What tire sizes do you have on there? Looks like diameter of the fronts is quite a bit less than the rears.
225/40/18 in the front and 255/35/18 in the rear. They're stock E92 328i wheels (8" front, 8.5" rear) in their standard tire sizes. It might just be the different sidewalls of the tires, the fronts are not the same brand as the rears, and tires do have some variation even within standard sizes. The front also sits a little bit lower than the rear (Eibach lowering springs) so that might be contributing to the illusion.
2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread
Nice to see you on Mafia, Danny. You'll love it here, great bunch of guys!
Great write up and progress. After owning several e46's, I find them to be phenomenal DD cars and might I add a bit easier to wrench on than on e39.
Thanks! I'm glad to be here, seems to be a lot more active than the other E46 forums at the moment. Lots of rad build threads here too.
I daily drove an E39 540it for over 2 years, and I have to say I'm definitely enjoying the E46 more as a daily. It's lighter and gets way better gas mileage. I get 22mpg with beating it around town, and 28mpg on the highway, whereas in the 540it it was 15 city and 19-20 highway (calculated at the pump, not the OBC).
The only thing the E46 is missing at the moment is bluetooth, but eventually I'll put in an Avin Avant-3. I had the Dynavin N6 in my 540it and it really modernized the car and made it super convenient.
2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread
I am really digging the write up. You’re giving me motivation to do my own write up since I just got back into an e46 seven days ago.
That color is great.
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Dinan High Flow Intake | BMW Perf. Glossy Black Grills | Body Color Reflectors | Debadged | DICE iPod Integration| Front Plate Delete
2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread
I've been driving the 330i a bunch, just enjoying it every day. I passed 193k miles last week, so it's due for an oil change pretty soon (Dario mentioned that he changed the oil at 187k or so). I'll probably go with 0W40 or 5W40, those seem to work pretty well for non-M engines in Arizona.
A gracious forum member on Bimmer Forums sent me an Oxford Green mirror cover, and I finally got around to installing it a few days ago. It's a huge improvement to have a matching mirror, it really stood out in a bad way before. The paint match is pretty good and it's fairly weathered so it matches the other mirror quite well.
I also got a new set of front tires to replace the awful front tires. I went with Riken Raptors in 225/40/18, and they feel quite good. Noticeable less shaking at 80mph, and triple digit speeds are now doable without being absolutely terrifying. I tested out the new front tires by going up to 125mph on my favorite road in Mexico
The other day I went on a night run to rip the 330i around a bit (it's great to have a car that makes you want to drive just because). As I was banging through the gears at redline, the engine suddenly started running a bit rough, being extremely choppy when accelerating and idling poorly. The CEL came on as well. Thankfully I always have a little code reader in the car, so I was able to tell that it was just a simple misfire and not anything more serious. I cleared the codes and the engine calmed down. I then drove to my shop at like 1am to do some quick repairs.
The code reader showed cylinder #1 and #6 misfiring, so I swapped the coils out for some known good BMW ones. The ones that came out of the 330i were Bosch coils from 2005, so it might be worth it to just buy a new set of coils once my budget allows for it. The nice thing about pencil coils is how easy they are to swap, I love it!
While I was under the hood, I also noticed that the vacuum line going to the secondary air valve had rotted apart. That was probably an extra vacuum leak and the likely culprit of my SAP codes that I often got on cold startup. I had plenty of bulk vacuum line at the shop so that was a quick and easy fix— the trickiest part was not burning my hand on the cylinder head, haha. I can't wait to delete that damn SAP system, but that's a plan for another day.
Earlier today I had a bit of free time in the morning so I gave the 330i a good wash. It had been raining tons the past few weeks (highly unusual for Phoenix) so the car was extra dirty. I used Dawn dish soap to strip off any remaining wax, followed by a good drying with a microfiber towel. After that, I applied Ammo Skin, working panel by panel so as to not let it dry off too much (it gets harder to remove when it's too dry). I love Ammo Skin, it does an excellent job at protecting paint from bird poo and the sun, which are the biggest things that ruin paint here. For example, my old X5 4.6is that my buddy is parting out, it still has excellent paint even after sitting outside for years neglected, all thanks to the Ammo Skin that I put onto it in late 2016.
Obligatory clean car pics:
It almost looks black when parked in the shade:
I then wrapped up the day with an IKEA run. My girlfriend kept insisting that a standing mirror and dining room table wouldn't fit, but I proved her wrong very quickly. Even without folding rear seats I fit everything in with room to spare. People always seem to underestimate how much room the E46 interior and trunk have, haha. That's the magical thing about BMW's from this era, they've got so much room inside them despite being so much smaller than most cars nowadays.
2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread
Great updates!
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Randeaux/Rando/John/jr - '06 Cic ZHP; Southern California
"ZHP or not, I still like you"
ZHP Performance Package, Cold Weather Package, Leather, Jet Black/Black/BlackCube, NAV, Anthracite Black "my individual" interior trim
ESS Stage 1 Twin Screw Supercharger, Sprint Booster, BMW Perf Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, Dinan TB & STEP S/W, UCC Sway Bars, Apex EC-7 18x8.5 ET38
Suspension: AST 44100 dampers, Bimmerworld front adjustable end links, Swift springs (8K front, 10K rear), Vorshlag camber plates
Dynavin D99+, Hardwire V1 (w/V1 Connection), BSW Stage 1 Speakers, Kicker Amp/Subwoofer
BMW Performance Strut Brace, Orion V2 Angel Eyes, No-holes License Plate, SMG Paddle Shift Mod, Besian VANOS, Gold DISA, Fan Delete, M3 Side Mirrors
Note: Actual car no longer resembles signature picture
Thanks! I don't think they were original since they were stamped as 2005 whereas my car is a late 2002 build. More than likely they all got replaced under a warranty or under a recall back in the day. A brand new set is $173 so that'll happen at some point soon, along with spark plugs if they haven't already been done.
2003 Slicktop ZHP 330i - Maintenance Thread