quinnie Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Right guys.. think its time i started a little thread on my pride and joy ☺ In January i decided i fancied a change, i wanted something with a little bit more ooomf!! As my previous car was a 2001 bmw 318i se, id had it for a few years and it was creeping up to 190,000 miles not bad for a petrol ey! but as you can see it was still in really good nick! me and my dad had kept it in good shape, was his before he handed the keys to me. It never ever let me down.. not once!! Anyways, after weeks of browsing autotrader,pistonheads and all sorts of of other sites i came across a 2004 320ci facelift coupe in mystik blue 😊 Weekend came and i went down to have a look at it, bodywork was solid, no rust anywhere but abit dirty as it had been in a barn for the last month or so.. The old chap who owned it had had it from new.. i actually have the original invoice and extras list for the car, it had a full genuine bmw service history aswell 😆 he said it was mostly used on motorways and i believed him as the the headlights were faded through stones smacking the front of the car and could make out stonechips on the bonnet through the amount of dust on the front of the car. I fired her up and went for a drive.. Not going to lie, it drove great considering it had been sat for a while.. no smokes bangs or leaks, after a few checks round the car we agreed a price (dirt cheap btw) and i set off on the long motorway journey home, thought this would be good as i could give it a blast. It drove sweet and even gave my dads golf a run for its money . BUT THEN.. As i was approaching the slip road near home the dreaded engine management light came on! I was stuck at the lights and tried to let my dad know there was a problem but he shot off and left me, when i tried to pull away it was in limp mode!! So i pulled over and shut the car off.. my dad eventually realised i wasnt behind him anymore and came back to help haha, i noticed a slight leak under the car which turned out to be antifreeze. Checked the expansion tank and had enough in there to get me home. Literally a 5 minute drive, so as i pulled up on the drive the car shuddered to a halt and cut out! It was getting dark at the time so couldnt really go out and inspect it, i gave the guy id just bought it off a ring and explained what had happened and he said he didnt know what was wrong with it as it was in perfect working order when he owned it. TYPICAL Luckily i still had my other bmw.. so wasnt too annoyed, the following day i went out to investigate, the expansion tank had drained itself all over the drive so i filled it up and turned the car over, got my head underneath and seen the tray only had 2 screws in so took it off to find a bowed radiator 😳 so my dad ordered me a new one as he felt sorry for me i suppose haha 👍. Whilst i was waiting for it to arrive i had a mate come to check what error codes were stored.. Misfire cylinder 1 Misfire cylinder 4 Misfire cylinder 5 Air mass sensor So.. after a brief phone call with the previous owner with a few swear words i decided to keep the car and throw some £££ at it as i really did like the car.. I ended up having the radiator, air mass sensor, a new set of coil packs, new plugs, air filter, top and bottom rad hoses and the waterpump all changed. some parts didnt need replacing but it was for peace of mind, it did cost me a pretty penny but now shes running sweet as a nut and i couldnt he happier Excuse me for the lack of pics but at the time i wasnt a member of a forum and didnt really think about taking pictures. This is how she sat after a few weeks, id already put pressed plates on. Ignore the condensation in the fog light. I got two replacements from aswrbmw in Manchester for £60 with glass lenses. After that i took the old bulbs out of my other bmw which were white instead of the horrible yellow ones.. i decided to keep the sidelights yellow as i kinda liked the way it looked, i may of added the three famous m sport stripes on the grille aswell and it looked like this for a while.. Soon after that i got bored and fancied some black grilles so i ordered some from ssdd motorsport.. And yes the three stripes went back on! you can probably see how bad the front of the car is due to stonechips and my faded lights Whilst i was fitting the grilles i decided to get the hammerite out.. and the sticker book Yes i touched it up on the under side haha was just a quick picture. Next on the list was the interior.. ill be honest the seats could do with a good clean.. but as there alcantara im not too sure what i could use to bring them back to life, another thing is the trim. I have the black carbon cube trim and theres a few spots of white paint on them which really does my head in. The previous owner was a painter and decorater so a few spots of paint were to be expected, ill get round to pulling all the trim out and either spraying it or wrapping it when i have some time. I also bought these off ebay but as you can imagine these are jet black and the seats dont match which is annoying. Dust seems to stick to them like s**t to a blanket aswell See what i mean about the bits of paint.. Oh and i changed the gear knob emblem as the old one looked tatty and started to bubble, only thing is they sent me a 6 speed one instead of a 5, sometimes i do wish i had that extra gear haha, Anyway thats pretty much it so far but plans are get some lows.. everybody loves lows, get a decent set of hubcentric spacers and hopefully have my mates m3 wheels once he decides to part with them. Also a front end respray is needed as it does let the car down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz 330 Cs Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Looks very nice ! A bit unlucky you had to shell out a load of £££ so soon. Didn't the seller even offer to help ? That suspension looks a bit wrong, it's very high at the rear. Ps. If your mates alloys are genuine M3, you'll not be fitting spacers with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quinnie Posted June 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Yes your right the suspension is wrong at the rear.. they are cis springs so im told and not the sport ones.. bit of a pain but i carry alot of weight in the boot sometimes so they do help haha, and your spot on again my mates wheels are reps forgot to add that bit 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz 330 Cs Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Eibach Sportlines are a Forum favourite here. They'll give a nice drop all round to reduce that arch gap, and no loss of comfort or ride quality = Win Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davy 330ci Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Nice straight tidy motor there!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quinnie Posted June 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Cheers buddy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
