Cheap and nasty E46 project for future silliness

i have seen the prices of these go mad especially for a clean 325 version

330is and even clean 330ds are now quite pricey.



I've not see many E90s for under £1k, even tired ones, albeit I don't look at the non-6 pot petrols as the engines are garbage. My mate sold a tatty (paint was poor from a repair), but very sorted 330i Auto for £2.2k within 2 days ; I wished I bought it, so as to rob some super rare options and other bits for mine. Electrics wise, they don't have much more than the E46 IME ; after all, I own both . Some things are easier to do them on ; front dampers are a good example, along with the blower motor.

But IME, good cars are very hard to get. Everything seems to have problems, but 'runs'.

They even share problems ; Booth wiring is a problem on tourings on both cars, enough for Febi Bilstein to do an improved wiring kit. The only real electrical issue the E90 has is the bluetooth module, and on iDrive cars, the CCC ; But you can arge the M54 infotainment units in the E46 sat nav models weren't great, especially the displays ; I can't remmeber when I last saw one with a good display. The latter is down to bad joints however, which also affects a no. of E46 parts (VANOS units on the M3s and the GM5 module on all models). Before Brexit, you could get a recon unit from Romania for £200. These days, the later and more reliable CIC units have come down in price, as 'fake' iDrive setups hit the arena.

They do drive well. I was blown away by how well TBH, albeit they drive best on 17s IME. That said, the rust proofing isn't much better than E46s. You can tell where they went cheaper on the interior however.

It will be interesting to see where this Compact goes. Quite a decent car, and very advanced compared to the E36, which still had E30 bits.

So we successfully completed the 4 Hours of Most Endurance race in the Czech Republic. Pretty impressed the old cooling system had no issues since that was the only thing I was worried about. Wasn't the fastest team on the track but still had a huge amount of fun.