tay447

Bought in jan 2012,2002 E46 330 Ci sport 101k on the clock - now 108k, brilliant to drive, goes from a quiet motorway munching tourer (50 mile round trip to work - which I enjoy now!), to a tarmac shredding beast when you forget about fuel and look for corners ; ) mind you she gets around 30ish if you resist. Can get high 30's on long motorway runs if you stay at 70!!!! Anyway, problems - replaced lower control arm rear bushes, get Powerflex!!! Pretty common problem in mags. - Anti-roll bar bushes- powerflex again!!! Buy them!! - Brake light switch, !Removed! thing was cancelling cruise control to boot, £5 salvage part- prob sorted! - Broken rear coil springs- doing next week, seems common on here. - OBC not appearing on display- hoping for help on this one, have posted on here. - Unsure of gearbox action, tends to feel 'sticky', more when cold I'd say, again posted on here. - PDC doesn't work- will get round to it- suggestions? - Airbag, fog and dip/main tell tales don't come on at start- test program doesn't light them either! - Driver's wing rotted and paint bubbling on bonnet, salvage wing and re-spray for both- fresh paint makes you notice the other marks doesn't it :( - Leak from passenger headlight washer motor unit- looks an ##### to swap/ get parts, I'll do it in a bit! - Alloys need a refurb, saving up! Feb had new front tyres, last week new rears, ouch. - Driver's side bolster wearing, saving up! - Crackly passsenger speaker- getting done next week- don't think it's the extra Harmon-Kardon one luckily- no idea where I'd find another of them. Hope this helps in making a list of common faults, have been ultra critical, it's still a hell of a lot of car for £3700 with FSH and the handbooks up against something similar for the same sort of dosh, considering all the equipment you get, rep for reliability, how it looks, goes, drives- as Gav says try a French car (I have) and see how one of them seems after 10 years and 100k!

Alright mate, I've got the same sort of problem with stitching, had a quote from a re-trimmer of £120, he reckoned the problem with the side bolsters is that you have to stitch them from the inside to hide it away, they call it 'blind stitching', the leather/ fabric isn't expensive, it's the time taking out the seat and the padding to actually do it properly! Hope this helps!

Hi there, I've recently bought my first BMW, it's great, I'm finding though the gearbox doesn't feel as slick as I was expecting, a mate of mine, who is a good amateur mechanic, has suggested trying an oil change on it, as it has worked on a '09 Saab he services for his brother's boss. We have found the identifier for the 'box and it's one that a local oil manufacturer has said is 'refer to BMW for spec', they've said they'll only do it for me and can't sell me the required oil, didn't bother trying to ask for the spec, as they didn't seem willing to help much on that. The gearbox is - MTF-LT-1 23 00-1 434 404 Car's an E46 330ci sport manual 'box We reckon the clutch is healthy, the bite isn't shifting about which Dan says the hydraulic BMW clutch can do if it's going. BMW did say the linkage bushings at the gearstick end can get sloppy, but oil change should be a quicker fix to try first! Any other suggestions would be great! Also, my OBC won't go from time to temp to the other functions, it stays on time only, if the temp warning +3.0 c or lower comes on, it then stays on temp. I have changed the indicator stalk- it is one from salvage, so not brand new, but all the light functions are perfect with either stalk, may be nothing, but the fog light and dip/main tell tales never display on the dash either. I'm wondering about wiring- but I believe there's an OBC module somewhere which sorts out fuel economy etc. could that be the problem? Lot of stuff to read, sorry about that!