William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[BMWCurves]

Perfect, exactly what I was going to ask about next. My car only has ~55k miles, but is 11+ years old. Do any of you think its worthwhile to replace the whole system or just the feed line? Also, what's the worst case scenario if the system fails (burst hose somewhere), just the power steering is lost, correct? I'm trying to gauge how quickly I should address the issue.

I recently did a full PS refresh on my car (all hoses, reservoir, banjo bolt etc) and went with the Rein brand. OEM BMW feed line is almost 3x the price (Rein: $92, BMW: $252) on ECS Tuning.

Thanks for the info. Did you do the refresh yourself, or have an indy do it? If you did it yourself, how hard was it overall? If an indy did it, how much did it cost (if you don't mind me asking)?

I was just reading about how rein uses razors to cut of the other logos from conti and put their own on it, it's just the fact they do that I don't like. Not sure if they do that on all parts but heard about it on radiator hoses. Not sure though I just read about it

Huh, I hadn't heard that. I have Rein radiator hoses that came from the Turner Motorsport cooling overhaul kit I installed last year and have had no issue. I haven't even seen Continental branded hoses for our cars on any online parts store.

I did the same last summer, and used BMW OE for everything except this hose (Rein). It has been leak free for about a year.

BMWCurves - Mine was leaking from the exact same place.

Cool, I appreciate the info! I have the same questions for you as anandoc above about time and/or cost.

[san]

I haven't even seen Continental branded hoses for our cars on any online parts store.
.

Power steering hoses on my car are continental, I think they are branded as contitech...


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[ClimRox]

Thanks for the info. Did you do the refresh yourself, or have an indy do it? If you did it yourself, how hard was it overall? If an indy did it, how much did it cost (if you don't mind me asking)?


Cool, I appreciate the info! I have the same questions for you as anandoc above about time and/or cost.

I refreshed myself, and it probably took me a couple hours to do it. I work pretty slow too.

The line disconnect tool that Vas pointed out a few posts ago is invaluable. I highly recommend it.

I tried to order and use the factory style hose clamps that connect hoses to the reservoir, but was unsuccessful . So, I used regular hose clamps. I recently had to tighten them up as one was starting to seep.

It was a fairly easy job. I think the only thing that may have been a little difficult for me was attaching one of the lines to the steering rack, and keeping the line from pivoting while tightening the bolt (to assure it wasn't going to rub on anything).

[BMWCurves]

Power steering hoses on my car are continental, I think they are branded as contitech...

Gotcha, good to know. I should have been more specific and said I haven't seen any continental branded radiator hoses.

I refreshed myself, and it probably took me a couple hours to do it. I work pretty slow too.

The line disconnect tool that Vas pointed out a few posts ago is invaluable. I highly recommend it.

I tried to order and use the factory style hose clamps that connect hoses to the reservoir, but was unsuccessful . So, I used regular hose clamps. I recently had to tighten them up as one was starting to seep.

It was a fairly easy job. I think the only thing that may have been a little difficult for me was attaching one of the lines to the steering rack, and keeping the line from pivoting while tightening the bolt (to assure it wasn't going to rub on anything).

That's reassuring (I work slow as well).

[anandoc]

Thanks for the info. Did you do the refresh yourself, or have an indy do it? If you did it yourself, how hard was it overall? If an indy did it, how much did it cost (if you don't mind me asking)?

I got an indy to do it. I don't touch anything where fluids spilling all over is involved. Cost me CAD $220 cash.

[MtechJon]

I'll probably just order the rein part, I'll chime in about it once I get it. I guess it can't hurt to give it a try


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[BMWCurves]

I'll probably just order the rein part, I'll chime in about it once I get it. I guess it can't hurt to give it a try


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Cool, let us know what you think.

[BMWCurves]

My sister's car is finally done-ish (we're still chasing a rough cold start unfortunately, but not going to deal with it for the moment since we've ruled out ignition and fuel and isn't a big deal), so I'll be picking her car up on Friday and dropping my car off. Hopefully I can get it back at end of day Friday or Saturday morning. I'm going to have brakes bled since despite flushing 1+ liters of Pentosin DOT4 LV brake fluid through there using my power bleeder, I was still getting bubbles out of the rear calipers. I'm just going to let him deal with it, even though it's a simple enough job that I should be able to handle it myself. It'll also be in for the side bolster valve in the M3 passenger seat.

This weekend I hope to place sound deadening material in the doors, rear seat bottom, rear seat sides/panels, and trunk/quarter panels and do a very rudimentary sound comparison using a decibel-o-meter on my phone. At the same time I plan to swap out my interior for the M3 interior I have and install new door clips that have foam to hopefully minimize door rattle. I plan to write up a DIY for interior swap (minus the front seats since I've already done those) combined with sound deadening. Some people might find that useful since I can't find many detailed coupe interior swap DIYs on the internet.

I'm also seriously considering terra's E46 M3 gauge cluster swap:





It would be cool, but the only downsides I see are:
a) it's not stock, but fits with the profile of my OEM+ modifications of my car,
b) the amount of the speedometer and tachometer gauges that is actually useful is decreased (lower top speed and lower RPM redline of the M54 compared to the S54),
c) terra needs the DME which means I should most likely remove the Shark Injector so that I can mail it to him, then once it's all done, have the shark injector reinstalled, which all adds to the expense. Upside is I could have the newest software flashed by terra.
d) downtime of my car. Not a big issue, but still adds to the inconvenience.
e) I made the mistake of seeing the shift lights option (link), which I would love to have, but terra explains is pretty complex and he currently doesn't have a solution for the M54. So that's my own fault for getting excited about it.

I have a few questions for members:

• I've asked this before, but does anyone know what bulb types (number) facelifted coupes use for front turn signal bulbs? I plan to replace the incandescent bulbs for LEDs (eBay, searching "CREE CANBUS amber XXXX") to make all lights either xenon or LEDs (minus flash to pass lights).
• I'm planning on replacing the engine and transmission mounts with E46 M3 parts. Can someone verify both the part numbers for the engine mounts (11812283798) and trans mounts (22322282340), as well as any other parts I should replace while I'm doing these?

As usual, I appreciate any and all input!

[Sockethead]

I bought an M3 cluster and had it shipped directly to him. When he receives it and verifies that it's in good working order, I'll ship him my DME and the ZHP cluster. I'm so psyched about this, I loved the cluster in the X5 4.8is and the M3 cluster is pretty much identical. Plus the oil temp gauge is going to be needed when I add FI to the car. I have a Dinan stage 3 tune on my car and he said he can work around it.
Also, with him virginizing the original cluster, if you do decide to remove the M3 cluster, you can just put the old one back in.

The way I look at it is we spend most of our time inside the car driving it. Might as well have some good, functional eye candy on the inside too

[san]

The part number for tranny mount you listed is same as what I used...


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