[fingmongoose]

After searching for an e46 wagon for over 3 years I finally gave up and bought an e91. I decided to include e91’s in my search after happening on one a few states away on CL. They were asking a little more than I wanted to spend but liked it enough to start researching them, which brought me here.

While reading the forums researching common problems, mods and difficulty of a transmission swap, I decided to check out the for sale forum. That’s where I found this car which had just been posted. It was one of my preferred color combos AW/Blk, in good shape, low miles, very well equipped and best of all right in my price range. From what I can tell it has every option except for the sport package.

I flew out to SLC and drove it back to CO

2009 328i xdrive AT









I plan to fix a few minor issues with it soon. Down the road I’d like to do the usual things wheels, suspension, trans/engine swap, M sport bumpers and sport seats.

Most of all though I’m just happy to not being daily driving a pickup for the first time in over 15 years.

[Bimmer_Engineer]

Very clean...I share your sentiment about the pickup. I’d been driving SUVs since the late 90s when I got my 335 in 2018. Now I’ve got a GTI as a daily and the e90 for occasional driving. I hope to never go back to a SUV or pickup again...

[donut_boi]

Congrats on the new E91, saw that car posted and a great price for the condition and mileage.

Enjoy in good health and keep us posted with mods as they get completed

[redEYEjedi]

Congrats and welcome to the e91 family.

[MPOWER5266]

Welcome, great looking car. You cant go wrong with Alpine white.

[fingmongoose]

Thank you everyone for the welcome. I'm really excited to get started on it putting in a decent size parts order now.

Originally Posted by MPOWER5266

Welcome, great looking car. You cant go wrong with Alpine white.

I've been following your thread on garagejournal for a while now, and seeing your e91 and your progress with it was influential in looking for an e91. In fact it's 1 of 3 threads I subscribed to on GJ just to make sure I don't miss any updates. Keep up the good work!

[MPOWER5266]

Originally Posted by fingmongoose

Thank you everyone for the welcome. I'm really excited to get started on it putting in a decent size parts order now.




I've been following your thread on garagejournal for a while now, and seeing your e91 and your progress with it was influential in looking for an e91. In fact it's 1 of 3 threads I subscribed to on GJ just to make sure I don't miss any updates. Keep up the good work!

Thanks man, I cant wait to see how your build goes.

[fingmongoose]

I have loved the first week of ownership. I'm constantly impressed by the Logic 7 stereo, easily the best OE sound system I've owned. I've started to get comfortable with all of the controls and the iDrive system. I'm starting to plan out some modifications but probably won't do anything major until next year some time.

This week I ordered some parts to fix some minor things on it that I've noticed since picking it up.

First off I noticed this in the center console during the test drive. At first I thought it was a broken lug stud. I then noticed the car had wheel locks and asked where the key was. He said it was in the center console. Apparently when he had the tires replaced a few months ago they broke the key and didn't say anything to him. Luckily I realized what had happened before it was a problem.



The next thing was the drivers cup holder would not pop out, it had to be pried out if you pushed it in all the way.



So I ordered a new one

Whoops!



Ordered the wrong color, luckily the covers are replaceable so I just reused the original cover.

All fixed



This car has side auto dimming mirrors. The passenger side had started to fail and was dark and cloudy. Cracked it while removing it



Ordered a new one $$$$$$$



much better



Lastly for this parts order I had to do something about the chrome grills, it's the only chrome on the car and looked out of place. So OEM black grills it is.







and finished!



That does it for my first week of the car, I can't wait to do more to it!

[uncoturner]

very nice. has all the options i would want on mine. congrats.

[fingmongoose]

Time for a long needed update. After getting this wagon, things got pretty busy with a new child, selling a business and changing cars up. After a bit the heat stopped working in December in Colorado in my daughters E46 so I let her take the E91 until we could get the heat working in her car.

Unfortunately a month later in January on a snowy morning she lost control on the high way, slide sideways and hit another car. Totaling my wagon. I fought with the insurance company for a couple months while looking for another one.



I gave up and picked up a super nice 2004 S500. It was a beast in the snow and super comfortable. But not really what I wanted so I kept the search for another E91. Well last August the S500 was rear-ended and totaled. I hadn't had a car in an accident in 20+ years and all the sudden I've had two totaled within 9 months.




I fought with insurance again for a month on the the value of the S500 while looking for an E91. Still couldn't find one so I went for super clean and well taken care of 2005 Cayenne Turbo. It's a great car and this is one of the cleanest, best maintained ones out there. But it still wasn't scratching the E91 itch.



At this point I had pretty much stopped looking at my local Craigslist because there is rarely anything new. So I was surprised when I popped into the E91 for sale thread and there was a link to an E91 in Denver.

Now my first E91 was pretty well optioned, and I didn't want to downgrade. Mostly I wanted the HK stereo, nav and comfort access. My last 5 cars have been black or grey so I really wanted a car with color. Naturally when I found this car I jumped on it as quickly as possible.

[M-technik-3]

Welcome back to fold. Nice Mystic Blue? too bright for Monoco.

[Runnin'Rich]

Wow beige sport seats - the rarest of the sport seats. Good find

[fingmongoose]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Welcome back to fold. Nice Mystic Blue? too bright for Monoco.

Thank you! It’s Deep Sea Blue, it’s the first time I had see one in this color.

Originally Posted by Runnin'Rich

Wow beige sport seats - the rarest of the sport seats. Good find

I’m shocked how much better sports seats are than the comfort seats.

[fingmongoose]

This car had sat for nearly 3 years with very little use. So there were a few things that needed addressed it needed an oil change, an a/c recharge and most of all tires.

Got the oil change and A/C recharge and all is good there. So now time to deal with tires.

Here’s what I drove around on for a couple days….



A month or so before this my daughter totaled her e46 sedan (yes the same one that totaled my first wagon). So I had been trying to sell the summer wheels from her car, fortunately I hadn’t sold them yet and they have nearly new tires on them. They’re nothing special, just cheap tire rack ones but they’ll do for now. Probably need some spacers though.

[Prolix-2]

Originally Posted by fingmongoose

Thank you! It’s Deep Sea Blue, it’s the first time I had see one in this color.



I’m shocked how much better sports seats are than the comfort seats.

You have the same color combo as my e91!

I believe this color was only offered in 2011 and 2012.

Lucky you having sport seats from factory though, a set of tan sport in decent condition took forever for me to find. I actually put pre-LCI seats in and I actually find them more comfortable than any post-LCI that I've tried, including M3 seats.

[fingmongoose]

Originally Posted by Prolix-2

You have the same color combo as my e91!

I believe this color was only offered in 2011 and 2012.

Lucky you having sport seats from factory though, a set of tan sport in decent condition took forever for me to find. I actually put pre-LCI seats in and I actually find them more comfortable than any post-LCI that I've tried, including M3 seats.

I'm not usually a fan of the tan interior, but it goes good with the DSB.

I searched for sport seats for my previous E91 the whole time I had it and never found anything that wasn't trashed or way too expensive.

[fingmongoose]

I've had an intermittent SES light since about a week after I got it. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

0x2C31 Lamba probe in front of catalyst, trim control

0x2C6B Lamba probe after catalyst, system check

Voltage on the front sensor starts over 2.0v and drops to the 1.6-1.9 range after warming up.

Voltage on the rear sensor stays around .5-.7

I attempted to smoke test the exhaust and best I can tell doesn’t have a leak. I’m not positive I did it correctly, put the smoke machine nozzle into the muffler and looked for smoke to come out along the exhaust system but didn’t see anything.

It mostly runs fine otherwise, with an occasional minor and temporary jump in RPM at a stop.

The car had mostly sat for approximately 3 years before I bought it.

It had the valve cover replaced right before I got it.

I’ve done a lot of searching online and the majority of the other posts with the same codes are N54 cars with aftermarket exhausts, headers, tunes. I have a totally stock N52.

It did pass Colorado emissions during a time the light was off.

The SES light sometimes goes off after being driven for at least 15-20 minutes then driving it again within ~30 minutes. Then after sitting a while it comes back on the next drive.

[fingmongoose]

Since my last post I chased the SES light for weeks.

First I changed the coils and plugs, which best I can tell were the original ones. While it made the car start quicker and run noticeably better. It didn’t fix the light.

Then I tried the upstream o2 sensor and it seemed to fix it but the light came back after a few days.

Then I figured since I did the upstream one I might as well try downstream even though I didn’t think it would help. But to my surprise it fixed it and haven’t had an issue since.

[fingmongoose]

Not long after I bought this wagon, I noticed there was an open recall for the PCV heater. So I scheduled an appointment at the dealer to get it taken care of. The tech noticed while pulling it into the shop that the thrust arm bushing were likely shot.

So I ordered the parts and replaced them, was pretty easy. But it made me realize the rest of the suspension was beyond worn out.

So over the holiday weekend I replaced almost all of the suspension components and added Bilsrein B14 coilovers.

It was quite the job and I started wishing I had just replaced the shocks/struts and not messed with lowering it. It definitely looks better but I’m not sure if I’ll keep them or not.

I think I’m going to raise the back end up a little more yet though.

[Runnin'Rich]

Wow you have my dream garage
996
E30
Cayenne
E91

I need another car for when I’m fixing my e91. Must be AWD for the Canadian winter.

Which 2 would you recommend the most?

[fingmongoose]

Thank you, although I no longer have the Cayenne. It was sold to make room for the E91.

My first choice would be a 996 Carrera 4S. Mine is a regular rwd Carrera with super low miles, sometimes I wish I had gotten a 4S with average miles and made it my daily. But unfortunately the 4S can be hard to find for a decent price

Next would be the Cayenne, I didn’t see a ton of snow in it, but what I did see it handled it perfectly. I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t like driving SUV’s, if it weren’t for that I would probably still have it.

As much fun as a AWD E30 would be, personally I don’t know if I could daily a car that old.