BoldUlysses' '02 330i/5 Log & Thread o'Questions

[dhurley34]

When I flatten my strut tower top, I will probably place a piece of 2 x 6 soft pine on it and tap on the wood with a big non-rubber hammer.

Solid idea.

[ShapeShifter]

Congrats Matt, good to see you are back.

[BoldUlysses]

Congrats Matt, good to see you are back.

Thanks Pat! I'm following in your footsteps, first with the 540i/6, and now an E46 (though no M3 ).

[BoldUlysses]

Ordered a couple things yesterday: A license panel filler strip (I removed the nasty front plate holder) and a jack pad, since one was missing. A little at a time.

Minor progress today trying to pop out the dent in the bumper:



Bumper off. Quite easy:



Using wife's hair dryer on the inside of the bumper:



After one pass:



Two passes:



Reinstalled:



Will try to address the scuffs on the bottom of the bumper at some point but there's probably not much I can do about that. I'm pleased with the bumper outcome though. I still need to source a front fender liner for the passenger side.

Gratuitous side view:



The E46's best viewpoint, IMO. And I still love my car's color.

[BoldUlysses]

Progress last week:

Replaced jack pad. I appreciate the fact that the E46 has jack pads. I never wonder if the jack is in the right spot, or if I'm going to banana up the rocker panel.



Decided to tackle my P0191 and P0192 (secondary air system) codes last night. Did some research and discovered that in many cases, there's just a break in a rubber line somewhere. So I dug in.

Pulled off the valve cover and made an interesting observation. One of these things is not like the other...



Heh. Car runs perfect though.

Had to remove the firewall top plate to be able to reach around the back of the intake manifold:



Sure enough, #4 was cracked and busted:



This is the end I pulled off #5:



Found a length of tubing to replace it with, worked in onto the nipple, buttoned everything up and it runs flawlessly. No more codes!

Also added my bumper filler piece. Looks like my side pieces have shrunk so I'll have to replace them as well:



Next up:

- Adjust parking brake
- Shampoo carpets and floor mats
- Lube windows and tracks with Dri-Lube
- Replace shifter bushings

[BoldUlysses]

Placeholder post for the "latest" shots.

[BoldUlysses]

Adjusted the parking brake yesterday using Pelican's helpful DIY.

Jacked the rear of the car up. Pried up the parking brake boot and slackened the cables using the adjusting screws:



As far as the adjustment cylinders on the parking brakes themselves, I really had to remove the discs to see what the heck I was supposed be adjusting:



As a bonus, it gave me another opportunity to take stuff apart and put it back together, which I enjoy. The driver's side disc was somewhat stuck to the hub, but a little PB Blaster and a few taps to the back of the disc with a mallet (buffered by a block of wood) and it popped off easily enough. I applied some grease to the hub-to-brake mating surfaces so hopefully they'll come off more easily in the future.

I'm fairly sure I would not have been able to find the adjustment wheel without having removed the disc. There was a lot of removing and reinstalling the disc until I had the adjustment technique down pat and could do it until the discs no longer turned. Backed the adjusters off ten clicks, reinstalled the calipers and wheels, cycled the parking brake, pulled the handle up two clicks, tightened the cables, verified everything was nominal, lowered the car, test drive, perfect.

Onward!

[BoldUlysses]

Recent post-bath pics:









Runs perfect; still in love.

[Onizukachan]

Found your thread. Some good tips in here. I have the same driver's side kidney issue.
I really really recommend getting a computer with TIS on it. Worth it. Already saved back the cost of the computer by correctly diagnosing a evap pump failure. It's also telling me my drivers mirror has a fault, and that is why my mirrors don't work. Plus I have NCS expert and NCS dummies on it to do coding, turned on the DWA alarm and visual lock / unlock confirmation. Was getting confusing having two BMW keys and not knowing which vehicle was being unlocked.

Really like the interior, looks much cleaner than mine & now I know how it looks with silver trim instead of wood like on mine.

Semi repair build thread on mine on e46f in the touring section. I try to keep that one up to date.

[BoldUlysses]

Found your thread. Some good tips in here. I have the same driver's side kidney issue.
I really really recommend getting a computer with TIS on it. Worth it. Already saved back the cost of the computer by correctly diagnosing a evap pump failure. It's also telling me my drivers mirror has a fault, and that is why my mirrors don't work. Plus I have NCS expert and NCS dummies on it to do coding, turned on the DWA alarm and visual lock / unlock confirmation. Was getting confusing having two BMW keys and not knowing which vehicle was being unlocked.

Really like the interior, looks much cleaner than mine & now I know how it looks with silver trim instead of wood like on mine.

Semi repair build thread on mine on e46f in the touring section. I try to keep that one up to date.

Thanks man. I'll look you up over on E46F. I downloaded OBDFusion for my iPod but still need to get the adapter so I can hook it up to the OBD port. I've heard that's an awesome diagnostic tool.

Thanks for the compliment on the interior. I try to keep it clean. The leather's a bit dirty though; a Leatherique kit is on the to-buy list.