My E90 330i -Steptronic

r-hart · Jan 11, 2016

Hi Gentlemen

As per post in the introduction area. This is my first BMW I am owning. It will be my wife's daily and our weekend car. I have always loved Bmw 6 cylinder aspirated motors. And in the short span I driven the car so far, its really living up to my expectations. Specs as follows:

2006 330i
Steptronic
Silver
Exclusive Pack
I bought it with 73000km now in December 2015.

I have no plans of modding atm. But we shall see what the future holds.

WyKiD · Jan 11, 2016

Congrats on the new wheels, looks very clean:coolShake:

Prayers done, now take it for a good run...:rollsmile:

335i Lci · Jan 11, 2016

Fuel may chow u a bit as a daily bud! Nice find though:cartel:

r-hart · Jan 12, 2016

Thanks gentlemen for the kind words.

Yes I have noticed that's it quite heavy with local driving.

But my wife is at home, so she only use the car two to three times a week. So I shud be fine.

I'm quite impressed with the consumption on the open road. So for now, Im happy.

sash · Jan 12, 2016

car is mint.., congrats

Sabretooth tiger · Jan 12, 2016

Car is realy mint, congrats :clapper:

Lizzard · Jan 12, 2016

Congrats on the new car :clapper:

It isn't one of the most fuel economy cars there are but then it isn't one of the heaviest either.

With normal driving (presume when the wife's driving it) you should be around the 9 - 10km per liter in the town driving and as you said it is extremely fuel efficient once on the open road at a constant speed. I get around 12 - 14km per liter.

If you are going to drive it and hammer the car, easy to do that as it does have some power and the delivery is awesome then you will get around the 6 - 7km per liter mark (so called spirit driving among the BMW drivers :rollsmile: )

But enjoy the car, they are fun to drive

Sabretooth tiger · Jan 12, 2016

Besides you have one of the last N/A 6's. Life is too short to care about fuel economy. Enjoy the car.

NtandoN · Jan 12, 2016

Congrats! You will definitely enjoy it.. or your wife will.

I was worried about the fuel economy when I first bought the 330i but 6 years later I'm still smiling. Fuel economy - what's that? Just enjoy the ride.

Vinash · Jan 12, 2016

Congratz buddy sweet ride :clapper: - if you want to improve on the fuel consumption (later stage) i would recommend a Decat & an after market filter like your K&N BMC etc...

r-hart · Jan 12, 2016

Thanks guys for all the kind words.

So far Im enjoying the car a lot. Drives really well.

Im sending it BMW (secunda) tomorrow for a service. The last service was done @ 60k km, so I called to ask what does the 75k service entail, as the service light went on now at 73xxxkm. She told me as the car is a old model. Bmw doesn't have set items to change at an interval, the will strip and check various filters etc, and send me a quote, and I can chose what I want done. If I don't want anything done, I pay them r350 for stripping and quoting.

The window washer fluid throws a fault and I tried filling, it leaks through the bottom somewhere, and there's another fault, which I think is a seatbelt or airbag, as it show's a red man with a seatbelt and an airbag looking thing in front of him.

So dependant on pricing, I will decide what to have done.

6 Cylinder tone is awesome!!! :cartel:

morne W · Jan 13, 2016

You will absolutely fall in love with car! I've had mine for 4 years and still makes me smile every day.

A few pointers:
1. The design is quite aerodynamic, so try coasting a bit to save fuel. I get around 9.5km/l in town.
2. The leaking waterbottle; on the RHS wheelarch you need to remove the inner fender lining and check the clamps of the water lines. Videos on youtube will show you how. I've had the same issue.
3. Red warning light; the passenger seat sensor on the left of the seat sometimes play up. Give it a very slight thump with your hand and it should go away.
4. Leather seats; Meguirs leather treatment every 6 months. My seats look almost as good as new after 200k.
5. If you are technically inclined; they are actually simple to service yourself for oil changes etc.

Have fun bud, many many happy kms await you!

r-hart · Jan 14, 2016

Hi Morne

Thanks for pointers, appreciate it.

So the car was BMW yesterday, had the microfilter service. with regards to the faults, I feel they want to change unnecessary items.

Airbag fault - they want to replace the airbag cable, as well the batterys negative terminal which is over R2500, as well as some other bits abd bobs, I don't see the need to change all these items?

Window washer - well according to them, its the headlight washers that the problems, so they want to replace both the microscopic washers and the washer pumps, which totals 3500+. again, Cant be both washers are shot at the same time and the pump.

So anyway, the garage where I purchased from said I can bring it back, but its a schelp to drive from Mpumalanga to JHB, leave the car there, borrow another car, then drive back to go fetch car after a week or so. So Im thinking i might fix it on my own at a later stage, when I have the time- as time isn't on my side at this stage.

I will try to thump the seat when I see the car tomorrow, and see if it works. thanks for the advice.

Lizzard · Jan 14, 2016

This is exactly why we use Gert, well not in those terms but you know what I mean. He will tell you exactly what to replace and then your on your way.

See with bmw techs, they want to replace the whole system, like what you have found out with the airbag and washer error. And my 2c, they NUTS !!!

Pm Gert and ask him for assistance, he is good.....sorry EXCELLENT in this area, its what he DO. :rollsmile:

r-hart · Jan 14, 2016

Hi Lizzard

Just after I made this post. I contacted Gert for assistance.

I have to take the car to him to diagnose and then we take it from there.

Unfortunately he doesn't work weekends. So hopefully next month some time I can take the car to him.

Cheers!

r-hart · Jan 4, 2017

Hi Gentlemen,

Bit of a thread Update :

December 2016 has been one year since taking ownership of car. And so far, i have had great enjoyment with the car. I have accumulated around 15k km in this year and touch wood, it has been trouble free thus far, Only top of oil. I have used it to KZN around 3 times already, and my wife has been enjoying it as her daily as well.

Now, as per my first post, there was no plans for any sort of modifications for this car, especially with regards to funds, as my brother and I own a skyline as well, and we spend our spare cash modifying/restoring it.

But alas, she needed some upgrading, and i decided to go with some cosmetics.

I have been trying to source a set of BMW Ellipsoids because i always liked the look of it, but i could not find a decent set and had to settle for a set from Gumtree. I bought the rims, and took them straight for refurbishment. Two rims had slight buckles and 1 had bad curb rash. So i decided to send them all in for a refurbish and a fresh coat of paint. My local Tyre place in benoni done a fairly decent job on them(not the best) and i was happy with the outcome.

Then another big headache came up, run flats or non-flats. I have done a lot of research with regards to run flats, and at the prices, it was crazy. And although there was more negatives then positives, i went solely for the run flats because, if my wife and daughter are without me, at least i know they are safe. So after some price searching, i went with the Michelin Pilot Sport 3 ZP in the OEM sizes.

Pics to follow - sorry for poor quality. Still going to use my proper camera when i get a chance.

r-hart · Jan 5, 2017

Rims after refurb

Front Tyre

Rear Tyre

So i had the tires fitted to the rims, and took them home. And while at home, i noticed that these rims and tires are extremely heavy, well the heaviest i have felt personally, recently we put aftermarket mags and tyres in 18" size on our skyline, and it wasn't this heavy.

So i decided to weigh them (please note these are not accurate - home scale FTL)

Front tyre

Rear Tyre

sash · Jan 5, 2017

Rims look good after the refurb. Sometimes heavy wheels are good in that they are stronger, but the weight will affect consumption and performance. There was a considerable difference going from my 650i wheels to the M6 wheels.