Getting the rear wheels off the 330d was a real bitch, a combination of the cold and a lack of copper grease ensured this job took me hours. The new tyres are 225/45 R17  Pirelli Sottozero Series 2s which I mail  ordered from Oponeo. Below the difference in tread style is obvious when compared to one of the 255/35 R18 summer tyres (Falkens).

The tread blocks are much bigger and further apart, which should make them far less liable to clog up with snow. Also the rubber is slightly different – far softer at lower temperatures.

So the car doesn’t look quite as purposeful on these smaller wheels, although the brakes really do look like they’re bulging out of the wheels now! The ride quality has certainly improved thanks to the higher profile tyres, but then the 18s demand such skinny tyres that even the M5 rode better.

I can’t be too critical of the performance just yet as the tyres haven’t had a chance to bed in, but so far things feel pretty good. There’s slightly less stability when I grab the car by the scruff of the neck, but any misbehaviour is entirely controllable as breakaway is less sudden that on the 18s. When out and about in the wet in near freezing conditions, the car is certainly at least as capable as on the 18s. Due to the camber matters have always noticeably improved as tyres bed in on the 330d, so I’m hopeful for some serious winter performance. I’ll report back when I’ve got some mud, snow and ice experience!

So in the above photo, the top item is a replacement window regulator, and the lower item is the broken one I removed. There’s a steel cable that’s wrapped around the central drum, and that had burst off the drum, and the noise I’d heard was it flipping around the drum and hitting the window glass.

Replacing the item isn’t especially hard. I found a good guide here: http://www.bmwgm5.com/Rear_Window_Regulator.htm

The part is BMW B51.35.8.212.099 which currently retails at £75.84 ex VAT.

I traced the problem to the item described above as “Radio/Car Amp”. It’s a Becker BM54, and a short trawl of the internet quickly revealed that the amplifier’s output stages are a fairly weak link. Replacement units seem to cost several hundred pounds. Hmm.

There were some eBay sellers willing to effect a repair for a couple of hundred quid, mentioning reflowing solder joints. While consulting various forums though I saw a recommendation that caught my eye. It seems that Cartronics, a firm based just a few miles up the road from me who did a decent job of installing a Thatcham approved immobiliser in my second E30 M3, offer a warrantied repair for similar money. They claimed their repair involved entirely replacing the amplifier’s output stages to both ensure this wouldn’t happen again and provide a superior sound. I concluded that while the £210 they were asking was a bit rich compared with the cost of a standard head unit, the sound quality certainly couldn’t get any worse, and they were at least a devil I knew.

I dropped the unit off late on Saturday, and they called lunchtime today (Tuesday) to say it was ready. I understand they also provide a service by mail. This evening I’ve verified the repair, and also concluded that the sound quality certainly isn’t any worse.

So, if your BMW (or Range Rover) speakers are cutting out, locate your amplifier module and get it sorted. While mine is a B54, it replaced the B24 which also suffered in a similar matter, and I noted Cartronics had a couple of those also in for repair at the same time. In e46-land, to remove the module, start by lifting up the boot floor:

Remove your rude-boy sub, tow hook and spare wheel cover. Then using a 10mm socket release the two black plastic nuts and open the flap to the comms deck. I found a 3/8 extension a useful prop to hold the flap up.

There’s a big black block connector that can be unclipped. Before going too much further though I’d trace that to the nearby (and just out of shot below) black connector and make sure all the pins in that are firmly home – I’ve lost sound before due to those working loose.

In the above picture I’ve got two unused white connectors. The lower left one is from the old CD changer – my rather primitive iPod kit actually replaces that in the black block connector. The loose white connector at the top by the TV module is the old A/V connector – my DVD player has replaced that. So, remove the black block connector, the aerial (on the left) and the 8mm nut, and whip out the unit.

Send it off to repair, and it should come back with one of these stuck on it.

Plug it in and off you chug down the road. Boom-tish, boom-tish, etc.

It turns out that my tractor was very much between the two E46 revisions, in that it had the facelift body but not the newer wheels, engine and gearbox. The wheels were rectified a while ago, but of course the other elements remain. The point is though, that colour aside these two cars look the same.

So, red. It’s not a colour I’d usually choose, but BMW’s Imola red with black trim just works for me. My last 4 BMWs have been black (or near enough; the M5 is a very, very dark blue), and that’s been far more about the car’s other attributes than a concious colour based decision. Oh, please ignore the tragic plate – the new owner will be removing that promptly, at which point it’ll revert to its 53 plate.

Anyway – the first customisation is most apparent there: the black kidney grilles. Given that both these cars have the black shadow gloss option, which basically means that the chrome trim around the windows is replaced with a black gloss effect trim, in my view the chrome kidneys look a little out of place, especially on a black car.

Under the bonnet there’s a slight difference in the engine covering but in this case the real difference is how filthy my engine bay is.

The wheels, as mentioned, are the same, but of course the black car is sporting those floating and drilled brakes.

Moving to the boot, the most obvious difference is the significant amount of dog hair and general filth I carry around with me everywhere I go! More seriously though, the red car lacks navigation. This is the only thing that it lacks that my car doesn’t also lack – sunroofs and heated seats would be nice too. Ian (the red car’s new owner) seems quite keen to retrofit heated seats to his, so perhaps that’s something I’ll get involved with too.

So yes, rather hairy. The sat-nav computer is the factory difference, but there’s also the DVD movie player and an inverter present in that cubby hole in the black car. This photo also neatly highlights the 6×9 speakers I fitted in the rear. Cars with the Harmon Kardon audio upgrade pack (neither of these cars has that) have a larger basket in the rear to accomodate 6×9 speakers, and before the days of this blog I got hold of some of these baskets and upgraded the rear speakers. The result isn’t much to write home about, but these photos make it really obvious.

Under the boot floor I was again reminded of how a standard car should look. I’ve dug out an older pre-dog photo of my car for this comparison.

Bling bling mo-fo! There’s no detachable tow-bar on the red car, but the black car has the tow-bar stowed under the circular cover in the lower boot floor. Remaining in the boot area I’m reminded of another customisation – the metal dog guard. I’m so used to this I had to pull the luggage net up in the red car to make myself feel more at home!

The red car still has the standard droopy exhausts:

These cars have a leather tag connected to the boot floor that ends in a plastic clip – handly for lifting up the boot floor and hooking it in place if you need to get under it. I’m especially good at leaving this dangling out over the boot lip, and then slamming the boot lid shut on it shattering the plastic hook. The average life expectancy of one of these in my car is about a month. However yesterday I learnt that they can be neatly stowed in a way so as to protect the plastic clip under the boot floor, while still exposing the leather hoop to permit the boot floor to be easily lifted, look!

Moving on to the interiors, we once again return to the question of colours and taste. You see, while the outside of my car is a nice safe black, the inside really isn’t. It’s yellow. A fairly bright yellow at that. I’m not going to lie, I really wasn’t sure about it at first. It’s certainly a bit refreshing.

Ultimately I warmed to it, as an all black interior can look rather drab. Or, as is the case within the red car, rather smart:

So, are you ready for the comparison? Brace yourself…

I actually quite like it now, especially the way the black is used for contrast in places such as the door arm rest and handle. Of course, it’s a similar story in the front of the cars:

I would say that the E46 interior is exceptionally hard wearing. The red car has done 113,000 miles, the black car 130,000 miles, yet neither looks like it has suffered anything like that kind of use. Moving to the dashboard, we start to see the first signs that all is not the same under the bonnet.

Note that the black car, with nav and the older engine, red lines at 4,500rpm, where the newer car red lines at 5,000. I’m sure that’s a rather basic view and that more specific details may show less of a difference, but it is an indication that translates to the driving experience. The newer engine seems to drive slightly more like a petrol – the power stays accessible for a little longer before melting away. The older engine by comparison is marginally weaker up the top, but my fettled version at least provides a touch more grunt down at the bottom end.

The newer car comes with a six speed box, something I’m especially familiar with from various M cars and this is the single feature that has generated the most tractor envy! The whole package adds up to suggest to me that the newer car is worth quite a premium over the old.

I had the pleasure of piloting the new car from just north of Oxford back to Woking. There was a healthy section of bendy A roads, most of which was taken at a brisk pace, followed by the M40 tackled at typical motorway speeds. My 330d would have managed all this at around 40mpg while showing a clean pair of heels to most other vehicles on the road. This 330d reported 51.4 MPG. Simply amazing given the performance.

If I could blend Ian’s car with my modifications and nav, and add a sunroof and heated seats, we’d have quite a machine. Of course I can’t do this, but I can hand the car over to Ian later today, and I’m sure it won’t be long before the car is a magnificent example. Overall this car has certainly reinforced my position as a massive E46 330d sport touring fanboy.

Looks

To the untrained eye (for instance, my father’s) it’s the same car. I appreciate the high gloss shadow line and the white indicators – with chrome around the windows and orange corners it’d look really basic. That said, those 16″ wheels are tiny (the tractor wears 18s – even its winter wheels are 17s – those 16s wouldn’t even fit over my front brakes!) and the SE bumpers look far more placid. The chrome kidney grilles complete the “wouldn’t say boo to a goose” image. For comparison:

Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder, but I felt the 330d won this round.

Performance

This comparison isn’t supposed to be a one way street, but I must get the numbers out of the way. Compared with my dyno figures the 318i has 70% of the power and just 48% of the torque. On the road that difference is painfully obvious under all circumstances, so again, the 330d wins this round hands down.

Initially I tried to motivate the 318i into proving that it was in any way an Ultimate Driving Machine, but I soon realised it was best to waft. This worked well: the 318i is extremely smooth and makes a delicious noise. Especially in warmer weather with the windows down I find myself operating the 330d’s accelerator fairly digitally; the rush of the torque wave and the sound of the wastegate releasing are extremely addictive, so it was good to be more mature with the controls and thus travel with a little more comfort.

Ride

On the subject of comfort, having ridiculed those teeny wheels I soon noticed the transformation in ride quality. It’s fair to say that while a lower ride height on stiffer springs and ultra-low profile tyres makes for some eye-popping cornering, it also makes for a spine shattering ride over bumps and pot holes. On comfort suspension and big floppy tyres the 318i was a real pleasure over Woking’s battered roads. The compromise of course arrived with each corner, but the whole package makes sense: without performance and supportive seats there’s no point trying to corner fast, so I didn’t. Even so, without question the 318i wins a round here.

Economy

I’ll lay down the facts here, and we’ll come to the topic of overall value soon enough. When I was really, really kind to the 318i, I got 30mpg. If I tried in vain to extract some performance, that figure tumbled. The 330d either does 40mpg on a sensible run, or 35mpg if you drive it like an animal. Yes, diesels are renowned for economy, but smaller petrol engines shouldn’t be this bad. I guess here the sheer weight of the car meant that the engine was always strained. In any case, a definite win for the 330d.

Interior

Compared with a late E46 M3 the 330d certainly lacks some switchgear on the panel in front of the gearstick. However, inside the 318i was a bit of a barren wasteland.

The lack of sat-nav was the most obvious visual difference, but the flat seats and narrow steering wheel certainly left the 318i feeling substantially less focussed. Here’s a comparison with the 330d taken when I fitted the new E46 M3 steering wheel (but before the black leather illuminated gear shifter).

So while there was nothing wrong with the 318i’s interior, getting back into the 330d felt a lot more right. 330d win, again.

Overall value

Now we come to the point. Given that the 330d gives better performance, is a more pleasant place to be and costs less to fuel, what are the benefits of the 318i? The smaller petrol engine still has two clear advantages: it’s cheaper to purchase, and it’s cheaper to maintain. Brakes cost less, services are cheaper, tyres I imagine are a fraction of the price. Yet the 330d no doubt holds its value better.

Clearly I’d rather have the 330d – that’s why I’ve got one. But if pushed for funds would I rather have a 318i touring than a similarly priced Vectra estate? Yes – it’s properly built and the correct wheels are driven. It’s a good car, but the 330d is simply excellent.

• 26/09/2010 – front discs replaced (warped)
• 11/06/2010 – rear discs & pads replaced
• 11/06/2010 – rear right caliper replaced
• 25/10/2009 – Front nearside caliper replaced
• 24/10/2009 – Front discs & pads replaced
• 27/09/2008 – Rear brake pads and sensor replaced
• 18/08/2007 – Front brake discs replaced (warped)
• 24/03/2007 – Front discs and pads replaced
• 01/04/2006 – Front discs & pads replaced

We got the car in March 2006, so in 5 years and 50,000 miles, including today’s episode, I’ve replaced the front rotors 6 times. Good going, eh? In the past I started replacing with genuine BMW items, then as the tedium set in, I reverted to ECP’s finest. This time, thanks in part to advice from Jim Marren, I’ve “invested” in BMW’s new drilled and floating disc offering for the 330d. So this morning, I set about the replacement job. Before – standard massive rotors:

Up we go – by now an all too familiar pose:

Wheel off:

Caliper off:

Carrier and disc off:

On the near side (the side that seems to warp worst), I’ve elected to also replace the caliper as I suspect it of sticking (it is nearly 14 months old now after all). ECP offer a Pagid refurbished item for only £97.20 if you give them your old unit, so I taped up the hose and nipped into town to make the purchase.

Now we get to the good bit. How’s about this then for a bit of bling brakey-brakey action?

So, what are they?

They are obviously drilled, but they are also “floating”, which means the outer disc part (that comes into contact with the pads) isn’t the same piece that the wheel is clamped to on the hub – the two different materials are connected by a series of “bobbins” that reduce heat transfer and permit some adjustment as the disc changes shape subtly with temperature. This is supposed to reduce the chances of warping. The drilled holes help with heat dissipation, removing gases that are created under braking, and even stopping a film of water developing on the disc surface in wet weather.

My E36 M3 Evos has floating discs; their brakes warped all the time. However, I fitted drilled discs to my 328i and the brakes were just lovely from that point on, so here’s hoping! Final information about the discs:

B34.11.2.282.871 – left disc – £144.17 + VAT
B34.11.2.282.872 – right disc – £144.17 + VAT

Pricey. Time will tell if they’re worth it!

The 330d’s large front brakes mean that the smallest wheels that can be fitted are 17 inches, and these come as standard with 225/45 R17s. 17 inch wheels are less desirable than the “sport” 18s, and are therefore easier to come by. Winter tyres are also more readily available in smaller sizes, so it made sense to start hunting for E46 17 rims. Ebay of course came up with a variety of options, and last weekend I managed to pick up a set of my preferred style 44 E46 17s from a nice chap in Salisbury. As is so often the case, the 330d wasn’t available when I needed it, so the M5′s passenger space ensured the new rims had a comfortable journey home.

This morning I was up bright and early to take the wheels to my preferred tyre centre.

Wheels in the garage. The tyres aren’t up to much, but they have now been disposed of.

Today the 330d was available, and it made short work of swallowing its spare wheels.

I was a bit taken aback by the tyre centre’s reaction when I asked to talk to someone about winter tyres. “Are you going abroad?” No, but England is having a winter. In any case, I was instructed that I’d have to call back during the week to get them to let me know the options. A little disappointing really – mytyres.co.uk offer a good range with decent brands starting at £105 a corner. In any case, I will call them in the week, and they did at least pop the tyres off the rims and dispose of them for me.

I gave them a clean and considered their rather dubious state of repair – they’ve received some fairly heavy kerbing in their time.

Here’s a close up – three of the wheels were like this most of the way round – the best wheel just had about 60 degrees of this kind of damage. It looks like someone has tried to touch them up – I thought I’d try to improve on their attempt.

Here’s the same wheel after I’d had a go at it with a power detail sander.

Still looks a bit wrong but it was smooth to the touch. I did the same to all of the wheels.

Then it was time for another wash before I painted them. In the garage ready for a paint:

And here’s the same wheel painted:

Final photo: the full set, painted and lacquered.

The photo actually makes them look better than there are. If you look closely it’s pretty obvious they’ve been touched up rather than professionally refurbished, but I’m satisfied with the result given just a few hours work. The next step is to source and fit some winter tyres – then wait for winter!

The car is currently on 225/40 R18s (and 255/35 R18s at the back), so these 17s won’t look as bling, and even with summer tyres wouldn’t provide the same grip in the warm and dry. However, it won’t be warm and dry in mid-winter! Also, the old man in me is looking forward to the higher tyre profile – it’ll be interesting to see if the ride quality improves noticably.

I was pleased that nothing was seized, stuck, rounded or rusty; everything came off a treat.

I’d been advised to check if light passed through the hose in order to determine whether or not it had collapsed. I couldn’t do this, so returned to ECP with both the caliper and hose to see what the chap there thought. With the aid of an LED torch he proved the hose was okay, and so a caliper was ordered – to be available from 2:30pm – bonus! So, back home and time to do everything else I could.

Shiny shiny!

An all too familiar sight…

I enjoyed a spot of lunch from the BBQ while watching the world cup opening ceremory. The chap was right – the caliper was ready at 2:30. So, back to it:

I bled the brakes off and verified that nearly everything was fine. The handbrake didn’t work. I noticed while changing the rotors that the old shoes were pretty worn, and in a desperate attempt to tighten things up at the handbrake end to allow me to get back to the world cup match, I’ve snapped a cable. Grrr!

So in order, I should have:

• Slackened off the handbrake at the lever before trying to remove the rotors
• Adjusted up the shoes properly from the rear of the car
• Stuck to my principals and refused to work on a car while the world cup was on

So I’ve booked the car in to have new shoes and a new cable fitted on Tuesday. That’s pretty pricey, but the shoes definitely need replacing, and I wouldn’t want to do that myself (especially during the world cup!). I’ll be very pleased to know all the rear brakes are renewed. While I’ve replaced the rear pads in September 2008, the rotors looked pretty old when I got the car over 50,000 miles ago, so it all certainly needed doing.

B11.12.7.793.164 – about £11 + VAT. Comes with a couple of seals you’ll need too.

Begin, perhaps bizarrely, by removing the cabin filter and assembly tray from the back of the engine below the windscreen. You’ll need to pull all the rubber seals and whizz out 4 star bolts. Don’t drop one of them down onto the belly tray – it’ll cost you a lot of time and make you miss the rugby match you wanted to see.

Remove the air filter cover, and then the larger cover on this side of the engine (temporarily remove oil filler cap). You’ll need a hex attachment and a long extension bar. Note the condition of my air-filter. I would thoroughly recommend changing that item at the same time – I wish I had one in stock!

Next, remove the star capped bolts shown in the photo below. I used an E8 attachment – I think ideally I needed an E6 attachment, but I didn’t have one and the E8 one just about did the job. For clarity: one bolt is under the extension bar that’s in my left hand, the other is silver and in the bottom right corner of the photo.

Here is perhaps a more clear view of proceedings:

The oil separator lives under the circular black casing shown above. Remove more hex bolts, and waggle the assembly out. You’ll need to pull the wiring channel out of the way – it just fits – that’s why those small star headed bolts were removed. Once out you’ll see something like the below – you should recognise the seals that can be replaced with those that came in the separator kit – pull them out using those lovely little lugs and give it all a clean up.

Replace the seals. Engine bay should look something like this (hopefully cleaner).

Prepare shiny new oil separator. Be amazed at how blue the new one is compared with the soggy black outgoing item.

Swap them over.

Inspect giant mess. Put it all together. Marvel at smoke free acceleration!

A couple of weeks back I dismantled the assembly and cleaned it up. This brought the switch back to life, and I thought it had stopped the boot from opening of its own accord, but recently it started playing up again. I’ve therefore invested in a replacement unit, and have installed it today. Here follows a step by step procedure for anyone else who is suffering the same.

Parts:

B61.31.9.218.995 – key button
B61.31.9.218.995 – gasket

Before any discount but including VAT these cost £30. The ‘key button’ was in stock but the gasket wasn’t, so I had to return to collect that later. Annoyingly, when I came to do this job I discovered the ‘key button’ came with a new gasket so that part wasn’t required at all. I’m not certain if this is supposed to be the case or not, but certainly worth checking, and if you don’t need to order the gasket separately, it’ll be more like a £25 job.

So, the procedure. Open the boot glass. Remove the two plastic covers, and unleash a 10mm socket to free the plastic housing.

Undo the newly visible 10mm nut.

Next lower the glass lid and attack the outside. The rear wiper’s plastic hinge cover should come off with a bit of persuasion to reveal a 13mm nut. Whip that off.

That will allow you to remove the wiper arm – you may need a spot of leverage with a flat head screwdriver to pop it off the splines.

Then get a 24mm socket on the exposed nut. Once that’s off, the switch needs disconnecting from the car on the inside, and all parts can be removed. This should leave you with a pile of goodies that looks something like this:

Clean everything up “good and proper”.

Reassemble with new switch and gasket.

So far everything it good: the switch works and the lid has remained shut. Only time will tell how permanent this fix is!