INTRO: Excited New E46 Owner!

Hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself to the forums. I just bought my first bimmer. It's a 2003 325i. Just bought it from a private seller (who happens to be a BMW salesman at Roseville BMW). Didn't get too much information about the cars history except a clean car fax, 3 previous owners, and recently replaced front lower control arm bushings. Manual.

The cars white with an M3 front bumper (replica) and black CSL wheels (I'm going to guess replicas), and angel eyes.

First and only picture I have myself of my new car



Issues with the car: Alignment, the car pulls to the left. (Which the seller somehow tried to deny)

The foglights were apparently melting the plastic peices they fit into with the new M3 bumper so he unplugged them and taped them in there? Not even sure, I'm going to have to take a look when I have time.




Either way, really looking forward to owning/enjoying the car. Going to get it fully inspected hopefully this weekend to relieve my mind of worries.

Have a good one.
-Ray

Welcome Ray. Car's beautiful, you're going to have so much fun with it.

Love Alpine White! Congratulations Did you pick it up from Roseville? Close to my house. haha

Haha yes I passed Sacramento to get there. I'm in the South Bay. Driven it 200 miles since last night..... no hiccups yet *cross fingers*.

And yes Alpine White is SO NICE. Especially with the M3 wheels and the M3 front. I just need to figure out how to fix those fog lights!

Oh very nice! Well if you are ever in Sacramento let me know. We have a pretty big meet every month as well as smaller other ones. Do you need to replace the fog lights entirely?

Sounds good I'd love to go. I literally have no idea about the foglights. I assume he meant they are the stock foglights, which I thought shouldn't fit anyways.

Oh yea, the only thing the previous owner hasn't done that I plan on doing in the future is a catback exhaust. Nothing pricey, but its gotta deepen that tone

Well if you need to fog lights, there are many sponser here such as Khoalty, or Modbargains. Or even check out the classifieds section! As for catback exhaust... there are not that many options. From what I know, UUC TSE3 and Highline Tuning Exhaust are pretty popular. I have a full catback UUC which sounds AMAZING! Quiet at idle, but roars when WOT. And no drone whatsoever. They retail for 1400, but you can find them used for much cheaper! Just search this site and i'm sure you'll find different options and such.

Thanks a lot for the quick tips man appreciate it! I'll start roaming the site this weekend after work

Originally Posted by raymoon

Thanks a lot for the quick tips man appreciate it! I'll start roaming the site this weekend after work

For sure! Have fun with it! Update us with some pics soon

Will do.

Just went on a quick test drive. Never noticed the lag in the throttle. Drive by wire sucks... Was also noticing some bogging/jerking when taking off in 1st and 2nd with the clutch all the way out. Hopefully its not VANOS? Wasn't sure if I'm just letting the clutch out too fast or something.

How'd you move from Irvine so fast?

Car looks good take some more pictures!

Originally Posted by cityjohn

How'd you move from Irvine so fast?

Haha I'm from Irvine originally, went to school in Santa Cruz and now I'm working in the south bay.

Hopefully I can get some pictures tonight, gotta find somewhere well lit.

I keep thinking that I have some issue maybe with VANOS, but reading about it it says the lagging/shuddering/uneven power should be before around 3k. SOMETIMES i'll get it around 3-4k in first gear, less so in second, and never in the other gears. This is under hard-hard-ish acceleration. I'll have to do some more testing i might just be a hypochondriac about this..

Actually no that should not happen ever...i'm past 2.5k RPM, clutch all the way out, i'll floor it, POWER-meh-POWER-meh-POWER (little hiccups almost). I think when I apply the throttle more gradually this doesnt happen.

Researched threads:
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...ghlight=hiccup
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...ghlight=hiccup



Been reading the stickies about just purchasing your car. I'm having it inspected at Autobahn Motorsport Haus in Mountain View hopefully this weekend, replace any necessary parts and perhaps overhaul the cooling system. Trying to keep this thing for a while....

some pics. they're not very good because they're from my phone.

Looks good I believe those are ZCP reps! Just get it inspected and replace everything accordingly! Check out Mangos thread on cooling system as well http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=914109. Maintenance is key! haha. Besides that just enjoy her!

How can you/I tell what brand wheels they are? I'm definitely going to get it inspected. I live really close to Autobahn Motorsports Haus so I'm going to make an appointment for a full inspection on Saturday. Do you know how much I'd expect to pay (I'll search)? And yea I saw Mango's coolant thread, maybe do some myself, and let Autobahn handle the rest we'll see how much work I want to do (or money). I also was reading about the rear subframe problem, but that they tend to be in the pre 2003 models.

Originally Posted by raymoon

How can you/I tell what brand wheels they are? I'm definitely going to get it inspected. I live really close to Autobahn Motorsports Haus so I'm going to make an appointment for a full inspection on Saturday. Do you know how much I'd expect to pay (I'll search)? And yea I saw Mango's coolant thread, maybe do some myself, and let Autobahn handle the rest we'll see how much work I want to do (or money). I also was reading about the rear subframe problem, but that they tend to be in the pre 2003 models.

I'm not sure what brand they are... its hard to tell when just looking at the wheel. But if you look at the design, it is slightly different than my CSL's. They look at the ZCP's from the M3 competition package. Pricing differs from every place you go. For a basic inspection it shouldn't be terribly expensive. In my opinion, do as much as you can! There are many DIY's out there and its enjoyable to work on your car. Obviously if there is something to hard to handle, let the pros do it. haha. But you can save a lot of money doing it yourself. You shouldn't have a subframe issue... but it doesn't hurt getting it checked out as well!

Uh I just realized, the seller never gave me front license plate......I should definitely get that huh. Anyone have trouble with the cops with this issue?