E46 328Ci project diary - part 1 - The Purchase

For a long time I have dreamed of two things - having a nice, rear wheel drive car and doing something interesting to one. Both of those came into existance when I bought this 1999 BMW 328Ci.

I wasn’t really planning on buying a BMW… Even though they are a great piece of engineering, for a long time I have thought of E46 Coupe as nothing else than a two-door version of a sedan car, which in my book is a bit… nah. Additionally too often they house a weak 4-pot engine (316, 318) or even a diesel under the hood instead of a proper Inline-6 that we love.
So, I was supposed to drive sports coupe with around 200hp which a bystander could confuse (at least from the front) with a 318d or 316i sedan or wagon? Never!

The plan was to buy the answer to all questions - an MX-5. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very unpleasant experience for me - the process of buying one I mean, not the car itself. It was so hard to find a decent, not rotten one with a reasonable pricetag, and when you did you had to race other buyers to the scene. Literally, Once I found a great one, exactly what I wanted (blue, facelifted NB with 1.8 engine, AC, 6-speed and sports suspension), have been in contact with the seller for a few days - and when I finally found some time and called the guy if I can see it in one hour, he told me he was just signing the papers with new owner.

After missing out on a couple of nice Miatas, I finally started looking into E46 Coupes… I have to admit, they have grown on me recently, so I decided to give it a shot. M3 was out of the question financially, 330 was still a bit too much (the gap in price between a 330 and 328 is quite significant), so I knew it had to be a 328Ci. The plus of a 328 (beside the money) was that the M52TUB28 engine is known to respond well to some “simple” mods (intake manifold, camshafts, remap), which allow gains of up to 40-50hp if done propely - meaning a room for some DIY.

I have been looking through ads in my area for a few days. The target was a blue 328Ci with a manual trasmission, in good condition for a reasonable price. Nothing stood out, in the meantime I went to see a couple of cars not meeting the criteria just to get a baseline for comparison. Then, one day, I came back from an early shift and saw my future car in classifieds.

The description said it was running ok, no accident damage but needed some minor jobs done, which the owner didn’t have time to do because of him moving to Germany. Also because of that the already reasonable price was open for negotiations, so I gave him a call, learned what I could and two hours later I was on the way to see it with a buddy, who just happened to own an E46 in the past.
In the flesh it wasn’t so perfect as described (they never are, are they?), but after some haggling (I was afraid I was being cheeky offering quite a bit less than asking price, but it worked) I drove away in my first BMW. Success!

Or maybe not? The car required quite a bit of work to do. Here is the list of what I found after a test drive:

• front shock absorbers (completely shot)
• some knocking in front suspension (possibly some bushings/ball joints)
• front brakes (warped and grooved discs)
• some play in the steering (I’m hoping it’s the rod ends)
• needs new wheels (those rims are ugly and only 16 inch, plus it’s on winter tyres of which two are bald)
• a few bulges of rust under the paint on the wheel wells
• missing a proper stereo head unit
• leather on the passenger seat in poor condition
• failed one of the motors for seat adjustment on passenger side
• missing sunroof motor
• it’s FILTHY inside (MCM new car filthy)
• only one key available, without a remote

Quite a list, huh? And of course it’s guaranteed to get longer once I start to dig deeper. Well, I wanted a project car so here is one, better let’s get cracking and return this BMW to it’s glory. Standby for part 2 with a detailed look into the car and first fixes. Cheers!

Part 2 - First fixes