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BN101

Graphite Metallic 318ci ES aka Angelica

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Couple of weeks ago I went to Newcastle and bought that gray 318ci. On the phone we agreed to 1600 but upon closer inspection discovered oil leak and front brakes that needed replacing. Bought it for £1400, took it to my mechanics garage where the seal was replaced in the rocker to stop the leak, new front discs and pads, new oil,air and pollen filters were put in as well as oil changed.This set me back £320. Few days into driving it engine light came on and the car lost some power, I mean I had to rev it to over 3k rpm to get it to move...it turned out to be cylinder 4 misfire.The cylinder would go off at will and so on a weekend drive down the motorway to my brother about halfway thru I was driving on 3 cylinders, there and back. Probably not the smartest thing to do...went back and bought a set of bosh sparkplugs using the discount on eurocarparts and as it turned out the plug on cylinder 4 was worn out, the previous owner/s would replace one at a time so they all has uneven wear...set of 4 was 26 pounds and had it fitted for free so not complaining. 

So far I've done over 160miles in the car, covered 110miles on 20pound worth od petrol which is around 18L or something. Average fuel consumption was 36mpg but 60 miles were done on motorway the rest in the city. I cleaned the interior and replaced the missing badges from the alloys (bmw caps and m emblems), cleaned the leather multiple times and hand polished the car (being a car valeter helps😁). Since I will be keeping hold of the car for the next few years I would definetly want to put angel eyes in it and most likely paint the arches and the rear bumper. I may upload few pics after I get back home. Afterall, I own a BMW🤩

 

Forgot to mention, had an amber parking brake light come on and an icon in the middle which is a triangle with a circle around it, I think its the traction control but i'm no expert, conencted 3 different computers to it but all showed no fault.This morning both disappeared. Will do some research later on, anyone had simmilar problem?

Edited by BN101
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6 hours ago, BN101 said:

Couple of weeks ago I went to Newcastle and bought that gray 318ci. On the phone we agreed to 1600 but upon closer inspection discovered oil leak and front brakes that needed replacing. Bought it for £1400, took it to my mechanics garage where the seal was replaced in the rocker to stop the leak, new front discs and pads, new oil,air and pollen filters were put in as well as oil changed.This set me back £320. Few days into driving it engine light came on and the car lost some power, I mean I had to rev it to over 3k rpm to get it to move...it turned out to be cylinder 4 misfire.The cylinder would go off at will and so on a weekend drive down the motorway to my brother about halfway thru I was driving on 3 cylinders, there and back. Probably not the smartest thing to do...went back and bought a set of bosh sparkplugs using the discount on eurocarparts and as it turned out the plug on cylinder 4 was worn out, the previous owner/s would replace one at a time so they all has uneven wear...set of 4 was 26 pounds and had it fitted for free so not complaining. 

So far I've done over 160miles in the car, covered 110miles on 20pound worth od petrol which is around 18L or something. Average fuel consumption was 36mpg but 60 miles were done on motorway the rest in the city. I cleaned the interior and replaced the missing badges from the alloys (bmw caps and m emblems), cleaned the leather multiple times and hand polished the car (being a car valeter helps😁). Since I will be keeping hold of the car for the next few years I would definetly want to put angel eyes in it and most likely paint the arches and the rear bumper. I may upload few pics after I get back home. Afterall, I own a BMW🤩

 

Forgot to mention, had an amber parking brake light come on and an icon in the middle which is a triangle with a circle around it, I think its the traction control but i'm no expert, conencted 3 different computers to it but all showed no fault.This morning both disappeared. Will do some research later on, anyone had simmilar problem?

Sounds like you did ok for £1400 hey?? Look forward to seeing some pics.

I've just tried to replace the rear abs / wheel speed sensor in my 330ci and I think that gave me those two lights you have mentioned when it was failing. The lights came and went a few times then they came on permanently and I think (from memory) one of the other lights came on or went red.. I did have pictures but have since changed phones. I knew it was the abs / wheel speed sensors though because I plugged in my laptop which has INPA and P.A Soft and both programs showed the same fault - the passenger side abs / wheel speed sensor.

Anyway, I ordered replacements for left and right but they turned out to be the wrong length despite giving the parts supplier the part numbers for the sensors my car had. The actual body of the sensor was too long so it hit the abs ring and there was no way you could get it in far enough to bolt it back down - really easy job though I must say. Obviously I had to put the old sensor back in but before doing so I gave it a real good clean and also blew high pressure air into the hole it came from to blow away any loose muck from the ring. Popped it back in started the car and no warning lights. That was about 3 months ago now and still all good so I would recommend getting the sensors out and giving them a good clean before buying new ones - it really is a very simple job. Also, if you can find someone with INPA or P.A Soft or purchase it on-line with the cable so you can check the fault codes your self. P.A soft also allows you to change some of the options on the car, like alarm chirp and/or indicator flash on lock/unlock and various other things, its well handy and less than £30 to buy. Just make sure you get a one-click installation version and your away. Since owning E46's its been a god send for me having the software to check faults etc... Saved a fortune in garage costs and makes it easy to do repairs my self and keep her out of the garage whenever possible.

 

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Here are a few pics, might take it out on a drive if I have some spare time and do some pictures in a nice scenery. 

https://ibb.co/hwADCJ
https://ibb.co/cDBaRd
https://ibb.co/hQdYCJ
https://ibb.co/dro0sJ
https://ibb.co/bLWLsJ
https://ibb.co/ipUJey
https://ibb.co/mWwLsJ
https://ibb.co/bBejKy
https://ibb.co/cPxtCJ

First few are seats after being cleaned a number of times with a leather cleaner, no particular wow effect however it gave it a nice shine, will probably treat it with a black paste for leather kind of what you would polish your shoes with might cover up some wear. Went to Ebay and bought some M performace badges, the one you see on the ash tray cover is there because the original silver trim was missing, so I thought I might as well put this in to over it up and it looks good, altho originally its juts an ES. Alloys are generally okay, you might tell they've hit the kerbs quite a few times in their life. Will soon buy a touch up pen in the original Sparkling Graphite Metallic and attempt to remove the chips on the front which are quite noticeable. As far as the warning lights on the dash go, today I discovered a slight noise which sounded a bit like two pieces rubbing on each other in the rear left wheel. Maybe that causes the warning lights to go off, will get the sensors checked either way but its not a priority for now. I'll look into obtaining the scan tool you recommended, one of those things that its good to have with you but you dont need it everyday. Thanks

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Rather have them than missing trim and load of glue in the place where it was😁plus it fits nicely with the aluminium panels.As for the car I bonded to it pretty quick. Im certain it will be my ride for the next 3/4 years and then I'd hope to get a 330 with proper spec so no more nasty ebay badges😁Will upload some more pictues of sides and rear and hopefully in August it will get painted.

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Found that when going thru the documents, small piece of trivia. 

https://i.imgur.com/NGNrc8b.jpg

These are some of the bits that need doing as far as body work goes.

https://i.imgur.com/olwfOJu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3rwPwtc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7NMdLcU.jpg

Abs light went away on its own, hopefully it will stay that way but will check it either way when I'll be getting new tyres.

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There has been a few things going on with the car, did some touch ups on my own namely the bonnet and two of the rear wheel arches had some minor rust spots which I sanded off and then applied primer and paint. Up close you can easily see that its a DIY kind of job however from a further distance you no longer see a nasty rust spot which I am happy about. Went to BMW to get my safety recall (front passenger and drivers airbag replaced) done and they have carried out a basic service check on the car which said the following:

-engine oil leak

-transmission fluid leak

-puncture in offside rear tyre

- front and rear brakes need replacing

I left the dealership a little broken and devastated inside, that was on a Friday and on Monday I gave the car to my mechanic for a check and gladly it turns out there was a leak however it was not the engine or transmission, it was the coolant tank seal that was causing the leak. It was a minor leak and thus got no warning light that there was little coolant and I needed to top up. The engine cover that goes underneath the car was covered in oil from previous leak (rocker gasket seal replaced- don't know the technical term :lol:) and so that got a good clean. As far as the brakes go, I replaced front discs and pads when I got the car so I suspected that they were trying to bulls*** me into buying new original BMW ones for a fortune I bet. I had the tyre fixed, there was a nail in the middle of it... after putting air in all the tyres I had the same DSC/traction control warning triangle come up with orange handbrake icon, I assume it will go away on its own like it previously did if not I will check the sensors perhaps they might be causing the fault. 

Here is a couple of pictures before doing the touch up on the bonnet and after, used a little needle to apply the paint, lengthy and boring process. The effect is mixed, Im happy I no longer see a ton of white dots from the stone chips but on the other hand if I look up close I got more dots the same colour as my paint all over, anyway its my first time doing any painting or touching up on a car. 

Before:

xldk5f.jpg

After:

n325fs.jpg

2h2mvrm.jpg

jze2cy.jpg

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What a horrible start of the day I had, noticed a nasty scratch on the car (which wasn't there day before as I was T-cutting that section of the car). Was pretty shallow but if you ran your finger on it you would feel the ridge. Im almost certain it was probably the kids playing out on the streets yesterday as I seen one of them lurk around on his bike but whatever, they're just kids. 

2kgd4l.jpg

In a desperate act I used more T-cut and Triplewax polish on that scratch and also took some paint that I had from the touch up kit and filled in the scratch to even it out a little and then polished the excess off.

vxjcaw.jpg

1zvea9e.jpg

 

Moderator please move this topic to appropriate section of the forum, thanks.

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