Brilliant stuff Gareth! Can I buy the M5 now???? :rollsmile::rollsmile:
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Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
2002 330iT TiAg - by Gizmo [Diary]
- Thread starter gconry18
- Start date
No firstborn or whad of cash but I have a briefcase
Full Review Time
Now that I am nearing the end of the honeymoon phase of a new car and getting settled with my very special new daily I feel I can give an honest review.
Exterior
This is probably the area where most of the age is shown. However, it is nowhere near as bad as it could have been at this age and mileage.
The paint is in good condition barring the need for a clear coat refresh on the bonnet and the odd stone chip here and there. There are no major scratches on any of the metal surfaces.
With a walkaround there are a couple of small dents either side that can be taken care of with PDR; a towbar bump in the front bumper which will be replaced with Mtech anyway someday; and a scratch on one of the sideskirts.
She will benefit from a walk around with some touchup paint for now and bigger work will follow in the future although I kinda like the "workhorse" look for my daily.
Interior
Yes! I love this interior. The mix of grey with black dash top, black carpet and the cubed trim looks awesome. I honestly prefer this contrast to an all black interior.
Msport steering wheel. Yes! Feels great but could use a leather refresh, maybe alcantara which will keep my hands from freezing in the winter months. The steering wheel airbag is brand new I believe and surely looks that way.
E92 M3 shifter. Yes! Feels great in the hand and the lighting is perfect. The only things here are with the lighting being attached to the ash tray light it does not adjust with the cluster brightness. Secondly, there is a bit on squeaking in the leather when shifting to 5th and 6th but this is nothing major.
M6 Seats. Yes! These are so comfortable, and the bolstering is fantastic, they hold me tighter than my M5 seats. The colour is lighter than the rest of the leather but if fits nicely with the lighter headliner. They could use a deeper cleaning too, maybe I can use my steam cleaner. I was surprised that the thigh supports and headrests are not electric as on the M5 though. Being a retrofit the memory is currently disabled, I will be looking into a mod for that and to activate the suspected seat heating. Mmmmm... warm bum.
The rest of the interior is your regular touring stuff and it has the usual peeling on the rubbery center console parts. Nothing a little plastidip can't fix. The sunroof panel, while it work with the motor, is very stubborn by hand so I'll try some lube on it.
All in all, I love being in here, what a pleasure!
Suspension
I am going to include steering here. Inputs are precise without the big deadspot that our cars tend to build up over time. Huge thanks to Gizmo here as he took the steering rack for refurbishing and put in new control arm bushings after I had bought the car from him. What a legend!
No complaints about the ride, she is fairly soft but tight in all the right places. Her rear is running all the bits and bobs from Gizmo's white touring with much less mileage on it. Front is also running Msport control arms that he had leftover I believe. I have no idea what shocks are upfront but they do their job quite well.
Drivetrain and stuff
This is where the Gizmo magic really shines.
Motor and Gearbox:
On cold start there is a slight vibration but once the revs start to drop she smooths up nicely. This vibration leads to some chatter from the clutch/flywheel which goes away if I disengage the clutch.
The motor is very torquey, yet still revvy - more so than I thought it would be. We suspect the free revving nature to be down to the 325i flywheel and clutch. Definitely no issues with the power she puts out, it took me a while to get used to a "regular" (not so regular) car's power after using my M5 as a daily for the last few months but you soon realise that while it feels slow at first, you're still going plenty fast. The 325i exhaust if very quiet owing to the smaller diameter than the 330i exhaust. I'll start with a center decat and eventually either go OEM 330i or custom. She will get 63mm round tips out back as well.
Going through the gears is a great experience. The throw is nice and short, like going to a ping pong paddle from my M5's golf swing. It's a smooth shift but still retains it's mechanical feel when slotting into gear. On the odd occasion when coming to a stand still it struggles to shift back into 1st. Quick fix is releasing the clutch in neutral and then retrying. The clutch, in contrast to my M5 pedal made of pure solid granite, is super light.
The rest:
Brakes hold up well. I have had one instance of a weird shudder when I had to suddenly brake high speed but she still stops well. Brake feel is great and the pedal is nice and firm, again contrasting with my M5, the M5 has a very light brake pedal. After a long trip with lots of stop and go there is a tiny bit of squeal but it's fairly rare. I plan to upgrade these to 330i units or beyond to keep up with the added power.
All in all, this is one solid drivetrain with little to no slack anywhere along the line. I don't think I have driven a car with this little slack in the drivetrain. If you covered up the mileage I would have no trouble believing she had 50k or less on the clock. Even my father, who is not really a car person, commented on how solid it feels.
I have only had the pleasure of being driven by Gizmo once but I can feel the essence of his 328i build in here, solid and direct.
Niggles
Aside from what I have mentioned in other sections.
When it's warm, the drivers window refuses to respond to the one touch opening. Closing is fine.
Couple of windscreen chips that need freezing.
Oil level sensor is hit or miss. Started coming on (orange light) from time to time even when the oil does not need topping up.
And then the slightly bigger one. The car was still having the odd startup smoke issue that Gizmo replaced the CCV for and oil use has started to increase. So the car is currently in at Goch and Cooper for valve stem seals.
More research into the issue revealed a common issue with oil use increasing after replacing the CCV. A user on bimmerforums discovered a fix by increasing vacuum. I will do this as well after the valve stem seals.
If anyone wants to read up on this the fix its (the whole thread is an interesting read): here with a video on the subject: here
Some pics taken when I dropped her off:
Any questions, ask away :=):
Now that I am nearing the end of the honeymoon phase of a new car and getting settled with my very special new daily I feel I can give an honest review.
Exterior
This is probably the area where most of the age is shown. However, it is nowhere near as bad as it could have been at this age and mileage.
The paint is in good condition barring the need for a clear coat refresh on the bonnet and the odd stone chip here and there. There are no major scratches on any of the metal surfaces.
With a walkaround there are a couple of small dents either side that can be taken care of with PDR; a towbar bump in the front bumper which will be replaced with Mtech anyway someday; and a scratch on one of the sideskirts.
She will benefit from a walk around with some touchup paint for now and bigger work will follow in the future although I kinda like the "workhorse" look for my daily.
Interior
Yes! I love this interior. The mix of grey with black dash top, black carpet and the cubed trim looks awesome. I honestly prefer this contrast to an all black interior.
Msport steering wheel. Yes! Feels great but could use a leather refresh, maybe alcantara which will keep my hands from freezing in the winter months. The steering wheel airbag is brand new I believe and surely looks that way.
E92 M3 shifter. Yes! Feels great in the hand and the lighting is perfect. The only things here are with the lighting being attached to the ash tray light it does not adjust with the cluster brightness. Secondly, there is a bit on squeaking in the leather when shifting to 5th and 6th but this is nothing major.
M6 Seats. Yes! These are so comfortable, and the bolstering is fantastic, they hold me tighter than my M5 seats. The colour is lighter than the rest of the leather but if fits nicely with the lighter headliner. They could use a deeper cleaning too, maybe I can use my steam cleaner. I was surprised that the thigh supports and headrests are not electric as on the M5 though. Being a retrofit the memory is currently disabled, I will be looking into a mod for that and to activate the suspected seat heating. Mmmmm... warm bum.
The rest of the interior is your regular touring stuff and it has the usual peeling on the rubbery center console parts. Nothing a little plastidip can't fix. The sunroof panel, while it work with the motor, is very stubborn by hand so I'll try some lube on it.
All in all, I love being in here, what a pleasure!
Suspension
I am going to include steering here. Inputs are precise without the big deadspot that our cars tend to build up over time. Huge thanks to Gizmo here as he took the steering rack for refurbishing and put in new control arm bushings after I had bought the car from him. What a legend!
No complaints about the ride, she is fairly soft but tight in all the right places. Her rear is running all the bits and bobs from Gizmo's white touring with much less mileage on it. Front is also running Msport control arms that he had leftover I believe. I have no idea what shocks are upfront but they do their job quite well.
Drivetrain and stuff
This is where the Gizmo magic really shines.
Motor and Gearbox:
On cold start there is a slight vibration but once the revs start to drop she smooths up nicely. This vibration leads to some chatter from the clutch/flywheel which goes away if I disengage the clutch.
The motor is very torquey, yet still revvy - more so than I thought it would be. We suspect the free revving nature to be down to the 325i flywheel and clutch. Definitely no issues with the power she puts out, it took me a while to get used to a "regular" (not so regular) car's power after using my M5 as a daily for the last few months but you soon realise that while it feels slow at first, you're still going plenty fast. The 325i exhaust if very quiet owing to the smaller diameter than the 330i exhaust. I'll start with a center decat and eventually either go OEM 330i or custom. She will get 63mm round tips out back as well.
Going through the gears is a great experience. The throw is nice and short, like going to a ping pong paddle from my M5's golf swing. It's a smooth shift but still retains it's mechanical feel when slotting into gear. On the odd occasion when coming to a stand still it struggles to shift back into 1st. Quick fix is releasing the clutch in neutral and then retrying. The clutch, in contrast to my M5 pedal made of pure solid granite, is super light.
The rest:
Brakes hold up well. I have had one instance of a weird shudder when I had to suddenly brake high speed but she still stops well. Brake feel is great and the pedal is nice and firm, again contrasting with my M5, the M5 has a very light brake pedal. After a long trip with lots of stop and go there is a tiny bit of squeal but it's fairly rare. I plan to upgrade these to 330i units or beyond to keep up with the added power.
All in all, this is one solid drivetrain with little to no slack anywhere along the line. I don't think I have driven a car with this little slack in the drivetrain. If you covered up the mileage I would have no trouble believing she had 50k or less on the clock. Even my father, who is not really a car person, commented on how solid it feels.
I have only had the pleasure of being driven by Gizmo once but I can feel the essence of his 328i build in here, solid and direct.
Niggles
Aside from what I have mentioned in other sections.
When it's warm, the drivers window refuses to respond to the one touch opening. Closing is fine.
Couple of windscreen chips that need freezing.
Oil level sensor is hit or miss. Started coming on (orange light) from time to time even when the oil does not need topping up.
And then the slightly bigger one. The car was still having the odd startup smoke issue that Gizmo replaced the CCV for and oil use has started to increase. So the car is currently in at Goch and Cooper for valve stem seals.
More research into the issue revealed a common issue with oil use increasing after replacing the CCV. A user on bimmerforums discovered a fix by increasing vacuum. I will do this as well after the valve stem seals.
If anyone wants to read up on this the fix its (the whole thread is an interesting read): here with a video on the subject: here
Some pics taken when I dropped her off:
Any questions, ask away :=):
Goch and Cooper like finding things for you they can fix and charge you for. That said the Opel I have taken there, the work was clean and spot on with what I asked for.
As for the M54 oil usage, mine hasn't started yet, whenever I check oil levels it stays the same, so no complaining, but definitely going to read up on it.
As for the M54 oil usage, mine hasn't started yet, whenever I check oil levels it stays the same, so no complaining, but definitely going to read up on it.
Gizmo@GARAGE46 said:
I do. Maybe I will swing by Gareth's place some time to talk
Picked up the car from Goch and Cooper on Friday and after doing about 400km I think it is safe to say that the oil use has subsided.
Got this from them during the early stages. It took them a lot longer than I thought it would but they did a good job.
Unfortunately they discovered a slow leak on the radiator so a cooling system refresh is on the cards.
Got this from them during the early stages. It took them a lot longer than I thought it would but they did a good job.
Unfortunately they discovered a slow leak on the radiator so a cooling system refresh is on the cards.
Yeah they don't specialize per say in BMs. They do all brands of cars at Goch and Cooper. Which is why I prefer to go to Garage808 down here in Cape Town (if they don't decline working on your car for being too old).Gizmo@GARAGE46 said:
Maybe if @gconry18 need something like this done again he can try and persuade Garage808 to do it for him.
Gizmo@GARAGE46 said:
They will continue working on clients cars that they had before they got picky. They will not take in any new cars with high mileage or old age regardless of whether the mileage on the clock is the same as on the drivetrain.
It's annoying but I suppose they can afford to be picky.
Tinuva said:
I tried that. They are fixated on the cars Mileage. They do work on my M5 though but only because I was a client before they started being selective
gconry18 said:
Ah I understand. So you at least tried.
They do work on both my E46s, the 318 was on 150k mileage, but I think that was before they started refusing new clients. The 330 was on 96k when I took it for the cooling component refresh.
I did ask them why they refuse the high mileage cars, to which they replied it was because those cars take more time to repair as they get older and with their low prices its not feasible for them. But then, last time I was there, I saw 3 cars standing there that are not working, as in they have to push them around when moving them. So I went hmmm...., but left it there.
Have you tried APS in stikland? Anton also really know his stuff, but is really busy and the waiting time can be frustrating. Garage 808 is more organised and a smaller operation, so they are being more selective. I trust both 808 and APS more than any BMW dealership in WC.
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