100 km Report

100K KM REPORT

Words and Photos by Ian Rae

It was just before Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in 2009 and I was driving out of Budds’ BMW in Oakville in my new Titanium Silver BMW E90 335i LCI. It was THE car I’d wanted for years, a bad-ass 3 series with twin turbos and over 300 horsepower. Now after seven years and 100,000 km how do I feel about the car? I still love it; it still goes well and it really has not cost me much over the years (touch wood) and I still have that grin on my face when I go for a spirited drive. With it being my first BMW has it been the experience I expected? Yes and no, I always had BMW on a pedestal along with Mercedes and Audi as one of the premium brands. It is the Ultimate Driving Experience after all. Or is it?

ISSUES I may have rushed into buying the car without doing my homework and luckily that did not bite me. I never knew about the dreaded N54 High Pressure Fuel Pump issue because I bought it. I never Googled the car or went on any BMW specific forums to see if there were any issues with the 335i, it was a BMW after all. Now having said that I never had any problems with the HPFP or going into limp mode suddenly, Budds’ BMW did change the pump and three injectors but that was the result of a recall not a problem. During the time I was reading up on the HPFP I was wondering what did I do, how could I have bought a car with an issue like this that, one that would eventually cause many Class Action lawsuits to be brought against BMW. What was more disappointing was the fact that BMW really did not seem to want to do anything about the problem 134 - MotorWerks Magazine until they were forced to. It was not what I expected from a company producing premier cars. What else has gone wrong? Well there was the time I was heading to Indianapolis for the Performance Racing Industry show and my sunroof exploded about my head, showering me with toughened safety glass. What caused it I do not know but I have since heard of others having similar issues. Budds’ helped out with the costs on that so kudos to them. The Takata air bag inflator recall hit BMW as well as many other brands and in February of 2016 they recalled 840,000 vehicles in the US alone. The current issue is there are no updated parts available for replacement and it may be nine or more months before this changes. The front anti-roll bar bushes creak in the winter but that never really bothered me that much, maybe it is time to talk to James Clay about some bushings from Powerflex USA to correct the issue. So you can see after listing all the issues I can really say they were insignificant, not bad for seven years and 100,000 km.

MAINTENANCE Scheduled maintenance came free with the car but as I was going to be keeping it after the lease there was no way I was going to adhere to the recommended intervals of 24,000kms. Since BMW went to maintenance included with the purchase price, condition based servicing has became the norm. The car’s computer would tell you when to change the oil or when the brakes required looking at. Don’t you just love modern technology?

May 2011 - Our Signature Black Morr VS8.2 wheels arrived just in time for the summer driving season in Canada. My set was #32 and was signed by the owners. The wheels came as 19”x 10” rears and 19”x8.5” fronts. The design of the rear was such that the tires had to be mounted from the rear.

May 2011 - The tire of choice fitted to the Morr wheels was Continental Tire’s Extreme Contact DW a summer performance tire. You can see the ‘DW’ on the tire in the photo at the right. The D and W are are positioned at two different depths and actually work as wear bars do. When you can’t see the ‘W’ any more it should not be used in the wet and replaced. When it was time for the Foregline GA1R wheels to go on, there was no other choice of tire as far as I was concerned.

The question I had was whether technology was really that smart or was BMW hedging their bets especially as they were paying for the oil changes? As much as the our governments are telling us all these changes to cars and fuel is to make our World a better place to live in I don’t believe them. Ethanol in cars is not good, it is just a convienient drum they can bang telling the public they are putting things in place that will ensure the World survives for our offspring. Ethanol and direct injection as used on the N54 and many other new engine designs automatically adds to the consumers running costs. Sealed PCV systems recirculate the engines internal fumes back down the intake runners. Previously fuel would help wash them into the combustion chamber where they would burn away. DI engines have no fuel to do this and the result is oily residue getting burned onto the runners and valves. This eventually shows up as a performance drop off and your only recourse to properly sort out the issue is walnut blasting. We had to do this around 65,000km and luckily it was covered under warranty. What else? Not much until I am finishing off this magazine and the car will not change gear in Manual mode!! What is it? From what I hear wiring to the shifter is an issue, but I will tell you about that next time!

2009-Now - Cliff Fraser took the extra effort to get me into a 335i instead of a 328i when I leased the car. And until this day he calls and me on my birthday and sings Happy Birthday to me. Highly recommended to anyone looking to purchase or lease a BMW!