[Onizukachan]

Greetings E90post.

Came over from f30post where pictures are auto adjusted to fit the page so apologies in advance that pics will be large.
Hopefully the admins will fix the forum software setting for E90post to match the rest of the “groups” sometime soon since it is an E90post issue, not a pic too large issue.



First This is my 4th BMW and fourth Touring.

Had a 92 e34iT which got manual swapped, an e46iT, and an f31 diesel Msport, which I sold in Dec 2022.
All were OEM+ builds, and 3 of 4 were mildly lowered, while e46 was low enough on factory sport suspension after going to a thinner spring pad for me.

Just got home yesterday to El Paso TX after 2000+mile 4 day road trip from Detroit where I bought an 06 e91ix manual in BR over Terra from a board member.
Wife only agreed to let me drive it back if I had a copilot/navigator along so I wouldnt push it and fall asleep on the road. So I asked my mom and dad if they would each take a leg and go on this adventure with me as routing thru their location only added a couple hours to the shortest possible trip and got me out of winter weather and back onto roads I know very well (i20/i10) before end of second day.

Bought dad a ticket to fly up with me and we had the same flight onto Detroit, so we got to spend two days going the 900 miles from Detroit to his house In central MS (he had to preach Sunday) , and then day 3-4 my mom rode with me the remaining 1200 miles from their house out to here as my wife didn’t want me taking the trip alone.

Friday was interesting, we got about 30-45 minutes down the road when a snowstorm hit and spent the next 8 hours making only 400ish miles that day thru Ohio and KY.
Often we were creeping along at as little as 30 mph during the worst of it. Any faster and it just would start hunting in the lane and fishtailing. Luckily most others were in a similar predicament, but when it would clear or change to rain the car was great and we zipped along at 70-75 no problem. It was so bad Sirius couldn’t even activate.

Second day was clear and bright but still colder than a witch’s teat. Made it the last 500 miles to dad s house and out of the eastern time zone in about 7 hours and got to see my brother and his wife, my 5 year old nephew and meet my newest nephew that evening.

Third day saw it still cold and I put the hammer down and put in a 700+ mile 11 hour day going from mom and dads place all the way to Sweetwater TX.

And finally 4th day, drove the last 6 hours and 400 miles, with a brief 20 minute side trip into Big Springs to take a pic at a picturesque old Gulf gas station I took pics at on my last “new” old car drive home in an 06 r53 last summer… and mom and I arrived home very early Monday afternoon.

On the 4th day, in the desert, temps were WAY up to the mid 70s… and it was then I discovered the car’s a/c actually isn’t working, somethin that was masked by driving in near freezing temps for the prior 3 days… so I will be diving into that ASAP as from end of February to early December it is absolutely a necessity out here. The other thing which I WAS told about was the comfort access not working.




So far I have collected the perforated handbrake handle & leather gaiter to match the perforated leather MSport steering wheel, a set of vinyl overlays to better visually “hide” the white reverse lights amd give an LCI-ish appearance , and a set of window shades for the hatch glass, the rear doors and the quarter windows.



Future plans are railectomy (and probably a diy fill and refinish of existing rail inserts like e46 guys have done for last few years since the slick euro rails supply dried up) as it makes the car sleeker, quieter amd more “euro”, rear fog DIY, possibly a CIC conversion as an aluminum idrive knob is bad enough to hurt on a 75 degree day, and a 115 degree day in the sun would be unbearable. Plus the 2005 dvd predates my entire side of town… I live 4 miles into nowhere according to it, as all this was desert just 10 years ago. And I wouldn’t mind some 18” wheels to be able to fit 340mm rotors and brembos from an f3x up front and e90 335 rear calipers and rotors later on as well.

Tonight I coded US thru signals as sidemarkers off, fogs with high beams, flash to pass back ot the inner halogens so it still works when lights are off, and OBC speed indication without correction.


Thanks for reading along and here’s a few pics.

[eljay]

Congrats on a beautiful and unique Touring!

What's the mileage?

For AC, check the hard line that runs along the passenger side frame rail. Where it is exposed to the wheel well opening, dirt gets in, traps moisture, corrodes the line, creates a pin hole and refrigerant leaks out. Many shops will not find that leak.

[Onizukachan]

Showing 163k now that I’m home, high miles but all the common faults (Mickey mouse, radiator, struts, etc) have been addressed in the last year and it drives like new.

Appreciate the tip on the hardline!

[StradaRedlands]

I love this car!!!

[tlow98]

Nice pick up! I miss mine. E90s are solidly built BMWs. You’ll enjoy this bank vault for along time!

[Onizukachan]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Nice pick up! I miss mine. E90s are solidly built BMWs. You’ll enjoy this bank vault for along time!

That’s exactly how my wife described it, she likes the r53s amd loved the comfort amd economy of my f31d, but this one she described as “solid and smooth”


Reminds me in a way of a rolls, just has that sort of solidity about it.

[E93Seattle (Racerbruce)]

congrats and awesome ride!

if this info is correct, bmw's last yr to build a "long roof" as strada would say is 2019?
https://carbuzz.com/cars/bmw/3-serie...en)%20Facelift

you are saving another "long roof"....well done!

[Onizukachan]

I mean they still make them… they just don’t bring them over here. First year was 1992, ie my e34, and last year was 2019 like my f31.

Gave it a quickie front end wash to get bugs and stuff off it this evening, pulled the rubber mats and pressure washed them to get rid of salt and such, vacuumed the floors and trunk floor, and gave it a good wash underhood to be sure the salt and such is all gone.

Was going to install the new msport perforated handbrake handle and leather boot but it still needed more conditioning, so I did so. Easier to do it whilst still off the car.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to get my window shades installed, and start running some diagnostics to figure out what is up with the AC, as I really can’t drive it as much as I want to due to the spring weather without working AC.

but also my eldest wants to go look at a 330 sport f30 an hour away on opposite side of town to possibly purchase as well so hoping he it turns out ot be a good one.

[Onizukachan]

Well did a few things to the touring today.


Got my new perforated leather msport handbrake handle on it last night. Tried the push in the holes method, tried the yank, tried the twist and pull, nothing worked for half an hour.

Finally move the boot up out of the way, got my slipjoint pliers and another set of pointed nose pliers… used the slip joints around the shaft snugly as a “base” to pry against with the other pliers and handle popped right off easily.

No pics yet, sorry.


Installed my carshades window shades.


Love how the color changes depending on the light.

And yes, it really does look like it is two tone painted in a setting sun, almost like Mojave brown below the belt line and purple above as seen in this first pic.

[Onizukachan]

Shortly after dark, Alex and I debadged the tailgate and added my BMWCCA badge to the left of the plate in that flat area.

Finally we added the red vinyl overlays over the reverse lights to cosmetically hide them.

[Onizukachan]

I bought a tool and did a thing.

Then another thing.

[Onizukachan]

And then moved my switch plunger down to rear fog temporarily to test these worked.

[lordnikon]

Awesome colour

[Onizukachan]

Small thing but this arrived in the mail a few minutes ago…
And was immediately installed to get rid of the “race car red” one the PO installed.

Nice piece but in pics it looked more like a brushed alloy finish not just plain silver.
Ah well, still far more subtle to the eyes.

And yes, I haven’t had a chance to fully clean and detail the interior yet. It’ll happen soon

[M-technik-3]

Nice updates, you might like the factory smoked tails better. Amber Blinkha's as we say in Mass and Factory led tails.

[Onizukachan]

Yes, I considered the black lines, but really I want LESS white/clear and more red rather than more clear and less red with this color. With something not in red family I think they look great. (Or on japanrot)
Had factory clears on my e46it ( will have to put them up for sale one day soon) & smoked amber turns on my e34iT.

I ideally I’d mask off that strip of white and respray them all with a candy red and then clear like we used to do with evo 8s or xBs that had the gross APC looking lights stock.

And on e91s you have to have a complete LCi tailgate to run LCI led lights… the inners are a different size between facelift and non. If that weren’t the case I’d have already bought a set from the UK!

[Onizukachan]

The center speaker is starting to mess up, sounds like start of cone to surround separation which tends to happen with the L7 aluminum cones, so rather than buy another single used one for $40 decided to upgrade them to something better for $55.

A full set of F30 676 hifi speakers.

And yes, the f30 hi fi speakers (4ohm) are light years ahead of the e90 L7 HK (4 ohm) harsher sibilant alloy cones, and they play smoother and lower. I’ve pushed these super low in my f31.

Anyway for $55 shipped it will be a fun experiment and might open some doors for affordable easy speaker upgrades for L7 e90s since both are 4 ohm speakers.

[Onizukachan]

Originally Posted by lordnikon

Awesome colour

Thanks and can I say imo you stole the show in Hackers.

[Onizukachan]

So I final got some time to clean up the interior a bit, and install the 9006 Nokya amber bulbs. Was going to install my Hella h7 in the flash to pass,
but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out , after removing the access panel in the wheelwell, how exactly to get the back accesslight cover to open.
It doesn’t have a metal clip but some type of push down or push up clip tab at the top. Didn’t want to risk breaking something so called it quits on those for now.


I did however
a: fix the L7 center speaker (reglued partially separated cone to surround with e6000)
&
b: swap the f30 center in, and I listened to both without the cover to get a true a ->b comparison.

I frankly like the f30s tonality better, it plays “better”, cleaner and slightly louder than the L7 did.
Will have to swap the other door speakers out to the other f30s I have, but I don’t like (and always tuned out)
rear door tweeters so those I’ll leave disconnected when I do. Before reinstalling the center speaker cover,
I also removed the metal grill from the frame and cleaned the decomposing foam out of it.
I had done this before on my hifi 676 f31 after swapping to hk center cover and it really helped with the transparency acoustically.
On it, I had also taken advantage and done a B&O style thing with an extra OEM cool white/605nm orange ambient light source I had and edge lit fiber optic cable to highlight the speaker.
Was cool to see, and unique, looked OEM but not worth the extra effort.


Also this is day one of the 7 days of the year when that tree looks absolutely stunning, so had to includes it in one pic.

[M-technik-3]

The window shades did you order them here in the US or UK? My better half's X3 could use these or have the windows tinted professionally.

[Onizukachan]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

The window shades did you order them here in the US or UK? My better half's X3 could use these or have the windows tinted professionally.

From the UK. But honestly they ship faster from UK than us sellers like on eBay ecs etc, usually get them in 3-5 business days.

[Onizukachan]

A few things in the mix, dropped the front headliner to install th3 alarm brain…


Figured whil3 it was half dropped I might as well drop th3 rear too.

found a set of low rails on eBay for about $200 shipped… and I liked them on my f31d…
but after looking at pics of e91s in non black white grey silver with them, decided I didn’t like em on e91.
They aren’t as well integrated into the design. So I just deleted mine like I did on the e46it.
Still need to pull the rail insert trims off and see about filling in the 4 holes per side,
but for now they are gone and all 6 thru holes plugged with SS bolt SS washer and rubber washer.



Also the rear of the console was very scuffed and the soft touch was peeling pretty bad plus the ashtray wasn’t working…
took it off=and apart, and got a plastic decal scraper and very hot (teakettle hot) water and scraped and scrubbed the vast majority of it off.
There is still some in the texture but 95% percent of it is gone and the part looks near new… not brand new perfect but hell of a lot better.