Ownership Verified: Stepping to the dark side: Sifus e91 320d M-sport

Update on the car after about 1500km.. apparently not a walk in the park (which i did not expect either)

- Bought a handle for the trunk floor storage cover and installed it. Reserved one installation beer for it and it was just enough. 10-15 seconds for installing the handle and rest of the time drinking beer.

- Changed brake pads (which was the only service with little mileage left). Now its free of jingles + service requirements? nah, ofc the at first intermittent fault of rear light failure (didnt show it when test driving) is now a permanent failure of both rear lights (only the ones in the trunk hatch, also called inner lights). Common fault in e9x,e46 and in e6x models. The reason is just bmw not doing rear hatch cabling properly and the wires get chafed when the trunk is opened and closed. It could be a grounding issue, but what are the odds that both inner lights go out at the same time. Shall see if ill cut the protective rubber and check if there are chafed wires and solder them by myself or ill leave it for the professionals (i know a few in the region who do it quite cheaply). New wiring loom is about 400? + installation at the marble top -service.

- Also the left light jet washer leaks a bit after usage (when I tested this in test drive I had the headlights on, but on the automatic setting DRLs were not on -> the headlights were off at automatic setting when it detects enough light -> therefore it did not spray on the headlights).

- It needs new shocks in rear (right one leaks a bit). This should be done before MOT. They are ordered already.

- Bird shat on my cars roof when I was at work, had a hot day (in Finnish standards), a black car paint that seems to get quite hot and now it has some lacquer damage. I hope that it doesnt need too drastic removal (wetsanding etc) and can be removed with quite mild products.

- Need to find a way to calibrate (I dont know if it is possible by myself) the fuel consumption. The car said that the consumption was 8.1L/100km (avg. speed 37kmh) with 90% city driving. When I fueled the car up the real consumption was 7.6L/100km.

- Apparently someone scratched my right side of my rear bumper with his/her car at last wednesday/thursday. Washed the car friday and noticed some scratch marks which werent there before. I always approach my car from the left side (at work and at home) so the day when it happened is not that clear to me.

- Car needs a polish, it has been in automatic car washes for sure. Swirl marks and few bigger scratches are there and the car was "detailed" before the sale and the smaller scratches remained unnoticed from me when purchasing the car. Lesson learned, I should have kept a bottle of pre-mixed CH[SUB]3[/SUB]CHOHCH[SUB]3 [/SUB]with me and wiped the whole car with it :D What surprised me is that the overall paint condition is somewhat poorer than my focus had (older car and I thought that bmw had harder paint/lacquer than other brands)

- Rear hatch closes a bit rough and opens a bit rough also, needs a bit adjustment on the locking mechanism and maybe new hatch struts.

- Burr walnut interior looks just fine (this was also one question mark in it). No immediate need to wrap them. Shall see if ill polish them.

- I do like the interior, especially the seats are fantastic for my bodytype. Of course I need a longer trip to verify if they are perfect for longer trips. Longest drive I had when coming home when I bought the car. Needs a bit of a cleaning on the cloth sections and in the alcantara also (all tips are welcome how to clean alcantara without too much stress on it. What products to use and how)

- Professional Hi-Fi sound is a bit too bassy and murky when at factory defaults (and especially the settings which the previous owner used), but when upping the higher sounds the overall sound quality is quite nice indeed. 13 speakers do make a difference

- Otherwise the car performs well. The itchynes in road grooves is now minimal with new tires and I do enjoy the automatic (blashemy!) when doing that kind of avg.speed. The black colour is growing on me day by day (the first choice would have been the le mans blue but you cant have all when purchasing a car with limited budget and timeframe) and I do love the looks and a bit menacing presence of it. Apart from the rear light problem, I have been very satisfied with the purchase (shall see how it hurts my wallet). Of course it has some wear and tear but its quite normal with this kind of mileage.
 
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Update vol 2:
- Also the left light jet washer leaks a bit after usage (when I tested this in test drive I had the headlights on, but on the automatic setting DRLs were not on -> the headlights were off at automatic setting when it detects enough light -> therefore it did not spray on the headlights).

- Bird shat on my cars roof when I was at work, had a hot day (in Finnish standards), a black car paint that seems to get quite hot and now it has some lacquer damage. I hope that it doesnt need too drastic removal (wetsanding etc) and can be removed with quite mild products.

The leaking has stopped. For some reason after usage it does not drip at all now. The drips came when I topped the reservoir and used it. But now it seems when it is not topped up anymore, the dripping is gone. Fingers crossed.
Bird shit -damage is also gone, washed and waxed the car (only auto glym srp). For the shit I used son?s sfx-2 and a white Flexipads Waffle Applicator (mildly damped with water) and after 30 seconds it was gone..

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+ It has an another new scratch... Someone apparently dropped something on it at my workplaces parking lot and it has one almost vertical scratch right behind the rear right door..
 
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Thanks! The car is a 3 meter car (paint looks good viewed from distance further than that) and needs attention via claying (it has a rough surface, who knows what is it), machine polishing and proper interior cleaning (there are stains etc).
 
- Apparently someone scratched my right side of my rear bumper with his/her car at last wednesday/thursday. Washed the car friday and noticed some scratch marks which werent there before. I always approach my car from the left side (at work and at home) so the day when it happened is not that clear to me.
Couple of washes later I have noticed that the rear bumper lacquer has cracked a bit near the place where this scratch is. Seems like the plastic bumper did warp a bit more than I anticipated. Will upload pictures when I get my server up and running (I just moved and the physical server is not connected yet. This is the reason why my pictures are not visible atm).

Otherwise car is performing just fine.
 
Now its free of jingles + service requirements? nah, ofc the at first intermittent fault of rear light failure (didnt show it when test driving) is now a permanent failure of both rear lights (only the ones in the trunk hatch, also called inner lights). Common fault in e9x,e46 and in e6x models. The reason is just bmw not doing rear hatch cabling properly and the wires get chafed when the trunk is opened and closed. It could be a grounding issue, but what are the odds that both inner lights go out at the same time. Shall see if ill cut the protective rubber and check if there are chafed wires and solder them by myself or ill leave it for the professionals (i know a few in the region who do it quite cheaply). New wiring loom is about 400? + installation at the marble top -service.

- It needs new shocks in rear (right one leaks a bit). This should be done before MOT. They are ordered already.

The wiring is ok, the other side has a bulb missing and other has signs of grounding issues. New bulbs and a new bulb "base" to the other side and maybe a LCM reset / reconfigure should do the trick. If not, new LCM unit (footwell unit 3 apparently) is needed (which is another 400? part at the marble top).

Rear shocks are replaced, also replaced the bump stops (they were toast).

I also replaced the rear right door locking mechanism, which was acting up (not locking and unlocking at all).
 
Update.. The wiring to the rear Hatch glass section is acting up. Pressing the cable protection the lock clicks. Therefore when i close my trunk it can unlock the glass part leaving it open :(
 
Update.. The wiring to the rear Hatch glass section is acting up. Pressing the cable protection the lock clicks. Therefore when i close my trunk it can unlock the glass part leaving it open :(
And one hour labour fee later it is fixed. He cut and rewired the broken ground cable with stronger and more elastic cable (about 25cm piece is now new) and did the connectors inside the headlining and inside the trunk, therefore it shouldnt break that easily anymore. Its a bliss having a estate where you can actually use the trunk :D
 
The inspection at the MOT station gave the car a no fault pass! Even though the lights at the hatch do not work and it states that in the nav screen at start up.
 
Noticed that (via secret menu in e91) my coolant temp was not normal when driving (only 61 celsius). Therefore I changed the thermostat + housing and egr thermostat.
 
Acquired some 18" RH alurad MO editions for the winter. The wheels that came with the car are 17" M6 m-sport replicas which have serious lacquer problems and not so good winter tires on. Decided to sell those and thought that what the heck and got an inch bigger ones instead. Will buy new studded tires for the "new" alloys.
 
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Meanwhile I would swap the 17" I have to 16", if 130i brakes would let me. :D It's rather "spordy" ride on uneven snowy roads..
 
a 320D wagon looks so nice, especially with those wheels on it, weird that youre using the 18s as winters, are they not a nicer set to keep for summer?
 
a 320D wagon looks so nice, especially with those wheels on it, weird that youre using the 18s as winters, are they not a nicer set to keep for summer?
I have 18" wheels for the summer also. I personally prefer the design in those (style 124s).
 
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A potatopic of new wheels and tyres under the car. Kumho w31 225/40r18 and rh mo edition 8j et35.
 
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IMG_20151217_084239~2.jpg


a pic with a slightly better lighting..
 
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As far as aftermarket wheels go, those look really smart and nearly original. :cool:
Thanks, those resemble e60 msport wheels (style 135) which is why I bought these under half the price of used genuine ones....
 
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