locations. The front doors play no bass at all, leaving this weird tinny sound with an almost disconnected bass from the subwoofer. There is absolutely no "staging" as BMW mounted the rear speakers in the boot, facing backwards under the boot cover. Yes really.

So, by upgrading my sound, I have made it worse 🤷‍♂️ I'll see what I can tune out before I muster up the dosh to upgrade the rest of the speakers. I have a set of doorcards with the Hi-Fi 8 Ohm "mids" in the door cards which I want to try incorporate somehow, specifically for the rear doors. I am thinking of a component speaker system with the tweeters mounted in the rear doors, or maybe even run the 8Ohm "mids" instead of the tweeter that comes with the component system. Will need to experiment a bit to see what sounds good without getting carried away into a massive audio upgrade project.

 

[M3boi]

Yeah same, I think this is the most OEM looking unit available:

CHSTEK Qualcomm 8+128G Android 11 Car Radio DVD GPS Navigation For BMW 3 Series E46 M3 1998-2007 CarPlay Head Unit Auto Stereo - AliExpress 34

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

Hey Benji, how long did the headunit take to arrive? Guessing it came via the PO?

 

[VinceM]

PO has a new tendency of charging high fees for imports. They also add vat, clearance fees etc. that they didn’t pay attention to past year.

Might still be cheaper than local but be mindful of the added costs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Benji]

Hey Benji, how long did the headunit take to arrive? Guessing it came via the PO?

I ordered 2 units from the same supplier, one came via PO, one came via Fedex - weird. The PO one was about R80 in destination charges, Fedex wanted closer to R600, annoyingly. Both came in the same week, about 2 or 3 weeks after ordering

Have mounted the USBs properly, looks pretty OEM

 

[Benji]

I have done a thing...




A rather quite tasty set of E90 Sport Edition 18" Style 216 wheels Ive been searching for a set for a couple months now and made this happen with scouting help from a forum member, convincing someone to swap the wheels on their car with normal 18" M-sports, frantic searching for said M-sport wheels on FBMP, driving out to Lanseria to collect said wheels, driving to Lenasia to swap the wheels in the dark on a Friday evening in front of a bemused household. Worth it? Probably. I initially decided to run 17s as this is my daily and it should remain comfortable, but a daily is the one you see the most so should also be the coolest car, right? Anyway, currently running RFTs and the ride is surprisingly not noticeably worse. Win!

I also lifted the rear slightly by adding a thicker spring pad - this car is running OEM sedan 325i M-sport springs, so the rear was sitting a tad lower than the front and I didnt want to lower the front any more as my floor has been making too much contact with mother earth and all the speed bumps designed for Ford Ranger drivers.



Car is ticking along nicely and regularly returning 800km on a full tank, I need to do the 10,000km oil service as a matter of urgency now. Oh, I also need to wash the car, I am fairly embarrassed to say I have washed it twice in my 6 months of ownership. The petition for a 3 day weekend starts here...

 

[rodga]

What thickness spring pad did you go with?
You got a part number handy?

Sent from my SM-S908E using Tapatalk

 

[Benji]

What thickness spring pad did you go with?
You got a part number handy?

Sent from my SM-S908E using Tapatalk

5mm # 33 53 1 136 385
7.5mm # 33 53 1 136 386
9mm # 33 53 1 127 224
10mm # 33 53 1 136 387
14.5mm #33 53 1 094 754

When I said "adding a thicker springpad" I meant I a spare set of stock (I believe 5mm) pads lying around, so I just doubled up the top spring pad with some modification to make sure they located properly 👀

 

[rodga]

5mm # 33 53 1 136 385
7.5mm # 33 53 1 136 386
9mm # 33 53 1 127 224
10mm # 33 53 1 136 387
14.5mm #33 53 1 094 754

When I said "adding a thicker springpad" I meant I a spare set of stock (I believe 5mm) pads lying around, so I just doubled up the top spring pad with some modification to make sure they located properly

Ya was also planning to double up.
When I checked a while back they didn't have any in stock of the thicker pads

But these part numbers are useful thanks bud

I'm considering moving to 17s... The roads have not been kind to me. 2nd set of wheels that have been damaged by potholes now. With 2 tyres that were replaced in December.

Sent from my SM-S908E using Tapatalk

 

[VinceM]

800kms per tank is Impressive consumption.

I get 550kms per tank, same M54B30 (though my car, being a cabriolet, has extra weight).

Great choice for a daily. Impressive mileage too….first E46, I am seeing with plus 500 thousand kilometres.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[AshG108]

Impressive, that rim is scarce yep lifts the E90 so well!

love it!

 

[golfer23]

I have done a thing...

A rather quite tasty set of E90 Sport Edition 18" Style 216 wheels Ive been searching for a set for a couple months now and made this happen with scouting help from a forum member, convincing someone to swap the wheels on their car with normal 18" M-sports, frantic searching for said M-sport wheels on FBMP, driving out to Lanseria to collect said wheels, driving to Lenasia to swap the wheels in the dark on a Friday evening in front of a bemused household. Worth it? Probably. I initially decided to run 17s as this is my daily and it should remain comfortable, but a daily is the one you see the most so should also be the coolest car, right? Anyway, currently running RFTs and the ride is surprisingly not noticeably worse. Win!

I also lifted the rear slightly by adding a thicker spring pad - this car is running OEM sedan 325i M-sport springs, so the rear was sitting a tad lower than the front and I didnt want to lower the front any more as my floor has been making too much contact with mother earth and all the speed bumps designed for Ford Ranger drivers.

Car is ticking along nicely and regularly returning 800km on a full tank, I need to do the 10,000km oil service as a matter of urgency now. Oh, I also need to wash the car, I am fairly embarrassed to say I have washed it twice in my 6 months of ownership. The petition for a 3 day weekend starts here...

car looks great!

if you ever think of selling those wheels..........shotgun! thanks.

 

[Benji]

car looks great!

if you ever think of selling those wheels..........shotgun! thanks.

I have a "set" of 3 wheels I am trying to get rid off...

 

[Benji]

Besides my patriotic duties, the daily got some much needed love on voting day. Changed oil, fuel and air filters and sparkplugs.

Found a bit of oil down sparkplug #2 well, will keep an eye on it, not particularly in the mood to do valve cover gasket anytime soon. Spark plugs looked a little tired dare I say.


Started the process of flushing the powersteering fluid, looks long overdue...


A quick wash and she looks as good as new!

 

[Benji]

Not much of an update, this car has quietly been doing what a daily is supposed to do. Finally got around to properly cleaning the interior/carpets - they were not that dirty thanks to the previous owners.



Not too bad for half a mil km, eh?

Reached a bit of an unbelievable fuel consumption milestone, this was after 300km open road and 100km town driving. This is roughly what my Corsa 1.8 used to return. That was a significantly worse car by all metrics.


During a late night drive home, the SO turned up the volume to her sing along music which resulted in distorted sounds emanating from the tortured speakers to which she proclaimed "your sound system is so shit!". I guess I should pull finger and upgrade the speakers

Also, the noisy powersteering pump is not taking kindly to the fresh ATF, I should probably start looking for a replacement...