Xenon Headlight Bulbs

I'd been looking at some new headlight bulbs for a little while, then oddly enough the warning light came on for a blown bulb.

Turned out it was the sidelight bulbs, nevertheless still a good opportunity to replace the stock bulbs.

I had toyed with the idea of fitting HID's, but was put off by the illegality and uncertainty surrounding them. I also didn't want to give plod any excuses to pull me over and fill his ticket quota so I decided E marked bulbs were the way forward.

I looked at a range of bulbs but finally decided on these Ice White Xenon 55W E marked bulbs from aceparts.com.

Xenon left - Standard right

I also decided to get some 'matching' sidelight bulbs, also from aceparts.com. They turned out to be absolutely no different to my standard sidelight bulbs, which was somewhat of a let down.

Xenon top - Standard bottom

Anyway, the headlight bulbs I am very pleased to say are excellent. The light they produce I would say is very white, with the slightest tinge of blue. When driving at night they produce a light that I prefer to the usual yellow. I find night time driving quite strenuous on the eyes, but with this colour it eases that quite a lot, so I am very happy with them. I would say they aren't that much brighter or fuller than standard, but still noticeable.


Onto the comparison pics then, old on the left, new on the right.

In these photos the drivers side is fitted with standard bulbs, and the passenger side with the new Xenons. (Right hand drive car).

In the next photos you can see the light patterns on the road, please compare the drivers side bulb only (in the picture the right hand light pattern) as the passenger side was fitted with a Xenon at all times.

MAF Sensor Cleaned

As a part of my on going rejuvenation of the mechanical workings I thought it a good idea to clean out the MAF (mass air flow) sensor.

After reading up on the subject, it appeared that using any old cleaning agent would not do, as it could damage the sensor. I went off and had a look on ebay for some MAF cleaning products and settled on this one

CRC Air Sensor Clean, it was £9.99 and took around half the can to clean the MAF sensor.




Removing the MAF sensor was actually quite easy, just a case of removing the plastic engine covers, air filter ducting and finally the MAF sensor itself. Two allen head bolts attach the MAF sensor to the intake ducting, and two Torx head screws hole the sensor to the air filter housing. Once these are removed, and providing the electrical connector had been unclipped, the MAF sensor unit just pulls away.

When removed you can see how much grime has built up, and surprisingly for this car, there wasn't much. There was a few small areas of dirt on the sensor but overall not bad. However, now that it was off I might as well give it a clean. 

I laid out some paper towels and held the sensor unit in place over the top. I then sprayed the cleaner on liberally. Despite looking fairly clean, the paper towel had quite a lot of dirt on it afterwards.

I let the sensor dry completely and then refitted it. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it after the clean, but it did look visually cleaner. Judging by the towel too it was a worthwhile procedure. 

If I notice any changes to the running of the car as a result of this clean I will update this post to describe them.

124k Mile Full Service

Although this is post 10, it was actually one of the first things I did. Mechanical upkeep peace of mind means a lot with a car of this mileage.

I wanted to replace as much as possible in this service as I suspect that the previous owner did what was necessary to keep the engine turning over and nothing more.

So the list of items to be replaced:

• Engine Oil - Castrol Edge 5W/40 Fully Synthetic Oil
• Genuine BMW Oil Separator Filter (Oil breather filter, Crank case filter)
• UFI Oil Filter
• UFI Fuel Filter
• UFI Air Filter
• UFI Cabin Filter
• Airco-Breeze Aircon Sanitizer

Starting with the cabin filter, I took the housing apart which was really easy, just two quarter turns and its away.
Removing the filter revealed yet more dirt and grime, so I set about putting that right straight away. Not really sure what the little rubber bits are, possibly some sort of drain away points, but they were grimed up to the hilt. In the pictures you can see a cleaned up one next to how they came out of the car, vast improvement. I also spent some time cleaning up the covers and the cabin filter housing. The filter itself wasn't horrendous but I'm glad it's been changed.

Before and After

Comparisons

Next up was the air filter. After removing all of the engine plastics, it was fairly easy to access the air filter, just a couple of allen head bolts and you've got the intake ducting off. Inside I found a rather grubby looking filter, and the filter housing was quite dirty too, so I set to work cleaning that as well. Below you can see a comparison of the old and new filters, unfortunately I didn't get an after photo of the cleaned filter housing.

The oil filter got attention next, this was really easy to do. The old one was pretty gunked up but I imagine they do get like that pretty quickly by the nature of their use.

The oil separator filter type was up for debate, there is a Vortex type and a 'loo roll' type. The dealer I got the filter from informed me that the Vortex type was no longer available for my engine, so I went for the loo roll type. I've since learned it is still available, so I might swap to this at a later date, although the loo roll type is fine if changed regularly. Below is the new loo roll in place.

The last of the engine services was the fuel filter, unfortunately I didn't get any snaps of this, but there isn't much to see really. It was a simple case of pulling off the pipes connected; removing the old filter and replacing with the new one then reconnecting the tubes.

Inside the car, however, I had noticed a rather bad smell coming from the vents after the aircon had been in use. So I looked at some reviews and Airco-Breeze was recommended. I got some off of eBay and used the whole tin. It smells really great and lasts for about a month, but it has now gone back to smelling bad after the aircon has been used. I will try a different method when the summer comes next year.

All in all the car is now running really smooth, the new parts gave it a revitalising boost and the car is even nicer to drive. Chuffed.

Goodyear Wiper Blades

I had some ordinary type wiper blades on the car when I bought it and they were ok but look clunky.

I saw some Goodyear aero wiper blades in Costco, and couldn't resist.

For anyone interested, you need a 19" and a 22" blade for the E46.

The blades are excellent, ultra quiet and an effective wipe across the whole blade, they are also very tidy and smarten up what was once a cluttered area. Couldn't recommend them more.

Number plates

The number plates on the car when I bought it were a little worse for wear to say the least. After the clean the car bodywork wasn't in too bad a condition, but the plates made it look dirty and old, so they, like the badges, had to go. So, off I went to Sytner BMW in Coventry and ordered a new set.

This time I went for no border to keep the clean styling theme running throughout.

Taking the plates off revealed an expected layer of dirt, so I gave it a good wash and a wax before putting the new plates on.

Before and After

I had also noticed that the plates were mounted off level, so this time I made sure to drill the holes nice and level.

Onto the plates, below you can see the old rear one next to the new one. The front plates weren't as bad but still a bit too shabby for my liking. They were also a lot further off level at the front, for some reason the mounting holes were drilled off level in the plastic, not sure why. Once fitted I used the BMW supplied fitting caps to finish the job. Overall I'm very satisfied, it has freshened up the car a treat.

Cup Holders

I've always wanted cup holders in my car, so when I learnt that there was an optional extra cup holder for the centre console I was on it.

After a little bit of research, it seemed there were mixed views as to whether the cup holder unit would fit in a car with an arm rest. I did ask a number of people if it was the molding that was different, so it physically couldn't fit, or that the cup holders were covered by the armrest when down, but free when it's up.

I didn't receive any answers to my questions, so I decided to dive in and just buy it. So, for £38.99 brand new delivered from a genuine BMW dealer, I received my dual cup holder kit with oddments tray and coin holder (pretty nifty design).

They are two separate items, but slot together when fitted. I think the cup holder is interchangeable with other tray designs etc.

To remove my current oddment tray, you simply squeeze the sides and it unclips from the centre console. Very easy removal indeed, took only seconds.

Predictably with this car, underneath was a hidden treasure, a lot of dirt and dust and a receipt for something. I have no idea how they managed to get it under there, it was actually stuck under the hand brake. Needless to say I cleaned the area thoroughly.

Before and After

Fitting the new cup holders and oddments tray was as easy as the removal, it just popped straight in. It fits great, so that rules out the mold difference I suspected earlier. The unit looks really great in there, an improvement over the previous as it was scuffed quite badly.

Before and After

As for not fitting in a car with an arm rest, I can confirm that in fact it does fit. As you can see from the photos below, the front cup holder is accessible with any size cup even with the arm rest down, and the rear cup holder can house a can of coke in any position. Overall I'm really pleased I decided to change it out, should make a nice improvement to long motorway journeys.