Terry's E92 330i

[terryc101]

Finally joined cliosport properly by buying a Bmw.

After owning the 172 for just over a year and using it to drive 2700 miles around Europe (http://www.cliosport.net/threads/european-roadtrip-2015.780747/), I decided it was time for something new. Partly because the problems on the trip made me fall out of love with the car and partly because I currently run two cars that do the same thing, with the track car being a lot more fun if I want a sunday drive out.

Looked at a few different cars all from the same germans, 335i, e46 m3, e39 m5s etc. In the end realising the running costs would be too much on a daily basis and I wanted something that wouldn't make me want to floor it everywhere lol.

So I bought this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331630311681?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

2008 330i Msport
Lemans blue with Black leather
Auto with paddles
Heated memory seats
Bluetooth ready
19" wheels in amthracite sp?


It had every option I was looking for and for a good price (I didn't pay the ebay amount). Picked it up from Birmingham Tuesday night and it was the most relaxing drive Ive done back to Kent, not used to anything other than loud clios droning away at 70mph!

Needs a really good detail and a few little bits like new centre caps but overall its in very good condition. very pleased with it, the morning drive to work is a pleasure not having to worry about the clutch in traffic and in sports mode with the paddles its a fun drive.

Only got a few pics after I gave it a hose off the next morning.

IMAG0704 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0709 by terry clarke, on Flickr

2015-09-13_12-48-45 by terry clarke, on Flickr

2015-09-13_12-48-27 by terry clarke, on Flickr

2015-09-13_12-47-56 by terry clarke, on Flickr


Will update once I've detailed it and changed a few bits. needs de-badging, Opinions on black kidney grills?

 

[Welsh.Dan]

Looks smart!

I like black kidneys [emoji106]

 

[Philip.]

Very nice! Also a fan of black kidneys.:up:

 

[leeds2592]

Really like these, would defo get one after my Clio.

19" wheels in amthracite sp?

Think it's spelt amphasite mate

 

[_Tom]

Lovely motor matey. You wont look back.

 

[Chrisgti6]

Really like these, would defo get one after my Clio.



Think it's spelt amphasite mate :wink:

It's anthracite! lol

So many random spellings of that word on this site!

 

[Sir_Dave]

Excellent choice!!! I would have had to go for Nav personally, but you can always retrofit it for £800 or so.
Needs silver wheels & standard grills imho, you've saved it from Birmingham, dont send it straight back there lol.

 

[leeds2592]

It's anthracite! lol

So many random spellings of that word on this site!

I was only jesting haha.

 

[JakeyCUK]

Looks fantastic, nice colour too! Looking at the exact same car myself, how does the performance feel over the 172? I won't even bother asking about the comfort...

 

[Daz.]

Yup - like that, good choice sir!

 

[jesus]

Now that is very nice!

 

[terryc101]

Looks fantastic, nice colour too! Looking at the exact same car myself, how does the performance feel over the 172? I won't even bother asking about the comfort...

Have only driven it 'hard' in a few shorts blasts. At motorway speeds and above it is night and day to the 172, it just pulls effortlessly. Lower down it's hard to tell as I haven't got the gears as a reference point, off the line they're probably not world's apart.

 

[JohnR32]

Driven the manual e93 version and just couldn't get on with it. The steering was extremely vague and weighted up very strangely, the throttle response was dire and the rear end felt like it was detached from the rest of the car when cornering. They do make awesome daily drivers though, very comfortable, good seating position and could easily cruise at 100mph+ and not make a noise whereas the clio feels like its going to take off at 70mph.

 

[terryc101]

, the throttle response was dire .

Coming from a cable throttled mk1 to a ph2 172 the responsiveness was one thing that really let the car down, from the few hundred miles I've done so far is say the bmw is pretty similar to the ph2.

 

[StuOwen86]

Nice car I loved the coupe I had (335d) and was just so comfortable and would cruise at silly speed on the motorway and not even feel like it was doing more than 50 lol.

 

[JohnR32]

I know the feeling, they hide their speed too well!

Nice car I loved the coupe I had (335d) and was just so comfortable and would cruise at silly speed on the motorway and not even feel like it was doing more than 50 lol.

 

[StuOwen86]

I jumped in my 335d one Friday night after the missus moaning that we never do anything (told her to pack a bag and we would go somewhere) jumped on the M6 and ended up in Edinburgh about 12:30 at night and nearly ended up sleeping in the car lol as it was a spur the moment thing I didnt think about a Hotel haha ended up trying 5 hotels and the last one we got too was a Premier Inn in the city center and it cost me a fortune haha the drive up there was great though sat in triple digits once past the Blackpool turnoff and was sweet all the way and was even great on fuel. A few months later we had a planned trip and took it to Loch Ness that was a good drive too must have been about 7 hours though.

 

[terryc101]

Week off work this week so managed to do a few little bits to the car as well as giving it a really good clean.

Replaced the tired old mats that also had a lovely blue trim :neutral: , in go some lovely ebay specials! £17 and arrived the next day, drivers has the velcro lock too.

IMAG0769 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0848 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0767 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Got some new centre caps as the old ones were more than knackered.

2015-10-21_11-13-02 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Then decided to use some left over plasti-dip and do the kidney grills black. If I decide theyre not for me at least i can peel it back off.

IMAG0761 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0776 by terry clarke, on Flickr

At a local clio gathering

2015-10-04_06-06-17 by terry clarke, on Flickr

 

[terryc101]

Then yesterday i finally got around to giving it a proper detail, in the spring I will get around to properly correcting the paint as it has a tonne of swirls etc that need removing. This time it was more about giving it a deep clean and decon and getting some treatment on the windows etc.

Don't have many befores but the car was pretty filthy and the paintwork was rough to the touch from tree sap on a lot of panels.

Wheel arches done while the wheels were off

PhotoGrid_1445363800827 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Engine bay and door shuts done before moving onto the car itself

PhotoGrid_1445363751573 by terry clarke, on Flickr

2015-10-21_11-15-29 by terry clarke, on Flickr

The only before photo

IMAG0828 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Few during

IMAG0833 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0831 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0834 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Had to break out the toothpicks and cottonbuds lol

PhotoGrid_1445347809176 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Wheels were a state before and need a refurb at some point

PhotoGrid_1445363628235 by terry clarke, on Flickr

All finished! Drove up the road to take a few shots and forgot to put the front plate back on, not trying to be badmanz honest.

IMAG0854 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0857 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0850 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0865 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0869 by terry clarke, on Flickr

IMAG0868 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Cant stand screwed on plates so got some new ones on order and some velcro ready to attach them, some new numberplate bulbs ready to go on too and that'll probably be it for a while as I need to spend some money on the track car.

 

[Welsh.Dan]

Looks very nice. Will look superb with a full da polish. Lovely colour.

 

[Frasers Cup]

I dont really understand the trend to make the front grills black tbh... I think it cheapens the front and makes it look like a bog standard 4 cylinder bmw.

The chrome grills tell people in front of you that you have a six cylinder... :wink:

Nice car though. I've always liked these wheels. Have you checked them for cracks?

 

[jesus]

Such a nice motor.

 

[RDH]

Lovely that mate.

 

[philmots]

That is lovely, that engine is a peach too.

I'd want the grills back silver and the wheels a factory finish, don't forget the little M badges for near the centre caps, they're missing.

Also, proper BMW mats aren't cheap at around £90 but they're worth every penny, they match the interior colour perfect and the quality is brilliant. With respect, the £17 eBay special mats look just like £17 specials! Which is fine, but not in an otherwise lovely car.IMO

 

[terryc101]

I dont really understand the trend to make the front grills black tbh... I think it cheapens the front and makes it look like a bog standard 4 cylinder bmw.

The chrome grills tell people in front of you that you have a six cylinder... :wink:

Nice car though. I've always liked these wheels. Have you checked them for cracks?

My friend mentioned the cracks before I bought it so checked them on viewing and again yesterday with the wheels off, all ok at the moment. It's on non run flats which I believe prevents it to some extent?

That is lovely, that engine is a peach too.

I'd want the grills back silver and the wheels a factory finish, don't forget the little M badges for near the centre caps, they're missing.

Also, proper BMW mats aren't cheap at around £90 but they're worth every penny, they match the interior colour perfect and the quality is brilliant. With respect, the £17 eBay special mats look just like £17 specials! Which is fine, but not in an otherwise lovely car.IMO

Thanks. yeah the engine is lovely, it likes to revs so it's not too much different coming from two na clios. Except it just keeps on going and going...

The mats aren't too bad...lol they were needed as the old ones were knackered and I wanted the carpet protecting from work boots. I'll look into the bmw ones and see how they look.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Noice.

6pot BM's ftw !

 

[Ian_182]

That looks very nice.

 

[terryc101]

Mot this morning, first time since passing my test that Ive had a car go through (without paying extra) first time with no advisories.

2015-12-15_10-46-29 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Swapped the numberplate bulbs out for some led ones and changed the interior ones too, think there were around 14 bulbs to swap compared to the clios 3!

Two terrible pics as i dropped my phone and it now struggles with anything other than daylight.

2015-12-15_10-46-57 by terry clarke, on Flickr

2015-12-15_10-47-38 by terry clarke, on Flickr


Only problem I've had so far is it developed the dreaded exhaust valve rattle, thankfully the golf tee mod stops that as it stays open. Sounds a little bit meatier first thing but not a huge difference, the sound above 4k is just lovely though. Also had a few hairy moments in this wet weather lol first rwd + turning traction off = very out of shape!

 

[Philip.]

Nice!
What are these like to drive, and are they quick?

 

[terryc101]

Nice!
What are these like to drive, and are they quick? :smiley:

Can only compare it to clios and other small hatchbacks I've driven but it's lovely to drive imo. Autobox seems really good, very smooth. Ride isn't as smooth as it could be as it's got different springs being the msport (I think) but I wouldn't say it's firm.
Putting it into sport and using the paddles it's good fun to drive and very planted but it will step out if you want it to.

As for quick I suppose it's what you're used to, 0-60 in 6 isn't exceptional these days but it doesn't hang about when you're pushing it.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Nice!
What are these like to drive, and are they quick? :smiley:

They're not quick .. there's just endless torque, and much more refinement than a 172 for example.

3rd gear will keep passengers compressed into the seat from a standing start to 95 haha ! (Mine is manual 6 spd)

@terryc101 where did you get the LEDs from ? I bought some from eBay and most of the ones in the front seem to want to give me epilepsy. Proper e-marked SMD f**kers too.

I've put winters on mine now - Dunlop 4D somethings .. the big fat rear (255 section) MV2s with crappy Avon somethings on, didn't like much other than warm dry tarmac. Unimpressed ! Wheels off and in the garage awaiting new tyres and refurb in the spring !

 

[terryc101]

@terryc101 where did you get the LEDs from ? I bought some from eBay and most of the ones in the front seem to want to give me epilepsy. Proper e-marked SMD f**kers too.

Lol yeah I read a few threads about people's flickering constantly.
I got these http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=252051051664&globalID=EBAY-GB

Only thing that weren't included were the rear footwell LEDs, they're some tiny little things that I had to buy separately.

 

[terryc101]

Managed my second best average mpg yesterday on a trip to bruges 😂😢

Snapchat-2349073066941515491 by terry clarke, on Flickr

Snapchat-6159614061318470943 by terry clarke, on Flickr

 

[terryc101]

Made a very small change to the car yesterday, The storage compartment in the arm rest in temperature controlled which is great for sticking a can of coke in but thats about it. So I removed the redundant car phone cradle and fitted a genuine storage/oddments tray in its place. Now iI can at least fit two drinks in there to keep cool and my ipod wont slide around when its in there not being used.

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

And yesterday spent half the day cleaning the interior of the car as the weather is too s**t to wash it

picture below has apparently been taken on a potato.

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

 

[terryc101]

Gave the car an oil service today as it was due in around 50miles time, watched a youtube video on how its done as I've only ever done oil changes on clios. Soooo much easier having the filter on top of the engine, only downside is the amount of oil you have to put in. Gave it a good clean after that and removed some etching on the boot from bird s**t, there are a handful of similar marks that'll need attention at some point.

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Treated myself to some new drain tubs 😂

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Never knew cars had oil filters like this either

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Bird etching wetsanded and polished out

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Untitled by terry clarke, on Flickr

Had the car almost a year now and still enjoy driving it everyday, tempted by a set of eibachs for it as i would like it to sit slightly lower but apart from that no plans to mess with it.

 

[Crybert]

Looks nice mate. I always think the e92 looks as though it needs a splitter at the front. Always thought it looks like it's missing something!

 

[Philip.]

Good work, looks extremely 'clean'. :up:

 

[Matt W]

Very nice!

 

[terryc101]

Made a little video of the exhaust note tonight, not that its amazing but I wanted to test out a new camera and compare sound quality.

 

[Cookson]

Lovely motor. Have you tried resetting the throttle for a little more response? Ign on 1st click for 10secs, then off for 10 secs, then drive like a hero.