[LORDD]

I have been lurking on here for nearly a year now , I think its time i did a thread on my first e91 but technically second e90. After the quick and sudden demise of my LCI E92 330I Sport. As I Still had my X5 to drive about in I was debating what to get. At the time I thought my mileage was going to go up so wanted a diesel and I have always fancied a touring but never had one as well as never had a blue car. That was the start of what i wanted needed CIC Idrive as I wanted to stream my music as well as the better nav hence wanting CIC which i very briefly had in my 330i before it went to the big race track in the sky.
I have had a few 330d and a 635d in the past and decided as economy was priority plus having a limited budget which meant i couldn't afford a LCI 330d it was going to be a 320D touring , had to be a sport and have CIC idrive. If possible in lemans blue or black with max mile of 130 something miles.
After a couple of months looking in June 2022 and not many lci s for sale , the ones for sale were all non idrive. Suddenly a le mans blue 320d lci 2010,The only negative was it had the most undesirable interior colour I wanted Beige not black or Alcantra popped up on auto trader but miles away from me in Bedford , I looked at the pictures and the brief description , I messaged them lots of questions liked what I heard and put a deposit down for it to be transported over to me in the next couple of days.
I had only bought one car blind before so I went outside excitedly to see it and had a few disappointments straight away. From the pictures the paintwork looked in very good condition but on inspection there was big scratches/small dents next to the door handles on both drivers doors two deep to be buffed out, The front bumper was a totally different shade of blue and had started bubbling on the lower part near the mesh and there was a big patch of lacquer peel on the roof (More on that later ) Hmm see how it drives I thought. Again no problems listed or photos but when I got in the car it had warning lights coming up on the Idrive firstly fog light out on passenger side and rear tail light on drivers side. I also noticed it was 600 miles overdue a service. It had a start/stop malfunction warning coming on all the time ( more on that later.) Sod all fuel in it as fuel light on. So i took it for a test drive and was surprised how well it drove. No major issues as they had driven it from Bedford down as well as I thought it was gonna be flat bedded like my last car but...
So I decided I would have the car as I had already negotiated a deal before which had knocked off over £200 of the price so I thought that will help its cosmetically challenged status I checked the paperwork to make sure it was all good including the work they say had been done a dpf regen .
I then went online and bought a Mahle service kit all filters plus oil .Then rang my mate to book it into his garage for us to do.
He was free in a couple of weeks so as I had my X5 i parked her up and decided to see what she needed /was missing and start ordering some bits.
(Hopefully I get all the rest of the update sin order as I have done lots in almost a year I have owned her .)

[LORDD]

So I discovered that the car was up until it’s last owner been looked after pretty well service history parts etc then in about 2019 got sold to a car supermarket and was used as a kiddy wagon and not looked after as you will see from later posts.
So apart from a good valet needed inside and out and a service I decided the first things to do were : update the maps to latest version still on original 2010 . Change the centre arm rest as was rank .
Remove the phone cradle and put the blanking insert instead.
Change the horrid wood trim to hex cube silver and as pointed out by a forum member clean the seatbelts as looked disgusting 🤮
Also change the start stop button to the earlier silver type. Change button to blue to match the car .

[LORDD]

This lead to me discovering the difference between pro nav and business nav being widescreen and more importantly split screen as I had that in my 330i but not in this. Also I had aux only not usb/aux but still had Bluetooth music streaming as well as phone calls. I also discovered I did not have mirror tilt in reverse first bmw out of 8 cars that didn't lol
It was at last time to take the car to my mates for its long overdue service. On the way to the garage I had to stop halfway as I could hear this funny squeaking noise and slowly i limped it into the garage. I am glad I waited as it turned out that when they did the dpf regen the garage didn't bother to change the oil as it was overfilled by at least a litre and was black as soot. So we made sure to flush as well as change the oil and change all filters. I also changed the brake fluid as was a year overdue according to the cic. On replacing the air filter discovered half the airboxes clips were missing so made a mental note to order a new one.
Once serviced we set about finding out what the sqeaking was? Turned out the rear n/s rear brake caliper had seized partly on. So i crept it home and ordered a brand new set of genuine bmw ones that i found for a bargain price, along with new pads. I had top book this into my local garage as no ramps at my friends place. But it would be just over a week so parked it up and had to use the x5 again but it also gave me time to do some more work on blue.
Firstly I changed the grills to nice black ones.
Next I had the windows tinted all round same shade as my factory glass x5 tints which I think are light smoke.
I also managed to find a performance gear knob and gator which i had to clean the alcantra but came up like new .
I ordered some OE floormats from ebay which from the pictures looked beige but when i opened the bag were black i fitted them thinking will do do until i get some beige ones but have really grown on me and prefer them to the beige as doesn't show up the dirt and gives it a bit of colour from the sea of beige.
I also fixed the drivers cupholder that was stuck in. Turns out the spring was stuck after relocating it works perfectly.
Another thing that was bothering me was the rear BMW badge was all distorted and bubbled I had been looking for months trying to get a genuine one when suddenly I saw an advert on as fb group for good quality ones so I thought worth a punt. But when trying to remove old one the pins broke and stuck in the boot luckily with some perseverance I managed to get them out and reuse the grommet and looks great

[LORDD]

This now brought me up to August 2022 and I was going on holiday down to Devon. As this was when we were having mid 30 degrees outside I decided to get my aircon re-gassed as it didn't work so off to my local place and all done
A few hours later and 14 miles away from my destination I was taking a shortcut to avoid traffic recommended by a friend when I realised i missed my turning and needed to turn around. So i pulled over and did a u turn after reversing i noticed something was different and I got a big warning come up on the idrive saying charging fault. Battery no longer being charged Oh dear i said or words to that effect. So i managed to limp the car a mile or so down the road to a culdesac i noticed we had passed and rang the AA. I explained the problem and in my head thought it was probably the battery or worst case scenario the alternator. But nope turns out when I had used the aircon which had stopped working that morning again oh dear bother me. it had put strain on the already weekend crank shaft pulley, which I then learned was on modern cars now a serviceable item an mine was still the original and had totally failed with the outer piece sitting on my engine luckily not damaging anything. After lots of phone calls by the aa he said he cannot get one until Tuesday as its the bank holiday weekend and today being Saturday no deliveries. He would follow me until my battery died and then tow me to the destination and as soon as pulley arrived on Tuesday would ring me to come and fit it. So after ringing holiday place explaining if coming earlier i arrived in style in a van . it had enough power just to drive up the driveway. Luckily I wasn't planning on using the car over the weekend anyway but had to cancel the plans on the Tuesday morning as when they finally rang and came out explained they could only get me a genuine bmw one which was expensive but the guy let me have the new belt for a fiver so £550 later we were mobile again
When I got home i parked ol blue up and left it there for three/four weeks in disgrace and used my x5.
I then used her for a few months until one day on my way to work i noticed the rear wiper didn't work after investigation and after advise from peeps on here discovered the wiper shat was gone. Turns out the wiper shaft had seized to the body after two hours of grinding and swearing managed to get it of but damaged the wiring plug from the tailgate loom (still trying to source another plug now ) So i ordered another switch and fitted that and left it disconnected until have some spare time to find a fix as the main tailgate still works.

[LORDD]

A ongoing issue since i got the car was the start/stop didn't work but would always bring up a big warning it was malfunctioning overriding everything else whenever i stopped , Up until December then when very cold start at slow speed it would then throw up a engine management fault which was brought on by the start/stop fault so I decided it was time to fix it properly so after more investigating i bought another second hand boost pressure switch which we fitted but didn't make any difference so then tried a brand new varta battery still no difference so after this it started to warm up and left it again for another time/round.
After looking at some posts and xlr88r posts in particular for inspiration i decided to add a wireless charger into the car so I made my first attempt from a rubber centre console i had leftover from a old e46 I had. I also bought a new centre oddments tray to replace the ashtray . After a few weeks of it working well my ocd started to play up that it didn't look factory so i then sourced a universal charging mat from ebay and installed that and keeping the original cigarette lighter power hidden behind dash as well as the ashtray light. (This will be getting changed in the next week or two as till not happy I finally sourced a 3d printed one so will be getting that ready for fitting once decide if hardwiring or using a plug again ?)
I also updated my maps to the latest 2023 version as was running 2021 they finally released a new one.

[LORDD]

I got a load cover/doguard for my birthday as mine was missing . Replaced lots of missing trim eg obd cover and the rear bench iso covers for child's seat. Aircon gas cap. Handle for wooden floor panel. New n/s side bolster as original had a hole on side. Fitted a new genuine bmw boot liner. I also in January had another go at fixing the start/stop problem we changed the battery then when trying to recode it I lost half my functions no electric windows/ horn lights or wipers etc. It turned out my FRM was knackered properly had been for a long while but until being disconnected from power didn't show up it was . I looked online found a service with a quick turnaround of three days there and back to me and I refitted it and goods as new but fiddly getting it back in as tight for space .