Salty's 2005 330Ci ZHP Jet Black Coupe Restore

[ELCID86]

Thanks John.

[SaltyNC]

Thanks for the info on the SEM Classic Coat. Many of our arm rests could use a little love. I see it on amazon for @$16. Where did you find it?

Where did you get the car? VA?

I bought mine from a local Carquest. NAPA also carried it, but they were out of black at the time. Lots of paint shops that cater to auto have SEM products in stock. They have a store locator on their site.

https://www.semproducts.com

Correct. I bought the car in VA in a small town a little west of DC.

Salty

[SaltyNC]

As you might imagine, my son was interested in getting the factory nav unit with the dead pixels replaced sooner rather than later, so I started tackling that project this weekend. Normally, these aftermarket stereos are fairly simple to replace, but because this car has the OEM nav unit and the Harman Kardon amp in the trunk, it meant that I needed an extension cable that had to be routed from the trunk to the dash. That transforms this from an hour install to a day install, and gutting a number of interior pieces.

I got in on an Eonon group buy for the GA8150A Android unit running 7.1. It has a quad core processor, 2G RAM, 32 G storage, and supports most of what people want these days. The unit works great after dropping the AMP to -15 dB. Bluetooth music sounded fine, and we had no disconnection issues that some have experienced. Other than those glossy screens being tough to read in sunlight, I am happy with the unit.

There isn't much information about using the extension harness with the Android units, so I put together a DIY. Around the time I was removing the back seat bolster, I forgot to take pics, but most of the rest of the install is here:

2005 BMW 330Ci (Facelift) Coupe E46 with Factory Nav and Harman Kardon amp install for Eonon GA8150A with extension harness A0579

While I had the foot well panel off, I went ahead and replaced the dead pedal/kick plate. That's a tricky install compared to the Z4M. On the Z4M, it's just a plastic dead pedal held on with really strong hook and loop (Velcro).

I have about $500 worth of parts incoming from ECS Tuning to address engine components. Cooling and thermostat are next on the list.

Salty

[johnrando]

Nice. Thanks for the DIY.

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[SaltyNC]

Nice. Thanks for the DIY.

Glad to do it, John. I've learned a lot of from folks on the forums, and always like to give back when I can. I hope it will help someone. We really like the unit. So far so good with this latest Eonon unit.

We replaced the default launcher with CarWebGuru, and my son did some custom color icons. It is still a work in progress, but I like the way it looks already. It is a highly customizable launcher without the need to root the device.




These are a little blurry, but shows early on when we first found the launcher with the speedometer set in the middle. It can display time, logos/custom graphic, artwork from apps like Spotify, speed, etc.


There are other themes that look very similar to BMW iDrive.

Salty

[Sockethead]

That's pretty cool... gives it a modern look.

[johnrando]

+1

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[SaltyNC]

Thanks, guys.

Well, I found another items that will need to be addressed. It looks like my passenger side strut tower has some mushrooming, and I'm seeing what appears to be a hairline fracture, or at minimum the paint has cracked (wishful thinking at play here). I had already ordered some reinforcement plates. I'm going to try the sandwich route and see if that takes care of it. I'll dead blow the top flat again and then put in the reinforcement plates, and top it off with a strut bar to sandwich the metal. I saw where Dane did that, and I'm assuming it is still holding. I love BMWs, I really do, but sometimes it gets annoying dealing with BMW setting tolerances so tight. It's crazy to think how many engines have been destroyed by broken bolts or popped pins or crumbling plastic parts.

Salty

[johnrando]

Agree. Bummer, but the fix should hold.

[Sockethead]

Yep! that's what I did too. I was going to weld the crack but decided against it since it seems it isn't' necessary. Just drill out the ends of the cracks so they don't grow any further...