E46 320d Touring

Blackie

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So I returned to working on the Beemer recently, having found the love for it again. Mostly tidying up and rebuilding the underside by refitting the “skid pan” and the 100 million splash guards.

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I’ve still the main front undertray to fit, decided against fitting it this evening as I noticed that the air con belt is looking a little tired, hopefully pick one up tomorrow and then take her off the axle stands at last! Lol.

My third (and last) cr@p Halfords jack let go after about 18months, so I decided to spend decent money and got a real jack courtesy of @c_rad, thanks again mate.

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Slight difference between the two! Lol
 

Blackie

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So the front end all built up having replaced the air con pump belt today. I also tackled another silly little job, but something that annoyed me.

The previous owner replaced the drivers door lock with one from a base model, which meant the handle wasn’t colour coded, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

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Thankfully BMW made this an easy job to do, and after finding a Titan Silver finished lock surround trim on eBay, it was quickly swapped out and looking much neater:
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Blackie

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Not much today as I spent most of the day homeschooling, then fixing bikes, the kids and my own. So the only thing I got to do to the Touring was replace that standard yellowish halogen headlight bulbs with the blue tinted white(ish) shining halogen bulbs. Can’t really tell from the pics, but the drivers side (or left as we look at the picture) is the standard bulb and the passenger side is the new bulbs:


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Again as is sorta usual with me, subtle changes.
 

roverspeed

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Actually even easier with BMW headlights, they lens are bonded on, they are just clipped on for some reason.
 

Blackie

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Actually even easier with BMW headlights, they lens are bonded on, they are just clipped on for some reason.
Will bear that in mind. Might go on the hunt for a second pair of headlights now.

Not much of an update other than I have the Touring its first interior clean in my ownership.

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Might see about repairing this seat somehow.
 

colin84

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Will bear that in mind. Might go on the hunt for a second pair of headlights now.

Not much of an update other than I have the Touring its first interior clean in my ownership.

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Might see about repairing this seat somehow.

I got mine fixed by Arek in Ballymena for 80 quid a few years ago.

What I did with one I was selling was to trim the rough parts off, then stretch the material over the top and glue it down with fabric glue. Duno how long it would last, but it was hardly noticable, the buyer never mentioned it.
 

Blackie

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Not much of an update, just the arrival of some trim clips that I need for the tailgate trims.

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When I had the tailgate apart to try and get to the bottom of the opening glass section and the rear wiper not working, I discovered that at some point in the cars history, some unscrupulous person had lost or broke a few and decided to use stickaflex or similar to stick them back into place.

Since I didn’t have any clips or stickalfex, I put it back together as best I could, but at tick over there is a terrible rattle from the loose trims.

Once there’s a break in this cr@p weather I intend to strip the tailgate down again and put it together correctly using the proper clips as pictured.
 

Blackie

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So today the post man/Parcelforce arrived with two new goodies for the car. First of all the Meyle HD front drop links. There was a little play in the existing ones, not a lot, but enough to worry me that it might fail the impending MOT, so I replaced them.

You can clearly see that the Meyle ones are indeed Heavy Duty! Much more substantial than the ones I removed.
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I also received a wee M-Tech 1 bumper that I spotted on eBay for buttons. As my own has a few marks on it I wasn’t happy, spotted this and couldn’t resist.

Not sure when I’ll get it fitted, trying to concentrate on getting any wee MOT worries sorted first.

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Coog

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Would have used a right bit of Meyle HD stuff myself on the E46's. Pretty sure I remember the BMW logo being ground off a few parts and then them painted silver so presumably they're OEM for a few bits. Might have been engine mounts.
 

Smurf.

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Meyle HD stuff has 3 year warranty. I wouldn't be a great fan of it but with 3 year warranty it's winner winner.
I would stick bumper on and forget mot bits. By time mot centres are testing again you'll have car changed half a dozen times.
 

Blackie

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Meyle HD stuff has 3 year warranty. I wouldn't be a great fan of it but with 3 year warranty it's winner winner.
I would stick bumper on and forget mot bits. By time mot centres are testing again you'll have car changed half a dozen times.
I’ve an MOT booked for the 20th! But yea I’ll have it fitted before then, all going to plan.
 

Blackie

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How did you get it booked
Phone lines opened this morning and they’re ONLY doing bookings by phone, phone number is: 0345 247 2471. You have to be meet certain criteria though. As my car hasn’t had an MOT since Feb 19, I met one of the criteria.
 

Blackie

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After I googled how to fit an e46 front bumper and realising that it was an easy job, I just had to fit the new bumper. Now it’s not sitting perfectly yet as I need to get two pre-facelift side brackets, but generally it’s not sitting too bad and in my opinion, is a much better looking bumper than the SE bumper previously fitted.

Only before pic I have on my phone (stupidly forgot to take a pic in my haste):
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And after, hopefully it’ll be a noticeable difference lol:
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Blackie

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Disaster strikes yet again with this car! So I got the car up to a good friends workshop as I had noticed that the brackets that secure the rear brake flexis had broken away from the chassis due to corrosion.

So we made up two brackets, from a mk3 Cavalier back axle believe it or not, welded them in place and set about replacing the flexis, because they had rusted themselves to what remained of the bracket.

Had to chase the thread in the drivers rear caliper as the new HEL lines didn’t seem to want to start. Had our heads fried for a while as brake nuts would screw in, and the HEL lines would screw into the same double ended brake jointer as the brake nut would......

Anyway, we got it sorted and had the flexi fitted. Then we thought as the bleed nipple looked ropey we’d try and remove it whilst the caliper was in the vice.

It snapped.............

It was now 16.50, we’re out in the arsehole of nowhere outside Ballinderry, (the one near Cookstown) all the motor factors and breakers yards anywhere near us were closed.

So to get the air out, we filled the caliper with fluid and the hose, before attaching them to one another, pushed the piston in to expel as much fluid/air we could and then fitted the other end to the car.

It’s ok, but not great, so I have to replace the caliper.

When I noticed the difficulties we were having on the drivers side I emptied a tub of wd40 on the passenger side.

Seems that paid off as we were able to fit the HEL
Hose with no issues on that side and with a little bit of work, we got the bleed nipple out. Thankfully my friend had a few spare bleed nipples and we obviously replaced it to save any future issues.

No pics sadly as I was in that much of a tizz over the saga and clean forgot.

Oh yea, also noticed a broken rear coil spring on the passenger side.

Better to find it now than when it’s in the test centre on the 20th!

Sorry for the essay, hopefully you won’t have fallen asleep! Lol
 

Coog

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Lol great craic. Bleed valves always handy snapped. Should be easily enough drilled and tapped, though for the sake of the price of a replacement caliper its probably not worth the hassle.
 
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