[shrimpvende]

Thought it was about time to write one of these up after I sold my 325D. I moved house and jobs last summer meaning a much smaller commute so was on the lookout for a petrol. By chance this car came up in the classifieds on here only 5 mins away from my new place. I went to go and see it 'just in case' and ended up buying it. Fantastic condition, full BMW history and has never been out of warranty. I got a bit tired of constantly repairing/worrying about the old one so decided to continue the BMW warranty on this one and use only genuine parts/servicing for peace of mind. No more crawling under cars on the driveway fitting ECP parts!

325D:



It had the full CIC pro system with apps and streaming, HK audio, 313's with new PSS's and even high beam assist. I had wanted a 335i, but with this one being an LCI and alpine white I went for it. Pics of when I went to see it:





First thing I did to it was fit a performance exhaust. I bought it from these classifieds and had a courier pick it up. Unfortunately the courier managed to damage it, so when I unboxed it it looked like this:





So after getting advise from various places I decided to get a pipe expander and rubber mallet on it and see what I could do. I figured I was going to have to replace the tips anyway so had nothing to loose. Pleased to say I got it to about 95%, certainly not noticeable once on the car:





Clean shot when the summer wheels were still on



Held off putting the winters on for as long as possible, finally put them on a couple of weeks ago. It never got cold enough before xmas and going down to square 17's isn't good for looks or grip when it's not freezing



I always seem to have bad luck fiddling with cars, mainly around parts. The exhaust (and the hassle of getting it fitted) was the first one with this car. The second has been the performance grills. One of them was fine and is now fitted, but the other only had 2 clips at the top - completely the wrong part?! Thankfully they were from Cotswold who have gone over and above to get me the right part asap, however the old one had to go back in for the time being. It's going to look daft for a few days:



Next couple of things I want to do are M3 boot lip spoiler and performance diffuser. I also want to do the interior in piano black wrap, but after doing it on my last car it was a pain of a job and started peeling after a few months so still undecided on that one. If I can get a set of bamboo for a reasonable price I'd definitely go for that

[JM85]

Very nice, I'm a big fan of Alpine White!!

Not such a fan of the winter set up but form over function & all that

[Tr1ppy]

Stunning car you got mate, very nice spec!

Enjoy!

[Precision Engineered]

I assume the exhaust doesn't add any power? Very much like the alloys in the first pics, what style are they?

[shrimpvende]

I don't think the exhaust really adds any power, just noise. It's loud enough when you want it to be but doesn't drone which is exactly what I wanted.

Wheels are BMW 313's, silver car in the first pic has replicas bought from ******** on here, the new one has OEM's from the factory. They were refurbed just before I bought it in a slightly darker gunmetal with machined faces

[D3THR]

Looking great!

Where did you manage to find the exhaust? As its proving difficult to find in the used market.

[shrimpvende]

Originally Posted by D3THR

Looking great!

Where did you manage to find the exhaust? As its proving difficult to find in the used market.

Found it on here in the classifieds, it's a 325i exhaust but the only difference is it doesn't have the valve on one of the tailpipes. The vacuum pipe on my car had already been blocked off so it didn't bother me, just means it's louder all the time rather than having the valve to shut one of the pipes off on cold starts etc. I believe its the same exhaust for N52/53 engines so one from a 325/330i from 2006 onwards will be fine, widens the search a little

[shrimpvende]

Managed to get the correct grill sorted and fitted this morning so no more looking daft. lip spoiler and CF diffuser next!

[Dukey_L10]

Lovely car mate, I did the same swap from 325d to 330i. How are you finding it?

[shrimpvende]

Cheers for the comments guys. Dukey - I'm loving everything apart from the fuel it drinks. It seemed like I hardly ever filled up the diesel compared to this one. This is a much newer car and lower mileage though so has that going for it too.

Mini update - it's managed to drink it's first litre of oil. It's taken 6 months and 6k miles which I think is acceptable for these? Warning light came on last night so I went to the local halfords - £20 for castrol edge LL04 but the wrong grade. Didn't fancy chancing it so went to the local dealer a mile down the road and bought the genuine stuff for £21 and had a good look round a new 7 series while I was at it. Painful as I only paid about £45 for 8 litres of petronas for the last car from ECP but needs must.

Aching to get the summers back on now, really not enjoying the look of these 17's and the novelty of the much reduced rear grip has worn off - unless there's snow on the road I think it's much better off on the PSS's. Only benefit is my 313's are being spared the salt and potholes for a bit!

[Lockman_321]

looks awesome mate! Have 313s on mine aswell.

Loving the alpine white. What are your plans for this car?

[shrimpvende]

gave it a proper bath now the weather seems to be turning, needs a bottle of iron x over it at the least and some tar remover but I'll be doing that when it's a bit warmer. I'll be swapping it for the Z4 in the background for the next few weeks in the hope I can actually have the roof down a bit - I can only take one or the other back down to Leamington with me now I'm not living here full time anymore.

Need to find somewhere a bit more scenic than my driveway to take photos -