D3BT #454

Thought we'd tempt out our budding photographers. Share your photos. We'll add different themes from time to time.
ScooBeeFive
ALPINA
ALPINA
Posts: 1217
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 3:40 pm
Location: Shropshire

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ScooBeeFive » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:13 pm

Great line up Toby - cool photo.
Paul

2013 F11 B5 BiTurbo Touring #135 - Alpina Blue
2017 F33 B4S BiTurbo Cabrio #235 - Tanzanite Blue

Bob
ALPINA
ALPINA
Posts: 5517
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:37 pm

Re: D3BT #454

Post by Bob » Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:02 am

Parking on lawn Toby, tut tut! :lol:
B3 3.2 TOURING #062

ttrill
ALPI
ALPI
Posts: 360
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ttrill » Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:55 am

ScooBeeFive wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:13 pm
Great line up Toby - cool photo.
Thanks Paul :D
CaesarBob wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:02 am
Parking on lawn Toby, tut tut! :lol:
Rest assured I was moaned at for it!
Toby

2011 D3BT #454
2019 440i Gran Coupe

ScooBeeFive
ALPINA
ALPINA
Posts: 1217
Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 3:40 pm
Location: Shropshire

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ScooBeeFive » Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:58 am

ttrill wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:55 am
CaesarBob wrote:
Wed Mar 24, 2021 12:02 am
Parking on lawn Toby, tut tut! :lol:
Rest assured I was moaned at for it!
Ha I thought the same! :D
Paul

2013 F11 B5 BiTurbo Touring #135 - Alpina Blue
2017 F33 B4S BiTurbo Cabrio #235 - Tanzanite Blue

ttrill
ALPI
ALPI
Posts: 360
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ttrill » Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:47 pm

Took the sills of today to get rid of the crap that’s built up over the years and put abit of bilt hamber on the outside of them and abit in the cavities. Won’t completely eradicate and rust but should hopefully do something
9D5F29DE-D149-42CC-B23F-C5661C14B4E0.jpeg
9D5F29DE-D149-42CC-B23F-C5661C14B4E0.jpeg (3.18 MiB) Viewed 1840 times
232D4D2C-2EC4-4CCA-9E1F-AA6DE87476DA.jpeg
Midway photo as I forgot to take one once I got the marks off the bottom
232D4D2C-2EC4-4CCA-9E1F-AA6DE87476DA.jpeg (3.78 MiB) Viewed 1840 times
Toby

2011 D3BT #454
2019 440i Gran Coupe

ttrill
ALPI
ALPI
Posts: 360
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ttrill » Wed Jun 09, 2021 7:19 pm

Got the timing chain done today at BMMini Tech in Colchester. Chose this place over my usual Indy purely on the volume of chains they do. They offer a while you wait service which is 5-6 hours. They do the chains, sprockets, guides, rocker cover gasket and injector seals at the same time. It’s interesting looking at the updates BMW has made to the set up as time has passed. Very pleased with how the car is now, it’s surprising how much of a difference it has made to the overall experience when in the car. My chain was not especially bad however it was stretched, I was fed up of thinking every time I started the car if the chain was going to go so bit the bullet.

I was aware that maybe an injector seal had gone as I had a clatter under light acceleration. The seal on No 4 had actually failed slightly so that has been cleaned up and all is in order.

Below is a photo of all the new gubbins on. I forgot to take photos of anything else :boohoo
17164762-0C1E-449E-8209-DE2E49510044.jpeg
17164762-0C1E-449E-8209-DE2E49510044.jpeg (3.9 MiB) Viewed 1746 times
For those looking at N47 engines cars for sale stick your had down the back of the engine and feel the top tensioner, the old style ones that cause the issues have a 27mm head. The new ones have a 22mm head.
Toby

2011 D3BT #454
2019 440i Gran Coupe

ttrill
ALPI
ALPI
Posts: 360
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ttrill » Sun Jul 17, 2022 1:48 pm

Been meaning to update this for abit but never quite get round to it so here goes:

Sept 21:

I replaced all the front arms on the car with genuine parts, I could not quite believe the difference it made to the steering. I also had the rear lower bushings changed which got rid of a small vibration I was getting at 70ish. The car also got its seventh clean MOT that week :D
New control arms.JPEG
New control arms.JPEG (873.57 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
Oct 21:

The Car Reached 100K (photo taken by passenger)
IMG_5477.PNG
IMG_5477.PNG (3.87 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
Jan:

The car was in abit of state, and I didn't have time to clean it before we went skiing.
IMG_4386.JPEG
IMG_4386.JPEG (962.53 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
Could not resist not taking a photo! Good little run as well
IMG_4407.JPEG
IMG_4407.JPEG (1.14 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
Finally got some time to clean it, Bilt hamber working its magic but it did reveal some rust coming from the arch
IMG_4452.JPEG
IMG_4452.JPEG (1.27 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_4453.JPEG
IMG_4453.JPEG (532.68 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
Feb:

I noticed a slight drop in MPG late Jan/ Early Feb so a quick scan with the OBD revealed nothing. I wanted to check how the DPF was doing but whilst doing that I noticed it was not getting up to temperature and only reaching 75C. Having only had the Stat changed 11 months ago I was little surprised that it had failed so quickly but it was still under BMW 1YR parts warranty, so I wasn't too bothered. A short weekend in North Wales gave the opportunity so have some fun on the roads up there, the car was great. I'm often asked by friends what I'm going to replace it with, and I still really struggle to come up with anything that will do everything this does and better. I'm more likely to get a weekend car to be adjacent to this (E46 B3, Cayman etc).
IMG_4542.JPEG
IMG_4542.JPEG (958.96 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_4544.JPEG
IMG_4544.JPEG (1.05 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
March:

She decided she wanted a 4x4 and got a Jimny, hilariously fun & with a snorkel the induction noise is fantastic. With some careful packing I was able to pick up another set of wheels & a spare for greenlaning. The two cars could not be more different. Finally got into Sytner Sunningdale to have a look at the rusty arch & the smallest bit of bubbling around the boot latch.
IMG_4638.JPEG
IMG_4638.JPEG (1.93 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
April:

Prep for the Sytner Meet meant a day polishing & waxing the car. Had not picked up any swirls since the last time I did this (Oct 20) but I could the wax wasn't doing much anymore so It's a good excuse to re-apply properly.
IMG_4886.JPEG
IMG_4886.JPEG (1.25 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_4883.JPEG
IMG_4883.JPEG (1.34 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_4885.JPEG
IMG_4885.JPEG (1.43 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
June:

The majority of June I was without the car, I dropped it off with Sytner High Wycombe on 23/05 so come mid-June I was really starting to miss it. That might have been made worse by the courtesy car. They gave me an F40 120D with all the MSport options ticked just to make it REALLY BAD. I dropped it off for the rust repair on the OSF arch & rear tailgate. I decided to take a few brave pills and let them respray the front end whilst it's in the body shop, I was going to have it done anyway so it made sense for them to do it. I was quoted a high price and I thought about knocking them down abit however at the end of the day I wanted a really a high quality finish. So, I explained my reasoning for just accepting "their reasonable" quote. I also had some PDR work thrown in as on my drive (now moving) there is a protected oak tree that rains acorns on the Bonnet & roof when it's not in the garage that always manages to piss me off.

Whilst the car was in there the Passenger footwell module died (probably just had a low battery) so they replaced that FOC which is a small win. Once I got the call to say the car was ready, I was quite anxious to see it. I've never trusted Sytner, so this was quite a big thing to let them do all this. When I picked the car up and it looked great, it was parked in the sun (I'll get back to that) and I was really impressed. The match was spot on (no blending) and the quality of the work was really high. Credit where it's due, they did a good job painting the car. The rust repair on the boot was also done really well, I also got new boot badges covered under the corrosion warranty.
IMG_5296.JPEG
IMG_5296.JPEG (1.16 MiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_5298.JPEG
IMG_5298.JPEG (636.59 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
An enjoyable drive back home revealed a nasty surprise once it was out of direct sunlight (the oak tree has it's uses), At some point they must've washed the car with a brick. The whole car was covered in swirls, except the freshly painted parts. It had been given to the valet prep guys before going into the workshop & washed with a red brick then. Once painted the body shop guys washed it hence the lack of swirls on the new paint. Safe to say I was pretty angry but more disappointed, mostly due to the fact that I was so happy with the paint. But I guess they had to fuck up somehow otherwise it wouldn't be Sytner.
IMG_5299.JPEG
IMG_5299.JPEG (728.26 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
IMG_5302.JPEG
IMG_5302.JPEG (887.66 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
I spent the whole evening deciding whether to give it back to them or fix the mess myself.I came to the conclusion that if they fucked up once what's going to stop them from doing something else another time. It took me roughly 10 hours nonstop to get ~95% of the swirls out. Somewhere really deep and I was worried about taking too much away but a little perseverance and I ended up with something I can live with.
IMG_5311.JPEG
IMG_5311.JPEG (798.4 KiB) Viewed 1019 times
I was sent an automated review asking for my feedback. I gave them the credit where it's deserved, and I was brutally honest elsewhere. I thought about calling up and moaning about it but seeing as I fixed it I'm not sure what I want to achieve from this. I don't want it going back into Sytner ever again as it confirmed to me that they can't do a job probably, I don't really care to seek for compensation, even though I consider the level of swirls that they put on the car to be damage. I think I'm happier warning others about it rather trying to seek anything personally from it. Moving on from that I did about 1000 miles the week after I picked it up and that was great until I had to return from Kent. The Low RPM turbo wasn't engaging so it made driving the car very difficult. I pulled over and did a quick check of codes & a visual check with didn't reveal anything besides a low boost code, Helpful :doh. Fortunately I had the car booked in anyway that week for it's Bi-Annual oil change. We started with checking vacuum lines which were aging but not going to cause the issue. The actuators were checked and changed but again they weren't the issue. I was getting a little worried that maybe something more serious had shat itself but fortunately it was just a valve leading to the EGR. The car now pulls really well.

Apologies for the lengthy update/ Minor vent about Sytner, Anybody else had anything similar with them?

Frosty
ALPIN
ALPIN
Posts: 565
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 3:24 pm
Location: Essex

Re: D3BT #454

Post by Frosty » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:33 am

Car looks stunning, always a shame to read about main dealer and especially Sytner's not delivering a service that matches the marque they sell.

Your fix was probably the best way to go on the damage, as I would expect a rather long and drawn out complaints and claims process, more stress than it is worth. The warning to others on here will be, again, well received.
D5 F11 Touring #107
B8 Touring #21 SOLD - but regretted

Bob
ALPINA
ALPINA
Posts: 5517
Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2012 10:37 pm

Re: D3BT #454

Post by Bob » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:04 pm

Good to see an update Toby, sorry to hear about the valet woes though
B3 3.2 TOURING #062

ttrill
ALPI
ALPI
Posts: 360
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: D3BT #454

Post by ttrill » Sat Feb 03, 2024 9:31 pm

Bumping this and will do a proper write up in a few weeks with photos when the weather is better but it’s now time for #454 to find a new home. Took delivery of a 440i last weekend as I wanted some more modern features as I’m now doing ~20k p/a. Not in a rush to sell, want it to go to a good home. More details will follow in “For Sale”.
Toby

2011 D3BT #454
2019 440i Gran Coupe

Post Reply