Ownership Verified: My E90 320D M Sport

Paddy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,317
Location
Waterford, ?ire
Car(s)
'06 BMW 320 M Sport
I may as well start a thread on this seeing as I'm collecting it Monday / Tuesday.

Although I was originally looking for an E60 M Sport, when this came up I just knew it was the one. It's a 2006 320D M Sport with 41,000 miles and a full BMW service history with a previous lady owner. It's a UK car originally and was brought into Ireland in 2007.

The factory options list looks something like this ...

- M light-alloy wheels double spoke 194M
- MFSW
- Alarm
- Colour coded
- M Sport package
- Aluminium interior trim
- Warning triangle
- Anti-dazzle mirrors
- Sports seats
- PDC
- Fog lights
- Air Con
- Cruise Control
- Lights Package (anyone care to elaborate on this?)
- Preparation for mobile with Bluetooth interface
- BMW Professional radio
- M Sport suspension
- M Leather wheel
- M Aerodynamic Package
- BMW high gloss satin chrome
- BMW anthracite headliner

Two crappy pictures of the car after the deal was done ...

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I've already melted the credit card by ordering some German plates from Eire Plates, carbon fibre corner splitters, carbon fibre rear lip spoiler and black kidney grills from SSDD Motorsport in the UK, swirl flap blanking plates from PMW in the UK and I've ordered some 19" BBS LM replicas in R9.5J & F8.5J along with some Eibach springs to lower the front 50mm and the rear 40mm. I also picked up an iPhone cradle for the centre arm rest from my local main dealer.

Why a diesel ? Cheap running costs, cheap fuel, cheap tax and 200+BHP and 300+FT/LBS after a remap with 50+MPG - For the driving I do it's absolutely perfect

Now all I need is the bloody car !
 
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The ride will be a bit hard. Rest of the car is great.
 
nice choice, plus the mods youve planned sound nice...
 
Cheap running costs, cheap fuel, cheap tax

I've already melted the credit card by ordering some German plates from Eire Plates, carbon fibre corner splitters, carbon fibre rear lip spoiler and black kidney grills from SSDD Motorsport in the UK, swirl flap blanking plates from PMW in the UK and I've ordered some 19" BBS LM replicas in R9.5J & F8.5J along with some Eibach springs to lower the front 50mm and the rear 40mm. I also picked up an iPhone cradle for the centre arm rest from my local main dealer.

thought you wanted a cheap car?? with all the money you've spent on the cosmetics, you could have gone for a good demo 330i

anyway, its a good car. congrats and many happy miles.
 
Definitely a nice car, no doubt, plus loads of fine equipment.

But lowering it AND putting 19" alloys on it sounds a bit...ehm...hard? The 3-series is not the most comfortable car on the market in the first place, even with standart suspension and 16" wheels.

EDIT:

I'm used to driving a van on coilovers, it'll be like rolling on a sea of feathers in comparison !

Oh...OK...if you say so.
 
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thought you wanted a cheap car?? with all the money you've spent on the cosmetics, you could have gone for a good demo 330i

A 330i has an annual road tax of ?1200-?1500 here - the outlay doesn't bother me as much as the annual upkeep plus I budgeted for the modifications at the start.

Definitely a nice car, no doubt, plus loads of fine equipment.

But lowering it AND putting 19" alloys on it sounds a bit...ehm...hard? The 3-series is not the most comfortable car on the market in the first place, even with standart suspension and 16" wheels.

EDIT:



Oh...OK...if you say so.

I did toy with the idea of running 18s (wheels pictured are 17s) but was advised by my wheel guy that the 18s would look sort of strange and that the 19s are the only way forward with these. It'll definitely be interesting to see how it all comes together as in my head it should work. If not, none of the changes are permanent and can be undone !
 
If the E90 gets as awesome transformation as the caddy, it will look excellent. I mean, the starting point is not exactly rubbish either :D

Good luck with the new car, and I'm waiting to see the pictures when you've installed all the toys! :)
 
Diesel beemers, suddenly they're hot, i guess the second hand market for them is getting nicely affordable, nice car Paddy, can't say this and the van normally look right side by side in a garage, but with your mods im sure they'll look epic as a set :D
 
swirl flaps?

I can only assume swirl as in-cylinder swirl, as in the part of the intake port that causes the flow to swirl around and mix the fuel better. Why would you want to block that? unless you are keeping it open constantly. It won't hurt to have less swirl, but surely its not going to make the figures its advertised with with out them. Or it will, by squirting a bit more fuel in, but then your down on MPG and up on emissions like PM, which is a little bad news if its got a DPF.

I understand that they can fail though and then not play nice with other important moving parts.
 
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They fail and fail quite often in the M47 engines, particularly before 2006 but I'm going to remove them for peace of mind anyways. I don't like the idea of a piece of metal finding a new home between my piston and cylinder head.

Unfortunately, my van is sold and the new owner will be collecting tomorrow / Monday. Onwards and upwards and all that ...
 
Collected her this afternoon and to be fair to the dealer, he has her (relatively) shining. One or two odd little parking dings that will be sorted but all in all I'm absolutely thrilled to bits and have more gadgets than I can shake a stick at.

Took some quick snaps once I got home, apologies for the road grime on the front. I'll grab a username / gear stick photo tomorrow.

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Nice ride, very classy. Sadly it's so much more boring than your old Caddy van. :lol:

Still, I'm sure you'll have much more fun driving the Beemer. Congrats!
 
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It's a bit rep mobile at the moment but that will all be sorted in due course.

Changed the standard low and high beam bulbs over to something more powerful, what a complete fucking PITA it is to change bulbs in them! Also mounted a fire extinguisher in the trunk, paired my phone with the car, cleaned the exhaust tip and cleaned the leather interior. Also fitted German style number plates over the horrific Irish type ones.

Eibach lowering springs arrived today, just waiting on tires now and blanking plates and into the garage she goes for a makeover. I'll look into a remap after that and pretty much be finished with the modifications then.
 
Just a small update -

Wheels arrived during the week - R:19x9.5 ET40 F:19x8.5 ET40 :

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Eibach springs arrived shortly afterwards :

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Because neither I nor the manufacturer knew which size swirl flaps the M47 engine has, they sent me out both sizes with an option to return the incorrect size ones. 32mm versus 22mm versions pictured below :

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I picked up some cleaning products today as well but looks like I might not need them just yet :

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Lighting package, if its anything like my MINI, includes self leveling bixenon projectors. But I'm not sure I see the telltale half-globes of projectors in your headlamps...
 
Nice handwriting. I was gonna ask if you're in the art media business, but checked your profile and it appears you are. :p
 
Nice handwriting. I was gonna ask if you're in the art media business, but checked your profile and it appears you are. :p

Yeah, my lecturers always told me I have girly handwriting :cry:

Lighting package, if its anything like my MINI, includes self leveling bixenon projectors. But I'm not sure I see the telltale half-globes of projectors in your headlamps...

Turns out it was just extra courtesy lighting both inside and outside the car such as LEDs under the door handles.


Not a whole lot happening this week so far except to have the car booked in to have the lowering springs, swirl flap blanking plates and crank case breather fitted on Thursday. Ordered some LED number plate lights last night from SSDD which will be shipped with the spiltter, spoiler & grilles etc once they arrive in stock at the end of the week. Hoping to have tires on the rims by the middle of next week at the latest.

I had an hour or two to kill today so decided I'd coat the rims with Chemical Guys' Wheel Guard as it'll be so much easier now than trying to do it when the wheels are already on the car.

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