[RND1]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

The clutch and flywheel were replaced under warranty at 33k miles due to excessive flywheel shaking on engagement (dual mass flywheel issue internally).

I tried to get BaT to let me auction the car on their site, and even after having a great outcome/experience with my E39 M5 auction on their site, they turned down the 330i based on it having 160k miles regardless of its condition. My argument that it represented to peak of the traditional BMW normally aspirated (non-M) sedan formula that served the company so well since the E3 launch in the late 60s wasn't persuasive.

I was just getting ready to post the for sale ad when a friend of a friend heard about it. It sold for $6500.

Darn - seems exactly like what we're looking for and at the right price! Interesting about BAT - seems they are motivated by low mileage above condition. Wonder if most E90 330i's clutches have been replaced by 120K miles? That's the target mileage we're looking at so we can get one where the clutch, OFHG, OPG, and VCG's have all been done.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by RND1

Darn - seems exactly like what we're looking for and at the right price! Interesting about BAT - seems they are motivated by low mileage above condition. Wonder if most E90 330i's clutches have been replaced by 120K miles? That's the target mileage we're looking at so we can get one where the clutch, OFHG, OPG, and VCG's have all been done.

Probably not. Ours had almost 130k on it by time we sold it, and it was still functioning great - smooth and strong engagement, no issues. Of course it depends hugely on the car's duty cycle. 50k miles of lots of long highway trips vs commuting for example.

The worst of all the N52 gasket leaks of course is the OPG, but both N52s here experienced all 3 of those right around 90-120k miles...

[RND1]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

Probably not. Ours had almost 130k on it by time we sold it, and it was still functioning great - smooth and strong engagement, no issues. Of course it depends hugely on the car's duty cycle. 50k miles of lots of long highway trips vs commuting for example.

The worst of all the N52 gasket leaks of course is the OPG, but both N52s here experienced all 3 of those right around 90-120k miles...

Thanks again for sharing your experience. Do you know if there is a way to look up a vehicles service history by the VIN? I know Toyota has that, but not sure about BMW?

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by RND1

Thanks again for sharing your experience. Do you know if there is a way to look up a vehicles service history by the VIN? I know Toyota has that, but not sure about BMW?

For service work done that was charged to BMWNA through the original warranty or BMW CPO warranty, then that is in the system that any dealer has access to (though if you don't have a relationship with a dealer, they likely won't share such). As to non-warranty work, that is only stored at the dealer level. I would imagine by now, most all E9x cars have had years of either self-maintenance/repair or indy work though.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

The E91 is still hanging in here without any issues for many months now. A year onward the genuinexenon eBay seller xenon control modules that were less than 10% of BMW pricing have functioned flawlessly since then.

Fast forward 8 months from the above declaration, and two issues popped up one of which had been dealt with before (Xenon control unit).

So the Xenon control unit on the RF headlight I replaced about 18 months ago bit the dust. I'm still way ahead of the $570ish BMWNA price. I ordered another $45 unit. I didn't remove the bumper cover fully this time as you only need to pull it out some to be able to remove the headlight unit. Start to finish it took my wife and I about 45 minutes, and the headlight is back working once again.

The second issue was the left rear door lock/latch mechanism. It would only operate manually from inside, so the electric part of it was toast. My first thought was how the cheap window regulators I've bought off an Amazon seller have worked fine, so let's take a look at the latch -- $42 versus over $200 for the BMW OE part. Worth a shot (on this car...it's the beater).

Close inspection of the part revealed it was super cheap compared to the OE one. Whereas the window regulators looked identical between cheapo and OE, this part was made with a cheap steel stamping with very thin steel. The three screw holes were not threaded, but in fact you couldn't thread them since the sheet steel was maybe 1 thread pitch thick!

I thought about using self-tapping screws but first decided to see how it fit in the door. It didn't. You'd have to force (i.e. deflect) the unit to get the screw holes to line up. That was it -- return to Amazon, got best discount I could find on OE part (just under $200). Given this is a potential crash safety part too, it's probably not wise to try to save bucks here.

So I get the OE part and look over how nicely it's made only to find its screw holes have no threads. Interesting. However, the unit has a nice thick steel outer structure and the screw holes are very deep.

The tap size is 6mm/1mm (6mm diameter, 1mm thread pitch). A quick run to Home Depot to buy the tap and $7 later, I had the three holes tapped. I have no idea why it's delivered without the holes tapped, but I was more focused on finishing the job versus pondering.

The latch unit went right in but thankfully my wife was again helping me since it helps to have small hands/fingers to reach in and connect the cable from the outside door handle to the latch unit.

The craft heat gun once again did a great job at helping to reseal the vapor barrier properly, and the door is back to proper operation again.

The only thing still hanging over the E91 is the oil pan gasket leak. The car will deposit about 1 drop every 4-5 days on the floor (it got a garage spot back after the 330i left), so it's not a bad leak (yet). Sigh.

[CSBM5]

Fast forward another 14 months and here's the latest update.

1) What I thought was an oil pan gasket leak has stopped. Zero oil drops for over 1 year now. I need to do an oil change, so I'll drop the lower cover and see what's up, but at least it's been fine for over a year.

2) Not sure if I mentioned this in this thread before, but this N52 had the infamous lifter tick. It would come and go, and at its worst sound awful. A hard run through the gears and some constant high rpm running would have it quiet until the car sat for a while.

I changed from Mobil 1 0W40 (and I assume that this car probably had BMW 5W30 before I owned it). I decided to try Shell Rotella 5W40, and after maybe 500 miles or so, the lifter tick never came back. That was about 18 months ago, and so far so good. Anything to do with the oil? No clue. Coincidence? Maybe. Don't care! Just hope it doesn't reappear.

3) It's been 3 years since we restored the headlight lenses, and they are now showing some cloudiness again, so it's time for another round.

4) Last November the car developed a misfire in cylinder 4, so I ordered new Bosch coils and plugs from FCP Euro since I assumed they were original (turns out one had been replaced in the past). All was fine with those until around April this year when two of the new coils started acting up and throwing codes. Moving them to a different cylinder location had to code following the move, so return to FCP for replacement, and all has been fine since.

5) Last winter the car developed a horrific squeal/whistle noise, SES light, etc, but after stopping/restarting it was went away. Code was for the Valvetronic control motor. This happened a few more times, so in May we replaced it, again using FCP Euro, with a Bosch part. Definitely get the new gasket when you do this as it doesn't come with one. It was straightforward to do, and has worked fine since.

6) Issues waiting attention right now are a broken cup holder return spring and a problem with radio reception. Already checked the antenna wire connection to the diversity amplifier, and that is fine, so I suspect the amp but just haven't felt like dealing with it yet.

7) The PSAS3+ came off and were replaced with Michelin PS4S in 235/40-18 all around on these 219M wheels. Great tires, and the car feels nice to drive on them with its stiff sway bars and all.

[CSBM5]

Latest update:

1) Back in November in preparation for winter in the case we needed a car to actually move if the roads were slippery, I bought some BFG Comp-2 A/S PLUS in 225/50-16 for the stock 7x16 wheels. These tires are actually very impressive for an all-season tire and in Tirerack testing yielded test results very close to the Michelin PSAllSeason4, PSAS4. You definitely feel the tall sidewalls compared to the 235/40-18 PS4S, but the grip level is surprising, and the tires behave like a proper high performance tire (i.e. no crazy squealing, nice linear build of slip angle vs cornering load, etc). We never drove the car in snow, but on very cold, wet conditions, they performed great.

The PS4S/219Ms are going back on this weekend.

2) We did restore the headlight lenses a 2nd time with great results. This time we used Meguiar's restoration kit along with extra intermediate sanding to really get off all the old yellowed/cloudy junk that reappeared after the Sylvania restoration kit used last time. They look fantastic now, and the UV protector in this kits seems superior in that it goes on without the streaking experienced the last kit exhibited.

We also took the extra time to sand out, polish and UV coat the foglights. I wish I had taken before pictures since the fog lights were cloudy white -- you couldn't see the bulb or reflector at all.

3) The RF Xenon control unit failed again. This is one of those cheapos from Amazon (i.e. ~$40 vs $550 BMW) as mentioned in a prior update. It took only a few minutes to replace it yet again with another refurb unit from a different seller (but these are all probably from the same place in the end).

Other than that, the E91 soldiers onward performing duties like mulch and plant hauling, etc. About 140k total miles now.

Here's the restored headlight and fog light. Note that the orange light reflection is the morning sunlight as the lights are off in this picture, but it does show nicely how clear they came out.

[Fritzer]

Dang I do almost quadruple OP's annual mileage on my E90. For some reason it is really hard for me to imagine driving any less than I do, I guess I drive a lot!

[CSBM5]

About 149k miles on the E91 now, so we've put 47k miles on it over the past 6.5 years. We recently did oil/filter change along with a brake fluid flush. No significant issues have cropped up for a good while now although last summer one of the 219M wheels developed a tiny crack on the inside. I have the other three 291M for sale now since I replaced them with some Apex ARC-8 in 9"x18" size which is the perfect width for the 235/40-18 PS4S tires...see below. I ordered them in "Hyper Black" which is really more like a shadow chrome finish. I have the Race Silver EC-7s on the M3 and almost ordered these in that finish too except Apex had these on sale for about $70/wheel cheaper.

[CSBM5]

Quick E91 update:

The ABS/DSC pump/electric motor failed. As typical, it was the electric motor attached to the assembly that failed. BMW MSRP on a new one (requires core back to them) is $3263, and discounted by getbmwparts it is $2455. Not happening. If I had the time, I would have removed the motor off the ABS unit (somewhat destructive to the plastic case, so you have to glue it back on) and cleaned and installed new brushes which should have cured the issue.

I did some searching and found some places that will refurbish the unit charging in the $400-500 range. Due to some health and time issues, I decided to have a good indy shop about 40 miles away do the work. They charged $598 for the rebuilt unit (they sent it out for rebuild, and it took about 2 weeks to get it back) plus labor. This is the first time in over 6 years we've not DIY'd any issue with the E91. It's actually not a hard job to do however.

2nd thing is we once again did a rear window regulator last weekend, the right rear; the prior cheapo ($29) Amazon sourced regulator failed. It had been in the car for 4-5 years. I bought this Dorman part for $50 this time. We had it swapped and the vapor barrier heat sealed back in place in about 45 minutes start to finish.

As an aside the E90 M3 (41k miles now) and M2C (16k miles now, warranty just expired unused since we bought it new in Sept 2018) carry right on with zero issues now for many years.

[tlow98]

Nice to see you still keeping up with this e91. Yours seems to be decidedly more needy than the e91 I passed on to my sister. It needed the usual oil leaks around 100k and then had an odd issue with the halos. Also, a washer fluid pump. Now rear door lock. A stereo amp issue. Rear tail light seals that leaked.

Wait, what was I getting on about it being not as needy? :-)

Cheers to a great beater, a better stable, and a devoted owner. I need to
Learn how to convince the wife to help.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by tlow98

Nice to see you still keeping up with this e91. Yours seems to be decidedly more needy than the e91 I passed on to my sister. It needed the usual oil leaks around 100k and then had an odd issue with the halos. Also, a washer fluid pump. Now rear door lock. A stereo amp issue. Rear tail light seals that leaked.

Wait, what was I getting on about it being not as needy? :-)

Cheers to a great beater, a better stable, and a devoted owner. I need to
Learn how to convince the wife to help.

lol, yep, these cars at their age will eat someone alive if they have to pay retail parts prices and labor to be fixed. I can't fathom what the total bill would have been to date for this E91. Prior to us buying it in Feb 2016, it was owned by two typical owners since new with the second one buying it as a CPO car. I'm sure once they got the first thousand $ repair bill it was traded.

Speaking of washer pumps -- I missed posting about that ordeal from about a year ago. The rear window pump stopped working, and it was only available as a BMW OE part and was a *lot* more expensive than the aftermarket pump for the windshield (they sit side by side on the washer tank). They looked identical except the one for the rear window had a connector with a groove feature in it that was missing from the front one, so you couldn't just connect up a front pump in its place, and it was ~$60 from BMW (discounted) vs ~$8 for the windshield pump at Advance Auto.

So given that the pumps appeared identical, I bought the AAP $8 pump, shaved off that groove in the connector, and it works perfectly. My first thought was perhaps BMW had designed a more stout pump for the rear window due to the obvious larger pressure drop over the long distance, but this one works amazingly well with a strong blast of fluid on the rear window.

So it's junk like that which must just continually add up for a non-DIY owner. An indy would have charged $60 or more for the pump plus probably 1.5 hours labor ($200?) plus shop supplies, etc, etc, so maybe $300 out the door versus $8.

Which reminds me of an aside update. Right after purchase the HVAC fan bearing was squealing (posted about it above), and I had to attend to it twice, the 2nd time soaking a mixture of Mobil 1 and penetrating oil into the bearing multiple times. Knock on wood, it's still been functioning 100% fine since then (2017) with no noise ever since!

[M-technik-3]

Mine has roughly same mileage and is a 10/06 build so EARLY 07 It's had a few of the same maladies that you have had.

Nice thing is with BMW enthusiast we share information and lend hands to others so they can get back on the road. Nice update and thanks for suggestion on the rear pump mine failed earlier this year and honestly I have been a bit lazy and have not checked into why it's not working could be just plugged.

When you did the lights did you remove them from the car? I did mine in July and they were great but have already started to haze over again. I hate plastic headlights. Funny part is I do Plastic CNC work now.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Mine has roughly same mileage and is a 10/06 build so EARLY 07 It's had a few of the same maladies that you have had.

Nice thing is with BMW enthusiast we share information and lend hands to others so they can get back on the road. Nice update and thanks for suggestion on the rear pump mine failed earlier this year and honestly I have been a bit lazy and have not checked into why it's not working could be just plugged.

When you did the lights did you remove them from the car? I did mine in July and they were great but have already started to haze over again. I hate plastic headlights. Funny part is I do Plastic CNC work now.

It could very well be that the filter on the pump(s) bottom is clogged. My tank had a bunch of slimy gunk in the bottom of it, and the filters were clogged with the gunk. Unfortunately, once replacing the filters that pump still didn't work. It did give me a chance to completely clean the tank with hot water and all while I had it out, ridding it of 15 years of accumulated junk.

We did the lights in place both times. They're almost ready for a third time, so I'll be using yet again a different kit (Griots this time) to see how that works. This poor E91 lost it's third garage spot when we downsized and moved three years back, so it's out in the elements 24/7.

[StuKatz]

Stunning car.

At your mileage , strongly recommend a cooling system refresh, pump, thermostat, hoses etc.

Also WRT to handeling, the H&R lowing springs made a massive improvment on our E91. The car feels planted to the road and streering response and feel is amazing

[NorthernDancer]

OP=Thank you so very much for your very useful and important posts. I've only owned my E91 for 5½ months, 06 330xiT, 6 speed manual imported from Germany with only 77,000 miles. So many of your posts offer ways to fix your/our car without paying exorbitant dealer prices. You are in the camp of Mike Miller and Rob Siegel.

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by StuKatz

Stunning car.

At your mileage , strongly recommend a cooling system refresh, pump, thermostat, hoses etc.

Also WRT to handeling, the H&R lowing springs made a massive improvment on our E91. The car feels planted to the road and streering response and feel is amazing

Some of it may start to go, but I don’t consider the cooling system a preventative maintenance must-do on the e90 generation cars as they are so tolerant of even severe overheating. On the e46/e36 cars it was definitely a must do. Now I inspect the hoses visually and scan fro pump codes ever once in a while.

[M-technik-3]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

It could very well be that the filter on the pump(s) bottom is clogged. My tank had a bunch of slimy gunk in the bottom of it, and the filters were clogged with the gunk. Unfortunately, once replacing the filters that pump still didn't work. It did give me a chance to completely clean the tank with hot water and all while I had it out, ridding it of 15 years of accumulated junk.

We did the lights in place both times. They're almost ready for a third time, so I'll be using yet again a different kit (Griots this time) to see how that works. This poor E91 lost it's third garage spot when we downsized and moved three years back, so it's out in the elements 24/7.

I'll check that out, thanks for tip, forgot they had the filter. E9X chassis is still new to me having owned the two I have since 2020.

[CSBM5]

Originally Posted by CSBM5

5) Last winter the car developed a horrific squeal/whistle noise, SES light, etc, but after stopping/restarting it was went away. Code was for the Valvetronic control motor. This happened a few more times, so in May we replaced it, again using FCP Euro, with a Bosch part. Definitely get the new gasket when you do this as it doesn't come with one. It was straightforward to do, and has worked fine since.

Fast forward another bunch of months, and this valvetronic motor, referenced above, we replaced back in early 2020 failed. Same symptoms as before -- intermittent squealing and check engine light that goes away but comes back (but code for "valvetronic, thermal overload protection: warning threshold", 002A43, is stored).

So I ordered another one along with the gasket from FCP, and I will be taking them up on the lifetime warranty for this now 3 year old part and gasket. We (my wife and I) installed it yesterday without any issue. Car is running fantastic afterwards (of course only after having a cylinder 3 misfire on first start which I quickly traced to not fully seating the connector on that coil - i.e. the #3 and 4 coils need to be pulled out to deal with the valvetronic motor replacement).

Next up are dealing with the headlights again (cloudiness somewhat returning) and an oil/filter change in the next few weeks.