BMW E46 330d Build Blog

8 Best BMW E46 Headlight Bulbs [Xenon + Halogen]

2019-10-02T12:05:00.000+01:00

I think you'll agree, great lights when driving at night inspire ultimate confidence.

On the flip side, as I found out, constantly having to use your strong hand (typically at night and in the freezing cold...) to replace yet another cheap blown bulb is not my idea of a good time.

Finding the right bulb is not quite as obvious as you might think though, there are more than 10 different variants of E46 headlights, produced by multiple manufacturers, with several bulb types and bulb colours.

Read on to make sure you get the best bulb for you and your 3 series, you'll also find out everything you need to know (and a whole lot more) about your E46's headlights!

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Post Contents

This post is crammed full of info, so to help you get straight to the info you're after just click one of the headings below.

If you're really in a rush though, you can skip right to my recommended bulbs here, although I really do recommend having a read through the full article, just to make sure you get the right bulbs first time round.

Halogen or Xenon?

Headlight Beam Angle Adjust

What's the Difference Between Xenon and Bi-Xenon?
Bosch vs AL vs ZKW Headlights
- FAQs
Bulb Colour Temperature Chart
- Bulb Colour FAQs
E46 Headlight Removal
Branded Bulbs are the Best
- Osram Bulb Colour Coding Guide
The Best Replacement E46 Headlight Bulbs
- FAQs

Halogen or Xenon?

Before buying a replacement, you'll need to determine which E46 headlight bulb you need. To do that, you need to know which bulb technology your car has. There are two types of headlight bulb technology used on the E46 3 series, halogen and xenon projector.

Xenon projector headlights were an optional extra and replaced the standard halogen outer low / high beam bulb only. There were two types of xenon headlights, single and bi-xenon. You can tell if your E46 has xenon headlights by looking at the outer headlight to see if it has the spherical glass projector lens, if both your lights look the same, you have halogen.

Note: I've read in a few places that facelift E46 coupe's could be spec'd with projector lenses and halogen bulbs, but I haven't been able to 100% confirm it yet, let me know in the comments if you can confirm!

Headlight Beam Angle Adjust

If you have xenon headlights, you won't have the headlight levelling control on your Light Control Module (LCM) as shown below. Instead you'll just have a blank, as all E46 xenon headlights are auto levelling.

If you've got halogen headlights, you should be aware of how to correctly set the beam angle when carrying different cargo. Using the scroll wheel on the LCM adjust it as follows:

0 / 1 = 1 or 2 occupants without luggage
1 / 2 = 5 occupants with luggage
2 / 2 = 1 occupant, luggage compartment full

*The number after the / should be used when towing.

What's the Difference Between Xenon and Bi-Xenon?

Firstly, let me explain how xenon headlights actually work. When turned on, a high electric voltage across two electrodes sparks and ignites an arc. The arc is what provides the intense light source, for a halogen bulb the filament provides the light source. Arcing charges the mixture of noble gas and metallic vapour in the quartz glass sleeve of the bulb. A lower voltage is then used to maintain the arc. It takes roughly 15 seconds for the bulb to reach maximum brightness (although it's plenty bright enough straight away).

So, what's the difference between xenon and bi-xenon then?

Xenon, or sometimes referred to as single xenon lights, only provide low beam light. High beam light is provided by the standard inner halogen bulbs.

Bi-Xenon lights provide both low and high beam light output. When you toggle the light stalk on your steering column to turn on high beam, there is a physical movement within the headlight that changes the light output to use the xenon bulb as high beam and low beam.

If you have an E46 with a build date after 09/2001, and you have a line through the middle of your projector lens, you should have Bi-Xenon headlights.

Bosch vs AL vs ZKW Headlights

As I mentioned in the intro, there are multiple different manufacturers of E46 headlights, Bosch, AL and ZKW Group.
There were only ever two manufacturers supplying at one time though. In 1999 Bosch partnered with Magneti Marelli and formed a joint venture called Automotive Lighting (AL). Soon after the start of the joint venture, all Bosch E46 headlights would have switched to AL. It was AL who manufactured the first dynamically swivelled BMW Xenon projector units in 2003, fitted to 3, 6 Series and X3's.

To find out which manufacturer produced your headlight, there are a couple of things you can check.

Check 1 - Lens Logo

First is to find the little brand logo moulded into the lens.

Note: I have seen some early cars without a logo (or perhaps the logo is hidden from sight, let me know in the comments below).

Pre-Facelift (Pre-LCI)

On the earlier pre-facelift E46's, the brand logo is in the middle of the headlight lens just above the power wash cap.

Facelift (LCI)

Here's what the AL logo looks like on a facelift saloon headlight, the ZKW headlight has the logo in the same place. (If anyone has a photo I can use hit me up in the comments below, I've been searching every where for a car with the ZKW lights).

Compact

And finally, the E46 Compact logo is located on the directional indicator lens, right on the inboard lower corner.

Check 2 - Info Sticker Colour

Second, you can check the info sticker on the top of the headlight. An AL headlight will have a yellow sticker, and the ZKW has a white / silver sticker. Don't be confused by the smaller yellow High Voltage warning sticker on the xenon lights though, this is yellow on both AL and ZKW.

FAQs

AL vs ZKW - Which E46 headlights are the best?

Time to open up a tin of worms... There is a LOT of debate on this subject across the various owner's forums. Supposedly, the ZKW xenon lenses are better, as they are clearer, but the metallic finish on their projector bowls isn't as good, discolouring with the heat from the bulb.

The best combination appears to be AL outer clear lens, AL projector bowl and ZKW projector lens, but you'll need to do some splicing and retrofitting to get this set up.

Have you got a better set up? Let us know in the comments below!

Bulb Colour Temperature Chart

Not all bulbs emit the same colour light, for headlights they typically lie somewhere between a warm yellowish white (traditional halogen bulbs) and cool blueish white (modern xenon bulbs).

A bulb's colour is specified in Kelvin (K), the base unit of temperature. Conversely to logic, the higher the Kelvin number of a bulb, the cooler the bulb colour is.

Colour	Colour Temperature (K)	Comparison
Orange	1700K	Match Flame
Orange	1850K	Candle Flame
Yellow	2700K	Incandesant Light Bulb
Yellow	3000K	Household Warm White Bulb
White - Yellow Tint	4300K	Household Cool White Bulb
Pure White	5000K	Noon Daylight
White - Blue Tint	6000K	Daylight Overcast
Light Blue	8000K	Light Blue Sky
Blue	10000K	Blue Sky

If you want to remain squeaky clean with the law, according to The [UK] Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations, headlights should be white or yellow i.e. 3000K to 5000K. That said, most new cars are fitted with 6000K bulbs without a problem. I wouldn't recommend going any higher than 6000K though, not only does it look daft (#sorrynotsorry), you'll just get unwanted attention from the Fuzz.

FAQ's

I want to match my OEM E46 bulbs, which colour bulbs should I get?

If you want to retain an OEM look for your E46, your best bet is to go 3700K for halogen and 4350K for xenon bulbs. It's tricky to get an exact match as each manufacturer is slightly different.

I want yellow headlight bulbs, which colour bulbs should I get?

Even though it's not my cup of tea, a lot of people love the yellow headlight look, it's common place in the Euro, French and JDM scenes. If that's for you, go for 3000K bulbs.

I want bulbs with a blue tint, what colour bulbs do I need?

If you want a modern look, crisp white with a blue tint, you need to go for 6000K.

Is 8000K brighter than 6000K?

No, 6000K is brighter, the further from pure white light (5000K) you get, the more light wavelengths are filtered to give the light it's colour e.g., blue tones are filtered out to give a 3000K bulb it's yellow colour.

E46 Headlight Removal

If you need to remove your headlight for any reason, you can follow my step by step guide in this post - E46 Headlight Removal Guide.

If you haven't got the headlight power wash function it's dead simple, even if you have it's just a little bit more fiddly but, it's definitely something that the home mechanic can do.

I had to replace my RHS headlight due to an auto levelling failure, which is what the article centres around initially, just scroll down to the removal guide.

Branded Bulbs are the Best

You'll notice I've only recommended Osram and Philips options for each bulb type. There are a few of reasons for this;

The OEM bulbs, used by BMW, were either Osram or Philips
I've had very good experience with bulbs from these two manufacturers

I upgraded my 330d to Osram Night Breaker bulbs
and my Audi S5 to Philips Crystal Vision fog light bulbs

I've bought many cheap bulbs before and they've all blown in a few months...Buy cheap, buy twice

I'm sure there are other great bulb options out there - leave a comment below if you have a recommendation! - but I'm only comfortable recommending bulbs to you guys from manufacturers I trust and have personally used myself.

One brand I've seen mentioned as reliable is Twenty20, if you've got experience with using them I'd love to hear your feedback, drop me a message in the comments below.

Osram Bulb Colour Coding Guide

Depending on what characteristics you're looking for in a bulb, Osram have got you covered. Their colour coded packaging is designed to allow you, at a glance, to be able to hone in on the bulb for you. Here's Osram's explanation of the colour coding.

INNOVATION       - Latest LED technology: Lamps and fixtures for a modern look.
PERFORMANCE - More brightness: Luminous intensity and maximum light output.
DESIGN                 - Stylish light: Modern look due to bluish-white light.
COMFORT            - Longer lifetime: Drive more, exchange less.
ORIGINAL             - Original spare part: Lamps with proven OEM quality.

The Best Replacement E46 Headlight Bulbs

Bulb Type	Colour Temperature (K)	Purchase Link (Amazon)
Xenon - D2S	4350K	Osram Xenarc Night Breaker Unlimited
	4500K	Osram Xenarc Night Breaker Laser
	4600K	Philips X-tremeVision 85122XVS2
	6000K	Osram Xenarc Cool Blue Intense
Halogen - H7	3700K	Philips X-tremeVision 12972XVS2
	3700K	Philips RacingVision 12972RVS2
	3750K	Osram Night Breaker Laser
	4200K	Osram Cool Blue Intense
W5W - 501	4000K	Osram Cool Blue Intense
	6000K	Osram LED Premium Retrofit
	4500K	Philips WhiteVision Xenon Effect
	6000K	Philips X-tremeUltinon LED

FAQs

Can I replace just the blown bulb, or do I have to buy a set?

Yes, if you've got halogen bulbs just replace the blown one.

No, if you've got xenon bulbs it's recommended to replace both sides at the same time, even if only one bulb has blown.

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That concludes the article for now, as I learn more and new products become available I'll keep it continually up-to-date. I really hope you enjoyed this post, if you did and would like to see more articles like this, let me know in the comments below. Can you add anything to make the post even more complete? Let me know in the comments below!

Be sure to Like, Subscribe and Follow me on your favourite social media platforms at the following links: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, search andybuck123.

Stay tuned for plenty more content to come!

RealOEM.com [Featured Website]

2017-07-21T11:30:00.000+01:00

For the second in the Featured Website series of posts, I've picked a real heavy hitter, RealOEM.com.

If you haven't heard of RealOEM, you're in for a treat. If you own a BMW group product, this has to occupy the number one slot in your browser's favourites tab. It is the most useful resource for BMWs by a long shot, I can only dream of a site like it for my Audi S5.

RealOEM describes itself as a site that "...can be used to look up BMW part numbers and approximate part prices."

After clicking here to enter, you're greeted with a few options on how you'd like to search.

You can use the last 7 digits of your VIN, a specific part number or all parts associated with your model from a specific build date.

For no other reason than I'm too lazy to remember my VIN, I tend to use the latter option, which is what I've used in the example below.

Once you've picked your model, you're greeted with a bunch of subcategories.

Clicking on any of them will bring up all the schematics associated with that subcategory. Below, I've chosen the intake manifold page, which shows the location of, and how the EGR is assembled to the intake manifold. I looked over this and a few other pages before I did my EGR valve clean and then subsequently an EGR valve bypass.

Along with a labelled schematic, you get a table of parts, with added information such as; part number, fitted quantity, rough indication of cost in $ and if applicable, when the parts were in service. If you click on the numbers on the schematic, it highlights the row in the table that corresponds, in the screen grab above I've selected part 1, which turns the table row red.

Most of my time on RealOEM has been looking for the parts and part numbers relating to a certain fix I was carrying out at the time, such as when I replaced the valve cover gasket, but I also used it to find optional extras that I didn't have, i.e. features I could retrofit, the perfect example of this is when I fitted the cup holders.

The icing on the cake for RealOEM is that some parts have a photo too, which is incredibly useful in helping to confirm you're ordering the correct part and identifying the part in the depths of your engine bay.

I've (unfortunately) spent hours on RealOEM over the years, but it could have been a whole lot more time researching if it didn't exist and for that I'm very grateful.
Click the following link to head over to RealOEM.

Check out the first of my Featured Websites in the series Bimmer.work to find out how you can decode your VIN to find out all sorts of interesting stuff about your BMW!

Let me know in the comments below if RealOEM has ever saved your bacon, are there any other websites you think can top it?

E46 Rear Wheel Arch Rust Repair and Respray [DIY]

2017-04-20T09:06:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, rust is a common affliction of the E46, particularly the rear wheel arches. Road grime gets thrown from the tyres up into the arch and, over time, wears away at the paint until the inevitable rust sets in. The rust on my Sapphire Black saloon was getting so bad I decided action needed to be taken to restore some of the pride back into my pride and joy. Here's how I got on...

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Assessing the Extent of the Rust

Concluding my recent trio of cosmetic improvements, this post focuses on the repair of my oh-so-rusty rear driver's wheel arch.

Having warmed up by refurbishing the wing mirror cap and the roof ditch finisher, I was feeling confident in doing a fairly good job of the wheel arch (for a novice). Unlike the previous two jobs, this would involve some fairly scary preparation methods to achieve a decent result.

Let's take a look at what I was working with.

As you can see, tin worm had well and truly set up base camp.

The first job was to mask off the panels I didn't want to damage, namely the side skirt and rear bumper. In a perfect world, I'd have removed both of these parts, but I was limited for time and space.

Rather scarily, this was the first time I'd used the tools I was about to unleash on my pride and joy's paintwork. Nevertheless, to quote Del Boy "he who dares, wins".

Removing the Surface Rust

To tackle the worst of the rust I started off using a very abrasive flap sanding disc (no wheels or tyres were harmed in the making of this post).

I then moved onto a smaller sanding disc to get to the hard to reach areas and to bring the bodywork back to a smoother finish. You'll notice I slid a metal plate into the bumper to body side gap to avoid sanding the bumper.

Scary bit done, you can see the various stages of sanding below. You might think that the 'final' condition isn't great either, however, there was still a lot of work left to do at this point.

Rust Removal Treatment

Once the surface rust had been removed, I wanted to do everything I could to stop the rust from returning. After scanning a few forums and sites on which rust treatments were recommended, Jenolite rust remover came up top. Hey, if it's good enough for the British MOD it's good enough for my 330d!

I bought a 500ml bottle not knowing how much I'd need, but really you'd get away with the 150ml if you're just treating rear quarter panel rust. It's quite thin stuff, so a little goes a long way.

You can grab a 150ml bottle on Amazon here*.

How to Use Jenolite Rust Remover

Quoting Jenolite's website, the process was as follows:

Apply Jenolite Rust Remover directly to the rust.
Wait 15 minutes, then apply a second application and immediately wipe dry with a clean cloth.
The surface will be ready to prime in 30 minutes. Job done!

Applying Car Body Filler

Having hopefully sorted the rust out, the next task was to apply some body filler to smooth out the body work and return it back to it's former glory - handily I already had some U-POL Easy 1 in the garage.

You can pick up U-POL Easy 1 here* and the U-POL BPO hardener here*.

All I've got to say is, Ed China makes applying filler look a lot easier than it actually is. Applying a little at a time I filled all the necessary areas.

Sanding Process

Once the filler had fully hardened it was time to do some more sanding, this time by hand using wet and dry. It looks a mess in the photos but I was actually pretty happy with the finish.

Preparing the Surface for Paint

Prior to painting I used some panel wipe to clean off any contaminants on the surface, any dust, dirt, grease on the surface could affect how the paint adheres.

I got a 1 litre bottle from APL chemicals, the stuff works great, I've used it on loads of jobs now, not just before painting. APL have an Amazon store so you can grab a bottle here*.

I also masked off the area I was going to paint and the surrounding parts, don't skimp out on this part of the prep work, paint gets everywhere. My plan was to 'blow in' the edge of the wheel arch and match the paint to the body side. In hindsight, I should have resprayed up to the feature line in the body side and all the way back to the rear lamps. I'll explain why later.

Paint Process

I followed the same three coat process I used on the wing mirror cap, dusting on the first coats of each paint (primer, colour and lacquer) then applying heavier coats. Again, I used Halfords rattle can paints, professionals and enthusiasts will shudder when they read that but this fix was done on a budget with the tools available.

Despite not painting up to the mask line the step in the paint at the mask line was quite big, clearly noticeable, something I hadn't expected.

I always knew I'd need to blend the edge in but didn't realise quite how much blending would be required. Carefully, using some 1200 grit wet & dry, I sanded the edge until it was in-perceivable.

Final Polish and the Results

Finally, using my DAS 6 PRO, I polished the paint back to a gloss, also correcting as much of the orange peel effect as possible.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) it was bright sunshine on the day I did the polishing. Even after I'd finished you could see the 'tide' mark where the two paints blended together, the Halfords paint not entirely matching the original. It's for this reason, if I were to attempt the job again I'd have sprayed all the way up to the feature line to mask the paint blend edge.

Having said that, it was only visible at that angle in direct sunlight, any other light or angle and you couldn't see it, so I was pretty darn chuffed. Was it body shop quality? No, definitely not. Was it good enough for a job that cost under £20 on a car worth only £2k, absolutely yes.

Let me know in the comments below what you think. Have you had a go at rust repair on your E46?

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, search andybuck123, for plenty more content to come!

Bimmer.work [Featured Website]

2017-02-24T09:37:00.001+00:00

This post is a bit of a departure from the usual site content but hopefully something you'll find interesting.

I'm hoping to make Featured Websites a series of posts, each time bringing you a different site that I think has something unique or worthwhile sharing.

To kick off the series, the first featured site is called bimmer.work. It's a simple site, with a pretty cool function. It describes itself as a VIN decoder, but basically, you enter the last 7 digits of your VIN and it'll give you various details about the car. It works for BMW, MINI, Rolls Royce and BMW Motorcycles.

The data it spits out is split into four sections, the first contains generic details like engine code, paint colour and interior upholstery colour but also some more interesting details like which production plant the car came out of.

The second is an exterior, interior and 360° interior image of the car in the correct spec.

It then details all the standard equipment and the optional extras that were selected. This would be particularly useful when selling a car, enabling you to write a better for sale ad.

It may also come in handy when you're buying cars, particularly at auction. Being able to confirm what options should be there could give a better insight into how much to pay, or if the car's been altered away from factory spec.

Let me know in the comments section below how you guys get on, and if you find out any interesting details about your car using this tool.

Roof Ditch Finisher Resprayed

2017-01-29T20:30:00.001+00:00

Continuing with the cosmetic uplifts, after finishing off the wing mirror cap respray, I focused on an area that had been bugging me for a while, the roof ditch finisher.

It's standard practice to tape the areas of the car you want to protect whilst machine polishing, exactly what I did with the roof ditch finisher.

Despite using the right tape for the job, 3M 3434, it still pulled the paint off leaving a shiny silver patch of exposed metal. Against the Sapphire Black paint, it stood out like a sore thumb.

Using a trim puller, I carefully levered the clips loose that were hold the finisher to the roof. In case it rained during the respraying process I taped over the roof rack mount threads with some masking tape.

To do a thorough respray I decided to break the finisher down into it's component parts. Flipping it over you can see the main finisher has two brackets attached to it that hold the roof rack mount access flaps in place.

To remove the brackets, I used a small flat head screw driver to flex the tabs that hold it in place. I was really careful whilst doing this honest, the bracket was this mangled before I removed it, not sure how on earth it got that way though.

Now fully disassembled I could get to work sanding the paintwork. I took the damaged access flap back to metal, but just flatted off the main finisher. Unfortunately I couldn't go hell for leather as the finisher has full length rubber flip seals on both sides. To avoid damaging them I taped them off with some masking tape. Here's both parts prepped for paint.

I followed the same three coat process I used on the wing mirror cap, with the same Halfords rattle can paints. To get an even coverage on the access flaps I rolled up a ball of masking tape and stuck the flap to it, then pressed it onto an old phone box. This elevated it just enough that I could get all the edges without any witness marks in the paint from holding it.

In between coats of paint I decided to go clean up the roof ditch and apply a layer of wax to aid it's water management properties.

I was genuinely quite shocked at the difference correcting this minor paint blemish had on the car as a whole. It transformed the car from looking a bit worn round the edges to properly sorted.

Definitely a worthwhile job without too much hassle either.

Wing Mirror Cap Resprayed

2017-01-27T09:23:00.000+00:00

Mechanically, the car is ticking over just nicely, so my focus has turned to cosmetics.

As is with life, the minority was spoiling it for the majority, i.e. a few minor bodywork blemishes were unjustly letting the car down.

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

To get my eye in as it were, I thought I'd start small and respray the wing mirror cap - it'd obviously taken a knock at some point and was looking rather second hand.

The first problem was getting the mirror cap off. As access to the clips is completely obstructed by the mirror glass, that would need to be removed first. For a full write up on removing the mirror glass and caps, check out my How-to guide.

Due to the depth of the scuffs, the mirror cap needed to be stripped back to plastic. Using some 400 grit wet and dry I got to work.

Once I was happy with the surface, I rinsed the part in cold water and let it dry naturally in the sun.

Prior to painting I used some panel wipe to clean off any contaminants on the surface, any dust, dirt, grease on the surface could affect how the paint adheres.

I got a 1 litre bottle from APL chemicals, the stuff works great, I've used it on loads of jobs now, not just before painting. APL have an Amazon store so you can grab a bottle here*.

It's important not to touch the part post panel wiping, any oils from your skin could affect the adhesion of the paint. Using some string, I hung the cap by the fixing tabs from my washing line. Not the most suitable spraying environment but you need to work with what you've got.

A lot of people ask me how to spray paint car parts, so I'll do a quick overview of the methods I use.

Firstly, I applied three coats of Halfords grey plastic primer, the first a mere dusting, the second a thin coat and the third a full coat with 15mins between coats. I let the primer fully cure over night and moved onto the colour coat.

Luckily Halfords stock BMW Sapphire Black in rattle cans, so I didn't have to have any mixed up. I used the same process as with the primer.

Last but not least, the clear coat, again using Halfords rattle cans and the same three coat process. Don't be worried to dust the paint on, it'll look poor to start with, but with each layer you'll build up the gloss.

The final finish was better than I expected to get out of a rattle can, however, there is some orange peel. Once the paint has fully hardened, I'll be able to get the machine polisher on it and correct it back to a mirror finish.

How to Clean Heavily Coked Exhaust Tips

2016-12-21T14:52:00.003+00:00

If your E46 exhaust tips are looking a little worse for wear, check out the methods I used to clean my 330d's exhaust tips and give them a new lease of life!

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

We've all been subject to a diesel smoke screen before, the car in front gives it a boot full off the lights and you're left staring into a thick plume of diesel smoke.

Trouble is, all that carbon clings to the exhaust tips and gradually chomps away until you're left with a pitted, blackened, sorry excuse for a tailpipe. Unfortunately, well over 160k miles of soot had taken it's toll on my pipes.

The twin down turn pipes on the 330d aren't my cup of tea at the best of times, I'd much prefer straight pipes, nevertheless I'd rather they at least be shiny.

Previously I'd tried in vain to polish them up by hand with some wire wool and Autosol. It helped, but wasn't attracting any magpies.

Take 2 - To do majority of the heavy lifting, I picked up a set of Scotchbrite fibral polishing pads* that could be used in a drill (corded in my case, but equally effective in a cordless).

If your exhaust tips are brand new, or pretty shiny already, definitely don't use these. They are pretty abrasive and will mar the finish, I'm using them as my exhaust tips were heavily corroded and coked up.

On with the job, I started off by soaking the dirt with a bit of left over CarPlan Demon Wheels. This stuff is pretty savage, I can't remember how I came to own a bottle, but I wouldn't recommend it. Instead, I'd recommend soaking with ValetPro Dragon's Breath* first instead.

I followed that up with a pass over with a brutal wire brush my dad had lying around in his tool kit. Do not get this any where near your paintwork! I only used this to tackle the heavily coked area, about 1cm from the tip.

After the worst of the corrosion had been shifted, I moved to the Scotchbrite fibral bits with some Autosol* as the polishing compound.

Due to the amount of corrosion, there was limit to how good I could get it, but I'm quite impressed. Not perfect, but most definitely passable. For the price (£16) and about 30mins, you can't go wrong, a worthwhile job if your pipes are looking past their best.

Before and After

Now that your exhaust tips are looking good, you'll want to keep them looking that way. Check out these posts to help reduce the amount of black smoke your E46 is throwing out.

Got any tips or products you use to clean your exhausts? Let me know in the comments below!

160K + 172k Service

2016-07-04T10:23:00.000+01:00

As I've been rather delinquent in writing up these updates, this is a bumper instalment, two services for the price of one. Lucky you!

At 160k the service was just the regularly refreshed items; oil, air filter, oil filter and cabin filter. Business as usual with the oil, Castrol Edge that I get at a good rate from Costco, and the filters were all EuroCarParts sourced.

Read on to find out why Castrol Edge is no longer business as usual.

After 16,000 miles the oil was looking decidedly worse for wear.

As was the air filter, which was restricting majority of a tree and a small bird from getting into the engine.

Luckily, Henry was on hand to clear things up. Using a little AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber Care the intake, engine cover and cabin filter cover were looking much more like it.

That concludes the first service, fast forward one year for the next. Business is unusual this time in regards to the oil, after receiving a sign from the automotive gods (Costco didn't have any oil), I swapped out the regular Castrol Edge for Valvoline SynPower. I also managed to source an elusive vortex type oil breather filter, which Sytner Coventry said wasn't available any more...Cotswold Hereford BMW managed to source it just fine though. To round off this bumper service I replaced the fuel filter as well as the usual oil, air and cabin filters.

Anyway on with the show, whilst the oil was draining I got on with removing the oil breather filter. It's not that much more involved than replacing the air filter, which it sits next to, just a bit more fiddly to get it out. I also found you need to undo the coil pack rail to give you some wiggle room.

You can see below the old loo roll type on the left and the vortex on the right, and then the full vortex assembly underneath.

Using the supplied BMW seal I got the new filter in and secured, and all other filters swapped too.

Job done.

I did promise more info on the reason why Castrol Edge is no longer my go to oil, so here goes. It was immediately evident on start up that the engine ran smoother with the Valvoline oil, the note of the engine was quieter and just generally improved. The test drive re-enforced my opinion, the car was smoother and pulling better, quite surprising with just a brand change. My findings were then backed up with factual science when my girlfriend noticed the difference as well.

Result.

Headlamp Auto Levelling Failure

2015-04-10T06:30:00.000+01:00

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

When you turn the key in the ignition of an E46 3 series the car goes through a test sequence for the headlamp auto levelling feature. The headlamp adjusts to point fully downwards then back to straight ahead position. That's the idea anyway.

Every now and then the driver's side headlamp auto levelling feature would stop working. Every now and then turned into quite regularly, then it stopped working altogether.

Rather annoyingly my headlamp could manage the first bit, but not the second, so I had one headlamp pointing about six feet in front of the car. Once the headlamp was pointing in this direction you couldn't do anything about it. It would have been less of an issue if it had frozen in the straight ahead position.

You can see in the video below the passenger side lamp following the sequence and the driver's side stationary at the bottom of the movement.

During winter I almost exclusively drive the car in the dark on country lanes, travelling to and from work, i.e. really not a good idea to be driving almost blind in these conditions.

I hopped on eBay and managed to pick up a bit of a steal. I got a replacement headlamp in what looked to be excellent condition for £25.

Taking a bit of a gamble that it actually worked, I set about giving it a thorough clean. I first cleaned the exterior, then unclipping the seal revealing a bit more grime.

With the exterior now decidedly cleaner, I could take the lens off without any dirt falling in. However, I noticed that the indicator lens had a crack in it from where a stone had hit it. Luckily though, the facelift lamps are split in two, so I just swapped out the new one with my original. The two lamp units are held together with a screw at the top with a rather elaborate plastic surround.

The main headlamp lens is quite simple to remove, it's not glued on so doesn't require any culinary skills to melt it in the oven etc. There are several plastic clips around the edge of the lens, simply unclip and pull the lens away from the housing.

I didn't use any product on the lamp internals to try and avoid any smearing or adverse reactions with the finish of the parts. Using a fresh microfibre I basically gave the thing a good dusting.

Before I had chance to do anything clumsy, I reattached the lens and grabbed some new detailing products I'd been wanting to try.

I'd picked up GTechniq's clear screen kit to apply to my windscreen, but thought it'd be perfect for the lamps too.

The kit includes a polish - G4 Nanotech Glass Polish* - and a hydrophobic coating - G1 ClearVision Smart Glass* - that makes water and fluid grime bead up on contact and run right off.

I started by polishing the lens using the G4 Polish and a clean microfibre.

Once I'd worked the polish into the lens, I buffed the lens clear with another clean microfibre.

Lastly, I applied the G1 ClearVision Smart Glass using a final clean microfibre cloth, and once dried buffed clear with the opposite end of the clean microfibre.

Voilà, the headlamp was now ready to be fitted and was hopefully winter proof. I have to say I'm super impressed by the GTechniq products, the lens stays clearer for much longer and is so easy to clean come wash time.

You can buy the GTechniq G4 Nanotech Glass Polish on Amazon here*, and GTechniq G1 ClearVision Smart Glass by clicking here*.

Moving outside, time to get the old headlamp out. Remove all the fixings with a socket and ratchet, even the one hiding on the inboard side in the depths of the front end. Mine were pretty corroded unfortunately, which meant the sockets were a bit of a sloppy fit.

If you've got power wash like me, you'll need to remove the washer jet before you can take the lamp out. This bit is a little tricky (and unnerving). You have to pry the washer jet out enough to get a finger behind it, then pull it all the way out. The jet is on a tight spring pulling it into the bumper, it's very reluctant to be pulled out. Once pulled out you have to give it a sharp tug and it just pops off (innuendo bingo anyone?) Fully expecting the washer jet to cost a fortune to replace I was a little dubious to pull too hard. Anyway, after I'd manned up a bit it was off. (Please excuse the state of the car, it had rained for two months solid so the country roads were pretty crappy).

As you can see, the washer jet was far from clean, so I gave it a good degreasing.

With the washer jet out the way the lamp simply slides forward and away from the car (providing you've disconnected the wiring). Here's the new one alongside the old one.

Some of the keener eye'd readers will notice the washer bottle had been removed too. My dad noticed the bottle had some sediment in the bottom and that this was an opportune time to take it out and give it a clean.

He went off to do that while I cracked on with giving the engine bay where the bottle and lamp had been a good clear out.

Everything all cleaned up, I could start putting things back together. The trickiest bit was getting the washer jet back on. You have to get some thin nose pliers and pull the telescopic tube out, get a hold of it then clip the washer jet on. Sounds simple but the thing is slippery and really quite strong.

All that was left to do now was replace all the fixings and test it out. Thankfully it worked perfectly, and with the thoroughly cleaned lens I'd never been able to see so well in the dark.

E46 Battery Replacement [Visual Guide]

2015-04-07T12:15:00.002+01:00

If your E46 battery keeps dying, or the battery light stays on, or maybe your car doesn't start at all, it's probably because you need to replace your battery.

In this article, I'll explain everything you need to know about replacing your battery; from the signs of a dying battery, the E46 battery location, how to replace it and also my recommended replacement battery.

It's a pretty comprehensive guide, so if you just want to skip right to one section, use the handy quick links below.

The 9 Most Common Symptoms of a Failing Car Battery
BMW E46 OEM Battery Specs
BMW E46 Replacement Battery Specs
BMW E46 Battery Location
BMW E46 Battery Replacement Guide

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The 9 Most Common Symptoms of a Failing Car Battery

Your lights are dimmer than usual
Electrical faults might start to appear
EML warning light is on
Battery warning light is on
It takes more engine cranks than usual to start
The engine cranks but won't start
The engine won't even crank
You've had to jump start it recently
Swelling battery case

As the British summertime is usually a couple of days in July, it typically won't take long before cold weather will cause the symptoms of a dying car battery to show themselves.

As was the case with my E46 330d, it's enthusiasm to start in the morning had dropped considerably, much like myself as a teenager...

It had got to a point where it was noticeably sluggish to start, at this point it was still starting but it took longer more cranks than it should. To be fair, the BMW OEM battery had lasted a pretty impressive 170k miles!

BMW E46 OEM Battery Specs

The battery specs of my OEM 330d battery, that I was removing, were as follows:

BMW Part Number: 61218381764 / 61218381768
Amp Hours (Ah): 90Ah
Cold Cranking Amp (CCA): 720CCA

BMW E46 Replacement Battery Specs

The E46 battery size varies quite a bit depending on which model you have, so it's best to double check the fitment.

To make sure you get the right battery for your E46, go to Amazon*, put your car's details in the 'Shop by vehicle:' tool at the top and it'll tell you which batteries will fit your car.

For my E46 330d, the replacement battery I bought was an Exide Excell EB950, available on Amazon here*.

There were a couple of reasons why I chose the EB950, and why I think it's the best battery for the E46 330d.

It offered the best performance at a very reasonable price
It's from a premium battery manufacturer
Exide batteries were used by BMW as OEM replacements under warranty.

The EB950 battery specs are as follows:

Amp Hours (Ah): 95Ah (+5Ah compared to OEM)
Cold Cranking Amp (CCA): 800CCA (+80CCA compared to OEM)
Battery Size: 353 x 175 x 190mm (+15mm compared to OEM)

BMW E46 Battery Location

For the E46 sedan / saloon, touring and convertible, the battery is located in the trunk / boot, on the right hand side under the plastic tray.

The location of the E46 Compact battery is slightly different though, it's directly under the loadfloor.

BMW E46 Battery Replacement Guide

Tools Required

Ratchet
10mm socket or spanner
13mm socket or spanner
Cross head screw driver
Flat head screw driver

BMW E46 Battery Removal

Just a quick note before we get started, the eagle eye'd readers will notice the Exide battery changes in some of the pictures. I used a combination of photos from mine and my Dad's E46, however, he went for the higher rated Exide EA 1000 battery. You can check out the specs and get yourself one on Amazon here*.

Step 1 - Remove the Battery Cover

Whoever designed the battery cover for this car needs a slap, it's the most awkward piece of trim to remove I've ever known. If there is a knack to it please let me know in the comments below.

Any-who to remove it, lift the boot carpet, which reveals the two plastic fixings securing it in place.

Use a flat head screw driver (or just your finger nail) to turn the two quarter turn plastic fixings, then lift and wiggle the plastic tray until it is free of the loadspace side carpet (like I said above, this is a pain in the a$$).

Step 2 - Remove the Negative Terminal

Make sure you remove the negative terminal first, before the positive terminal.

To remove it, undo the nut on the top of the negative battery terminal, this should be a 10mm nut (but it can vary).

Just before you remove the negative terminal, make sure you're pulling a suitably stupid face. Whenever I'm disconnecting a car battery I pull a face similar to that of Tommy and Turkish at the end of Snatch, I assume the battery is going to ark and explode every damn time...

Step 3 - Remove the Positive Terminal

Hopefully the wind didn't change whilst pulling your stupid face and you can get on with the rest of the job. Remove the positive terminal next. Lift the red terminal cover up, it hinges at the back, then undo the 10mm nut as per the negative terminal.

Step 4 - Remove the Battery Clamp Bracket

Using a cross head screw driver undo the centre screw, it doesn't have to be completely undone, just loosened.

Then, using a 13mm socket, undo and remove the two bolts holding the battery clamp in place.

Step 5 - Remove the Battery Vent Tube

Finally, before you can remove the battery, pull the vent tube off the 90° vent tube elbow. You'll need to remove the elbow later and install it on the new battery.

Step 6 - Pull the Battery Out of the Car

You're now good to heave the old battery out. Start your fitness tracker at this point, it's a workout lifting the thing out, it weighs a tonne.

I covered the negative and positive terminals with some gloves before pulling the battery out, just helps to avoid any accidental contact.

At this point, if your battery tray is anything like mine, it's the ideal opportunity to give it a clean out. Autoglym Engine & Machine Cleaner* is perfect for the job, spray it on the area, agitate with a detailing brush then wipe clean with a microfibre cloth.

BMW E46 Battery Installation

Step 7 - Swap the Battery Vent Tube to the New Battery

Make sure to swap the battery vent tube onto the new battery before you fit it into the car.

Step 8 - Lift the New Battery into Place

Lift and position your new battery onto the battery tray, make sure the battery vent tube and positive terminal end is nearest the front of the car.

Step 9 - Reconnect the Battery Vent Tube

Push the battery vent tube securely onto the 90° elbow.

Step 10 - Re-attach the Battery Clamp Bracket

Before you re-attach the battery clamp bracket, undo the screw to raise the plate height a little. My new battery was 15mm taller, so I had to undo it quite a bit to allow the bracket to go back into position.

Once you've done that, use a your ratchet and 13mm socket to tighten the bracket bolts.

Step 11 - Reconnect the Positive Terminal

Make sure you connect the positive terminal first, position the connector onto the terminal and use the 10mm socket to tighten the securing nut.

Step 12 - Reconnect the Negative Terminal

Position the connector onto the negative terminal and use the 10mm socket to tighten the securing nut. It will spark a little as you position the connector onto the terminal.

Step 13 - Tighten the Battery Top Clamp

Finally, tighten the screw in the top clamp so the battery doesn't jump around when going over bumps.

Step 14 - Job Done

All that's left to do is replace the battery cover and start her up!

Replacing the battery made a huge difference to my car, even at the height of winter with temperatures reaching minus figures (Celsius for my overseas readers) the car started promptly and with a renewed sense of purpose.

If this article has been useful please let me know in the comments below! Also feel free to share the article using the widget on the left.

E46 Speaker Upgrade Front and Rear [DIY]

2015-04-06T15:26:00.000+01:00

Got a blown speaker? Want to upgrade your E46 speakers but don't know what size will fit?

In this article I explain what speakers I used, the size, how I mounted them and what the sound quality was like, hopefully, helping you decide the next step in replacing or upgrading your E46's speakers.

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Full Speaker Install or Just Upgrade?

Having had upgraded aftermarket speakers and a Vibe subwoofer in my Rover 25, I'd toyed with the notion of replacing the standard BMW speakers and installing a full speaker system upgrade. I wanted to go one better than the Rover though, and amp the system. However, I quickly knocked the idea on the head as I simply haven't the time (or money) to do a decent job of it.

Unfortunately though, the ageing E46 OEM speakers were becoming a bit lacklustre in their performance, which forced my hand. In fact the front speakers had blown, the hissing, crackling then complete silence was sweet nectar to my ears...

An audiophile I am not, however, my hearing is somewhat on par with that of a bat so I like my speakers to be of, at the very least, tolerable sound quality.

Ease of installation was a priority, so I sought out some direct replacement options. The Rainbow IQ 265.25 came up as the best plug and play option for the E46 saloon, however, the kit also cost a few more pennies than I was hoping ~£240 just for front component speakers.

I got the drawing board back out and decided I'd just get some decent quality, after-market, speakers and use adaptors to fit them.

Symptoms of Blown E46 Speakers

The video below shows what sort of sound quality, or lack thereof, I was having to put up with from my E46's blown front speakers.

Even some first gen iPod headphones would have been an upgrade, nonetheless, I wanted some half decent gear.

E46 Speaker Size

The standard E46 saloon / sedan front door speakers are a bit of an odd size, due to the lack of depth in the door, the largest aftermarket speaker you can fit is 5.25" mounted on an adaptor. The rear speakers are more of a standard depth, but again 5.25" with an adaptor is the limit.

Having snooped around various forums fishing for lessons learnt, I found you needed a specific size of tweeter too, 1" is the max size that would fit without too much modification of the existing carrier.

After spending an age comparing power output, size, price etc. I settled on the following:

Front: Infinity Reference 5030cs 5.25" (130mm) Component Speakers
Rear: Infinity Kappa Series 52.9i 5.25" (130mm) Coaxial Speakers

I got both sets of speakers and adaptors from caraudiodirect delivered for £130, a much more wallet friendly figure.

Right. Enough flannel, on with the fitting.

How to Replace the E46 Saloon Rear Speakers

With the amount of photos I took this post pretty much serves as a how to guide to replacing or upgrading the front and rear speakers in your E46, you'll need to follow my how to guide for removing the E46 front door casing before you get started though.

I decided to tackle the 'easier' job of replacing the rear speakers first. Technically, there wasn't much wrong with the original speakers, but if you're going to do a job, do it properly and all that.

Popping the speaker fret out of the aperture reveals the speaker, you can then simply lift away the foam gasket just resting atop. Remove that and you've got access to the fixings, of which there are three.

The speakers sit in a sound deadening cup, which I can only assume is to stop sound escaping into the boot, that too is just loose in the aperture and can easily be removed, leaving you with the condition shown below.

With the speaker out I compared it against the new Infinitys. Ten points to Gryffindor if you spotted the obvious error in judgement I'd made with the new speakers.

Putting you out of your misery, the new ones have got a central tweeter built in, which just so happens to be protruding from the rim of the cone, and just so happens to be protruding high enough that it would stop the fret fitting, ideal. The drawing board seemed to be a permanent feature in the lab for this project.

I decided the speaker would have to be mounted from below rather than sitting on the parcel shelf, this should give enough clearance to the fret required. However, it would mean some modification to the sound deadening bowl to allow the speaker to sit low enough. Out with the sheers...

The adaptors also needed some err...adapting, too. The three outer holes were all clearance, so the standard bolts would be no use. Gingerly, I tapped the holes out and found six matching bolts in the parts bin.

After a quick test fit of the adaptor on the speaker, it was ready to be wired up. The after market speakers obviously wouldn't take the standard BMW wiring connector so this had to be carefully snipped off. There was also the addition of the in line crossover for the central tweeter.

Before plumbing in the speaker I thought I'd test it in the aperture. Good job I didn't put that drawing board away, those bespoke adaptors specifically for the E46...yeah the holes didn't line up. Out with the file to do some 'engineering refinement'.

All holes now in alignment, I could actually get the speakers in and working. To stop the crossover rattling around with all the 'phat beats' I wrapped it in some self adhesive velcro.

I had a bit of sound deadening left over from my previous car so I put it to good use on the B surface of the parcel shelf, behind the rear seats and in the wheel well. A token gesture but if it makes a small difference then it's a win.

Rears done, now for the front.

How to Replace E46 Saloon Front Door Speakers

The speakers are mounted to the door casing itself, again with three screws. Similarly to the rear you get some sound deadening encasing the rear of the speaker, although it's in a foam format as a pose to the compressed cardboard type material of the rears.

Unlike the rears there is no issues with protruding tweeters, fingers crossed that would mean an easy install. Despite the new speakers being smaller in diameter you can see the difference in magnet size, quite a considerable weight delta too.

Channelling my inner James May, I checked all fixings were present and correct prior to fitment. Nothing worse than getting half way through a job to realise you're a fixing short.

No issues with getting the adaptor fitted to the speaker. A foam seal was part of the fitting kit included in the box with the speakers, a nice touch by Infinity, which just helps to avoid any annoying rattles.

Bringing back the sound deadening I hit a minor snag, the aperture for the magnet to fit through was too small. Handily, there was a perforated ring already cut that you could break away to enlarge the aperture. I can only assume the sound deadening is carry over for the Harmon Kardon speakers that must feature a larger magnet, nevertheless, it worked out quite well for a change.

With the mid range speaker ready to go, next up was removing the tweeter and getting that changed over. The interior frame finisher extends quite unusually to the bottom of the door, which is where the first fixing is located. Removing these is quite tricky, after practising my French for 15mins the trim was out the way enough to access the tweeter.

The foam sound deadening just pulls away. then you can access the single fixing for the tweeter.

Hoping for an easy life I removed the OEM tweeter from the plastic carrier in a bid to use it for the new one. A bit of prying with a small screwdriver and the old one was out. You can see it was rather 'budget' to put it kindly, especially next to the new one.

Feeling lucky I pressed the new tweeter into the carrier, to my surprise it fit rather snugly.

Using more of the left over deadening mat I set about the door casings and metal work.

Final job, fitting the crossover and wiring it in. Remember that drawing board, yeah well I was back at it. The packaging space in modern doors is tight, due to the sheer amount of stuff they have to have in them, so finding a spot was a bit tricky. Luckily, just above the foam hip pusher block there was a handy little nook.

Using some two part epoxy and a bit of sand paper to key the surfaces, I glued the crossover firmly in place. It needed to be a strong hold, if not it could come loose with time as the door is shut.

As with the rear speakers, the bespoke adaptors were an excellent fit...NAAAT. Out with the file again to open up the holes. Some tinkering later and it lined up.

The next hurdle to jump over was getting the speaker to sit flush, creating a seal to the main moulding. Some of the moulding needed to be cut away, but it was impossible to tell where as the speaker obscured the view when in place. Using some yellow marker paint on the raised parts of the speaker I pressed it firmly against the moulding hoping to leave a mark. It worked just well enough, you can see faint marks in the right hand picture below. Using some snips, and exercising some trial and error, the plastic was locally removed enough to fit the speaker.

There wasn't enough wiring included with the speakers for the job, rather disappointingly, so I used a bit of Vibe wiring I had left over from a previous install, good quality stuff too. With everything in place I taped the wires down, to avoid them going where they shouldn't (window mechs for example).

As mentioned previously, you don't want the crossover coming loose. So, my Dad devised a simple lightweight addition, some foam that would compress the crossover against the casing. If the glue failed, hopefully the tension in the foam would keep it in place.

With the brunt of the work done, all that remained was to put everything back together and pump up the volume.

Joking aside it was absolutely blissful to have speakers that created music not noise and, although there were a few hick-ups along the way, the install went fairly smoothly.

I'd recommend the Infinity brand to anyone wanting decent quality sound at a price that doesn't break the bank. You aren't going to win any awards without them amped up mind, but still, not too shabby.

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LED Number Plate Bulbs and Carrier Refurb

2014-06-03T22:03:00.001+01:00

It's not very often you look at the numberplate lamps, probably once a year at MOT time? which, as it happens, is exactly when I took a closer look at mine.

One of the bulbs wasn't lighting up and after taking a quick squint it was immediately clear why.

Apparently my car had been used in the discovery of Titanic's resting place on the sea bed. Behind the lenses you could see schools of fish swimming in the water build up, something like a view from Dr No's underwater lair.

In all seriousness, the seals on the lenses were absolutely shot and the lens itself clouded and dirty. On the side that had failed the lens clipping feature had snapped and was no longer providing any support. The bulb housings were completely corroded too, with a bluey/green oxidation layer covering majority of the metal work.

Along with other service items, I ordered two replacement lenses from eurocarparts.com at £3.36 each (shown above), minus 25% discount for being a member of bimmerforums.co.uk. For those interested the part number was 482110120.

Access to the fixings for the boot trim is from the inside, pulling down the carpeted interior trim. A few Torx T20 bolts hold the trim in place, along with the wiring harness connector, and without much bother the trim was free.

The old fish tank lenses crumbled out without much persuasion then it was onto the task of returning the corroded metal to it's former shiny conductive self.

I borrowed some ~~Halfrauds~~ Halfords own brand electrical contact cleaner from my buddy at work, saved me shelling out some pennies so it was most welcome.

To be fair, it's not bad stuff. I combined this with a wire brush and some elbow grease and the contacts came up pretty well. Obviously the harder to access nooks and crannies weren't spit spot but the main contacts were good as new. In rather poor form I neglected to take a picture of the cleaned up contacts without the lens in, but I did take one with it all finished so you can see the improvement.

It's quite clear (apologies for the Dad pun) that the new lens is far improved over the original. Thankfully both my bulbs now work too, a resounding success on all accounts.

To conclude quickly then, if you have any issues with the number plate bulbs it's worth 30 mins of your time and a few quid to freshen up the area.

Combine this good work with some multi LED bulbs and it will transform the look of your car's rump when the stars come out. Those keener eye'd readers will notice that I already had some LED bulbs in place. I decided, however, to upgrade them from 2 LED to 6 SMD LED C5W bulbs. Blimey the difference 4 LEDs can make.

I bought the pair of bulbs from brightlights4all, a seller on eBay, for £6.99. They are a non brand cheapy job but they seemed to be pretty good quality on inspection, they also don't throw up any warning lights on my dash either. As any car enthusiast does when new parts arrive, I ripped into the packaging and set about fitting them instantly.

Out with the old (compare with the new) and in with the new. The new ones were quite beastly in comparison.

I've tried to edit out my number plate to avoid my car's details being stolen (it's a conspiracy they're all out to get me) but take my word for it that the 6 LED bulbs are seriously bright. Not only are they bright but they also cast a white (very slight tinge of blue) light which modernises the rear of the car. That old incandescent yellow colour is really starting to look dated.

In the image below you can see the new 6 LED bulb on the left and the old 2 LED on the right. To try and get some perspective, the factory fitted incandescent bulb was close to half the brightness of the 2 LED bulb.

Hopefully this post inspires you to do this little maintenance job, spend a little and make a really noticeable difference to the rear of your car. It's well worth it, if I bought another car with incandescent bulbs it would be pretty high on my list of jobs to do.

Let me know in the comments if you have any hints and tips on cleaning up corroded metal, I'm sure there will be some weird and wonderful methods out there.

Bosch Retro-Fit Aero Wipers

2014-04-23T20:04:00.000+01:00

It's pretty fair to say we had a rather damp start to the year here in the UK, with many parts of the country under water for at least a month.

Dramatic headlines were commonplace in the press, such as this one from the BBC:

Parts of England have had their wettest January since records began more than 100 years ago, figures show.

As you can see from my trip to Reading's Oracle shopping centre, rivers were a little higher than usual. Reading was by no means the worst effected area either.

As a consequence of all the rain the wipers were working overtime and seemingly coming to the end of their life. The Goodyear Wiper Blades I 'fitted' a couple of years ago had never really fit quite right, a fraction away from fully engaging the retaining clip.

Alas, so near yet so far.

We all know that automatic wipers are perfect at selecting the wipe speed inversely proportional to the amount of rain being experienced, in this case it was a consistent drizzle so naturally supersonic was selected. When moving at 760mph it didn't take long for the passenger side wiper to jiggle itself loose, taunting me as it teetered on the end of the wiper arm loop threatening to jump ship. After three weeks of getting wet repositioning the blade I got a bit Basil Fawlty and decided enough was enough.

A friend suggested autobulbsdirect.co.uk, which seemed very reasonably priced. I scanned around the site for a while and came to the conclusion I needed a 20" (AR20U) and a 22" (AR22U) of the Bosch Retro-Fit Aero wiper blades. I ummed and ahhed a bit due to the size of the clipping cover, it did seem a little bulky, nevertheless I ordered a set. I managed to blag a 10% off code with a quick Google search too, which dropped the overall price down to £21.82, happy days.

I can't fault the service from autobulbsdirect.co.uk the wipers arrived promptly and well packaged. At the next break in rainfall I dashed out and set about fitting them.

The guide on the back of the box is quite clear, just a simple three step process; unclip the cover, slide the blade over the wiper arm hook and close the cover.

Contrary to my concerns when ordering, the clipping cover is actually quite a sleek design and in no way looks bulky. When installed the blades look very tidy, like an OEM fit option. Looking nice is one thing, but these wipers perform too, they are as near to silent as you can get. The whole of the blade is in contact with the screen resulting in a consistent wipe area - some wipers have sections where the blade lifts away from the screen slightly and doesn't fully clear the wipe area.

In my opinion aero blades are an absolute must for any vehicle, but the Bosch Retro-Fit Aero wipers do the job just that little bit better than others I have tried and as such I couldn't recommend them highly enough.

Rug Doctor Interior Valet

2014-02-22T12:57:00.003+00:00

When I bought the car I'd said I was going to rent a Vax or something similar to do a full valet on the interior. After two years I thought it was about time I got my act together.

I'm a bit behind with my blog posts - some of you may remember that thing called sunshine, well we had a bit of that in June last year. So I decided to look into the different cleaning methods available. Rug Doctor appeared to be the most readily available in my town and came recommended in a number of automotive articles.

After looking up all the stuff you need I took a trip down to the local Range store and it up.

It was quite the faff due to the staff member who ended up serving me, well I say serve that was probably quite low on her priorities. Nevertheless after around half an hour I'd got all the kit I needed.

Rug Doctor Rental - £21.99 for 24hours
Anti Foam 1L £2.99
Upholstery Cleaner 1L £9.99

I split the costs with a friend who used it to do his Z4 prior to sale. It doesn't make it clear how much of the fluids you'll need to clean a car's interior, turns out the amount I bought is good for two car's easy or a very thorough clean of one.

After a brief period of trying to workout what goes where and how much of each fluid is required I got started.

I thought I better start with a part that I wouldn't mind getting ruined if the cleaning fluids didn't agree. Out came the boot liner, bring on the suds. There were a couple of muddy marks that I wanted to get out, so these got most of the focus. To be honest it didn't get the marks out completely, but it did freshen the liner up quite a bit.

Satisfied the colours weren't going to run everywhere I moved onto the seats, starting with the front so they could dry for longer.

The suds do get everywhere when you're doing this, so make sure you have a clean cloth to wipe any plastics.

You can see the before (left) and after (right) for the front seat below.

You're probably thinking, well yep I can't see any difference there. On the face of it you're quite right, the seats were visually quite clean anyway. However, when you see the crap left in the Rug Doctor you might be quite surprised.

I carried on and did a thorough job on the rest of the car: boot side trims; mats, rear seats.

It was a pretty hot day so when I was done I left all the doors open to let the car dry out and air. Meanwhile I packed the Rug Doctor away. Here's what greeted me in the tank.

Still think the seats were clean before? Yeah me either.

Although not making a massive difference visually, it was definitely noticeable. Everyone that saw the car after noted how new the interior looked. Along with the visual aspect, it also smelt a lot fresher in the car, not that it smelt bad before just a lot fresher now.

So would I recommend doing it yourself? Yes definitely, even if you think your car is quite clean, this is the best way to clean your interior thoroughly. In fact I'd recommend you do the whole car twice (depending on how old it is) that way you've got peace of mind knowing it's truly clean.

Next summer I'll be hiring another one and giving it another go.

Hesitation at 3800 RPM

2013-08-06T00:00:00.000+01:00

This isn't a post about my car, it's actually my Dad's E46 but I thought it was important to share his story to help others who come across the same problem.

He has the SE variant 330d with exactly the same running gear as mine, i.e. same M57 engine.

The car had gradually developed a stuttering hesitation at high revs, specifically 3800rpm. In fact it simply wouldn't rev higher than 3800rpm.

We deduced it had to be not enough of something getting into the engine such that it couldn't rev up freely. So trim panels came off and we started investigating.

The video below shows what happened when you revved the car. Please ignore the sound change at the end of the video, despite it sounding like a turbo waste gate or pressure being released, for some reason my phone adjusted how it recorded.

The first things that came to mind as a potential cause were as follows;

Vacuum hoses
Injectors
EGR clogged up
MAF faulty/dirty

We started off with the easy ones to check. With a bit of perseverance the MAF was removed and cleaned with a spray specifically for the task. You can read further into this when I cleaned the MAF sensor on my car last year.

After leaving the sensor to dry thoroughly it was refitted and the engine tested again. No change. So to check if the MAF was faulty and not just dirty, we ran the engine again with it disconnected, still no change.

Next up was the EGR. Post removal I was quite shocked at how clean it was, compared to when I cleaned my EGR it was spotless. Nevertheless it got a good clean and was refitted, yet again the engine hesitated.

The last two on our list was a fair job to check, so I resorted to Google searching. Turns out it's a fairly common problem, and it seemed to be accountable to the mid car fuel pump. This would make sense with our "engine is not going enough of something" theory.

Dad decided he'd take the plunge and ordered a new diesel fuel pump from Eurocarparts, Pierburg branded.

Unfortunately I haven't got any images of the fitting process, but he tells me it wasn't much of a job really and only took him a couple of hours from getting the car on the ramps to a test drive.

I can also confirm that it was indeed this diesel fuel pump that was at fault. The engine is back to normal, revving freely up to the red line. Needless to say he was quite chuffed!

Steering Column Cowl Replaced

2013-08-03T00:00:00.000+01:00

As a part of an ongoing refresh of the car's interior, I set about replacing the surface damaged lower steering column cowl. For those that don't know what that is, it's the lower half of the plastic trim that the indicator stalk and steering wheel rake adjust lever protrude from, the same plastic trim below where you stick your key in the ignition (if that hasn't helped all will become clear in the images later).

When I bought the car I hadn't really noticed it, as you tend to look at the car from the driving position. It was only when I did a thorough clean of the interior, after buying the car, that I saw it from the passenger side. The only reason that I can think of for the damage to this trim panel, is that someone had hung an air freshener from the indicator stalk and it had melted the plastic.

I noted it needed swapping as it looked hideous, but kept forgetting as it wasn't in plain sight to me as the driver.

Anyway, it finally got to me enough for me to look into getting it sorted. I jumped on eBay and ordered a replacement second hand OEM trim piece, for around £10 posted, that I was hopefully going to do a straight swap with. However, when the parts arrived they also melted in the same place. I had ordered the top half too just in case I damaged the top replacing the lower.

Off to Halfords I went to pick up some primer and satin black spray cans.

Before I could do any prep or painting the trim panels had to be stripped of all sound proofing etc, of which there was more than I imagined there would be.

As there were surface defects on the parts they needed sanding back to a smooth surface prior to painting. For the sanding I used wet and dry ranging in grit level from 220 to 1200. The 220 was used to get the major scuffs and melted parts cleaned up then I finished off with the 1200.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the spraying process, but I can explain what I did.

I applied very thin layers, almost a dusting, of primer. It took 4 coats before it was covered. After the primer was applied I left the parts to full set, a few months in fact as I just didn't get the time to finish the job. I'm sure a couple of days would have sufficed though.

As with the primer I dusted on the satin black. It looks odd when you do it this way and you think "how is this ever going to produce a decent finish?" but trust the process and it does. After 3 coats it was almost covered, just a few tricky areas left that I blew in specifically.

I then left it in the July heat wave to fully harden off. For the final touch I washed the part in cold water and dried it off, to remove any loose paint or dirt particles. I refitted the sound proofing to the lower trim then set about fitting it.

Changing the lower half of the trim was fairly easy, lower the trim shown below to give you a bit more access to the cowl trim, then pop the pin out of the middle of the two large round fixing pegs, then they just fall out with a bit of jiggling.

Taking a screw driver I removed the screw from the upper trim, which sits in the recess on the top surface behind the steering wheel. It is then a case of maneuvering the trim panels (upper and lower) until you unclip the clips joining the two halves (this is quite tricky). Refitting is just a case of reversing the above.

Despite painting up the replacement top half, when it came to fitting it I gave it a miss to avoid any unnecessary frustration. The original top half was in quite good condition so I just left it attached.

Overall I'm very happy with the results, although the newly painted part does look noticeably nicer than the rest of the trim now (but I'd rather it that way than before!) The satin black Halfords paint is a near enough match to the standard trim for me to recommend you use the same if you need to spray any interior parts yourself.

E46 330d Fuel Economy - Real World MPG

2013-07-31T13:52:00.001+01:00

I've owned the car for two years now, throughout which I have been collecting data on fuel economy, starting from the very day I purchased it. I use an Android app called aCar which I'd highly recommend.

With the current level of data collected, I think I can now make a well informed comment on what fuel consumption the E46 330d is capable of, and compare that against what BMW claimed it could do. All this bearing in mind the car is 11 years old and has just this week ticked over 150,000 miles.

BMW E46 330d Official MPG Fuel Economy

Let's start with the fuel consumption figures BMW claimed the E46 330d could achieve. The figures below have been taken straight from the owner's manual.

Urban - 30.7mpg (9.2)
Extra-urban - 53.3mpg (5.3)
Combined - 42.2mpg (6.7)

(Numbers in brackets are in litres/100km)

Before I delve into my data, it's important to understand some elements that will have affected the MPG.

The fuel used has always been standard diesel (not V Power or any other premium diesel)
Mileage range of fill ups: 123,000 - 150,000
Type of roads driven on (this is an estimate).

2011

Urban - 50%
Extra-urban - 50%

2012

Urban - 40%
Extra-urban - 60%

2013

Urban - 40%
Extra-urban - 60%

Less than 1500 of the 27,000 miles driven has been on motorways.
The figures presented are actual, calculated MPG figures, NOT what the OBC (On Board Computer) reads.

BMW E46 330d Real World MPG Fuel Economy

The all important bit then, my results;

Minimum MPG recorded - 30.4
Maximum MPG recorded - 44.2
Average MPG overall - 37.3

Average MPG 2013 - 39.3
Average MPG 2012 - 37.1
Average MPG 2011 - 34.9

So what did the OBC say? Unfortunately for BMW it was very optimistic, for example, the maximum recorded MPG actually read 51.3mpg on the OBC. It seams that the higher the actual MPG is, the more inaccurate the OBC is.

Click to enlarge

Explaining The Numbers

There are a number of things that might have influenced the figures I've recorded, so I will divulge such that you can understand my results and take your own opinions on my findings. You could also interpret how the figures might change based on your own circumstances.

When I bought the 330d I had gotten straight out of a 1.4 litre petrol Rover 25 into the 2.9 litre diesel BMW. A considerable increase in power, combined with a differing driving style required between petrol and diesel. I was also doing less extra-urban driving. After it had failed I had to replace the thermostat in the latter months of 2011. All of these factors account for the lower MPG average for 2011.

In 2012 I started a new job, which involved an extended drive to the office, this accounts for the shift in urban/extra-urban percentages. Throughout the year I gained experience and learnt how to get the best out of the car leading to the overall improvement in average MPG.

You may note, on the graph above, a significant dip in the results in December of 2012, this is when my holidays from work are and as such, much more short trips and town driving (or a combination of the both).

I have also noticed that outside temperature makes a big difference to MPG. A general rule of thumb is that the warmer it is outside the higher your MPG, until you have to use air conditioning and it levels out or drops slightly.

In 2013 I have been undertaking a personal mission to increase the MPG I've been getting out of the car. I've been reading up on driving styles and practices and the results have paid off, with the highest average MPG of the three years and with the highest single MPG recorded.

How To Improve Your E46 330d's Fuel Economy

First of all, make sure you are regularly doing a full service on your car, so far I've done three services, one at 124k, 134k and 144k.

The EGR valve on the M57 engine can get significantly clogged with carbon build up, make sure yours is clean and functioning correctly using my DIY guide to cleaning out the EGR valve. To avoid any future build up, use my guide to bypassing the EGR valve completely.

Two more cheap options are to clean your MAF sensor and use a fuel treatment like Comma's Diesel Magic to clean your fuel system.

Finally, a couple of freebies, get all the clutter out of the boot, glovebox, door bins to make the car as light as possible. I'm not saying remove the rear seats or don't have a few CDs in the glovebox, just make sure you're not carrying round your full detailing kit etc.

Make sure your tyres are correctly inflated, and check them regularly (once a month), a couple of degrees change in ambient temperature can make quite a difference to your tyre pressure.

How To Change Your Driving Style To Maximise MPG

I'm guessing, like me, you didn't buy your 330d to drive it around like your Nan, if you wanted the best fuel consumption you'd have gone for a 318 or 320d right?

Thankfully there are a couple of things you can do to improve your fuel economy without confiding yourself to the slow lane.

Be analogue not digital

Don't stand on the brakes and/or accelerator, read the road ahead to avoid stop start driving. Quite often, even in commuter traffic, if you leave a bigger gap to the car in front you can usually get away with not braking most of the time. When you see the car 5 or so in front indicating to turn, ease off the gas.

Use cruise control, where sensible (motorway), to maintain constant speed

Again read the road ahead, if you're approaching a down hill you might be better off to turn the cruise control off whilst still on the flat, then use the hill to gain speed.

Conclusion

Excluding the OBC readings, my findings are a fantastic result for BMW. A car over 11 years old with over 150,000 miles on the clock, and the MPG is continuing to rise.

In fact, I have achieved MPG figures above the official combined number from BMW, 44.2 vs 42.2. At 44.2 MPG a full tank of fuel will last you just shy of 600 miles (I managed 596). It is my aim this year to achieve over 600 miles to a tank, which I think is entirely possible even with urban driving percentages as much as 40%.

Would I recommend the 330d for fuel economy? Yes, you simply can't buy anything from a premium brand of that age, that price with the same outstanding performance and driving ability.

If you have any questions do let me know in the comments section below.

What's the best MPG you've achieved from your E46? Got any tips not covered above for improving MPG?

144k Service

2013-03-08T05:30:00.000+00:00

It was coming up for being 10k miles since the last service - 134k Service, so I thought I better sort out ordering some parts.

Servicing the 330d is far from a cheap affair, swapping four filters (I decided not to change the oil breather this time around) and the oil, I set out to do the service as cheaply as possible whilst using brand name reputable parts.

I started off looking at eurocarparts.com, as I get a 25% members discount from bimmerforums.co.uk, which usually makes it by far the cheapest. However, I mentioned I was going to do a service to a friend, he told me to check out carparts4less.co.uk after saving a bundle on his brake service.

I tilled all the parts up, identical brands to that I had selected on eurocarparts (I believe they are sister companies, same website layout etc), and it came to just under what it cost including my 25% discount on eurocarparts. I then thought I'd be cheeky and look for a discount code for carparts4less too, turns out at the time I was ordering they were offering £10 off a £75 spend. As I was ordering some parts for my Dad's car too, I got the four filters for £32.56, bargain.

As for the oil, I picked up two bottles of Castrol Edge from Costco for £29.99 each.

So, here's the part breakdown;

Guttmann Oil Filter,
Guttmann Air Filter,
Hengst/Mahle Fuel Filter,
Generic Active Carbon Cabin Filter,
Castrol Edge 5W/40 Fully Synthetic Oil

I started work mid afternoon on a bitterly cold Sunday in February, not ideal for the finger tips. Quick snap of the time and mileage from the OBC for the records.

The first job was to get the car up on the ramps and the oil draining. Whilst the old black stuff trickled out I got on with swapping out the filters. First out was the cabin filter, which in all honesty looked completely fine. Even so, I wanted to get the new activated carbon one in to make the quality of air in the car a bit better. I'm an engineer by trade and had experience using activated carbon filters on crop sprayers, after running that project you learn how important these filters are.

Next to come out was the air filter, now this was a different story. Removing the engine plastics revealed all sorts of leaves and dust, not really optimum airflow conditions.

I took the old filter out and got Henry on the case to vacuum up all the debris.

Before (left) and After (right)

The other two filters, oil and fuel, both came out without a hitch and the new ones went in with equal ease, leaving just the oil to go.

6.5 litres of Castrol Edge went into the engine which read just right on the dipstick. A quick run round the block showed no issues, in fact quite the opposite, the engine seemed nice and smooth and glad of a refresh.

All set for another 10k trouble free miles...touch wood!

Goodyear Eagle F1 Tyres

2013-03-04T09:47:00.000+00:00

I'd known my rear tyres were getting low since Christmas, but when I came to check them late into Feb, they were really getting low, 3 Brucey bonus points each on my license low.

With my wallet already wincing, I went on camskill.co.uk and priced up a pair of rear tyres. I didn't have the best of experiences with the Falken FK452's I put on a year ago. Initially they were excellent, but they soon lost grip and weren't really inspiring in the wet, towards the end of their life they became quite loud too.

Wanting to avoid the Falken's, I looked further down the list i.e. the more expensive end of the list. I picked out a few options that I could justify the price of (there were Yokohama's at £220 each, which is too rich for me).

The short list was as follows;

Falken FK453 - £124.20 (New version of the FK452, stick with the devil you know?)
Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta - £129
Dunlop SP SportMaxx TT - £145.50
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 - £148.40

Now that the EU have brought in the new rating sticker it gives you a starting point to compare each tyre, however, comparing on just the stats alone didn't really help, each tyre had it's positives and negatives.

For more info on the new EU Tyre Label, this article on blackcircles is very good - Closer Look at the EU Tyre Labelling.

Next step was to hit the review sites, the best one I found was tyrereviews.co.uk. It gives you the option to compare reviews on tyres that have been fitted to your car, as tyres can perform differently on individual cars. I've linked to the tyrereviews.co.uk site for each of the tyres in the list above. It showed that the Falkens really aren't liked, many quoting the same issues I've had. Almost all the negative reviews were quoting tram-lining, something I had suffered in a big way. Falken's crossed off, next up was the Vredestein's. I'd not really heard of this brand before, but the reviews weren't too bad, so a maybe. The Dunlop's got equally as bad reviews as the Falken's, so that's another off the list. Finally the Goodyear's, to my surprise these tyres got absolutely gleaming reviews, with 94% of 131 people saying they would buy them again.

The two options then, Vredestein vs Goodyear. Back to the stats, according to camskill.

The Goodyear's were better in all areas but the noise, despite noise levels being important, I thought that performance should be considered more highly, and with the highest wet grip rating you can get, I was leaning toward the Goodyear's. Tipping the balance, the fuel efficiency is better on the Goodyear's too, with fuel only going up in price I hoped this might benefit in the long run.

Goodyear's ordered on a Sunday night, delivered on the following Tuesday, thanks to camskill's fantastic service.

The tyres looked really nice when they arrived, and even better, they are actually rated C for fuel efficiency, not E as it said on camskill, result!

Next day I took all the wheels off and cleaned them ready for the new tyres. Disaster struck when I took the front wheels off, they were completely warn down on the inside edge.

Something not quite right here then...

I took the new tyres to Selectatyre to get them fitted, whilst they were fitting the rears I spoke with one of the staff members. He said it was most definitely alignment and camber causing the wear problem. Needless to say I needed two new front tyres as well, so I got them to quote me a price on the Goodyear's. They quoted a price about £10 more than camskill, so for convenience I accepted and got them to order two in for the next day and booked in for a tracking/alignment/camber adjustment.

The next day I went back and they did an assessment of the current set up. Bad news, the camber was way out of wack, about 2° outside of the allowable tolerance zone. The rear wheels were cambered so that the top of the wheel was further outboard, completely the opposite of how it should be, the fronts were the opposite, too far in at the top. All four wheels were toe'ing in.

All adjustments made, the guy came back with the readings, 3 of the wheels were perfect, but the rear right had reached maximum adjustment for camber and was just outside the allowable tolerance zone, he said this was the best he could do and was a massive improvement over what it was, so I went with that. You can see the final outcome below.

All in all it was an expensive week, £600+...but by god it made a difference. The car rolls far, far better, so I'm hoping that will lead to the fuel efficiency gains the EU label stated I should see.

On my first country lane twisty drive into work it was immediately evident the handling had improved considerably. The car is now cornering like it's on rails, far better than it has ever handled under my ownership. Tram-lining has reduced significantly, hardly pulling to one side at all when crossing a white line in the road etc.

Finally then, the road noise. What a difference, it is remarkable how much quieter they are over the previous set of Falken's.

I couldn't recommend the Goodyear tyres more, they really were worth that extra over the Falken's. However, the alignment and camber fix has made the biggest improvement, if you think you might have problems with your car in this area, it is money well spent fixing it.

Osram Night Breaker Plus Headlight Bulbs [Review]

2013-02-28T05:30:00.000+00:00

Frankly, I was getting sick of the cheap-o bulbs I'd been buying blowing after only a months of use, they were 'Ice White' Xenon filled bulbs, you can see them in this post - H7 Xenon Filled Headlight Bulbs.

I had six (yes six) of them blow in just over half a year, they do look great but getting through one per month is unacceptable.

I decided to go completely the other end of the spectrum in terms of price, hoping that the old saying of "you get what you pay for" was true, and opted for some Osram Night Breaker Plus bulbs.

[Update] Night Breaker Plus bulbs have now been discontinued by Osram and replaced by their latest line up, read my full guide to E46 headlight bulbs for my latest recommended bulbs.

The Osram packaging was pretty robust, meaning the bulbs arrived safe and sound.

As one of my old bulbs had blown, I went straight out and fitted the new ones. It was immediately obvious that they were less white/blue than the old bulbs but a heck of a lot brighter.

Comparing the bulbs you can see the quality difference. Osram on the right, old bulb on the left.

After three months of use I can say I'm very happy with how they perform. At night they produce a much more useful spread of light on the road, making driving much more comfortable when on dimly lit roads.

Below is an image of the Osrams fitted against my white LED sidelights, the image is quite deceiving though unfortunately, the Night Breakers most definitely produce a yellow light, not white as it looks below. However, what you can see is how bright they are. Overall I am very happy with the Osram Night Breaker Plus bulbs and would definitely recommend them to anyone, in this case it seems you do get what you pay for.

134k Service

2013-02-26T14:26:00.001+00:00

I'm afraid I've been a bit slack in typing up this service, I actually did it way back in June 2012, nevertheless, still important to talk about it.

I'd done 10k miles since the last service - 124k Mile Full Service - and I wanted to keep the services nice and regular. Since the car had well over 100k miles on the clock and I had no intention of getting rid any time soon this seemed like a sensible figure.

I purchased the parts from three different places eurocarparts.com, opieoils.co.uk and Costco.

As far as I could tell from the car service history, no-one had ever replaced the transmission oil, so I wanted to make sure I swapped that out this time. I headed over to opieoils and asked one of their members of staff for support on choosing the correct one for the 330d manual 5 speed box, they suggested Fuchs Titan Sintofluid SAE 75W-80.

I got all the filters from eurocarparts.com, using a 25% discount from being a member over at bimmerforums.co.uk. I went for all brand name parts to hopefully ensure quality.

Finally I got the oil from Costco as usual, they seem to be consistently £10 per tub cheaper than anywhere else for Castrol Edge.

The full list of parts then;

Castrol Edge 5W-40 A3/B4 Fully Synthetic Oil
Fuchs Titan Sintofluid SAE 75W-80 Transmission Oil
Hengst Oil Filter E15H D59
Bosch Air Filter
Bosch Cabin Filter

So a quick snap of the time and mileage on the OBC before I started for the records.

As I hadn't changed the gearbox oil before on the 330d, I decided that should be the first job on the list. To get at the gearbox you need to remove a few under-car panels and heat shields.

With the gearbox now accessible, it needed to be drained of the old oil. To do this you need to remove the drain plug and filler plug. (Circled in the image below).

Now, as you can't get any liquid higher than the filler plug you can't use gravity to fill it, so using a bit of Blue Peter magic, here is a oil pump my Dad fashioned earlier. It's basically an empty Shampoo bottle with a pump action top and a length of tube cable tied to it.

Using the Shampoo bottle, the gearbox was refilled with oil, until it overflowed from the filler plug aperture.

Transmission out of the way, I could get on with the rest of the service. First out was the cabin filter (to gain access to the air filter).

The cabin filter was surprisingly dirty actually, some of the troughs filled with leaves and other road debris. It's worth pointing out the obvious here though, the old filter was never white, it was grey to begin with.

As usual the air filter was very dirty and ready to be replaced. The intake on the E46 seems to allow quite a large amount of debris to get up and into the air filter compared to a few other cars I have worked on. Contrary to the cabin filter, the old air filter was actually white, so you can see how dirty that has gotten.

Finally the oil and oil filter were replaced, as with the air filter, the oil filter was looking particularly clogged up.

As always servicing the car improved the engine smoothness, which is always welcome. As for changing the gearbox oil, I can confirm that it did indeed make a noticeable difference to gear change ease and cold start characteristics, so well worth it in my opinion.

E46 Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing Replacement [Visual Guide]

2012-11-19T05:00:00.000+00:00

If you're E46 is juddering or squeaking on acceleration and deceleration, then you could have a worn propshaft centre bearing.

This article explains the symptoms of a worn propshaft centre bearing, the parts required to replace it and the process I used to replace the completely shot bearing on my 330d.

I'd advise reading through the whole of this article, if you're in a rush though, use the handy quick links below to skip to the relevant section.

Symptoms of a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing
Diagnosing a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing
Parts Required to Replace a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing
Replacing a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing

Symptoms of a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing

Just a bit of admin before we get into it, prop shafts can be known by a few names; propeller shaft, drive shaft or Cardan shaft (or variations thereof).

An unsettling juddering and squeaking noise started occurring when accelerating and decelerating, usually in 2nd and 3rd gear but not exclusively, and usually between 1.5k and 2.5k revs, also not exclusively.

The judder felt like a rotational wobble, emanating from underneath the centre floor console armrest. The squeak also sounded like it was coming from the same area too.

The juddering was more on acceleration, and the squeaking more on deceleration. There was no loss of power, the clutch wasn't slipping and there was no change in the fuel economy. (See how you car compares with my 330d's real world fuel economy by following the link).

I did a bit of research and found it was most likely the guibo (flexible disc on the propshaft), but there was a small chance it could be the centre bearing on the propshaft also.

Diagnosing a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing

Armed with my research I got the car on the ramps and started investigating. The guibo looked completely fine so, puzzled, I decided to delve deeper and remove all of the under side trim panels, and the exhaust from the Ecotune decat downpipe backwards. I had to replace the standard exhaust downpipe and cat as it was leaking and diesel exhaust fumes were getting into the cabin. Follow the previous link to read more.

It was fair to say I'd found the problem when I saw what's in the video below. The rubber boot in the propshaft centre bearing mount had completely disintegrated, providing no support at all to the propshaft. You can see my dad wobbling the propshaft in the video, whilst he's doing so you can see straight through the gap where the rubber boot should be.

Whilst you're on YouTube, check out my other E46 videos too!

Parts Required to Replace a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing

Unfortunately I needed the replacement parts quickly as the car is my daily and had to be on the road. I didn't have much choice but to get the parts direct from BMW, at what would most likely be an extortionate price.

I called up and got a quote, £92.15, that included the following, all genuine, OEM BMW parts;

6x - p/n: 26117527475 - Hex Bolt - M12 x 1.5 x 71 - ZNS3
6x - p/n: 07129900047 - Self-locking hex nut - M12 x 1.5 - 10 - PHR
1x - p/n: 26122282496 - Aluminium Centre Mount, with Grooved ball bearing - D=55/D=35
1x - p/n: 26127511140 - Butyl cord Terostat 2460 - 190mm x 20mm x 8mm
6x - p/n: 33217571990 - Torx screw with ribs M10 x 46 - ZNS3

A lot of the bolts in this area are one use only and I wasn't sure how many I would have to remove to do the job, so just bought a replacement for all of them for peace of mind that the job was well done.

Replacing a Worn Propshaft Centre Bearing

All required parts acquired I got straight to work, first job being to crack the nut joining both halves of the propshaft. This turned out to be easier said than done, a rather large spanner extension and some choice French words later and it was removed.

Three bolts hold the front section of the propshaft to the flexi disc (guibo), after removing these the front section could be removed from the car. Before removing it though, I marked it at both ends with white paint to make sure it went back in the same orientation, quite important for balancing reasons I believe.

Now that the propshaft was separated, the shot centre bearing could be removed. The bearing came away fairly easily and so did the rest of the assembly. Quite a lot of the butyl cord was left stuck to the chassis, as I had bought a replacement strip I cleaned all the old stuff off. It's horrible stuff that sticks to anything and everything, so it took a little while to clean it up.

All cleaned, I prepared the new bearing for fitting, applying the new butyl cord strip to the mounting bracket. It was also a chance to compare new with old to show how bad the old one was.

Everything now prepared, reassembly could begin. The remaining half of the propshaft had been supported by a length of strong wire, whilst suspended and with the brown packaging film on the butyl cord still fitted, the centre bearing was pushed into place.

Next the removed portion of the propshaft was refitted.

Propshaft back together, all the other nuts and bolts were replaced with fresh ones, and finally the rest of the car was re-assembled.

Touch wood, since the work was carried out there has been no judder or squeaks, so hopefully it was caught just at the right time and all the work was done correctly.

Let me know in the comments below if you've had either the guibo or the centre bearing go on your car. Can your's top mine for how badly it had worn?

You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, search andybuck123 for plenty more content to come!

M-Tec Gear Knob and Leather Gaiters

2012-11-18T08:50:00.000+00:00

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The original gear knob was looking extremely tired; leather worn, numbering sticker peeling and just plain boring. The gaiters weren't much better either, the leather now high gloss instead of matt, and cracking in all the usual places.

I started off looking at Alcantara gaiters to match the seats, but whilst searching eBay for inspiration found a perforated leather option too. I asked the seller, TopGaiters, for a bit more info and maybe a larger picture of both, just so I could decide if I liked either option. They were kind enough to send out two samples of both materials for free.

The sample settled it pretty quickly, the perforated leather had a much more premium feeling, and would lift the interior considerably. I decided on a light grey stitch, as I thought black would just blend in and any other colour would look out of place amongst the monochromatic surroundings.

At £29.99 for the gear gaiter and park brake gaiter they weren't cheap, but I was confident they would be worth it.

The gear gaiter was first to be swapped, as I was changing the gear surround trim at the same time for the carbon wrapped trim I had previously prepared. You can see my post about carbon wrapping the gear surround here -

Squeezing and lifting the gear gaiter reveals two screws securing the gear surround trim down. I removed those then removed the gear knob. A firm pull removes the gear knob, it's pretty tight on the gear stick so I had prepared myself for a bit of a struggle. (I'd read some rather comedic stories of people giving themselves black eyes whilst removing it.)

With the gear knob removed the gaiter simply slid off. The new gaiters don't come with the plastic substrate so a bit of salvaging had to be done on the old one. The old leather was very brittle and snapped in places, so it took a little bit of scraping to get all glue residue and leather fragments off the substrate before fitting it to the new one.

With the old gaiter removed from the substrate I put the two next to each other just to compare out of interest.

To help secure the plastic substrate to the new gear gaiter I used some Bostik Evo-stik Impact* contact adhesive around it's periphery.

After 10 years of use understandably there had been a lot of dust and crumbs fall underneath the gear surround trim, so before refitting I did a thorough vacuum of the area.

All cleaned I started reassembly, firstly by installing the new carbon wrapped gear surround trim, then the gaiter and finally the new gear knob. To read more about the carbon wrapped trim, take a look at this blog post - Carbon Wrapped - Gear Shift Surround.

My darling girlfriend bought me a shiny new M-Tec sport gear knob, a much smaller smooth leather wrapped gear knob with a chrome bezel. Much more premium and sporty, I believe it was a cost option at purchase and one I would definitely have picked.

All back together the gear shift area looks superb, far more premium, new, and much sportier.

Before

After

Now the gear shift area was all done, I could start on the park brake (handbrake) gaiter. Squeezing the base of the gaiter and a bit of pulling unclipped the gaiter from the console. Pulling it inside out revealed the cable tie holding it in place. Some cable cutters took care of the cable tie, releasing it from the handle. As with the gear gaiter, the plastic frame substrate had to be salvaged and glued in place.

Comparing the old and new gaiters.

Again I used Evo-stik to secure the gaiter to the plastic frame, then set about fitting it. This was slightly more tricky than the gear gaiter, as the new gaiters were such good quality materials, i.e. thicker, they didn't want to fit in the same size aperture in the console. With a bit of fiddling eventually it went in and the job was finished.

It actually fits a lot more snugly to the handle than it shows in the picture, nevertheless I am very happy with the results. The console looks much fresher, extremely worthwhile upgrade and refresh of the interior. The gear knob fits positively in the hand, and feels more direct when changing gears, they are expensive for what they are but I couldn't recommend one highly enough.

Here are the finished shots and a couple of before and afters.

Before and After's

Carbon Wrapped - Gear Shift Surround

2012-11-18T05:00:00.000+00:00

As part of a recent effort to refresh and uplift the interior of the car, I decided to experiment with wrapping. I do like the OEM hex pattern trim, but I prefer carbon fibre.

The most abundant carbon vinyl is undoubtedly 3M's Di-Noc, which is available in droves on eBay. I wanted a matt finish on the carbon so chose 3M Di-Noc CA-421.

I bought a 300 x 300mm sheet from eBay for around £7, I probably could have got away with a smaller sheet but not having tried the process before, wanted to give myself a bit of slack.

When it arrived I was really pleased with the finish, the surface is textured and the different fibre weaves catch the light as you change it's orientation.

Not wanting to ruin the existing trim, I ordered a second hand one off eBay for just under £10 posted. It was in pretty rough shape but that didn't matter if it was going to be wrapped.

The new trim piece arrived allowing work to begin. Having done quite a lot of spraying on my Rover 25 I have learnt the hard way that surface preparation is key. Using some wet and dry I removed the original finish on the trim and took it back to plastic. This will also help in another way, obviously the vinyl has a thickness, so removing a few microns off the original part can only help when refitting.

I used a few grades of wet and dry, P400 and T489 to take the original finish off and P1200 to finish.

After sanding I washed the part in clean water and left it to dry out thoroughly.

Now ready for wrapping I got my kit together. I used a Stanley knife, scissors, Bosch heat gun and a microfibre for smoothing the vinyl out.

Before wrapping I cut the excess material off so it was easier to work with.

Tentatively I began wrapping, first just laying the flat surface areas on the vinyl, areas that didn't require heat for the vinyl to take their shape. Using the heat gun I started moulding the vinyl around the main A-surface features, moving on to the gear shifter aperture and the switchgear aperture.

Finally I wrapped the edges, I spent quite a lot of time getting them just right as they would be quite visible when fitted. All in all it took me around an hour to do the wrapping, including all the faffing around I did making sure the edges were as good as they could be. I expected it to be a little easier than it was, but then again I obsess over getting things perfect.

I'm very happy with the final product, and alongside the new gear gaiter and M-Tec gear knob it looks fantastic. To read more about the new gear knob and gaiters, take a look at this blog post - M-Tec Gear Knob and Leather Gaiters.

E46 Power Steering Leak Fixed

2012-10-09T08:41:00.002+01:00

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

E46 Power Steering Leak Symptoms

I hadn't noticed anything untoward giving the impression of a problem, until one morning I was greeted with a rather unnerving groan from the engine bay. Turning the wheel made it even more upset, so instant diagnosis was a power steering fault, but what exactly was the problem?

I limped the 2 mile journey home and had a closer look.

Looking in the engine bay quite quickly yielded the problem, there was a fairly substantial amount of power steering fluid leaking from a couple of the hoses connecting to the power steering fluid reservoir.

Checking the Power Steering Fluid Level

If there is a leak, the fluid level was obviously going to be lower than it should be. Taking a look it's not instantly obvious where the fluid level should be, turns out on the underside of the screw cap is a sort of dip stick, with two marks on it. As mine wasn't even touching the cap's dip stick it was obviously quite low.

I promptly topped up the fluid with Comma PSF*, then set about ordering replacement hoses.

Replacement Power Steering Hoses

Unfortunately no where sells these hoses except BMW. Expecting a large figure I called up and got a quote, however, I was not expecting the £140+ quote I received, reluctantly I placed the order. I also picked up a couple more bottles of Comma PSF*, the bottle I used as an emergency top up was an old left over bottle just to tide me over.

A quick peak under the car after getting it on the ramps ready to start the job, the under-tray started trickling fluid...

The engine bay under those hoses was all covered in fluid too, even as far back as the control arm, so before any work continued it was all mopped up and cleaned as best I could.

I decided it would be best to remove the lowest point first and drain the fluid out from underneath the car, this would ensure no more power steering fluid was leaked into the engine bay. That meant cracking and removing the bolt into steering rack. The bolt is a fairly hefty one, needing a 22mm socket to remove it. Ready with a container and funnel I cracked the bolt and drained as much fluid as possible.

Draining the fluid turned out the be the easiest part of the job, removing the other 'quick' release end of the hoses turned out to be a 2 hour struggle. I'm not sure in which dimension they are quick to release but they certainly wouldn't budge during this job. After many attempts they did come off, but not before some choice words were spoken, trim removed and a hack saw was taken to the one of the hoses to aid manoeuvrability.

To help access the air duct was removed in front of the fuel radiator.

With that out the way, the hose from the reservoir to radiator came off 'easier', here's the comparison old vs new.

Next was the hose from radiator to steering rack, this one was the real stubborn one that required hacksawing.

The reason why it was so hard to get off became apparent upon looking inside the hose, two of the prongs had come out of place and would have been stopping the connector come off.

Time to rebuild, first job was to find a replacement for the clip that was cut off the hose at the reservoir end, a 13-20mm jubilee clip did the job.

Next both hoses got connected to the radiator and the banjo bolt replaced in the steering rack.

The last thing to do was to fill up the reservoir and bleed the system. I found the suggested two turns full lock left and right not enough to fully bleed the system, it was more like 5 or 6. The level was topped up for a final time up to the correct level according to the dip stick and the job was complete.

Touch wood, there have been no more leaks as yet so a job well done.