Estoril Blue Clubsport

[bennno2005]

Hi Guys

 

Been on here for a little while thought as I seem to be coming on here more often to chuck a few pics up of my Clubsport. Excuse the slightly lengthy first post.

 

Here's a few pics from when I bought it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see its a manual 52 plate in Estoril Blue and had covered 98k.

All the usual Clubsport toys plus the following options:

 

Harman Kardon Sound System

Xenons

Nappa Leather interior

 

Talking to the guy on the phone he'd known the car for the last 8 years as was previously owned by his dad and before that a friend. and was really into BMW's and seemed to know his stuff (certainly more than I did at the time!)

 

I was told the front wishbones had been replaced with uprated ones and the cooling system had been overhauled along with new discs and pads all round and a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1's and it had been regularly serviced at a BMW specialist for the last 5 years.

 

The only real down side I was advised on was that the front wings had corroded and there was a small scratch on the other.

 

Went to view and was very impressed with the overall condition of the car (aside from the rotten arches). I was then informed that unfortunately he'd lost the history and the fuel gauge was also stuck on empty (told it was most probably a level sensor and a cheap fix)

I also noticed that the passenger door didn't unlock with the key and that the parking sensors weren't working.

 

I was all set to walk away but could tell it had obviously been well maintained so managed to agree on £600 off the asking price with a spare set of the Clubsport alloys with Dunlop Tyres chucked in.

 

Few photo's of the rotten arches:

 

Drivers side front

 

 

Passenger side front

 

 

So the list of bits sorted since I've owned the car:

 

Sort out paintwork - Done

 

Fix fuel gauge - Done. This was the card on the fuel guage sender that had broken, replaced with a second hand one from eBay

 

Fix parking sensors - Done. One of the sensors was duff so was replaced with a new one from eBay. I had to spray it to match first obviously

 

Passenger side door latch - Done. Replaced the latch with a second hand one.

 

Service - Done. The indicator was advising an inspection was due in 13k and the oil looked recent; however without knowing the history of the car I decided to give it a full inspection 2 to be on the safe side.

 

Rear Springs - While servicing I did the usual checks and found the drivers side rear coil spring had snapped so both rears have now been replaced with new Sachs springs.

 

Handbrake Shoes - Again whilst servicing I noticed that the handbrake shoes were very worn and it wasn't working brilliantly. These were replaced and the handbrake adjusted.

 

Tracking - Also noted the front tyres were worn on the inside edge so have had it tracked. Apparently it was way out so I'm guessing whoever did the wishbones didn't align it properly afterwards!

 

Also put my private plate on it and got rid of the nasty number plates.

 

Few photo's of it since with the fresh paint and plates:

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2016 by bennno2005

[Bacon]

Very nice mate . I do like a nice Club Sport , looks much better now you own it

[Jay.]

Nice mate - nice to see you restoring it to its former glory Rather than changing the image

[bennno2005]

Thanks guys its my first BMW and I must admit I like it much more now than I thought I would. I bought it after selling my DC5 Integra to put funds towards a house deposit so thought it might be a bit dull but really its the perfect compromise between fun and luxury.

I've done a few more bits now I've got the boring maintenance stuff out of the way and got a few more bits planned.

Nothing drastic as I love it as it is!

[Jay.]

That's good to hear. The only things I did to my clubsport were fit piano black interior trims, coilovers & 19" zito 935 alloys. In hindsight I should have left it as it was. It was almost a carbon copy of yours, manual 52 plate Estoril blue coupé aside mine Had the clubsport half suede half leather

They are definatley going to be a cult car in the future & will only go up in value

[bennno2005]

I would have loved the half leather but didn't know it existed until after I'd bought the car!

Do you know anything about the interior in mine? The previous owner told me it was an option and it does look different to the others I've seen (which are just plain black with no pattern) and it does seem to have worn very well.

I've also considered wrapping the trims in piano black; however the silver cube thingys are in good nick and I think it gives a bit of contrast against the black.

[Jay.]

Yes the leather is indeed a rare option and is a lot softer than the Montana leather fitted to mine!! I wouldn't wrap your trims as they'll fetch decent money on eBay, if you were to go down that route I'd sell them or keep them to one side & get some wood trim & either paint it or wrap it

[bennno2005]

Yes the leather is indeed a rare option and is a lot softer than the Montana leather fitted to mine!! I wouldn't wrap your trims as they'll fetch decent money on eBay, if you were to go down that route I'd sell them or keep them to one side & get some wood trim & either paint it or wrap it

Awesome thanks! That's good to know; might try this at a later date but its not high on the priority list.

[bennno2005]

I wanted a way of playing music through my phone in the car so bought one of the leads off ebay. This was OK, but a bit of a pain and they seemed to wear out and stop working after a while.

I'd previously had a Sony CD player with bluetooth in my last car so had also got used to being able to make and recieve calls from in the car. Problem with this is I think aftermarket headunits generally look like a bodge in an E46, so around Christmas time I treated myself to the Eonon D5150.

Pretty good unit, does everything I need it to and I just stream bluetooth from Spotify on my phone to the unit. It works well with the HK and doesn't seem to sound any worse than the old business CD player it replaced.

Should probably buy myself a proper relocation panel but I think for the sake of £80 I'd rather live with the little gap below the heater controls.

[bennno2005]

Few weeks ago I also got round to installing a reversing camera. I thought as I'd already got the screen upfront and the camera was only £10 why not.

Initially had issues with it not switching on with the reverse lights which was solved by running a positive feed from the reverse lights to the reverse wire on the unit.

Its fairly subtle and works great!

[MRyan]

As others have said, lovely clubsport mate. Its nice to see that you fixed all of the issues before doing any modifications as well!

Edited April 10, 2015 by MRyan

[bennno2005]

I've also began to install heated seats. I did consider buying a used set of heated seat and flogging mine on but as my interior seems to be quite rare (and I like it) I've bought this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191384618733?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

I did the wiring last night which was fairly easy - just took a new postive feed from a spare slot in the fuse board using one of these:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171701060252?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

And earthed it at the main earth point in the passenger side foot-well.

I did start stripping the seats but it got to about 10pm and I couldn't be arsed, so I've put it all back together and will probably tackle it when I know I've got a whole day as the seat covers do look difficult to remove!

So plans at the moment are:

 

• Detail it - I'm off on Holiday once I get the car back so will do it after then, should give the paint long enough to harden properly too

 

• Finish the heated seats install (just in time for summer )

 

• Change the brake fluid. I'd started to do this when i did the handbrake shoes but found a rounded nipple on the drivers side rear. I've ordered a new set of nipples before going any further. When these turn up I'll flush it through with some ATE superblue.

 

• Replace leaking rocker gasket as it leaks onto the exhaust heatsheild if you gun it and causes a stink.

 

• New horn - My horn has always sounded a bit puny so I need to look into this. I suspect there are two and only one is working.

 

• CCFL Angel Eyes in white. I just want something to match the Xenons. I've also got a headlight warning light on the passenger side despite no bulbs being out so will investigate this at the same time

 

• Facelift LED rear lights

 

• Refurbish the spare set of split rims. Going to have the tyres taken off them and will split these myself. I think I'll go for powdercoating I know they are meant to have a polished laquered rim but I'd rather have something more durable. I'll probably then sell the ones on it now which will hopefully cover the cost of this.

 

• Paint the parcel shelf as its faded navy

 

• Change the current rear number plate bulb for an LED one to match the one on the reverse camera

 

• Fit some rear spacers. I want to poke them out as much as possible without arch work. Thinking 15mm all round but will have a measure up before buying.

 

Think that's it for now. I'm looking for a house at the moment so progress is a bit slow as I'm still trying to put money away. It's looking like It'll be a while before I can afford to upgrade to an M3 so the Clubsport will be a keeper for the foreseeable future I think

Edited February 15, 2016 by bennno2005

[bennno2005]

As others have said, lovely clubsport mate. Its nice to see that you fixed all of the issues before doing any modifications as well!

Thanks. I bought it cheap knowing that it needed some money spending on it so even after I've sorted everything I still feel like I've had a good deal.

It's definitely most important to me to have it running right and niggle free before I start changing anything!

[gaz-777]

Very nice example you've got there mate, I like your plans for it and will keep an eye on this when you do the heated seats. Something i wouldn't mind doing on mine ?

[bennno2005]

Well good news for me - bad news for the car.

I've had an offer accepted on a house over the weekend so I think all of my spare cash for the next few months will go towards fees and furniture

I'm going to do my best to avoid having to sell it as god knows how long it will be before I can afford another half decent car but as I'll be walking to work once I've moved a downgrade is a possibility

[The_Judge_]

Congrats Hopefully I'll be in a similar situation soon, if we don't get gazumped by cash buyers again .....

[bennno2005]

Minor update.

Was greeted with this on a long run a week or so ago:

Engine management light

Plugged it into my mates snap on machine and got the following codes:

P0161 - O2 Sensor Bank 2 Sensor 2

P1150 - O2 Sensor Bank 2 Sensor 1

P0174 - System too lean Bank 2

At first I thought it may be an O2 sensor fault.

The car seemed to drive fine apart from a slightly rough idle. Fuel consumption seemed the same as usual.

Decided to investigate the lean code a bit more and look for an air leak. Once I'd got under the bonnet I found the jubilee clip on the air intake behind the MAF sensor was loose.

Tightened this up and started it up. Idle sounded better and once I gave it a proper drive the light went!

Whilst I was under the bonnet I pulled the breather hose to see how that was looking. My car uses around 1 litre of oil per 2000 miles or so which seems a lot to me but from reading forums that nothing for a 330CI.

The breather hose looked pretty gunked up to me:

Guessing I need to do the dreaded CCV at some point?

What do you guys think?

[Jay.]

yep, needs the CCV doing that

[bennno2005]

yep, needs the CCV doing that

suppose there is no harm in me leaving it for now as long as I keep topping up the oil? Just won't have the time to do it for the next month or so.

Would you recommend buying genuine or would something like this be OK?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-CRANK-CCV-CASE-VALVE-HOSES-E46-320i-325i-330i-520i-525i-530i-E39-GERMAN-/270924670853?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&fits=Car+Make%3ABMW&hash=item3f145e6785

[Taters]

That kit looks OK but your car is stunning so (if it was mine) I would use OE parts, looks like I've gotta do my CCV soon so will be keen to know how you get on.

[bennno2005]

That kit looks OK but your car is stunning so (if it was mine) I would use OE parts, looks like I've gotta do my CCV soon so will be keen to know how you get on.

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm leaning towards agreeing with you. For the sake of another £50 I think it may be worth going OEM. It looks a pig of a job so I only want to have to do it once!

[bennno2005]

Been pretty busy so not got a lot done lately.

I started to replace the fluid and bleed the brakes. Managed to remove the rounded nipple on the rear brake without damaging it and replaced.

Got to the front N/S and found this

Luckily that's not brake fluid (its plusgas) and its still sealed but looked to have been like that for a long time.

I'm guessing whichever bodge artist tried to bleed the brakes last time rounded one, snapped one, and then gave up and walked away.

I tried hammering it round with a screwdriver, then I tried hammering in a torx bit and turning that but no luck.

Being a Monday night I didn't want to get stranded for work so I swapped out the nipple on the O/S bled it through and put it all back together.

I'm going to try and get it out on Saturday using a reverse threaded easy out. If that doesn't work then it will be new caliper time unfortunately - unless anyone's got any better ideas?

Edited May 19, 2015 by ben.embrey

[bennno2005]

Been a very long time since an update.

I couldn't get the snapped nipple out so ended up with a new caliper. Not too bad at £85 for refurbed BMW unit from ECP.

Made sure I greased up the sliders

Then finished.

All bled through with ATE super blue which made the pedal much more responsive.

[bennno2005]

Whilst bleeding the brakes I noticed some slight surface rust around the jacking point beneath the side skirt so I thought I'd whip the skirts off, wire brush off the rust and underseal it.

Er no.

What I actually found when I pulled off the side skirt

So I swept what felt like half my car off the garage floor and went inside for a cry.

After I'd sulked for a bit I came out and had another poke around and it was just the rear section. The front was spotless.

The chassis rails and the jacking point were also in good shape so It was really just the outer sill.

Luckily a good friend of mine runs a service department for a Ford main dealer and he said that he's got a bloke next door who he uses for all his welding and he said he'd have no trouble putting a new sill on it.

I took it to him and showed him. He works mainly on land rovers so didn't bat an eyelid at it - a few days later and £130 and it was sorted.

He'd had to make up the rear section of the sill which was welded in and has now been undersealed.

Here she is patched up. It doesn't looks that great but the skirt fits perfectly and its solid as a rock so I'm sure it will last as long if not longer than the original sill!

Edited July 13, 2015 by ben.embrey

[bennno2005]

With the maintenance stuff out of the way I ordered a set of Angel eyes and got them installed.

First up whipped the indicator out.

Then pulled of the little seal on the top of the headlight and the trim off and the trim piece underneath out. This exposed the clips.

Undid all of the clips and removed the lense

Then pulled off the black plastic shroud.

I decided I wanted mine to look factory so wired them in instead of my sidelights.

I fed the wires through the old side light hole which was probably the most fiddly part.

I ran the wire over the top of the light so the shroud would cover them

Put the shroud back on a tested. Seem like a good match to the OE xenons.

I then plugged the wires from the inverter into the side light wiring loom. Didn't even need to cut and solder.

Then taped up the inverter and stuck it to the underside of the slam panel and hid all the wires.

Finished

Edited July 9, 2015 by ben.embrey