My wife's "new" BMW!

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: dparm
Nice find. Also good to see you went for the LCI, which has some nice improvements.


What does LCI mean?



Life Cycle Impulse

It's the "refresh" they do during the model's life. For the E90, it was stuff like LED tail lamps, new grille, better interior parts, upgraded nav, etc.
 
No cup holders in center console! Oh the horror!
grin2.gif
 
My wife also has to have a BMW, which I enjoy driving. The only real way to know what options are on the car is to run the VIN. It will tell you what grade of leather, headlights, radio options, suspension options, cold weather, etc. On the BMW's there are so many options, you just have to look it up.

My wife has the same motor in her car, it is great and stays clean. Common issues seem to be leaks around the oil filter housing and on some cars there are 4 aluminum 'head bolts' (they are not head bolts) that the head breaks off of and need to be extracted. I believe two are visible outside the valve cover and two inside. Our broke around 70k. We had no symptoms but the dealer saw it during an oil change. We also do about 7k OCIs.
 
Nice car; color too.
Even though I highly prefer the E46 cockpit/dash/console over the E90- cockpit style, it's still one of the best looking out there.
Congrats!
 
The dash is a bit plain looking, and I don't like the lack of coolant temp and other vital gauges as well, but my wife doesn't care about that kind of stuff so it's all good
smile.gif
I love driving this car a lot more than I did her Jetta.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Patman
and I don't like the lack of coolant temp and other vital gauges as well

But yeah, no dedicated coolant gauge.


Besides, these coolant gauges are dummy gauges anyway. If the car had manual trans, it would be semi-useful as you could get some idea when it's OK to start revving high. With an automatic, it likely won't allow the engine to rev too high anyway if the computer thinks the engine is still too cold. Otherwise, the typical coolant gauge on a BMW (and many other cars) is programmed to just sit at 12 o'clock and not budge unless you're overheating big time. In case of your car, you'll just get a warning message in the dashboard.
 
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
Ultragauge....
smile.gif



I've got one in my Civic, but my wife would never go for it in her car though.

I picked up some M1 0w40 on the weekend so I'm gonna change her oil this week. I was in the US so I stopped in a Walmart and was happy to get a 5qt jug for $25 (and two more single bottles for $7.74 ea), but not so happy to find that the Fram Ultra cartridge for her car was $25! I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on an oil filter so I bought a regular Fram Extraguard for $9 (which is still overpriced IMO)
 
Autopartsway also usually has very good prices on OEM type filters for German cars. Partsource is also another good place for them, lately, too. Last time I checked, German made Mann cannister filters for my old Audi were under $5 a piece.
 
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
Amazon has Mahle and Mann too. Free shipping with Prime.
COO varies, though.


Yup, that's what bothered me about ordering filters from Bavauto, the ones for the 3'er weren't made in Germany for basically the same price as the OEM filters that were.

I just order them from the dealer now. Price is fine and they are made in Germany.
 
I changed her oil over to M1 0w40 today but I wasn't able to change the filter as none of the filter wrenches I had were big enough, and two different ones I bought didn't work, the cartridge housing is just on there way too tight. So I ordered a proper cap type wrench from Amazon, so it should be here in a day or two and then I can change the filter. I will use the Fram that I bought for now, and in about 5000 miles I will change it again, I'll have to see what I can find locally for a decent price. I'll try Partsource first, and if I have no luck there I'll just pop into Budd's BMW in Oakville.
 
I went to Partsource and was happy to find that they sell the Mann filter for just $11.85 (including tax) so that's definitely what I'll be using from now on. That's a great price for a great filter. I feel much more comfortable running that then any of the Fram cartridge filters!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top