Hello. It’s been a while since I last shared a car update, so I figured this is a well overdue post.

I’ve been through another 3 cars since my last update, so let’s start with a quick catch-up before I begin rambling about my new purchase.

My Cars Since 2019

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In 2019, I wrote about my new VW Bora (Mk4 Jetta, for any readers from across the pond) after the unfortunate demise of my Mk4 Golf. You can read more about these two in the posts found in this site’s automotive category.

As a quick update on my vehicle ownership between my last update and the focal point of this post, in 2020 I replaced the Bora with a car I’d admired for many years — an Audi A4 B7 Avant.

The version I settled on was a 2.0 TDI (PD170) S-Line Special Edition Quattro.
Now that’s a lot of words. TL;DR it had a lot of optional extras & fancy features for its time.

The S-Line Special Edition included many of the optional extras available on the B7 by default, with mine in particular including almost every possible option.

This was a fantastic car and I adored it for many reasons. You can read about my good friend Muffin’s very similar A4 B7 here. Though, I must say, mine was a slightly nicer spec 😉

Back in 2023, I did a pretty cool project with the A4 where I built a custom head unit using a Raspberry Pi, based on BlueWave Studio’s OpenAuto Pro.
I never really reached a point of completion with the project, with it pretty much being in a permanent state of prototype until I sold the car.
Nevertheless, here are some photos from along the way:

Here’s a short clip of the first boot:

Car/tech crossover projects aside, beyond looking quite nice, this car wasn’t all that that exciting after a while.

I’d sorted it out with a remap and a DPF & EGR delete¹ shortly after purchase, and it would go well enough when I put my foot down, but thanks in part to the Quattro system running a 50:50 front/rear torque split by default, it was boredom-inducingly stable, never wishing to break traction come hell or high water.

Nonetheless, it was reliable, practical, comfortable, and the facilitator of many good memories for my girlfriend and I.

However, all good things must come to an end. It was ageing, the mileage and niggling issues were stacking up, niggling issues would soon be turning into serious issues, and I was no longer so passionate about it as to give it the care it wanted.

Time for a New Car

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Now you’re all caught up (or not, I won’t judge you for skipping 👀), let’s get to the real point of this post. I no longer needed the practicality of the A4, so I began looking back to the world of saloons, coupés, and hatchbacks.

I’d recently purchased a BMW Z3 2.8L (6 speed, M52B28 engine). An absolute nail of a car and priced to reflect it, but it was great, cheap fun for summer.

In the past I had rarely seriously considered BMWs, having only a fleeting desire for an E46 330d Touring or 330cd before purchasing the Bora, but perhaps the Z3 had a hand in turning me on to them.

I was casually browsing for cars, as I often find myself doing, and happened across a stunning E92. It wasn’t the one for me, but it got the gears turning up there.

After a bit of research, I decided that between aesthetics, cost, and fun factor, the only model I was interested in was the E92 3 Series.

I considered the E90, the saloon body of the same generation, and the E91, the Touring (estate) body. I frankly would’ve preferred to have rear doors and do admittedly still have a soft spot for estates, but the aesthetics just didn’t quite do it for me compared to the E92.

The lines, lights, and panel designs of both the front and rear of the E92 are far more interesting to me, and the design continues to bely its age of almost two decades.

Naturally, if I were to get an E92, it had to be the 335i. None of the other models in the line-up feature forced induction from the factory, with the E92 335i’s N54 being BMW’s first mass-produced petrol engine featuring such space-age technology.

The fact it comes with a turbo (two of them, in fact!) from the factory opens up a whole world of more affordable bolt-on modifications and software tweaks, making it much easier and more affordable to get more power out of it. The N54 is also an incredibly strong engine and takes very well to tuning.

That said, I would be remiss if I were not to mention that the N54 is known for several common failure points; turbo wastegate rattle, electric water pump, high pressure fuel pump, injectors (if of an old revision), oil filter housing gasket, and valve cover & gasket, to name some of the most well known points of failure.

It’s said that the engine is bulletproof, but everything around it likes to fail. How confidence-inspiring… But it’s fast, so I’ll just note those down as future tig problems 👀

I decided to buy an E92 335i. I was set on it.

Buying the 335i

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As is tradition, I kept an eye on Facebook Marketplace and eventually found a nice looking E92 335i M-Sport after a week or so of searching.

The owner claimed full service history with proof, which was a great start. Even better, it had a sunroof! I was buzzing.

It was automatic, which was new to me and something I was slightly hesitant about, but it had proven very difficult (and costly!) to find a manual 335i of similar spec and condition, so I decided to suck it up.

It’s not a DCT as those weren’t introduced until the LCI (a.k.a. facelift) model² a couple of years later, but the ZF 6HP21 “tiptronic”³ box that BMW chose shifts quick enough and can be improved considerably with some fairly affordable, or even free software tweaks.

While DCTs are the obvious winner in most area, there are some benefits to a typical automatic gearbox as compared to a DCT. I’ve already rambled quite enough though, and surely will continue to do so on other topics, so I’ll spare you the details.

Viewing the Car

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I arranged a viewing with the seller and, thanks to some great timing, was able to convince my brother, who happened to be visiting from Canada, to come with me.

I always value a second set of eyes when viewing a car, especially when they aren’t blinded to any faults by excitement 👀

Unlike most cars I view, it was actually even better than I expected.

The service history checked out, the paintwork was near-perfect considering the age, the brakes, suspension, and other running gear looked and felt to be in great condition (well, mostly… I’ll talk about that in a bit), and, as best as I could tell, the engine and gearbox seemed to be in great condition.

One exception was a small oil leak from the oil cooler, but that’s an easy fix, as you’ll see if you keep reading 😉

The car had a fresh MOT⁴ the day before my viewing. This was a nice confidence boost.

It passed with an advisory for the offside front lower suspension arm. This, along with a few other minor imperfections such as the oil leak, were perfect haggling material.

To cut a long story short… I bought it!

Driving Home

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Now, I mentioned before that excitement can blind you to faults when viewing a car. This was somewhat foretelling.

This, combined with the fact that I was too busy nattering away with my brother and the owner of the vehicle during the test drive, caused me to not notice two distinct noises from the OS/F running gear.

One was the aforementioned lower suspension arm (one of two lower suspension arms on each front corner, a pretty interesting setup that I hadn’t seen before) and the second was the offside front wheel bearing.

Both of these became immediately clear once I was up to motorway speeds on the drive home. The wheel bearing was painfully loud, though I later discovered that it was nowhere near as bad as the noise would suggest, having very little play indeed. Nonetheless, it wished to be replaced.

About the 335i

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Specifications & Options

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The car is a 2008 BMW 335i M Sport.

• Model designation: E92 (coupé shape)
• Engine: N54B30
  • Displacement: 3.0L
  • Configuration: Straight 6
  • Induction: Forced, twice 👀 (twin-turbo)
  • Power: 302 BHP @ 5800 RPM
  • Torque: 400Nm @ 1400-5000 RPM
• Transmission: ZF 6HP21 — 6-speed Tiptronic

I won’t list every single option, but these are some of the things I’m pretty excited about:

• All black interior — I’m not a fan of the cream interior that seems to be popular on a lot of the E9x models on the market.
• iDrive with optional widescreen display (albeit CCC).
• Folding mirrors.
• Lighting package — Puddle lights from the door handles and door undersides, footwell lights front & rear, accent light strips in door cards. Faaaancy.
• Leather heated seats with adjustable side bolsters (I didn’t even know this was a thing. Love it.)

History & Previous Ownership

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06/03/2008 – 15/05/2024

The car seems to have been fairly well cared for by previous owners, with a fully stamped service booklet (though it’s worth noting that this isn’t always to be trusted).

There isn’t much else in terms of paperwork, but each workshop who I could find had done work on the car had good things to say about it and most were happy to send over anonymised (to comply with UK-GDPR) copies of their records.

Overall it’s been fairly well cared for, and I’d put it down as a solid “above average” for the age.

Will all that said, it is almost 17 years old, so there were inevitably some issues that wanted seeing to:

• Offside front lower suspension arm.
• Offside front wheel bearing.
• Small oil leak from the oil cooler.

Without further ado, let’s get fixing!

Repairs & Maintenance

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In my 8 months of ownership, I’ve done a fair few repairs and maintenance items.

As much as I’d love to detail it all, I’ve allowed myself to ramble on quite enough for one post, so that will have to wait for a future post.

Instead, I shall leave you with a simple timeline:

1. Replaced the OS/F control arm

   18/05/2024

   This was one of the pre-purchase to-do items noted above.
2. Replaced the OS/F wheel bearing

   23/05/2024

   Another one of the pre-purchase to-do items.
3. Repaired various water & oil cooling system components

   01/06/2024 – 17/06/2024

   This included the last of the pre-purchase to-do items, among many other things. Things got a little out of hand 👀
4. Flushed and replaced oil and coolant

   17/06/2024

   This also included a new oil filter, of course.
5. Replaced the coolant expansion tank

   20/06/2024
6. Full wheel alignment

   20/06/2024

   The car felt so much better after this.
7. Replaced rear shock absorbers

   16/12/2024
8. Replaced OS/F thrust arm

   23/12/2024

   Bloody hell, I've replaced basically all of the OS/F running gear at this point.

Fin.

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If you got this far, thank you for reading all that! Here are some bonus pictures with my friend Muffin’s Porsche 944, taken on our drive home after he bought it.

As I mentioned above, I’ll be working on a follow-up post to detail my repairs and maintenance on the car since purchasing it.

I always welcome feedback on my posts, please contact me if you have any. I’m also happy to answer any related questions if I know the answer.