Adi's 2004 330i M-sport 6MT

[Adi]

Hi Guys,

A long overdue post since joining.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8503.jpg

Introduction
Those who know me will know that I have a bit of an obsession with the E46. It actually started when the E39 was launched. I remember as a giddy 9 year old, struggling to comprehend the quantum leap forward in build quality and refinement that the E39 presented to the market. The E39 was therefore, my first BMW love. I was always indifferent to the E36, but when the E46 was launched, it too captured me. It was for all intents and purposes, and downscaled E39. It had the same design cues inside and out, but in a more compact package, and over time I learnt that this suited my tastes better than the larger E39.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8549.jpg

Although my dream was always to own an E46 M3, I always fancied the 330i Mtec II as well. My first BMW purchase was just that - a beautifully preserved 2004 330i M-sport 6MT. I loved this car, but it wasn't an M3. I later went on to buy and own an M3, and learnt a lot about myself and the realities of owning an M3. The key lesson for me was that I did not enjoy the M3 as a daily driver. It is perfectly capable, but I simply wasn't having enough fun on my daily commutes to justify the additional expense and opportunity cost of my capital.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8479.jpg

As soon as I sold my M3, what I missed most was my previous 330i. At the time I was driving a Ford Fiesta 1.6, which for all intents and purposes, is an excellent little car. But I hated it, not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it was just transport. Just an appliance. So the next lesson I learnt was that I need to own a car that offers both utility as well as an emotional connection. That is what this 330i is for me. It's my functional daily driver that I am happy to put mileage on, has reasonable*running costs, and and tugs at my heart-strings every time I look at it.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8595.jpg

After selling my M3, I thought I would never find another E46 330i that matched the condition of my first. Serendipitously, I managed to track down one that was my best find yet! I approached the owner and we agreed that I would have first option on the car when the time came to sell. When that time came, I jumped on it and here we are!

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8514.jpg

Vehicle Details

04/2004 E46 330i M-sport 6 Speed Manual
Titanium Silver / Grey Montana Leather
Current Mileage: 133 500km

Photographic Equipment

Canon 40D
Canon EF 17-40mm F4 L
Canon EF*70-200mm F2.8 L

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZHPmafia%20my%20330/IMG_8580.jpg

[tomnobes]

Glad you got back into an e46 and beautiful car!:cheers

[johnrando]

Official welcome.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[slater]

awesome. loved the photo journey along the way! :)

[FungShui]

Welcome! Great looking car. =)

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[san]

Welcome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Adi]

Thanks for the comments. Sorry it has taken me this long to share my car with you all.

The next update is the interior. I have always wanted to try Leatherique and after years of reading about it on the internet, I finally imported some and gave it a shot. I followed best practice as much as possible - saturated the leather in rejuvenation oil and left it in the sun for 24hours on a hot day. Cleaning it off was easier than I thought, and it left the leather perfectly clean and matte.... though I will admit my leather was already clean and matte to begin with. I was mostly seeing how much it could soften the leather, and in that regard I was left underwhelmed. There was not any observable difference in the feel of the leather afterwards. I am pretty sure these coated/sealed leathers prevent Leatherique from doing the work it was designed to do. Anyway, was still a cool exercise nonetheless.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9848.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9847.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9850.jpg

After 24 hours:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9857.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9858.jpg

After cleaning:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9862.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9863.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9865.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9868.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9870.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9871.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9873.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g212/astanford/ZhpMafia%20Leatherique%20330i/IMG_9874.jpg

[BMWCurves]

Very cool, welcome (again)!

[704sw]

What a great looking car.

[az3579]

I think I can safely say that this is the newest looking E46 I've ever seen. At least by looking at the pictures, this is newer looking than any of the E46's I've seen on EAG's site...

[anandoc]

Your car seems to be in very nice shape. Thanks for sharing all the pictures. Look forward to your maintenance/mods/upgrades in the future.

[holyc0w]

I think I can safely say that this is the newest looking E46 I've ever seen.

+1

This looks great.

[Oli77]

Yes, a beautiful car indeed!
The pictures are very nice too.

But that stick in the left hand, not sure how easily I could get used to that.

[danewilson77]

Beautiful. Welcome

Sent from my S8+

[Adi]

Yes, a beautiful car indeed!
The pictures are very nice too.

But that stick in the left hand, not sure how easily I could get used to that.

Haha, I often think about the converse of that - how I would probably struggle to drive LHD. I guess it's just a case of what you are used to.

[Adi]

Moving along now to discuss the maintenance history of this car. I have been very fortunate to inherit a lot of pre-emptive maintenance that was done on the car before my ownership.

21 February 2011
67 304km
New Gearbox
New Front Brake Discs
New Front Brake Pads

8 March 2011
67 913km
New Clutch and Flywheel
New Cabin Air Filter
New MAF sensor
AirCon Filter and Clean

14 April 2011
68 975km
New Front Control Arms
New Front control arm bushing
New Front Stabiliser end links
New Front shocks
New Shock guide supports
New Steering Coupler / Joint
New Rear shocks
New Rear Shock guide supports

19 January 2012
Replaced Thermostat

4 February 2013
Mileage 87 993km
Oil Service, Coolant Flush, Brake Fluid Flush

23 August 2014
Mileage 103500km
Oil Service

30 September 2015
Mileage 114 056km
Inspection 2 Service

2 October 2015
Replaced Power Steering Reservoir cap o-ring

February 2016
Replaced Battery (OEM)




From here I have done the following maintenance:

10 August 2016
Mileage 123 500km
New ZHP gearknob
New Leather Gear Cover
Oil Service
Replaced Power Steering Reservoir cap o-ring (OEM)
Replace expansion tank (OEM)
Replaced Valve Cover Gasket (OEM)
Replaced Oil Filter Housing Gasket (OEM)
Replaced front Lower Control Arm bushings (Lemforder)
Brake Fluid Flush (OEM)

3 September 2016
124 000km
Tail Light Grounding Fix
New Bosch Wipers

6 September 2016
124200km
GM5 Module repair and software update

15 September 2016
124300km
Fit New Windscreen (OEM)

18 September
124500km
New Bonnet Roundel

22 September 2016
125 000km
35% Lumar Safety tint

25 September 2016
125 200km
OEM Xenon retrofit

4 December 2016
127800km
Installed Connects2 Bluetooth

23 January 2017
129300km
Replaced ignition coil pack on cylinder 1 (Bosch)

1 Feb 2017
129747km
New Waterpump + Bolts (OEM)
New Radiator (OEM)
New Upper & Lower Radiator Hoses (OEM)
New Temp Sensor (OEM)
New Coolant Level Sensor (OEM)
New Main and AC Belts (OEM)
New Idler and Tensioner Pulleys (OEM)

7 Feb 2017
130 000km
E46 330i 3.38 diff

15 Feb 2017
130463km
Fit 3.38 Diff
Fit Diff Bush (Meyle HD)
Liqui Moly 75W-140 Diff Fluid
Liqui Moly MOS2 Gear Additive

25 Feb 2017
130780km
Replaced coil pack on Cylinder 2 (Bosch)

14 April 2017
132600km
Coded vehicle for bi-xenons (PA Soft)

[Adi]

I think I can safely say that this is the newest looking E46 I've ever seen. At least by looking at the pictures, this is newer looking than any of the E46's I've seen on EAG's site...

Wow, what a compliment! Thank you! It sure is in amazing condition for the mileage, but it's certainly not perfect. Photos are always quite forgiving in that regard. Both bumpers need a respray, and the wheels need a refurb due to small nicks and scratches. But after that, I would say that it could be a show car.

[SWO Daddy]

She is a beauty. Nice job maintaining her as well as you have.

[az3579]

Wow, what a compliment! Thank you! It sure is in amazing condition for the mileage, but it's certainly not perfect. Photos are always quite forgiving in that regard. Both bumpers need a respray, and the wheels need a refurb due to small nicks and scratches. But after that, I would say that it could be a show car.

Good point on the pictures. Even then, it's all relative, and it still looks like a car with 5-10k on the odometer.

[nextelbuddy]

I think I can safely say that this is the newest looking E46 I've ever seen. At least by looking at the pictures, this is newer looking than any of the E46's I've seen on EAG's site...

you ain't lying, even though pictures can be a bit deceiving.. overall you can still tell that car is pristine and well taken care of, you can eat off it.

[ZHPizza]

Am I the only one that's jealous of the gorgeous manual seats? God I miss having manual seats. I don't know why...something about feeling them click into place...

...and I pulled my power passenger seat the other day and realized there's about 40lbs of motors underneath it.

[BMWCurves]

Am I the only one that's jealous of the gorgeous manual seats? God I miss having manual seats. I don't know why...something about feeling them click into place...

...and I pulled my power passenger seat the other day and realized there's about 40lbs of motors underneath it.

Our seats weigh a ton for sure. Good way to strip out weight of a car.

The thing that I both like and dislike about power seats is that there are essentially an infinite number of positions. With manual seats you can quickly slot your seat into your known preferred position. With electric seats I have to have a memory setting or else I'll never get it back to the way I want it if someone messed with the seat position. Even then, I still find myself tinkering with my seat position.

[slater]

Am I the only one that's jealous of the gorgeous manual seats? God I miss having manual seats. I don't know why...something about feeling them click into place...

...and I pulled my power passenger seat the other day and realized there's about 40lbs of motors underneath it.


Our seats weigh a ton for sure. Good way to strip out weight of a car.

The thing that I both like and dislike about power seats is that there are essentially an infinite number of positions. With manual seats you can quickly slot your seat into your known preferred position. With electric seats I have to have a memory setting or else I'll never get it back to the way I want it if someone messed with the seat position. Even then, I still find myself tinkering with my seat position.

the black Touring has manual, leather, heated sport seats. the positive feeling of the adjustments is nice for sure, but they actually don't go as low as the M3 power seats, interestingly enough.

[ZHPizza]

Our seats weigh a ton for sure. Good way to strip out weight of a car.

The thing that I both like and dislike about power seats is that there are essentially an infinite number of positions. With manual seats you can quickly slot your seat into your known preferred position. With electric seats I have to have a memory setting or else I'll never get it back to the way I want it if someone messed with the seat position. Even then, I still find myself tinkering with my seat position.

Exactly! I am endlessly adjusting my power seats my 1/8" at a time. It's maddening.

My old sedan had manual seats and adjusting it consisted of "does that feel right? nah...click. yeah, that's the one." and I was freaking done.


the black Touring has manual, leather, heated sport seats. the positive feeling of the adjustments is nice for sure, but they actually don't go as low as the M3 power seats, interestingly enough.

If you said manual, alcantara, and heated, I'd be on my way back up 95 for the next 13 hours.

[slater]

If you said manual, alcantara, and heated, I'd be on my way back up 95 for the next 13 hours.

oh wait, i didn't tell you i had a set of those too? :)


































...just kidding. ;)

you can always swap manual bases onto the seats. i DO have a set of those "in inventory." ;)

[Adi]

LOL, I find it quite amusing that you guys are envious of the manual seats. Most of the time us South Africans curse all the E46's in our market that came in poverty-spec - the only option my car came with besides M-sport pack is sunroof, NOTHING else. Having owned an M3 with power seats, I can't say I mind it one way or another. I was able to get comfortable in both situations, and I'm indifferent to the weight penalty. I did find it amusing though when I got into my old m3 after it was sold and still found my driving position programmed in to the memory seats. EDIT: (I was visiting the owner months after my M3 was sold)