I took a day off work today because Ian Haynes kindly volunteered a day of his time to look at the central locking issues. It took hours of methodical testing to work out that the locking system had four separate faults:

• Intermittent 12v power to the control unit
• Knackered control unit input stage
• Passenger door lock motor fails to give unlock signal to rest of car
• I’d missed a little part of the driver’s door lock rebuild, which meant the deadlock didn’t work

We managed to rebuild the lock with a spare part quite quickly. Equally, once we’d established the dodgy connector causing the intermittent power, that was easily resolved. We’ve tested the system with Ian’s control unit and it runs perfectly. However, obtaining a new control unit and passenger lock mechanism proved harder, with a local scrap yard giving us the run around before eventually yielding a unit that didn’t work – fortunately we tested before paying.

Ian and I are going to spend the next week or so trying to source known good second hand items; BMW are asking over £100 for a new control unit. Ian also sorted out the door open/closed switches so the car now turns on the interior lights and allows electric windows and sunroof control when either door is open – little things like this make the car seem so much less of an old knacker.

While Ian was beavering away I noticed some rust on the sunroof tray edge. I’ll have to dig out the anti-rust tools from my transit days soon I think…

The parts for the bearing replacement come to about £50 at BMW before any discount I may or may not be able to wangle. This is broken down as about £46 for the bearing and four quid for peripheral clips et cetera that are likely to make the job a bit easier. It looks from the ETK as though the parts are shared across all E30s and most E36es. ECP list the bearing for about £21 for the same range of vehicles – so do I gamble and get that and the peripheral stuff from BMW? Works out about half the price that way. I’ve got a couple of busy-ish weekends coming up so I’ll probably leave it grumbling for a fortnight before I go parts shopping, and I’ll worry about other issues in the meantime.

Andy Eccles appears today and has a good inspection of the M3. He seems suitably impressed that it’s in better general condition than a couple of E30s that he has owned in the past. He’s also delighted with the effects of an LSD in an E30, as well he should be – it’s fantastic!

Here are a couple more photos of the interior I’ve taken today as I’ve got the camera with me.

The advent of Christmas has meant that there has been a shorter than usual interval between this and my last report, so yet again only one fill up and a few hundred miles of activity to report on. Even so, after last month’s whining about its lack of involvement, the 330d has to some extent redeemed itself.

This process began when I finally gave the car a wash in one of the rare moments of late that it hasn’t been raining during daylight hours. I had been letting the car get filthy in a one-man protest against the pathetic hose pipe ban harassment still being levelled at the residents of the drenched home counties this winter, but I decided that the car deserved better. So armed with a watering can and some buckets of water, I gave it a winter wash.

What a transformation! From an unloved work horse to a smart, sleek and sporty estate car within half an hour, well worth the effort. I refitted the black kidney grilles, loaded some fresh music onto the iPod, vacuumed the interior and suddenly I was once again proud of my car. I even almost got around to repainting the semi-repaired kerbing on one of the alloys, but my jack was and still is on loan to a chum for various E30 repairs, so I’ve neatly avoided that again this month.

As the majority of my recent mileage has for once not involved much motorway work, it appears that my car’s ‘memory’ has adapted to this different routine, and the car definitely feels nippier. I do confess I always drive in one of two modes (‘economy’ and ‘pants on fire’), so the car’s ECU must have quite a job trying to second-guess me. That said, it does frustrate me that the car seems to interpret full throttle as ‘quite quick please’ if I’ve been pottering around; full throttle should always mean maximum effort, no matter how dopey the driver has been up until that point.

Speaking of pottering around, this month has driven home the startling revelation that the 330d is now The Family Car. I took my parents out for a birthday meal, and this year my car was the natural choice. A week later we went out with the practical in-laws, and again, my car was chosen by default. The M3s neatly avoided these ‘honours’, but the 330d did an excellent job of cosseting the oldies in tranquil comfort, while still allowing me to reach our destinations in good time and without boredom. More bluntly, it can go really quite fast without anyone noticing, and that gives quite a freedom.

So the 330d is back in my good books, but like any modern man, I’m still not satisfied. This weekend my jack-borrowing friend fitted a Limited Slip Differential to his E30, and some new front tyres. I’ll leave the physically aware amongst you to deduce the appeal of this selection of alterations! I’ll merely say that I’ve just spent the evening running some errands with him as his driver, and his car is quite immense fun. I’ll definitely be browsing my favourite online car showrooms for LSD equipped BMWs to fend off the winter blues.

A final whinge for this month, this time about the car’s audio system. Firstly, it does such a bad job of modulating the volume level in proportion to road-noise (speed), that I wish it simply wouldn’t bother. Secondly, the signal to the rear of the car appears to be devoid of any treble and clarity (is this normal, or is mine broken?!), and thirdly I really wish there was a line level output available somewhere. I suppose that this is the rough which must be taken with the smooth that is the wide-screen satellite navigation system, but it just seems a shame that BMW have come so close to a complete solution, yet failed to iron out some small creases.

Total Mileage: 94,052
Mileage since last report: 304
Cost this month: £nil
MPG this month: 37