E46 325ti , advice needed (a little long ) And Vanos / Fan removal .

[zippy320]

Hi Guys!

So as per a previous post , I promised to help my aunt , "Sort out" her car , a 2001 E46 325ti with around 91 450 kms on it .

The car was serviced at a BMW Dealership ( Back when that particular dealership was owned by somone else and had its dark days) wont mention name . And then when off motorplan by another popular Durban BMW shop ( Wont mention name either )

Now my aunt (Whose pretty old) knows nothing about cars what so ever , when the car asked for a service , she sent it in and expected them to do whatever needed to be done and she paid.

She had asked me to sort of refresh her interior and if I could help her fix her switching off issue as she had sent if to someone to have fixed and after replacing a sensor the car was still switching off .

Anyway ,before it went in I had suspected that her issue was the vanos seals , as it was heavy on fuel , not much power in the lower revs etc so I purchased new vanos seals for the car from moranor of which the other guys were supposed to fit but they disagreed with me and instead fitted a new vanos sensor which did nothing to solve the problem .

anyway,

She has asked me to help her sort it out , So I decided to replace the vanos seals myself and look through the car and see if there's anything else that needs attention .

What I found so far
1) The air filter is the ORIGINAL filter fitted to the car in 2001
2) The fuel filter is the ORIGINAL filter fitted to the car in 2001
3) The spark plugs were never changed
4) The Cabin air filter is also the original filter fitted to the car when new
5) There is a slight leak on the radiator expansion bottle (Also still its original part)
6) There is a little sludge in the engine but not that much
7) The pipe going from the valve cover to the CCV? I think its called is cracked .
8) The pipe by the power steering bottle seems to be leaking at the point where the bottle meets the pipe. I dont think the bottle is cracked , I think the pipe end might be loose .
9 ) I dont think the Brake fluid has ever been changed ( might have been while under motorplan but I dont know )

I need advice on this car , what else should I look at ?

Should I change the fuel filter? The spark plugs still look very good . So not sure if I should change that .

How do I get the fan off? I don't have the special fan clutch tool , I found one person in Durban who sells the tool and he wants R800 for it which I think is a bit excessive for a piece if metal with holes in it , is there another way I could get it off?

The guy at BMW told me that I should use a screw driver down on one of the nuts and with the 32mm spanner on the nut , I should give it a wack and the nut should come loose , then turn it by hand or with the spanner .

Thanks guys for all advice .. First time that im working on a M54 engine! Its a little scary by kind of exciting

I will post some pictures of the car before and after of the car later when im all done . It really is a nice little E46... that front end and lexus tail lamps grows on you i guess haha.

 

[cukymonster328]

Have Two M54 ti's. One sportspack with the red tails. And one green stock with the clears. . The 32mm fan trick works. Goodluck and godspeed.


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[Gizmo]

Change the spark plugs, air filter and fuel filter. Add an oil service using LM 5w40 and the car will drive like new again.

So who are the dirty BMW dealers this time?mgwaiting:

 

[zippy320]

HeHe , Yup this car is also a Sports package car , I can give you a hint , this dealership was taken away from the original founder and given to another some time ago , (im guessing things have improved from then ) . I cant mention the dealership name as it would be unfair on the new owners who I feel have turned the dealership around . Good thing I never serviced my 318i with them even though we purchased it from them haha .

So far I have changed the vanos seals (completed this evening) , new air filter is in the box but not installed yet , I have to replace the pipe that goes from the valve cover to the ccv , change the radiator expansion tank and transmission thermostat , the cabin filter is breaking apart and turning to dust . Do a cooling system flush while im at it . As well as replace a few water hoses as the rubber gaskets in there seemed to have turned to a horrible black sticky stuff.

Funny enough , the valve cover gasket seems to be in pretty good condition , its still soft , not hard , no cracks , hasn't shrunk .

Does this car really use the same fuel filter as that of my 318i N42? I thought it used the other cheaper filter .

I have to also get the brake fluids changed and replace the disks and pads . And do an oil service on it .

What spark plugs should I buy for this car? And how many liters of oil does this car take?

Thanks guys!

Change the spark plugs, air filter and fuel filter. Add an oil service using LM 5w40 and the car will drive like new again.

So who are the dirty BMW dealers this time?mgwaiting:

 

[Serg_ZA]

As far as I know the M54 uses the more expensive fuel filter with the regulator built in. (three connections in total, 2 fuel 1 vacuum)

 

[Tinuva]

This should be good. I like when people work on making something better, and not just throw money at it randomly.

I am sure you can't go wrong with Gizmo's advice :thumbs:

 

[zippy320]

Thanks Tinuva , yup! Gizmo advice is gold! Im really thankful for all his help .

So I completed the vanos seals , air filters , flushed the cooling system and replaced the cracked expansion tank and brittle transmission thermostat . I started the car this afternoon and it seemed to idle smoothly , Took it for a drive and it seemed to go well .

On my E46 318 , my idle sits around 700 to 750 , I noticed that this cars idle is of around 650 , Is that normal?

The most annoying part of the above task was removing the mechanical fan and then reinstalling the fan , Theres just no space , the fan keeps falling off the shaft . Painful experience .. especially for your hands. I forgot to mention ,
While installing the vanos back onto the head , I broke the head of one of bolts that attaches the vanos to the cam. That put me into a slight panic , Thankfully it was an easy fix , The bolt is very loose in there so what I did was take very pointy tweezers and sort of turned it out really slowly and the broken piece just fell out. Never over tighten that bolt even with a torque spanner. Its pretty weak.

My next step would be to fix the leaking power steering bottle , Hopefully its just the pipe that's leaking .

I do suspect the cap as well though.

 

[Tinuva]

My 330i M54 idles around 600-650 as well once it has started warming up. Before that it will be at around 800-900. The N42 in the 318i however will idle at around 1100 while cold then go down to 800 like you say. So I believe that is 100% normal. 2 very different engines though, valvetronic N42 vs pre-valvetonic era M54.

 

[zippy320]

Thats awesome! For a second I thought maybe the cars idle was to low and I did something wrong , My E30 with the M20 6 cylinder idles at 750 straight , This car does idle on first start up at around 750 then drops to 600 or 650 and just stays there . Its such a smooth engine .

Today I replaced the spark plugs , removed the DISA valve , checked and cleaned it , it was clean , the flap looked good and the vacuum seemed ok.
Fixed to power steering leak , found a cut right at the top of one of the hoses so I cut that piece off and reattached it to the bottle . Hopefully that stops the leak .

I think im going to let SMG BMW do the oil service and brake fluid flush on this car , There is a special on the Oil service and the brake fluid flush only cost around R350 ,The OBC states that there's 1900kms to go for its next service hehe and I don't know how to do a brake fluid flush . The car has to go in to BMW to have its airbags replaced under that airbag replacement campaign anyway.

You guys with these M54 engines are so lucky! That air filter box is soo easy to remove and install! On the N42 its an absolute pain!

My 330i M54 idles around 600-650 as well once it has started warming up. Before that it will be at around 800-900. The N42 in the 318i however will idle at around 1100 while cold then go down to 800 like you say. So I believe that is 100% normal. 2 very different engines though, valvetronic N42 vs pre-valvetonic era M54.

 

[Gizmo]

...so the car is going back to the dealership that never serviced it in the first place...:dunnoanymore:

Rather do it yourself so you know it is done this time.

 

[zippy320]

LoL noooo that was another dealership , Im going to take it to the one that services my cars. I know the service guys , parts guys mechanics well now so I trust them with my car . Wont take it to the other one im still sketchy about them, but it does have new owners so things might have changed . I will have a good friend who works there keep a check on the car for me like he does my cars .

...so the car is going back to the dealership that never serviced it in the first place...:dunnoanymore:

Rather do it yourself so you know it is done this time.