Sufs' 330d M Sport w/ SMG Paddleshift retrofit but otherwise generally falling apart body ....

[The_Judge_]

Feeling a bit more positive today, mainly from finally conquering the EGR thermostat, which was far too difficult on my 184hp M57 engine, clearly BMW learnt their mistakes and made it easier to change this kit in later engines. Also fitted a new Fuel Filter. Hopefully the coolant leak is fixed, just the rough idle on start up (i.e. injector) to sort out and exhaust this month ....

EGR Stat Before:

EGR Stat after, had to put Jubilee clips on the vacuum hose, err ignore the scarring on the vacuum tube ....

[SpanneR]

I know how you feel mate i bought a cheap 320cd and im paying the price heavily for it too just like you. You will feel happy once its done as there are many other e46's which will have the same issue all be it not all at once but most will.

[The_Judge_]

More spending, £170 for my local mechanic to remove catalyst, cut out defective exhaust flexi-section, weld a replacement stainless steel flexi and reinstall everything.

[The_Judge_]

Boring Update - I played around with AutoGlym today, there may be better cleaners out there, but I had a spare bottle so thought I'd try it out. Today was more about learning cleaning methods and trying to work out the best way of cleaning my seats. I actually tried steam cleaning a few months ago, but this was a bit of a mistake I think. Aside from potential long term damage, today has taught me there is no substitute for technique. Today's efforts released a lot of "dirt" despite the recent steam cleaning.

Before - just used a wet sponge and let the water soak for a few minutes:

First clean, I used a soft bristled brush to agitate and release the dirt:

I then used a stiffer brush on the main "bum" area as it appeared to still have dirt in it. I then rinsed and dried it all off, applied leather balm, allowed it to soak and then buffed with microfibre cloth.

I think its clear I can still do better but it's a good start I think. Here's the dirt which came out in both bowls:

[The_Judge_]

So my mechanic managed to replace my faulty injector today. It took him 7 hours, he had to usea slide hammer, lift the car from the hammer using his engine hoist, use a lot of some gas thing he has, and slowly knock the injector out. At the end of the day the car runs so much more quiter now and a lot smoother I didn't decide to get the injector cleaned or refurbed, it was so out of tolerance I figured it needed more than just a clean ... I picked up a refurbed injector made by "Carwood" from GSF Car Parts, they should be giving me £100 back when I give them my old one. Small consolations, but the car is running great again

[The_Judge_]

Removed the last memories of my unnecessary M sign on the boot. Then I gave my exhaust a bit of a shiner with a scouring sponge I found hidden away in my spare room ...!

and finally:

[The_Judge_]

One week after the injector change, I drove up to Birmingham for the weekend. When I had the injector changed I still had half a tank of fuel, and the fuel light came on today finally. I calculate that overall I did 420 miles on this tank of fuel with an MPG of 35. To put this into context, in the 5 months I've owned the car, the most miles I've got per tank was 375 and best mpg was approx 31, average mpg has been 27. I. E. The remaining miles with the new injector were greater than those before....

Clearly, the car has turned a corner, I'm well chuffed I've driven 130 miles today since filling up this morning. The remaining fuel indicator is showing 430 miles, this is almost emotional (!) Hallelulah

[bungers]

Nice work! It always good to see the positive results from changing parts, plus the injector change should pay for itself fairly quickly going off your results.

[grantmacdee]

Glad to see you're getting it sorted

[The_Judge_]

Went to BMKeys and met Ben. Top chap, did me a new spare key and a service key, disabled the other keys "out there" probably in the man drawer or somewhere of the previous car owners. He also re-coded the car to not auto-lock above 10mph. Everything was done in less than an hour, top job for £65

EDIT: A few months later I discovered this key throws an internal error code - it's only noticeable with and error code reader such as INPA: http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/55214-5696-ecu-eeprom-and-configuration/

Edited January 11, 2015 by The_judge aka Suf

[The_Judge_]

Lisa told me she wanted to play in the sun today, so I gave her a bath and took her to the park.

I then returned her home to play with the neighbour, they share many traits which is why I think they get on despite the age gap

Might be time for an Ice Cream now

[The_Judge_]

Last day of work in my current job on Friday and I've got a week break before the new job so I have a few tasks planned:

Big thanks to Ashley1995 for the Heater Resistor and First Aid Kit

[grantmacdee]

Where is this key guy based??? I would love to have my key reprogrammed and that 10mph auto lock sounds like too much hard work to do myself!

[The_Judge_]

Where is this key guy based??? I would love to have my key reprogrammed and that 10mph auto lock sounds like too much hard work to do myself!

sorry mate, only saw your question now, he's based in East Ham (London), you can get more info here:

http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/48757-new-spare-key-for-l55/

Edited June 16, 2014 by The_judge aka Suf

[The_Judge_]

So I decided to get the car terraclean'd today. The guys fitted me in later the same afternoon which was great, when I arrived I found out I was there first E46 and they had only been doing it for the weeks. It was quite comical though as they didn't really know the correct way to connect it to the car as the return fuel line on the E46 was not in the engine bay as it was on the audi's and vw's they were used to ....

First attempt to connect the lines from the terraclean machine, till they realised both of these were supply lines

Eventual place they used as the return line:

Final configuration:

Final steps were setting of the timer, pressure etc.

There was a LOT of fuel spillage as the guys didn't know how to disable the fuel pump. I surprised myself by showing some E46 knowledge and remembered the fuse that needed to be removed!

Edited June 17, 2014 by The_judge aka Suf

[RickyZ]

Sounds dodgy as hell :S

Clearly these guys should have practiced more before being let loose on actual customer cars

I take it yours is OK with no lasting damage ?

[The_Judge_]

Sounds dodgy as hell :S

Clearly these guys should have practiced more before being let loose on actual customer cars

I take it yours is OK with no lasting damage ?

No lasting damage as far as I can see, but lets see the long term ........... I'm currently without a laptop this week so can't even use INPA Edited June 17, 2014 by The_judge aka Suf

[Ashley1995]

Some really good work going into this car, looking good.

What is it that terraclean does? just clean out the whole fuel system? and did you get some sort of guarantee with it?

[The_Judge_]

Thanks Ashley for the comments. Terraclean is a decarbonisation process which supposedly increases mpg etc .... I gotta say I'm confused if it is having any benefit at all yet, heres a thread discussing it : http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/36611-terraclean-decarbonisation-process/

[The_Judge_]

Finally managed to do an EGR delete:

Wrote up a DIY here: http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/54396-egr-delete-diy/

Edited November 16, 2014 by The_judge aka Suf

[Pauly123]

Difficult suf?

[The_Judge_]

Hi Pauly, it took me 2 hours and I don't have skillz with tools. Heres my DIY: http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/54396-egr-delete-diy/?p=802590

I reckon it should take an hour, the toughest bit for me was getting access to tricky bits. Jason and Stu's experience came in handy, thanks chaps.

Edited June 20, 2014 by The_judge aka Suf

[HeftyDanielson]

How is she running with it removed, in two minds whether to get rid of it all or not.

[The_Judge_]

How is she running with it removed, in two minds whether to get rid of it all or not.

unfortunately I can't really answer this. My car had developed severe rough idling after terraclean, INPA will confirm the cause but I had hoped the EGR delete would fix it, but it hasn't, positivelybor negatively.

HOWEVER, the job is worth it, have a look at my DIY and you'll see in on be pic the amount of gunk built up in just two months at the EGR bypass connection which would have got worse had I left the EGR unit in.

[The_Judge_]

Wow, Wow, Wow, OMG!

Since doing terraclean my car (WAS) rough idling seriously. It died down a bit when I did my EGR delete, and a bit more when I refuelled.

ANYWAY, took the car on a proper motorway run up the M40 today, it feels SO different.the best way I can describe it is very "light" there is little to no resistance on the accelerator, a gentle push and immediate powrr, but also the power delivery is really smooth the car was just effortlessly gliding from 70 to 90+. I wasnt really thrashing it as traffic was heavy but it just really really feels like a totally different car. EPIC! Just had to shhare!