My E90 BMW 330i

[DGTS-T]

Oh I'm happy that you're hating then too (well not happy but relieved) because I was starting to worry about suspension components.

Are you loving the E90?

Yeah I love it!
Most comfortable car I’ve ever owned, ac is great, cruise control, leather.....I could go on!

I’m not a fan of the automatic hi beam/low beam headlights tho. I live in a country town and at night the reflections from all the street signs make the high beam switch off and on a lot which is quite annoying

Also mine has the M-sport package which has the lowers suspension and the car sits lower than my GTR believe it or not which can be a bit of a pain haha

[PranK]

Nice! I want some M-Sport wheels for mine.

What do you mean by auto high/low beams? 

[GeeDog]

On 1/18/2018 at 5:17 PM, PranK said:

The handling is odd

My E92 was pretty bad on poor roads, have now replaced all shocks with Bilstein B4's and it has improved a lot. I'm still debating replacing the 19" wheels with 18's to further improve ride. I'll need new rear tyres soon, so will decide before I buy them.

Auto hi beam dips the lights automatically when a car comes towards you - your car may not have it. There is a sensor behind the internal rear-view mirror. Have you run your VIN through a checker to see what options are installed? There are a number of free sites - google is your friend.

My latest job was to pull the hard disk out of the CIC, and image it to a new disk. I've had a couple of issues of the CIC getting into a reboot cycle, and I'm pretty sure it's the disk failing. I've got an SSD on order - interface is IDE so not common. At the same time I've also managed to update my maps to 2018.

[PranK]

My E92 was pretty bad on poor roads, have now replaced all shocks with Bilstein B4's and it has improved a lot. I'm still debating replacing the 19" wheels with 18's to further improve ride. I'll need new rear tyres soon, so will decide before I buy them.
Auto hi beam dips the lights automatically when a car comes towards you - your car may not have it. There is a sensor behind the internal rear-view mirror. Have you run your VIN through a checker to see what options are installed? There are a number of free sites - google is your friend.
My latest job was to pull the hard disk out of the CIC, and image it to a new disk. I've had a couple of issues of the CIC getting into a reboot cycle, and I'm pretty sure it's the disk failing. I've got an SSD on order - interface is IDE so not common. At the same time I've also managed to update my maps to 2018.

I have a sensor on the back of the mirror so I'll definitely test the auto high beams.

I wish I knew somebody with non run flats so I could try the car on them. I don't want to follow that route until I'm sure that's the problem. I have B8s on the Bora, definitely the best shocks I've ever had.

I'd love to read about what you do with the CIC. Mine is the CCC but there are upgrade guides for the CIC which have piqued my interest.

[PranK]

So I read the manual and saw nothing about the high beams other than how to turn them on. There was a heap of info about the adaptive xenons, is that what you mean? They change where they point based on steering and speed, they are also auto anti dazzle. I have these and totally love them. I've only driven at night a handful of times (went on holidays not long after getting it and daylight saving hasn't helped) but I love seeing the lights moving around.

[GeeDog]

Auto headlight is different to adaptive headlights. High beam assistant is described on page 101 of my user manual. The option code on my car is "S5AC High Beam Assistant", and this is what it does (c&p from a google search):

What is high beam assistant?

High-beam assist recognises oncoming vehicles at night, switching headlights between main and dipped beam automatically. It's a very clever bit of kit and is claimed to make nocturnal driving less stressful

 

Yesterday I received my new OBD port to RJ45 adaptor, which allows a network connection into the CIC via the OBD port. This makes it simple to get the file needed to allow the generation of an FSC code, which in turn is needed to install new maps. I'd already got the file I needed for my car by plugging the hard disk into a Neutrino VM, but had ordered the adaptor from China a few weeks ago and wanted to see if it worked. Now that I have the OBD-RJ45 adaptor and an IDE disk - USB adaptor, I can backup & restore CIC & NBT hard disks, and generate FSC codes for map updates. 

[DGTS-T]

Auto headlight is different to adaptive headlights. High beam assistant is described on page 101 of my user manual. The option code on my car is "S5AC High Beam Assistant", and this is what it does (c&p from a google search):
What is high beam assistant? High-beam assist recognises oncoming vehicles at night, switching headlights between main and dipped beam automatically. It's a very clever bit of kit and is claimed to make nocturnal driving less stressful   Yesterday I received my new OBD port to RJ45 adaptor, which allows a network connection into the CIC via the OBD port. This makes it simple to get the file needed to allow the generation of an FSC code, which in turn is needed to install new maps. I'd already got the file I needed for my car by plugging the hard disk into a Neutrino VM, but had ordered the adaptor from China a few weeks ago and wanted to see if it worked. Now that I have the OBD-RJ45 adaptor and an IDE disk - USB adaptor, I can backup & restore CIC & NBT hard disks, and generate FSC codes for map updates. 

Yeah that’s what I mean, the high beam assist haha!

[PranK]

On 23/01/2018 at 6:15 PM, GeeDog said:

Auto headlight is different to adaptive headlights. High beam assistant is described on page 101 of my user manual. The option code on my car is "S5AC High Beam Assistant", and this is what it does (c&p from a google search):

1

Page 101 for me is Keyfob battery changing.  Maybe you have LCI E90? 

On 23/01/2018 at 6:15 PM, GeeDog said:

What is high beam assistant?

High-beam assist recognises oncoming vehicles at night, switching headlights between main and dipped beam automatically. It's a very clever bit of kit and is claimed to make nocturnal driving less stressful

 

 

Yesterday I received my new OBD port to RJ45 adaptor, which allows a network connection into the CIC via the OBD port. This makes it simple to get the file needed to allow the generation of an FSC code, which in turn is needed to install new maps. I'd already got the file I needed for my car by plugging the hard disk into a Neutrino VM, but had ordered the adaptor from China a few weeks ago and wanted to see if it worked. Now that I have the OBD-RJ45 adaptor and an IDE disk - USB adaptor, I can backup & restore CIC & NBT hard disks, and generate FSC codes for map updates. 

 

Nice! This sounds awesome! Maybe you could do a write up about it?

[PranK]

One super irritating issue I was dealing with was the absolutely useless passenger side mirror.

 

You can see how bad it was. It was so hard trying to change lanes in crazy Sydney traffic when commuting when I really had no trustworthy mirror.

So, I bought a cheap convex mirror on eBay which has made a big difference though the mirror itself is a bit warped. Its still a million times better.

So much better.

[PranK]

For reference look at where the top of the gate is on the first image compared to the second. 

[PranK]

Ok, bit of an update.

One thing that gets under my skin with any car is something that doesnt work. Even if I never plan to use it, I just hate that it doesnt work.

Case in point; my electric rear sun shade. One side is broken and it opens kinda strangely... 

Add to that the terrible faded parcel shelf and awful condition of the C-Pillar trim, I thought it could all get a clean up. 

Hard to see the fade until the tray was out of the car.

Heres the little clip/slider that is broken.

I used JB Weld on it and left it overnight.

But, it just disintegrated again when I touched it, and so did the other side. The plastic was just far too brittle to fix. Another victim of Australian UV I think.

I found a guy in the UK that sells just the runner and clips and so I bought a bunch to replace them all.

This is the state of one of the C-Pillar trims.

The parcel tray looked so much better after a spray, but I totally killed the fabric. Its very hard and brittle now. I don't think anybody will notice though.

When I was playing at the back of the car I looked under at the exhaust and noticed a flap.

With a vacuum activated actuator.

So, after reading online about 330i exhaust flaps and how the second pipe closes to stay quiet at commutting and freeway type speeds (ie, less drone) I decided to block it. 

The car sounds great. The noise sticks around when it used to fade away. I wish there was another flap to open some kind of race system...

 

[PranK]

So, the other thing is while I was in the back of the car and rubbed my head on the roof, all the liner started to sag. Thankfully there is a trim piece at the 3rd brake light I can use to get in and spray some adhesive. Because I am far too particular to have a car with a saggy headliner. Its not a Kingswood ffs. 

[PranK]

Oh, and lastly ... 

Over the past month I've needed to top up the coolant twice. With only a small amount, but still. Added to that was an error code (check engine light on intermittently) which related to the VANOS system (variable valve timing). There was zero change in driving or anything. I dropped it into the warranty-approved mechanic today to investigate and he flushed the engine and gave it a solid service. He said that because of the k's (50k) the k's since last service wasn't a lot, but the months since last service was - it was serviced last in 2015. I knew this, I just hadn't done it yet. He was going to clean the VANOS solenoids rather than replace them straight away.

He also said that the seal on the radiator drain plug was leaking. Beauty, easy fix. 

So, he called just now and said everything went to plan. Car is running well and no codes. Fingers crossed he's sorted it.

He did tell me that rear tyres need replacing. This has caused a fair bit of thinking because I am considering ditching the run flats and making a spare tyre kit in the boot. The RFT's grab on everything and make rough roads horrible to drive on.

Lots of yanks buy a space saver and kit, or just a foam filler. 

I absolutely love this car and have missed it today. Its been a long time since I've been as taken by a car as I am by this.

OK, it happened with the Bora and the GTR's and the Stagea, but whatever. Shut up.

 

[Leroy Peterson]

Some nice TLC stuff going on here... But you'd have to be pretty shitty if you bought this car new and all these "old car" issues were happening to it...

 

I get the feeling a fastidious owner taking care of the car wouldn't have prevented these issues.

[mlracing]

Ah so that's why the back shades do that.. my old E39 did that too

[emts]

I think with all the commodore drivers stealing the X5 rims to put on theirs...

 

then it only fair that you put gold 21 inch Simmons on this...

or at least on the front and put some steelies on the back..

[PranK]

4 hours ago, Leroy Peterson said:

I get the feeling a fastidious owner taking care of the car wouldn't have prevented these issues.

 

Totally agree. But I'm a fastidious owner and it has few enough kay's to undo the wrongdoings (imo).

 

1 hour ago, emts said:

I think with all the commodore drivers stealing the X5 rims to put on theirs...

 

then it only fair that you put gold 21 inch Simmons on this...

or at least on the front and put some steelies on the back..

3

Ordered some 21" Vault chromies.

In seriousness, I happened to find a guy selling a set of 17" MSport wheels with tonnes of rubber (and RFT) on them. Better offset and staggered. Picked them up today. 

The wheels have some of the worst gutter rash I've seen, but can't complain for $400 and gives me another project considering upgrades and changes to this car will be minimal for a while.

[emts]

you can keep your Vault's you know what really gets the panties dropping...

 

 

I have seen these on a E36 out epping way..so we know they fit.

[PranK]

I wouldn't be able to look at my car unless both front and back rims were perfectly aligned. 

As a side q - wouldn't they cause a wobble?  

[Leroy Peterson]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Genuine-19-inch-Leon-Hardiritt-Rasen-Japan-Wheel-BMW-set-of-4-E46-E90-F20-F30/332011335593?epid=2029016367&hash=item4d4d6aefa9:g:8ecAAOSwal5YDFn7

oooft