Tinuva's facelifted Alpine White E46 330i

[KPM3_30]

Car is looking good, glad to see it being finished up and I really like the facelift.. :smilebounce:

How are you enjoying the android unit? Put a unit in mine about 3 weeks ago and absolutely loving the functionality and features, even the reverse camera is quite cool.

If your car headlight has black inners (which I think it does from pics), you'd need the corresponding indicators. The ones you have on, have the titanium surround to match the silver inners that came on pre-04 models.

 

[Yuben]

Great work.
If u wanna change the diff, I wouldn't recommend keeping the 5 spd box. U would have to go with the 6 spd or revs in 5th would be high.

 

[Tinuva]

Car is looking good, glad to see it being finished up and I really like the facelift.. :smilebounce:

How are you enjoying the android unit? Put a unit in mine about 3 weeks ago and absolutely loving the functionality and features, even the reverse camera is quite cool.

If your car headlight has black inners (which I think it does from pics), you'd need the corresponding indicators. The ones you have on, have the titanium surround to match the silver inners that came on pre-04 models.

Absolutely love the android unit. Really brings the radio/nav in to the current future.
Still have to add the reverse camera and dashcam.

For the lights, yes mentioned I want to put in the silver/titanium inserts to match the corners. They at home, just need to open the headlights.

 

[SubLoaded]

Looking good with that android unit :thumbs:

 

[AdiS]

Fantastic, glad to see the car being brought back to life!

 

[Tinuva]

Received the AC relocation bracket from SMG last weekend. So it was time to install.

Unfortunately, this is the 1st time I am looking at the trim around the gear lever, and it came out too easy while trying to get the gear lever jacket off :blueCry:

In this pic you can see what had me furious. It may have been me, but I imagine you would have to try and break it open for this to happen.

Anyways, moving along for now.

Old part:

New part:

Before adding in new part, this is what it looked like behind:

Quick cleaning up:

Looks much better now using the relocation bracket:

Quick wash before going on the SA Torque chapter 11 breakfast run:
(ps. I didn't do any spinning on the N2)

And 1 photo where we stopped on the bridge before reaching the final destination:

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Also been driving the car for a week and what a pleasure to have it back on the road. I know its not 100% complete yet, but it needed some stretching of its legs.

A new error popped up however on the Monday following the SA Torque breakfast run... a red battery light :rage:

Considering how long the car has been standing and there was a battery drain in the car on the old radio, I suspected the battery being damaged. However testing a battery from the other E46 which has no issues, it was still happening in this car. So that means, I need to look at the alternator, possibly the belt too. I think the voltage regular work, because the battery voltage looks good on the cluster diagnostics menu, both when engine is off and running.

See this video:
[video=youtube]

What is not in the video, is if I keep it at 4000 revs, then the light goes away.

Anyways, will sort that out this coming week and then get back to looking at the cosmetic issues.

 

[danieltau]

:bravo:raise: Looking Good

 

[Tinuva]

A few updates from last year (2018), because this year after having a first born I find I have no time for projects.

So first thing was to fix the "red battery light" issue.

First test was to make sure it is not the battery, because its the easiest to replace. even though its fairly new, I think 2 years at the time, the car was mostly standing for a year with me doing the work on fixing it myself. Test was a fail, because the battery light still came on with battery from other car, where the light wasn't coming on.

Went to Goldwagen and bought a new alternator. I lost out on a BMW logo, but saved +- R5000 over buying from dealer (even with discount).

After taking the old one out, I can now see what went wrong. Turning it over manually makes scratching sounds. Pretty certain its the brushes. Also now wish I paid more attention when I was a kid when my dad fixed alternators himself. So will be looking at reconditioning this one before selling it.

Old vs New:

Then something I noticed when I bought the xenon headlights for this car, was that they had LED parking lights in. Didn't think much other than I might need to check that they dont cause error lights on the dash (luckily they dont), but woah, they are bright and look great. Using them now as DRLs.

Then the last task for 2018 was to fix the outstanding issue of my fender indicators not working. Because I didn't have the foresight to check that the cables are long enough, after the lights move higher up from pre-FL to FL fenders. :hammerhead:

At the same time, I also took out the headlights, removed the black inserts and replaced with the grey/silver inserts that goes with the corner indicators and cleaned up the cover inside and outside to give a clean shine. While cleaning the 1 cover, found its cracked at the top (not visible when on the car) and I believe that is where water goes in when washing, so swapped out with another cover I had lying around.

I didn't take any photos of this, but it looks like I didn't align something quite correctly, and now the bonnet doesn't close the way it should :blueCry:

Then for 2019, all I did so far was cleaning the car up nicely for a BMW Car Club Cape Town parkoff event.

At the event itself:

 

[Tinuva]

Smallest update.

Driving around mid day ones right arm will get a nice tan and you will end up with 1 white arm and 1 brown arm. Looks odd and if you complained about this back in the day, you would be told to grow a pair. Nowadays we know a bit better.

 

[Jeremy.d]

Great progress. Well done:bravo:

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Where did you get the Android headunit? Do you have a link?

 

[Tinuva]

Where did you get the Android headunit? Do you have a link?

Bought it of Ebay. I decided to go with the Xtrons version, the Eonons are also very popular.

This is the one I have: http://xtrons.co.uk/pb7846bp-androi...ay-custom-fit-for-bmw-e46-rover-75-mg-zt.html

Specifically wanted one with 4GB ram. The rom size was not as important, as I use an USB stick for additional storage.

 

[Tinuva]

Car reached a small mileage milestone yesterday just before arriving back at home.

 

[Yuben]

Like the tint:thumbs:

 

[evnmopwr]

She Looks stunning.. Nice work bud

Regarding this:
"
The only cable that is damaged, looks like it connects to something for the aircon, which would explain why the aircon is not working. Not sure if this will also cause the electric fan to go to 100% so will have to figure that out later.
"

Its a Fail safe.
that Aircon sensor plug of mine was damaged and i did not plug it back in all the way.
So the Fan i had Traded some parts for Was spinning up Full Blast.

i then went and Spent R2700 for a new fan and it too Spun up Full Blast.. LMAO!

And old Toppie told me to check the Plug. And when i plugged it back in all the way, It worked 100%

apparently when it doesnt read that sensor, It spins the fan up to 100% as a fail safe incase you use the aircon.

Keep he looking as gorgeous as she is

 

[VinceM]

Geez, this car has seriously low mileage.

Very neat. like the face lift look.

 

[individj]

silver covered indicator bulbs that blink orange would look great on this :thumbs:

 

[Beemerbro]

thanks for the post. nice car and brilliant sounding engine. Mileage is very low man. Mine's done over 200k and going strong, so you still have a lot of life in that car. :thumbs:

 

[Tinuva]

silver covered indicator bulbs that blink orange would look great on this :thumbs:

I believe you referring to these, from @AdiS 's 330i thread

E90 side repeater bulbs as they orange with a chrome cap and get rid of the egg yolk look. Got them in all my cars, the rest of the bulbs are E65 chrome coated amber bulbs. No egg yolk in any of my clears but they shine bright and orange when they on.

E65 (I use these front and rear)

I have a similar plan, but not sure yet if it will work out (testing phase will happen in a month or so). Will update once I have.

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thanks for the post. nice car and brilliant sounding engine. Mileage is very low man. Mine's done over 200k and going strong, so you still have a lot of life in that car. :thumbs:

Believe it or not, but the difference on this engine vs the 212k KM one from the wife's car is very noticeable. Absolutely love it, definitely going to keep it for as long as possible :smilebounce:

 

[Tinuva]

Small update.

July @evnmopwr visited.

Really excited as he was dropping off many goodies. Many thanks, this is a great guy and will anytime buy second hand parts from him again.

First, what I wanted the most:

They are not installed yet. I need to create new wiring if I want to do this properly. I tried my best to get my hands on BMW part# 61120140220 which is the conversion wiring harness, which would make this the easiest job in the world, but as it stands, I am going to have to figure this out myself. BMW doesn't sell it anymore. There is a guy in the US that has a set lying in his garage but not getting response from him at the moment.

The other goodies:

All of the above in great condition, except for the a-pillars which I need to stick the material back on, but I am sure I will get that sorted out easy enough.

Now, I just need to find time to do all of this :fencelook:

 

[evnmopwr]

ahhhhhh that is what my Dream garage looks like :blueCry::blueCry::blowheart::blowheart:

raise:

One day It will happen. lol..

For now, this is what it looks like :fencelook::roflol:

And its Always A pleasure Dealing with you and the many other Fanatics Who bought from me. :thumbs: