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      08-27-2012, 08:38 AM   #1
DR-JEKL
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Drives: Space Grey E92 335i 6MT
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Newcastle Ozstraylia

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DR-JEKL's 335i Intro & Build Thread

Hey guys I thought I would start a build & maintenance thread for my 335i.

I'm Shane 33 y.o working as a metallurgical engineer in the manufacturing industry and have been around cars most of my life, but I have mainly been into the jdm scene for the past 15 years.

Well I guess I will start with purchasing the E92 wasn't my intention initially, as I had wanted a 550i.

I had struck a deal on a neat one owner 550i that had been garaged its entire life and was pretty much a new car:



I had arranged to have the car inspected the next day @ bimmertech, and would pick the car up pending inspection, but later that day the owner called to state he had received a higher offer for the car, I decided to let the car go...

In the meantime I bought a calais sportswagon to drive around in, and whilst it is a great neat and reasonably classy car it just lacks any 'excitement' and it just doesn't spark the passion I have for cars.





I have always purchased cars in the past that had inspired me with its design in terms of styling and that got me thinking I had always loved the E92 335i why not take one for a test drive.

So I found a car in my area & upon initial inspection it was quite rough like quite a few other 530/545i's I had inspected with the chrome worn off the gear knob, and window surrounds, faded bmw wheel and bonnet badges, scuffed rims, lifted the oil filler cap and there were signs of varnished oil was visible it was obvious it wasn't the car for me.

The owner offered me to take it for a solo drive, so I jumped in and was extremely impressed as soon as I turned the key it had a nice meaty exhaust note and of course as you guys are well aware it had lots of torque, an excellent gear shift and steering response was great at higher speeds (it initially felt heavy at slow speeds)

So whilst this particular example wasn't the car for me it has planted the seed to acquire a 335i coupe!

I had remembered a neat space grey 335i manual I had seen a few months earlier online, the car looked neat so I thought I would give the owner a call. He was in his early 30's working in the banks and had just bought an investment property so having a co car and the 335i costing him $ in the garage he had to offload his car. He had purchased it 2 1/2 years ago at Sydney BMW with 30 odd k kays for just under $90k and the car comes with 3 years bmw premium warranty (the warranty expires Feb 2013 and the car now has 72k kays)

You may have seen my noob thread making a few enquiries: http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=733753

The owner sounded genuine and honest so I had arranged for an inspection and the inspection revealed nothing but just a clean car that requires new front tyres shortly and eventually F&R pads & rotors. So unlike a few other bmr's i had looked at that had either been written off or looked great in the pics but very rough in person I decided to bite the bullet and fly down with a cheque to buy the car hoping it would be as good as promised.

The car was in Melb and I reside in Newcastle NSW, so I had booked tix for the 6am flight on a saturday morning and the plan was If the car was as good as described I had decided to take the Princes highway home north to give the car a good workout.

Come Saturday it was an early start rising at 3.45am to be at the airport by 5am to catch the 6am flight out. Flying down my gf asked me am I excited yet, and to be honest I wasn't as I was preparing myself for the likely event of dissapointment like so many other cars I had looked at recentley and were described as being immaculate that were quite frankly rubbish...

Meeting the owner at the airport it was obvious this was a neat car and to be honest it was difficult to fault other then that it just needed a bloody good wash and scrub. I handed the cheque over and set upon my journey.

I had 2 days to drive 1300km's, so unfortunately there wasn't much of an opportunity for stopping other then to grab a fuel or to take a toilet break so I don't have any pics of the trip itself as such.

Day 1: Depart Essendon and quickly drop in at my gf's friends place @ Prestons to quickly say hello and leave an hour later at 10:15am



Coming out of Melb there were a heap of cops out having a field day on the freeway leading out to the princes hwy! I just sat on the speed limit until I was a few hours out of melb.. The plan was to drive approx 4 hrs then stop at Lakes Entrance then continue on for another 3-4 hrs to our destination @ Merimbula caravan park. The start of the princes hwy was quite scenic but then it started becoming a tad boring.. Upon arrival at Lakes Entrance I wasn't too impressed, the water wasn't all that nice and it was essentially just a sleepy small town with bugger all charm. Spent literally 15 mins there then set off to Merimbula. It was during the stage of the trip fatigue started to kick in the roads started to become rougher (riding on 35 series and 30 series tyres with sports sussy) and instead of wide open sparse roads it became narrow and visability quite poor in areas due to shade covering the roads. I had literally not seen another car for quite some time and was well 'speeding' then out of the blue i could see flashing lights in the horizon. I was thinking damn he has got me, but then thought surely he is too far away, as I got closer a vict cop car was on the side of the road with his lights flashing for safety (phew!!!) Finally we reached Eden and then Merimbula. It was a long day in the saddle and I was dying for a good hot shower and some decent pub grub.

Last edited by DR-JEKL; 04-28-2013 at 07:22 AM..
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