[TurboWeasel]

Originally Posted by 330Stevie

At slow speeds pull hand brake on off several times on a semi regular basis. It should help and is the official bmw guidance

Thanks for that, I'll give that a try. The handbrake barely does anything anyway so I'll get the service technicians to inspect it when it's in next.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by TurboWeasel

Had a weird one with the oil change. 6.5 litres came out, 6.5 litres went back in, but the oil level thingy in Vehicle Status is showing 3/4 full. Just prior to the oil change, it showed full. What's up with that? Lol.

From memory the oil capacity, empty to MAX, for the 330d is 7.2L.

[g9icy]

Damn! Was enjoying the posts until I saw the damage Hope it all gets sorted soon, and I expect more pictures as proof

I do sometimes miss my 330d. Especially the MPG.

[TurboWeasel]

Originally Posted by Watsey

From memory the oil capacity, empty to MAX, for the 330d is 7.2L.

Yeah that seems about right from my experience. It's a bit of a funny engine in terms of searching for oil capacity online. Some folk say 6.5 litres, some say 7 and anything in between. The handbook does not even mention oil capacity.

I definitely put more than 7 litres in to get it up to max on the dipstick, but hey ho, if you have to keep chucking it in until you're happy with the level, fair enough!

[TurboWeasel]

Originally Posted by g9icy

Damn! Was enjoying the posts until I saw the damage Hope it all gets sorted soon, and I expect more pictures as proof

I do sometimes miss my 330d. Especially the MPG.

Pics of the repair will follow

Yeah I'm not sure about the mpg. BMW quote 58mpg and/or 722 mile range. Yeah right

Driven like a granny in comfort mode, 50mpg is consistently achievable. Go anywhere near sport mode and it drops to low 40s, high 30s immediately

Still, it is a porker of a car with a fairly big engine, so the mpg isn't that bad all things considered.

After a month of daily use, I am finding the gearshifts in comfort mode to be a bit clunky, especially in 10-20mph traffic crawling speeds.

Does anyone know of an instrument cluster hack to show the gear number in comfort mode? I know the Alpina TCU remap can show it, but I'm not sure that map suits standard enginess

[tj_g]

Hi, happy pre-LCI 330d X F31 here. (Apart from the pre EU6 / non LEZ zone compliant engine!)

Couple of points from your earlier posts from my experience

I also came from VAG (about 10 yrs, GTI’s & R’s)

I agree that brakes felt really lacking for me.
New discs, (just Zimmerman plain discs) + EBC Red Stuff pads. Happy with them. DIY install - v easy.

I tried slotted/dimpled on the rear and they are a bit noisy. Nothing too much but a bit of an annoyance at lower speeds.

I understand that braided hoses help with pedal feel - I’ve not done this yet.

Tyres. Mine came with a mix of the Pirelli and Bridgestone RFT’s. I swapped straight to Goodyear F1 Asym 5’s and carry a repair kit and slime / compressor.

I actually tried GY F1 Supersports on the rears last time and regret it now as they wear a lot quicker than the 5’s.

I’ve not tried the GY F1 Asym 2 RFT’s, and I also believe there’s a Conti CSC5 RFT.

Close call between CSC7 and Asym 6 in the new year when I swap back from my CrossClimate 2 winter set.
I also found the original RFT’s to be hairy AF in snow (sorry to see your damage).

Suspension was v v soggy for me. It had done 96k miles and is an x drive (so was on the SE suspension).
I went aftermarket KW Street Comfort, bit harsh NVH wise, but I love the overall look and feel/handling.
I think ACS springs + new B6 or B8’s would be a good option or even better a ACS sport kit depending on budget.
But noting that you want to stay stock, maybe you won’t need anything, especially if you’re S-Drive
It wasn’t just about looks and handling for me, it was literally like the QE2 and pitched massively under acceleration and braking.

Other bits…

Stage 1 remap - massive change - really glad I did. No other engine mods.

Apple car play retro fit via MMI box - well worth it.

[ian332isport]

Originally Posted by tj_g

when I swap back from my CrossClimate 2 winter set.

How do you find the CrossClimate 2’s?

They’re currently top of my list for winter use instead of a full winter tyre.

[bishbosh]

The gear number showing in the cluster is a function of the TCU, not the instrument cluster. So you'd need to modify the gearbox software.

[TurboWeasel]

Originally Posted by tj_g

Hi, happy pre-LCI 330d X F31 here. (Apart from the pre EU6 / non LEZ zone compliant engine!)

Couple of points from your earlier posts from my experience

I also came from VAG (about 10 yrs, GTI’s & R’s)

I agree that brakes felt really lacking for me.
New discs, (just Zimmerman plain discs) + EBC Red Stuff pads. Happy with them. DIY install - v easy.

I tried slotted/dimpled on the rear and they are a bit noisy. Nothing too much but a bit of an annoyance at lower speeds.

I understand that braided hoses help with pedal feel - I’ve not done this yet.

Tyres. Mine came with a mix of the Pirelli and Bridgestone RFT’s. I swapped straight to Goodyear F1 Asym 5’s and carry a repair kit and slime / compressor.

I actually tried GY F1 Supersports on the rears last time and regret it now as they wear a lot quicker than the 5’s.

I’ve not tried the GY F1 Asym 2 RFT’s, and I also believe there’s a Conti CSC5 RFT.

Close call between CSC7 and Asym 6 in the new year when I swap back from my CrossClimate 2 winter set.
I also found the original RFT’s to be hairy AF in snow (sorry to see your damage).

Suspension was v v soggy for me. It had done 96k miles and is an x drive (so was on the SE suspension).
I went aftermarket KW Street Comfort, bit harsh NVH wise, but I love the overall look and feel/handling.
I think ACS springs + new B6 or B8’s would be a good option or even better a ACS sport kit depending on budget.
But noting that you want to stay stock, maybe you won’t need anything, especially if you’re S-Drive
It wasn’t just about looks and handling for me, it was literally like the QE2 and pitched massively under acceleration and braking.

Other bits…

Stage 1 remap - massive change - really glad I did. No other engine mods.

Apple car play retro fit via MMI box - well worth it.

Hello sir, thanks for your informative post

This is what I had prior to the 330d. 2007 GTI Edition 30. Such a great car. It's agility and steering feel completely shame the F30 to be frank. It would leave the 330d for dead on a challenging B road, but I have to remind myself I bought the Bimmer for 20K commuting due to a job change
The mileage and heavy stop-start traffic really didn't suit it being a manual and the thirsty engine (27mpg average), so it had to go, sadly. I do really miss it.



As mine as M Sport flavour, I'm actually quite pleased with the 330d's road manners, flat cornering and decent ride quality considering it's on 19s. So I think just replacing worn dampers like for like will suit me. I've used B6s on the GTI and they firmed up the ride a tad too much on rough surfaces for my liking. They might work better on the F30 though.

What I really can't stand is the horrific tramlining of the 19" run flats, which I'm sure is down to the crappy P Zero tyres (the body shop 4 wheel aligned it during the damage repair, and it's still the same). But that can be sorted. I think I will try PS4s as I used them on the Golf and they were good tyres.

The brakes I'm getting used to. The pedal feel is very underwhelming given they are beastly 370mm discs and 4 pots up front, but if stood on hard enough, the stopping power is there. The GTI had piddly little 312mm discs and iron sliding calipers and they have waaaaaay more initial bite and feel than the blue brakes

Anyhoo, I'm not here to run down the Bimmer as I do love it in spite of its minor shortcomings

I've been thinking about remaps, something to look into. It does like to spin up the rear wheels as standard at this time of year, so a remap could be amusing traction wise!

Apple play would be a bonus but all the retrofitting and coding baffles me. I thought all of that was complicated in VAG land, but it's even worse in BMW land!

[TurboWeasel]

Before and after pics as promised......







Replacing the wing and headlight was a £5K job! Unbelievable. I would say they've done a great job. If I'm being really picky, they didn't quite get the pink pigment right, but at the end of the day, you can never get a 100% match to factory paint for the simple reason the repair didn't use the actual factory paint, and that applies to any car.

Estoril blue is apparently a notoriously tricky paint to match, but they've got it 95% there. It's hard to appreciate in the pictures and the way light reflects off different angles, but in the flesh you would never know it had been in an accident. I'm happy with it.

The only thing I can notice, being even more OCD and picky, is the brand new headlight is brighter and clearer than the passenger side, but I'm hoping a polish up of the existing one will even it out.

[TurboWeasel]

Something that always bugged me about my car when I bought it was the uneven bumper to bonnet gap, and once you see it, you can't unsee it.....and it always troubled my OCD every time I walked up to the car after work.

I think that partition looks bloody horrible anyway, the E90's bonnet line is much more cohesive, but I understand BMW along with other brands had to do that as some kind of pedestrian impact nonsense, or something like that?

Anyway, it looked like this (not my car, plucked from the net).... drooping at the headlight ends basically, but mine was worse than this!



I read all manner of posts about it, but no one ever followed up on how to sort it, short of removing the bumper and fiddling with stuff.

So today I finally set about adjusting it and it was a right old faff but got there in the end, and I didn't have to remove the bumper. If anyone else has the same problem and is interested in how to fix it, let me know and I'll go into more detail.

I also removed the black trims and splitter off the bumper as they didn't float my boat. The stick on corner trims damaged the paint (thanks for that previous owner), so that's another job I need address in the future.

Still undecided on the 443Ms. They look great but ride like sheet!

[Allworth]

Pretty car, good color!
Gap between a bonnet and bumper is still uneven with more opening on the right.
I've twisted those nobs around, it is not possible to make it perfect.

[TurboWeasel]

Thanks! I forgot about this thread!

I did get it a lot better in the end with some more fiddling, but gave up stressing about it because as you say, not many F30s out there have perfect alignment.