My NEW (to me) E91 320d

Enjoyed reading this!!!

Conversion also looking good.

@EATYOURVITAMIN5 do you live in JHB? I'm pretty sure I drove past you the other day.

I almost cried when I started reading this..
Well done on getting it to where it is. Can't wait to see it completed.

Urban963 said:

@EATYOURVITAMIN5 do you live in JHB? I'm pretty sure I drove past you the other day.

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Yes sir. Born and raised. I am in the Edenvale side of the world.

Benji said:

Fantastic escapades, I thoroughly enjoyed reading that, well done on your perseverance!

Have you seen the LCI E91 being stripped for parts in Durban? I swore I saw it on FBMP last week, cant seem to find it now. Maybe the boot is still available so you can get rid of the Nissan Primera rear lights...


True stories bro, I pity the men who moan about their wife moaning about their broken cars... Life is hard enough dealing with broken BMWs without having to then pacify a moaning wife

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I didn't see that.. that is a brilliant recommendation though! Thank you, I will change my FBMP region and have a look for myself. As one might guess, E91s are hens teeth, so finding one that is stripping (LCI no less) is a really good lead. Thanks again

Totally agree - however, I also understand that life is one big lottery and some of us are lucky and others are not so fortunate when it comes to our spouses.

As mentioned prior in the thread, I intended to install an M Sport steering wheel to replace the original silver trim and airbag that had seen better days. Today when I had a couple of minutes to spare, I quickly banged that out.







What an improvement its made. The old steering wheel airbag wasn't fitting snugly in into the internal clips and whenever you rotated the wheel to turn a corner or to manoeuvre, it would clunk and wiggle around - not so pleasant. Above all else, the badge looked horrendous for whatever reason.. it looked like it was taken off poorly and stuck back on because it was all kinked and creased. The leather was also a bit worse off for wear and the silver trim wasn't doing the look of the car any favours.

Did you get a good deal on this car because that's alot of time and money you have invested into this project.... Well done for your dedication and perseverance

NBN said:

Did you get a good deal on this car because that's alot of time and money you have invested into this project.... Well done for your dedication and perseverance

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Well, a “good deal” is subjective from person to person. Given that it’s far from the most expensive one on the market (R170k) and it was less than the first one I went to look at (R145k) and it being a very early model E91 so it has the M47 that is virtually indestructible and has just under 250 000km.

Given that:

• Interior and exterior wise, a solid 8/10
• Lowest mileage example I could find
• Specifically the diesel variant (a decent majority of the rare E91s I could find are 325i or 320i
• Decent spec on it - HiFi, PDC all round, full electric seats, xenons, headlight washers, cruise control, auto headlights etc.
• and purely the enjoyment I get out of driving it (when it’s working)

I would say I got a fair deal.

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Late into 2025, the car developed (more than likely just came forward with what it was concealing) a dire engine leak. As I mentioned prior, the transmission shop actually advised that I take a look at the - in their opinion, pretty serious - leak. I was absolutely already going to do this but it got late in the year and guys were starting to close for the holiday period.

Much like a child, the car now saw this as a prime opportunity for the leak to now reach a point of all seriousness and where it no longer a laughing matter. After every drive, the faint smell of cooking oil could be smelt - being the skadonk it is, I didn't make much of it as I was going to get it sorted very soon. Where I drew the line is when it started to smell rather sharply of oil and a decent amount of smoke was coming from the engine bay.

That was the nail in the coffin for me. The car was immediately grounded and was not to be driven until I could get this addressed. The last thing I wanted was for this thing to burn to the ground because of some silly leak. So there it stayed parked in my yard until guys started opening again in the new year.

As soon as the economy opened up again, I paid a visit to my good friend Sav, to which he promptly took the car in and gave it a once over. I think the videos speak for themselves.

Imagine my surprise when 20 seconds into the video, the mechanic who is supposed to be fixing my car adlibs a good ol' yassi when gazing upon the state of my poor vehicle.

The oil saga continues.



Ultimately, it was diagnosed with a failed tappet cover gasket and some other items that were changed and it was all sorted.
Or so we thought. Apparently the intercooler has a pinhole leak that emits a slight drop of oil after a drive - this is very manageable but I am sourcing an M47 intercooler as we speak. I'd like this car to not leak a drop of oil after I'm done with it. Wishful thinking for a BMW.

That being said, while it was parked because it wasn't in a drivable state (seemingly a common theme for this car) I had managed to source and collect the wheels I want to put on this car. I won't spoil anything but I should have an update for you guys by the end of the month when Minty's can get me the tires I want.

A bumper respray will come the next month. I am looking at ABC in Midrand as they are a BMW panel beater and they have more or less favourable reviews from members of this forum.

Yesterday, I got to a task that I was putting off since I did the LCI conversion. Technically speaking, I didn't actually have the LCI M Sport fogs when I did the conversion so that should clear my name a bit... I picked those up sometime in December from BM Parts in Edenvale and I got to fitting them yesterday, as well as addressing the horrendous job my father did of attaching the numberplate using only the best ductape.

Given that it's due for a spray in the near future, I didn't want to make the holder a permanent fixture to the bumper so I secured it in a way that would be reversible when the time comes to send the bumper in.

I don't have a photo my father's - let's say.. interesting - solution to mount the plate but take my word for it, it was far from perfect. So, yesterday I wrapped up the plate holder, fog light mountings, and LCI M Sport fog lights themselves.

Something I wish I knew prior was that the LCI M Sport fog lights use a completely different bulb to the rest of the E90 range - when was someone going to tell me this? Currently, I have the old bulbs just resting in the fog lights until I can pick up a set of HB4s.

Keen eyed readers will also notice that the OEM spray covers are on as the ones I got from Beeline spares in Midrand were seriously junk.

Coming soon:

• New set of wheels and tires + new centre caps
• Front bumper paint match

EATYOURVITAMIN5 said:

Yesterday, I got to a task that I was putting off since I did the LCI conversion. Technically speaking, I didn't actually have the LCI M Sport fogs when I did the conversion so that should clear my name a bit... I picked those up sometime in December from BM Parts in Edenvale and I got to fitting them yesterday, as well as addressing the horrendous job my father did of attaching the numberplate using only the best ductape.

Given that it's due for a spray in the near future, I didn't want to make the holder a permanent fixture to the bumper so I secured it in a way that would be reversible when the time comes to send the bumper in.

I don't have a photo my father's - let's say.. interesting - solution to mount the plate but take my word for it, it was far from perfect. So, yesterday I wrapped up the plate holder, fog light mountings, and LCI M Sport fog lights themselves.
View attachment 32512
Something I wish I knew prior was that the LCI M Sport fog lights use a completely different bulb to the rest of the E90 range - when was someone going to tell me this? Currently, I have the old bulbs just resting in the fog lights until I can pick up a set of HB4s.

Keen eyed readers will also notice that the OEM spray covers are on as the ones I got from Beeline spares in Midrand were seriously junk.

Coming soon:

• New set of wheels and tires + new centre caps
• Front bumper paint match

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Fantastic to see how far you've come in such a short space of time! Well done 👌

Also see you've straightened out the front bumper, the right side of it looked warped in an earlier photo..Or maybe it was the angle?

Demontec said:

Fantastic to see how far you've come in such a short space of time! Well done 👌

Also see you've straightened out the front bumper, the right side of it looked warped in an earlier photo..Or maybe it was the angle?

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Thank you man!

Sharp eyes! Yes, it was warped and I did in fact fix it. The issue was that I wanted to secure the centre of the bumper instead of having it just 'hanging' there, apparently the M Sport LCI has an extended piece after the skid pan to mount to the bumper? I have no idea. I used zip ties to fasten it but in the process I gave it that iconic bee-sting bulge. I quickly realized that there was no need to secure it at all and there's no play whatsoever.

What a journey! Well done on the great work done so far. Wishing you many more happy and safe miles!

EATYOURVITAMIN5 said:

Thank you man!

Sharp eyes! Yes, it was warped and I did in fact fix it. The issue was that I wanted to secure the centre of the bumper instead of having it just 'hanging' there, apparently the M Sport LCI has an extended piece after the skid pan to mount to the bumper? I have no idea. I used zip ties to fasten it but in the process I gave it that iconic bee-sting bulge. I quickly realized that there was no need to secure it at all and there's no play whatsoever.

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Its coming along nicely! Waiting to see those new wheels...

Strange story.

Someone recently in the morning, decided that they needed a bonnet badge and that my poor station wagon was going to be the donor?



They didn’t even steal it properly! I hope whoever took this now mangled mess enjoys it.

I do have contingency badges for just this case however. This is South Africa after all.



Whoever might be reading, have a good weekend!

Loving this thread— referring to the humorous writing and obvious love for the car, not the bits about gearboxes and leaks

Someone nicked my front tow hook cover a while back, which is infuriating, because you cannot just buy, you have to have it painted Also, amazing just how much that missing cover stands out like a sore thumb!

MintSauce said:

Loving this thread— referring to the humorous writing and obvious love for the car, not the bits about gearboxes and leaks

Someone nicked my front tow hook cover a while back, which is infuriating, because you cannot just buy, you have to have it painted Also, amazing just how much that missing cover stands out like a sore thumb!

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Absolutely ridiculous!

What are these guys using this stuff for? Otherwise? what's the motive? Frustrating part of car ownership - when people can't respect other's stuff. Anyways, thanks for the kind words!

EATYOURVITAMIN5 said:

Thank you man. I’m not a very flashy person, so tastefully done is a huge compliment and ultimately my final goal.

I will and actually have kept the headlight washers. I snatched up the headlight mounting brackets from the car I got the headlights from so everything is in its place. MY car is actually the issue because the connector for the washer on the passenger side is badly damaged somehow and leaks profusely.. not too sure what to do about that but it still connects, so everything is hooked up behind the curtain. Being the excessive person that I am, I looked far and wide for a bumper that was; LCI, M Sport, has front PDC, AND has the washer nozzle holes. It was quite a tall order which is why I didn’t manage to find one secondhand and had to buy the bumper new.

I’m familiar with the airbag recall, I actually made a post about it here when I discovered it. I had myself already done it on my E92. This is a bit of a tricky one because I’ve also acquired an M Sport steering wheel with the airbag to replace my shiny silver old wheel. So, I don’t think I’ll get away with taking the car to BMW with an airbag from another car..

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You will
The recall is on the airbags no matter how they landed on the car.
My son had his e46 touring done and that is on an e46 M3 steering wheel.

Humorous post which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Peter@AEW said:

You will
The recall is on the airbags no matter how they landed on the car.
My son had his e46 touring done and that is on an e46 M3 steering wheel.

Humorous post which I thoroughly enjoyed!

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Lucky, took my E90 in after fitting the M Sport wheel and they said the airbag didn't need to be replaced, and you can tell the airbag hasn't been replaced.