2011 328i Longroof - The Saga Continues

[m42b32]

I'm glad to hear the new arms helped a ton with the brake shudder!

[P_Roloff]

Refinished the headlights this weekend!

Went with a box kit instead of the 2k clear this time, I decided to see how long it lasts and make a decision from there. Initial impressions are that it turned out great though!

Before:

After:

I will note, I wet sanded from 1200 up to 3500 grit on the passenger side light instead of starting at 2400 on the drivers side, and it turned out way better. Highly recommend getting some extra paper in coarser grits if you use a kit like this, it really makes it turn out much nicer. 
 

Reslly cleaned up the front end look, I love the way this car looks when it’s clean. 

[P_Roloff]

129,393

Power steering fluid flush completed. I initially tried to flush by disconnecting the return line and directing into a catch bottle, capping the reservoir nipple, and filling as I turn the wheel back and forth, but stopped when I couldn’t get the hose off of the reservoir. It was stuck on there pretty good and I didn’t feel like cracking the reservoir wrestling with it. 
 

I’ll try that method again when I buy a replacement reservoir; until then, I just drained and refilled the reservoir 6ish times with a quick drive around and some lock to lock turns in between each. It took the fluid from “used motor oil” to “slightly dirty green pentosin” so I’ll call it a win. Not going to let perfect get in the way of improvement. I have a spare liter still so I’ll probably burn that at the next oil change with a few more drain and fills. 

[P_Roloff]

Did a sorta-kinda triathlon this weekend near La Farge - paddled in lieu of the swim. Did about how I expected, 5/8 in my class and 71/138 overall. Considering I haven’t competed in anything similar ever, I feel pretty happy with it and definitely identified some spots for improvement. 
 

In addition, I did some backroad bombing and snagged some photos of the car while I was there. It played the role of camping rig beautifully, and had zero hiccups. The adaptive headlights are seriously incredible for driving after dark in the country, I wish all my cars had them.
 

[patsbimmer1]

I remember thinking "Headlights that move?  No way that works."  Then I started driving cars with them and it's so fucking useful.

[P_Roloff]

13 hours ago, patsbimmer1 said:

I remember thinking "Headlights that move?  No way that works."  Then I started driving cars with them and it's so fucking useful.

I thought it’d be a gimmick. I then was able to see deer on the insides of corners and no longer felt it was a gimmick. 
 

What I really can’t wait for is when the U.S. finally gets the adaptive laser headlights that the rest of the world has had for awhile; they’ll dim out the sections pointing at other drivers and at signs so you don’t blind them/get blinded but maintain intensity everywhere else. 
 

NHTSA finally got around to pushing them through I believe, so they should start popping up in the next few years. Can’t wait!

[GunMetalGrey]

20 hours ago, P_Roloff said:

I thought it’d be a gimmick. I then was able to see deer on the insides of corners and no longer felt it was a gimmick. 
 

What I really can’t wait for is when the U.S. finally gets the adaptive laser headlights that the rest of the world has had for awhile; they’ll dim out the sections pointing at other drivers and at signs so you don’t blind them/get blinded but maintain intensity everywhere else. 
 

NHTSA finally got around to pushing them through I believe, so they should start popping up in the next few years. Can’t wait!

I don't know if you've experienced these in person, but it is truly amazing.
I was in an Audi Q8 with some guys in Switzerland and I couldn't believe how well it cut the light out around street signs and cars.

It was the best random thing to slip into the COVID legislation.

[P_Roloff]

3 hours ago, GunMetalGrey said:

I don't know if you've experienced these in person, but it is truly amazing.
I was in an Audi Q8 with some guys in Switzerland and I couldn't believe how well it cut the light out around street signs and cars.

It was the best random thing to slip into the COVID legislation.

I haven’t, but I’ve always thought it was neat tech. Now I’m even more excited for it!

[P_Roloff]

I’ve just been putting up with the dreaded musty smell from the HVAC vents in this car since the summertime and it hasn’t been getting any better, so I finally decided to do something about it. I’m pretty sure the issue came about when I turned on the recirc mode for a week or two when it was really hot to try to get slightly cooler temps out of it; I’ve now read that recirc mode should be used sparingly and you should walkways turn off the ac and run the fan for a few minutes before shutdown to air it all out.

After some product research, I decided the Nextzett Klima Cleaner would be my best bet:

I went with the method of removing the blower motor and spraying directly onto the evaporator; my first attempt I missed with the hose and didn’t get it all the way there. The second try, I got the hose sufficiently far over and hit the evaporator square; it foamed up nicely and drained thru the evap drain hoses along the trans tunnel. 
 

I waited 20ish minutes, put the blower back in (so much easier than the e30), and ran the fan on high for 10ish minutes to dry it all out. I’ll report back in a week or two on the results!

I also discovered a 12V power plug on the panel under/behind the glovebox door that I never knew I had, so that’s a win! I might need to enlist @Bassboy3313 to make me another of those printed inductive charger pads and run the power to it from this plug. 

[Jdesign]

Curious on how this works out. Ive always used an ozone bomb for a car that was really bad. 

[P_Roloff]

On 11/6/2023 at 12:29 PM, Jdesign said:

Curious on how this works out. Ive always used an ozone bomb for a car that was really bad. 

Smell is still there. I’m going to try it again I think (maybe spraying some down the hvac air intake as well) to see if that helps. It’s definitely better, it’s almost gone once the hvac has run for a few seconds, but it definitely still there. 
 

The blower motor had the same smell as the air I’ve been getting out of it, so I’m wondering if the smell and gunk is in the ducting too. I haven’t replaced the cabin air filters either, so might do that. They’re almost external though so it’d be a bit odd if that was the culprit. 
 

What product did you use, if you don’t mind me asking?

[m42b32]

I have an ozone machine if you want to borrow it. My brother used it to get cigarette smoke smell out of his XJ and it worked amazingly, haven't had a whiff of it since. You could put it in the car with the air running.

I did replace the cabin air filter sometime in 2022 with an oem one but worth a check anyway. 

[P_Roloff]

On 11/8/2023 at 10:53 AM, m42b32 said:

I have an ozone machine if you want to borrow it. My brother used it to get cigarette smoke smell out of his XJ and it worked amazingly, haven't had a whiff of it since. You could put it in the car with the air running.

I did replace the cabin air filter sometime in 2022 with an oem one but worth a check anyway. 

Yeah, the cabin filter was something of a last resort if nothing else fixes it. I’ll definitely take you up on that, I’ve heard great things about those!

[Jdesign]

On 11/8/2023 at 8:17 AM, P_Roloff said:

What product did you use, if you don’t mind me asking?

I've used an Ozium Single-Shot Fogger and another brand that I cant find online. Having access to a ozone machine is 100X better idea though!

[P_Roloff]

Just found this tonight:

Looks like BMW finally put out a recall for the VANOS bolts issue. 
 

I wonder if it’s anything more/different compared to the service this car already had? From what I remember the bolts were replaced with steel ones? Sounds like the same. 
 

Also a good reminder to get the car in for the PCV heater recall as well. 

[Jdesign]

On 11/15/2023 at 12:21 AM, P_Roloff said:

Broken link^

[P_Roloff]

133,400

Changed the oil in the rear differential. I used full synthetic liqui moly 75w-90 and a couple transfer pumps to get it done. 

Old oil was in quite good shape, I don’t recall seeing records of it being changed but it looks like it was. Still, the new stuff is way lighter in color and it’s good peace of mind. I only got about 3/4 of a quart out so I’ll maybe do it again in 10-20,000 miles once it’s all mixed in. 
 

I also noticed some coolant under the car the other day, so while it was on the lift I pulled the belly pan and took a peek.

It seems like there’s two leaks:

- One appeared to be a loose hose clamp on the water pump; I tightened it and will re-check in a few weeks.

- The other seems to be either a leak at the seam of the radiator on the drivers side, or the o-ring on the upper rad hose. It kinda looks like it’s spraying, but I wonder if it’s wind blowing it off of the radiator as it leaks and spreading it all over the underside. I’m going to swap the o-ring this week sometime and see if that fixes it, and if it doesn’t I’ll get a new rad. I’m considering a full aluminum replacement to bulletproof it, but we’ll see. This one should be under warranty still but if it failed this fast I’m not sure if I want to put the same thing back in. 

[P_Roloff]

Replaced the passenger side door pull - it was all nasty like most of them are and left sticky black stuff on your hand when you pulled it. Not ideal. 

I bought the Amazon special version, as much as I want the OEM look I couldn’t bring myself to spend $100ish on a new door pull that’d break down in the exact same way in a few years. The black plastic definitely looks cheaper on the outer cover, so maybe I’ll get an OEM replacement for that, but the inner feels fine and it all mounted solidly. This version uses screws instead of the heat-staked originals. 
 

[P_Roloff]

134,6xx 

Coolant leak saga is over - took it into Kummrow as the leak started to get worse and I never was able to figure out exactly what was leaking - turns out the radiator itself was leaking. Apparently, the Behr e9x radiators commonly fail at the crimps on the driver’s side end tank near the bottom - I can’t remember the exact % they said their supplier has taken back under warranty, but it was a lot. 
 

Anyways, got it replaced with a Genuine BMW one, that should hopefully solve it permanently. Hope this knowledge saves some of the other e9x guys here some pain, this is one of those cases where the OE supplier part just doesn’t cut it. 

[P_Roloff]

138,802:

Oil change completed, swapped in new wishbones on the front due to a ball joint clunk I was hearing, and found that while they definitely weren’t perfect, those weren’t the problem. After some poking around, I concluded that the 1-year old tension struts were the issue. The passenger side arm had a bad ball joint already. 
 

Brake shudder is I believe still the culprit, I replaced the drivers side rotor and it improved, but now when I spin the passenger side rotor that one has a very obvious high spot in it. For now, I just replaced both tension struts again and am going to order new brake pads (EBC yellowstuff, going to get something with more bite to hopefully keep pad material from building up) to hopefully solve this permanently. Planning to just turn the rotors for the new pads since they’re almost new still. 
 

Front shocks are mega blown out, their replacements arrived a few days ago courtesy of @patsbimmer1. Went with soemthing a little spicier than OEM, I’ll share more details when they’re installed. 
 

Oh - last update: had a semi back up into this car in traffic in April, and I was extremely disappointed. The hit wasn’t too hard but it put a large crack in the front bumper, which is NLA and basically unobtanium (genuine performance aero bumper, and would’ve made the car have an incomplete kit)

Through Reddit and a bit (read: a stupid amount) of luck, I found one on German EBay of all places, bought it, had it shipped here (in only bubble wrap 🙃) and finally painted and installed a week or two ago. I managed to snag a euro model bumper too without headlight washers, so I got to delete the ugly covers and the ugly side markers all in one fell swoop. 

[YoungCR]

Bummer but glad it worked out! Crazy those are NLA already, you should 3D scan and reproduce them...

[P_Roloff]

On 7/1/2024 at 9:26 AM, YoungCR said:

Bummer but glad it worked out! Crazy those are NLA already, you should 3D scan and reproduce them...

I believe it’s just the performance aero stuff. M sport and regular are easy to get, so not sure how many people would pay for it. I certainly kept the old one though!

[P_Roloff]

Update at about 140k: turning the rotors and installing EBC Yellowstuff pads seems to have completely eliminated the braking shudder issue. I’ve put a little over a thousand miles on it already after the change with no issues. I will update if anything changes. I haven’t really gotten on them yet but I have zero complaints so far. Good cold bite, easy break in, and the 335i brakes with any pads have great power - I can only imagine that these will haul the car down like the hand of god. 
 

It still has a mild vibration at highway speed that comes and goes that was improved after the front brakes were done, but I’m going to start with a wheel balance and go from there. Pretty sure there’s a bad ball joint somewhere in the rear suspension too so that likely isn’t helping. If the front pads were this prone to pad deposits it could be that too but on the rears, but since there’s no pulsing anymore when braking it seems less likely. 

[m42b32]

I'm glad to hear you were able to sort out that brake shudder!

[P_Roloff]

143,020:

Replaced air filter - used a Mahle filter (P/N LX1035) in the euro airbox and it was an identical drop-in replacement. It doesn’t show up as compatible on FCP euro for the euro airbox, while the K&N does - the Mahle is 1/4 of the price and doesn’t need to be oiled or anything. Very happy. 
 

Upper control arm ball joint is already failing again after replacement earlier this year, sounds like the TRW upper control arms have been problematic since a COO change from Europe to Malaysia. They’re letting me warranty with Meyle M3 arms instead, hopefully those work better because swapping them every year is quite annoying. 
 

Pretty sure there’s either a sticking caliper (unlikely) or a failing wheel bearing on the drivers rear, it’s generating a lot of heat after even short drives. Going to temp gun it and see if I can diagnose further. Just got parts in to fix the leaking washer fluid (pump and filters), as well as rear sway links and rear subframe bushing inserts. Going to order front struts and start stockpiling all the rear suspension parts for some much-needed suspension refreshing this winter. 
 

In other news, I used the wagon for a weekend camping trip at Mirror Lake this past weekend, it was perfect for the job and never skipped a beat. I love this car.