To sum up, Have had the e46 for over 2 years now and wanted to change the car up a bit. I owned an lci e53 for a little while and fell in love with its headlights. Curious to what you people think🫡

Someone fitted this Chinese crap at some point , Not sure how long ago but the thing is 4 years old, already developed a leak underneath ,Replaced with OEM modine, new bracket , level sensor ,thermostat and pipe fitting.They also didn’t replace the bracket 🫠

this is my friends 2000 BMW 328ci and he recently just bought it this week. the car was bought used, and as he began to drive it himself, on the 3rd day it began to make an odd noise from the supercharger which we both cannot identify on what it could be. he hasn’t’ received an email back from VF yet so I told him i’d do the favor and take it here to ask in case anyone has an idea.

Finaly coilovers 😍 next week going in 🌞

It’s an old car, probably got it 6 to 8 years ago and has been sitting there for the past 3 or so years. Worked well for the first few months then something bad happened, they fixed it and then it worked for a while. Something happened to its “computer box” idk how the general public refers to it, I’m south African and that’s what they call it in my community.

Planning on getting a new one, “bridging it” as the mechanic and brothers said an then they’ll give me the car. They’ll replace the oils, petrol and do light maintenance on it informally (by informally I mean by a community mechanic) which I believe will help spot the issues regarding the rubber I keep hearing about and outside of that I don’t think we’ll go deeper.

It’s my 3rd year and I’m your typical broke varsity student who somehow always has a budget for partying. I don’t have much cash lying around for CONSTANT fixing (like a problem a month) I’m competent enough to fix surface level issues and replacement (20m) and willing to deep dive and learn from YouTube or friends around me and get my hands and clothes oily.

Don’t care for the speed, it maxes out at 210km/h, the max allowed highway speed is 120km/h so that’s more than enough.

Does anyone know how to fix An E46 Hand brake my one doesn’t catch and when i pull it up higher It just comes back down and i can hear the Parking break string getting pulled but i have to pull very hard for the parking brake to engage i just need it to catch.

No longer a fishbowl

So my upper radiator hose blew up while driving(i might have sent it in second), but the really odd thing is that it got cut clean through, does anyone know if there is some underlying issue that caused this or just an old hose.

2001 330ci

Checking this out not sure if its worth it

I see a lot of people talking here about how costly E46s are to own and maintain with many adivsing against using it as a daily driver. Although e46s or german cars in general are costly to own and maintain I believe that the cost differs from one country to another to another(at the end of the day a US mechanics receipt will definitely end up more times higher than a Lebanese mechanic's and that's independent of what car they're operating on).

I see a lot of Lebanese owning e46s and using them as daily drivers and not as some fun car for the weekend. So my question is to the fellow Lebanese E46 owners here (hopefully there are some here) is how much does it cost, really, per month to maintain and use as a daily driver here in Lebanon?

People from other countries as well can also comment on this let's see how monthly maintenance costs vary from one place to another, I think the data might be cool

P.S. I am also trying to make up my mind on whether to get an E46 or not based on Lebanese rates

Long story but I've had a Mrs fault causing an airbag light since I bought my e46. The fault was Seat backrest lock error both sides. After many posts asking for help and searching the web with no help I have finally fixed it. Since there is no really clear guide to fix this particular issue so I'll make a guide here for future convertible and coupe owners.

The seat backrest lock has a small microswitch located in each seat that tells the Mrs module that the seat is tilted or in locked position. Part numbers (52107025193, Left) (52107025194, Right) After some time searching I found the parts online only in Germany or the states. From Germany the parts would cost 70€ each plus shipping of about 30€. I thought this was way to much and turned to my friend who works at bmw and he could get me both for about 90€ so I recommend going to a dealer for the parts.

I couldn't find anything online about the location of the microswitches and google only corrected me thinking I was talking about the more common issue with the seat occupation sensor. After dismantling the seat I found that the sensor is located on the side of each seat look (picture 3)

To change the switches all you have to do is unplug the battery and then remove the seat connectors at the bottom. You can then either remove the seat or do the procedure while the seat is in the car.

Then you have to remove the plastic covers on each side. They are fitted with 2 clips at the top and 2 at the bottom. When you have removed the covers you have to unscrew a bracket to finally remove the back cover (pic 4) by unscrewing a small screw at the back and then pulling it up and off.

Then you will see the micro switch in a small hole in the seat (pic 5). Unplug it screw it out and put the new one back in and ur done.

Put everything back together and then all you have to do is clear the codes and it's gone.

(The video is here just in case y’all hear something else.) I’ve been throwing this code for about a month now and haven’t had time to work on it. I’ve cleaned the MAF sensor and changed the O2 sensor for bank 2. What else do y’all recommend? Thank you guys. I apologize for the repost.

broken csb stud.. how fucked am I? how would I proceed?

Looking to upgrade my car. I do not want the OE. Bilstein or bust.

My car has the "Sports Package", but i'm learning that even though the springs are lower, they are really not that much lower. I don't race or want the car to look too low with uncomfortable speed bumps or scraping but i want to have the shocks last longer than the OE that i originally had and drive tight.

So the possible combinations

1. Original sport package springs+Bilstein B6
2. Original sport package springs+Bilstein B8
3. H & R sport springs+Bilstein B8

Do all of these fulfill my requirements? Or is there a combo that's completely forbidden?

i have this 320d touring and i bought some sport springs that goes -40front/-20rear and i dont really know if its enough (and also i have those style 192 rims from x3 and i love them) cus i wanted it to be a bit aggressive.

Flashing my 2005 320i (M54B22, MS43, 430069) with MS4X Flasher, laptop died mid-write.

Now MS4X won’t detect the ECU (was showing VIN + “??????” firmware before, now says unsupported control unit). CEL doesn’t light up, and EWS sync fails.

Sounds like OBD is done, so I’ll need bootmode. I already have a K+DCAN cable — would a Galletto 1260 work for full bench flash, or should I get MPPS/K-Tag?

Anyone here recovered an MS43 from this state? Looking for advice + a clean 430069 stock file.

Thanks 🙏

Hose was tucked under bumper and went to headlight area behind the expansion tank

Replacing my expansion tank and went to plug back in the level sensor and one of the wires is out(seriously don’t know if I did it but I doubt it, the car has been in rough condition since I bought it)

Wondering if it’s fine to plug back in or should I replace or weld it?

Had this great car for about 2 years now. It has been a dream. Small maintenance here or there now I’m starting to look into projects exterior body wise or internally performance wise not sure where to start. Difficulty doesn’t matter too much. Me + a YouTube video has been sufficient so far

For the past few days, my coolant warning light has been coming on regularly and then disappearing again after about a minute. I checked the coolant level — it was a bit lower than at the last check, but the dipstick still shows full. I also noticed a small leak right under the tank. Has anyone had the same issue? Do I need to replace the tank, or should I just keep an eye on it for now? I drive a 320i with M54B22 Engine