My 2001 325i Write up

Originally Posted by E46Mango

Good work, man. I like the way you're thinking. Cleaning things up, looking at other things, fixing things while you're in there. Keep this up and you'll be assistant to the assistant of the commander in chief of the E46 army!

Was just taught to be very thorough with any vehicle..

Started with a Pathfinder..


Moved to VW GLS..


Added a K5 to that..


Dumped both and got an Subaru RS..


and now I'm here..


All were thoroughly taken care of, rebuilt, maintained and moved on from. Now I'm in a an upper class (compared to what I previously owned) and couldn't be happier!

Originally Posted by zander271

some of your pictures are gone now

All taken care of!

wow if i saw a bmw with these wheels on it i would never even think of buying it because you just know that previous owner didnt keep it up to maintenance but you get what you pay for... good luck and enjoy

Originally Posted by blksab65

wow if i saw a bmw with these wheels on it i would never even think of buying it because you just know that previous owner didnt keep it up to maintenance but you get what you pay for... good luck and enjoy

It was bought from a auction house where this "usually" doesn't happen. Yea I probably got one of the bad 5 apples out of 600 that were there.. It was a chance and I took it! Learning experiences will pay off in time.

Got all excited today when all the parts came in!


New Water pump and new O ring installed just fine..


New thermostat was fine as well compared to the old one (rear)


But then I got to the tensioner, and I should have thought better of it, but when i attempted to put the dust cap on the new pulley, it didn't snap in. I figured, ehh, its because its the old one! but looked and looked and looked for the new one that should have come with a new pulley, well... never did. I decided to see if it would fit on the bracket anyways.. (fully aware to myself that it is obviously wrong). This is what I got. A pulley that doesn't quite line up right...

maybe 3/8" to a 1/4" off?? obviously doesn't line up though. Pulley only rotateson one side as well. One Side of the pulley has a recessed side where the damn T50 bolt goes, and the other side has a protruding side, the side I imagined has to be up against the tensioner itself. Well, when installed that way, its not lined up! Am I just retarded and its supposed to stick out like that or is this indeed the wrong pulley?

I think I ordered the right part... Real OEM says that piece 21, is a hydraulic tensioner piece.
http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...90&hg=11&fg=18

I ordered this part from BMA: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-BELT-TEN...e4a61f&vxp=mtr
Which is a hydraulic tensioner pulley.
So any reason why this part isn't fitting correctly?!

Was your tensioner replaced with the hydraulic system?

Originally Posted by scarede46er

Was your tensioner replaced with the hydraulic system?

To be honest I have no idea.. i can only find that this e46 has a hydraulic tensioner. I've read that it replaces the mechanical system because of too many flaws. I'm assuming (stupid to do) that it is a hydraulic tensioner.. any way to tell if its hydro/mech. without taking it apart?

well the hydraulic one has a piston that looks like a shock absorber. You should be able to see it if you have the belt and air intake off, I think.

my hunch is that if the dust cap does not fit, you probably have the incompatible one. this may be the one you need. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i01

Originally Posted by scarede46er

my hunch is that if the dust cap does not fit, you probably have the incompatible one. this may be the one you need. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i01

Well darn... who woulda thought that something thats been "MAINTAINED" has something on it that's out dated..

Well, the mechanical pulley can/could be still bought. A lot of dealers would only swap them out when they did not have the OEM mech pulley at hand (they became rarer as time passed). So it may have been maintained, not judging that, but that person could have found a mechanical replacement pulley. Who knows!

Originally Posted by scarede46er

Well, the mechanical pulley can/could be still bought. A lot of dealers would only swap them out when they did not have the OEM mech pulley at hand (they became rarer as time passed). So it may have been maintained, not judging that, but that person could have found a mechanical replacement pulley. Who knows!

Well now the real question is... Do I swap out the mech. one for a hydro. one? If the part become more and more rare, isn't that for good reason? The hydraulic one has more advantages? or do I just send the part back, again, and just stick with the mech. one?

Well She's all put together! Got All the right Parts, All the right Coolant, And countless other things! Got myself a nicely running Bimmer again! (Pending compression tests of course).



Skid plate is all cleaned up as well! that'll help with future problems!



Thanks for all the help on this guys! Really really appreciated! I'll keep this updated as I get window regulators and new rims!

Also am in the process of moving back to Lake Tahoe. Snow Pictures in a non "X" series will be great... Haha

Good stuff. Congrats man.

For future reference it sometimes works to put an oil filter wrench around the pulley to get the fan off instead of wedging a screwdriver in the bolts. It also makes me cringe a little that you seemingly hosed down your engine bay with just a rag stuffed in your intake boot

Originally Posted by TT330i

For future reference it sometimes works to put an oil filter wrench around the pulley to get the fan off instead of wedging a screwdriver in the bolts. It also makes me cringe a little that you seemingly hosed down your engine bay with just a rag stuffed in your intake boot

All the air intakes were covered with ziplock bags and zip ties before cleaning was started, that was just the picture of me doing so when I started taking all the baggies off... I'm fully aware of what water in an intake and combustion chamber can do.

So I promised you guys some more pictures when I got home, and I have been extremely busy since returning to Lake Tahoe.. But here are some images of recent activity, and finally got rid of those atrocious rims and got some powder coated style 96 OEM's!

Much better!