Opinions Needed on 01 330ci

In reply to bravenrace:

Theoretically, but those narrower tires also have to put the power down, and the difference in wheel offset that moves the front wheels in super far on the rear may also have mitigating effects. Essentially you have a front track that is 2-3" or so wider than the rear with a larger contact patch on the non-driven wheels, which...hoo boy that's a lot of variables.

The general consensus seems to be that the staggered setup, stock, is slightly biased towards understeer. A set of camber bolts and adjustable sways from Turner or Hotchkis supposedly works really well to dial out the understeer and give room to adjust to driver preference. As noted above, some guys run all rear wheels for a little extra front end grip. FWIW 323/325/328 sports came with a square wheel setup while 330 sports were staggered, so BMW may have deemed it necessary for traction or handling or something.

I'm not a vehicle dynamics engineer or anything, though, so I might as well just stop talking.

In reply to SlickDizzy:

Thanks. In any case, this car is just a DD for me, so unless I detect a problem, I'll likely not do anything until I need tires. Seeing as how the tires that are on it look almost new, that may be a while. But I may make sure the wider wheels are on the rear, and then when the fronts where out, just buy the correct rear tires and switch them around.

That's probably what I would do, that way your front and rear tracks are at least where the factory wanted them to be.

It's a little more expensive to do, but you could also have the current tires dismounted/mounted when time comes to rotate them. Doing so will help max out the tire life while allowing you to keep the wider width wheels in the rear.

I hadn't thought about what effect the wider wheel might have on the diameter of the tire. I'm picking the car up tonight (yea!). Once I have it, I'll actually measure the height of the tires and probably make a decision based on that. I'll report back.

Well I picked it up last night, and drove it to work today. I'll wait a while to post my impressions until after I've driven it a while...

Impressions?? Whatcha think so far?

Thought I would check in with you again. How are you liking it?

In reply to dyintorace:

I've been meaning to make a post about that. I just haven't had the time to do it. I'll try to post something today.

Hey, better late than never, right?
I've had my 330ci for about 3 weeks now, and have gotten to know it pretty well. And for the most part, I really like it. So here's the goods and the bads:

Good

The driving experience is really what these cars are about. It took me a while to really appreciate the accuracy, feel and feedback of the steering, that the shape and size of the steering wheel is pretty much perfect, that it rides smooth but controlled, but also corners like a car with a much stiffer suspension. Refined. REAR WHEEL DRIVE - Yea!!! I was so sick of torque steer. The engine is silky smooth, not fast, but delivering a nice wide torque band. The standard audio system is the first I've had in a car that I'm satisfied with, with the exception of it not having an iPod port. The power top is a dream. One button, a huge departure from the top on my old Solstice - Still have nightmares about that one! It's nice to have memory seats again, along with a mileage gauge and average mileage computer. I have never liked hydraulic clutches much in the past, but I like this one. It just works.

The Bad

Speaking of the transmission, the shifter is a typical vague German shifter. Make my CRX seem advanced! The driver's seat, while having a lot of adjustment, never seems comfortable for me. I can get it close, but not quite where I need it. Of course that is different for everyone. The wheels get dirty about 30 seconds after I wash them, especially the fronts, which attract what I guess is brake dust like a magnet attracts steel.
But I only have one major complaint about this car, and it's something I didn't expect from a German car - It's a rattle trap! On bumpy roads, or my gravel driveway, the interior creaks, squeeks, and pops like it's coming apart! The cowl shake rivals my '73 Mustang convertible! While I was careful to inspect every aspect of the car before I bought it, I was only able to drive it on smooth roads because that's all there was in that area. I thought maybe it was just my car, or just verts, but then I did some research and found many, many threads on BMW boards with questions and solutions to interior rattles, creaks and squeeks, so it seems it's pretty common. It just surprises me.
All in all I'm pleased with the car, but I can't imagine why anyone would have spent what they did to buy this car new. Nice car, but not that nice. My Acura TL felt more solid and refined than this car, and it was equipped quite a bit better also. It was also a lot cheaper than the BMW when new. But I didn't buy this car new, and for what I paid I'm pretty happy with it.

Nice. My coupe is silent inside...must be a convertible thing.

Also, I had the same problem with the seats until I got the power lumbar adjustment just right...now they're perfect.

Yeah, my e46 convertible squeaked from new.

Check the shifter bushings, they are cheap. It will never be an S2000 shifter, but new bushings will go a long way. My e46 M3 was SMG so cant comment, but both the e30 and e36 shift quite nicely with new bushings and shifter.

bravenrace wrote: All in all I'm pleased with the car, but I can't imagine why anyone would have spent what they did to buy this car new. Nice car, but not that nice. My Acura TL felt more solid and refined than this car, and it was equipped quite a bit better also. It was also a lot cheaper than the BMW when new. But I didn't buy this car new, and for what I paid I'm pretty happy with it.

Pretty much my feelings on my E36 328i, except substitute G35 for TL. Nice car, but $36 grand in 1996 dollars is just wakkie nu nu. Thank god for depreciation.

So you guys think it's just the verts that are creaky? I can see why they'd be worse, but my research showed that a lot of guys with coupes also have that problem. I didn't set out to get a vert, and really wanted a coupe, but this car was in such good condition I couldn't pass on it. If the coupes are much better as far as interior noises, I might keep looking for the coupe equivalent of my vert.

I dunno, like I said, my coupe is silent inside, and it has 108k. Given, it was a very well maintained car by the previous owners. But I have no annoying interior noises to report whatsoever.

Your car doesn't have run-flats, does it?

In reply to SlickDizzy:

Mine's a car that's been well cared for also. That's why I'm surprised by all the creaking in the interior. I printed out a long dissertation from a guy that tracked down every little noise and fixed it, so when I get some time I'll follow what he did and try and get rid of some of it. Until then I'll just turn the tunes up a little more and look for a nice coupe.

The only thing I can think of is that '01 is early in the run and maybe they changed some fasteners - my wife's '05 is solid as a tank at 112k and... my wife is not kind to the interior of her car. I wear a hazmat suit to clean it. I constantly have to remind her that we have a truck if one needs to haul pointy slabs of unsecured flagstone or rod iron furniture around.

The one irritating squeek it had that took me a while to pinpoint came from the fold down rear seat (wagon) coupler needing a good cleaning and some fresh lube to clamp properly. The more irritating thing that happened that made me notice the squeek in the first place - the antenna wire fell out of the back of the radio. In the silence that took me 3 mos to get around to fixing - I got to listen to the seat shake in it's moorings.

Well this morning I realized (when lowering the windows while driving on my bumpy driveway) that about 90% of the creaking noise is between the windows and the top. I didn't have time to look at it any closer, but if I could get rid of that noise I'd be totally happy. Any suggestions?

Also, I need to be able to connect an iDevice of some kind to the audio system. When I bought the car, the owner told me it had a hookup. There was a wire harness with the right type of plug in the glove compartment, but it ended up just being a charging source, so I'm back to square one. But I'm out of the loop on this kind of stuff. What's the best way to accomplish this? What's the cheapest way to accomplish it? I looked at aftermarket head units, but it seems they would look terrible in my dash, as the OEM unit is fully integrated. Did BMW ever add that feature to a later E46 where I could jsut find a used unit? Any suggestions would be helpful.

For the window to top seal, how about a good silicone lubricant to quiet it down?

In reply to Sonic:

I thought about that, and I'll have to look closer, but when I looked at it briefly this morning, it looks like the runners are have a felt-like surface. Not sure if silicon would work on that or just make a mess.

bravenrace wrote: Also, I need to be able to connect an iDevice of some kind to the audio system. When I bought the car, the owner told me it had a hookup. There was a wire harness with the right type of plug in the glove compartment, but it ended up just being a charging source, so I'm back to square one. But I'm out of the loop on this kind of stuff. What's the best way to accomplish this? What's the cheapest way to accomplish it? I looked at aftermarket head units, but it seems they would look terrible in my dash, as the OEM unit is fully integrated. Did BMW ever add that feature to a later E46 where I could jsut find a used unit? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Are you sure that it is just a charger? There has never been "just a charger" offered for Apple integration. All BMW head units from 1996-up are explandable with Bluetooth, iPod/iPhone adapters, etc. and it sounds like your car already has the setup; however, there are numerous setups (OE BMW, Parrot, DICE, USA Spec, etc) and they all work differently. However, almost all of them take the place of the OE CD changer.

On my car with USA Spec glovebox iPod integration, you must set the radio to the CD changer and "discs" 1-5 are your first five playlists, disc 6 lets you control from the device itself.

Let it be noted that you MUST have Bluetooth of some kind in order to use hands-free calling through the OE stereo. No exception. Don't ask me why BMW did it that way, but they did. Depending on which integration kit your car already has, it may be as simple as a $30 Bluetooth adapter...or as complicated as a $340 BMW OE Bluetooth kit.

All I really know is that my son plugged his Ipod touch into it and all it did was charge. Like I said, I'm not up on this stuff. I only have single CD capability, and the head unit doesn't have any kind of setting for some auxiliary device that I can find.
I don't really care too much about bluetooth or hands free calling.

Try changing to the CD changer and cycle through the discs with the iPod plugged in to see if anything happens. Like I said, there is no "Aux" setting, most setups take the place of the CD changer. With my iPod plugged in, if I go to the CD changer setting and choose "disc 1," it will play my first playlist on my iPod, "disc 2" plays playlist 2, and so on. Mine even displays track names on the OE stereo, which apparently only some kits do.

I had a few squeaks in mine from where the top seals met the windows. I treated them every once in a while (I forget what lube it was, someone on E46fanatics recommended it) and that would work for a few weeks till it returned. My sedan on the other hand was quiet as a tomb. I think maybe it comes with convertible ownership.

As for the Ipod. I actually bought an AUX input adapter at the BMW parts counter. I forget the part number. Basically, it plugs into the port in the trunk where the optional disc changer would be. I ran the cable up through the car into the console and I would just plug my ipod/iphone into the cable when I wanted to use it. As someone mentioned, I think I would flip it to "disc" or soemthing. Mind you this is the cheaper/simpler Ipod hook up. I believe the one in the glove compartment functioned in a way that you would actually put the ipod in there, hooked up, and you could control the songs/playlists/controls from the steering wheel. I'm sure you could find the PDF instructions somewhere. I will try to dig.