2005 BMW E46 325Ci Sport

MoT day.





I had nothing to worry about, the exhaust emissions were clean as a whistle.



The tester commented how clean the BMW is and gave it a clean bill of health, MoT passed, no advisories.

Whilst the BMW was up in the air I had a look at the rear subframe and where it bolts onto the floorpan. I couldn't see a great deal but certainly no evidence of any cracking. 

Is this the valve that I should remove from the clutch hydraulics?



Next is an engine oil and filter change and I need to upgrade the rear speakers. 

Watch this space. 

For folks who don't speak BMW ( )... why remove that valve ?

Thank you !

I've done some easy oil changes in the past (my Mercedes Benz W123 is one) and some fiddly ones (a Mk1 Audi TT 1.8T that I had a couple of years ago is another). Today was the turn of the BMW.

I started off by jacking up the offside of the BMW and supporting the car with an axle stand. Placing a small dog under the car also helps.



The underside of the engine is mostly concealed with plastic covers but BMW very kindly left an access hatch to enable the engine oil to be drained with minimal fuss.



During the process I was being constantly assisted by my dog. I have renamed Daisy and she's now called Melchett, as in General Melchett of Blackadder IV fame. I expect that most readers are far too young to understand.



Working with the standard jack (remember a hydraulic jack won't fit under the low sill) in my garage makes the process a bit tricky as there isn't that much room under the car. I got the oil to drain out.



I lowered the jack as much as possible, without squashing the oil container, to get all the old oil out.



Draining the oil and re-fitting the sump plug was all nice and easy.

BMW put the oil filter housing in the most accessible position possible, up front, along the top of the engine. Thank you BMW.



Unscrewing the top of the housing and removing the old oil filter took just a few seconds. I wiped all the old oil off the inside of the oil filter housing, ready to receive a replacement Bosch oil filter.



Finally, with the new oil filter fitted and housing reinstated, my 12 year old helped out whilst I put in 6.5 litres of fresh 5W40 engine oil.



All nice and easy, took about 30 minutes, which allowed time for all the old engine oil to drain out.

Biggest news is that I've actually driven the BMW this week. I did about 100 miles, all to and from work appointments. 

It's been a joy to drive, however I've noticed that the low tyre pressure warning lamp comes on sometimes (on two occasions) when the tyres are all ok. The light can be reset by pressing a button on the dash, so not the end of the world.

Here is the BMW parked outside a lovely parade of shops that I had to visit in Maidenhead.



Another thing I noticed was that the rear speakers were distorting quite badly, even with the bass turned down and at low volumes.

I bought a pair of replacement 13cm Kenwood two-ways.



And the correct fitment adaptors.



Which all fitted together quite nicely.



Getting to the rear speakers involves removal of the rear head rests.



And cover grilles.



I tried to fit the first speaker but it turned out that these lugs on the adaptors are too thick and prevent the original fixings from reaching the base panel.



Out came the hacksaw.



Then both speakers fitted a treat.



They sound a lot better, clearer and with the frequency adjusted on the head unit, which prevents the lowest tones from reaching the speakers, there is no distortion. Win, but now I need to do the same with the front speakers.

The original speakers are of poor quality, which is surprising, as the original speakers fitted to my 2003 MINI Cooper S sound a million dollars. The cheaper car got the better speakers? Odd.

I left you last week saying that I need to make some adjustments to the subwoofer's amp controls to get more out of it. This was partially true.

The amp has three knobs to fiddle with.



Regardless of how I set up the amp, the bass wasn't anywhere near as good as it should be. I went back to check the settings on the head unit. The Kenwood head unit has a built in crossover, which provides control of bass frequencies that are delivered to the front and rear speakers. Clever but not clever enough. It turns out that the setting for the rear speakers also applies to the signal that is delivered to the subwoofer (via RCA cables). Last week I set the crossover to prevent the rear 13cm speakers from playing low frequencies, however in the process, unknowingly, this arrangement also prevented the bass frequencies from reaching the subwoofer. By switching off the crossover, the subwoofer started to subwoof but the rear speakers were also sounding strained. I had a plan.

Before sorting out the subwoofer signal issue, I first fitted replacement front speakers and tweeters. I bought a pair of the same Kenwood two-way 13cm speakers that I fitted in the rear, as well as the same fitting adaptors. I had a pair of tweeters, which I bought for my W124 a few years ago.

Removing the driver's side door panel was fairly easy.



The original speakers aren't great.



Not wanting to fix the speaker to the adaptor twice, I cut off the plastic lugs from the adaptor first, as was needed when fitting the rear speakers.



Turns out that the three holes in the adaptor only lined up with two screw holes in the door panel.



I separated the speaker (argh!) from the adaptor and cut a section of the adaptor to make it fit.



I removed the original tweeters. They were hopeless or blown. Or both.



These are the tweeters that I had, they sounded ok in the W124.



I didn't want to damage the door panel so I had to be creative when installing the tweeter. I ended up securing it with one cable tie and two original screw fixings. It doesn't look pretty but it's solidly mounted.



I refitted the foam padding that covered the back of the original speaker.



I wired up the speaker and tweeter and tested the installation before refitting the door panel, which was relatively easy to put back.

Then I did it all again on the other side.



With the front speakers and tweeters installed, I removed the head unit and re-wired the speakers cables. I have connected the front and rear left side speakers to the front left output cables and the front and rear right side speakers to the front right output cables. I have taped up the redundant left and right side rear output cables. 



The benefit of this arrangement is that I can now set the crossover for all four speakers (and the tweeters) so that they do not receive any bass frequencies, whilst concurrently the subwoofer amp is fed a full bass signal. The disadvantage is that I cannot control the fader between the front and rear speakers, although that is a function that I never use anyway. 

I am no expert when it comes to Ohms and watts but I suspect that the 4 x 60 watts internal amplifier will be happy sending high and mid signals to four speakers and two tweeters from two front outputs. Also, I will never crank the volume up high enough to stretch the amp's abilities.

The sound quality is now superb. The speakers and tweeters all sound clear and the bass coming from the boot is solid and loud.

Win? Not quite. I tidied up the garage, had a cuppa, went to start the engine and... Click click click from the starter motor but no go. The battery died. Not surprising really as the BMW has been parked in the garage untouched for a week and I spent half a day sitting in the car with the interior lights and music on.

I've hooked up my battery charger and need to finish this update now as it's time to go back to the garage and see if the old Bimmer will start.



Wish me luck.

The planned trip to visit my parents in London was cancelled so I took advantage of a free afternoon and took the BMW to Aldbury, then to Buckingham via the A413.

Looking pretty in my favourite spot just outside Aldbury.



On route home there was time for a McCafe and another photo.



Great day, great drive, great car with a great sound system.

I wasn’t looking for a modified car when I was searching for an E46 coupe but I must admit that the stainless steel exhaust and lowering springs fitted by the previous owner make the car sound and look much better than standard.

In other news, my auto electrician friend turned up today and fitted the boot release switch that I did such a great job of a couple of months ago.

Turns out that the diagnosis and remedy were both spot on but my execution was below par, I wired up the wrong cable to the switch.

The master at work.



The switch is fitted and works just fine.