[E60525d]

There seems to be quite a few E90 LCI build threads on here recently so I thought I’d start one on my 330d! I bought the car in June 2015 and most of the mods/changes I have done have been relatively cheap and good value!

Bit of background first, I used to own an E46 325i M Sport which I owned for 6 years. I didn’t do much to it during my ownership other than maintenance.









It wasn’t the quickest car around as it only had 192bhp but was it was great fun to drive. The engine was very responsive and sounded good. It handled better than my E90 too! I still think the E46 was one of the best all round BMW’s in recent years.

The main thing I did do was an LPG conversion. I started doing plenty of miles a couple of years into my ownership. It worked out quite well as it still drove great but fuel was 50p a litre!

LPG tank in spare wheel well


So in summer 2014, I decided to get rid as it started costing me too much in maintenance. Started to look for a E90 LCI M sport. Didn’t mind either a 4 cylinder or 6 but did need diesel due to my mileage of 20k a year.

Most of the 318/320 M sport were pretty basic spec and the high specced cars were too expensive, over £13k. I did drive a few N57 330d’s which were fantastic. Compared to the older M57, the engine was massively more refined.

Decided to get something half decent for the time being which ended up being a VW Passat CC.







Was a solid all round car, economical, spacious, and reliable but pretty boring to be honest.

So in June 2015, I had a quick look on Auto Trader for E90’s and managed to find a well specced 330d with good mileage for a very reasonable price. It was local too!

One big advantage it had was that it was a manual which I do prefer to the Auto!

Went to have a look and bought it! It was in very good condition all round, the owner had spent some money on the exterior getting some paintwork done.
Only downside was all the wheels were curbed which wasn’t a big issue.

Full spec;

- 330d M Sport
- LCI
- Bluewater metallic
- Rare manual gearbox
- Black leather interior
- Electric seats with memory
- Professional CIC Navigation with HDD and Live Traffic Updates (7 digit postcode search)
- Bluetooth
- Voice control
- USB in armrest
- Aux inut
- Brushed aluminium trim
- Front + rear PDC
- Adaptive Bi-xenon headlights with washers
- High beam assist
- 18” MV3 alloys
- Usual M sport spec - Cruise, sport seat, gloss black shadowline, etc










Very pleased with my purchase especially for the price, drove great and also very economically. With my driving I’m getting 45MPG. In the same conditions my E46 325i was getting 28MPG.

Gave the car a very good clean inside and out. 50/50 pic of the seats.



Interior shot



The engine start/stop was peeling slightly. Price for new button was around £40 which I was difficult to justify. Instead I decided to peel the trim of completely and to be honest I thought it looked rather good. Very difficult to tell.

[E60525d]

July 2015

I got a service done at my local BMW independent which consisted of;

- Oil and filter change
- Fuel filter
- Air filter
- Pollen filter
- Wiper blades

Did a few temperature tests to see if the thermostat needs changing. A very common fault on the older M57 engines but you don’t hear much on the N57. Results looked good, engine temp reached mid to low 90 degrees within a few miles so need to change thermostat.




I already had a OBD cable for diagnostic and coding so decided to give this a try. Coded the following;

Digital speedo



Instant MPG



Headlight sensitivity settings



Alarm beep in idrive menu



Fog lights on when unlocking. Here is a demo from YouTube;

Also coded the HVAC that the AC doesn’t turn on when AUTO is pressed.



August 2015

The phone cradle in the armrest was completely useless so removed it and installed a storage tray. Only took 2 mins to do as well. One thing to note, the tray was cheaper to buy new from BMW than off eBay. From memory, it was around £8.






October 2015

Noticed that the engine cover was not 100% secure. Quick look showed one of the rubber mounts was missing. New part from BMW cost £2 and fitted. (Again this part was cheaper from BMW than eBay)

Missing rubber mount


After



I also noticed slight oil leakage in the engine bay. Traced it down to the oil filter housing gasket which my local garage replaced for me.



November 2015

Updated the CIC maps to 2015-2. I needed a lifetime FSC code which I bought off a member from a different forum. The maps can be downloaded free from the internet.

The update is done using the USB in the glovebox and is fairly straightforward.

[E60525d]

January 2016

Since I bought the car, the front ashtray never closed. I removed it and noticed the mechanism was broke. Tried to repair it but no luck so had to replace. Used ones go for around £30 from eBay.

I thought this was quite expensive. After a bit of googling I found another option was a storage tray.



To me this looked far more useful than the ashtray. Phoned BMW and to my surprise this was only £18! I bought one and when it arrived it I just had to swap the top aluminum cover from the old ashtray.

All looked OK except for the storage tray does not have any illumination. This was soon rectified! I took the harness from the old ashtray which has 2 orange illumination lights and incorporated them into the new tray.

A bit of modification and ended up with this;



Also decided to add a 12v supply as I had to no cigarette lighter. I bought one of these from eBay for a couple of quid;



The wiring was tapped from the 12v supply from the old cigarette socket.

Final result;

[dragerboy]

Nice work there with the ashtray

[Shane.]

Very nice work see the link to my Bluewater also a manual and very high spec.

Can you send me more details about removing the phone cradle and ashtray please as things I'm keen to get done myself. Also how do you check the temperature I'm 100% sure mine is fine but would like to check.

Would you also mind PM me how much you paid for yours please?

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1289863

[E60525d]

Originally Posted by dragerboy

Nice work there with the ashtray

Thanks, im quite pleased with it, turned out quite well.

Originally Posted by shane1985

Very nice work see the link to my Bluewater also a manual and very high spec.

Can you send me more details about removing the phone cradle and ashtray please as things I'm keen to get done myself. Also how do you check the temperature I'm 100% sure mine is fine but would like to check.

Would you also mind PM me how much you paid for yours please?

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1289863

Thanks mate, my car is quite similar to yours but yours is even higher spec! But both cars are quite rare and hopefully sought after.

The official way to remove the phone cradle is to remove the whole centre console which is time consuming. The method I used was that another member had used successfully.

Use a soft trim tool and insert it in the gap between the phone cradle an the armrest. There is a tab here which you need to push. Once done the cradle should come out.

I have highlighted the area;




The ashtray is fairly straight forward;

- Remove gearknob gaitor
- Pull up the wood/metal trim. This is clipped down.
- Once off, unplug the idrive connector
- The ashtray is screwed to this trim via 4 screws.


Use this video to access the hidden menu;

[Shane.]

Thank you very much for the detailed reply I will be doing the above ASAP.

I will be keeping a close eye on this thread

[E90-AMD]

Originally Posted by E60525d

There seems to be quite a few E90 LCI build threads on here recently so I thought I’d start one on my 330d! I bought the car in June 2015 and most of the mods/changes I have done have been relatively cheap and good value!

Bit of background first, I used to own an E46 325i M Sport which I owned for 6 years. I didn’t do much to it during my ownership other than maintenance.









It wasn’t the quickest car around as it only had 192bhp but was it was great fun to drive. The engine was very responsive and sounded good. It handled better than my E90 too! I still think the E46 was one of the best all round BMW’s in recent years.

The main thing I did do was an LPG conversion. I started doing plenty of miles a couple of years into my ownership. It worked out quite well as it still drove great but fuel was 50p a litre!

LPG tank in spare wheel well


So in summer 2014, I decided to get rid as it started costing me too much in maintenance. Started to look for a E90 LCI M sport. Didn’t mind either a 4 cylinder or 6 but did need diesel due to my mileage of 20k a year.

Most of the 318/320 M sport were pretty basic spec and the high specced cars were too expensive, over £13k. I did drive a few N57 330d’s which were fantastic. Compared to the older M57, the engine was massively more refined.

Decided to get something half decent for the time being which ended up being a VW Passat CC.







Was a solid all round car, economical, spacious, and reliable but pretty boring to be honest.

So in June 2015, I had a quick look on Auto Trader for E90’s and managed to find a well specced 330d with good mileage for a very reasonable price. It was local too!

One big advantage it had was that it was a manual which I do prefer to the Auto!

Went to have a look and bought it! It was in very good condition all round, the owner had spent some money on the exterior getting some paintwork done.
Only downside was all the wheels were curbed which wasn’t a big issue.

Full spec;

- 330d M Sport
- LCI
- Bluewater metallic
- Rare manual gearbox
- Black leather interior
- Electric seats with memory
- Professional CIC Navigation with HDD and Live Traffic Updates (7 digit postcode search)
- Bluetooth
- Voice control
- USB in armrest
- Aux inut
- Brushed aluminium trim
- Front + rear PDC
- Adaptive Bi-xenon headlights with washers
- High beam assist
- 18” MV3 alloys
- Usual M sport spec - Cruise, sport seat, gloss black shadowline, etc










Very pleased with my purchase especially for the price, drove great and also very economically. With my driving I’m getting 45MPG. In the same conditions my E46 325i was getting 28MPG.

Gave the car a very good clean inside and out. 50/50 pic of the seats.



Interior shot



The engine start/stop was peeling slightly. Price for new button was around £40 which I was difficult to justify. Instead I decided to peel the trim of completely and to be honest I thought it looked rather good. Very difficult to tell.

Looks very nice in LCI Bluewater Metallic I must say.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the speakers in the doors aren't stock are they?

[E60525d]

Well spotted! That pic was taken after I did an audio install which I will write about shortly.

[E60525d]

February 2016

Following on from this thread I bought a SSD for the CIC unit, http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=841458

It is supposed to make the CIC much quicker and reduce overall loading times.

I had a 20% off eBay voucher which came in handy.

Zheno SSD




Removal of the old unit was simple, did a copy of the contents to the SSD and worked 1st time when fitted.

During install


Original HD


New SSD mounted



Overall a noticeable improvement in speed, not night and day difference though. The maps do load much quicker and the zooming is almost instant.

[E60525d]

February 2016

The gloss black door trim was showing its age. The edges that tiny chips where the paint had come off. This was sorted using some gloss black paint and some cocktail sticks.

Was time consuming as didn’t black paint going anywhere else. No before pics, but here is the result




It does look miles better than before, one more thin coat and it should look even better.

[E90-AMD]

Originally Posted by E60525d

Well spotted! That pic was taken after I did an audio install which I will write about shortly.

I can see some shiny speakers hiding, consider these:

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-3er-E90-...699?nav=SEARCH

[E60525d]

Originally Posted by E90-AMD

I can see some shiny speakers hiding, consider these:

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-3er-E90-...699?nav=SEARCH

To be honest I did think about doing that do the speaker covers but thought it might look a bit too aftermarket.

But then again I have not seen them in real life which may sway my decision.

[E90-AMD]

Originally Posted by E60525d

To be honest I did think about doing that do the speaker covers but thought it might look a bit too aftermarket.

But then again I have not seen them in real life which may sway my decision.

They're not aftermarket, they actually come with cars that have the L7 system. Look at AhmedB's old car (Bluewater 330d too). He had it equipped

[Shane.]

Originally Posted by E90-AMD

They're not aftermarket, they actually come with cars that have the L7 system. Look at AhmedB's old car (Bluewater 330d too). He had it equipped

Now my car ;-)

Standard from the factory

[Shane.]

Originally Posted by E60525d

February 2016

The gloss black door trim was showing its age. The edges that tiny chips where the paint had come off. This was sorted using some gloss black paint and some cocktail sticks.

Was time consuming as didn’t black paint going anywhere else. No before pics, but here is the result




It does look miles better than before, one more thin coat and it should look even better.

Superb work mine are the same showing signs of wear and had never thought of touching them up had planed to get them re painted but may try touching up. What paint did you use?

[E90-AMD]

Originally Posted by shane1985

Now my car ;-)

Standard from the factory

Nice light contrast. Got these in my car too to go with the silver alpine door speakers. They really give an upmarket look

[E60525d]

Originally Posted by E90-AMD

They're not aftermarket, they actually come with cars that have the L7 system. Look at AhmedB's old car (Bluewater 330d too). He had it equipped

Originally Posted by shane1985

Now my car ;-)

Standard from the factory

I might have to look into this again.

I was thinking of painting mine like shown here, http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=634804

But I'm sure when i took my door cards off the install new speakers, my grills were plan on the inside. They didn't have the centre grill.

[E90-AMD]

Originally Posted by E60525d

I might have to look into this again.

I was thinking of painting mine like shown here, http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=634804

But I'm sure when i took my door cards off the install new speakers, my grills were plan on the inside. They didn't have the centre grill.

Actually looking forward to your write up, how does the system perform at high end? Any distortion? Bass clarity?

[E60525d]

Originally Posted by E90-AMD

Actually looking forward to your write up, how does the system perform at high end? Any distortion? Bass clarity?

I will do a writeup on it soon. It cost me slightly more to what an Alpine setup costs but its a different league, it sounds miles better.

[E60525d]

Originally Posted by shane1985

Superb work mine are the same showing signs of wear and had never thought of touching them up had planed to get them re painted but may try touching up. What paint did you use?

Just used some gloss black paint that I had. It does look much better now. Where previous the edge of the trim was very noticeable as they were silver due to the paint coming off.

I reckon one more coat and it'll be spot on.

[ahmedb]

Originally Posted by shane1985

Very nice work see the link to my Bluewater also a manual and very high spec.

Can you send me more details about removing the phone cradle and ashtray please as things I'm keen to get done myself. Also how do you check the temperature I'm 100% sure mine is fine but would like to check.

Would you also mind PM me how much you paid for yours please?

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1289863

LOL

Trust me Shane, you got an absolute bargain on yours! I'd never sell it again for that price