Car Review : BMW 3 series E46

The E46 automobile platform is the fourth generation of BMW's highly successful 3 Series entry-level luxury car / compact executive car. It was introduced in 1998 and replaced the E36 sedans the same year. The touring and coupé models appeared in 2000, and the M3 later in 2001. The E46 compact, a 3-door compact hatchback, was revealed in 2001. Despite being introduced last, the E46 compact was the first to be replaced when 1 Series was launched in September 2004.



The E46 sedan underwent a facelift in 2002, which included re-designed headlights, new bumpers and a stiffer chassis. Also, the 316i and 318i models received new, more powerful engines.

In mid-2005 the E46 sedans were phased out in favour of the new E90. The E46 touring was also replaced later that year with E91. The E46 remained in production as coupé, convertible and M3 until the E92 coupé and E93 convertible was revealed in late 2006. The new M3 coupé concept was later unveiled in March 2007 during Geneva Motor Show.

At 1999 BMW Indonesia were introduced E46 model with two type of engine; 318i (M43B19, 1895cc, 118 hp) and 323i (M52TUB25, 2494 cc, 170 hp). The 323i was a fast and responsive car with top speed up to 220 km/h, 0-100 km/h can reach in 9 seconds. Early 2001 the 323i change to 325i with M54B25 engine, the displacement remain the same with the previous one, however the bore and strokes were changed. This new engine can produce 197 hp, 0-100 km/h in 8 seconds and top speed 237 km/h.

In early 2002 the face lift version were released to the Indonesian market, most of the facelift were in exterior and minor in interior. No change of engine in 325i, however the 318i used a new engine N42B20 which has a larger displacement (1995 cc) and top horse power is 140 hp. With this new engine the 318i becomes the fastest compare to its competitor likes Merc C200 and Audi A4.

In mid 2003 BMW Indonesia launched the superior 330i, it was a fast and superb handling car. The engine is M54B30 2979 cc, can produce 231 hp and 300 Nm torque. Top speed 247 km/h, and 0 – 100 km/h in 7 seconds.

Potential Problem

• Electrical and steering rack have a potential problem, however if the user regularly maintain their car to an authorized workshop, the problem can be minimized.
• The fuel quality is also can be a problem, to reach top performance BMW engine required minimum RON 95 fuel, however lots of BMW owner in Indonesia fill their car with lower RON fuel. Under specification fuel caused a lower performance and also increasing carbon deposits in cylinder head. The fuel consumption of 318i relatively higher than its competitor with the same engine displacement, around 1 ltr for 7 km for city driving and 1 : 9 for extra urban.
• The most common fault on the E46 3-Series is with the heater blower fan. The switch breaks, meaning the fan will only work on its fastest setting.
• Early 320d and 330d manuals could suffer warped clutch plates. Most will have been replaced, but listen for a scraping noise when releasing the clutch on low-mileage cars. Post-2000 cars have tougher clutches.
• Thermostats can fail, so keep an eye on the temperature gauge. Make sure the ventilation fan works on all speeds, too
• Ignition Coils, These vehicles have exhibited an unusually high failure of ignition coils. There is one coil for each cylinder, located above the spark plug. The symptom is a misfire and setting the “Service Engine Soon” warning. When we read out the fault codes, we see “Misfire on cylinder X”. They seem to exhibit the symptom most frequently after the engine is fully warm.
• Window Regulators, Several users have reported having one or more replaced under warranty. If the window stops moving or begins to make quite a bit of noise, do not continue to try to move it or the drive motor may also be damaged.
• PCV Valve, The vacuum valve on these cars has a higher failure rate than the one on the previous 3 Series. Its failure causes rough idling and sets the Service Engine Soon light. If your engine starts to make a honking noise, like a small goose, this valve is the culprit.
• Cam Position Sensor, The position sensor for the camshaft will go open, either intermittently or completely. If it fails completely, the engine won’t run. If intermittent, it will die, then restart, run for a while, and repeat the cycle. It usually sets the “Service Engine Soon” warning.

And check my other post regarding BMW common problems and online resources.

Death Wobble (1)

Since I have quiet a lot of experienced dealing with death wooble in my cherokee and grand cherokee jeep, I will post several articles for this subject including my own experience. The next article wrote by Nathaniel Long three years ago, its can use as basic reference for death wobble.

If you drive a Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee and are considering a suspension lift, you may want to think twice. Unfortunately, I was forced to learn this the hard way. I bought a brand new 2001 Jeep Cherokee a couple years ago, and almost immediately stacked on Pro Comp’s 3” lift kit with some 32 x 11.50 r 15 Super Swamper TSL tires. After a couple months of good riding, I started to experience what jeep enthusiasts have come to know as “the death wobble.”

The death wobble is basically when you are driving your lifted jeep down the road and the front end starts to shake violently. It can happen at virtually any speed, though mostly above 40 mph or so, and is a frightening experience, especially for those witnessing it for the first time. Now it doesn’t throw you off the road or anything … the front end just shakes. And the only way to stop it is to slow down and pull over. So it wasn’t that hard to get used to at first. But as it happened more and more, it seemed to get more and more out of control.

After driving with at least one death wobble per day for about three months, I decided to take it into the shop and see what the problem was. Being of course that off-road shops are primarily in the business of ripping people off, they gave me a list of “everything that was wrong with the front end that is causing the ‘TJ shimmy.’” Their proposal included the rotation and balancing of my tires, new front (and rear “cause you might as well”) shocks, new and stronger track bar, new and stronger drop pitman arm, new and stronger lower control arms with some special urethane bushings, and new sway bar links. Basically, with the exception of my original lift springs, the reinstallation of the entire Pro Comp lift kit with “better” components.

The bill was just over $1000.00. But to fix my death wobble, and hence my daily fear for my life, it was worth it. And even better, the new components would be strong enough to support a 6” lift if I ever wanted to go that big. The words of the salesman still ring in my ears: “Dude, you could totally run 35s with this setup.”

For the next couple months, everything ran fine again and I just assumed that my former Pro Comp parts just sucked. I even took the kid’s advice and jumped up to 33 x 12.50 r 15 tires. My new components were working brilliantly. Then one day, riding down I-70 toward the mountains, I hit a pothole and back came the death wobble. For the next couple months, I experienced the death wobble every time I hit a pothole, crack, or even merged onto a simple uneven lane.

Back at the shop, the guys, obviously not recognizing me from six months before, gave me the same proposal as the first time … almost word for word, too. My shocks, track bar, pitman arm and control arms were all shot again and needed replaced with their “better and stronger components.” The guys didn’t even take the time to see if my components were the same ones they had sitting on the shelf. In fact, the parts they wanted to give me this time were likely the same Pro Comp components they had replaced initially. At this point, I realized that I’d have to take matters into my own hands.

I had a buddy sit in the driver’s seat of my jeep and shake the steering wheel back and forth in an attempt to recreate the death wobble so I could view it from the other side. After not even two minutes, it became clear to me what the problem was. All my components were fine. The shaking was coming from the frame rail, which is connected to the axle.

What was happening was simple: My tires, as off road tires tend to do, kept going out of balance. Therefore, when I hit a pothole or uneven pavement, or too high a road speed, the tires would start to wobble and fight back and forth against each other. This is probably how Fred Flintstone felt driving around with those rock tires. The fighting tires would cause the axle to shake back and forth, which in turn caused the frame rail to shake. Hence the death wobble. Now the wobble could have been stabilized by the bar attached to the frame rail; if only it was attached to a real frame.

See, Jeep Cherokees and Grand Cherokees have what is referred to as a unibody design. This means that they don’t have frames like a real vehicle, just a combination between a frame and a body. It’s kind of like a tin can on wheels. And if you put tires under that tin can that are too big and heavy for it to handle, it’s going to shake all over the road.

Now I’m not saying don’t lift your Cherokee, I’m just saying don’t lift your Cherokee too high. It can handle 31s or 32s, but if you get any bigger or heavier tires, it won’t be strong enough to consistently support them. If you want to lift a Jeep vehicle for off road purposes, I’d recommend a Wrangler. It has a frame, meaning it can handle big and heavy tires, not to mention a roll over.

If you’ve already got a Jeep Cherokee and are experiencing death wobble, don’t listen to the guys at the shop. They’re just trying to get your money! Test each of the components of your front end yourself. Most of them are rock solid and rarely need replacement. Instead, just get your tires balanced. It should fix the problem right away, at least until the tires go out of balance again. To end it permanently, unless you can somehow fabricate a stabilizer bar to strengthen the front-end frame rail, the only thing you can really do is switch down to smaller tires. Or buy a normal road car …

Update: Volvo S40T

Up date on my Volvo s40T
Yesterday when I back home using my Volvo s40T, I saw the oil pressure light came on, and flickering, I slow down the car then continue to home. At home I hear a hard ticking noise from the top of the engine, the oil pressure light was off while idle, however it come on if I run the engine up to 2500 rpm.

This morning I checked the oil dip stick, wow...... I saw a white brown color in the stick. That mean the coolant already mix with the engine oil. My oil cooler has completely damage (see my previous post), the engine sound rough. I immediately turn off the engine and went to the Volvo workshop by other car.

Still no news for my oil cooler, I have been ordered this 4 weeks ago. The mechanic suggest me to drain my oil and coolant while waiting the parts ready and he said most likely the part will available next week, I crossed my finger for that. Drain the fluid to prevent rust starting in the engine because of water content in engine oil. Even though the volvo engine dominated build by aluminium but there is some minor part made by iron cast.

Is the mixture of oil and coolant can ignite the oil pressure light? maybe yes, however I suspect there still some oil sludge in the engine, this sludge block the oil reaching top of the engine and increase pressure at the bottom where the oil cooler placed. I also need to check and clean my oil pan. ....will continue when the oil cooler available.

CONTINUE...

After waiting for 10 days, the oil cooler available at the volvo workshop (32 days since I ordered), so I called the volvo emergency to towed my car from my house to the workshop.



Spend 3 days in workshop for changed the oil cooler, put new engine oil, cleaning oil pan, flush the radiator several times (there was oil remain in the radiator, the radiator almost clean after flushed 5 times), and changed the idle speed air valve hose, totally cost me Rp. 7.5M (around US$ 800). According to the volvo mechanic, there are some parts to be replace in the future:
- Radiator expansion tank, very small leaking, will be change after I use the car for 1-2 weeks, by that time
hopefully all remaining oil have been clean out.
- They suspect my car oil pump performance have been decreasing, they did pressure test and gave me
number 0.2 ...., its not clear 0.2 what? Mpa? if the unit is Mpa, 0.2 is a good number for idle speed, and
maximum is 0.7 Mpa at 4500 rpm. I'll find out this problem later. And again the parts was not available.
However they gave me a clue, the volvo s40 oil pump is exactly the same with volvo 960 royal (3.0) oil
pump, and I can find this part in local shop with much cheaper price.
- The mechanic also suspect the ticking tapped noise partially caused by low oil pressure/supply. It's may be
right, or maybe the hydraulic tapped have been damaged partially.
- The oil pressure light have turn off, however the check engine light remain on.
- the mechanic found an oil leaking from camshaft seal, needs more inspection.

And today, when I ready to went back to workshop to change my expansion tank, the battery just died ........, so I bought a new battery, a cheap G Force (US$ 110) instead of Varta (US$ 200). I postpone my visit to workshop, may be tomorrow.

CONTINUE .... 20 NOVEMBER
Back to volvo workshop for changing the radiator expansion tank, and reported that I found oil leaking under the car, I suspected came from oil cooler or oil pan plug. I asked the mechanic about the pressure test unit, he said 'Mpa', that mean my car give 0.2 Mpa when idle, its a good pressure, so the oil pump still in good condition (minimum 0.1 Mpa). And the engine check light gave ECM 62 code, according to the mechanic because of not nough oil pressure in camshaft valve sensor, however after I read the manual, ECM 62 code caused of off timing or camshaft pulley offset.
After inspection the mechanic told me that the oil leaking from camshaft seal, and its worst than previous inspection. Oh my god....., but I drove the car back to my home and plan to repair by the end of this month after receive my monthly salary.

21 November
Found the oil leak under my car, quite a lot. I can't wait, bring back to workshop and fixed ......

Beside fixed the camshaft pully and seal, the volvo's mechanic suggest to open the top engine cover to inspect the tappets condition and probably also can inspect oil sludge deposit on the top.

22 November

The volvo's mechanic called me, he invited me to inspect the top of engine. Wow the ***** oil sludge and residue covering the top engine cover, so I decided to overhoul the top part of the engine.



After 8 days in workshop, my S40 return home with very smooth engine.

Up date on May 2008
Six month after the top engine overhaul, the S40 running without any problem. The engine feel smooth, quite powerful and surprisingly very efficiencies fuel consumption, approximately 8 ltr for 100 km for city driving and down to 5.9 ltr per 100 km for extra urban driving.

GPS for your Car

Do you have a GPS in your car? Five years ago, most of Indonesian car haven't GPS in their car. There was some in build up car, however the complete map was not available yet. But time is rolling and people getting more familiar to GPS (thanks to navigasi.net). Before you want to install a GPS in your car, here some notes to consider:

1. Map.
No Indonesia complete free map available. Maps for certain area (Java, Sumatra, Bali) are available in Navigasi.net. However its only cover a big city and major province road. Actually this map is useful if you travelling in Java island. The is other map source from otomasi.com, this one is not free, but the price is not expensive. Other source are maps from solo system (expensive) and Nusa Map. In this current situation, map from navigasi.net is still the best for beginner.

2. GPS unit, what brand?
If you want to use navigasi.net or otomasi.com map as your main map, you should buy a Garmin GPS because both maps were designed for Garmin GPS unit. You can also chose other brand likes Magellan or Tom Tom, but the map not available, so you only can received your position in longitude and latitude format.

3. GPS unit, what type?
The Garmin GPs have a lot of types and series, which one is suite for you? For using GPS while driving, I suggest to used a GPS unit with wide screen. Garmin GPSmap 276c, Nuvi and Quest are the examples of garmin gps with wide screen.

4. Tracking facilities.
Is it important for you? If yes, forget about the Nuvi, this type of GPS have no tracking facilities, is designed for area which have a good map. So go for GPSMap 276c, Quest or Street Pilot.

5. Any other options?
Yes, you can use your pda pairing with garmin 10x bluetooth gps, or other bt gps (altina etc), for software you can chose GarminQue or Garmin

6. How accurate?
Standard GPS will give 5 to 15 m accuracy depend on the clarity from obstacles between the gps unit and the satellites

7. How much it cost?
For stand alone GPS likes Quest or 276c will cost around Rp. 4M to Rp. 6.5M (US$ 375 to US$ 600). If you already have a pda and want to pairing it with bluetooth gps it will cost around Rp 900k (Altina) to Rp. 1.8M (Garmin 10x)

What you did for your zj jeep?

As a Grand Cherokee Jeep (ZJ) owner with adventure gen in my blood, I can't let the jeep with the standard appearance, I really want to customized my jeep as long as my pocket can afford it.

Stock Grand Cherokee:

- Tire: coming with 235/70 R15 HT (highway terrain) tires, its good for asphalt road, very poor in dirty road, and absolutely useless in muddy road.

- Light: poor quality headlight, useless fog lamp.

- Differential Lock: none, the stock GC coming with limited slip differential, its not enough for real off road condition.

- Sound system: standard mopar head unit, no cd changer, small infinity power amp, no sub.

- suspension: excessive body roll

Modification stage 1:

- reduced the body roll: change the stock shock absorber with harder and stiffer one. You can find a various Jeep Lift Kits & Suspension from 4WD Hardware likes Procomp or OME products, also change the coil spring with a stiffer one.

- With a taller new spring and shock, 31" All Terrain can fix easily. Small clearance (about 2 fingers) between the fender and tire. Add 3/4" PU coil spacer to gain additional 2" high totally.

- Change the headlamp and the headlamp wire with a better product

- Install a pair of additional fog lamp or driving light, PIAA or Hella products are recommended

- Change the standard Mopar head unit with after market product (mine is Alpine), change the Infinity power amp with a higher output rate, add cd changer and subwoofer.

With this modification, the jeep ready for light adventure journey, rolling in dirty road or go camping near the beach.

For muddy road or slightly steep hills climbing? not ready yet, modification stage 2 needed:

- change the 3/4" coil spacer with 2" budget boost like TeraFlex product.

- install disconnect stabilizer link go get a better suspension travel.

- Change the AT tire with MT (mud terrain) type tire with the same diameter (31"), you can put bigger diameter, however you need to trim your fender (I wouldn't do that).

- adjust the track bar, otherwise you will get "death wobble" experience, and also go to the workshop for alignment.

- Install a new front bumper with ARB style bumper, add a medium strenght winch, like Warn M8000 , Warn xd9000 or Tabor products for cheaper price.

- Install a differential lock.

- And if you likes travelling for a long time, you can install a roof rack for additional baggage place.

Now the jeep ready for medium light off road, going camping in the mountain or fishing in the river mouth with your family.

Hard core off road??

No, not with this car, I prefer TJ or YJ wrangler or FJ Toyota.