[abeardo83]

Hello all,

I’ve been a lurker (and commenter) on the forum in the lead up to buying my car, but now that it’s coming along, I thought I’d start a progress thread. I know there are a few already, so tell me to bugger off if you wish, haha!!

I’ve been an owner of a couple of sports cars in the past few years. First up were my S2000’s – truly brilliant driver’s cars and the ease in which you can mod / rejuvenate them means you have to have some deep pockets!!! Fortunately I have a few friends who are also really in to them, and one good friend who is a full time mechanic, so he’s typically saved me an absolute fortune over the years!!







After the S2000’s, I wanted a BMW. As a Jap car owner, I didn’t really care for Euro cars, until my girlfriend bout an e90 320d (and quickly after, an e90 325d after the 320 met an untimely end at the hands of an EK9 Civic.

I wanted to keep the top down fun of the S2000, so I went with an E89 Z4…



The Z4 was a great car, but as I could only afford the 2.3SDrive at the time, it couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. That and the relative lack of DIY guides and forum activity (love a good forum!!) meant that I gave it up and swapped it for a MY56 335i.

[abeardo83]

When I bought the car, I noticed that it had the turbo wastegate rattle. Fortunately one of the conditions of sale was to resolve the issue. To be fair, when the dealer found out what the issue was, and the cost of repairing, he stuck to his word and footed the bill. So after 2 weeks, I picked the car up with two reconditioned Turbos.

After a month, the rattle came back. The car was under warranty, so it went back in and a week later, came back with two new turbos and a 2 year parts and labour warranty.



First thing I did following this was put my private plate on the car. My plate had been on my dad’s old car and never made it to my Z4 as I wasn’t ever sure about keeping it. The 335i is a keeper!!!

Also gave it a clean up and applied some Gtecniq Liquid Crystal










Next thing was to start looking at preventative maintenance / things that I could DIY myself; to get rid of any uncertainties re servicing that could be hanging around.

First thing was manual transmission fluid.

Bought myself a pump and a load of fluid from Demon Tweeks (only about 20miles from home). Conditions of doing this was that I also did the same thing for the girlfriend’s e90. :sad face:

No photo of the fluid, but it was lovely shade of black (the stuff that came out of the e90 looked in better condition than the e902, and it had double the miles on it!!!)

Siphoned out using the pump:



Refilled with Castrol Fluid:



Fluid run through and siphoned out again. Another refill and it stayed red. (Same on the E90).

I bought two bottles of the stuff, but dropped and cracked the second bottle… this was then used to do the same job on the in-law’s E60…



I want to keep the car “OEM+”… so in my mind, the mods I’ll be looking to do will be more ‘enhancements’ that BMW offer.

First one that come through was the front grilles. Bought from Cotswold BMW’s parts dept on here. (Thanks again Jason!!)



Looks superb… now just need to black out the lower grilles…

Next thing that came was the M3 lip. Took a punt on one from Taiwan, as there was no way I was paying BMW’s price for it. At £40 including shipping, I thought I’d take a gamble. If the colour match was shite, I’d spray it with some Halfords paint.



Turned out the fit and finish was spot on! £40 well spent.
Turns out now that the spoiler now casts £57… Thanks FedEx!

[abeardo83]

Since the weather got colder, the car started rattling like a bag of spanners when left to idle… sounded like a heatshield or something coming from underneath.

Took it to my mate’s garage and got it up on the ramp. Turned out that there is a bracket under the car that is attached to the exhausts. Ray (my tame mechanic) told me that it was there to prevent the manifold’s cracking under constant vibration. Part 7 had cracked across the captive nut, meaning that 8 had fallen away.



A call to Gloucester BMW parts dept got me a new one ready to be fitted the next weekend.

OBLIGATORY GARAGE PICS

[RajB]

Nice base motor. Same as mine when it started out life. Go a nice set of 313's if you are interested LOL.

[abeardo83]

Originally Posted by RajB

Nice base motor. Same as mine when it started out life. Go a nice set of 313's if you are interested LOL.

Thanks mate - new wheels are already sorted . They'll be for another post!

[Lockman_321]

Looking forward to this

[RajB]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

Thanks mate - new wheels are already sorted . They'll be for another post!

No problem. Look forward to the fitted pics.

Have a nice Aero rear bumper and diffuser instead LOL (even the same colour and mint so straight fit...he he).

[abeardo83]

Just looked at your FS thread (stop trying to sell me stuff!! )
...looks good though (and I don't have an MSport bumper to give you back unfortunately!!)

[RajB]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

Just looked at your FS thread (stop trying to sell me stuff!! )
...looks good though (and I don't have an MSport bumper to give you back unfortunately!!)

Lol

Just trying to be helpful and save costs for you

Straight sale no problem. I can source a bumper separately but just thought would be easier if someone did have one to swap.

[abeardo83]

Throughout me owning the car, I’ve occasionally had a limp mode light come on, and half power. Stupid thing would then go away when I switched the car off and on again.

After getting p1ssed off with it once too often, took it to my mate’s garage to replace the spark plugs and coils, in case they were causing it. Ordered Bosch Coils and Plugs from EuroCarParts for £200 (which I thought was a bargain considering ignition coils for the S2000 were £110 each!)








Decent colouring on the plugs. Little / no oil on them. Gave the rocker cover a good once over to look for leaks. Not a drop of oil anywhere so far!

When I got home, decided to give the VANOS solenoids and PCV valve a clean out. An hour later, Solenoids cleaned and swapped round, and PCV cleared out. Little oily but nothing mega. Car ran and idle’d much better than it did before. (Idle was always crappy, but I put it down to it being a turbo car, and just the N54 being a cantankerous bastard).

Was still getting the occasional CC-ID-29 from the car, even after coils, plugs, PCV and solenoids were sorted, so booked it in with my mate for a smoke test of all of the lines, to try and see if I had a boost or vacuum leak.

Test performed and nothing… no leaks and pressures were good. We were both left scratching our heads. Boost and Vacuum good, everything replaced. We could only put it down to the N54 being an N54…

So after pining after Calluahan’s 335d and his wheels, I decided ‘f++k it’ and followed suit once my end of year bonus came in.

Spoke to ********, ordered Sunday, paid Monday, arrived Tuesday!

They look absolutely bloody brilliant!! Made up with them. I also bought some MSport stickers off EBAY, to go in to the recesses. Not the best stickers, as they don’t fit tight in the recesses, but I wasn’t paying £25 for 4 stickers!!!

[abeardo83]

At the same time as buying the wheels, I dropped Old Grey Steve at A1BN a note about booking in for a walnut blast. The car has 75,000 miles on it, so I reckon it’s never been done. Coupled it with a trip to London and so set off from Cheshire at 5am on Friday morning…



Arrived in Stevenage at 9.15am. Managed a respectable 32mpg, including driving through Luton at rush hour. Good going I thought.

Dropped the car off with Steve and one of his guys gave me and my girlfriend a lift to the station, so we could go in to London. Got a call back from Steve at 4ish, to say the car was done.

Had a good chat with Steve afterwards and he talked me through the whole process and showed me the before and after pics (below). Prework checks showed up a catalogue of errors stored in the car’s ECU that they subsequently cleared. Also, Steve’s guys identified the cause of my CC-ID-29… the boost pipe that runs down the side of the engine had collapsed, so they fitted a new one

Cylinder 1


Cylinder 3


Cylinder 6


Cylinder 1 post work


Cylinder 3


Cylinder 6




Can’t fault the work done by Steve’s guys. Car drives absolutely sublimely now – no more idling like a bag of spanners, far more responsive. Not sure if it’s MPG is better now, but I didn’t buy a 3litre twin turbo for fuel economy!

[RajB]

Excellent on the maintenance work carried out by both garages. Good to have it cleaned out and get things all nicely sorted. Good find on the boost pipe too. I get the dreaded 30FF on occasional WOT runs...

Really like the wheels too. Suit it so well.

[abeardo83]

Originally Posted by RajB

Excellent on the maintenance work carried out by both garages. Good to have it cleaned out and get things all nicely sorted. Good find on the boost pipe too. I get the dreaded 30FF on occasional WOT runs...

Really like the wheels too. Suit it so well.

Thanks Raj. I'm fortunate that i enjoy tinkering with cars, and because I've never owned one from new, i always look for the things that can be cleaned up / renewed with minimal fuss. That way, you know that you've got a decent playing field to go forward with. My Grey S2000 did't have a single stamp in the service book once I bought it, but i was messing / renewing stuff nearly every other weekend.

I'm over the moon with the wheels. One thing I've noticed sine putting them on is that at 50mph, the steering wheel vibrates. I'm hoping this is because i reused the tyres, so the scrub radii will be different than they were previously (each wheel in 0.5" wider then before).

[RajB]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

One thing I've noticed sine putting them on is that at 50mph, the steering wheel vibrates. I'm hoping this is because i reused the tyres, so the scrub radii will be different than they were previously (each wheel in 0.5" wider then before).

That's usually balancing tbh.

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

set off from Cheshire at 5am on Friday morning…

the boost pipe that runs down the side of the engine had collapsed, so they fitted a new one

Can’t fault the work done by Steve’s guys. Car drives absolutely sublimely now –

Hi Andy

Good meeting you, and your good lady re yours on the walnut blasting procedure once covers etc. were off the pipe issue (it was a decent length of vac pipe so I was told) was clearly compromissed so why there sort it out, which is what took place, it was so the info that came back to me an easy spot and clearly visible.

Re the valves No1 for the mileage the car had covered had hardly any oily traces present but was as you can see is nicely coked up as you got through the cylinders as with most of these cars the oily traces become more present.

I drove it post work and as you know noted the vibration when asking about the wheels, the vibration could be balancing, I'd wager if the tyres weren't new they may be slightly feathered and I did detect a slight lower tension strut type feedback through the steering wheel upon braking, but it was slight (tap the foot brake while coasting along you may feel a slight knock/thud upon initial brake pedal application) its very slight but I think I felt it, changing wheels/tyre might just might change the way the car behaves very slightly difficult to say of course without comparing what it waslike before wheel changeover but yep get the wheels balanced again if in doubt first then seee from there, if its thelower arms that have a small amount of play (lower swan neck shaped arms - known as tension struts) these are easy to swap out, popular upgrade as many will know is to go the whole hog and swap these for M3 arms, at the same time your change the rear lower wishbones to M3 spec too and it makes a difference, as I've done mine as has RajB too. But start with the wheels and work backwards, sometimes these things can phase you so worth keeping a slightly open mind if you need to go exploring.

Drove well post work(didn't drive it pre work so can only take your comments on board)nice and smooth you said from memory that all wasn't well pre work but I knowthat it changed up from 2nd to 3rd at around 6000rpmwithout any drama's

But pleased the car feels better (the drive home would of certainly been a good indicator) re fuel economy its possible to get a slight improvement post work I saw a small difference when I done mine, but as you say 335i v fuel economy isn't exactly the reason you buy one of these is it. Here's a couple of pics I forgot to send you





Most of the faults on the car Andy were old historic related nothing too sinister from memory and as you say all cleared re cheked post work to be safe, but look forward to the updates re what you're gonna do next... and thanks for the kind words on here much appreciated

[abeardo83]

Thanks Steve. Was good to meet you and the team too! I'm going to try and put it in to a local garage to have the wheels re-balanced this weekend (don't want to go back to the original bloke as he's quite a stroppy guy!). Hopefully that will sort it. If not, then M3 arms will be the next thing.

However, I've been looking at the M3 arms but can't seem to find anywhere in the UK that sells them (front and rear ones). Anyone offer any help?!

[old grey steve]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

Thanks Steve. Was good to meet you and the team too! I'm going to try and put it in to a local garage to have the wheels re-balanced this weekend (don't want to go back to the original bloke as he's quite a stroppy guy!). Hopefully that will sort it. If not, then M3 arms will be the next thing.

However, I've been looking at the M3 arms but can't seem to find anywhere in the UK that sells them (front and rear ones). Anyone offer any help?!

There are a few places that sell them, Euro's now sell TRW parts who make these arms so you might get a half decent price by giving an M3 reg number you'll need to cross-reference the part number with something like real OEM(which they use)this will give you a result of sorts I'd say all depends on price

[abeardo83]

Cool thanks Steve. Will take a look.
So the wheels have been rebalanced. Turns out they were way out!! One of them needed 60g of weights?! (Whatever that means??). There's still a it of vibration, but nowhere near as much now. Next thing will be to swap the rear wheels around and see if that does anything. (The back tyres were swapped around when the new wheels were put on.)

[abeardo83]

One of the things I hate about the car is the lack of USB connection, meaning that I can't use my iPod. So looking around gave me an idea...



And



Gave me the ability to AirPlay through the aux input. But I didn't want it to be seen. So I decided to try and hide it in the transmission tunnel.

Shifter unhooked



Unfortunately with the I drive controller, there wasn't enough room to fit it in. So I took the box to bits.



Took the crappy phone thing out and threaded the cabling through the space underneath.



Phone thing fitted back in. I'll be replacing it with something else eventually.



Sounds great and volume can be controlled via the steering wheel. Winner.

[abeardo83]

Not a huge amount done in the past few weeks.
Had to use up the last few holidays before I lost them, so took two days off and decided to machine polish the car.

Autoglym shampoo (god it's crap!)
Megs claybar
Menzerna polishes and pads
Getcniq liquid crystal

Didn't take any before pics, but did take some under the floodlights at footy.
Swirls definitely reduced, but still a fair few there. Need new pads I think. Might try microfibres ones next time.










The other thing I've done is change the colour of the mesh below the kidney grilles. Originally it was grey but looked really odd since I changed out the grilles.

Used plastidip black and then the Glossifier

Before:


After:


Not bad for £12!!

[RajB]

Nice updates. My painted black lower grilles are starting look worse for wear now too. Will take a look at the plastidip option.

[abeardo83]

Originally Posted by RajB

Nice updates. My painted black lower grilles are starting look worse for wear now too. Will take a look at the plastidip option.

Definitely worth a go mate - like i say for £12 you can't go wrong.
It took a decent blast from the jet wash too and not so much as a peel.

In other news, I've had trouble with a vibration since changing alloys. Re torqued the steering rack and have bought new M3 arms for the front (which haven't turned up yet!

I Noticed that the tyres on the back had been swapped around to the opposite sides of the car, following the swap. Changed them back last night and took the car to work this morning... 75% of the vibration has pretty much disappeared now.

Have to told the other half the the arms can go back now...







...we all know that's not gonna happen!